that I should view his premises, while his boy should gather the horses to convey me on my way. And a sight of fenced fields, many acres of wheat and oat-stubble, potato-fields, and garden-vegetables of all descriptions, and a barn well stored with the gathered harvest compensated me for the delay. Adjoining Mr. Johnson's farm were four others, on all of which there were from fifty to a hundred acres under cultivation, and substantial log-houses and barns.
One of these belonged to Thomas M'Kay, {207} son of M'Kay, who figured with Mr. Astor in the doings of the Pacific Fur Company.[1]
After surveying these marks of civilization, I found a Dr. Bailey waiting with his horses to convey me to his home. We accordingly mounted, bade adieu to the old trapper of Hudson Bay and other parts of the frozen north, and went to view M'Kay's mill. A grist-mill in Oregon! We found him working at his dam. Near by lay French burr stones, and some portions of substantial and well-fashioned iron work. The frame of the mill-house was raised and shingled; and an excellent structure it was. The whole expense of the establishment, when completed, is expected to be £1,400 or £1,600. M'Kay's mother is a Cree or Chippeway Indian; and M'Kay himself is a compound of the two races. The contour of his frame and features, is Scotch; his manners and intellects strongly tinctured with the Indian. He has been in the service of the Fur Companies all his life, save some six or seven years past; and by his daring enterprise, and courage in battle has rendered himself the terror of the Oregon Indians.
Leaving M'Kay's mill, we travelled along a circuitous track through a heavy forest of fir and pine, and emerged
- ↑ For Thomas McKay consult our volume xxi, p. 201, note 46. His father is noted in Franchère's Narrative, our volume vi, p. 186, note 9.—Ed.
