to me familiar. I knew the set of
her short masts, the pitch of her smokestacks, the number of her guns.
Yes, she was the _Modeste_ of the English Navy--the same ship which more
than a year before I had seen at anchor off Montreal!

News travels fast in wild countries, and it took us little time to learn
the destination of the _Modeste_. She came to anchor above Oregon City,
and well below Fort Vancouver. At once, of course, her officers made
formal calls upon Doctor McLaughlin, the factor at Fort Vancouver, and
accepted head of the British element thereabouts. Two weeks passed in
rumors and counter rumors, and a vastly dangerous tension existed in all
the American settlements, because word was spread that England had sent
a ship to oust us. Then came to myself and certain others at Oregon City
messengers from peace-loving Doctor McLaughlin, asking us to join him in
a little celebration in honor of the arrival of her Majesty's vessel.

Here at last was news; but it was news not wholly to my liking which I
soon unearthed. The _Modeste_ was but one ship of fifteen! A fleet of
fifteen vessels, four hundred guns, then lay in Puget Sound. The
watch-dogs of Great Britain were at our doors. This question of monarchy
and the Republic was not yet settled, after all!

I pass the story of the banquet at Fort Vancouver, because it is
unpleasant to recite the difficulties of a kindly host who finds himself
with jarring elements at his board. Precisely this was the situation of
white-haired Doctor McLaughlin of Fort Vancouver. It was an incongruous
assembly in the first place. The officers of the British Navy attended
in the splendor of their uniforms, glittering in braid and gold. Even
Doctor McLaughlin made brave display, as was his wont, in his regalia of
dark blue cloth and shining buttons--his noble features and long,
snow-white hair making him the most lordly figure of them all. As for
us Americans, lean and brown, with hands hardened by toil, our wardrobes
scattered over a thousand miles of trail, buckskin tunics made our
coats, and moccasins our boots. I have seen some noble gentlemen so clad
in my day.

We Americans were forced to listen to many toasts at that little
frontier banquet entirely to our disliking. We heard from Captain Parke
that "the Columbia belonged to Great Britain as much as the Thames";
that Great Britain's guns "could blow all the Americans off the map";
that her fleet at Puget Sound waited but for th