Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/141

Rh was to be a mutual restoration of all territory captured during the war. When the question of the restoration of Astoria or Fort George came up England contended that Astoria had been transferred in a commercial transaction between an American and a British company, but this contention was not pressed against the American claim that the settlement of Astoria by an American company confirmed that title already secured by the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Gray in 1792, and by the exploration of Lewis and Clark in 1805. The United States again took possession of Astoria August 9, 1818, and the formal transfer was made October 6, 1818.

Astoria was now a very small settlement, consisting of a stockade and a few shacks, but bearing the high sounding titles of Astoria and Fort George, the latter being the property of the Northwest Fur Company.

In 1821 the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Fur Company were consolidated, and in 1824 Dr. John McLoughlin was placed in charge of Fort George. At this time the fur trade was carried on chiefly with the tribes of the interior, and it was the custom for the agents of the company to carry the goods to the Indians. Under the circumstances Doctor McLoughlin saw that the chief trading post should be farther inland, near the head of navigation, and moved to Vancouver, Washington, leaving a trader in charge of the company's property at Astoria, whose duty it was to watch for the company's vessels, and to send the pilot, Indian George, out to meet them and to pilot them to Vancouver.

With the departure of the fur company, Astoria became a lookout station and a trading post of very little importance. Mofras describes it in 1841 as "a miserable squatter's place, invested by the rival American and English factions, with the pompous name of Fort George and town of Astoria, the fort being represented by a bald