Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/174



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men ; the balance all fled to the fort liotly pursued, and only four men reached the fort alive ; the Northwesters capturing the fort and all its supplies of food, ammunition and stock of furs. At this crisis of affairs, Lord Selkirk (no relation to Robinson Crusoe), a Scotchman who had obtained a grant of laud from the H. B. Co. for the purpose of foimding a Scotch Colony as farmers, and not as hunters, undertook to settle the trouble and started in to suppress the war, but backed out at Port William near the head of Lake Superior, thinking discretion the better part of valor. Selkirk's land grant covered not only a large tract of the Hudson's Bay Co.'s dominions, but ran down into the territory of the United States, and his LordshiiJ had just as much right to dictate to the citizens of this country as to the citizens of Canada. At this juncture of affairs the Governor General of Canada issued his proclamation threatening the peace breakers with dire punishment, and had the cold comfort of seeing his commands treated by the fur hunting fighters on both sides with supreme eontemiDt. Commissioners were then appointed by the Canadian Government to proceed to the Great North- ern wilderness, investigate the murders and robberies and seize the offenders. This looked like dangeroi^s business for the Commissioners, and so they put off their mis- sion to the Spring of 1817 ; and meantime the war continued with unabated vigor, men being killed and foi'ts captured on both sides. But all things, even war, must have an end. The Canadian Courts took judicial notice of the violations of the law in the wilderness. Some of the partners were arrested in Llontreal ; and after ten years of bloody war the subject was worn threadbare in four years' contention in the Courts, which cost each of the rival contesting fur companies the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars hard cash. The fur trade had been ruined, each partj^ got a Scotch verdict and had to compromise in the end.

This much of the history of these two British Fur Companies operating mostly on their own side of the national boundary line on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, is given for the purpose of showing the reader what sort of people, and what sort of a combination the American settlers of Oregon had to contend with in coming into this region from 1811 down to 1846, when the title to the country was finally settled.

There is not much to be added to the historj^ of the fur trade in the Canadian Northwest beyond what has been said of the two gi'eat rivals for a monopoly of the business. There was another British Company, known as the Mackinaw Com- pany, which made its headquarters on the Island of Michilimackicac at the con- fluence of the waters of Lake Superior, Michigan and Huron, and being in fact upon United States territory. The operations of this company were mostly within the boundaries of the United States, and before our government had the disposition or the ability to expel the poachers. And as it is well known that after the Treaty of Peace that closed the Revolutionary War England persisted in holding on to a great many military posts along the Great Lakes, and by their influence over the Indians held back the American settlement and trade for more than ten years after the Treaty of Peace was signed. And owing to this hostile course of the British Cabinet, the fur trade on the American side of the boundary line east of the Rocky Mountains started from St. Louis and under grants and permits of the Spanish Governor of Louisiana. And under these Spanish fur traders the business had been extended up the Missouri river hundreds of