remarkable. We arrived, as we had expected, a day and a half before the
Umbiquas: and, of course, were prepared for them. The squaws, children,
and valuables were already in the boat-house with plenty of water, in
case the enemy should attempt to fire it. The presence of a hostile
war-party had been singularly discovered two days before; three children
having gone to a little bay at a short distance from the post, to catch
some young seals, discovered four canoes secured at the foot of a rock,
while, a little farther, two young men were seated near a fire cooking
comfortably one of the seals they had taken. Of course the children
returned home, and the only three men who had been left at the post
(three old men) went after their scalps. They had not returned when we
arrived; but in the evening they entered the river with the scalps of
the two Umbiquas, whom they had surprised, and the canoes, which were
safely deposited in the store.

Our position was indeed a strong one. Fronting us to the north we had a
large and rapid river; on the south we were Banked by a ditch forty feet
broad and ten feet deep, which isolated the building from a fine open
ground, without my bush, tree, or cover; the two wings were formed by
small brick towers twenty feet high, with loop-holes, and a door ten
feet from the ground; the ladder to which, of course, we took inside.
The only other entrance, the main one, in fact, was by water: but it
could be approached only by swimming. The fort was built of stone and
brick, while the door, made of thick posts, and lined with sheets of
copper, would have defied, for a long time, the power of their axes or
fire. Our only anxiety was about the inflammable quality of the roof,
which was covered with pine shingles. Against such an accident, however,
we prepared ourselves by carrying water to the upper rooms, and we could
at any time, if it became necessary, open holes in the roof, for we
greater facility of extinguishing the fire. In the meantime we covered