[110] In March, 1821, Wentzel, one of the North-West partners, wrote: "The Hudson's Bay Company have apparently relaxed in the extravagance of their measures; last autumn they came in the [Athabasca] Department with fifteen canoes only, containing each about fifteen pieces. Mr. Simpson, a gentleman from England last spring, superintends their business. His being a strange, and reputedly gentlemanly, man, will not create much alarm, nor do I presume him formidable as an Indian trader."
[111] May 30th, 1838.
[112] "Such is the spirit and avidity exhibited by the Council," wrote one of the Company's factors, in 1823, "that it is believed these discoveries will be extended as far as the Russian settlements on the Pacific Ocean."
[113] On motion of Mr. Congressman Floyd, a committee was appointed in December, 1820, "to enquire into the situation of the settlements upon the Pacific Ocean, and the expediency of occupying the Columbia River."
[114] See [Appendix] for copy of this Treaty.
[115] The Russian Company was incorporated under the patronage of the Crown with a capital of two hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling. It had a large commerce with Northern China which did not deal with Canton; and it was in the northern part of the empire that the consumption of furs was greatest. Canton was merely the entrepôt where furs were received for distribution throughout China.
[116] From Joseph Berens, Esq., the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and the gentlemen of the Committee, I received all kinds of assistance and information, communicated in the most friendly manner previous to my leaving England; and I had the gratification of perusing the orders to their agents and servants in North America, containing the fullest directions to promote by every means the progress of the expedition.—Sir John Franklin.
[117] "The extraordinary expedition with which this despatch was transmitted by the Hudson's Bay Company," says Back, "is worthy of being recorded."
[118] Indeed it cannot be doubted that Great Britain was wholly influenced by the position of the Company. It has been said that she did not anticipate any permanent possession of the country. "The British have certainly no other immediate object," wrote Mr. Gallatin, the American commissioner, to Henry Clay, "than that of protecting the Company in its fur-trade."
[119] Sir Edward Walkin tells how, when he was for a short time, in 1865 and 1866, shareholders' auditor of the Company, he cancelled many of these notes which had become defaced, mainly owing to the fingering of Indians and others, who had left behind on the thick yellow paper, coatings of pemmican.