If Mr.Astor ventured to hint at the difficulties they might have to encounter, they treated them with scorn.
They were "northwesters;" men seasoned to hardships, who cared for neither wind nor weather.

They could live hard, lie hard, sleep hard, eat dogs!--in a word they were ready to do and suffer anything for the good of the enterprise.

With all this profession of zeal and devotion, Mr.Astor was not overconfident of the stability and firm faith of these mercurial beings.

He had received information, also, that an armed brig from Halifax, probably at the instigation of the Northwest Company, was hovering on the coast, watching for the Tonquin, with the purpose of impressing the Canadians on board of her, as British subjects, and thus interrupting the voyage.

It was a time of doubt and anxiety, when the relations between the United States and Great Britain were daily assuming a more precarious aspect and verging towards that war which shortly ensued.