EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON. 267 



one of its sources in 54° 24' 00", Mackenzie embarked upon 

 a river flowing from the western base of the mountains, 

 called by the natives Tacoutche Tesse. This was generally 

 supposed to be the northernmost branch of the Columbia 

 River, till it was traced in 1812 to the Gulf of Georgia, where 

 it empties itself in 49° latitude, and was henceforth named 

 Frazer's River. Mackenzie having descended this river for 

 about 250 miles, struck across the country westward, and 

 reached the sea in 52° 20' 00", at an inlet which had been 

 surveyed a short time before by Vancouver, and had been 

 named by him Cascade Canal. This was the first expedition 

 of civilized men through the country west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. It did not lead to any immediate result in the way of 

 settlement, though it paved the way by contributing, in con- 

 junction with Vancouver's survey, to confirm the conclusion at 

 which Captain Cook had arrived, that the American continent 

 extended in an uninterrupted line north-westward to Behring's 

 Straits. 



The result of Mackenzie's discoveries was to open a wide 

 field to the westward for the enterprise of British merchants 

 engaged in the fur-trade ; and thus we find a settlement in 

 this extensive district made not long after the publication of 

 his voyage, by the agents of the Northwest Company. This 

 [Treat association had been growing up since 1784, upon the 

 wreck of the French-Canadian fur-trade, and gradually ab- 

 sorbed into itself all the minor companies. It did not, how- 

 ever, obtain its complete organization till 1805, when it soon 

 became a most formidable rival to the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 which had been chartered as early as 1670, and had all but suc- 

 ceeded in monopolizing the entire fur-trade of North America, 

 after the transfer of Canada to Great Britain. The Hudson's 

 Bay Company, with the characteristic security of a chartered 



