[It is curious to observe the want of military sagacity and precaution which characterized the operations of these traders, compared with the exact calculations of danger and the unfailing measures of defence, employed from the very outset by Captains Lewis and Clarke in the same country.
There was one very audacious attempt at plunder made upon the latter; but besides that it cost the Indians a life or two, the latter lost property of their own far exceeding their booty.

It is true that the American officers had a stronger force at their disposal than our merchants had, and that, too, consisting of experienced western hunters and veteran soldiers of the frontier; but it is not less interesting to note the difference, because it is easy to account for it .-- J.V.H.]] The object of Mr.Reed's journey being defeated by the loss of his papers, he repaired, with the other gentlemen, to Mr.David Stuart's trading post, at Okenakan, whence they had all set out, in the beginning of May, to return to Astoria.

Coming down the river, they fell in with Mr.R.Crooks, and a man named _John Day_.

It was observed in the preceding chapter that Mr.Crooks remained with five men among some Indians who were there termed _friendly_: but this gentleman and his companion were the only members of that party who ever reached the establishment: and they too arrived in a most pitiable condition, the savages having stripped them of everything, leaving them but some bits of deerskin to cover their nakedness.
On the 12th, the schooner, which had been sent down the river to the Beaver's anchorage, returned with a cargo (being the stores intended for Astoria), and the following passengers: to wit, Messrs.

B.Clapp, J.C.
Halsey, C.A.Nichols, and R.Cox, clerks; five Canadians, seven Americans (all mechanics), and a dozen Sandwich-islanders for the service of the establishment.