320 On the Fur Trade and Fur'bearing Animals. 



Bay Company, would have had its legitimate destination, viz. the re- 

 ward of the man, whose energetic mind conceived, and opened at 

 great risk, this new channel of national wealth. 



" Mr. Wilson P. Hunt, of St. Louis, Mississippi, was the gentle- 

 man selected by Mr. Astor, to be the leader of the expedition, and 

 to represent him at Astoria; he and one or two of the other part- 

 ners, left Montreal with his engages, in July 1809, by the way of New 

 York and St. Louis, for the Columbia River ; and the party arrived 

 there in detachments after various mishaps and sufferings, during the 

 winter of 1812. The ship Tonquin left New York early in the fall 

 of 1810, with several of the wintering partners, a number of clerks, 

 and engages for the Columbia River. Among the partners was Mr. 

 McDougall, who in the absence of Mr. Hunt from Columbia River, 

 was to represent Mr. Astor there ; this ship arrived safely in Feb. 

 1811, and this party selected a location and built a fort which they 

 named Astoria. The ship Beaver left New York in the month of 

 Nov. 1811, and arrived at Col. River in May, 1812, also with an- 

 other party of clerks, and engages. The different wintering parties 

 were then organized, under the charge and guidance of the partners, 

 and proceeded in one brigade to the forks of the Columbia River, 

 and there separated, each detachment for the district of country 

 which had been assigned to them, in the council of partners at As- 

 toria, in which council it had also been decided, that Mr. Hunt should, 

 in furtherance of other views connected with the company, embark 

 on board the ship Beaver, and proceed to the Russian establishment 

 at Norfolk sound, where his business being dispatched, he should be 

 relanded in the fall at Astoria, by the Beaver, on her way to the Sand- 

 wich Islands and Canton. Mr. Hunt sailed in ihe Beaver, in the be- 

 ginning of July ; but instead of being again at Astoria in the fall, cir- 

 cumstances beyond his control, compelled him to proceed to the 

 Sandwich Islands, and the company were left in ignorance, not only 

 of his fate, but also of that of the ship. The news of the war reached 

 Mr. McDougall at Astoria, on January 17, 1813, (the writer of this 

 being one of the party bearing this information, by express, from the 

 Rocky mountains.) The fort, at this time, was certainly ill off, both 

 for provisions and goods, and as the war did not allow the company 

 to hope for a vessel in the spring, all trade for furs with the natives 

 was suspended, and detachments sent off in different directions to 

 look for their living. During the winter, Messrs. McDougall and 

 McKenzie, two of the former clerks of the North West Company, 



