Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/162

. But the rich fur trade excited the interest of Boston merchants, and Capt. Gray was sent out to see what he could get for his employers. He got his share of the furs, and he discovered the Columbia river. The Boston merchants sent other ships and the discovery of the Columbia river planted a germ in the brain of a great American statesman (Jefferson) that grew and expanded until expeditions were sent out two thousand miles through the wilderness to connect the expanding nation with Gray's discovery of the great river; and the titanic forces of American pioneering, settlements and Republicanism completed the transcontinental bond of union and made Oregon the pioneer outpost and defender of American commerce and civilization on the great Pacific.

The French founded the city of Quebec on the St. Lawrence in 1608. Two years later, Henry Hudson discovered the great northern bay of the North Atlantic ocean, which bears his name. Then commenced the conquest of the New World on the line of settlement up the St. Lawrence, up the Great Lakes, north to Hudson's Bay and west to the Rocky mountains. This projection of European colonization, trade and laws into the heart of North America, commenced in 1640, and its forerunner was the fur trade. In 1659 two French traders and trappers, Groseilliers and Radisson, working their way up the Great Lakes in the employ of the French Company of One Hundred Associates, reached the head of Lake Superior, and there learned from the Indians that by traveling on northward overland they could reach the shores of Hudson 's Bay where there were vast numbers of fur-bearing animals. The success of these two adventurous Frenchmen in getting so large a catch of rare and rich furs excited the cupidity of their superiors, so that when the men who had braved the perils of the wilderness asked for a concession from the French government to take furs in the Hudson's Bay regions, they found they had been forestalled and the coveted privileges given to another. Disappointed and indignant at the treatment he had received from the Colonial grantees, Groseilliers returned to France and sought to undo the wrong and injustice wrought upon him by an appeal to the king; and failing in this he went over to England and submitted his proposed scheme to the English court. In this he was successful, and under the protection and aid of Prince Rupert, the cousin of King Charles II, Groseilliers was in 1668 outfitted with a vessel, cargo and all necessary arms and supplies and sailed for the Hudson's bay. And the success of this Frenchman led to the formation of the great transcontinental monopoly of the fur trade known as the Hudson's Bay Company, which was granted a royal charter on May 2, 1670. The royal patent reads as follows:

"Whereas, our dear entirely beloved cousin, Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria and Cumberland; George Duke of Albermarle; William, earl of Craven; Henry, Lord Arlington; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir John Robinson and Sir Robert Vyrner, knights and baronets, Sir Peter Colleton, baronet; Sir Edward Hungerford, knight of the bath; Sir Paul Neele, Sir John Griffith, Sir Philip Carteet and Sir James Hayes, knights, and John Kirke, Francis Millington, William Prettyman and John Portman, citizen and goldsmith of London, have, at their own great cost and charges, undertaken an expedition for the Hudson's bay in the northwest parts of America for a discovery of a new passage into the South Sea (Pacific ocean), and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other commodities, and by such, their undertakings have