Vancouver ,3 about seven o'clock in the evening. The Governor, [McLoughlin] an excellent and truly pious man, together with his lady and the most respectable personages of the place, [Douglas and Barclay]' were assembled on the shore to receive us. As soon as the ship had cast anchor we landed and hastened to the fort, where we were received and treated with all possible cordiality. Here we were obliged to tarry eight days for the Reverend Mr. Blanchet, who did not arrive till the 12th, not having received my letter informing him of our arrival. No sooner was he aware of it than he hastened to join us, bringing with him
a considerable number of his parishioners. He had traveled the entire night and day, and we were delighted to meet this indefatigable clergyman. Though so comfortably situated at the fort, yet we were anxious to arrive as soon as possible at the place destined us by divine Providence. The pious nuns likewise sighed for their convent home of Willamette. Monsieur Blanchet accordingly made the necessary arrangement for our departure, and we left Fort Vancouver on the 14th.
An affecting adieu awaited us. Our worthy captain stood upon the shore. The emotion was sensibly felt by each one of us. For eight months we had shared the same dangers, and so often stood together, gazing in the very face of death: could we then restrain the parting tear, which seemed to gush from the fountain of the heart, as we remembered his kindness?
Our little squadron consisted of four canoes, manned by the parishioners of Mr. Blanchet, and our own sloop. We
3 For notes on Fort Vancouver and Doctor McLoughlin, see pp. 387 and 355.
4 James Douglas was for many years prominent in Hudson Bay Company affairs in the northwest, in conjunction with Doctor McLoughlin. It was he who granted Blanchet and Demers the site for the Willamette Valley establishment.-Doctor Forbes Barclay accompanied Sir John Ross on an Arctic voyage in his youth; came to Oregon as surgeon for the Hudson Bay Company in i84o; was long identified with Fort Vancouver and Oregon City, and died at the latter place in 1873.