Astor
that circumstances would permit; the frigate being hourly expected,
in which case the whole property of that gentleman would be liable to
capture. That the return of Mr. Hunt was problematical; the frigate
intending to cruise along the coast for two years, and clear it of all
American vessels. He moreover averred, and M'Tavish corroborated
his averment by certificate, that he proposed an arrangement to that
gentleman, by which the furs were to be sent to Canton, and sold there
at Mr. Astor's risk, and for his account; but the proposition was not
acceded to.
Notwithstanding all his representations, several of the persons present
at the transaction, and acquainted with the whole course of the affair,
and among the number Mr. M'Kenzie himself, his occasional coadjutor,
remained firm in the belief that he had acted a hollow part. Neither
did he succeed in exculpating himself to Mr. Astor; that gentleman
declaring, in a letter written some time afterwards, to Mr. Hunt, that
he considered the property virtually given away. "Had our place and our
property," he adds, "been fairly captured, I should have preferred it; I
should not feel as if I were disgraced."
All these may be unmerited suspicions; but it certainly is a
circumstance strongly corroborative of them, that Mr.
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