Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/233

 during two years on the Upper Missouri and the south branch of the Columbia. In 1834, several persons from New York and Boston formed the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company. Captain Wyeth took command of the expedition by land, while a ship was sent by sea to the Columbia. He was accompanied by five Methodist ministers, with their wives, under orders of Mr. Lee; a learned naturalist, Mr. Townsend, and a distinguished botanist, Mr. Nuttall. Captain Wyeth passed by Fort Hall, erected a short time before by the North American Company on the Port Neuf river, one of the upper tributraies of the south branch of the Columbia. Arrived at the Columbia, he chose some land between the two branches of the Willamette on Multnomah island, where in November, 1834, he set up a factory built of wood and called it Fort William, but was forced to abandon these points immediately, as he was not able to endure the competition of the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort William no longer exists, and Fort Hall is occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, which bought it from the Americans. Mr. Lee and the Methodists were located at various points on the Willamette and Columbia. In 1835, Messrs. Parker and Whitman, Baptist ministers, were despatched by the committee at Boston to found establishments on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Parker ar-