USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 29
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 29
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258
WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND.
[1796.
to declare war against her former ally, Great Britain. In the mani- festo published by the court of Madrid, on the latter occasion, " the frequent arrival of English vessels on the coasts of Peru and Chili, to carry on contraband trade, and to reconnoitre those coasts, under the pretext of the whale fishery, which privilege they claimed under the Nootka convention," is alleged among the causes of the rupture. The British government, in its answer, denied " that the whale fishery by the English, in these parts, was, as asserted, claimed in the convention of Nootka, as then for the first time established," insisting that the right was, in that convention, " solemnly recognized by the court of Madrid, as having always belonged to Great Britain, and the full and undisturbed exercise of which was guarantied to his majesty's subjects, in terms so express, and in a transaction so recent, that ignorance of it cannot be pretended." That Great Britain did always possess the right to fish in the Pacific and South- ern Oceans, agreeably to the principles of common justice, is un- questionable ; but that this right was acknowledged by Spain in the Nootka convention, or in any other treaty between those powers previous to 1796, is by no means exact. In the Nootka conven- tion, all assertions and recognitions of rights are, on the contrary, avoided ; the whole instrument being, in fact, a series of conces- sions, limitations, and restrictions, resting entirely on the consent of both parties, and expiring on the withdrawal of its consent by either. On this declaration of war by Spain against Britain, the Nootka convention, with all its stipulations, of whatsoever nature they might have been, expired, agreeably to the rule universally observed and enforced among civilized nations, that all treaties are ended by war between the parties. From that moment, Spain might, as before the convention, claim the exclusive navigation of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of all their American coasts ; and Great Britain might again assert the right of her subjects to sail and fish in every open sea, and to settle on every unoccupied coast .*
From the preceding view of the circumstances connected with the convention of October, 1790, and the occupation of Nootka Sound by the Spaniards, we are authorized to conclude, -
That no part of " the north-west coasts of the continent of North America, or of the adjacent islands," had ever been owned or occu- pied by British subjects, anterior to the establishment of the Spanish post at Nootka Sound, in May, 1789: Consequently, -
* Further considerations on this subject will be found in the fifteenth chapter of this History.
259
WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND.
1796.]
That no " buildings or tracts of land," on those coasts or islands, were " to be restored to British subjects," agreeably to the first and second articles of the convention of October, 1790: And, as a further consequence, -
That the abandonment of Nootka Sound by the Spaniards in 1795, under whatsoever circumstances it may have been effected, gave to Great Britain no other rights at that place, than those which she enjoyed in common with Spain, in every other part of the coasts and islands north of Port San Francisco, by virtue of the third and fifth articles of the same convention.
260
CHAPTER XII.
1788 то 1810.
Establishment of the North-West Fur Trading Company of Montreal, in 1783 - Expeditions of Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea and to the Pacific Coast - The Trade between the North Pacific Coasts of America and Canton conducted almost ex- clusively by Vessels of the United States from 1796 to 1814 - Establishment of the Russian American Company - Its Settlements and Factories on the American Coasts - Expedition of Krusenstern through the North Pacific - Proposition of the Russian Government to that of the United States, with Regard to the Trade of the North Pacific.
WHILST the navigators of various nations were thus completing the survey of the shores of North-West America, important infor- mation respecting the interior regions of that section of the conti- nent was obtained by the agents of an association formed at Montreal, in 1784, for the prosecution of the fur trade in the Indian territories, which were supposed to be beyond the jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Before Canada came into the possession of Great Britain, a large, if not the greater, portion of the furs sent from America by the subjects of that power was shipped from New York. After that period, Montreal became the principal seat of the trade; and dis- putes immediately arose between the Hudson's Bay Company, which claimed the whole division of America drained by streams falling into that sea, and the Canadians, who pursued their trade in the southern and western parts of that territory. These disputes, with which the British government did not, from policy, choose to inter- fere, were injurious to the interests of both parties ; and, the Indian countries north of Lake Superior having been, about the same time, almost depopulated by the smallpox, the trade was confined, for some years, to the environs of Hudson's Bay, the lower lakes, and the St. Lawrence, where the animals were less numerous, and their furs inferior in quality.
At length, about the year 1775, some enterprising merchants of Montreal penetrated into the countries, far north-west of Lake Superior, drained by the Saskatchawine and Athabasca Rivers,
261
NORTH-WEST COMPANY FORMED.
1784.]
which had long before been frequented by the French; and their success in trade was such as to induce others to make similar ex- peditions. The Canadians were, however, exposed, on their way, to great difficulties and annoyances from the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, with which they were unable separately to contend ; and they, in consequence, in the year 1784, united their interests, and assumed for their association the title of the North-West Company of Montreal. Other associations were afterwards formed, under different names ; but they were soon either dissolved or united with the North-West Company.
The organization of this new company was such, as to insure the utmost regularity and devotion to the interests of the concern, among all who were engaged in its service. The number of the shares was at first sixteen ; it was afterwards increased to twenty, and then to forty : a certain proportion of them was held by the agents, residing in Montreal, who furnished the capital ; the remain- der being distributed among the proprietors, or partners, who super- intended the business in the forts or posts in the interior, and the clerks, who traded directly with the Indians. The clerks were young men, for the most part natives of Scotland, who entered the service of the company for five or seven years ; and, at the end of that time, or even earlier, if they conducted themselves well, they were admitted as proprietors. The inferior servants of the com- pany were guides, interpreters, and voyageurs, the latter being employed as porters on land, and as boatmen on the water, all of whom were bound to the interests of the body by hopes of advance- ment in station or in pay, and of pensions in their old age.
The agents imported from England the goods required for the trade, had them packed into bundles of about ninety pounds weight each, and despatched them to the different posts ; and they received the furs in packs of the same size, and conducted the shipment and sale of them. The furs, as also the articles for the trade and use of the persons employed, were transported through the continent principally in canoes, for which the Ottowa River, Lakes Huron and Superior, and the other innumerable lakes, and the streams connecting them farther north-west, offered great fa- cilities ; the portage between the navigable waters on the lines of the route being effected by the voyageurs, who carried the bundles, and sometimes, also, the canoes, across the intervening tracts of land. In this manner the goods and furs passed one, two, and even three, thousand miles between the agent at Montreal and the pro-
262
EXPEDITION TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
[1788.
prietor at the trading-post ; and nearly four years elapsed between the period of ordering the goods in Canada, and that at which the furs could be sold in London.
Before the formation of the North-West Company, the farther- most trading establishment of British subjects was one on the Athabasca or Elk River, about twelve hundred miles north-west of Lake Superior, which had been founded by Messrs. Frobisher and Pond, in 1778 ; and this continued to be the principal post in that part of the continent for ten years, when it was abandoned, and another, called Fort Chipewyan, was established on the south-west side of the Athabasca Lake, or Lake of the Hills, into which the Elk River discharges its waters. In the mean time, several large parties had been sent, for the purposes of trade and discovery, from Canada towards the west, one of which, consisting of about a hundred men, penetrated to the foot of the great dividing chain then called the Shining Mountains, or Mountains of Bright Stones, and now commonly known as the Rocky Mountains ; * but they were
* Of this expedition an account appeared in a letter written at Pittsburg, in 1791, by an officer of General St. Clair's army, and published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1794. The writer, whose name is not given, received his information from a Mr. M-, who had, as he said, commanded the party in question. The following extracts will show the principal circumstances connected with the expedition, and among them will be found nothing which should induce us to doubt the truth of the account: -
" Mr. M. stated that he had, about five years ago, departed from Montreal, with a company of about one hundred men, for the purpose of making a tour through the Indian countries, to collect furs, and to make remarks, &c. He pursued his route from Montreal, and entered the Indian country, and coasted about three hundred leagues along the banks of Lake Superior, whence he made his way to the Lake of the Woods, of which he took an accurate survey, and found it to be thirty-six leagues in length, and thence to Lake Ounipique, [Winnipeg,] of which he also gives a description. The tribes of Indians through which he passed were called the Mus- kego, Shipewyan, Cithnistinee, Great-belly, Beaver, Blood, Black-feet, Snake, Ossnobian, Shiveyton, Mandon, Paunee, and several others, &c. In pursuing his route, he found no difficulty in obtaining a guide to accompany him from one nation to another, until he reached the foot of the Shining Mountains, or Mountains of Bright Stones, where, in attempting to pass, he was frustrated by the hostile appearance of the Indians who inhabit that part of the country ; the consequence of which was, that he was disappointed in his intention, and obliged to turn his back upon them. Having collected a number of Indians, he went forward again, with an intention to force his way over these mountains, if necessary and practicable, and to reach Cook's River, on the north-west coast of America, supposed by him to be about three hundred leagues from the mountains ; but the inhabitants of the mountains again met him with their bows and arrows, and so superior were they in numbers to his little forces, that he was obliged to flee before them. Cold weather coming on, he built huts for himself and party in the Ossnobian [Assinaboin] country, and near to the source of a large river called the Ossnobian River, where they tarried during the cold season, and until some time in the warm months."
263
MACKENZIE REACHES THE ARCTIC SEA.
1789.]
unable to proceed farther, in consequence of the hostile dispositions of the natives.
Between 1788 and 1794, two other expeditions were made from Fort Chipewyan by Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, the superintending proprietor at that place, of which a particular account should be here given, as the geographical information obtained in them was highly interesting, and led to important commercial and political results .*
The Athabasca Lake is a basin about two hundred miles in length from east to west, and about thirteen in average breadth, sit- uated under the 59th parallel of latitude, midway between the Pacific Ocean and Hudson's Bay. It is supplied by several streams, of which the principal are the Athabasca or Elk River, flowing from the south, and the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Rocky Moun- tains, on the west ; and its waters are discharged through the Slave River, running about two hundred miles north, into the Great Slave Lake, discovered by Hearne in 1771. All these rivers join the Athabasca Lake at its south-west end, near which Fort Chipewyan was then situated.
Mackenzie's first expedition was made in 1789, and its principal object was to ascertain the course of the waters from the Great Slave Lake to the sea, which Hearne had left undetermined. For this purpose, he left Fort Chipewyan, with his party, in bark canoes, on the 3d of June, 1789, and, passing down the Slave River into the Great Slave Lake, he discovered a large stream flowing out of the latter basin, at its north-west extremity, to which he gave the name of Mackenzie River ; and this stream he descended about nine hundred miles, in a north-west direction, along the base of a chain of mountains, to its termination in the sea. On his return, he examined the country east of his great river, which had been traversed by Hearne, and arrived at Fort Chipewyan on the 12th of September, after an absence of nearly three months.
The mouth of the Mackenzie was supposed by its discoverer to be situated near the 69th degree of latitude, and about 25 degrees of longitude, or five hundred miles, west of the mouth of Hearne's Coppermine River, which is not far from its t.de position .; Still
* Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and the Pacific Oceans, in 1789 and 1793, with a pre- liminary Account of the Fur Trade of that Country; by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. London, 1801.
t Its principal mouth is in latitude 69º, longitude 136° west from Greenwich.
264
MACKENZIE'S JOURNEY TO THE PACIFIC. [1792.
farther west must, of course, be situated any passage or sea con- necting the Pacific with the part of the ocean into which both those rivers were supposed to empty; and the existence of any such passage east of Bering's Strait became, in consequence, much less probable.
In his second expedition, Mackenzie quitted Fort Chipewyan on the 10th of October, 1792, and ascended the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Athabasca Lake, with much difficulty, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where he spent the winter in camp. In June of the following year, he resumed his voyage up the same stream, which he traced, in a south-west direction, through the mountains, to its springs, near the 54th degree of latitude, distant more than nine hundred miles from its mouth. Within half a mile of one of these springs, he embarked on another stream, called by the natives Tacoutchee-Tessee, down which he floated in canoes about two hundred and fifty miles ; then, leaving the river, he proceeded westward about two hundred miles over land, and, on the 22d of July, 1793, he reached the Pacific Ocean, at the mouth of an inlet, in the latitude of 52 degrees 20 minutes, which had, a few weeks previous, been surveyed by Vancouver, and been named the Cascade Canal. Having thus accomplished a passage across the American continent at its widest part, he retraced his steps to Fort Chipewyan, where he arrived on the 24th of August.
By this expedition, Mackenzie ascertained beyond all doubt the fact of the extension of the American continent, on the Pacific Ocean, undivided by any water passage, as far north as the latitude of 52 degrees 20 minutes ; which fact was, about the same time, rendered nearly, though not absolutely, certain by the examinations of Vancouver. The River Tacoutchee-Tessee was supposed to be the upper part of the Columbia, until 1812, when it was traced to its mouth, in the Strait of Fuca, near the 49th degree of latitude ; and since that time it has been called Fraser's River.
The discoveries of Mackenzie, taken in conjunction with the re- sults of Vancouver's surveys, strengthened the conclusion, at which Cook had arrived, that the American continent extended uninter- ruptedly north-westward to Bering's Strait; and Mackenzie him- self conceived, though certainly without sufficient grounds, that he had clearly determined in the negative the long-agitated question as to the practicability of a voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, around the northern shores of America. For the advancement of British interests in the North Pacific, he recommended that the
265
JOURNEYS OF FIDLER AND TRUDEAU.
1792.]
Hudson's Bay and the North-West Companies, which had been opposed to each other ever since the formation of the latter, should be united ; that the British government should favor the establish- ment of commercial communications across North America, for which the rivers and lakes in the portion claimed by him for that power afforded unrivalled facilities ; and that the East India Com- pany should throw open to their fellow-subjects the direct trade between the north-west coasts of America and China, which was then, he says, " left to the adventurers of the United States, acting without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future confidence, and looking only to the interest of the moment." These recommendations were not thrown away, but were nearly all adopted by those to whom they were addressed ; and the result has been, the extension of British commerce and dominion throughout the whole northern section of America.
Whilst Mackenzie was engaged in his journey to the Pacific coast, Mr. Fidler, a clerk in the service of the North-West Company, made an expedition from Fort Buckingham, a trading-post on the Saskatchawine River, south-westward, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains,* along which he seems to have travelled, through the regions drained by the head-waters of the Missouri. About the same time, several trading voyages were made up the Missouri by the French and Spaniards of St. Louis ; particularly by the mem- bers of a company formed at that place by a Scotchman named Todd, under the special protection of the Spanish government, the object of which was to monopolize the whole trade of the interior and western portions of the continent.t
The trade of the citizens of the United States with the Indians in the central portion of the continent was much restricted, for many years after the establishment of the independence of the republic, in consequence of the possession of Louisiana by the Spaniards, and the retention by the British of several important posts south of the great lakes, within the territory acknowledged as
" On Arrowsmith's "Map of all the new Discoveries in North America," published at London in 1795, several streams are represented, on the authority of Mr. Fidler, as flowing from the Rocky Mountains on both sides ; but none corresponding with them in course or position have been since found.
t The journal of one of these voyages, made by M. Trudeau, in 1794, has been preserved in the archives of the Department of State at Washington ; it is, however, devoted chiefly to the numbers, manners, customs, religion, &c., of the natives on the banks of the Missouri, particularly of the Arickaras, inhabiting the country under the 46th parallel of latitude.
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266
AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796-1814.
belonging to the Union, by the treaty of 1783. At length, by the treaty of November 19, 1794, between Great Britain and the United States, it was agreed that these posts should be given up to the Americans, and that the people of both nations, and the Indians " dwelling on either side of the boundary line, should have liberty freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation, into the respective territories of the two parties, on the continent of America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson's Bay only excepted,) and to navigate all the lakes, rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on trade with each other." The surrender of these posts, especially of Detroit and Michilimackinac, was very inconvenient to the North-West Company, whilst the trade of the Americans with the central regions was thereby increased; and large quantities of furs were annually transported to the Atlantic cities, principally to New York, from which place they were dis- tributed throughout the United States, or shipped for London or Canton.
On the North Pacific, the direct trade between the American coasts and China remained, from 1796 to 1814, almost entirely, as Mackenzie said, in the hands of the citizens of the United States : the British merchants were restrained from engaging in it by the opposition of their East India Company ; the Russians were not admitted into Chinese ports; and few ships of any other nation were seen in that part of the ocean. That these American " adventurers acted without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future confidence, and looking only to the interest of the moment," was also, to a certain extent, true ; though the facts can scarcely be considered discreditable to them, as Mackenzie insinu- atcd, even supposing their operations to have been conducted in the manner represented by a British writer, whose hostility to the United States and their citizens was even more violent than that of Vancouver.
"These adventurers," says the writer above mentioned,* "set out on the voyage with a few trinkets of very little valuc. In the Southern Pacific, they pick up some seal-skins, and perhaps a few butts of oil; at the Gallipagos, they lay in turtle, of which they
* Review of "A Voyage around the World, from 1806 to 1812, by Archibald Campbell," in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816, written in a spirit of the most deadly hatred towards the United States, and filled with assertions most impudently false.
267
1796-1814.] AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC.
preserve the shells; at Valparaiso, they raise a few dollars in ex- change for European articles ; at Nootka, and other parts of the north-west coasts, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich Islands, to dry and preserve from vermin; here they leave their own people to take care of them, and, in the spring, embark, in lieu, the natives of the islands, to assist in navigating to the north-west coast, in search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and Owyhee, of tortoise shells, sharks' fins, and pearls of an inferior kind, [meaning, probably, mother-of-pearl shells,] all of which are acceptable in the China market; and with these and their dollars they purchase cargoes of tea, silks, and nankins, and thus complete their voyage in the course of two or three years."
This account appears to be, in most respects, correct, with regard to many of the American vessels engaged in the Pacific trade at the period to which it relates ; and it serves only to prove the industry, energy, courage, and skill, of those who embarked in such difficult and perilous enterprises, and conducted them so successfully." It would, however, be easy to show, from custom-house returns and other authentic evidence, that the greater number of the vessels sent from the United States to the north-west coasts were fine ships or brigs, laden with valuable cargoes of West India productions, British manufactured articles, and French, Italian, and Spanish wines and spirits ; and that the owners were men of large capital and high reputation in the commercial world, some of whom were able to compete with the British companies, and even occasionally to control their movements.
The American traders in the Pacific have also been accused, by British writers, of practising every species of fraud and violence in their dealings with the natives of the coasts of that sea: yet the acts cited in support of these general accusations are only such as have been, and ever will be, committed by people of civilized nations, - and by none more frequently than the British, -when unrestrained by laws, in their intercourse with ignorant, brutal, and treacherous savages, always ready to rob or murder upon the slightest prospect of gain, or in revenge for the slightest affront. Seldom did an American ship complete a voyage through the Pacific without the loss of some of her men, by the treachery or the ferocity of the natives of the coasts which she visited; and
268
AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796-1814.
several instances have occurred of the seizure of such vessels, and the massacre of their whole crews, in this manner .*
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