ouy, T. R. Peale, and William Rich, naturalists; Joseph Drayton and Alford S. Agate, artists; J. D. Brackenridge, assistant botanist; John G. Brown, mathematical instrument maker; John W. W. Dyes, assistant taxidermist; James D. Dana, mineralogist; Horatio Hale, philologist; F. L. Davenport, interpreter.25

On April 5, 1841, they arrived at the Columbia, but owing to the roughness of the waters at the bar they did not enter. They pushed northward to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and came to anchor at Port Discovery on May 2. For some time they examined Puget Sound, its islands and shores. Some of the party then went overland from Fort Nisqually via the Cowlitz Farms to Fort Vancouver. Groups were dispatched from there to Astoria, the lower Columbia, the Willamette, and Walla Walla. One group was dispatched from Fort Nisqually eastward across the Cascades via Nachez Pass to the Yakima and Okanogan regions. They crossed the Columbia, followed the Grande Coulee, crossed the Spokane at its confluence with the Columbia and soon arrived at Fort Colville. From there they journeyed through the Spokane country to Fort Lapwai, near Lewiston, Idaho, and thence westward again via Yakima to Fort Nisqually.

9. New Interest of the United States in the Fur Trade

Following the report of the Lewis and Clark expedition, widespread interest in the northwest fur trade developed. Jefferson had thought that if a feasible route of travel could be discovered by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers that furs from the Northwest could be transported east to the fur markets in the United States and thence to China, the great bonanza of the fur trade. Captain Lewis, however, emphasized the importance of transporting furs from the Mississippi, Missouri, and the Rocky Mountain region westward to an ocean port at the mouth of the Columbia and thence to China, bringing back in return the treasured goods from the Orient.20

Activity of the Hudson's Bay Company (British).—The Northwest Company (British) stimulated by the transmontane trip of Mackenzie in 1793 began soon to consider the planting of trading posts in the unexplored region, known to be rich in fur-bearing animals. Mackenzie planned as early as 1805 to merge the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. This was not accomplished until 1821, under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company.

# Bancroft, op. cit., vol. II, p. 669.

26 Schafer, Joseph. History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 63.

John Jacob Astor.-In 1811 John Jacob Astor organized the Amer ican Fur Company and established a fur-trading post at the present site of Astoria, Oreg. He planned to locate a line of trading posts from that ocean base to the east of the Rockies along the Lewis and Clark trail. The business was sold to the Northwest Company (British) October 16, 1813, the American flag hauled down, and the post renamed Fort George.

The Northwest Company became very active both to monopolize the rich trade and to extend the sovereignty rights of Great Britain. This was especially marked immediately following the War of 1812. In 1811 they established Fort Okanogan and Fort Walla Walla in 1818. In 1825 Fort Vancouver on the Columbia was built by Dr. John McLoughlin. This became the most important post in the whole Oregon country. It not only was pivotal as a base of trade and settle ment for the regions from the mouth of the Columbia to its source, but it also was at the mouth of the Willamette flowing 200 miles through the most accessible, beautiful, fertile, well-timbered valley in the Northwest. It is navigable for a long distance. The Cowlitz River from the north joining the Columbia about 40 miles to the north of the Willamette was also the easy and natural roadway across to Fort Nisqually at the southern point of Puget Sound.

John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver.-Schafer wrote:

Vancouver was the clearing house for all the business west of the Rocky Mountains. Here the annual ships from London landed supplies and merchandise, which were placed in warehouses to await the departure of the boat brigades for the interior; here was the great fur house, where the peltries were brought together from scores of smaller forts and trading camps, scattered through a wilderness empire of half a million square miles. They came from St. James (B.C.), Langley (Frazer River, B.C.), and Kamloops (B.C.) in the far northwest; from Umpqua (Oregon) in the south; from Walla Walla, Colville, Spokane, Okanogan, and many other places in the upper portions of the great valley. Hundreds of trappers followed the water courses through the gloomy forests and into the most dangerous fastnesses of the mountains in order to glean the annual beaver crop for delivery to these substations.27

Although the sole purpose of the Hudson's Bay Company in estab lishing Fort Vancouver, as all of its other northwest forts, was to develop the fur trade, Dr. McLoughlin foresaw the desirability of developing other enterprises also. He immediately began to cultivate some of the open prairie soil at Fort Vancouver, planting potatoes and other vegetables, wheat and other grains. He also initiated apple raising. He encouraged the settlers in the Willamette River Valley to raise cattle and grains. He did likewise for settlers to the north on Cowlitz

* Schafer, Joseph. A History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 65757°-353

81.

Prairie. He built a sawmill at Mill Creek, 5 miles from Vancouver and also one at Oregon City. At his direction the first school in the Oregon country was established a century ago-1832. This school will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

Bancroft says:

After McLoughlin's wise improvements, instead of the heavy expenses attending the shipment of provisions from England round Cape Horn, laborers were brought from the Hawaiian Islands, from Great Britain, and from Canada, the axe and plough were put to work, corn and cattle were cultivated, and soon enough was produced not only to increase the comforts of the British fur traders, but to supply the Russian posts also. Soon a flour mill propelled by oxen was set up behind the fort, and later grist and saw mills were erected and put in operation 5 miles above. In 1835, 12 saws were running and producing 3,500 feet of inch boards every 24 hours. There was likewise raised this year 5,000 bushels of wheat, 1,300 bushels of corn, 1,000 bushels each of barley and oats, and 2,000 bushels of peas, besides a large variety of garden vegetables. There were also in 1835 at this post 450 neat cattle, 100 horses, 200 sheep, 40 goats, and 300 hogs.28

Bancroft also says that at that time more than 700 acres were under cultivation, including apple and peach orchards. Considerable shipments of lumber, spars, fish, and flour were sent from there to California, Boston, the Hawaiian Islands, and China. In return they received sheep from California and Australia, hogs from the Hawaiian Islands and China, and cattle from the Russian settlement at Fort Ross.

10. Widened American Interest in the Northwest

Following the report of the Lewis and Clark expedition a new interest was awakened in the United States regarding the mysterious Northwest. Glowing accounts of its riches and comparative ease of access began to be published in local newspapers. Desire to share in the wealth, especially in its fur trade, became keen. The zest for adventure and the possible opportunity to have a part in settling the vexing boundary question also contributed to the interest. In the Ohio Valley, the "Old Northwest" pioneer conditions were rapidly dis appearing and the wanderlust impelled many of its pioneers to cut loose again and trek westward in search of new and more rugged adventures.

In addition to the companies formed by the Winships, Wyeth, and Astor on the seaboard various companies were formed in the Missis sippi Valley. The Missouri Fur Company, founded in 1808, was the forerunner of many companies which soon made St. Louis the great fur-trading center. In 1822 a company was organized at St. Louis by Gen. William H. Ashley who planned a line of forts to stretch the

"Bancroft, op. cit., vol. II, p. 442.

whole length of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. While this scheme did not materialize because of trouble with the Blackfeet, he did send out bands of trappers through that entire region. Some of these under David Jackson and William Sublette crossed the Rockies and came into competition with traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. Ashley later transferred the entire business to Jedediah S. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette. Smith went overland to California and north to Vancouver, the first to accomplish this. He visited Dr. McLoughlin at Vancouver in 1828. He then pushed eastward in 1829. He stopped at Fort Walla Walla and Fort Spokane and then journeyed eastward following through Idaho. In 1830 he took the first loaded wagon westward across the Rockies. In 1832 Captain Bonneville, backed by New York capital, organized a fur-trading company, leaving from Fort Osage on the Missouri River, with 110 men and 20 wagons. They crossed the Rockies at South Pass, journeyed to Salt Lake and then along the Snake River Valley as far as Fort Walla Walla.

Nathaniel Wyeth.-For several years, beginning about 1815, Hall J. Kelley, a Boston schoolmaster, created considerable interest in the Oregon country through articles and pamphlets which he published. He tried unsuccessfully to organize a colonizing expedition. He made the journey westward through California and then northward to Fort Vancouver where he was cared for by Dr. McLoughlin. His writings caught the imagination of Nathaniel Wyeth, of Boston, who enlisted the cooperation of a company of Boston merchants in the enterprise. They fitted out a vessel loaded with goods which sailed for the Columbia River in 1831. Wyeth with 20 men started on the overland journey on March 11, 1832. The trip was not very successful. Some of the men turned back and Wyeth and 11 men joined William L. Sublette of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. They reached Fort Vancouver, October 24, 1832, only to find that the ship had not arrived. It had been wrecked at the Society Islands.

The first school in the Northwest at Vancouver. One of his party, John Ball, volunteered to start a school to teach the children at the fort. The school was opened late in 1832.29 This school for British children, taught by a Yankee schoolmaster, was the first in Washington and in the Oregon Territory. It is more fully discussed in a later chapter.

Wyeth returned to Boston, reported glowing possibilities of the salmon industry, induced the Boston partners to fit out another ship, the May Dacre, which sailed in the fall of 1833. He organized the

* Bibb, Thomas W. History of Early Common-School Education in Washington, p.38.

Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company. He again went overland to meet the ship. His company of 50 men left Independence, Mo., on April 28, 1834. They followed the North Platte, Sweetwater, Fort Laramie, South Pass, Snake River, Columbia route, following essentially what has become known as the Old Oregon Trail. On the banks of one of the tributaries of the Snake River, near the present site of Pocatello, he founded Fort Hall. This fort was at the gateway to practically all of the overland routes to the northwest country. On August 5, 1834, the Stars and Stripes were unfurled.30 This had great significance for the later settlement of the boundary question. Wyeth and his party reached Fort Vancouver on September 6, 1834. The ship May Dacre arrived soon after. He crossed the Columbia to Wapato, now Sauve Island, and built Fort William. Wyeth's trading ventures in Oregon and Fort Hall did not pan out well and in 1836 he returned to Boston. A little later he sold out all the northwest interests to the Hudson's Bay Company.

11. National Struggles for Supremacy

Bancroft says that it was impossible for anyone to succeed in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company opposing. Dr. McLoughlin treated Wyeth and others with great consideration but at the same time gave them as rivals absolutely no chance. He says:

McLoughlin with all his goodness was a shrewd enough diplomatist; let alone a Hudson's Bay Company Scotchman for that. The Wyeth movement he saw was an important one; more important if anything, although of less magnitude, than Astor's. The time was at hand for an open declaration of rights. The agricultural occupation of Oregon was ordained. The adventurers of England could not arrest it, and their director at Fort Vancouver knew that they could not. To meet it, therefore, in a spirit of fairness and liberality was clearly the wisest policy. And yet the keen old kind-hearted man was determined that not one iota of the company's trade should be sacrificed or relinquished sooner than necessary. In a word, McLoughlin determined that Wyeth's adventure should not succeed, though he would be kind to Wyeth, and employ none but legitimate and honorable means in defeating him. From the very first, McLoughlin was satisfied that the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company would prove a failure; nay, he was determined it should be so. Besides dis couraging the natives of the lower Columbia from trading at Fort William or assisting in catching salmon for the Americans, immediately after the erection of Fort Hall the Hudson's Bay Company planted a rival establishment in that vicinity. They did not build immediately contiguous as was often the case elsewhere, but placed Fort Boise, as they called the post, on the east bank of the Snake River, midway between Boise and Payette Rivers, thinking that by taking a position somewhat to the westward of the American post, they might the better cut off and oppose the Pacific trade."

80 Meany, op. cit., p. 69.

#1 Bancroft, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 566, 595.