Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/273

Rh "In order to give the Expedition as much as possible the Air of a Voyage of Discovery, and to make it appear as if they were exploring and taking possession of an unknown Country, though in fact the Country in the Interior was well known to the Traders from Canada, the Americans as they went along, bestowed new Names on Rivers, Mountains, &c., such as Jefferson's River, Madison's River, and so forth, forgetting or affecting to forget that the Columbia River had already been surveyed by Captain Vancouver and that a route across the Continent to the Pacific Ocean had already been traversed by Sir Alexander McKenzie, both of whom as well as Captain Cook, had taken possession of the Country in the name of His Majesty as hereinbefore mentioned.

"Uniting this project of the extension of Territory, with another favorite object, the obtaining possession of the Fur Trade, and detaching the Indian Nations from their partiality to the British and Canadian Traders, the American Government, soon after the return of Captains Lewis and Clarke, established a Chartered Company at New York to prosecute the Fur Trade of this New Country under the name of the Pacific Fur Company at the head of which was Mr. John Jacob Astor of New York and this Pacific Fur Company commenced their operations in the Summer of 1810, when Ships were sent to the Coast, a Fort Built at the mouth of the Columbia River, the Country taken possession of as American Territory, and named Astoria and the rights of Great Britain disregarded.

"Representations upon this subject were from time to time made to His Majesty's Government by the North West Company's representatives in London. Upon this subject they have had the honor of conferring with several of His Majesty's Ministers at different times and they all expressed their opinion that the country in question belongs of right to Great Britain and that the United States had no just claim whatever