The day was devoted to games of agility and strength, and other
amusements; and grog was temperately distributed, together with bread,
butter, and cheese. The best dinner their circumstances could afford
was served up at midday. At sunset the colors were lowered, with another
discharge of artillery. The night was spent in dancing; and, though
there was a lack of female partners to excite their gallantry, the
voyageurs kept up the ball with true French spirit, until three o'clock
in the morning. So passed the new year festival of 1812 at the infant
colony of Astoria.
CHAPTER XIII.
Expedition by Land.--Wilson P. Hunt.--His Character.--Donald
M'Kenzie.--Recruiting Service Among the Voyageurs.--A Bark
Canoe.--Chapel of St. Anne.-Votive Offerings.--Pious
Carousals,--A Ragged Regiment.-Mackinaw.--Picture of a
Trading Post.--Frolicking Voyageurs.--Swells and Swaggerers.--
Indian Coxcombs.--A Man of the North.--Jockeyship of
Voyageurs--Inefficacy of Gold.-Weight of a Feather--Mr.
Ramsay Crooks--His Character.--His Risks Among the Indians.--
His Warning Concerning Sioux and Blackfeet.--Embarkation of
Recruits.--Parting Scenes Between Brothers, Cousins, Wives,
Sweethearts, and Pot Companions.
WE have followed up the fortunes of the maritime part of this enterprise
to the shores of the Pacific, and have conducted the affairs of the
embryo establishment to the opening of the new year; let us now turn
back to the adventurous band to whom was intrusted the land expedition,
and who were to make their way to the mouth of the Columbia, up vast
rivers, across trackless plains, and over the rugged barriers of the
Rocky Mountains.
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