The amount of commerce carried on by the company, was of course very great, as in addition to the trade between Great Britain and their own dominions, they possessed a monopoly of the British trade to China. Their charter was renewed by parliament from time to time, and their privileges underwent various modiifications. At length in 1833, when the charter was renewed and extended to the year 1854, the monopoly of the China trade was abolished, and the company was restricted from carrying on any commercial operations on its own account, and was confined altogether to the territorial and political management of the vast empire which it has brought beneath its sway. The company's revenue now arises from land-taxes, customs, stamp-duties, subsidies, tributes from native chiefs, and monopolies of salt and opium. The revenue at present exceeds eighty millions of dollars, but their expenses of administration have much augmented, and their standing army now amounts to the enormous number of 224,000 men.

The government of the company is managed by a Board of Directors in London, chosen by a court of proprietors. These directors appoint a Governor General of India, and the Governors of the several Presidencies, but these appointments are subject to the approval of the crown. All subordinate officers are appointed by the Directors. The affairs of the company are subjected to a species of supervision by a Board of Control, nominated by the King or nis cabinet; and the President of the board, is, in effect, a Secretary of State for the affairs of India.

COMMERCE OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA.

CAPTAIN COOK's third voyage having brought to light several countries of which little or nothing was previously known, several enterprising persons in England, allured by the hopes of a profitable traffic with the natives of the north-west coast of America, engaged in voyages to that quarter as early as the year 1784. The people of the United States, then just recovering from the entire prostration of their

commerce, by the revolutionary war, and possessing more enterprize than money, were not slow in perceiving the benefits likely to result from a participation in this branch of trade, where industry and perseverance could be substituted for capitol.

In 1787 two vessels were fitted out at Boston, the ship Columbia of 300 tons, and the sloop Washington of 100, the former commanded by John Kendrick,* and the latter by Robert Gray, since known as the first navigator who entered the Columbia river. These vessels were owned by an association of Boston merchants, and having been furnished with sea-letters under the authority of Congress, and passports from the authorities of the State of Massachusetts, they sailed from Boston on the 30th of Septemher, 1787. Each vessel took out for distribution among the natives, a number of medals struck for the purpose, bearing on one side the figure of a ship and a sloop under sail, with the inscription," Columbia and Washington, commanded by J. Kendrick," and on the reverse, Fitted out at Boston, N. America, for the Pacific Ocean, by J. Barrell, S. Brown, C. Bulfinch, J. Darby, C. Hatch, J. M. Pintard. 1787."

They both arrived safely on the north-west coast, where they prosecuted their trade, and were shortly followed by other vessels. The officers entrusted with the management of these voyages, soon acquired the necessary local knowledge to maintain a competition with.

* It is remarkable that this adventurous navigator was after wards killed, like Captain Cook, at Owhyhee, by the natives This happened in 1793.

the traders of other nations, mostly English, who had preceded them. The habits and ordinary pursuits of the New Englanders, qualified them in a peculiar manner for carrying on this trade, and the embarrassed state of European politics which presently followed, combined with other circumstances, gave them in the course of a few years, almost a monopoly of the most profitable part of it. As early as 1801, there were sixteen ships on this coast, engaged in the fur trade, fifteen of which were American, and one English. Upwards of 18,000 sea-otter skins, a most valuable fur, in addition to other furs, were collected for the China market in that year, by the American vessels alone. Of the profits of this trade we may form some estimate, from the fact that in a single instance, the proceeds of an investment of 9000 dollars, in a voyage of about eight months, were sold in China for 60,000 dollars.

From this period, however, the trade began to decline, the sea-otter which is the principal object of pursuit, having become scarce, in consequence of the impolitic system pursued by the Russians, as well as by the natives, who destroy indiscriminately the old and the young of this animal, which will probably in a few years be as scarce on the American coast, as it now is on that of Kamtschatka, and among the Aleutian Islands, where they abounded when first discov ered by the Russians. The trade to the north-west coast was then combined with that to the Sandwich Islands, which was carried on to a considerable extent in sandal-wood. These vessels were usually about three years in completing a voyage. After trading

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with the natives on the coast for furs, by exchanging with them such parts of the cargoes as were adapted to the wants, or suited to the fancy of these people, the ships resorted to the Sandwich Islands, where a cargo of sandal-wood was prepared, with which, and their furs, they proceeded to Canton, and returned to the United States with cargoes of teas, &c. The northwest coast fur trade is no longer carried on by American vessels, which have been completely excluded from that quarter, by the prohibitory measures of the Russians, and the activity of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The American posts west of the Rocky Mountains are now few and small. Nearly all their furs are procured directly by their own hunting and trapping, as they trade but little with the Indians, whom the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company take care to keep in a state of hostility towards them. The hunters and trappers who remain constantly in that country, are about three or four hundred in number, most of them whites. In the summer of each year they repair, carrying with them furs on pack-horses, or on their backs, to certain places of rendezvous, where they meet the caravans from the United States, and the trade is then conducted without the use of money, each article, however, bearing a nominal money value. These conventional rates are sometimes curious. Among the prices current, we find whisky quoted at three dollars a pint; tobacco at five dollars a pound; gunpowder at six dollars a pint; dogs-for eating-at fifteen dollars each. The principal places for rendezvous are on Green River, a branch of the Colorado, at