The Perilous West: Seven Amazing Explorers and the Founding of the Oregon Trail by Larry E. Morris

Author:Larry E. Morris [Morris, Larry E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442211131
Barnesnoble:
Published: 2013-07-06T08:37:51+00:00

“Mr. Fox,” bellowed the captain, “if you are afraid of water, you should have remained at Boston.” Fox said no more, simply ordered the boat lowered. But “if the crew was bad, the boat was still worse-being scarcely seaworthy, and very small. While this was going on, the partners who were all partial to Mr. Fox, began to sympathize with him, and to intercede with the captain to defer examining the bar till a favourable change took place in the weather.” Thorn’s response? “He was deaf to entreaties, stamped, and swore that a combination was formed to frustrate all his designs. The partners’ interference, therefore, only riveted him the more in his determination,” and he again ordered Fox to proceed.

Ross added that “Mr. Fox was … a great favourite among all classes on board; and this circumstance, I fear, proved his ruin, for his uniform kindness and affability to the passengers had from the commencement of the voyage drawn down upon his head the ill-will of the captain.” Proof of Thorn’s ill will was plainly evident in Fox’s “being sent off on the present perilous and forlorn undertaking, with such awkward and inexperienced hands, whose language he did not understand., 138] (Fox apparently did not speak French, the native language of those accompanying him.) Seeing that the captain was immovable, “turned to the partners with tears in his eyes and said-‘My uncle was drowned here not many years ago, and now I am going to lay my bones down with his.’ He then shook hands with all around him, and bade them adieu. Stepping into the boat-‘Farewell, my friends!’

said he; ‘we will perhaps meet again in the next world.”,]39]

Although he was convinced he was doomed, Fox had taken

“some provisions and firearms, with orders to sound the channel and report themselves on board as soon as possible. The boat was not even supplied with a good sail, or a mast.” The partners could do nothing but watch, although one of them offered what he could-“a pair of bed sheets to serve” as a sail, knowing full well, of course, that even a good sail would have meant little.]40]

Ross offered a fitting benediction to the sad scene: The moment the boat pushed off, all hands

crowded in silence to take a last farewell of her.

The weather was boisterous, and the sea rough, so that we often lost sight of the boat before she got 1 00 yards from the ship; nor had she gone

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