The Oregon Territory, and the British North American fur trade. With an account of the habits and customs of the principal native tribes on the northern continent

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Preface

I shall not encumber the reader with a tedious detail of my motives in publishing this work ; or of its scheme and plan. This is a kind of egotism, and currying favour with the reader, already carried to great excess. But I shall state a few facts — due to myself to give, and to the reader to know.

Having been articled to the Hudson's Bay Company, T left my father's home in London, in their ship, the ° -nymede, for their settlements on the Pacific. It is needless for me to give any account of our outward voyage (though I met with some strange adventures) to the Sandwich Islands — at which we stopped for a short time ; and thence to the Columbia river. Having arrived at the western head-quarters of the Company — Fort Vancouver ; on the northern shore of the river, ninety miles from its mouth — I was placed in the fort, in the situation of assistant storekeeper. After remaining in the fort nearly a year, I was commissioned to proceed northward, in the Company's ships, on trading and exploring expeditions ; threading, in our various courses, the whole of the vast labyrinth of gulfs, sounds, straits, bays, and inlets, that interlace the whole of the Pacific shore, for many hundred miles inland, and along many degrees of latitude. Here I was in the character of trader and interpreter ; and assisted at the erection of several forts in various parts of the country, never before occupied. I then returned to the Columbia ; and was placed, for some time, in charge of Fort George, near the mouth of the river — now an outpost attached to Vancouver — the famous 1*

Astoria, so much vaunted of by the Americans, as their settlement ; from which they once threatened, to use Washington Irving's phrase, to "sweep the Pacific;" and spread their internal trade through the Canadas, and the Polar Circles ; and banish the Britishers as traders, if not as residents, from the whole northern continent — a boastful threat, which they have signally failed to execute. They made, however, every endeavour to realize this most ardent wish of their hearts, but have been completely foiled. In place of being the expellers, they are themselves, in a great measure, the expelled — the result of their own irregular mode of dealing, and cupidity ; which have roused against them the distrust, indignation, and hatred of the natives.

Having spent eight years in the Company's service, I was induced, by my father, who had other projects in store for me, to return home.

On my return, although I was, from my knowledge of those Americans that traded on the coast, or had squatted in the southwestern part of Oregon, or have lately been employed by the Company as trappers, prepared to hear any monstrous assumptions of right set forth by the American populace, through their loco foco organs of the press, I did not expect that the respectable portion of the press — much less that their functionaries, and ministers of state, even up to the president — would echo the opinions of the rabble that controls the legislature. But to my surprise, I found that the subject was viewed by them through the democratic spectacles.

At the opening of Congress, in 1843, the President, without any previous provocation to the declaration ; but from the desire, if not the necessity, too characteristic of American presidents and governments, of pandering to the passions and feelings of the multitude from whom they derive their periodical being — volunteered the announcement to the whole world, that the whole territory is American, and that American it will be preserved and maintained. But this is not merely the averment of the President; but the whole current of a most vehement debate runs in support of this fraudulent assertion of a claim. Says the President : —

" The territory of the United States, commonly called the Oregon territory, lying1 on the Pacific Ocean, north of the 42d degree of latitude, to a portion of which Great Britain lays claim, begins to attract the attention of our fellow-citizens ; and the tide of population which has reclaimed what was lately an unbroken wilderness in more contiguous regions, is preparing to flow over those vast districts which stretch from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean."

I published, in The Times, and other leading periodicals, on the appearance of this document, an exposition of the true facts of the case. My statement became the subject of many articles ; and the British people awoke to a true knowledge of their interests, which the Americans wished to wrest from them. I showed, that up to 1814, they never claimed more than the right of joint occupancy — that after the Florida treaty, they took a bolder tone, and claimed exclusive right — that in 1827, they never ventured to claim beyond the 49th degree. But now they take a bolder tone still ; and, on the gambling principle of " all or nothing," claim up to the Russian frontier.

As there was no work lately published by an Englishman descriptive of the country, and the relative position of parties : and as the books already published by flying American travellers, who had picked up their accounts piecemeal, in different parts, are strongly tinged by prejudice ; I imagined that a true and dispassionate account of the whole country would tend to place the question on its proper basis. I thought then — and this thought was strengthened by some judicious friends, who had seen the several statements that I published, and had examined my rough log-book — that if I had given a fair and dispassionate view of the Oregon territory ; and of the relative position, and social pretensions of the contending parties ; the Britisli public, being awakened to the subject, would be enabled to come to a sound judgment on the whole question.

Though I have not given the whole amount of my notes, I am persuaded that this book will convey a fairer, and more concentrated impression, than all the American factious books that have been hitherto published on the subject.

It is true that this book occasionally portrays some dark features in the American character; but let the reader clearly observe, that in depicting the American character, I quote American authority : and that in showtag the weakness of their pretensions to the country, I quote historical and diplomatica! I — :s not questionable by the Americans themselves.

In brief, and in simple truth, my object is to give the British public an honest, and, as to leading characteristics. ■ full, account of the Oregon country. I had anoject in view, which was, to give an account of the British eriean Fur Trade — of which th -

been no consecutive account hitherto given.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN FUR TRADE.

Chapter I

Discovery of North America by the English — Importance of the fur trade — French Canadian fur traders — Coureurs des Bois, or Rangers of the Woods.

The discovery of America by Columbus, and the great acquisitions resulting from it to Spain, soon awoke a spirit of adventure in England : and an expedition was fitted out from Bristol under the command of Cabot, a merchant there, under the patronage of Henry VII., in 1497. This expedition discovered Newfoundland, and sailed along the continent from the coast of Labrador to that of Virginia. Thus England was the second nation that visited the New World ; and the nation, the extent and importance of whose possessions have ever been only second to those of any other state — Spain, formerly, and the Republic of America at present. Her possessions she has always 2 made every effort to maintain ; and there never was a time when she was more imperatively called on to maintain her territories and her commerce in that continent than she is now.

The discoveries of Cabot opened the way for other adventurers during the next century. The French, under Cartier, penetrated as far as the island of Montreal, and, in 1608, founded a colony in that district. In two years after (1610), the English explored Hudson's Bay. Both nations soon found that in the cold and repulsive forests and plains of the north there was a source of wealth, if not as immediately attractive as the gold and silver furnished to the Spaniards in the genial regions of the south, yet as enduring and valuable as an article of commerce — the peltries of its wild animals. This incentive caused the wildest and remotest regions to be explored, and the greatest difficulties and dangers to be braved and surmounted ; and has carried in its course more civilization and social improvement than ever followed the track of those adventurers after the wealth of Mexico and Peru.

It was the fur trade which, in fact, gave early sustenance and vitality to the great Canadian provinces. The adventurers who had settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence, soon found that in the rich peltries of the interior they had sources of wealth that might almost rival the mines of Mexico and Peru. The Indians, as yet unacquainted with the artificial value given to some descriptions of furs in civilized life, brought quantities of the most precious kinds, and bartered them away for European trinkets and cheap commodities. Immense profits were thus made by the early traders, and the traffic was pursued with avidity. The pursuit of this traffic produced a more extensive knowledge of the country — drew the Indians from their recesses to the haunts of civilized life — and rendered Montreal the centre of an extensive trade. Hordes of Indians would come down at stated periods, in a squadron of light canoes, laden with beaver skins, and other spoils of their year's hunting — unload their canoes — draw them on shore — form an encampment outside the town — dispose their goods in order, and open a kind of fair with all the grave ceremonial so dear to the Indians. An audience would be demanded of the Governor-general : he would respond to the application, and hold the conference with becoming state, seated in an elbow chair ; whilst the Indians were ranged in semicircles before him, seated on the ground, and silently smoking their pipes. Speeches would be made, — presents exchanged, and the audience would break up in general good-humour.

Then the work of traffic would commence with great activity ; and all Montreal would be alive with naked Indians, running from shop to shop, bartering their commodities for arms, knives, axes, kettles, blankets, and various other articles of use or fancy ; on all of which the merchants realized enormous profits, as there was no money used in this early traffic ; every transaction being conducted by baiter in kind.

Their wants and caprices being supplied, they would take leave of the Governor — strike their tents — launch their canoes, and ply their way back to the interior. The supply procured from these periodical visits of the natives to Montreal was, it must be recollected, independent of the purchases made by Canadian adventurers in their visits through the interior.

A new and anomalous class of men gradually grew out of this primitive state of the trade. These were called Coureurs des bois, or Rangers ofthetooods, being originally men who had accompanied the natives in their hunting expeditions, and made themselves acquainted with remote tracts, and tribes, and who now became, as it were, pedlars of the wilderness. These men would set out from Montreal, well stocked with goods suited to the Indian tastes and wants, and with arms and ammunition for self-defence, or for slaying wild animals for sustenance ; and

J 6 OREGON TERRITORY.

would make their way up the mazy and wandering" rivers that interlace the vast forests and wastes of the Canadas, coasting the most remote lakes ; and by the attraction of their imported goods, creating new wants and habitudes among the Indians ; and thus spurring them to renewed exertions in the chase, to procure more furs and other commodities. Sometimes these men would sojourn for months among the natives, assimilating to their tastes and habits with the facility of Frenchmen — adopting in some degree the Indian dress and mode of life, and not unfrequently taking to themselves Indian wives. After a lapse of many months, sometimes a year or more, they would return loaded with merchandise, and then, after disposing of their stock, commence a career of reckless revelry and extravagance ; which not unfrequently ended in their ruin. Those who were able to hold out till the next season, were forced upon a new voyage for subsistence. Many of these Coureurs des bois became so accustomed to the Indian mode of living, and the perfect freedom of the wilderness, that they lost all relish for civilization, and identified themselves with the savages among whom they dwelt ; or could be distinguished from them only by their superior licentiousness, and by their bolder disregard for all law, order, and morality. Their conduct and example gradually corrupted the natives, and impeded the labours of the Catholic missionaries, who were at this time prosecuting their pious work in the wilds of Canada, with diligence and fervour.

To check these abuses, and to protect the fur trade from various irregularities produced by these loose adventurers, an order was issued by the French government, prohibiting all persons, on pain of death, from trading in the interior of the country without a license ; and the use of spirituous liquors, if not abolished, was much restricted.

Though this system checked for a time the licentiousness of these " wood rangers," it did not eventually abolish it; for by degrees, according- as the privilege of licensing became extended or relaxed, much of the abuses of the old system was revived and continued in another form. The merchants holding the license frequently employed the " Courcurs des hois" to undertake the long voyages at a small per centage, which was sufficient to whet their cupidity, and urge them to fraud and exaction in their dealings with the Indians. At last it was found necessary to establish fortified posts for the protection of the trade, and the restraint of these "rangers of the woods." The most important of these was at the Strait of Michilemackinac, which connects lakes Huron and Michigan. This was a depot for the merchandise, and a rendezvous for the traders. It is unnecessary to pursue further a picture of the French-Canadian traders ; but I may sum up by saying, that the French-Canadian merchant, in those primitive days of Canada, was at his trading-post a kind of commercial patriarch, surrounded with his Indian wives and children, and a numerous train of dependants living in a rude indulgence.

Chapter II

Hudson's Bay Company — Its incorporation, and its privileges.

Tins company was incorporated in perpetuity by Royal Charter, granted a. d. 1G70, in the twenty-second year of the reign of Charles II. The Charter was granted after much consideration of the national and commercial advantages of such a society ; and it was granted to men who had obtained no little distinction at that time. From the large space which this company now deservedly holds in the commercial relations of Great Britain — the great power it has acquired through its liberal and well regulated government, and through the enterprise, zeal, and 2* skill of its functionaries, it may not be uninteresting to detail the names of the original corporators, and the object and terms of the Charter.

It was granted to " Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, Lords Arlington and Ashley ; Sirs John Robinson, Robert Vyner, Peter Colleton, Edward Hungerford, Paul Nerle, John Griffith, and Philip Carteret ; to James Hoyes, John Kirke, Francis Millington, William Prettyman, and John Fenn, Esqrs. ; and to John Portman, citizen and goldsmith of the city of London ;" giving them and their successors the sole commerce and trade of all those seas, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes, &c, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of Hudson's Straits ; together with all the lands, trade, fisheries, mines, minerals, &c, on the confines of those seas, bays, lakes, and rivers, if not then possessed by any British subjects, or b)r the subjects of any other Christian prince or state. In a word, all those countries whose waters run into Hudson's Bay were included in the Charter. The reason for creating this chartered corporation is stated to be, that those individuals did at their own cost undertake an expedition to Hudson's Bay, for the discovery and prosecution of a trade in furs, minerals, and other important commodities ; and by such undertaking made such discoveries as may be of great advantage to the kingdom.

The management of the corporation (which was invested with the usual corporate privileges, of possessing, and transmitting to their successors, lands, rents, jurisdictions, &c, and were to direct the voyages and exploring excursions, and the sale of merchandise), was centred in a Governor and Committee of seven. Prince Rupert was the first Governor ; and the first Committee consisted of Sirs J. Robinson, Robert Vyner, and Peter Colleton ; with Messrs. Hoyes, Kirke, Millington, and Portman.

The Governor (or deputy-governor for the time being), with the Committee, were to be appointed annually by election among the members ; and were removable in case of misconduct. The whole of this vast and undefined region was to be reckoned as one of his Majesty's Colonies, and was called Prince Rupert's Land. The Governor and the Company were to be lords proprietors of the same for ever ; empowered to make laws for the good government of the territory and the advancement of trade; to impose penalties and punishments, provided, however, that they were not unreasonable, and repugnant to the Laws of England.

No subject of the British Crown was to be allowed to trade within the Company's territories without their written and sealed permission, under penalty of a forfeiture of the merchandise embarked : neither was even a royal license to trade 'to be given to any one without the Company's consent. As a proof of the wealth and importance of the Company, even in its infancy, it may be stated, that stock to the amount of one hundred pounds (a large sum in those days, if we consider the relative value of money then and now) formed the qualification for the possession of even a single vote. Individuals were allowed a plurality of votes in proportion to their possession of funded property in the concern.

The Company were empowered to appoint district governors, and other officers, to judge in all cases, civil and criminal, according to the Laws of England.

They were also empowered to grant lands — give commercial privileges — build towns — employ, for the protection of their trade and territory, armed force — appoint commanders, and erect forts, &c. They were empowered, also, to transport to England all British subjects found trading in their territory, without their permission ; and furthermore all admirals, and other officers of the crown, were enjoined to lend their aid in assisting the execution of the powers granted to the Company by the Charter.

Such is an outline of the privileges and powers granted to the greatest commercial association that ever appeared in England, next to the East India Company: an association that has kept on the even tenor of its useful and prosperous course, diffusing wealth at home, and spreading civilization abroad — ransacking the wildest, the dreariest, and most ungenial regions of the earth to provide comfort and luxury and wealth for the people of England ; and pointing out to the benighted savage the means of improvement, comfort, and happiness.

Though there were associations formed by French Canadians for the beaver trade so early as 1630, yet the French had no actual or permanent establishments, nor did they claim the right of occupation of any portion of the interior. It appears, from the history of Father Charlevoix and Hennepin, that, for some years after the date of the Charter, the French had no established trading posts even as far as Lake Superior ; neither had they am- established possessions in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. So that the terms of the grant did not interfere with any previous right of others.

Whatever pretensions may have been made by the French subsequently to the Charter to any portion of that extensive region, they were completely set aside on the conquest of Canada ; and then the jurisdiction and possessions of the Company were continued, in all their former plenitude. Even after the establishment of American Independence, none of the Hudson's Bay territories, or of the waters running into Hudson's Bay, were included in the lines assigned as the boundaries between the possessions of Great Britain and those of the United States. By the treaty of 1794, which permits the most perfect freedom of intercourse and communication between the subjects of both nations throughout their respective dominions, an exception is made of the country within the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company (to be ascertained in conformity with their Charter), from which the Americans arc expressly excluded. In fine, the Charter lias been sanctioned by various subsequent Acts of Parliament, and by treaties of peace.

Chapter III

British-Canadian fur trade— Establishment of the Northwest Company— Its organization and operations— Rivalry between it and the Hudson's Bay Company.

For a long series of years the French Canadian traders found active competitors in the British ; and on the conquest of that country, in 1762, they became nearly extinct, the Hudson's Bay Company, and other British traders, monopolizing almost the whole fur commerce of North America. In a few years the Canadian trade began to revive, but under British merchants and under a different system. The old French system of licenses was abolished, as inconsistent with the principles of free trade ; and spirituous liquors were allowed as an article of barter, from a knowledge of the ungovernable propensity of the Indians to that luxury, which they would make any sacrifice of property to obtain.

Various expeditions were fitted out by separate individuals, and sometimes by separate rival partners, who pursued their own interests without fear or scruple, and seemed to have only two objects in view, — their own advantage and the injury of their competitors. The consequences were, licentiousness, feuds, and excesses of every kind in those regions far distant from the reach of all legal restraint. The Indians, too, by intoxication, and the vicious example and incentives of the Coureurs des I>ois, and other agents, became quarrelsome, knavish, and reckless. At last, the natives, who were engaged by different contending parties to attack each other, threatened

M^ OREGON TERRITORY.

to make common cause and extirpate the traders. These accumulated evils, the result of excessive competition, brought the trade to the lowest ebb, and to save it from ruin several eminent merchants formed a junction, to carry it on in partnership, in 1783. This plan seemed to work well ; and similar associations were subsequently formed with success. At last there was an amalgamation of all in one grand association ; and this was formed in 1805, the famous Northwest Company, which for many years exercised so much power, and threatened the destruction of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had been chartered since 1670.

The management of this Company was vested in partners, who had various trading-posts established far and wide through the interior. Several of the partners resided in Montreal and Quebec to manage the affairs of the Company ; they were called agents, and were persons of great importance : the other partners took their stations at the interior posts, where they remained throughout the winter, to superintend the intercourse with the various tribes of Indians, and were called wintering-partners, The goods destined for this wide and wandering traffic with the Indians were stored in the Company's warehouses in Montreal, and thence conveyed by boats up the numerous rivers and lakes that intersect this vast region, and by portages, or land-carriage ways.* Though this Company was at first but a spontaneous association of merchants, yet when it became regularly organized, admission into it became extremely difficult. A candidate had to undergo a long probation, and to rise slowly by his merits. He began at an early age as clerk, and

* It must be observed, that portage means a land-carriage way, when, in consequence of the impracticability of the rivers, from cataracts, or other obstructions, canoes, goods, and all must be borne overland, until another navigable part be reached.

served an apprenticeship of seven years, for which, besides his clothing, equipment, and expenses, he received .£100. His probation was generally passed in the interior trading-posts, subject to all the uncertainties and bardships incidental to a life in so wild a region. When he had served his apprenticeship, he received a salary com. mensurate with bis deserts, and was eligible to a partnership in the Company, though years, perhaps his life, may have passed away before he attained that object of his toils and ambition. Most of the clerks were young men of good families from Scotland, — thrifty, hardy, bold, and persevering, and generally well calculated for the difficult duties they were required to discbarge. The principal partners, or agents, who resided in Montreal and Quebec, formed a kind of commercial aristocracy. From early associations, and a community of pursuit and interest, the partners were closely banded together ; and their union, energy, and wealth, gave them great influence with the government, which often procured immunity for crimes committed by their officials and servants.

They held a general meeting every summer at Fort William, near the grand portage, at the northwestern extremity of Lake Superior. Here they discussed and arranged the affairs of the preceding year, and laid down the plans of operation for the next. Here too the clerks, and principal servants, assembled to receive their instructions ; and a succession of festivities was kept up for several days. No system could be better devised to infuse activity into every department, and spread the influence of the Company ; and some idea may be formed of the extensive range which their operations embraced, from the circumstance that, in the plenitude of their power, they employed no less than two thousand voyageurs, or boatmen, at average wages of forty pounds a year each. They extended the fur trade into regions previously unexplored, and opened new and extensive markets for the commercial industry, enterprise, and manufacturing industry of the empire, and so took formal and permanent possession of districts not occupied by the subjects of any other power, among which the most important was Columbia.

The impetus, and almost new character which they gave to the prosecution of the fur trade — their encroachments on the Hudson's Bay Company, whom they not merely wished to outrival, but determined to crush — their subsequent amalgamation with that Company; and the great and lasting influence which this amalgamation has had for commercial good, render it necessary to enter somewhat into detail on their proceedings.

There were three distinct differences between the two Companies which deserve to be noticed. The Hudson's Bay Company had received a royal grant, confirmed by Acts of Parliament, of the vast extent of territory within, or bordering on, all the waters that run into Hudson's Bay. It is true the limits were not strictly defined, but they were intelligible. Having, within their own territories, ample range for the pursuit of their trade, they had no incentive for encroachment on foreign territory. But the Northwest Company, being a voluntary association, had no field of operation to which they could lay any legal claim, — they were barely tolerated by the law ; and were therefore obliged to try their fortune wherever they could.

2d. The general practice of the Hudson's Bay Company was to remain at their factories on the coast : to these the natives resorted from the interior to trade, coming down the lakes and rivers in spring to dispose of the produce of the winter hunt, and returning in autumn with their supplies of English manufacture, which they received in exchange. But the Northwest Company, having no such established marts, their servants penetrated the very recesses of the wilderness, where they established stations, and huckstered with the natives at their homes.

3d. The officers and servants of the Hudson's Bay- Company were paid regular salaries ; were confined to certain localities, and had a prescribed routine of duty to perform. But the officials of the Northwest Company were very differently circumstanced : they were all, from the nature of their engagements, and a principle of self-interest, speculators, and sons of enterprise. They became valuable to the Company only in proportion to the success of their exertions, and on this depended their reward and their hopes. Sometimes, indeed, the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company were sent into the interior, but this was an exception, not a rule : whereas, the general rule of the Northwest Company was to despatch their agents into the interior, and any location at head-quarters was the exception.

The Northwest Company having been fully organized and prepared for operation, they proceeded at once to business with great promptitude and vigour ; and though they were, it must be owned, not very scrupulous as to means, yet they effected themselves, or were the primary cause in effecting, great objects. Before their tirrTe, the Hudson's Bay Company was ignorant of the localities and capabilities of even its own territories ; but now, since its range of knowledge has been enlarged, and its spirit of trade invigorated, by its fusion with the Northwest Company, the entire of the northern continent has been explored, from the confines of Canada and California to the Pole; and all its resources discovered. The Northwest Company also performed great services to the Imperial Government during the late American war, by the employment of their servants and treasures, and their zeal in rousing the Indians.