THE RANGERS OF THE WOODS. 



433 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 



gold by the handful without opposition. The Mackinaw Com- 

 pany was, therefore, formed by a party of British merchants, 

 for the purpose of extending the fur trade to the southern and 

 western districts of the states. The government, meanwhile, 

 had begun to regard these proceedings with watchful atten- 

 tion, and, so early as the year of 1796, had sent out its own 

 agents to trade on the Indian frontier ; this expedient, how- 

 ever, was insufficient to counterbalance the more individually 

 interested activity of private enterprise; and the counter- 

 weight to the influence which these foreign establishments 

 were daily acquiring, was to be thrown into the scale by the 

 exertions of one person John Jacob Astor. This gentleman 

 a German by birth, was one of those to whom confidence and 

 acuteness are a better heritage than houses or land ; he began 

 life with the resolution of making an immense fortune, and 

 achieved his purpose. In the year of 1794 or 1795, Mr. 



37 



