Stuart did not come, and the Indians became more bold, and loitered about the place. Strange Indians were constantly arriving, and the Indians held frequent councils. Ross called a feast and gave the Indians a reason for Stuart’s absence, suggesting that they should go to work and bring in furs, in order that when the goods came they might have something with which to buy them. Stuart was gone for 188 days, and finally returned March 22, 1812. During his absence Ross had secured 1,550 beaver, besides other furs, worth in the Canton market 2,250 pounds sterling and costing in the merchandise which had been exchanged for them only 35 pounds sterling--“a specimen of our trade among the Indians!”
Stuart had gone north to the head of the Okanagan and had crossed over to the south branch of the Fraser River and met “a powerful nation called the She Whaps.” There he had been detained by snow and had wintered with these people, among whom he had arranged to establish a trading-post. From the post at the mouth of the river came bad news. The little schooner “Dolly,” the frame of which had been sent out to Astoria in the “Tonquin,” was too small to be of any particular service, and being manned by people without much knowledge of seamanship was unlucky from the beginning, and was finally abandoned as useless for the purpose of getting about. There was complaint also of the quality of the trade goods sent out by Mr. Astor, but of all the news that came to the people up the river the most important was the rumor that the “Tonquin” had been destroyed with all on board. The story of this destruction, as told by Ross Cox, was given in an earlier volume.[2] Not many tears were shed over the death of Captain Thorn at Astoria, we may feel sure, but that McKay should have been lost was a real sorrow and a genuine misfortune, for McKay was a man of great experience and of extraordinary force.
In the meantime, Wilson Price Hunt, Astor’s chief assistant, Donald McKenzie, and later Ramsay Crooks, started from St. Louis to make the journey overland to the coast. The original purpose was to strike the upper reaches of the Columbia River and go down that stream in canoes, but, as the courses and character of the river were wholly unknown, all sorts of difficulties were encountered, and the canoes were at last abandoned; the expedition split up into different parties, and a number of men were lost. At last McKenzie reached Astoria January 10, 1812, while Hunt’s party arrived in February.