EXPEDITIONS TO PACIFIC. 103 



British Columbia by any other route. It is obviions therefore that we are warranted in 

 iucludiug in the list of Canadian overland expeditions, the journeys by the riyer Columbia, 

 Tip to the period when the Hudson's Bay Company's forts on its banks were evacuated. 



The Hudson's Bay Company, as the inheritor and representative of all previous fur 

 companies, has played an important part in the early history of the western territory 

 within the limits of the Dominion. The extended trade and influence of this vast com- 

 mercial concern furnishes evidence of extraordinary energy and perseverance. The 

 adventurers and explorers in the service of the company undertook the most fatiguing 

 journeys, and evinced the greatest fortitude in exposing themselves to hardship, privation 

 and danger. It was they who took possession of the territory on both sides of the Rocky 

 Mountains and on both sides of the 49th parallel. They were for many years the only 

 civilized occupants of both banks of the Columbia from its sources to its mouth, and it was 

 not their fault that this region is not now part of the Dominion. They held their ground 

 in Oregon and Washington Territory under the British flag until they were compelled to 

 relinquish their hold by the treaty of 1846. But for the discoveries made under the 

 authority of this fur company, New Caledonia or British Columbia worrld never have 

 existed, and Canada to-day would be shut out from access to the Pacific. 



It was oïit of the tangle of diplomacy that the treaty which terminated the authority 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company over the region watered by the Columbia was evolved. 

 But the Oregon Treaty did not at once suspend all the company's operations south of the 

 49th parallel ; it gave certain rights of possession and of navigating the river, subject 

 to the regulations which the Government of the United States might impose. For some 

 years the trading posts were retained, but owing to the conditions of the treaty it became 

 necessary to give up to the United States authorities all the forts of the company 

 south of Puget Sound. In 1860, the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned its various 

 establishments in Oregon and "Washington Territory, and the moveable property not 

 disposed of was transferred to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island, the point at which, as 

 headquarters, the operations of the company, west of the mountains, have since been 

 centred and carried on. 



In the following brief outline of the expeditions undertaken between Canada and 

 the Pacific, no attempt will be made to relate the frequent overland voyages of the 

 brigades of fur-trading canoes, except such of them as have been specially recorded. 

 Intercourse was regularly maintained by the company across the continent during the half 

 century which preceded the abandonment of Oregon. During that period, the route 

 generally travelled on the western side of the mountains was by the Columbia ; on the 

 eastern side of the range, the chain of rivers and lakes leading to York Factory were 

 followed. 



III.— C ANAIUAIV OVEKL,AMI> EXPEDITiOXS. 



The earliest overland journey to the Pacific was made in lt93. In the ninety-two 

 years which intervened between that date and the completion of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway not less than forty such journeys are on record. They may be divided into 

 three classes, chronologically separated into three periods. 



