Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/123

 navigated the Columbia river about one hundred miles, to the point which bears his name. In 1793 the country was visited by Sir Alexander McKenzie, after discovering the river which retains his name. In 1804, Messrs. {16} Lewis and Clark were commissioned by the United States to explore the sources of the Columbia, and they descended the river as far as Gray's Bay. A few years after, in 1810, Mr. Astor fitted out two expeditions to Oregon, for the purpose of securing the interest of the fur-trade in those parts. The party that had embarked by water arrived first, and erected a fort called Astoria, about nine miles from the mouth of the Columbia. The company of the North-West (English) also considered the fur-trade of Oregon as well worthy of attention, and they immediately despatched an agent by land for the purpose of securing it; but he arrived at Astoria several months after the first expeditions from the United States.

During the war of 1812, a British vessel sailed to the Columbia, in order to take possession of Astoria and its treasure; but the captain was cruelly disappointed in discovering that the place was already held by an agent of the North-West Company, who had purchased it in anticipation of the future war with the United States. The Canadians who had settled there under its original owners, were employed by the new proprietors, and their numbers increased in proportion as the Company extended its {17} operations. In this way the country was visited