Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/64

42 five Kanakas, picked up at the Islands, and being the first of those islanders imported into the United States. For want of charts which did not exist on the Columbia one hundred years ago, and from ignorance of the channel and the stiff current of the spring floods, the passage up the Columbia was beset with much trouble and delay. But after ten days cruising around on the broad river, Winship selected Oak Point on the south side of the river for a suitable place for a settlement. This was so called from the oak trees growing there, and it is located opposite the place called Oak Point landing in the state of Washington. Here Winship cleared a tract of land, prepared it for a garden and planted it with a variety of seeds; and set his men to work cutting logs for a house for a dwelling and trading post and they had the structure well up to the roof when the rising waters of the river overflowed their garden, house location and all, and compelled their removal to a point farther down the Columbia. Here the party stayed in a temporary camp until July 18th, 1810, when they sailed from the Columbia river, and having learned at Drake's bay of Astor's contemplated adventure to the river gave up the project of making a settlement on the Columbia. Winship's garden at Oak Point, was the first cultivation of the soil in Oregon for garden or agricultural purposes, and his was the first attempt to construct a house in Oregon by civilized men.

On the 23d of June, 1810, John Jacob Astor, the founder of the wealthy Astor family of New York, a native of Heidelberg, Germany, and a citizen of the United States, then residing at New York city, organized the Pacific Fur Company; and while a private corporation in name, it was nothing more than a general partnership. Astor had been very successful in the fur trade in the regions east of the Rocky mountains, and this latest venture was planned on a scale far more extensive _ than any other American enterprise. A ship was to be dispatched from New York to the Columbia river at regular intervals with all the necessary goods for the Indian trade and supplies for a fort and corps of outheld trappers. And after discharging cargo at the fort and station to be established at the mouth of the Columbia, the ship was to take in the furs there on hand and then proceed up the northwest coast visiting all the stations of the Russian Fur Company, cultivating their friendship, trading for their furs, and after securing a ship's cargo, proceed to Canton, China, sell their furs, and take in a cargo of tea and China goods for New York city. It was a grand scheme, and here was the commencement of the present vast ocean-going commerce of the city whose history we are now recording. It is worth considering that from this humble commencement of one or two ships, handling only the pelts of fur bearing animals, just one hundred years ago, when I write this paragraph, that commerce has developed into an importing and exporting trade of nearly fifty millions of dollars, and of which Astor's big item of pelts does not now amount to more than one hundredth part of one per cent.

But the enterprising German was not to have easy sailing. Knowing full well the great influence, wealth and success of the Northwest Fur Company of Canada, and that said company had no trading posts west of the Rocky mountains, south of the headwaters of Frazer river, Astor made known to them his plans and invited them to join him in his new enterprise, offering them a third interest in his company. But instead of receiving this friendly offer in the spirit in which it was tendered, the Canadians pretended to take the matter under advisement in order to gain time, and then hastily sent out a party under the lead of their surveyor, David Thompson, with instruction to occupy the mouth of the Columbia with a trading post of their own, and to explore the river to its headwaters, and seize all advantageous positions. But fully aware of this treacherous return for his friendly offer, Astor prosecuted his enterprise with renewed vigor. He associated with him as partners, Alexander Mackay, Duncan MacDougal, Donald MacKenzie, David and Robert Stuart and Ramsey Crooks, all men of experience, taken from the Canadians, and with