FOOTNOTES:
[31] Now so rare that $25.00 has been paid for a copy in two instances.
[32] Since deceased at the age of 93.
CHAPTER LVII.
SKETCHES OF WESTERN LIFE.
"Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental" McDonald.
In the early fifties of the 19th century, there appeared on the waters of Puget Sound an eccentric character answering to the name of Joe Lane McDonald. He was a corpulent man of low stature, short bowlegs, a fat neck, a "pug" bulldog nose, with small but very piercing eyes and withal a high forehead that otherwise softened the first unfavorable impression of him.
The writer is relating personal observations of this unique character as he frequently saw him at the new and then thriving town of Steilacoom, then the center of trade for all of Puget Sound and to the Straits of San Juan De Fuca.
McDonald enjoyed the distinction of being among the first, if not the very first, trader among the 6,000 Indians of Puget Sound, for at that early day, 1853-55, there were but few whites to be seen. His sloop, about the size of an ordinary whaleboat, was decked over fore and aft and along each side, leaving an oblong open oval space in the center from which the captain, as he was frequently called, could stand at the helm and manage his sail, and eat a lunch easily reached from a locker nearby.