She was named
the Dolly, and was the first American vessel launched on this coast.
On the 5th of October, in the evening, the little community at Astoria
was enlivened by the unexpected arrival of a detachment from Mr. David
Stuart's post on the Oakinagan. It consisted of two of the clerks
and two of the privates. They brought favorable accounts of the new
establishment, but reported that, as Mr. Stuart was apprehensive there
might be a difficulty of subsisting his whole party throughout the
winter, he had sent one half back to Astoria, retaining with him only
Ross, Montigny, and two others. Such is the hardihood of the Indian
trader. In the heart of a savage and unknown country, seven hundred
miles from the main body of his fellow-adventurers, Stuart had dismissed
half of his little number, and was prepared with the residue to brave
all the perils of the wilderness, and the rigors of a long and dreary
winter.
With the return party came a Canadian creole named Regis Brugiere and an
Iroquois hunter, with his wife and two children. As these two
personages belong to certain classes which have derived their peculiar
characteristics from the fur trade, we deem some few particulars
concerning them pertinent to the nature of this work.
Brugiere was of a class of beaver trappers and hunters technically
called "Freemen," in the language of the traders.
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