History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 19

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 19

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presence had been to their people, and then, upbraiding them for thefts, told the Indians that he should kill the thief he had captured with pilfered goods. The old chief and his followers besought him to not do this. They were willing that he should be punished severely, and then let go, but the trapper was inexorable, and the poor groveling wretch was dragged to a temporary scaffold, constructed from oars, and was launched into eternity. The other partners of the Pacific Fur Company were unanimous in condemning this act, and Gabriel Franchere, who was one of the company clerks, wrote concerning the killing of the unfortunate John Reed and his party by Indians the ensuing winter : " We had no doubt that his massacre was an act of vengeance, on the part of the natives, in retaliation for the death of one of their people, whom Mr. John Clarke had hanged for theft the spring before." Immediately after this hanging the party embarked for the mouth of the Walla Walla, where Stuart and Mckenzie were waiting, and from this point they all continued their way down the river, arriving at Astoria, June 12, 1813.

Upon re-assembling at headquarters, the return expeditions found that, upon the whole, it had been a successful year's labor, that the peltry brought in, amounting to 157 packs, if sold at market rates in Canton, would pay well for the time spent, and reimburse them for local losses. In addition to this, they had become well established in the fur producing regions, and the outlook was very encouraging except for one thing. War had been raging between Great Britain and the United States for over a year, and they had recently become aware of this fact.

On their arrival at Astoria, J. G. McTavish with nineteen men was found camped near by, awaiting the appearance of a vessel called the Isaac Todd, sent by the North- west Company with stores for them, with letters of marque, and instructions from the British government to destroy everything American found on the Pacific coast. This latter fact was unknown at Astoria at the time, however, but the non-arrival of supplies by sea, combined with the unfavorable news of British success in arms, led the partners to fear that none whatever would reach them. They, consequently, determined to abandon the country, and start on their return overland the ensuing year, if their mis- givings proved well founded. They sold their Spokane fort to McTavish for $848, and then furnished that gentleman with provisions to enable him to return to the upper country ; and, in July, they visited the interior themselves to gather what furs they could before taking final leave of the country.

Three months later, McTavish returned to Astoria with a force of seventy-five men for the purpose of meeting the vessel that had caused his former visit, bringing, also, the news that her coming to the Columbia was for the purpose of capturing Astoria, and to assist the Northwest Company in gaining ascendancy on the coast. He offered to buy the furs of the Astorians, and, on the sixteenth of October, 1813, a transfer of the entire stock, worth at least $100,000, was made for less than $40,000. Two months later, on December 12, the fort was surrendered to the English under command of a naval officer, Captain Black of the Raccoon, when the American flag was lowered to give the British colors place, and the name of Astoria was changed to Fort George. An amusing incident of this transfer is related by John Ross Cox. "The Indians, at the mouth of the Columbia, knew well that Great Britain and America were distinct nations, and that they were then at war, but were ignorant of the arrangement made between

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A. G. Walling, Lith. Portland, Or.

JOHN GRAHAM'S HOMESTEAD, Toledo, Benton County, Oregon.

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Messrs. McDougal and McTavish, the former of whom still continued as nominal chief at the fort. On the arrival of the Raccoon, which they quickly discovered to be one of 'King George's fighting ships,' they repaired, armed, to the fort, and requested an audience of Mr. McDougal. He was somewhat surprised at their numbers and war- like appearance, and demanded the object of such an unusual visit. Concomly, the - principal chief of the Chinooks, (whose daughter McDougal had married,) thereupon addressed him in a long speech, in the course of which he said that King George had . sent a ship full of warriors, and loaded with nothing but big guns, to take the Ameri- cans and make them all slaves, and that, as they (the Americans) were the first white men who settled in their country, and treated the Indians like good relations, they had resolved to defend them from King George's warriors, and were now ready to conceal themselves in the woods close to the wharf, from whence they would be able, with their guns and arrows, to shoot all the men that should attempt to land from the English boats, while the people in the fort could fire at them with their big guns and rifles. This proposition was uttered with an earnestness of manner that admitted no doubt of its sincerity. Two armed boats from the Raccoon were approaching; and, had the people in the fort felt disposed to accede to the wishes of the Indians, every man in them would have been destroyed by an invisible enemy. Mr. McDougal thanked them for their friendly offer, but added, that, notwithstanding the nations were at war, the people in the boats would not injure him or any of his people, and therefore requested them to throw by their war shirts and arms, and receive the strangers as their friends. They at first seemed astonished at this answer ; but, on assuring them, in the most pos- itive manner, that he was under no apprehension, they consented to give up their weapons for a few days. They afterwards declared they were sorry for having complied with Mr. McDougal's wishes ; for when they observed Captain Black, surrounded by his officers and marines, break the bottle of port on the flag-staff, and hoist the British ensign, after changing the name of the fort, they remarked that however he might wish to conceal the fact, the Americans were undoubtedly made slaves."

Seventy-eight days after the surrender of Astoria to the British, Mr. Hunt arrived at that fort in the brig Pedlar, and judge of his astonishment, to learn that McDougal was a partner no longer of the Pacific, but of the Northwest Company; that he held possession not under the American, but under the English flag ; and that all in which Mr. Hunt was interested on this coast had passed, without a struggle, through treachery, into the hands of his country's enemies. Mr. Hunt, finally, secured the papers pertaining to business transactions of the Pacific Fur Company from Mc- Dougal, and then sailed, April 3, 1814, from the shore that had seemed to yield only misfortune and disaster in return for the efforts of himself, and those with whom he was associated. The next day, David Stuart, Mckenzie, John Clarke and eighty-five other members and employes of the Pacific Fur Company started up the Columbia river in their boats on their way across the continent, and while passing Wallula, learned from the widow of Pierre Dorion, of the massacre of John Reed and his eight associates, among the Snake Indians near Fort Henry. 14

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CHAPTER XIV.

JOINT OCCUPATION OF OREGON.

The Russian Settlements-They Establish Themselves at Bodega Bay-Treaty of Ghent -- Restoration to the United States of Astoria, or Fort George -- Treaty of Joint Occupancy in 1818-The Florida Treaty of 1819-Fierce Rivalry between the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies-The War on Red River-Consoli- dation of the Rival Companies-Description of the Hudson's Bay Company.

During the years that had elapsed since the Russian American Trading Com- pany was chartered, that organization had become exceedingly powerful, establishing many posts on the Alaskan coast and carrying on the fur trade in a systematic and successful manner. In 1799 a settlement was made on King George III. archipelago near Mount Edgecumb, near the 56th parallel. This was destroyed by the natives in 1803, and was rebuilt in 1805, and was then called New Archangel of Sitka. This became the capital of Russian America and so remained until Alaska was purchased by the United States. This was the most southerly settlement at that time, but in 1806 preparations were made to occupy the mouth of the Columbia, which was con- sidered by the company to be embraced within the limits of the country over which their monopoly charter from the czar extended. The execution of this project was deferred for a time, and, as we have seen, was in a few years rendered impossible because of prior possession of the Americans and English. In 1812 the governor of the company, whose headquarters were at Sitka, requested and received permission of the Spanish governor of California to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega bay, a few miles north of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for the purpose of preparing meat and supplies for their posts in the north. In a few years this little station had become a fortified settlement, and the governor's request and peremptory order to vacate were treated with contempt ; nor were they ever driven from their post, but abandoned it in 1840 at the request of the United States government. During the years of their occupancy many voyages of trade and exploration were made, some of them at the expense of much suffering and many lives, adding materially to the geographical knowledge of the upper portion of the Pacific and the Arctic ocean above Siberia and about Behring's strait.

The treaty of Ghent, which ended the war of 1812, provided that " all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, shall be restored without delay." It failed, however, because the commissioners could not agree, to define a dividing line between the American territory of Louisiana and the possessions of the British, west of the Lake of the Woods. In pursuance of this treaty, Mr. Astor, who was eager to recover possession of Astoria and resume his trading operations in the Pacific, applied to the president for restitution of his property. The minister of Great

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Britain at Washington was accordingly notified in July, 1815, that the United States would at once reoccupy the captured fort at the mouth of the Columbia ; but no ap- parent notice was taken of this by the English government. It was not until Septem- ber, 1817, that actual steps were taken to carry into effect this resolution, and then the sloop of war Ontario was dispatched on this errand, the captain, J. Biddle, and J. B Prevost, his associate commissioner, being instructed to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the country adjacent to the Columbia, but to do so in a friendly and peaceable manner.

Soon after the departure of the Ontario the representative of Great Britain offi- cially inquired of Secretary Adams the destination and object of the vessel, and was informed that it was directed to take possession of the post at the mouth of the Colum- bia, which, since no attention had been paid to the notification of two years before, it had been assumed Great Britain had no idea of claiming as rightfully hers. This was answered by saying that the post had been purchased by the Northwest Company, subjects of his majesty, from private individuals, and as it was situated in a region which that company had long occupied it was considered as forming a portion of his majesty's dominions. Much controversy was carried on between the two governments on the questions of abstract right and actual possession. It was finally agreed that the post should be restored to the United States but its property should still belong to its purchasers, while the right of dominion over the country should be left for future nego- tiation. The Ontario arrived at Valparaiso in February, 1818, where Mr. Prevost landed to transact official business with the Chilean government. Captain Biddle con- tinued to the Columbia, sailing into that stream in the month of August and taking formal possession of the surrounding country in the name of the United States. He then departed for other portions of the Pacific. In the meantime Captain Sheriff, of the English navy, having orders to deliver up Fort George, met Mr. Prevost in Chili and offered him passage to the Columbia for that purpose in the frigate Blossom. They entered the river early in October, when Mr. Keith, the gentleman in charge surrendered possession, having been instructed to that effect by the officers of the com- pany. A paper was given to Mr. Prevost setting forth the fact that, in pursuance of orders from the government, Fort George, on the Columbia river, was surrendered to him as the representative of the United States, and he in return gave the officers a written acceptance of the transfer. The British flag was then lowered and the Amer- ican ensign was temporarily displayed over the walls of Fort George, while it was courteously saluted by the guns of the Blossom. Thus the matter stood, the Ameri- cans nominally and the British actually in possession of Oregon.

During the time the Northwest Company had occupied this post many improve- ments had been made, so that the Fort George of 1818 was far different from the Astoria of five years before. A stockade of pine logs, twelve feet high above the ground, enclosed a parallelogram of 150x250 feet, within which were dwellings, store- houses, magazines, shops, etc., all defended by two eighteen-pounders, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and seven swivels, armament sufficient for a strong fort in those days. The population consisted of twenty-three whites, twenty-six Kanakas and sixteen Canadian half-breeds. The company was not disturbed in the possession of this important post, and Mr. Astor was finally compelled

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to abandon all hope of recovering his property through the action of the government, and not deeming it advisable to found a rival establishment, was reluctantly compelled to abandon his projects in the Pacific altogether.

Negotiations still continued between the two governments during these transac- tions of their agents, and on the twentieth of October, 1818, a treaty of compromise was signed, providing that all territories and their waters west of the Rocky mountains should be free and open to the vessels and to the use and occupation of the citizens and subjects of both nations for the period of ten years, and that no claim of either party should in any manner be prejudiced by this action, and that neither should gain any right of dominion by such use or occupation during the time specified. On the twenty-second of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded between the United States and Spain, generally known as the Florida treaty, by which Spain ceded to the United States her province of Florida and all her rights, claims and pretensions to any territories north and east of a line drawn from the source of the Arkansas north to the 42d parallel and thence west to the Pacific. The 42d parallel remained the boundary between the United States and Mexico until Texas, then California, and still later New Mexico and Arizona were conquered or purchased by the former, and was considered the southern boundary of Oregon.

Fierce rivalry had existed for many years between the Hudson's Bay Company and its energetic competitor. The despised rival had grown in wealth and power until the Northwest Company, though not protected by royal charter and not having vast terri- tories over which to exercise the right of dominion, had become an organization even more wealthy and powerful than the chartered monopoly. In the plenitude of its power it gave employment to 2,000 voyageurs, while its agents penetrated the wilder- ness in all directions in search of furs. The Hudson's Bay Company had confined itself to its granted territory, and had not even explored that with enlightened energy, their method of conducting the business being to build a few posts at central points, to which the Indians repaired for purposes of trade. On the contrary, it was the policy of the rival organization to send its agents far and wide, to trade with the natives and open up new fields of operation. This aggressive policy soon had the effect of arousing the old company to a realizing sense of the precarious condition of its affairs, and the necessity for taking energetic steps to recover the ground it was rapidly losing. The result of the rivalry, growing chiefly out of the improvident methods of the Northwest Company, was so alarming a decrease in the fur-bearing animals as to threaten their complete extinction. A systematic effort was made to crush the old company, or to at least drive its representatives from the most valuable beaver country, with the hope of finally compelling a surrender of its charter.

The first act of actual hostility, other than mere trade rivalry, was committed in 1806, when a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company was forcibly deprived of 480 packs of beaver skins, and a few months later of fifty more. The same year another trader was attacked and robbed of valuable furs by servants of the Northwest Company, and received similar treatment again the following spring. These acts of plundering were numerous, and since no law but the law of might existed in the wilderness, there was no redress for the despoiled company nor punishment for the offenders, since the latter were Canadians and their victims citizens of England and not possessed of facilities

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for securing redress in the courts of Canada. In twelve years but one case was brought to trial, in 1809, when a Hudson's Bay Company man was convicted of manslaughter for killing an agent of the other company who was making an attack upon him with a sword; and this result was accomplished by the powerful influence of the Northwest Company in Montreal.

In 1812, having received a grant of fertile land from the Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Selkirk, a man of energy and an enthusiast on the subject of colonial emigration, commenced a settlement on Red river near its junction with the Assiniboine, south of Lake Winnipeg. No sooner was this accomplished than the rival company expressed a determination to destroy the settlement, and in the autumn of 1814 fitted out an ex- pedition for that purpose at its chief establishment, Fort William, on the shore of Lake Superior. After harrassing the settlement for some months, an attack was made upon it in June, 1815, which was repulsed. Artillery having been brought up, the buildings of Fort Gibraltar, the strong hold of the settlement, were battered down and the place captured. The governor was sent to Montreal a prisoner, the remainder of the settlers were expelled from the country, the cattle were slaughtered and the buildings demol- ished. In the fall, however the colonists returned with a great accession to their num- bers and again established themselves under the leadership of Colin Robertson, being accompanied by Robert Semple, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company territories. In the spring of 1816, Alexander McDonnell, a partner of the Northwest Company collected a strong force with the design of crushing the settlement completely. After capturing the supply train on its way to Red river, the invading force came upon Governor Semple and a force of thirty men all of whom they killed, except one who was made a prisoner and four who escaped. The settlers still remaining in the fort, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, surrendered, and to the number of 200 were sent in canoes to Hudson's bay. They were chiefly Scotch, as were also the attacking party ; but the love of gain was stronger than the ties of blood.

In 1821 parliament put an end to this bloody feud and ruinous competition by consolidating the rival companies under the name of The Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, by which was created an organization far more powerful than had either been before, and England gained a united and potent agent for the advancement of her interests in America. The settlements on the Red, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers were renewed, and Winnipeg became in a few years the center of a prosperous community. The new company took possession of Astoria and the posts along the Columbia, and as it thereafter became closely woven into the history of this region, a brief description of its founding, growth and methods becomes necessary to a full understanding of subsequent events. Dr. William Barrows gives the following descrip- tion of that powerful corporation.

" Its two objects as set forth in its charter, were 'for the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other con- siderable commodities.' It may well be suspected that the first was the face and the second the soul of the charter, which grants to the company the exclusive right of the 'trade and commerce of all those seas, straits and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits com- monly called Hudson straits,' and of all lands bordering them not under any other

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civilized government. This covered all territory within that immense basin from rim to rim, one edge dipping into the Atlantic and the other looking into the Pacific. Through this vast extent the company was made for 'all time hereafter, capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy, and retain lands, rents, privileges, lib- erties, jurisdiction, franchise, and hereditaments of what kind, nature, or quality soever they be, to them and their successors.' The company held that region as a man holds his farm, or as the great bulk of real estate in England is now held. They could legislate over and govern it, bound only by the tenor and spirit of English law, and make war and peace within it; and all persons outside the company could be for- bidden to 'visit, hunt, frequent, trade, traffic, or adventure' therein. For all this, and as a confession of allegiance to the crown as a dependent colony and province, they were to pay annually as rent ' two elks and two black beavers.' Cheap rent that, especially since the king or his agent must collect it on the ground of the company. To dwell in the territory or even to go across it would be as really a trespass as if it were done on the lawn of a private gentleman in Middlesex county, England.

" Such were the chartered rights of a monopoly that growing bolder and more grasping became at last continental in sweep, irresistible in power, and inexorable in spirit. In 1821 the crown granted to this and the Northwest Company united, and for a term of twenty-one years, the exclusive right to trade with all Indians in British North America, north and west of the United States, and not included in the first charter. This granted only trade, not ownership in the soil. Thus, while the chartered territory was imperial, it grew, by granted monopoly of trade, to be continental. By degrees the trappers and traders went over the rim of the Hudson basin, till they reached the Arctic seas along the outlet of the Coppermine and the Mackenzie. They set beaver traps on the Yukon and Fraser rivers, around the Athabasca, Slave and Bear lakes, and on the heads of the Columbia. From the adjacent Pacific shore they lined their treasury with the soft coats of the fur seal and the sea-otter. They were the pioneers of this traffic, and pressed this monopoly of fur on the sources, not only of the Mississippi and Missouri, but down into the Salt Lake basin of modern Utah. What minor and rival companies stood in the way they bought in, or crushed by un- derselling to the Indians. Individual enterprise in the fur trade, from Newfoundland to Vancouver, and from the headwaters of the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Mackenzie was at their mercy. They practically controlled the introduction of sup- plies and the outgoing of furs and peltries from all the immense region between those four points.

" Within the Canadas and the other provinces they held the Indian and the Eu- ropean equally at bay, while within all this vast unorganized wilderness, their hand over red and white man was absolute. At first the company could govern as it pleased, and was autocratic and irresponsible. By additional legislation in 1803, the civil and criminal government of the Canadas was made to follow the company into lands out- side their first charter, commonly called Indian countries. The governor of Lower Canada had the appointing power of officials within those countries. But he did not send in special men; he appointed those connected with the company and on the ground. The company, therefore, had the administration in those outside districts in its own hands. Thus the commercial life of the Canadas was so dependent upon the

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 19

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: