'I u ^ — ^o ^. 7' c/v. .^y^ca^rij^ C/Y^iAe^TT^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/furtradeinnorthwOOhowarich i' / HENRY MORSE STEPHENS COLLECTION PAMPHLETS ON ALASKA AND THE PACIFIC. !• Altamira y Crevea, Rafael. The Share of, Spain in the history of the Pacific Ocean* 1917 2« Bagley, Clarence B» The Waterways of the Pacific Northwest. 1917 3. Balch, Thomas Willing. The Alasko-Canadian frontier. 1902. 4. Bolton, Herbert E. The Early explorations of Father Garces on the Pacific Slope. 1917 5. Bolton, Herbert E. New light on Manuel Lisa and the Spanish fur trade. 6. Dunning, William A. Paying for Alaska, 1912. 7. Howay, P. W. The Pur trade in northwestern development. 1917 8. Morrow, William W. "The Spoilers" 1916 8S8600 < -^^ ^^^ ^ ^f^ 9. Stephens, Henry Morse. The Conflict. of European nations in the Pacific* 1917 10. Teggart, Frederick J. The Approaches to the Pacific Coast. 1915 THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK The Academy of Political Science is affiliated with Columbia University and is composed of men and women interested in polit- ical, economic and social questions. The annual dues are five dollars. Members receive the Proceedings and the Political Science Quarterly — each issued four times a year — and are entitled to free admission to all meetings, lectures and receptions under the auspices of the Academy. Conmiunications regarding the Academy should be ad- dressed to The Secretary of the Academy of Political Science, Columbia University. THE POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY Managing Editor Assistant Editor MuNROE Smith Eugene Ewald Agger The Quarterly follows the most important movements of foreign pol- itics but devotes chief attention to questions of present interest in the United States. On such questions its attitude is nonpartisan. 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Back numbers and bound volumes can be obtained from the publishers. 7 THE FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT By F. W. HOWAY New Westminster, British Columbia REPRINTED FROM "THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY" BY H. MORSE STEPHENS AND HERBERT E. BOLTON. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK Copyright, 1917, By The Macmillan Company. •«N^V Mo.SE ^T.^,„^^ THE FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT F. W. HOWAY The Northwest maritime fur trade owed its origin to an acci- dent ; but the Northwestern land fur trade originated in design. The former, growing out of Captain Cook's third voyage, was the legitimate successor of the search for the Strait of Anian in the development of our knowledge of the coast. The latter did not come into being until twenty years after the inception of its maritime predecessor, the best days of which had by that time disappeared. The maritime fur trade consisted of a mere series of individual efforts and contained all the elements of weakness incident to such undertakings; the land fur trade, on the other hand, so far at least as the territory west of the Rockies was concerned, was carried on in a systematic way by large corpo- rations or organizations. Except for a few spasmodic efforts — the mere flickerings of the dying candle — the maritime fur trade lasted but twenty-five or thirty years. Originally devoted entirely to the collecting of sea-otter skins, its scope was soon enlarged to include first, the fur- seal and, later, beaver, marten, and the furs of almost every kind of animal to be found on the coast. Ginseng was not overlooked ; sandalwood from the Pacific islands was added to the trade; and towards the end even the whale fishery was combined with it. Though this ephemeral and strangely diversified trade was, in reality, merely a looting of the coast, it was not entirely devoid of collateral results. It established our earliest direct commer- cial relations with Hawaii and the Far East ; it gave to us our first Oriental laborers, — only temporarily it is true, but yet important as being the first meeting of those races which centuries before had separated on the table-lands of Asia; it disclosed vaguely and indistinctly the outlines of our irregular coast from the mouth of 276 FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT 277 the Columbia to Cook's Inlet; and it gave to Eastern lands a momentary vision of the wondrous wealth of this Western world. But, from its very nature and the secrecy and spirit of rivalry which permeated it, no continuous or systematic development could be expected. The English who were engaged in it found themselves hampered by the monopolies of the South Sea and East India companies, which placed them at a disadvantage in the struggle. And even the Boston merchants, into whose hands the trade gradually fell, did not, individually, prosecute it for any length of time. Three or four years usually sufficed. The waste- ful competition, the uncertainty of the markets, the strange and expensive restrictions imposed by the Chinese, and the inability from lack of capital to hold their stocks of furs for more favorable conditions, were the strongest factors in effecting this result. None of these maritime traders attempted to make a settlement on our coast; not one of them erected a permanent habitation. The King George's Sound Company, which, under licences from the South Sea Company and the East India Company, operated four vessels in 1786-88, contemplated the erection of trading posts or factories, as they were called, which would, besides being epoch-making, have given an element of stability and permanence to its undertaking. Instructions to this effect were given to Cap- tains Portlock and Dixon, who commanded the first expedition. In the heated discussion between Meares and Dixon, which fol- lowed the publication of the former's mendacious volume, he took occasion to jeer at Dixon for his failure to obey his orders. Meares himself alleges, and in this case with apparent truthfulness, that he intended in 1789, the year of the seizure of his vessels, to found a trading post at Nootka to be known as Fort Pitt. Cap- tain William Brown, who in 1792 and 1793 commanded an expe- dition of three ships engaged in this trade, had instructions, also, to form two establishments on the coast and another on the Queen Charlotte Islands. In this instance the orders were likewise unaccountably disobeyed. W'hatever the explanation may be, the fact remains that, though contemplated on these three occa- sions, at least, nothing tangible was actually accomplished. Small houses were indeed erected in a number of cases, as for instance by Meares at Nootka when building the North West America and 278 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY by Gray at Clayoquot when building the Adventure, but these were merely temporary quarters ancillary to those particular undertakings. As the maritime traders pass off the page of history we admit our indebtedness to them for increased knowledge of our coast geography and for a fleeting glance at the rich possibilities en- wrapped in our future, but at the same time we realize that they utterly failed to take advantage of their opportunities or to leave one mark of civilization within our borders. The Astoria venture stands in an unique position. It marks the transition stage. As the scheme was launched it was a com- bination of land fur trade and maritime fur trade. The details of its plan are trite. Yet strangely enough so much stress has been laid upon the formation of the central depot at the mouth of the Columbia with auxiliary trading posts on the main stream and branches of that river and the Missouri, and upon the annual ship, which, bringing out the trading goods, should sail to China with the collected furs, that the fact that it included also the prosecution of the maritime trade has been lost to view. Irving, however, tells us that as part of this gigantic, but ill-starred, scheme, " Coasting craft would be built and fitted out also, at the mouth of the Columbia, to trade at favorable seasons all along the North- west Coast and return with the proceeds of their voyages to this place of deposit." The little schooner Dolly which was brought out in frame was to carry on this work, and it is well known that the Tonquin was engaged in this coast trade when she was pillaged and destroyed with all her crew by the Indians at Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. Astoria became by purchase in 1813 the property of the North West Company of Montreal, a very energetic organization, that from 1805 had been gradually extending its trade along the Fraser and the Columbia. That company did not view with a sym- pathetic e e the maritime trade, which was quite foreign to its genius. It was managed and drew its supplies of men very largely from the Province of Quebec, whence expert boat and canoe men and robust and hardy voyageurs could be obtained, but which was not capable of supplying trained and skilled seamen. An effort was indeed made, as Alexander Ross informs us, to fol- FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT 279 low Astor's idea of wresting the coast trade from the Boston ves- sels, but it ended in lamentable failure and the Nor* Westers aban- doned that trade to their rivals. They nevertheless continued the remainder of the Astoria scheme to which they had, so to speak, become entitled by their purchase. For three years, 1814, 1815, and 1816, ships sent from England deposited at the Colum- bia mouth, Astoria by them being renamed Fort George, the annual supply of trading goods, and, having taken on board the furs collected during the preceding season, sailed therewith for Canton. In actual operation this portion of the "golden round" was found to be expensive and unproductive in consequence of the restriction of British subjects from trading in China except under license from the East India Company, inasmuch as that company refused to permit the North West Company's vessels to take return cargoes of tea. To escape this loss, arrangements were made with Boston merchants (who, of course, were not subject to that monopoly) whereby the whole transport to and from the mouth of the Columbia was carried on by American vessels. Thus the steady interchange of products between newest West and oldest East, begun by the maritime traders, was continued under the North West Company regime. In carrying on their trade the Nor' Westers — "the Lords of the Lakes and Forests," as Washington Irving has called them, following the line of least resistance, always clung closely to the natural waterways or to the Indian trails. All of us have in memory's storehouse, as a result of our early reading, vivid pic- tures of the North West brigade of deeply laden canoes manned by sturdy wyageurs, bedizened with many-colored ribbons sweeping along the narrow willow-embroidered streams of the interior, and making the neighboring hills reecho with "En roulant ma boule" or other French-Canadian chansons. It was no part of that com- pany's policy to build roads or trails, to improve communications, or, generally speaking, to employ in short transportation any beast of burden but man. Even along the main line of travel but little effort was made to ameliorate conditions. Like the stolid Indian, they seemed to think it beneath them to remove any natural obstruction which they might encounter. At their trading posts, pemmican, that indescribable compound 280 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY of buffalo meat, grease, and berries, was the staple food ; but the policy of the company was to make its servants live, as Napoleon thought the army should, off the country occupied. Soon after the Nor' Westers gained a foothold west of the Rockies we find in the vicinity of their posts the first rude attempts at horticulture. Harmon, who was in charge at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, in northern British Columbia, writes under date May 21, 1811 : " As the frost is now out of the ground we have planted our pota- toes, and sowed barley, turnips, etc., which are the first that we ever sowed on this western side of the mountains." Soon every post where conditions permitted had its garden pro- viding a portion of the food of the establishment. The forests, the lakes, and the rivers were all laid under tribute, but only to furnish provisions for the same purpose. No thought of devel- oping any of the natural resources entered into the Nor' Westers' plans. In this connection it must not be overlooked that from 1811 to 1813 the company was engaged in the struggle with Astor, and from the latter date until 1821 went on the keen and bitter strife with the Hudson's Bay Company. Thus the whole energy of the company was fully engrossed, and no opportunity was offered to consider expansion along other lines. To the Hudson's Bay Company, the great rival of the Nor' Westers, the region west of the Rockies was for a century and a half a veritable terra incognita. With the single exception of the sortie made by Joseph Howse in 1810, no Hudson's Bay trader crossed that great range until after the union in 1821. George Simpson, the dominating figure in the fur-trade for forty years, arrived in les 'pays d^en haut in 1821 to take charge of the Hud- son's Bay Company's business in Athabasca. Knowing that he had been trained in a counting-house and had no practical knowl- edge of the fur-trade, the wintering partners of the North West Company regarded him with a scarcely veiled contempt. Wentzel gave expression to this feeling when he described him as a stranger and a gentlemanly man, and ventured the opinion "that he will not create much alarm, nor do I presume him formidable as an Indian trader." Simpson became the official head, on this conti- nent, of the united companies, which from motives of policy retained the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. The new FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT 281 concern, as Edward Ellice stated in his evidence before the Par- liamentary Committee in 1857, was "in fact more a Canadian than an English Company in its origin"; that is to say, as Dr. Bryce expresses it, it was the fusion of the stability of the English company and the energy of the Canadian combination. The new governor soon made his power felt. King Log became King Stork. Within three years Wentzel acknowledged his prophecy to be at fault: "the North West is now beginning to be ruled," says he, "with a rod of iron." The union having brought industrial peace, Simpson set him- self to the systematic up-building of the fur-trade and the devel- opment of subsidiary operations. Six trading posts on the Colum- bia and seven on the Eraser then existed, representing the results achieved by the North West Company in fifteen years. Arriv- ing on the Pacific coast in 1824, Simpson found the coast trade practically monopolized by itinerant trading vessels. He deter- mined upon an energetic policy — the driving of these maritime traders from the field and the complete control of the trade of the whole coast from San Francisco to the frozen North. The first hint of this policy was given in the winter of 1824, when the ex- amination of the lower Eraser was undertaken by McMillan, not only to select a site for a coast trading post, but also to ascertain the latent possibilities of the region in agriculture and in the fishery. Three years later — for the company moved slowly, all its undertakings requiring the formal approval of the council of chief factors at Norway House — Fort Langley was built. Pending the erection of other trading posts to the northward, the nucleus of a fleet to compete for the coast trade was organized, the Cadboro and the Vancouver, soon to be followed by the Llama, the Dryad, and, last and best known, the historic steamer Beaver. Then came a period of strenuous effort both on land and sea. Having in 1830 established Fort Simpson on the coast, at the northern fringe of British Columbia, to intercept not only the maritime trade, but also that carried on by Russia on the lisiere defined in the treaties of 1824 and 1825, it was determined to build a trading post beyond the limits of the coastal strip to cut off the trade of the interior. In 1833 Peter Skene Ogden examined the Stikine River for the site of such a post. No objection was 282 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY made by the Russian American Company, but when, in the fol- lowing May, Ogden arrived with men and materials to carry the project into execution, the Russians, in breach of the treaty, prevented him by force from navigating the river across the ten- marine-league strip. In the same year Fort McLoughlin was built on Milbank Sound, further to the southward, to compete with the trading vessels. The Cadboro^ the Vancouver, and the Dryad were kept constantly along the northern coast to increase the opposition. To prevent the trade of the hinterland from reaching either the American trading vessels or the Russian posts, the company made its way into northwestern British Columbia, that vast alpine region where, amid lakes and mountains, nature reigns in loneliness and cloud. In 1834, the very year of Ogden's unsuccessful efforts, McLeod examined and explored the head- waters of the Stikine, and shortly afterwards Robert Campbell established a post of the company on Dease Lake. Out of the unlawful prevention of Ogden's venture grew a claim for damages against the Russian company, which was ulti- mately settled in 1839 by the grant of a lease of the strip of Alaskan territory from 54° 40' to Mount Fairweather, together with all the Russian establishments within those limits. But in the meantime the company's efforts had been so successful that the trading vessels had abandoned the struggle. Thus by 1839 the company was in practically undisputed control of the fur trade from the Rockies to the coast and from San Francisco to the 60th parallel of latitude. But Governor Simpson's policy extended beyond the mere absorption of that trade. He was not content to make the land support the trading ports as his predecessors had done. The resources of the country having been searched out and examined, he proceeded to exploit them, to build up new industries, and establish new lines of trade. In this connection it mUvSt be re- membered that the chartered rights of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany only existed east of the Rockies. There it held the exclusive trade and the territorial lordship of the vaguely defined Rupert's Land and the still vaguer grant of the trade of all regions to which access from Rupert's Land might be found by water. West of that great range in the Oregon Territory, as the region was after- FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT 283 wards known, the company had no rights whatever until after the union of 1821. There, it was (except after 1849 as regards Van- couver Island) a mere trading corporation having no proprietor- ship, no lordship of the soil, nothing but a mere revocable license of exclusive trade with the Indians. This monopoly was only valid against British subjects. It did not confer nor attempt to confer any rights whatever as regards other nationalities. Con- sequently, in the branching out into the various lines of develop- ment of natural resources the company was only exercising a right open to every other person or corporation that might desire to exercise it. The small gardens of the Nor' Westers now expanded into a semblance of farming. The first rude attempts at agriculture in New Caledonia, — the interior of British Columbia, — were made in 1830. In McLean's Twenty-five Years in Hudson's Bay Territory, he says : " To Mr. Dease, however, the praise is due of having introduced this new order of things; he it was who first introduced cattle from Fort Vancouver ; it was he who first introduced farming and recommended it to others." In a letter preserved in the Archives of British Columbia,^ Dr. McLoughlin gives the motives which induced him to take this course, not only in British Columbia, but also throughout the whole of his king- dom. " If it had not been for the great expense of importing flour from Europe, the serious injury it received on the voyage, and the absolute necessity of being independent of the Indians for provi- sions, I would never have encouraged farming in this country, but it was impossible to carry on the trade without it." Wheat was raised in the Columbia River region and in central and northern British Columbia even as far as Fort Alexandria in Latitude 52° 33', where forty bushels to the acre and of the finest quality were obtained. In that inaccessible interior this was converted into flour for the use of the post, by means of a small mill operated by horses. As the farming operations increased, a good market for the surplus product was found in the men-of-war on the coast and in the Hawaiian Islands. Herds of cattle and sheep were reared for the support of the posts, but this industry soon exceeded the 1 This letter has since been published. It will be found in The American His- torical Review for October, 1915. 284 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY requirements of the company and the surplus found its way to the same markets. To handle this business to advantage the com- pany was compelled to extend its operations beyond the confines of this continent and establish a trading post on the Hawaiian Islands. The terms of the lease arranged with the Russian American Company in 1839 required the Hudson's Bay Company to supply annually eight tons of flour, six and a half tons of peas, six and a half tons of grits and hulled barley, fifteen tons of salt beef, eight tons of butter, and one and a half tons of ham. The prices agreed upon were such that the company could not afford to import these goods, but must obtain them upon this coast. At the out- set the Columbia River and Puget Sound districts furnished these supplies, but political reasons soon led the company to develop farming on a large scale in British Columbia, at Fort Langley and Fort Victoria. In the end this branch of industry became so extensive and required so much capital that a subsidiary corpo- ration, known as the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, was formed to carry it on. The detern*Jnation of Governor Simpson to employ horses to transport the trading goods and furs from Fort Okanogan on the Columbia to Fort Alexandria on the upper waters of the Fraser made it necessary for the company, following its avowed policy of being independent of the Indian support, to enter largely into stock-raising. Horses were also employed in the transport be- tween Fort Kamloops and Forts Yale and Hope. At Fort Alex- andria a herd of about two hundred horses was maintained, while in the vicinity of Kamloops, for many years, the company's band numbered between five and six hundred. This form of land conveyance was known as the horse brigade. In connection therewith the company built trails through the interior of British Columbia, — the brigade trails, as they were called — which later served as means of communication for the early settlers. The wealth of the waters was not overlooked. No longer was the trader satisfied to regard it merely as a source of the food supply of the post ; the possibility of curing fish in sufficient quan- tities to establish it as a part of an export trade was constantly in mind. At Nanaimo great quantities of herring were caught and FUR TRADE IN NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT 285 salted for the use of the company's posts, but, so far as my research has extended, no record exists of any export. Archibald McDonald tells us that when he arrived to take charge of Fort Langley in September, 1828, less than a year after its inception, he found in the provision shed, besides other supplies, three thousand dried salmon and sixteen tierces of salted salmon. The produc- tion increased annually. Governor Simpson, writing in November, 1841, says that Langley, after supplying itself and the other posts, had some four hundred barrels of salted salmon for export. In 1840, when James Douglas was examining the northern waters for a fort site, he noted the abundance of excellent salmon, and in his report mentions the possibility of developing a valuable auxiliary business therefrom. Later in the same document, in dealing with the prospects of Fort Stikine, one of the northern posts, he says : "If barrels could be provided, one hundred tierces of salmon might be cured annually at this place, for exportation, in addition to the quantity required for its own consumption." From San Juan Island alone, the company for many years exported from two thousand to three thousand barrels of salted salmon. Meares was the first to recognize the great possibilities of our lumber resources. In 1788, if he is to be believed, he shipped some spars to China, the first export of timber from the northwest coast. From that time the trade lay dormant until after the advent of the Hudson's Bay Company. Within the area now known as British Columbia small mills were established, notably at Victoria and Nanaimo, but these were entirely for the com- pany's own purposes. From the Columbia River sawn lumber was manufactured and shipped to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1835 coal was discovered by the oflScers of the Hudson's Bay Company at Suquash, on the northern end of Vancouver Island. This important event synchronized with the arrival of the celebrated steamer Beaver ^ the first steam vessel on the Pacific. The earliest coal mining, if it can be dignified by that name, was done for the company by the Indians in that vicinity. On one occasion, with hatchets and other primitive and unsuitable imple- ments, the natives procured about ninety tons in a few days. The company was also aware of the coal beds of Puget Sound ; and, from 1845, when that indefatigable traveller Father DeSmet 286 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY passed through the Kootenay region, the existence of the now famous Crow's Nest Pass coal fields was known. It was not, however, until the company obtained its grant of Vancouver Island that any real attempt was made to mine coal in this coun- try, and this was done, not as a subsidiary undertaking to that of fur trading, but as a part of a colonization scheme. In conclusion, let us add a word in reference to that necessity of modern life, the postal service. The annual brigades of the fur companies furnished to the resident traders the only means of communication with the outside world. We have here the germ of our express and post-office. How eagerly these opportunities were seized, how anxiously they were looked for, how proficient these traders became in the art of letter-writing the few remains of their correspondence which have come down to us bear eloquent witness. For some time these facilities were extended to strangers, free of charge, but in June, 1845, the council at Norway House decreed that postage on letters should be charged west of the Rockies. Letters to and from the Columbia River region not exceeding half an ounce were to be transmitted for one dollar, with a further charge of twenty-five cents for every succeeding half ounce. And here let us leave the subject, but in so doing it must be remarked that in the economic development of this western land the fur trader had his part ; a small one, it is true, and yet an im- portant one, as we have endeavored to show, in that he not only ascertained its possibilities in many ways and the existence of theretofore unknown natural wealth, but also, especially in the case of the Hudson's Bay Company, made a beginning in their exploitation, and thus pointed out to the home-builder, who in the natural evolution must follow him, the paths which have led us to the proud position of to-day. >:"mi 14 DAY USE „.,,,,^ RETUKKLIQ_nF.SK FROM wu.r-., „^„.>-^. 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