Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/140



On a peninsula flanked by Young's River and the Columbia, ten miles from the broad Pacific, is situated the historic city of Astoria. Its beginning dates back to April 15, 1811, when an expedition sent from New York by John Jacob Astor founded a fur-trading post on the present site of the city, and erected a stockade and buildings for the use of the traders. For a short time all went well with this little pioneer settlement, and a profitable trade was carried on, despite the murder of the crew of the Astor Company's vessel, Tonquin, and the destruction of the vessel off the coast of British Columbia. The Indians became enraged on account of the treatment accorded them by the captain, and set upon and murdered the crew, with the exception of Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk, who, though mortally wounded, after inducing the Indians to come aboard again, set fire to the magazine and blew up the ship and its swarm of savages.

Soon after this, the second war with Great Britain started, and the members in charge at Fort Astor, thinking they would be captured by the British war vessels then on the coast, and that their goods would be confiscated, sold their interest and that of Mr. Astor to a rival company, known as the Northwest Fur Company, and controlled by British subjects. Soon after this transfer was made the British warship Raccoon appeared in the river, and on December 12, 1813, took formal possession of Astoria in the name of Great Britain, and named it Fort George.

In accordance with the terms of the treaty of Ghent there