The fur traders of the Columbia river and the Rocky mountains

Front matter

H

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Edited bv Frank Lincoln Olmsted

Contents

Important Events .

I. — ^The Northwest Company II. — ^The American Fur Company III. — Outward Bound .

IV.— Astoria .... v.— The Loss of the " Tonquin"

Chapter I

the; northwest company

TWO leading objects of gain gave birth to wide and daring enterprise in the early history of the Americas: the precious metals of the South, and the rich peltries of the North. While the fiery and magnificent Spaniard, inflamed with the mania for gold, extended his discoveries and conquests over those brilliant countries scorched by the ardent sun of the tropics, the adroit Frenchman, the calculating Briton, and the plodding Dutchman, pursued the traffic in furs amidst the more northern regions until they advanced even within the Arctic Circle.

The French adventurers, who settled on the banks of the St. lyawrence, soon found that, in the rich peltries of the interior, they had sources of wealth that rivalled the mines of Mexico and Peru. The trade increased, and was drawn from remote regions to Montreal ; and there grew up with this trade a new class of men, the rangers of the woods {coureurs de bois), who became, as it were, tlie peddlers of the wilderness. These loose adventurers gradually corrupted the Indians and were forbidden to trade into the interior of the country without a license.

At length it was found necessary to establish fortified posts at the confluence of the rivers and the lakes for the protection of the trade, and the restraint of these profligates of the wilderness. The most important of these was at Mackinac, an island situated at the strait of the same name which connects L,akes Huron and Michigan. Here new expeditions were fitted out and took their departure for I^ake Michigan and the Mississippi, Ivake Superior and the Northwest; and here the peltries brought in return were embarked for Montreal.

The French traders at first had matters quite their own way along the St. I^awrence and the Lakes, as did the Dutch East India Company in New Netherland with its chief posts at Beaverwyck (Albany) and New Amsterdam (New York). After New Netherland fell into the hands of the English (1664), the Canadian traders found troublesome competitors in the British merchants of New York, who inveigled the Indians and the coureiu^s de bois to their posts, and traded with them on more favourable terms. A still more formidable opposition was organised in the Hudson Bay Company, chartered by Charles II., in 1670, with the exclusive privilege of establishing trading-houses on the shore of Hudson Bay and its tributary rivers; a monopoly which was maintained until 1859.

In 1763 the French lost possession of Canada, and the fur trade fell principally into the hands of British subjects. It was then pursued with much eagerness by individual merchants who injured the trade by

The Northwest Company 3

their attempts to outbid and undermine each other; the Indians were debauched by liquors; while bloodyfeuds took place between rival trading parties, when they happened to meet in the lawless depths of the wilderness.

To put an end to this ruinous strife, several of the principal merchants of Montreal formed a partnership in the winter of 1783, which, by being merged in a rival company in 1787, became the famous " Northwest Company, ' ' This for a time held lordly sway over the wintry lakes and boundless forests of Canada.

To behold the Northwest Company in all its state and grandeur, it was necessary to witness an annual gathering at Fort William, near what is called the Grand Portage, on Lake Superior. Here two or three of the leading partners from Montreal proceeded once a year to meet the partners from the various trading-posts of the wilderness, to discuss the affairs of the company during the preceding year, and to arrange plans for the future.

The partners from Montreal, however, quite eclipsed their compeers from the woods, whose forms and faces had been battered and hardened by hard living and hard service, and whose garments and equipments were all the worse for wear. Indeed the partners from below considered the whole dignity of the company as represented in their persons, and conducted themselves in suitable style. They ascended the rivers in great state, like sovereigns making a progress. They were wrapped in rich furs, their huge canoes freighted with every convenience and luxury, and manned by Canadian voyageurs, as obedient as Highland clansmen. Happy were they, too, if they could meet with some distinguished stranger; above all, some titled member of the British nobility, to accompany them on this stately occasion, and grace their high solemnities.

Fort William, the scene of this important annual meeting, was a considerable village on the banks of Lake Superior. Here, in an immense wooden building, was the great council hall, as also the banqueting chamber, decorated with Indian arms and accoutrements, and the trophies of the fur trade. Grave and weighty councils were alternated by huge feasts and revels. The tables in the great banqueting-room groaned under the weight of game of all kinds, and there was no stint of generous wine; for it was a time of loyal toasts and brimming bumpers.

While the chiefs revelled in hall, and made the rafters resound with bursts of loyalty and old Scottish songs, chanted in voices cracked and sharpened by the northern blast, their merriment was echoed and prolonged by a mongrel legion of retainers, Canadian voyageurs, half-breeds, Indian hunters, and vagabond hangers-on, who feasted sumptuously without on the crumbs that fell from their table, and made the welkin ring with old French ditties, mingled with Indian yelps and yellings.

The success of the Northwest Company stimulated further enterprise in this opening and apparently boundless field of profit. The traflSc of that company lay principally in the high northern latitudes, while there were immense regions to the south and west, known to abound with valuable peltries; but which, as yet, had been but little explored by the fur trader. A new association of British merchants was therefore formed to prosecute the trade in this direction, and it was commonly called the Mackinaw Company, from the fact that its chief factory was on Mackinac Island.

The Northwest Company 5

The Government of the United States began to view with a wary eye the growing influence thus acquired by combinations of foreigners over the aboriginal tribes inhabiting its territories, and endeavoured to counteract it. For this purpose, as early as 1796, the government sent out agents to establish rival trading-houses on the frontier, so as to supply the wants of the Indians, to link their interests and feelings with those of the people of the United States, and to divert this important branch of trade into national channels. The expedition, however, was unsuccessful; but what the government failed to effect with all its patronage and all its agents was at length brought about by the enterprise and perseverance of a single merchant, one of its adopted citizens.

John Jacob Astor, the individual in question, was born in the honest little German village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, on the banks of the Rhine. He, while yet a mere stripling, left his home, and launched himself amid the busy scenes of lyondon. At the close of the American Revolution he was still in lyondon; but he had already determined to follow an older brother and to seek his fortune in the United States. Investing a small sum in merchandise suited to the American market, he embarked, in 1783, in a ship bound to Baltimore.

On the way Mr. Astor became acquainted with a countryman of his, a furrier by trade, who cheerfully gave him all the information in his power as to the qualitj'' and value of diflferent furs, and the mode of carrying on the trafl&c. He subsequently accompanied him to New York, and, by his advice, Mr. Astor was induced to invest the proceeds of his merchandise in furs. With these he sailed from New York to London in

1784, disposed of them advantageously, made himself further acquainted with the course of the trade, and returned the same year to New York.

As yet, trade in peltries was not organised in the United States, and could not be said to form a regular line of business. Furs and skins were casually collected by the country traders in their dealings with the Indians or the white hunters, but the main supply was derived from Canada. As Mr. Astor's means increased, he made annual visits to Montreal, where he purchased furs from the houses engaged in the trade.

In 1795, a treaty with Great Britain removed the restrictions imposed upon the trade with the colonies, and opened a direct commercial intercourse between Canada and the United States. Mr. Astor was in London at the time, and immediately made a contract with the agents of the Northwest Fur Company for furs. He was now enabled to import them from Montreal into the United States for the home supply, and to ship them thence to different parts of Europe, as well as to China, which has ever been the best market for the richest and finest kinds of peltry.

The treaty in question provided, likewise, that the military posts occupied by the British within the territorial limits of the United States should be surrendered. Accordingly Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Mackinac, and other posts on the American side of the Lakes, were given up, and an opening was thus made for American merchants. After an interval of some years, about 1807, Mr. Astor embarked in this trade on his own account. His capital and resources had by this time greatly augmented, and he had risen from small beginnings to take his place among the first merchants and financiers of the country.

The Northwest Company 7

He was aware of the wish of the American Government, already stated, that the fur trade within its boundaries should be in the hands ot American citizens, and of the ineffectual measures it had taken to accomplish that object. He now offered, if aided and protected by the government, to turn the whole of that trade into American channels ; and to that end he obtained, in 1809, a charter from the legislature of the State of New York, incorporating a company under the name of the American Fur Company,

As the Mackinaw Company still continued its rivalry, and as the fur trade would not advantageously admit of competition, he bought out the Mackinaw Company, in 1811, and merged that into what might be called the Northern Department of the American Fur Company, to be known as the Southwest Company.

CHAPTER II ThK AMERICAN FUR COMPANY

WHIIyE the various companies we have noticed were pushing their enterprises far and wide in the wilds of Canada, and along the course of the great western waters, other adventurers, intent on the same objects, were traversing the watery wastes of the Pacific and skirting the north-west coast of America.

Among the American ships which traded along the north-west coast in 1792 was the Columbia, Captain Gray, of Boston. In the course of her voyage she discovered the mouth of a large river in lat. 46° 19' north. Entering it with some diflSculty, on account of sand-bars and breakers, she came to anchor in a spacious bay. A boat was well manned and sent on shore to a village on the beach, but all the inhabitants fled excepting the aged and infirm. The kind manner in which these were treated, and the presents given to them, gradually lured back the others, and a friendly intercourse took place. They had never seen a ship or a white man.

Captain Gray did not ascend the river farther than the bay in question, which continues to bear his name. After putting to sea, he fell in with the celebrated discoverer, Vancouver, and informed him of his discovery, furnishing him with a chart which he had made of the river. Vancouver visited the river, and his lieutenant,

The American Fur Company 9

Broughton, explored it by the aid of Captain Gray's chart; ascending it upwards of one hundred miles, until within view of a snowy mountain, to which he gave the name of Mount Hood. This it still retains.

After a time the attention of the American Government was attracted to the subject of an overland route to the Pacific, and the memorable expedition under Messrs. Lewis and Clark was fitted out. These gentlemen, in 1804, ascended the Missouri, passed through the stupendous gates of the Rocky Mountains, hitherto unknown to white men, discovered and explored the upper waters of the Columbia, and followed that river down to its mouth, where their countryman. Gray, had anchored about twelve years previously. Here they passed the winter, and returned across the mountains in the following spring. Their reports demonstrated the practicability of establishing a line of communication across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

It was then that the idea presented itself to the mind of Mr. Astor of grasping with his individual hand this great enterprise, namely, to establish a line of trading posts along the Missouri and the Columbia, to the mouth of the latter, and to found there the chief trading-house or mart. There, too, coasting craft would be built and fitted out to trade, at favourable seasons, all along the north-west coast, and return, with the proceeds of their vogages, to this place of deposit. A ship was to be sent annually from New York to this main establishment with reinforcements and supplies, and with merchandise suited to the trade. It would take on board the furs collected during the preceding year, carry them to Canton, invest the proceeds in the rich lO The Fur Traders

merchandise of China, and return thus freighted to New York.

Mr. Astor now prepared to carry his scheme into prompt execution. He had some competition, however, to apprehend and guard against. The Northwest Company had pushed one or two advance trading posts across the Rocky Mountains, into a tract of country about two degrees north of the Columbia, and lying between the territories of the United States and those of Russia. But their posts beyond the mountains had to be supplied in yearly expeditions, like caravans, from Montreal, and the furs conveyed back in the same way, by long, precarious, and expensive routes across the continent. Mr. Astor, on the contrary, would be able to supply his proposed establishment at the mouth of the Columbia b}^ sea, and to ship the furs collected there directly to China, so as to undersell the Northwest Company in the great Chinese market.

Still, the competition of two rival companies west of the Rocky Mountains could not but prove detrimental to both, and fraught with those evils, both to the trade and to the Indians, that had attended similar rivalries in the Canadas. To prevent any contest of the kind, therefore, he made known his plan to the agents of the Northwest Company, and proposed to interest them, to the extent of one-third, in the trade thus to be opened. After some negotiation and delay, they declined the proposition, but subsequently despatched a party for the mouth of the Columbia to establish a post there before any expedition sent out by Mr. Astor might arrive.

In the meantime Mr. Astor, finding his overtures rejected, proceeded fearlessly to execute his enterprise in face of the whole power of the Northwest Company

The American Fur Company 1 1

He now proceeded to procure proper agents and coadjutors, habituated to the Indian trade and to the Hfe of the wilderness. Among the clerks of the Northwest Company were several of great capacity and experience, who had not been promoted, and were consequently ready for any employment in which their talents and acquirements might be turned to better account.

On the 23rd of June, 1810, the articles of agreement of the Pacific Fur Company were entered into between Mr. Astor and four gentlemen, Alexander M'Kay, Duncan M'Dougal, Donald M'Kenzie.and Wilson Price Hunt of New Jersey. The first three of these were drawn from the Northwest Company, but Mr. Hunt was a successful business man in St. Louis, a person of great worth, who was selected by Mr. Astor to represent him in the new establishment.

Mr. Astor was to furnish all the capital for the company, was to be its head, and was to have fifty shares of its stock, the other fifty being divided among the partners and their associates. He was to furnish vessels, goods, provisions, arms, ammunition, and all other requisites, and was to bear all losses of the first five 5'ears — a period within which the company might be dissolved, if it should be found unprofitable.

In prosecuting this great scheme of commerce and colonisation, two expeditions were devised, one by sea, the other by land. The former was to carry out the people, stores, ammunition, and merchandise requisite for establishing a fortified trading post at the mouth of Columbia River. The latter, conducted by Mr. Hunt, was to proceed up the Missouri and across the Rocky Mountains, by the route of Lewis and Clark, to the same point; exploring a line of communication across the continent, and noting the places where interior trading posts might be established.

A fine ship was provided, called the Tonquin, of two hundred and ninety tons burden, mounting ten guns, with a crew of twenty men. She carried an assortment of merchandise for trading with the natives of the seaboard and of the interior, together with the frame of a schooner to be employed in the coasting trade. Seeds also were provided for the cultivation of the soil, and nothing was neglected for the necessary supply of the establishment. The command of ^he ship was intrusted to Jonathan Thorn, of New York, a lieutenant in the United States Navy on leave of absence, a man of courage and firmness, who had distinguished himself in our Tripolitan war.

Beside four partners, M'Kay, M'Dougal, David Stuart, and his nephew, Robert Stuart, there were twelve clerks to go out in the ship, several of them natives of Canada, who had some experience in the Indian trade. Several artisans were likewise to sail in the ship, for the supply of the colony ; but the most peculiar and characteristic part of this motley embarkation consisted of thirteen voyageurs, who were to be employed in long internal expeditions of travel and trafl5c.

The voyageurs were determined to regale and astonish the people of the " States" with the sight of a Canadian boat and a Canadian crew. They accordingly fitted up a large but light bark canoe, such as is used in the fur trade; transported it in a waggon from the banks of the St. Lawrence to the shores of Lake Champlain ; traversed the lake in it, from end to end ; hoisted it again in a waggon and wheeled it ofi" to Lausingburg, and there launched it upon the waters

The American Fur Company 13

of the Hudson. Down this river they plied their course merrily on a fine summer's day, making its banks resound for the first time with their old French boat songs; passing by the villages with whoop and halloo, so as to make the honest Dutch farmers mistake them for a crew of savages. In this way they swept, in full song and with regular flourish of the paddle, round New York, in a still summer evening, to the wonder and admiration of its inhabitants, who had never before witnessed on their waters a nautical apparition of the kind.

While yet in port and on dry land, in the bustle of preparation and the excitement of novelty, all was sunshine and promise. The Canadians, especially, were buoyant and boastful, and great braggarts as to the future ; while all those who had been in the service of the Northwest Company, and engaged in the Indian trade, plumed themselves upon their hardihood and their capacity to endure privations. They were " Northwesters"; men seasoned to hardships, who cared for neither wind nor weather. They could live hard, lie hard, sleep hard, eat dogs! — in a word, they were ready to do and suffer anything for the good of the enterprise.

Meanwhile it was a time of doubt and anxiety, when the relations between the United States and Great Britain were daily assuming a more precarious aspect and verging towards that war which shortly ensued. To guard against any interruption to the voyage by the armed brig, said to be off the harbour, Commodore Rodgers, commanding at New York, sent directions to Captain Hull, at that time cruising off the harbour in the frigate Co7istitution, to afford the Tonqtmi safe convoy off the coast.

Before the day of embarkation, Mr. Astor addressed a letter of instruction to the four partners who were to sail in the ship. In this he gave them especial caution as to their conduct on arriving at their destined port; exhorting them to be careful to make a favourable impression upon the wild people among whom their lot and the fortunes of the enterprise would be cast. "If you find them kind," said he, " as I hope you will, be so to them. If otherwise, act with caution and forbearance, and convince them that you come as friends."

To Captain Thorn he wrote : " To prevent any misunderstanding will require your particular good management. I must recommend you to be particularly careful on the coast, and not to rely too much on the friendly disposition of the natives. All accidents which have as yet happened there have arisen from too much confidence in the Indians."

Chapter III Outward Bound

ON the 8th of Septemper, 1810, the Tonquin put to sea, where she was soon joined by the frigate Constitutio7i. The wind was fresh and fair from the south-west, and the ship was soon out of sight of land and free from the apprehended danger of interruption. The frigate, therefore, gave her ' ' Godspeed, ' ' and left her to her course.

The harmony so earnestly enjoined by Mr. Astor on this heterogeneous crew, and which had been so confidently promised in the buoyant moments of preparation, was doomed to meet with a check at the very outset. Captain Thorn, an honest but somewhat dictatorial commander, was disposed to be absolute lord and master on board of his ship. The partners, on the other hand, had been brought up in the service of the Northwest Company, and in a profound idea of the importance, dignity, and authority of partners, whom they had been accustomed to look up to as the great ones of the earth ; and they were a little disposed, perhaps, to wear their suddenly acquired honours with some air of pretension.

On the very first night Captain Thorn began his man-of-war discipline by ordering the lights in the cabin to be extinguished at eight o'clock. The pride of the partners was immediately in arms. They were on board of their own ship, and entitled to consult their ease and enjoyment. A violent altercation ensued, in the course of which Thorn threatened to put the partners in irons should they prove refractory; and it was some time before the irritated parties could be pacified by the more temperate bystanders.

Such was the Captain's outset with the partners. Nor did the clerks stand much higher in his good graces; indeed, he seems to have regarded all the landsmen on board his ship as a kind of live lumber, continually in the way. The poor voyageurs, too, those fresh -water sailors, so vainglorious on shore, and almost amphibious when on lakes and rivers, lost all heart and stomach the moment they were at sea. For days they suffered the doleful rigours and retchings of seasickness, lurking below in their berths in squalid state, or emerging now and then like spectres from the hatchways, in capotes and blankets, with dirty nightcaps, grizzly beard, lantern visage, and unhappy eye, shivering about the deck, and ever and anon crawling to the sides of the vessel, and offering up their tributes to the windward, to the infinite annoyance of the captain.

Nor did his disgust and vexation cease when all hands had recovered from seasickness and become accustomed to the ship, for now broke out an alarming keenness of appetite that threatened havoc to the provisions. The partners were loud in their complaints of the ship's fare, though their table was served with fresh pork, hams, tongues, smoked beef, and puddings. " When thwarted in their cravings for delicacies," said

he, "they would exclaim it wasd d hard they could

not live as they pleased upon their own property, being on board of their own ship, freighted with their

Outward Bound 17

own merchandise. And these, ' ' added he, ' ' are the fine fellows who made such boast that they could ' eat dogs.' "

On the 4th of December they came in sight of the Falkland Islands. Having been for some time on an allowance of water, they resolved to anchor here and obtain a supply. Mr. M'Dougal and Mr. M'Kay took this occasion to go on shore, but with a request from the Captain that they would not detain the ship. They pitched a tent on shore, had a boat at their command, and passed their time merrily in rambling about the island, and coasting along the shores, shooting sealions, seals, foxes, geese, ducks, and penguins.

On the morning of the nth, the repairs being all finished, and the water casks replenished, the signal was given to embark, and the ship began to weigh anchor. At this time several of the passengers were dispersed about the island, amusing themselves in various ways. The two sporting partners, however, had strolled away to the south of the island in pursuit of penguins. It would never do to put off without them, as there was but one boat to convey the whole.

While this delay took place on shore, the Captain was storming on board. His orders had been treated with contempt, and the ship was being wantonly detained; so he spread all sail and put to sea, swearing he would leave the laggards to shift for themselves. " Had the wind," wrote he to Mr. Astor, " (unfortunately) not hauled ahead soon after leaving the harbour's mouth, I should positively have left them; and, indeed, I cannot but think it an unfortunate circumstance for you that it so happened, for the first loss in this instance would, in my opinion, have proved the best, as they seem to have no idea of the value of property, nor any apparent regard for your interest, although interwoven with their own."

Besides these feuds between the Captain and the partners, there were feuds between the partners themselves, occasioned, in some measure, by jealousy of rank. They began to draw plans for the fort and other buildings of the intended establishment. They agreed very well as to the outline and dimensions, which were on a sufficiently grand scale; but when they came to arrange the details, fierce disputes arose, and they would quarrel by the hour about the distribution of the doors and windows.

While all this petty anarchy was agitating the little world within the To7iquin, the good ship prosperously pursued her course, doubled Cape Horn on the 25th of December, careered across the bosom of the Pacific, until, on the nth of February, the snowy peaks of Hawaii were seen brightening above the horizon.

On the morning after her arrival, the ship was surrounded by canoes and pirogues, filled with the islanders, bringing ofif supplies of fruits and vegetables, bananas, plantains, watermelons, yams, cabbages, and taro. The Captain was desirous, however, of purchasing a number of hogs; but there were none to be had. The trade in pork was a royal monopoly, and no subject of the great Tamaahmaah dared to meddle with it. Such provisions as they could furnish, however, were brought by the natives in abundance, and a lively intercourse was kept up during the day.

Captain Thorn, being disappointed in his hope of obtaining a supply of pork, or finding good water, was anxious to be off. As soon, then, as he could get his inquisitive partners once more on board, he weighed

Outward Bound 19

anchor, and made sail for the island of Oahu, the royal residence of Tamaahmaah.

While at anchor there, much ceremonious visiting and long conferences took place between the potentate of the islands and the partners of the company. Tamaahmaah came on board of the ship in royal style, in his double pirogue. The American flag was displayed, four guns were fired, and the partners appeared in scarlet coats, and conducted their illustrious guests to the cabin, where they were regaled with wine. In this interview the partners endeavoured to impress the monarch with a sense of their importance, and of the importance of the association to which they belonged.

On the day subsequent to the monarch's visit, the partners landed and waited upon him in return. Knowing the effect of show and dress upon men in savage life, and wishing to make a favourable impression as the chiefs of the great American Fur Company, some of them appeared in Highland plaids and kilts, to the great admiration of the natives.

While visits of ceremony and grand diplomatic conferences were going on between the partners and the King, the Captain was pushing what he considered a far more important negotiation, — the purchase of a supply of hogs. He found that the King was a magnanimous monarch, but a shrewd pork merchant. Several interviews were requisite, and much bargaining, before he could be brought to part with a bristle of his bacon, and then he insisted upon being paid in hard Spanish dollars ; giving as a reason that he wanted money to purchase a frigate from his brother George, as he affectionately termed the King of England.