• On the Fur Trade and Fur-hearing Animals. 319 



arranged with consummate skill, and promised unlimited success. It 

 was his intention to send a ship annually from New York with pro- 

 visions and goods for the Indian trade, and the same ship was to take 

 the produce of the year's trade to Canton, dispose of the furs, and 

 return to New York freighted with the products of China. 



In procuring information which might be of unquestionable authen- 

 ticity, I have been so fortunate as to receive from Alfred Seton, Esq. 

 of New York, some important particulars respecting the state of the 

 trade on the North West coast ; and I am happy to give the follow- 

 ing detailed account of the origin and dissolution of the Pacific Fur 

 Company, in the language of that gentleman, who was himself an eye 

 witness of the facts he recounts. 



" The most extensive enterprise of its kind from the United States, 

 and one which experience has since proved would have had the 

 most advantageous results, was conceived by the vigorous mind of 

 John Jacob Astor, and carried into effect in the year 1809. 



By the organization of the old North West Company, the clerks, 

 after serving an apprenticeship of seven years, for an annual small 

 compensation, and an equipment, (one or two suits, blankets, he.) 

 then became candidates for a participation in the profits of the com- 

 pany ; and until they became partners, their salary was increased to 

 £100 per annum, and an additional equipment. The indentures of 

 the clerks expired faster than vacancies occurred in the wintering 

 partner's department, and when these did occur, some lacked interest 

 to become partners, the great object of their ambition. The conse- 

 quence was, that there were many of these elder clerks, of great ex- 

 perience in the Indian trade, who became dissatisfied with their situ- 

 ation, and were ready to listen to any overtures, by which their 

 knowledge and energy might be more beneficially used for their own 

 advantage. Four or five gentlemen of the above class entered into 

 the views of Mr. Astor, and the result of this great commercial un- 

 dertaking, (which time has since proved, would have made Mr. As- 

 tor, probably, the wealthiest individual in the world,) has shown, that 

 in the selection of these gentlemen, a fatal error was committed ; for 

 if the active agents had been Americans, whose feelings, sympathies 

 and connections, were identified with the success of our country, and 

 whose interests pointed singly, to the successful establishment of the 

 company, the difficulties which the war opposed to its prospects, 

 would have been combatted, and these past, the wealth which that 

 region of country has since poured into the coffers of the Hudson's 



