were gay with the blossoming shrubbery of early summer, our captain and his fifty workmen rejoiced in the promise of a speedy consummation of their plans of colonization. Their hopes, however, were soon overthrown by an unlooked-for occurrence; and the daring pioneers, who feared the face of neither man nor beast in all that wilderness, found themselves confronted with an adversary against which it was useless to contend. The snows had melted in the mountains a thousand miles eastward, and the summer flood came down upon their new plantation, washing the seeds out of the earth and covering the floors of their houses two feet deep with water, demonstrating conclusively the unfitness of the site selected for their settlement.
Without doubt, this company of adventurers were by turns wroth and sorrowful. Their seeds were lost; their residences made uninhabitable, even had they desired to remain, which they did not. Captain Winship at once re-embarked his men, and sailed for California to consult with his brother. Here he was met by the intelligence of the formation of the Pacific Fur Company, with John Jacob Astor at its head, and the intention of this company to occupy the Columbia River. Competition with so powerful an association was not to be thought of, and the brothers Winship abandoned their enterprise. As men of large ideas and fearless action, they should be remembered in connection with the history of the Columbia River.
In March of the following year, that portion of Mr. Astor's expedition which was to come by sea did arrive on the Columbia—not, however, without the loss of eight men on the bar, through the impatience and overbearing temper of the commander of the "Tonquin," Captain Thorne. Subsequently, the Indians of the Straits of Fuca destroyed the "Tonquin," massacring all her officers and crew, twenty-three in number. The land expedition suffered incredible hardships: supply vessels failed to arrive; war with Great Britain broke out, preventing Mr. Astor from carrying out his plans; the Canadian partners took advantage of the situation to betray Mr. Astor's interests; and, after two years of hope deferred, the establishment at Astoria was sold out to a British company, and the enterprise abandoned, the place having been "captured" by the British.
