The Astoria establishment was now in good order. There seemed to be no reason why Astor's project at last should not move on to success. Several trading-posts were founded in the upper Columbia valley, and to further develop the situation, Hunt, in the supply ship Beaver, which had duly arrived in May, 1812, sailed north along the coast. This was in accordance with another part of the plan whereby arrangements had been made with the Russians for supplying their North American trading posts with merchandise and transporting their peltry. The chief of the Russian company was the famous Baranof, a man of domineering power and iron purpose. His home was in the celebrated Baranof Castle, at New Archangel, now Sitka, a castle that saw grog flow like water, and where a teetotaler met with no toleration. The castle, a massive log structure, was accidentally burned only a few years ago. Hunt withstood as well as he could the power of Baranof's potations, and succeeded in adjusting his business satisfactorily.
Before he left Astoria, he sent Robert Stuart, a young Scotchman of integrity, good judgment, and sincere devotion to the company, back overland on June 29th, with messages for Astor, and this journey deserves more space than it is possible to give it here, for Stuart traversed new ground a part of the way, and so may be recorded among the first Wilderness breakers.[80] With him went McClellan, Ramsay Crooks, John Day, Ben Jones, Andri Vallar, and Francis Le Clerc. Crooks and John Day, after having reluctantly been left behind by Hunt, had finally arrived at Astoria in a desperate condition, from which Crooks recovered, but Day's health was permanently destroyed and, his mind giving way, Stuart was obliged to send him back to Astoria, where he died the next year. His memory endures in the name of a river in Idaho, as well as in his connection with the second great traverse of the continent within the limits of the United States. The Stuart party on its eastward way followed the Columbia and the Snake, meeting opposition from some natives and assistance from others. They also encountered near the head of the Snake some of the hunters who had been left to trap and trade. These men were in a sorry plight, having met with various disasters and also with robbery at the hands of hostile bands of natives. At Caldron Linn they found that six of the caches had been robbed by natives under the guidance of three voyageurs of the Hunt party who had remained behind and finally had taken up their residence among some Shoshones. Fitting out several of the men from the three remaining caches, Stuart left them to once more try their fortunes, and directed his course on to the East. After a good deal of difficulty, the 17th of October found him crossing one of the branches of the Green. Food was limited, and finding no buffalo here the men were at the last notch. Francis Le Clerc insisted that lots should be cast, as it was better for one to die than for all, but Stuart threatened to shoot him on the spot for the suggestion. Food was soon after obtained and the party saved from extinction.
On the Virgin River, Southern Utah, near where Escalante Went in 1776. Pine Valley Mountain in Distance.
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.
Crossing over to the head of the North Platte, which they did not know at the time, they descended its wide valley for a long distance, and then made a permanent camp for the winter, November 2d, where there was abundant game. A visit from a war party of Arapahos caused them to abandon the place and seek another, where the remainder of the winter was passed comfortably without interruption, and in the early spring they continued down the Platte, meeting in April with an Otoe who told them of the war between the United States and Great Britain. Within a few miles of the Missouri they bought a canoe from a trader and then sailed down, arriving at St. Louis April 30th, 1813, ten months after their departure from Astoria. Their horses had all been stolen on the way by the natives, which not only caused delay, but deprived them of a permanent food supply, and was one cause of their descent to the brink of collapse.
As soon as the news of the war reached the North-west Company, orders were issued for a party to proceed to Astoria to oust the Americans. This detachment under McTavish and La Roque reached the place in a famishing condition, but as McDougall, one of their countrymen, was in charge, Hunt being absent, they were cordially received. For various reasons Hunt's return was delayed, the next annual supply ship, the Lark, failed to come, having been wrecked on the way, and altogether the project was again deeply overshadowed. McDougall negotiated a sale with the North-west representatives, and when the British man-of-war Raccoon, on December 1, 1813, arrived to capture the American post, all the disgusted captain could do was to substitute the British for the American flag, as, of course, he had no power to molest property of the North-west Company. He re-named the place Fort George, and sailed away, without the rich prize money he had anticipated. When Hunt, who had been back and again gone off to secure a ship for the removal of his company's property, once more arrived on February 28, 1814, he found the place a North-west Company post with McDougall in charge. He accepted drafts on Montreal for the settlement of the account of the Pacific Fur Company, and this part of the War of 1812 was thus a purely business transaction. It would be cheaper if all wars could be settled on the same basis.
McDougall has been roundly denounced for selling out in this manner. Astor himself considered it disgraceful. But it is probable that in the end, this procedure was the best, and there is nothing to indicate that McDougall acted in bad faith. The Astoria enterprise was ended. It had been well planned, but circumstances were against it. It did not expire in a blaze of glory to make the close romantic, but merged into the North-west Company as one day melts into another, and for years thereafter this company was the dominant power of the whole region. But while the scheme as a fur-trading venture had failed, as a part of the history of breaking the Wilderness it takes a front place. Had those in authority then fully appreciated the importance of the proceedings of the Pacific Fur Company to the future of the United States, they would have bent their energies to its successful promotion instead of taking but a languid interest. Nevertheless the bearing of the disastrous operations of the Pacific Fur Company on the boundary of Louisiana and the claims of the United States in the Oregon country was of the first importance.
When the treaty concluding the war was signed, December 24, 1814, it stipulated that all territory and all places taken from either party, with a few exceptions, were to be restored, and on this basis, though the Oregon country was not mentioned, the United States claimed Astoria. But the British, while finally agreeing to yield the post, although they claimed it had never been booty of war, refused to allow any right of possession of the region to go with it, asserting that Astoria had merely been established in British territory. Captain Biddle in the United States ship Ontario took formal possession August 9, 1818, and somewhat later J. B. Prevost went there on the British ship Blossom and received the actual transfer as agent for the United States. Great Britain was firm in its claim for the mouth of the Columbia and as no settlement could be reached it was agreed, October 20, 1818, that for a period of ten years the whole region eastward to the Rocky Mountains should remain free and open to both nations. East of the Rocky Mountains the forty-ninth parallel was at the same time adopted as the division between Louisiana and British territory, an adjustment which had nearly been arrived at eleven years earlier.