M'Dougal and M'Kenzie, this
proposition was adopted, and was promptly accepted by M'Tavish.
The merchandise sold to him amounted to eight hundred and fifty-
eight dollars, to be paid for, in the following spring, in
horses, or in any other manner most acceptable to the partners at
that period.
This agreement being concluded, the partners formed their plans
for the year that they would yet have to pass in the country.
Their objects were, chiefly, present subsistence, and the
purchase of horses for the contemplated journey, though they were
likewise to collect as much peltries as their diminished means
would command. Accordingly, it was arranged that David Stuart
should return to his former post on the Oakinagan, and Mr. Clarke
should make his sojourn among the Flatheads. John Reed, the
sturdy Hibernian, was to undertake the Snake River country,
accompanied by Pierre Dorion and Pierre Delaunay, as hunters, and
Francis Landry, Jean Baptiste Turcotte, Andre la Chapelle, and
Gilles le Clerc, Canadian voyageurs.
Astoria, however, was the post about which they felt the greatest
solicitude, and on which they all more or less depended. The
maintenance of this in safety throughout the coming year, was,
therefore, their grand consideration. Mr. M'Dougal was to
continue in command of it, with a party of forty men. They would
have to depend chiefly upon the neighboring savages for their
subsistence. These, at present, were friendly, but it was to be
feared that, when they should discover the exigencies of the
post, and its real weakness, they might proceed to hostilities;
or, at any rate, might cease to furnish their usual supplies.
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