in McLoughlin's household, and afterward sent to the east to be educated. His second wife, the mother of the famous scout, Donald McKay, half-brother of William McKay, was a half-breed daughter of Montoure, a confidential clerk of the company. They were married at Vancouver by Blanchet.[1]
Duncan Finlayson, one of the many Scotchmen in the company's service, came to Fort Vancouver in 1831 remaining there until 1837. It is believed by those who know best that the council in London were for some reason dissatisfied with McLoughlin's management, and sent out Finlayson to keep an eye on him. He had no direct charge, yet was consulted on all points by the head of the department. Matters of this kind were kept close at Fort Vancouver. By the light of subsequent events, however, it seems probable that the London council were dissatisfied with the invasion of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains by the American companies, and desired more vigorous opposition. But McLoughlin, however irritated, was too just to visit his anger upon the company's agent, who remained at Fort Vancouver on the most amicable terms with its governor.
Previous to 1833 there had been no physician at Fort Vancouver, except Doctor McLoughlin, who, through the epidemic of 1830 and the several seasons of fever that followed, suffered much fatigue from care of the sick, and much annoyance from the interruption of his business. In 1833 two young surgeons came out from Scotland, Gairdner and Tolmie. They had for their patron Sir William Hooker. Gairdner had been studying under the celebrated Ehrenberg. He was surgeon at Fort Vancouver from 1833 to 1835, but being troubled with hemorrhage of the lungs went to the Hawaiian Islands in the autumn of the latter year, where he died. Being a young man of high attainments, his death was much de-
- ↑ Or. Sketches, MS., 21; Roberts' Recollections, MS., 63.
