THE NORTHWEST FUR TRADE

By Captain William Sturgis.

FROM 1788 to 1830 the fur trade between Boston, the Pacific Coast and China was an important stage in American expansion. It led to the discovery of the Columbia River, and to the annexation of two great States. Furthermore, it inaugurated our traditional friendly relations with China.

This is part of a lecture delivered in 1846 and reported in Hunt's Merchants Magazine (Boston). Its author was actively engaged in the Northwest Fur Trade between 1798 and 1829, when, on its ceasing to be profitable, he became a dominant factor in the California hide traffic. It was on one of his vessels that Richard H. Dana sailed "Two Years Before the Mast."

Keenly interested in the Oregon question, it was Sturgis's compromise boundary suggestion, published in pamphlet form in 1845, that influenced the negotiations which established the forty-ninth parallel between this country and Canada.

THE Northwest Fur Trade, in which our citizens largely participated, and at one period nearly monopolized, was principally limited to the sea-coast between the mouth of the Columbia river, in latitude 46 , to the numerous islands bordering this whole extent of coast, and the sounds, bays, and inlets, within these limits. Trade was always carried on alongside, or on board the ship, usually anchored near the shore, the Indians coming off in their canoes. It was seldom safe to admit many of the natives into the ship at the same time, and a departure from this prudent course, has, in numerous instances, been followed by the most disastrous and tragic results.

The vessels usually employed were from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen, each. The time occupied for a voyage by vessels that remained upon the coast only a single season, was from twenty-two months to two years, but they generally remained out two seasons, and were absent from home nearly three years. The principal object of the voyages was to procure the skins of the sea-otter, which were obtained from the natives by barter, carried to Canton, and there exchanged for the productions of the Celestial Empire, to be brought home or taken to Europe, thus completing what may be called a trading voyage.

Beaver and common otter skins, and other small furs, were occasionally procured in considerable quantities, but in the early period of the trade they were deemed unimportant, and little attention was given to collecting them. The sea-otter skins have ever been held in high estimation by the Chinese and Russians, as an ornamental fur; but its great scarcity and consequent cost, limits the wear to the wealthy and higher classes only. A full-grown prime skin, which has been stretched before drying, is about five feet long, and twenty-four to thirty inches wide, covered with very fine fur, about three-fourths of an inch in length, having a rich jet black, glossy surface, and exhibiting a silver color when blown open. Those are esteemed the finest skins which have some white hairs interspersed and scattered over the whole surface, and a perfectly white head.

After the expedition of Bering and Co., in 1741, these excursions were slowly extended to other groups between the two continents, and when Cook, in 1778, explored these northern regions, he met with Russian adventurers upon several of the islands in proximity with the American shore. It was, however, the publication of Cook's northern voyages, in 1785, that gave the great impulse to the Northwest Fur Trade, and drew adventurers from several nations to that quarter.

The published journal of Captain King, who succeeded to the command of one of the ships after the death of Captains Cook and Clark, and his remarks, setting forth the favorable prospects for this trade, doubtless roused the spirit of adventure. Between the time of the publication referred to, in 1785, and the close of 1787, expeditions were fitted out from Canton, Macao, Calcutta, and Bombay, in the East; London and Ostend in Europe ; and from Boston in the United States. In 1787, the first American expedition was fitted out, and sailed from Boston. It consisted of the ship Columbia, of two hundred and twenty, and the sloop Washington, of ninety tons burthen the former commanded by John Kendrick, the latter by Robert Gray.

It is scarcely possible, in the present age, when the departure or return of ships engaged in distant voyages is an every-day occurrence, to appreciate the magnitude of this undertaking, of the obstacles and difficulties that had to be surmounted in carrying it out.

The project of engaging in the fur trade of the North Pacific, from this country, was first brought forward by the celebrated American traveler, Ledyard. In his erratic wanderings, he entered on board the ship Resolution, as corporal of marines, with Captain Cook, upon his last voyage.

Bering, a Danish navigator in the service of Russia, who commanded the expedition just mentioned, was wrecked in 1741, upon an island that bears his name, and perished miserably in the course of the winter. He was the first navigator known to have passed through the strait that separates Asia from America; and Cook, who was the next to sail through it, in a commendable spirit of justice, gave to this strait the name of the unfortunate Bering. The fate of Cook is well known. He was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands, of which group he was the discoverer.

Kendrick was fated never to return. After remaining with both vessels two seasons on the northwest. coast, he sent the Columbia home, in charge of Captain Gray, and remained himself in the sloop Washington. He continued in her several years, trading on the coast and at the Sandwich Islands.

In 1792, while lying in the harbor of Honolulu, at one of these islands, and receiving, upon his birthday, a complimentary salute from the captain of an English trading vessel anchored near, he was instantly killed by a shot carelessly left in one of the guns fired on the occasion.

Captain Gray reached home in the Columbia, in the summer of 1790, and thus completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under the American flag. He was immediately fitted out for a second voyage in the same ship, and it was during this voyage that he discovered, entered, and gave the name to the Columbia river, a circumstance now relied upon as one of the strongest grounds to maintain our claim to the Oregon Territory. He died abroad some years ago.

The voyage of the Columbia was not profitable to her owners, in a pecuniary view, but it opened the way for other adventures, which were commenced on her return. In 1791, there were seven vessels from the United States in the North Pacific in pursuit of furs. For various reasons, the American traders so far gained the ascendency, that at the close of the eighteenth century, with the exception of the Russian establishment on the northern part of the coast, the whole trade was in our hands ; and so remained until the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1815. This trade was confined almost exclusively to Boston. It was attempted, unsuccessfully, from Philadelphia and New York, and from Providence and Bristol, in Rhode Island. Even the intelligent and enterprising merchants of Salem, failed of success; some of them, however, were interested in several of the most successful northwestern voyages carried on from Boston. So many of the vessels engaged in this trade belonged here, the Indians had the impression that Boston was our whole country. Had any one spoken to them of American ships, or American people, he would not have been understood. We were only known as Boston ships, and Boston people.

Subsequently, the war with Great Britain interrupted the trade for a time ; but after the peace of 1815, it was resumed, and flourished for some years. The difficulties and uncertainty in procuring furs became so serious, that in 1829 the business north of California was abandoned.

The narrative of Cook's voyage shows the value of a prime skin to have been, at the time of that voyage, $120. In 1802, when the largest collection was made, the average price of large and small skins, at Canton, was only about $20 each. At the present time, those of first quality would sell readily at $150. Some seventy or eighty ordinary California skins, brought home a few months ago, were sold here at nearly $60 each, to send to the north of Europe.

The trade on the coast was altogether a barter trade. It consisted in part of blankets, coarse cloths, greatcoats, fire-arms and ammunition, rice, molasses, and biscuit, coarse cottons, cutlery, and hard-ware, a great variety of trinkets, &c.; in fact, everything that one can imagine. Copper has long been known, and highly prized by the Indians. It was put to no use, but was considered very valuable, and a person having a few pieces was deemed a wealthy man.