With
these he tried another temptation. Among the recruits who had enlisted
he distributed feathers and ostrich plumes. These they put in their
hats, and thus figured about Mackinaw, assuming airs of vast importance,
as "voyageurs" in a new company, that was to eclipse the Northwest. The
effect was complete. A French Canadian is too vain and mercurial a
being to withstand the finery and ostentation of the feather. Numbers
immediately pressed into the service. One must have an ostrich plume;
another, a white feather with a red end; a third, a bunch of cock's
tails. Thus all paraded about, in vainglorious style, more delighted
with the feathers in their hats than with the money in their pockets;
and considering themselves fully equal to the boastful "men of the
north."
While thus recruiting the number of rank and file, Mr. Hunt was joined
by a person whom he had invited, by letter, to engage as a partner in
the expedition. This was Mr. Ramsay Crooks, a young man, a native of
Scotland, who had served under the Northwest Company, and been engaged
in trading expeditions upon his individual account, among the tribes of
the Missouri. Mr. Hunt knew him personally, and had conceived a high
and merited opinion of his judgment, enterprise, and integrity; he was
rejoiced, therefore, when the latter consented to accompany him.
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