1810. j PARTNERS IN THE PACIFIC COMPANV. 295 



States, who quieted all their scruples as to engaging in it, by assur- 

 ing them that, " in case of a war hetween the two nations, they would 

 be respected as British subjects and merchants^ The partners sub- 

 sequently admitted were David and Robert Stuart, and Ramsay 

 Crooks, Scotchmen, who had also been in the service of the North- 

 West Company, and Wilson Price Hunt, John Clarke, and Robert 

 Maclellan, citizens of the United States. The majority of the clerks 

 were Americans ; among the others were Ross Cox, an Englishman, 

 and Gabriel Franchere, a Canadian, each of whom has written an 

 interesting history of the enterprise. The voyageurs were nearly all 

 from Canada. Mr. Hunt, a native of New Jersey, was chosen as 

 chief agent of the company, to superintend all its concerns on the 

 western side of America for five years. 



Thus it will be seen that, although the chief direction of the con- 

 cerns of the Pacific Fur Company, in New York and on the western 

 side of the continent, were at first intrusted to American citizens, 

 yet the majority not only of the inferior servants, but also of the 

 partners, were British subjects, nearly all of whom had been in the. 

 service of a rival British association. 



The preparations for commencing the ente^rise having been 

 completed, four of the partners, Messrs. Ma^ay, Macdougal, David 

 Stuart, and Robert Stuart, with elever> clerks, thirteen Canadian 

 voyageurs, and five mechanics, all British subjects, took their 

 departure from New York for th* mouth of the Columbia River, in 

 September, 1810, in the shi-> Tonquin, commanded by Jonathan 

 Thorne. In January fo^ win g: the second detachment, conducted 

 by Mr. Hunt, the cti'ef agent, and Messrs. Maclellan, Mackenzie, 

 and Crooks, set 01* f° r tne same point, by way of the Missouri River ; 

 and in October 1811, the ship Beaver, under Captain Sowles, car- 

 ried out fr*ni New York, to the North Pacific, Mr. Clarke, with six 

 clerks »nd a number of other persons. 



Mr- Astor had already, in 1809, despatched the ship Enterprise, 

 under Captain Ebbets, an intelligent and experienced seaman and 

 trader, to make observations at various places on the north-west 

 coasts of America, and particularly at the Russian settlements, and 

 to prepare the way for the new establishments. He, also, in 1811, 

 sent an agent to St. Petersburg, by whose means he concluded an 

 arrangement with the Russian American Company, to the effect 

 that his association should have the exclusive privileges, of supplying 

 the Russian establishments on the North Pacific with merchandise, 

 receiving furs in payment, and of transporting to Canton such 



