Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/37

 visited Monterey. The fear that the English would seize the country rested on a slightly better foundation, for in his communication Larkin announced that the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company had presented a bill for arms and munitions supplied the Californians in the late struggle; that Forbes raised his consular flag for the first time, and fired a salute on hearing of Micheltorena's overthrow.

Dugald McTavish came down from the Columbia, and closed out the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company in California. Mellus and Howard bought the property in Yerba Buena. Thus ended the California venture of the oldest company in the world.

The Oregon boundary question was settled the next year (1846). In 1849, the company removed its Pacific headquarters from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria, the site of the present city of Victoria on Vancouver Island. In September, 1851, James Douglas was made governor of the colony. Thus, at last, were united in one person the authority and interests of the Hudson's Bay Company and the authority and interests of the British colonial government.