A company of clerks and _engagés_ had been obtained in Montreal, and the party leaving Canada went in their great canoe up Lake Champlain, took it over the portage to the Hudson, and descended that river to New York. They transferred the picturesque scene so often witnessed on the Ottawa to the sleepy banks of the Hudson River, and with emblems flying, and singing songs of the voyageurs, surprised the spectators along the banks. Arrived at New York the men with bravado expressed themselves as ready to endure hardships. As Irving puts it, they declared "they could live hard, lie hard, sleep hard, eat dogs--in short, endure anything." But these partners and men had much love for their own country and little regard to the new service into which desire for gain had led them to embark. It was found out afterwards that two of the partners had called upon the British Ambassador in New York, had revealed to him the whole scheme of Mr. Astor, and enquired whether, as British subjects, they might embark in the enterprise. The reply of the diplomat assured them of their full liberty in the matter. Astor also required of the employés that they should become naturalized citizens of the United States. They professed to have gone through the ceremony required, but it is contended that they never really did so. The ship in which the party was to sail was the _Tonquin_, commanded by a Captain Thorn, a somewhat stern officer, with whom the fur traders had many conflicts on their outbound journey. The report having gone abroad that a British cruiser from Halifax would come down upon the _Tonquin_ and arrest the Canadians on board her, led to the application being made to the United States frigate _Constitution_ to give the vessel protection. On September 10th, 1810, the _Tonquin_ with her convoy put out and sailed for the Southern Main. Notwithstanding the constant irritation between the captain and his fur trading passengers, the vessel went bravely on her way. After doubling Cape Horn on Christmas Day, they reached the Sandwich Islands in February, and after paying visits of ceremony to the king, obtained the necessary supplies of hogs, fruits, vegetables, and water from the inhabitants, and also engaged some twenty-four of the islanders, or Kanakas, as they are called, to go as employés to the Columbia. Like a number of rollicking lads, the Nor'-Westers made very free with the natives, to the disgust of Captain Thorn. He writes:--"They sometimes dress in red coats and otherwise very fantastically, and collecting a number of ignorant natives around them, tell them they are the great chiefs of the North-West ... then dressing in Highland plaids and kilts, and making bargains with the natives, with presents of rum, wine, or anything that is at hand."