We hastened, therefore, to put ourselves in the best possible state of defence.

The dwelling house was raised, parallel to the warehouse; we cut a great quantity of pickets in the forest, and formed a square, with palisades in front and rear, of about 90 feet by 120; the warehouse, built on the edge of a ravine, formed one flank, the dwelling house and shops the other; with a little bastion at each angle north and south, on which were mounted four small cannon.

The whole was finished in six days, and had a sufficiently formidable aspect to deter the Indians from attacking us; and for greater surety, we organized a guard for day and night.
Toward the end of the month, a large assemblage of Indians from the neighborhood of the straits _Juan de Fuca_, and _Gray's Harbor_, formed a great camp on Baker's Bay, for the ostensible object of fishing for sturgeon.

It was bruited among these Indians that the Tonquin had been destroyed on the coast, and Mr.M'Kay (or the chief trader, as they called him) and all the crew, massacred by the natives.

We did not give credence to this rumor.