Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/99

Rh the British ship reached the Columbia, Astor's Canadian partners had treacherously sold him out for a trifle to the Canadian Fur Company, a British subject institution; and Captain Black, the commander of the ship did not dare to rob a British subject. As this was from its inception an outrage on private persons, and in no sense war upon the U. S. government, it could give England no title to the land on which the trading post was located. And hence England gained nothing by the capture, in equity, morals or good conscience. But, nevertheless, England pulled down the American flag, floating over the Astoria stockade, and put up the British flag, changed the name of the place from Astoria to Fort George, and held undisputed possession of the same until the execution of the treaty of Ghent, December 20th, 1814; in which treaty the British agreed to surrender Astoria to the United States, without delay. Here and then, the title to the country was left up in the air, to be decided by future events. The Canadian Fur Company, succeeded by the Hudson Bay Company, was in practical possession of the country, and control of the Indians, and was working it for the last dollar it would produce in furs. The fur companies did not want American farmers or permanent settlers here in this country. And as we have now reached the point when the Americans began to take notice of the country as a place of settlement for homes, this chapter may be closed, and a view taken of the Indians, the trappers, and the fur traders which connects the wilderness barbarism of the past with the commercial development of the present.