1813.] WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND G. BRITAIN. 301 



Russian establishments, as Mr. Mackay would have done, but for 

 the destruction of the Tonquin ; and he accordingly took his de- 

 parture in that ship in August, 1812, leaving the superintendence 

 of the affairs at the factory, as before, in the hands of Mr. Mac- 

 dougal. A party was at the same time despatched to the upper 

 country, by which another trading post was established on the 

 Spokan, a stream joining the northern branch of the Columbia, 

 about six hundred and fifty miles from the ocean ; and accounts of 

 all the transactions, to that period, were transmitted to the United 

 States, under the care of Messrs. Crooks, Maclellan, and Robert 

 Stuart, who recrossed the continent, and reached New York in the 

 spring of 1813, after encountering difficulties and dangers greater, 

 in many respects, than those undergone in their journey to the 

 Pacific. 



The trade with the Indians of the Lower Missouri was, in the 

 mean time, going on prosperously ; provisions were abundant at 

 Astoria, and a large quantity of furs was collected there, in expecta- 

 tion of the arrival of the Beaver, which was to take them to Canton 

 in the ensuing spring. The hopes of the partners were thus revived, 

 and they had daily additional grounds for anticipating success in their 

 undertaking, when, in January, 1813, they learned that the United 

 States had declared war against Great Britain in June previous. 

 This news spread an instantaneous gloom over the minds of all, 

 which was increased by information received from a trading vessel, 

 that the Beaver was lying at Canton, blockaded by a British ship of 

 war : and soon afterwards, Messrs. Mactavish and Laroque, partners 

 in the North- West Company, arrived near Astoria, with sixteen men, 

 bringing accounts of the success of the British arms on the northern 

 frontiers of the United States, and of the blockade of all the 

 Atlantic coasts of the latter country by British squadrons. 



Notwithstanding these circumstances, Laroque and Mactavish 

 were received and treated by Macdougal and Mackenzie, the only 

 partners of the Pacific Company then at Astoria, with the same 

 attention and hospitality which had been shown to Thompson in 

 the preceding year ; and were supplied with provisions and goods 

 for trading, as if they had been friends and allies, instead of com- 

 mercial rivals and political enemies. A. series of private conferences 

 were then held between the chief persons of the two parties, at the 

 conclusion of which, Macdougal and Mackenzie announced their 

 determination that the company should be dissolved on the 1st of 

 July, and sent messengers to communicate the fact to the other 



