130
THE WEST SHORE.
May.
HISTORICAL ADVENTURES ON THE
PACIFIC COAST.
11V MRS. V. V. VICTOR.
TDK j i.. ..'.I I l-OR I UK POSSESSION OF THK
COU'MUIA klVKR.
When the colonics Achieved their in
dependence and hecame the United
States of America, Louisiana com
prised all that territory, not originally
belonging to Spain, lying west of the
Mississippi, and smith of the 49th par
allel. It had been French territory,
Init was ceded to Spain, thirty years
before the discovery by Gray of the
Columbia river; and as, according to
the above description, it embraced the
whole country to the Pacific, the Col
umbia river was in the Louisiana ter
ritory. In 1S00, Trance regained pos
session of Louisiana, and in 1S03, sold
it to the United States. Thus, in ad
dition to the right of discovery, which
(Jreat Britain contested on the evidence
of her explorers, the United States
had the right of purchase. To con
test that successfully, it must be proven
that the parties selling had no property
the territory sold, which is not so
easily done.
Immediately following the Lousiana
purchase, President Jefferson set on
foot an exploring expedition that was
lo traverse the country to the Rocky
mountains, anil to discover the sources
of the Columbia river. We arc all fa
miliar with the principal facts of the
Lewis and Clark expedition, which
arrived in Oregon from the sources of
the Columbia rivert and wintered at
its mouth in 1805-61 but very few pcr
Jiaps are aware that their steps were
dogged by the Northwest Fur com
pany, whose intention it was to antici
pate Lewis and Clark in their enterprise.
While the American explorers were at
the Maudan villages, they had an in
terview with one of the traders of that
company, who hail a post there, and
frankly expressed to him their inten
tion of proceeding on an exploring ex
pedition to the Pacific ocean. This in
formation was immediately conveyed
lo a partner of the company, with the
significant fact that the American ex
,pnr rs hail " hoisted the American
flag." Should the Americans claim
(Che country west of the Rocky moun
tains, England's dream of a direct
trade with China, across the American
continent, would be at an end; and the
Northwest company's princely, unre
stricted trade with the Indians between
the Oreal Lakes and the Rocky moun
tains would be interfered with. There
fore, the interests of the Northwest
company and the home government
were identical and both were inter
ested in preventing the success of the
American expedition.
'Pile w orking of pow erful monopolies
like the Last India, the Hudson's Bay
and the Northwest companies, was
well understood by the English gov
ernment, and had long constituted one
ol it-, ablest engines of conquest in
foreign countries. The King (ieorge's
Sound company was a part of the ma
chinery by w hich the Spanish posses
sions at Nootka were to have been
Wrested away from that government.
The chartering ot great corporations
to operate in foreign countries was a
highly respectable method of invasion,
and had the merit ol' being a cheap
one, as well as almost to a certainty a
successful one The Englishman who
to-day kicks the Chinaman out of his
path in Canton, is lord of that country,
mid knows it. The Sepoy who was
blown from the cannon's mouth in
India suffered that punishment because
M insolent foreign power hail, through
nc of its great commercial companies,
iVI'vmkIii in tsr. by I. lamasd Ml riM-
deprived him of every right dear to
his race, and he was human enough to
wish to be revenged.
The general characteristics of the
fur companies of Great Britain did not
differ from those of other commercial
companies. Perhaps, so far as the
nations were concerned, they practiced
a certain degree of justice in their deal
ings, as being good policy as well as
good Christianity; but their dis
cipline was rigid, as well with the
natives'as with their own employees.
In the matter of anticipating the
American explorers on this occasion,
the Northwest company failed, whether
from want of preparation at that time
is not known. The partner who was
written to, says the trader who gnve
information, u induced me to consent to
a long and arduous tour of discovery.
I am to leave about the beginning of
June. Thence we shall steer our course
towards the Rocky mountains, accom
panied by a number of the Mandan
Indians, who proceed in that direction
every spring, to meet and trade with
mother tribe of Indians who reside on
Ihe other side of the Rocky mountains."
The expedition proceeded no further,
however, than the Mandau villages.
Possibly the Manikins had made a
treaty with Lewis and Clark that they
thought best to observe. Spanish and
French traders from the country of the
Americans had for several years been
in the habit of ascending the Missouri
to the mouth of the Yellowstone; and
the natives were able to comprehend
the fact of jealousies and opposition,
and probably had determined to give
lid only lo their old friends. What
ever the causes were that interrupted
the rival expedition of the Northwest
company in 1S05, another attempt was
made in the following year, by Mr.
Simon Frazer, who, with a party of
the COmnanv's men, nusficil Westward
from Athabasca lake, and, crossing the
Rocky (mountains' by tnelpass of the
Peace river, reached the headwaters of
the Tacoiachec Tcsse, discovered bv
Makenzie in 1792, and which was be
lieved by him to be the Columbia,
where he built a fort for the prosecu
tion of the company's business. Frazer
was not aware for several years of the
mistake he had made, but until 1S11,
continued to reside as he believed,
upon the Columbia, and to Hatter him
self that he held the key to the tcrri-
lory west of the Rockv mountains.
hen he did discover his mistake he
made all haste to reach the mouth of
the real Columbia, but arrived just in
time to find the place occupied by an
American company.
But let us return to Lewis and Clark,
whom we left at the Mandan villages.
These intrepid explorers pursued their
way across the continent, meeting with
no serious obstacles, until in October of
that year they came amongst the
HOCky mountains, to streams that
flowed weitward, and following them
down, arrived in the Nez Perce
ountrv, and leaving their horses with
that people, took boats and tloated
down, with the help of Indian guides,
to the ClttSOp peninsula, where they
w intered within sound of the Pacific
itltf. That was not a comfortable w in
ter, as any of us "old Oregonians"
know to a certainty. I have stood
Upon the spot where the explorers had
their cabin. It was upon the shore of
Young's Hay, and thus protected in a
measure from the winds that sweep
the -e.iside of Clatsop Plains; but it
does not require any great stretch of
the imagination to picture the dreary
dampness of the place, its loneliness, or
its destitution of the ordinary elements
of good living. Even such food as the
natives use was not plenty, and as hunt
ing amid the gloomy and wet forests
of the coast mountains was almost an
utter impossibility, our explorers were
in danger ol being starved. In the
spring of 1806, Lewis and Clark re
turned to the United States to report
their observations to the government.
While Louisiana was alternately a
French and Spanish province, a trade
had been carried on with the Indians
of the country bordering on the Mis
souri. One Manuel Lisa, had a grant
from the Spanish government by
which he enjoyed the monopoly of
this trade up to the close of the expe
dition of Lewis and Clark. About
this time a number of individuals en
tered upon the fur trade, carrying com
petition to so great lengths that the
profits of the business were wasted,
and serious quarrels occasioned. A
better state of affairs ensued, when, in
1S0S, the principal traders united, and
formed the Missouri Fur Company.
This company spread itself over a vast
extent of territory, from the Missis
sippi to the Rocky mountains and be
yond. It is only of those establish
ments that were carried beyond the
Rocky mountains that we have any
thing to relate in this place. The first
of these was erected by Mr. Henry,
one of the partners of the Missouri
company, on the headwaters of the
Snake, or southern branch of the
Columbia; but as early as 1810, he was
obliged to abandon it on account of
the sterility of the country and the
hostility of the Indians.
While the headwaters of the Col
umbia were left to the savage tribes of
the plains, an attempt was being made
by a couple of enterprising men to
form a settlement on the Lower Col
umbia opposite the present landing of
Oak Point. Ever since the apochry
phal vision of Admiral Fonte, narrated
in a previous chapter, there had been,
us we know, many appearances of
the old man from Boston," whose bus
iness it was to " trade in skins," and to
carry American enterprise to remote
parts of the earth, after the manner of
the irrepressible Yankee. On the 7th
lay of July, 1809, there sailed from
Boston two ships, destined to the Pa
cific coast : the O'Cain, Capt. Jona
than Wlnshlp, and the Albatross,
Capt. Nathan Wlnshlp, the two cap
tains being brothers. The O'Cain
proceeded direct to California, and the
lbatross sailed for the Sandwich Is
lands, with twenty-five persons on
board. At the Islands she provisioned,
and took on board twenty-live more
men, leaving port for the Columbia
river on the 25th of March, 1S10, and
arriving m the river early in
the soring. Here Cant. Winshin ex
amined the shores for some distance,
and, finally, at the end of ten days,
fixed upon the spot already mentioned,
and commenced the work of founding
a trading establishment. For a time,
business progressed satisfactorily. A
tract of ground was cleared and plant
ed, a house erected, and while the forests
about them were gay with blossoming
undergrowth, and the summer was ad-
Vandng, our captain and his colony of
litty men rejoiced ill the prospect of a
successful termination of their enter
prise. But the ways of our great river
were unknown to Captain Wlnshlp,
As J une came on, the river began to
rise in a manner most unaccountable to
those who knew not that its sources
were among the great Rockies, not
only where Lewis and Clark had dis
covered it, but far, far to the north of
that; and that it received the tributary
waters from many snow-fed branches.
The volume of waters continued to
increase, they rose up to a level with the
new plantation, thev overflowed it,
they covered the house-floor to a depth
of two feel, ami they washed out of
the ground the seeds that had been
planted in it. In short, the unfitness
of the place for a settlement was dem.
onstrated, and as it was thought to be
too late to make a new beginning th
year, and the men were discourage
by this unlucky ending of their enter,
prise, Captain Winship was fain to
re-embark his men and sail for Califor
nia, to consult with his brother. Here
he was met with the information of
the formation of the Pacific Fur Cm.
pany, with Mr. Astor at its head, and
being aware that he could not compete
with so powerful an organization, he
abandoned the enterprise that had been
entered upon with such good hopes,
ami turncu nis attention to other fields.
That Capt. Winship failed was no
proof of want of business sagacity, as
the result of Mr. Astor's enterprise
sufficiently demonstrated, not long
after.
Among those who had been quick
to perceive the value of the Oregon
territory to the United States, and to
commence, was a German merchant
of New York, John Jacob Astor. The
scheme of Mr. Jefferson of establish
ing a chain of military posts across the
continent, to be followed in time by a
trans-continental railway, struck Astor's
business judgment as being entirely
feasible, and he proposed to be the
first private individual in the great and
promi sing field. How all these schemes
have at last come out, we know. We
have the military posts, the railway,
the trade with China. But there
were failures not a few, and struggles
desperate and violent before these
things were brought about.
Astor made a fatal mistake at the
very beginning of his enterprise. In
his anxiety to put the business in the
hands of experienced men, he admitted,
even sought, men of the Northwest
company, and made them partners in
his enterprise, His head was in the
lion's mouth then. But in addition to
this error, there was the unfortunate
fact that the government itself became
so hampered by war with Great Britain
in the year following Astor's settlement
on the Columbia, that no assistance
could be given the far-off establish
ment of Astoria.
Of ten partners beside himself in
Astor's Company, six were Scotchmen
of Canada, and about half as many
were from the United States. The
men were recruited from the Canadian
voyageurs. In short it was but another
Northwest Company, with a slight in
fusion of the American clement. The
history of all that befel, in consequence
of this error in making up the com- 1
pany, is admirably recited in Irving's
Astoria and supplemented in Fran
chcrc's Narrative. Briefly, the facts
are these: In 1S09, Mr. Astor dis
patched a vessel, the Enterprise, to
take observations along the Northwest
coast, and to make arrangements with
the Russians to supply their settlements
in America with provisions. In Sep
tember of the following year, he dis
patched the ship Tonquin with the
greater part of the Company, and all
the Company's stores on board, on iti
way to the Columbia river. The voy
age sped well enough, but the voyag
ers from first to last did nothing else
but quarrel. The Captain, Jonathan
Thorn, had been bred in the Nsvsl
sci vice, anil was in the habit of com
manding to be obeyed. He found,
however, that passengers were not in
clined to be ordered about like marines.
Neither could the passengers always
agree with each other; and it was with
longings that all looked to the Oregon
coast for relief from the enforced com
panionship of a ship's narrow limit,
and for freedom to express their opin
ions of each other. After touching M