so GEORGE BRYCE'S PLEA FOR 



British Columbia. To lliis day our Pacific coast preserves the uame of Captain Vancouver, 

 who, during the years, 1790-'95, explored our western limits, and returning westward 

 circumnavigated the globe. The account of his voyages, edited by his brother, was 

 published in six volumes, in London, 1801. 



The discovery of the western coast of the continent drew attention to it on the 

 part of the United States Government. Accordingly, a detachment of the United States 

 Army was fitted oirt to ascend the Missouri River and cross the Rocky Mountains to the 

 Pacific. This was accomplished by the expedition under Captains Lewis and Clarke during 

 the years, 1804-'0ô-'06. The party journeyed some 9000 miles. The account of the expe- 

 dition was published in the United States, and afterwards in London, 1815. In 1805 an 

 exploration of the Upper Mississippi was undertaken, at the instance of the Government 

 of the United States, by Lieut. Pike. The object of the party was successfully accom- 

 plished, and the account of it forms an interesting volume, published in London, 1811. 

 In 1823, a journey to Lake Winnipeg and Lake of the "Woods was undertaken by a party 

 under Major Long, of which an account is given by Professor Keating. We should 

 mention also, in company with this, the work of J. C. Beltrami, published in two a'oIu- 

 mes in London in 1828, and entitled " A Pilgrimage to Europe and America, leading to 

 the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River," {i. e., the Red River.) 



Stimulated alike by the struggle between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North- 

 west Company, and by these successful explorations of the country towards the Pacific on 

 United States territory, John Jacob Astor pushed on his fur-traders to the far West. Not 

 only does Irving's " Astoria " give us, as has been said, an account of this, but we are fortu- 

 nate in possessing important narratives by a number of the traders themselves, who passed 

 through the turmoil of the Oregon fur trade. Among the traders belonging to the Astor 

 Company was one Alex. Ross, well-known afterwards as sheriff of the district of Assini- 

 boia, on Red River. Sent out to the Pacific coast in 1811, he remained there until the 

 year 1825, when he returned over the Rocky Mountains, and with his Indian wife came to 

 reside in the Selkirk colony on Red River. One of his works, published in 1839, is an 

 account of the early settlement of the Columbia River in the period with which we are 

 dealing. 



Another of Astor's companions, a Frenchman from Montreal, named Gabriel Fran- 

 chère, has left us a most valuable book in his own tongue. In it he relates the incidents 

 of his return home overland, in 1814, by crossing the Rocky Mountains, floating down 

 the Saskatchewan, journeying over the " Grand Portage " to Fort William, and passing 

 down the lakes to Montreal. In 1854, an English translation of Franchère's work appeared 

 in New York. The Astor fur-traders seem to have had a taste for writing, for, of the 

 ssme party as the preceding, another, named Ross Cox, piiblishcd in 1832 an account of his 

 journey around Cape Horn, his residence for six years on the Columbia River, and his 

 return, in 181Y, by a route nearly the same as that of Franchère. 



VII. 



The settlement of the colony by Lord Selkirk, in the valley of Red River, was an event 

 of the greatest importance in the history of British America. It saved for Britain, as it 

 appears to the writer, the fertile plains of the Northwest. That philanthropic nobleman 



