Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/180



the Rocky mountains in 1793. and invited them into the new company. Tliese men were undoubtedly selected not only for their knowledge of the fur trade, but also for their knowledge of all the schemes of the Northwest Company and their acquaintance with Canadian trappers and hunters. In addition to these men, Astor took into his new company Ramsay Crooks, formerly in the employ of the Northwest Company, but then an independent trapper along the upper Missouri 'river. Also Joseph Miller, of Baltimore, formerly an officer, but since engaged in the fur trade ; Robert McLellan, a fearless, energ-etic man with large experi- ence in handling and fighting Indians ; and lastly, his most important and faith- ful man, Wilson Price Hunt, of New Jersey. Forty Canadian boatmen and hunters were engaged, together with, as foremen, John Day, a Virginia back- woodsman, John Colter, who had been over to Oregon with Lewis and Clark, and Pierre Dorion, son of Lewis and Clark 's interpreter ; and with this mate- rial the new Astor company was formally organized on June 23, 1810, and named the Pacific Fur Compan.y. It must be said, as any judge of human nature might foresee, that Astor had risked a most dangerous experiment in taking into his confidence and business control of his affairs a lot of misfits from his rivals in. business. It could hardly be otherwise but that former associations, diverse na- tionality and clannish prejudices would lead to want of confidence and secret, if not open treacherj', whenever the temptation offered.

Astor had planned well to succeed if not betrayed or destroyed bj^ superior power. He organized two parties ; one to proceed overland from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia river, and the other to sail by the ocean around Cape Horn in a well-provisioned ship. The rendezvous of the land party under the com- mand of "Wilson Price Hunt, was on the Missouri river in the autumn of 1810; and all the trials and sufferings of that party to reach Oregon in 1811 have been related in Hunt's expedition to Oregon in the chapter on Overland Expeditions. For the ocean expedition, the Tonquin, a ship of two hundred and ninety tons burden, Jonathan Thorn, commander, was provided with all necessary supplies, tools, merchandise, gams, ammunition and equipment of every sort to establish an armed fort and trading post in the Oregon wilderness. Thorn was a lieuten- ant in the United States navy and was allowed to go on this expedition on leave of absence, to favor Astor and help make a success of the great undertaking.

The Tonquin sailed for the Columbia river on the 8th day of September, 1810, with a crew of twenty-one men and thirty-three passengers, all connected with the Pacific Fur Company. And after an uneventful voyage of six months and two weeks arrived oiif the mouth of the Columbia in a storm on March 22, 1811. Capt. Thorn had made himself very disagi-eeable to his passengers and crew, and now exhibited his real character as a heartless wretch and iinmitigated brute. He had taken a dislike to his first mate. Fox, and instead of standing out to sea until the storm abated he ordered Fox to take a crew of inexperienced Kanakas and an old leaky boat and make soundings of the Columbia bar. Feeling that his life was being placed in jeopardy out of spite, Fox appealed to the captain to give him sailors and a chance to save his life. This the captain refused. Fox then appealed to the passengers, and they remonstrated with the captain upon the danger of sending the men on to such a dangerous bar, but all to no purpose ; Fox and the poor Kanakas took the boat, headed for the bar, were soon lost to sight and never heard of again. Within the next two days two other boats were