South American Fights and Fighters, and Other Tales of Adventure

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  III

  The Cruise of the _Tonquin_

  A Forgotten Tragedy in Early American History

  On the morning of the 8th of September, 1810, two ships were runningside by side before a fresh southwesterly breeze off Sandy Hook, NewYork. One was the great United States ship _Constitution_, CaptainIsaac Hull; the other was the little full-rigged ship _Tonquin_, of twohundred and ninety tons burden.

  This little vessel was captained by one Jonathan Thorn, who was at thetime a lieutenant in the United States Navy. He had obtained leave ofabsence for the purpose of making a cruise in the _Tonquin_. Thorn wasa thoroughly experienced seaman and a skilled and practised navigator.He was a man of magnificent physique, with a fine war record.

  He was with Decatur in the _Intrepid_ when he put the captured_Philadelphia_ to flames six years before. In the subsequent desperategunboat fighting at Tripoli, Midshipman Thorn had borne sodistinguished a part that he received special commendation by CommodorePreble. As to his other qualities, Washington Irving, who knew himfrom infancy, wrote of him to the last with a warm affection whichnothing could diminish.

  Mr. John Jacob Astor, merchant, fur-trader, financier, had pitched uponThorn as the best man to take {262} the ship bearing the firstrepresentatives of the Pacific Fur Company around the Horn and up tothe far northwestern American coast to make the first settlement atAstoria, whose history is so interwoven with that of our country.

  Mr. Astor already monopolized the fur trade of the Far West south ofthe Great Lakes. His present plan was to form a fur company andestablish a series of trading posts along the Missouri River, reachingoverland across the Rocky Mountains until they joined the posts on thePacific. The place he selected for his Pacific depot was the mouth ofthe Columbia River.

  The principal rival of the Astor Fur Trading Company was the NorthwestCompany. Astor tried to persuade the company to join him in his newventure. When it refused to do so as an organization, he approachedindividual employees of the Company, and in 1810 formed the Pacific FurCompany. Among the incorporators were four Scottish Canadians, Messrs.McKay, McDougall, David Stuart, and Robert, his nephew. There wereseveral other partners, including Wilson Price Hunt, of New Jersey.

  It was planned that Hunt should lead an overland expedition from St.Louis, while the four Scotsmen mentioned went around the Horn, and thatthey should meet at the mouth of the Columbia River, where the tradingpost was to be situated. Most of the employees of the company wereCanadians who had enjoyed large experience in the fur business. Amongthese were included a large number of French _voyageurs_.

  Thus the _Tonquin_, owned by a German, captained by an American, with acrew including Swedes, French, English, Negroes, and Americans,carrying out a party of Scottish and French Canadians and one Russian,{263} started on her memorable voyage to establish a trading post underthe American flag! The crew of the _Tonquin_ numbered twenty-threemen. The number of passengers was thirty-three.

  The story of her voyage is related in the letters of the captain to Mr.Astor, and more fully in a quaint and curious French journal publishedat Montreal in 1819, by M. Gabriel Franchere, one of the Canadianclerks who made the voyage.

  The _Tonquin_ was pierced for twenty guns, only ten small ones beingmounted. The other ports were provided with imposing wooden dummies.She had a high poop and a topgallant forecastle. The four partners,with James Lewis, acting captain's clerk, and one other, with the twomates, slept in the cabin or wardroom below the poop. Forward of thismain cabin was a large room extending across the ship, called thesteerage, in which the rest of the clerks, the mechanics, and theCanadian boatmen were quartered.

  Thorn seems to have felt to the full all the early naval officer'sutterly unmerited contempt for the merchant service. It is also thehabit of the Anglo-Saxon to hold the French in slight esteem on thesea. The Canadians were wretched sailors, and Thorn despised them.Thorn also cherished a natural hatred against the English, who werecarrying things with a high hand on our coast. He began the voyagewith a violent prejudice against the four partners on his ship.Indeed, the _Constitution_ had convoyed the _Tonquin_ to sea because itwas rumored that a British brig-o'-war intended to swoop down upon herand take off the English subjects on board. It was quite evident thatwar would shortly break out between England {264} and the UnitedStates, and the Scottish partners had surreptitiously consulted theEnglish consul as to what they should do if hostilities began. Theywere informed that in that case they would be treated as Britishsubjects--a fine situation for an American expedition!

  With such a spirit in the captain, and such a feeling on the part ofthe passengers, the relations between them were bound to becomestrained. Hostilities began at once. The first night out Thornordered all lights out at eight bells. This in spite of all theremonstrances of the four partners, who, as representing Mr. Astor,considered themselves, properly enough, as owners of the ship. Thesegentlemen did not wish to retire at so early an hour, nor did theydesire to spend the intervening time in darkness. They remonstratedwith Thorn, and he told them, in the terse, blunt language of a seaman,to keep quiet or he would put them in irons. In case he attemptedthat, they threatened to resort to firearms for protection. Finally,however, the captain allowed them a little longer use of their lights.Thus was inaugurated a long, disgraceful wrangle that did not ceasewhile life lasted.

  There was doubtless much fault on both sides, but, in spite of thebrilliant advocate who has pleaded Thorn's cause, I cannot but admitthat he was decidedly the more to blame. He carried things with a highhand, indeed, treating the partners as he might a graceless lot ofundisciplined midshipmen.

  A voyage around the Horn in those days was no slight matter. The_Tonquin_ was a remarkably good sailer, but it was not until the 5th ofOctober that they sighted the Cape Verde Islands. There they struckthe Trades, and went booming down the African coast {265} at a greatrate. There, also, they were pursued by a large man-o'-war brig. Onthe third day she drew so near that Thorn prepared for action,whereupon the brig sheered off, and left them.

  On the 11th of October they ran into a terrific storm, which prevaileduntil the 21st, when they found themselves off the River Plate. Whilethe storm was at its height the man at the wheel was thrown across thedeck by a sudden jump of the wheel and severely injured, breaking threeof his ribs and fracturing his collar-bone[1]. Thorn's seamanshipduring the trying period was first class. After the gale blew itselfout, a fresh breeze succeeded, which enabled them rapidly to run downtheir southing. The water supply had grown very low, and it wasdetermined to run in to the Falkland Islands to fill the casks.

  They made a landfall on the 3rd of December, got on shore on one of thesmaller islets on the 4th, found no water, and were driven to sea toseek an offing on the 5th by a gale. On the 6th they landed at PointEgmont on the West Falkland, and found a fine spring of fresh water.As it would take several days to fill the casks, all the passengerswent ashore and camped on the deserted island. They amused themselvesby fishing, shooting and rambling about. On the 11th of the month thecaptain, having filled his water-casks, signalled for every man to comeaboard, by firing a gun. Eight passengers, including McDougall andStuart, happened to be on shore at the time. They had wandered aroundto the other side of the island, and did not hear the report of thegun. Thorn, after waiting a short time, weighed anchor and filled awayfrom {266} the island, firmly resolved to leave the men ashore,marooned and destitute of supplies on that desolate and uninhabitedspot, where they must inevitably perish of starvation and exposure.

  Some of the abandoned passengers happened to see the _Tonquin_ fastleaving the island. In great alarm they hastily summoned all the otherwanderers, and the eight got into a small boat twenty feet long, whichhad been left with them, and rowed after the rapidly receding ship.They had not the slightest hope of catching her unless she waited forthem, but they pulled for her with furious energy, nevertheless. Asthe _Tonquin_ got from under the lee of the lan
d the breeze freshenedand she drew away from them with every passing moment in spite of theirmanful work at the oars. When they had about given up in exhaustionand despair, the ship suddenly changed her course and stood toward them.

  Franchere says that it was because young Stuart put a pistol to thecaptain's head and swore that he would blow out his brains unless hewent back for the boat. The captain's account to Mr. Astor is that asudden shift of wind compelled him to come about and this gave the boatan opportunity to overhaul him. There was a scene of wildrecrimination when the boat reached the ship, shortly after six bells(3 P. M.), but it did not seem to bother Thorn in the least.

  On the 18th of December, they were south and east of Cape Horn. Theweather was mild and pleasant, but before they could make headwayenough against the swift easterly current to round that most dangerouspoint it came on to blow a regular Cape Horn gale. After seven days ofhard beating they celebrated Christmas under pleasanter auspices in thesouthern Pacific.

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  Their run northward was uneventful, and on the 11th of February, 1811,they sighted the volcano of Mauna Loa in the Sandwich Islands. Theylanded on the 12th and spent sixteen days among the different islands,visiting, filling the water-casks, and buying fresh meat, vegetables,and live-stock from Kamehameha I.

  While Captain Thorn was hated by the passengers, he was not loved byhis officers. Singularly enough, he seems to have been well liked bythe crew, although there were some exceptions even there. Anderson,the boatswain, left the ship at Hawaii. There had been difficultiesbetween them, and the captain was glad to see him go. A sample ofThorn's method of administering discipline is interesting.

  The day they sailed a seaman named Aymes strayed from the boat party,and was left behind when the boat returned to the ship. In greatterror Aymes had some natives bring him aboard in a canoe. A longboatloaded with fodder for the live-stock lay alongside. As Aymesclambered into the long-boat, the captain, who was furiously angry,sprang down into the boat, seized Aymes with one hand and a stout pieceof sugar-cane with the other. With this formidable weapon theunfortunate sailor was beaten until he screamed for mercy. Afterwearing out the sugarcane upon him, with the remark that if he ever sawhim on the sloop again, he would kill him, the captain pitched him intothe water. Aymes, who was a good swimmer, made the best of his way tothe shore, and stayed there with Anderson. Twenty-four natives wereshipped at Hawaii, twelve for the crew and twelve for the newsettlement.

  On the 16th of March they ran into another storm, of such violence thatthey were forced to strike their {268} topgallant masts and scud underdouble-reefed foresail. As they were nearing the coast, the ship washove to at night. Early on the morning of the 22nd of March, theysighted land, one hundred and ninety-five days and twenty thousandmiles from Sandy Hook. The weather was still very severe, the windblowing in heavy squalls and the sea running high, and the captain didnot think it prudent to approach the shore nearer than three miles.His navigation had been excellent, however, for before them lay themouth of the Columbia River, the object of their long voyage. Theycould see the waves breaking over the bar with tremendous force as theybeat to and fro along the coast.

  Thorn, ignorant of the channel, did not dare take the ship in undersuch conditions. He therefore ordered First-Mate Ebenezer Fox to takeSailmaker Martin and three Canadians into a boat and find the channel.It was a hazardous undertaking, and the despatch of the small boatunder such circumstances was a serious error in judgment.

  There had been bad blood between the captain and the mate, and Fox didnot wish to go. If he had to go, he begged that his boat might bemanned with seamen instead of Canadians. The captain refused to changehis orders. Fox appealed to the partners. They remonstrated with thecaptain, but they could not alter his determination. The boat waspulled away and was lost to sight in the breakers. Neither the boatnor any member of the crew was ever seen or heard of again. The boatwas ill-found and ill-manned. She was undoubtedly caught in thebreakers and foundered.

  The next day the wind increased in violence, and they cruised off theshore looking for the boat. Every one on board, including the captain,stern and {269} ruthless though he was, was very much disturbed at herloss.

  On the 24th the weather moderated somewhat, and running nearer to theshore, they anchored just outside Cape Disappointment, near the northshore of the river mouth. The wind subsiding, Mumford, the secondmate, with another boat, was sent to search for the passage, butfinding the surf still too heavy, he returned about noon, after aterrible struggle with the breakers.

  In the afternoon McKay and Stuart offered to take a boat and try to getashore to seek for Fox and the missing men. They made the endeavor,but did not succeed in passing the breakers, and returned to the ship.Later in the afternoon a gentle breeze sprang up from the west, blowinginto the mouth of the river, and Thorn determined to try and cross thebar. He weighed anchor, therefore, and bore down under easy sail forthe entrance of the river. As he came close to the breakers he hove toand sent out another boat, in charge of Aitkin, a Scottish seaman,accompanied by Sailmaker Coles, Armorer Weeks and two SandwichIslanders.

  The breakers were not quite so rough as they had been, and Aitkinproceeded cautiously some distance in front of the ship, makingsoundings and finding no depth less than four fathoms. In obedience tohis signals, the ship came bowling on, and the fitful breeze suddenlyfreshening, she ran through the breakers, passing Aitkin's boat tostarboard in pistol-shot distance. Signals were made for the boat toreturn, but the tide had turned, and the strong ebb, with the currentof the river, bore the boat into the breakers in spite of all her crewcould do. While they were watching the boat, over which the waves wereseen breaking furiously, {270} the ship, the wind failing, was drivenseaward by the tide, and struck six or seven times on the bar. Thebreakers, running frightfully high, swept over her decks again andagain. Nothing could be done for the boat by the ship, their owncondition being so serious as to demand all their efforts.

  Thorn at last extricated the _Tonquin_ from her predicament. The windfavored her again, and she got over the bar and through the breakers,anchoring at nightfall in seven fathoms of water. The night was verydark. The ebb and current threatened to sweep the ship on the shore.Both anchors were carried out. Still the holding was inadequate andthe ship's position grew more dangerous. They passed some anxioushours until the turn of the tide, when in spite of the fact that it waspitch dark, they weighed anchor, made sail, and succeeded in finding asafe haven under the lee of Cape Disappointment, in a place calledBaker's Bay. The next day the captain and some of the partners landedin the morning to see if they could find the missing party. As theywere wandering aimlessly upon the shore, they came across Weeks,exhausted and almost naked.

  He had a sad story to tell. The boat had capsized in the breakers andhis two white companions had been drowned. He and the Kanakas hadsucceeded in righting the boat and clambering into her. By somefortunate chance they were tossed outside the breakers and into calmerwaters. The boat was bailed out, and the next morning Weeks sculledher ashore with the one remaining oar. One of the Sandwich Islanderswas so severely injured that he died in the boat, and the other wasprobably dying from exposure. The relief party prosecuted their {271}search for the Kanaka and found him the next day almost dead.

  The loss of these eight men and these two boats was a serious blow toso small an expedition, but there was nothing to be done about it, andthe work of selecting a permanent location for the trading-post on thesouth shore, unloading the cargo, and building the fort was rapidlycarried on, although not without the usual quarrels between captain andmen. After landing the company, Thorn had been directed by Mr. Astorto take the _Tonquin_ up the coast to gather a load of furs. He was totouch at the settlement which they had named Astoria, on his way back,and take on board what furs the partners had been able to procure andbring them back to New York. Thorn was anxious to get away, and on the1st of June, having finished the unloading of the
ship, and having seenthe buildings approaching completion, accompanied by McKay assupercargo, and James Lewis of New York, as clerk, he started on histrading voyage.

  That was the last that anybody ever saw of Thorn or the _Tonquin_ andher men. Several months after her departure a Chehalis Indian, namedLamanse, wandered into Astoria with a terrible story of an appallingdisaster. The _Tonquin_ made her way up the coast, Thorn buying fursas he could. At one of her stops at Gray's Harbour, this Indian wasengaged as interpreter. About the middle of June, the _Tonquin_entered Nootka Sound, an ocean estuary between Nootka and VancouverIslands, about midway of the western shore of the latter. There sheanchored before a large Nootka Indian village, called Newity.

  The place was even then not unknown to history. The Nootkas were afierce and savage race. A few {272} years before the advent of the_Tonquin_, the American ship _Boston_, Captain Slater, was trading inNootka Sound. The captain had grievously insulted a native chieftain.The ship had been surprised, every member of her crew except twomurdered, and the ship burned. These two had been wounded andcaptured, but when it was learned that one was a gunsmith and armorer,their lives were preserved and they had been made slaves, escaping longafter.

  Every ship which entered the Sound thereafter did so with the fullknowledge of the savage and treacherous nature of the Indians, and thetrading was carried on with the utmost circumspection. There had beenno violent catastrophes for several years, until another ship _Boston_made further trouble. Her captain had shipped twelve Indian hunters,promising to return them to their people on Nootka Sound when he wasfinished with them. Instead of bringing them back, he marooned them ona barren coast hundreds of miles away from their destination. Whenthey heard of his cruel action, the Nootkas swore to be revenged on thenext ship that entered the Sound. The next ship happened to be theill-fated _Tonquin_.

  Now, no Indians that ever lived could seize a ship like the _Tonquin_if proper precautions were taken by her crew. Mr. Astor, knowing therecord of the bleak north-western shores, had especially cautionedThorn that constant watchfulness should be exercised in trading. Thornfelt the serenest contempt for the Indians, and took no precautions ofany sort. Indeed, the demeanor of the savages lulled even thesuspicions of McKay, who had had a wide experience with the aborigines.McKay even went ashore at the invitation of one of the chiefs and spentthe first night of his arrival in his lodge.

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  The next day the Indians came aboard to trade. They asked exorbitantprices for their skins, and conducted themselves in a very obnoxiousway. Thorn was not a trader; he was a sailor. He offered them what heconsidered a fair price, and if that was not satisfactory, why, thevendor could go hang, for all he cared. One old chief was especiallypersistent and offensive in his bargaining for a high price. Hefollowed Thorn back and forth on the deck, thrusting a roll of skins infront of him, until the irascible captain at last lost the littlecontrol of his temper he ordinarily retained. He suddenly grabbed theskins and shoved them--not to say rubbed them--in the face of theindignant and astonished Indian. Then he took the Indian by the backof the neck and summarily rushed him along the deck to the gangway. Itis more than likely that he assisted him in his progress by kicking himoverboard.

  The other Indians left the ship immediately. The interpreter warnedMcKay that they would never forgive such an insult, and McKayremonstrated with the captain. His remonstrances were laughed toscorn, as usual. Not a precaution was taken. Ships trading in theselatitudes usually triced up boarding nettings fore and aft to preventsavages from swarming over the bulwarks without warning. Thorn refusedto order these nettings put in position. McKay did not think itprudent to go on shore that night.

  Early the next morning a large canoe containing some twenty Indians,all unarmed, came off to the ship. Each Indian held up a bundle offurs and signified his desire to trade. Thorn in great triumphadmitted them to the ship, the furs were brought on deck, andbargaining began. There was no evidence of {274} resentment about anyof them. Their demeanor was entirely different from what it had beenthe night before. On this occasion the Indians were willing to let thewhite men put any value they pleased on the furs.

  While they were busily buying and selling, another party of unarmedIndians made their appearance alongside. They were succeeded by asecond, a third, a fourth, and others, all of whom were welcome to theship. Soon the deck was crowded with Indians eager to barter. Most ofthem wanted hunting or butcher knives in return, and by this means, noone suspecting anything, nearly every one of the savages becamepossessed of a formidable weapon for close-quarter fighting. McKay andThorn appeared to have gone below temporarily, perhaps to break outmore goods to exchange for furs, when the Indian interpreter becameconvinced that treachery was intended. Whoever was in charge at thetime--perhaps Lewis--at the interpreter's instance [Transcriber's note:insistence?], sent word to the captain, and he and McKay came on deckat once.

  The ship was filled with a mob of Indians, whose gentle and pleasantaspect had given way to one of scowling displeasure and menace. Thesituation was serious. McKay suggested that the ship be got under wayat once. The captain for the first time agreed with him. Orders weregiven to man the capstan, and five of the seamen were sent aloft toloose sail. The wind was strong, and happened to be blowing in theright direction. With singular fatuity none of the officers or seamenwere armed, although the ship was well provided with weapons. As thecable slowly came in through the hawse-pipe, and the loosed sails fellfrom the yards, Thorn, through the interpreter, told the Indians thathe was about to sail away, and {275} peremptorily directed them toleave the ship. Indeed, the movements of the sailors made hisintentions plain.

  It was too late. There was a sharp cry--a signal--from the chief, andwithout a moment's hesitation the Indians fell upon the unprepared andastonished crew. Some of the savages hauled out war-clubs andtomahawks which had been concealed in bundles of fur; others made useof the knives just purchased. Lewis was the first man struck down. Hewas mortally wounded, but succeeded in the subsequent confusion, ingaining the steerage. McKay was seriously injured and thrownoverboard. In the boats surrounding the ships were a number of women,and they despatched the unfortunate partner with their paddles. Thecaptain whipped out a sailor's sheath knife which he wore, and made adesperate fight for his life. The sailors also drew their knives orcaught up belaying-pins or handspikes, and laid about them with theenergy of despair, but to no avail. They were cut down in spite ofevery endeavor. The captain killed several of the Indians with hisknife, and was the last to fall, overborne in the end by numbers. Hewas hacked and stabbed to death on his own deck.

  The five sailors aloft had been terrified and helpless witnesses to themassacre beneath them. That they must do something for their own livesthey now realized. Making their way aft by means of the rigging, theyswung themselves to the deck and dashed for the steerage hatch. Theattention of the savages had been diverted from them by the melee ondeck. The five men gained the hatch, the last man down, Weeks thearmorer being stabbed and mortally wounded, although he, too, gainedthe hatch. At this juncture the Indian interpreter, who had not beenmolested, sprang {276} overboard, and was taken into one of the canoesand concealed by the women. His life was spared, and he was afterwardmade a slave, and eventually escaped. The four unhurt men who hadgained the steerage, broke through into the cabin, armed themselves,and made their way to the captain's cabin, whence they opened fire uponthe savages on deck. The Indians fled instantly, leaving many of theirdead aboard the ship. The decks of the _Tonquin_ had been turned intoshambles.

  The next morning the natives saw a boat with four sailors in it pullingaway from the ship. They cautiously approached the _Tonquin_thereupon, and discovered one man, evidently badly wounded, leaningover the rail. When they gained the deck, he was no longer visible.No immediate search appears to have been made for him, but finding theship practically deserted, a great number of Indians came off in theircanoes and got aboard.
They were making preparations to search andpillage the ship, when there was a terrific explosion, and theill-fated _Tonquin_ blew up with all on board. In her ending shecarried sudden destruction to over two hundred of the Indians.

  It is surmised that the four unwounded men left on the ship realizedtheir inability to carry the _Tonquin_ to sea, and determined to taketo the boat in the hope of reaching Astoria by coasting down the shore.It is possible that they may have laid a train to the magazine--the_Tonquin_ carried four and a half tons of powder--but it is generallybelieved, as a more probable story, on account of the time that elapsedbetween their departure and the blowing up of the ship, that Lewis, whowas yet alive in spite of his mortal wounds, and who was a man ofsplendid resolution and courage as well, {277} realizing that he couldnot escape death, remained on board; and when the vessel was crowdedwith Indians had revenged himself for the loss of his comrades byfiring the magazine and blowing up the ship. Again, it is possiblethat Lewis may have died, and that Weeks, the armorer, the otherwounded man, made himself the instrument of his own and the Indians'destruction. To complete the story, the four men who had escaped inthe boats were pursued, driven ashore, and fell into the hands of theimplacable Indians. They were tortured to death.

  Such was the melancholy fate which attended some of the participants inthe first settlement of what is now one of the greatest and mostpopulous sections of the Union.

  [1] I have seen a man at the wheel of the old _Constellation_ on one ofmy own cruises similarly injured.