This shrewd Company never allow their territory to be overtrapped. If the annual return from any well trapped district be less in any year than formerly, they order a less number still to be taken, until the beaver and other fur-bearing animals have time to increase. The income of the company {254} is thus rendered uniform, and their business perpetual.

The nature and annual value of the Hudson Bay Company’s business in the territory which they occupy, may be learned from the following table, extracted from Bliss’s work on the trade and industry of British America, in 1831:[66]

Skins.No.each£.s.d.£.s.d.
Beaver126,944”150158,68000
Muskrat375,731”0069,39356
Lynx58,010”08023,20400
Wolf5,947”0802,378160
Bear3,850”1003,85000
Fox8,765”01004,382100
Mink9,298”023929160
Raccoon325”0162476
Tails2,290”010114100
Wolverine1,744”030261120
Deer645”03096150
Weasel34”00600160
£203,31690

Some idea may be formed of the net profit of this business, from the facts that the shares of the company’s stock, which originally cost £100, are at 100 per cent premium, and that the dividends range from ten per cent upward, and this too while they are creating out of the net proceeds an immense reserve fund, to be {255} expended in keeping other persons out of the trade.

In 1805 the Missouri Fur Company established a trading-post on the headwaters of the Saptin.[67] In 1806 the North-West Fur Company of Canada established one on Frazer’s Lake, near the northern line of Oregon.[68] In March, 1811, the American Pacific Fur Company built Fort Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia.[69] In July of the same year, a partner of the North-West Fur Company of Canada descended the great northern branch of the Columbia to Astoria. This was the first appearance of the British fur traders in the valleys drained by this river.[70]

On the 16th of October, 1813, (while war was raging between England and the States) the Pacific Fur Company sold all its establishments in Oregon to the North-West Fur Company of Canada. On the 1st of December following, the British sloop of war Raccoon, Captain Black commanding, entered the Columbia, took formal possession of Astoria, and changed its name to Fort George.[71] On the 1st of October, 1818, Fort George was surrendered by the British Government to the Government of the States, according to a stipulation in the Treaty of Ghent.[72]

{256} By the same treaty, British subjects were granted the same rights of trade and settlement in Oregon as belonged to the citizens of the Republic, for the term of ten years; under the condition, that as both nations claimed Oregon the occupancy thus authorized should in no form affect the question as to the title to the country. This stipulation was by treaty of London, August 6, 1827, indefinitely extended; under the condition that it should cease to be in force twelve months from the date of a notice of either of the contracting powers to the other, to annul and abrogate it; provided such notice should not be given till after the 20th of October, 1828.[73] And this is the manner in which the British Hudson’s Bay Company, after its union with the North-West Fur Company of Canada, came into Oregon.

They have now in the territory the following trading posts: Fort Vancouver, on the north bank of the Columbia, ninety miles from the Ocean, in latitude 45½°, longitude 122° 30′; Fort George, (formerly Astoria), near the mouth of the same river;[74] Fort Nasqually, on Puget’s Sound, latitude 47°; Fort Langly, at the outlet of Fraser’s River, latitude 49° 25′; Fort McLaughlin, on the Millbank Sound, latitude 52°;[75] Fort {257} Simpson, on Dundas Island, latitude 54½°.[76] Frazer’s Fort, Fort James, McLeod’s Fort, Fort Chilcotin, and Fort Alexandria, on Frazer’s river and its branches between the 51st and 54½ parallels of latitude;[77] Thompson’s Fort, on Thompson’s River, a tributary of Frazer’s River, putting into it in latitude 50° and odd minutes; Kootania Fort, on Flatbow River; Flathead Fort, on Flathead River; Forts Hall and Boisais, on the Saptin; Forts Colville and Oakanagan, on the Columbia, above its junction with the Saptin; Fort Nez Percés or Wallawalla, a few miles below the junction;[78] Fort McKay, at the mouth of the Umpqua river, latitude 43° 30′, and longitude 124° west.[79]

They also have two migratory trading and trapping establishments of fifty or sixty men each. The one traps and trades in Upper California; the other in the country lying west, south, and east of Fort Hall. They also have a steam-vessel, heavily armed, which runs along the coast, and among its bays and inlets, for the twofold purpose of trading with the natives in places where they have no post, and of outbidding and outselling any American vessel that attempts to trade in those seas. They likewise have five sailing vessels, measuring from one hundred to five hundred tons {258} burthen, and armed with cannon, muskets, cutlasses, &c. These are employed a part of the year in various kinds of trade about the coast and the islands of the North Pacific, and the remainder of the time in bringing goods from London, and bearing back the furs for which they are exchanged.