Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/23

Rh Superior, and Ontario, etc., bring back a valuable supply of furs from these remote regions, in exchange for such European articles as are in request among their savage customers. This trade having been prosecuted with such success by the British, the Americans seem in like manner resolved to profit by the vast tract of similar territory to which they have access. By the journey of Captains Lewis and Clark across the Rocky mountains to the Pacific Ocean, the whole of that western region is now laid open. Numerous adventurers have since crossed, by easier and better roads, this mountainous barrier where they found an open champaign country, well wooded and watered, and abounding in game. Captains Lewis and Clark were often astonished at the immense numbers of wild animals which they met with in all directions, consisting of bears, wolves, beavers, hares, foxes, racoons, etc., and various other animals, which are keenly pursued on account of their furs.

The plan of the Americans seems therefore to be, to form settlements in this country with a view to a trade in its great staple, namely fur; and by establishing a port which would gradually grow up into a village or a town at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Ocean, they could thence transport their cargoes to the great Indian markets, in exchange for the valuable produce of the East. Such is the project contemplated, and if it succeed, it would have this important consequence, that it would lay the foundation of an American colony on the shores of the Pacific