1826.] BRITISH IN QUIET POSSESSION OF THE COLUMBIA. tSIO 



tion between them. The union of the rival British companies, and 

 the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada over 

 the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, had already proved 

 most advantageous to the Hudson's Bay Company, which had at the 

 same time received the privilege of trading in that territory, to the 

 exclusion of all other British subjects. Great efforts were made, 

 and vast expenses were incurred, by this company, in its efforts to 

 found settlements on the Columbia River, and to acquire influence 

 over the natives of the surrounding country ; and so successful had 

 been those efforts, that the citizens of the United States were 

 obliged, not only to renounce all ideas of renewing their estab- 

 lishments in that part of America, but even to withdraw their 

 vessels from its coasts. Indeed, for more than ten years after the 

 capture of Astoria by the British, scarcely a single American citizen 

 was to be seen in those countries. Trading expeditions were sub- 

 sequently made from Missouri to the head-waters of the Platte 

 and the Colorado, within the limits of California, and one or two 

 hundred hunters and trappers, from the United States, were gen- 

 erally roving through that region ; but the Americans had no 

 settlements of any kind, and their government exercised no juris- 

 diction whatsoever west of the Rocky Mountains. 



Under such favorable circumstances, the Hudson's Bay Company 

 could not fail to prosper. Its resources were no longer wasted in 

 disputes with rivals ; its operations were conducted with despatch 

 and certainty ; its posts were extended, and its means of communi- 

 cation increased, under the assurance that the honor of the British 

 government and nation was thereby more strongly interested in its 

 behalf. The agents of the company were seen in every part of the 

 continent, north and north-west of the United States and Canada, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hunting, trapping, and trading 

 with the aborigines ; its boats were met on every stream and lake, 

 conveying British goods into the interior, or furs to the great deposi- 

 tories on each ocean, for shipment to England in British vessels ; 

 and the utmost order and regularity were maintained throughout by 

 the supremacy of British laws. Of the trading posts, many were 

 fortified, and could be defended by their inmates — men inured to 

 hardships and dangers — against all attacks which might be appre- 

 hended ; and the whole vast expanse of territory above described, 

 including the regions drained by the Columbia, was, in fact, occu- 

 pied by British forces, and governed by British laws, though there 

 44 



