Great Precautions, Therefore, Were Taken At The Factory, To Guard
Against Surprise While These Dangerous Intruders Were In The
Vicinity.
Galleries were constructed inside of the palisades; the
bastions were heightened, and sentinels were posted day and
night.
Fortunately, the Chinooks and other tribes resident in the
vicinity manifested the most pacific disposition. Old Comcomly,
who held sway over them, was a shrewd calculator. He was aware of
the advantages of having the whites as neighbors and allies, and
of the consequence derived to himself and his people from acting
as intermediate traders between them and the distant tribes. He
had, therefore, by this time, become a firm friend of the
Astorians, and formed a kind of barrier between them and the
hostile intruders from the north.
The summer of 1812 passed away without any of the hostilities
that had been apprehended; the Neweetees, and other dangerous
visitors to the neighborhood, finished their fishing and returned
home, and the inmates of the factory once more felt secure from
attack.
It now became necessary to guard against other evils. The season
of scarcity arrived, which commences in October, and lasts until
the end of January. To provide for the support of the garrison,
the shallop was employed to forage about the shores of the river.
A number of the men, also, under the command of some of the
clerks, were sent to quarter themselves on the banks of the
Wollamut (the Multnomah of Lewis and Clarke) , a fine river which
disembogues itself into the Columbia, about sixty miles above
Astoria.
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