I have before me
letters written by a fur trader of a rival company at that time,
declaring if a certain trader did not cease his methods, that "pills
would be bought at Montreal with as good poison as pills from London;"
and the sentiment of the writer gives a true idea of the code that
prevailed among American fur traders.
The fort at that time occupied a narrow strip between a dense forest
and the rocky water front a few miles north of the present site.
Whether the renegade American sailors living in the forests with the
Kolosh betrayed all the inner plans of the fort, or the squaws daily
passing in and out with berries kept their {308} countrymen informed of
Russian movements, the blow was struck when the whites were off guard.
It was a holiday. Half the Russians were outside the palisades
unarmed, fishing. The remaining fifteen men seem to have been upstairs
about midday in the rooms of the commander, Medvednikoff. Suddenly the
sleepy sentry parading the balcony noticed Michael, chief of the
Kolosh, standing on the shore shouting at sixty canoes to land quickly.
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