countries; and the British were equally resolved not to agree to a renewal of the engagement for a fixed period of time, without such a declaration. Finally, on the 6th of August, 1827, a convention was signed by the plenipotentiaries, to the effect, that the provisions of the third article of the convention of October 20th, 1818,- rendering all the territories claimed by Great Britain or by the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains, free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations for ten years, should be further extended for an indefinite period; either party being, however, at liberty to annul and abrogate the agreement, on giving a year's notice of its intention to the other.* This convention was submitted to the Senate of the United States in the following winter, and, having been approved by that body, it was immediately ratified. In relating the circumstances connected with the adoption of the convention of October, 1818, the opinion was expressed, that it was perhaps the most wise, as well as most just, arrangement which could then have been made; and this renewal of the arrangement for an indefinite period, leaving each of the parties at liberty to abrogate it, after a reasonable notice to the other, appears to merit the same commendation. No unworthy concession was made, no loss of dignity or right was sustained, on either side; and to break the amicable and mutually profitable relations, then subsisting between the two countries, on a question of mere title to the possession of territories from which neither could derive any immediate benefit of consequence, would have been impolitic and unrighteous. The advantages of the convention were, in 1827, as in 1818, nearly equal to both nations; but the difference was, on the whole, in favor of the United States. The British might, indeed, derive more profit from the fur trade as carried on by their organized Hudson's Bay Company, than the Americans could expect to obtain by the individual efforts of their citizens; but the value of that trade is much less than is generally supposed: no settlements could be formed in the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, by which it could acquire a population, while the arrangement subsisted; and the facilities for occupying the territory at a future period, when its occupation by the United States should become expedient, would undoubtedly have increased in a far greater ratio on their part than on that of Great Britain. For the difficulties which must arise * Proofs and Illustrations, letter I, No. 6. whenever the convention is abrogated, even agreeably to the manner therein stipulated, it became, of course, the duty of each government to provide in time. In the session of Congress following that in which the new convention with Great Britain had been approved, the subject of the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia River was again discussed; and, after a long series of debates, in which the most eminent members of the House of Representatives took part, a bill was reported, whereby the president was authorized to cause the territory west of the Rocky Mountains to be explored, and forts and garrisons to be established in any proper places, between the parallels of 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes; and also to extend the jurisdiction of the United States over those countries, as regards citizens of the Union. The adoption of these measures was urged, on the ground that it was the duty of the government to make good, by occupation, the right of the United States, which was pronounced unquestionable, lest, by neglect, the country should fall irrevocably into the possession of another power, which had unjustly contested that right: and, as inducements to pursue this course, pictures most flattering were presented of the soil, climate, and productions, of the regions watered by the Columbia, and of the various advantages which would be secured to the citizens of the Union engaged in the trade of the Pacific Ocean, by the settlement of those coasts. The bill was opposed, as infringing the convention recently concluded with Great Britain; in addition to which, it was contended, that, were all opposition on the part of that or other powers removed, and the right of the United States established and universally recognized, the occupation of the countries in question in the manner proposed, would be useless, from their extreme barrenness, from the dangers to navigation presented by their coasts, and from the difficulty of communicating with them either by sea or by land and such occupation might be injurious, as citizens of the United States would be thus induced to settle in those countries, and their government would find itself bound to protect and maintain them, at great expense, without a commensurate advancement of the public good. In the course of the debates, several amendments were proposed to the bill, but it was finally rejected on the 9th of January, 1829; and, for many years afterwards, very little attention was bestowed, by any branch of the government of the United States, to matters connected with the territories west of the Rocky Mountains. 356 CHAPTER XVII. 1823 TO 1844 Few Citizens of the United States in the Countries west of the Rocky Mountains between 1813 and 1823-Trading Expeditions of Ashley, Sublette, Smith, Pilcher, Pattie, Bonneville, and Wyeth-Missionaries from the United States form Establishments on the Columbia - First Printing Press set up in Oregon - Opposi tion of the Hudson's Bay Company to the Americans; how exerted-Controversy between the United States and Russia - Dispute between the Hudson's Bay and the Russian American Companies; how terminated - California; Capture of Monterey by Commodore Jones-The Sandwich Islands; Proceedings of the Missionaries; Expulsion of the Catholic Priests, and their Reinstatement by a French Force-The Sandwich Islands temporarily occupied by the British. Ir has already been said, that, during the ten years immediately following the dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, and the seizure of its establishments on the Columbia by the British, few, if any, citizens of the United States entered the countries west of the Rocky Mountains; although, within that period, the facilities for communication between those countries and the settled portions of the American Union had been increased by the introduction of steam vessels on the Mississippi and its tributary rivers. Nearly all the trade of the regions of the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri was then carried on by the old North American Fur Company, at the head of which Mr. Astor still remained; and by another association, called the Columbia Fur Company, formed in 1822, composed principally of persons who had been in the service of the North-West Company, and were dissatisfied with their new The Columbia Company established several posts on the upper waters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Yellowstone, which were, however, transferred to the North American Company, on the junction of the two bodies in 1826. The Americans had also begun to trade with the northernmost provinces of Mexico, before the overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country; after which event, large caravans passed regularly, in each summer, between St. Louis and Santa Fé, the capital of New Mexico, on the headwaters of the River Bravo del Norté. masters. The first attempt to reëstablish commercial communications between the United States and the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, was made by W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, who had been, for some time previous, engaged in the fur trade of the Missouri and Yellowstone countries. He quitted the state of Missouri in the spring of 1823, at the head of a large party of men, with horses carrying merchandise and baggage, and proceeded up the Platte River, to the sources of its northern branch, called the Sweet Water, which had not been previously explored. These sources were found to be situated in a remarkable valley, or cleft, in the Rocky Mountains, in the latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes; and immediately beyond them were discovered those of another stream, flowing south-westward, called by the Indians Sidskadee, and by the Americans Green River, which proved to be one of the headwaters of the Colorado of California. In the country about these streams, which had not then been frequented by the British traders, Mr. Ashley passed the summer, with his men, employed in trapping, and in bartering goods for skins with the natives; and, before the end of the year, he brought back to St. Louis a large and valuable stock of furs. In 1824, Mr. Ashley made another expedition up the Platte, and through the cleft in the mountains, which has since been generally called the Southern Pass; and then, advancing farther west, he reached a great collection of salt water called the Utah Lake, (probably the Lake Timpanogos, or Lake Tegayo, of the old Spanish `maps,) which lies imbosomed among lofty mountains, between the 40th and the 42d parallels of latitude. Near this lake, on the south-east, he found another and smaller one, to which he gave his own name; and there he built a fort, or trading post, in which he left about a hundred men, when he returned to Missouri in the autumn. Two years afterwards, a six-pound cannon was drawn from Missouri to this fort, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles; and, in 1828, many wagons, heavily laden, performed the same journey. During the three years between 1824 and 1827, the men left by Mr. Ashley in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains collected and sent to St. Louis furs to the value of more than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars; this enterprising man then retired from the trade, and sold all his interests and establishments to the Rocky Mountain Company, at the head of which were Messrs. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette, persons not less energetic and determined. These traders carried on for many years an extensive and profitable business, in the course of which they traversed every part of the country about the southern branch of the Columbia, and nearly the whole of continental California. Unfortunately, however, they made no astronomical observations, and, being unacquainted with any branch of physical science, very little information has been derived through their means. Smith, after twice crossing the continent to the Pacific, was murdered, in the summer of 1829, by the Indians north-west of the Utah Lake. These active proceedings of the Missouri fur traders roused the spirit of the North American Company, which also extended its operations beyond the Rocky Mountains, though no establishments were formed by its agents in those countries; and many expeditions were made, in the same direction, by independent parties, of whose adventures, narratives, more or less exact and interesting, have been published. In 1827, Mr. Pilcher went from Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, with forty-five men, and more than a hundred horses; and, having crossed the great dividing chain of mountains by the Southern Pass, he spent the winter on the Colorado. In the following year, he proceeded to the Lewis River, and thence, northwardly, along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, on their western side, to the Flathead Lake, near the 47th degree of latitude, which he describes as a beautiful sheet of water, formed by the expansion of the Clarke River, in a rich and extensive valley, surrounded by high mountains. There he remained until the spring of 1829, when he descended the Clarke to Fort Colville, an establishment then recently formed by the Hudson's Bay Company, on the northern branch of the Columbia, at its falls; and thence he returned to the United States, through the long and circuitous route of the Upper Columbia, the Athabasca, the Assinaboin, Red River, and the Upper Missouri. The countries thus traversed by Mr. Pilcher have all become comparatively well known from the accounts of subsequent travellers; but very little information had been given to the world respecting them before the publication of his concise narrative.* The account of the rambles of J. O. Pattie, a Missouri fur trader, through New Mexico, Chihuahua, Sonora, and California, published in 1832, throws some light on the geography of parts of those countries of which little can as yet be learned from any other source. During his peregrinations, Pattie several times crossed the great dividing chain of mountains between New Mexico on the * Published with President Jackson's message to Congress, January 23d, 1829. |