14 The Fur Traders. 



ernment much anxiety lest the acts of these American 

 buccaneer traders should give offense to Russia, at that time 

 the only great power friendly to the New Republic. It will 

 be seen from this that not on)}' was Mr. Astor's project 

 of great commercial importance to himself, but it was also 

 of vital interest to two great nations, to say nothing of its 

 effect upon the colonization of the Northwest. 



The Northwest Company looked with unfriendly eyes 

 upon Mr. Astor's scheme. They had already established 

 an advance trading post beyond the Rockies in New Cale- 

 donia, as the strip of land discovered by McKenzie between 

 the territory of the United States and Russia was called. 

 They refused an offer of a third interest in his enter- 

 prise, and secretly sent out a party under Mr. David 

 Thompson to establish a post at the mouth of the Colum- 

 bia River before any expedition that might be fitted out 

 by Mr. Astor could reach there. "When Mr. Thompson 

 with nine of his party, the rest having deserted before the 

 expedition crossed the mountains, reached the mouth of 

 the Columbia, in July, 1811, he found that the Pacific Fur 

 Company was already in possession. 



Some of the retired partners and clerks of the Northwest 

 company however looked with favor upon proposals made 

 to them by ^Ir. Astor, and on June 23, 1810, joined him 

 in the formation of the Pacific Fur Company. These men 

 were Alexander ]\IcKay, who had accompanied Sir Alex- 

 ander McKenzie on both of his expeditions to the North- 

 west Coast ; and Duncan McDougal, Donald McKenzie, and 

 Robert Stewart, who were also men of large experience in 

 the business of the Northwest Company. In addition to 

 these the partners in the new company were, ]\Ir. "William 

 Price Hunt, of Trenton, N. J., who was to act as Mr. 

 Astor's personal representative and manager on the Pacific 

 Coast while Mr. Astor remained in charge of the head- 

 quarters of the company in New York, and four other 

 Americans — Ramsey Crooks, Joseph ^Miller, Robert ]\IcLel- 

 lan, and John Clark. The capital stock of the company 

 was two hundred thousand dollars, divided into one hundred 

 shares, of a par value of two thousand dollars each. Mr. 

 Astor was assigned fifty shares, Mr. Hunt five shares, and 

 the remaining partners four shares each. The balance of 

 the stock being held for division among the clerks at the 

 end of five years, if the enterprise proved successful. 



