Birnie,z at present in charge at Fort George or Astoria, which is but three leagues from the sea, having perceived our distress two days before, had gone out to the extremity of the cape with a band of Indians, and had there lighted fires, waved flags, fired repeatedly from guns and cannon, to draw us toward himself. We had indeed observed all these signals, but seafaring makes people suspicious: it was feared that it was some ambush of the Indians, desirous of capturing the vessel. In short, St. Ignatius was to be our pilot, and we have no cause to be otherwise than glad that it was so. In gratitude, this passage so fortunately accomplished for the first time on the day of his feast, was named " St. Ignatius Passage."
The second visit that we received on board was from some Indians of the Chinook tribe, who are scattered through the forests which border the Columbia river on the north. My companions, who were seeing Indians for the first time, wondered extremely at the poverty of their raiment, their uncleanliness, their long hair and their tran quil manners. I warned them that it was necessary to be very reserved with savages if they did not want them to become too familiar. It is natural for almost all Indians to be lazy, but it is worse with these, because of the great ease with which they can procure fish and game. They live from day to day, and spend the greater part of the daytime stretched motionless in the sun: it is no wonder therefore that the ship was almost continually flooded with these poor people.
We had discovered, at anchor under the cape, the ship that we had been watching the previous evening. About nine that night, just as we were all singing the Te Deum together in thanksgiving for all the benefits received in the course of the day and of our long voyage, Mr. Birnie and the owner of the ship came on board: they told us that
2 James Birnie, superintendent of the Hudson's Bay Company's post of Fort George, the former Fort Astoria.