308 NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 



and governor of Fort Vancouver, on the part of the Hudson Bay 

 Company, is also a director of the Puget Sound Company, and has 

 the entire management of its concerns : his salary is five hundred 

 pounds. 



The capital of the Puget Sound Company is five hundred thousand 

 pounds, divided into shares of one hundred pounds each: only two 

 hundred thousand pounds of this have been paid in. The operations 

 of this Company are in consequence large: they began by making 

 large importations of stock from California, and some of the best 

 breeds of cattle from England ; they have also entered into farming 

 on an extensive scale, using as labourers the servants of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, who are bound by their contracts to do all manner of 

 service that may be required of them, even to the bearing of arms. 



This Company have the supplying of all the forts and stations of the 

 Hudson Bay Company on the west side of the American continent, 

 and also furnish the Russian ports with grain, butter, and cheese: of 

 *he former article the Russians take about fifteen thousand bushels. It 

 is also their intention, when they shall have succeeded in breeding a 

 sufficient stock of cattle and sheep, to export hides, horns, tallow, and 

 wool, to England, in the return ships, which now go home compara- 

 tively empty, as the furs occupy only a small portion of the capacity 

 of the ship. In this way it may readily be perceived that they will be 

 enabled to drive a profitable trade, particularly when it is considered 

 how little care the cattle require in this territory, in consequence of the 

 grass and natural hay which the soil affords at all seasons. It is the 

 prospect of the advantageous results to be derived from these operations, 

 that has induced the Hudson Bay Company to change their trading 

 establishments into large agricultural ones. For some years previous 

 to our arrival, they had not been able to meet their own wants, and at 

 the same time fulfil their contracts with the Russians. They were 

 therefore obliged to purchase from the settlers in the territory, as well 

 as send to California, to procure the requisite quantity of agricultural 

 products. A demand was consequently created for wheat, and all 

 that could be raised in the Willamette settlements was bought for six 

 shillings (seventy-five cents) a bushel, and paid for in drafts on their 

 stores in goods, at fifty per cent, advance on the first London cost. 

 This gave an encouragement to the small farmers, that was fated to 

 meet with grievous disappointment the next season ; for the Company 

 was able not only to meet their engagements, and their own wants, 

 but had, besides, a surplus. The prices consequently would be merely 

 nominal, unless raised by the influx of new settlers. Whether the 

 latter cause had any effect in creating a market, I know not ; but I 



