304 ASTORIA TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. [1813. 



Columbia, were sold to the North- West Company, for about fifty- 

 eight thousand dollars. 



Whilst the business of valuing the furs and goods at Astoria, and 

 of transferring them to their new owners, was in progress, the British 

 sloop of war Raccoon appeared at the mouth of the river, under 

 the command of Captain Black, who had been despatched from the 

 South Pacific, by Commodore Hillyar, for the purpose of taking the 

 American forts and establishments on the Columbia, and had hast- 

 ened thither in expectation of securing some glory, and a rich share 

 of prize-money, by the conquest. On approaching the factory, 

 however, the captain soon saw that he should gain no laurels ; and, 

 after it had been formally surrendered to him by Mr. Macdougal, 

 he learnt, to his infinite dissatisfaction, that its contents had become 

 the property of British subjects. He could, therefore, only haul 

 down the flag of the United States, and hoist that of Great Britain 

 in its stead, over the establishment,* the name of which was, with 

 due solemnity, changed to Fort George ; and, having given vent to 

 his indignation against the partners of both companies, whom he 

 loudly accused of collusion to defraud himself and his officers and 

 crew of the reward due for their exertions, he sailed back to the 

 South Pacific. 



The brig Pedler arrived in the Columbia, as before said, on the 

 28th of February, 1814, and Mr. Hunt found Macdougal super- 

 intending the factory, not, however, as chief agent of the Pacific 

 Company, but as a partner of the North- West Company, into 

 which he had been admitted. Hunt had, therefore, merely to 

 close the concerns of the American association in that quarter, and 

 to receive the bills on Montreal, given in payment for its effects ; 

 after which he reembarked in the Pedler, with two of the clerks, 

 and proceeded, by way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, to 

 New York. Of the other persons who had been attached to the 

 Pacific Fur Company's establishments, some were murdered by the 

 Indians on Lewis River, in the summer of 1813; some, including 

 Mr. Franchere, the author of the narrative of the expeditions, re- 

 turned over land to the United States, or to Canada ; and some 

 remained on the Columbia, in the service of the North- West Com- 

 pany. The long-expected ship Isaac Todd reached Fort George 

 on the 17th of April, thirteen months after her departure from Eng- 



* See the account of the capture of Astoria, extracted from Cox, in the Proofs 

 and Illustrations, under the letter G, No. 3. 



