Fort Vancouver

“ No English or white woman was at the fort, but a great number of mixed blood Indian extraction, such as belong to the British fur trading establishments, who were treated as wives, and the families of children taken care of accordingly. So that everything seemed to combine to prove that this fort was to be a permanent establishment. At Fort Vancouver the goods for the Indian trade are imported from London, and enter the territories of the United States paying no duties, and from the same point the furs taken on the other side of the mountains are shipped. ”

“ It was soon evident to the mind of Jason Lee that a better locality than French Prairie, for both missionary and colonization purposes, might be found. The French Canadians still owed allegiance to Fort Vancouver. A society of low, illiterate half-breeds was not the best soil in which to plant American institutions. Let him have something apart from all the world, plenty of room, plenty of agricultural land, with some commercial facilities if possible, and he would clear the ground for a commonwealth of intelligent freemen such as God would delight to prosper. ”

“ By this management, it became impossible for them to dispose of drink to the Indians; their small allowance being always immediately consumed in a meeting or parting carouse.
The arrival of men from the interior at Fort Vancouver usually took place in the month of June, when the Columbia was high, and a stirring scene it was. The chief traders generally contrived their march through the upper country, their camps, and their rendezvous, so as to meet the Express which annually came to Vancouver from Canada and the Red River settlements. ”

“ Fort Vancouver—which will probably be the head of a great colony, is about ninety miles from the sea, the Colombia in front of it, being a mile in width—contains houses, stores, magazines, &c. Outside the fort, the dwellings of the servants, &c. form a little village. The people of the establishment vary in number, according to the season of the year, from one hundred and thirty to more than two hundred. Divine service is regularly performed every Sunday in English to the Protestants. ”

“ The Americans were not yet overstepping the boundary fixed in the British imagination as their rightful limits; and perhaps Douglas foresaw that the presence of a war-vessel would alarm them, and lead them to call upon their government.
Captain Belcher, on his side, was outspoken in his contempt for the unmilitary appearance of forts George and Vancouver. "No Fort Vancouver exists," he says; "it is merely the mercantile post of the Hudson's Bay Company." [14] And the captain's sneer was just, inasmuch as the total armament of Fort Vancouver at this time consisted of a little three-pounder. ”

“ Fort Vancouver, ninety miles inland from the sea on the Columbia, was the capital of this transmontane kingdom, and yearly till 1846 the fur brigades set out from Fort Vancouver two or three hundred strong by pack horse and canoe. Well-known officers became regular leaders of the different brigades. There was Ross, who led the Rocky Mountain Brigade inland across the Divide to the buffalo ranges of Montana. There was Ogden, son of the Chief Justice in Montreal, who led the Southern Brigade up Snake River to Salt Lake and the Nevada desert and Humboldt River and Mt. ”

“ Very early in Fort Vancouver life, owing to the relative positions of the two governments, British and American institutions and ideas were compared, and defended or condemned according to the views of the disputants. [36] But after the advent of the first missionaries and settlers as an American element, these discussions became more frequent, and in fact developed a great deal of patriotism on one side, and a liberality not to be expected on the other. John Dunn relates that in those days, from 1834 to 1843, there were two parties at Fort Vancouver, patriots, and liberals, or philosophers. ”

“ The present generation can never fully realize that Fort Vancouver was once in this Northwest country, the court of a King, and that poor Indians wandering chieftainless and alone looked to it as a center of power, culture and wealth. In the lodges of Cathlamet, the Indian mothers told their children of the wonderful place and of the wealth of red blankets, of gay silk handkerchiefs and of powder and shot and provisions that were to be found in its storehouses. ”

“ From the time the Astor expedition failed, for 10 years few white men penetrated the lower Columbia. About 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver and it at once became the center of the vast operations of that company on the Pacific. For a quarter century all communication of intelligence from Sitka on the north to Yerba Buena and Mazatlan on the south, from Fort Hall, and even on to the Great Lakes and to the St. Lawrence, and westward to the Sandwich Islands was conducted by that company. ”

“ They are establishing themselves as in a permanent possession—making the fort Vancouver, at the confluence of the Multnomah and Columbia, in tide-water, the seat of their power and operations. The notice required never will be given while the present administration is in power; nor obeyed when given, unless men are in power who will protect the rights and the honor of their country. ”

“ Fort Vancouver had been threatened in an early day; a vessel or two had been lost in which the Indians were suspected to have been implicated; at long intervals a trader was murdered in the interior; or more frequently, Indian insolence put to the test both the wisdom and courage of the officers to prevent an outbreak.
When murders and robberies were committed, it was the custom at Fort Vancouver to send a strong party to demand the offenders from their tribe ”

“ Doctor McLoughlin conducted life at Fort Vancouver as feudal lords of old, and that, too, with strict military discipline; the coming and going regulated by the ringing of the great bell. The members of this large household breakfasted and supped by their own firesides, but dinner was served in the hall for gentlemen and visitors. All stood while the doctor said grace, and men of humble birth "sat below the salt." ”

“ Mr. Benton then showed from a report of Major Pilcher, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and who had visited the Columbia River, that actual colonization was going on there, attended by every circumstance that indicated ownership and the design of a permanent settlement. Fort Vancouver, the principal of these British establishments, for there are many of them within our boundaries, is thus described by Major Pilcher:
"This fort is on the north side of the Columbia, nearly opposite the mouth of the Multnomah, in the region of tide-water, and near the head of ship navigation. ”

“ I know how our men face winter and summer in the lonely mountains. It is not play. My father says hunting the beaver is the most laborious work in the world."
Never did guests more regretted leave the halls of Fort Vancouver. Had it been possible they would have been detained permanently, but winter rains were setting in, sure sign that storms were whirling around Mt. Hood. They must re-embark for the upper country. Many a token of beads and embroidery was placed in their hands by the skilled ladies of the fort as Whitman and Spalding bore away their brides to the distant mission. ”

“ Last fall an American took possession of a small island in the falls, but no sooner was it known at Fort Vancouver than a company of men was sent off with boards to put up a hut, and soon the governor of the fort came up, greatly incensed, called the man a pilferer, and anything but good ”

“ Headquarters were removed from Fort George to a more advantageous site on the north bank of the Columbia River, 112 miles upstream. The new post. Fort Vancouver, was the fur capital of the region. The brigades of trappers were increased in size and number, and each year saw the fur hunters ranging farther afield in an effort to secure the harvest before American rivals should arrive at the trapping grounds. The two nationalities clashed first in 1824, when Peter Skene Ogden and his Snake brigade encountered American trappers in the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ Some of the more noted of these forts were Fort Hall near Pocatello, Fort Boise near the mouth of that river, Fort Colville north of Spokane, Fort Walla Walla, now Wallula, and Fort Vancouver, the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany.
The fur traders were our nation's first great topographers. There is not a river, a creek or a branch which they did not ascend and descend repeatedly not a mountain, a range, a hogback or a hill which they did not cross not a pass which they did not find, a wilderness which they did not penetrate, or a desert which they did not cross. ”

“ In the midst of a good agricultural country, with a fine climate, good fishing, and other advantages, it was the central supply post for all the other forts in the region of the north Columbia. Established shortly after Fort Vancouver, with its allotment of cattle, consisting of two cows and a bull, it had now like Fort Vancouver its lowing herds, furnishing beef, butter, and milk. It had, besides bands of fine horses and other stock, and a grist-mill for the large yield of grain. On the well-cultivated farm grew also excellent vegetables in abundance. ”

“ These forts were all laid out in the same general fashion as Fort Vancouver, though no one was so large, elaborate, or comfortable. Besides the forts there were a number of small trading posts. The chief furs procured in the interior were beaver, and those on the coast were sea-otter. Many others, as the mink, sharp-toothed otter, fox, lynx, raccoon, were found in abundance.
The profits of the business were immense. Alexander Ross relates that he secured one morning before breakfast one hundred and ten beaver skins for a single yard of white cloth. ”

“ Built Fort Vancouver, 1824, and made it the headquarters for the whole territory west of the mountains. Did more than any other man to strengthen the hold of the Company on the fur trade of the Pacific coast. Through misunderstandings over his attitude towards the American settlers on the Columbia, retired from the Company's service, 1846, and spent the rest of his life in Oregon City. ”

“ The Americans, though so lacking in civilized conceptions according to the ideas of the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver, were stubborn in their legal rights, and were, besides, turbulent in their habits, and might put thoughts of insubordination into the minds of the company's people. ”

“ John McLaughlin, and his associates. The change from the privations of wilderness life to the luxuries of Fort Vancouver was very great indeed, and two weeks passed rap [Pg 213] idly away in the enjoyment of refined society, and all the other elegancies of the highest civilization.
At the end of two weeks, Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding, and Mr. Gray returned to the Upper Columbia, leaving the ladies at Fort Vancouver while they determined upon their several locations in the Indian country. ”

“ The notes of the naturalists indicate that they are very active at the above points and out the voyage. The vessel arrives opposite the mouth of the Columbia on February 12, 1825. It crosses the Columbia bar April 7th. For some two weeks botanical operations are carried on near the mouth of the river. Both sides are visited and expectations are realized. Fort George is about to be abandoned. Douglas makes the newly located Fort Vancouver his headquarters from April 20 to May 10. ”

“ In the hope of their glorious resurrection, their mortal remains have been deposited at the foot of the large cross.
Of twenty persons who died within the year, we have no reason to fear for the salvation of one.
Not having been able this year to obtain either provisions or sufficient clothes to supply the wants of our mission, I started for Fort Vancouver, the great mart of the honorable Hudson Bay Company, and distant about one thousand miles from our establishment. The continuation of this narrative will show you that this necessary journey was providential. ”

“ As to American traders, he could not expel them from a territory held jointly by Great Britain and the United States; but he could and did beat them in a fair business deal. Courtesy was their due, and this they received. Scientists and travelers were also welcomed at the fort. Colonists, while they were not encouraged, could not be left to suffer from illness or hunger at the very gates of Vancouver. In short, while he desired to serve the company faithfully he could not neglect to perform his duty as a Christian and a gentleman. ”

“ The organisation of part of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains into the province of British Columbia is rapidly modifying the character of its native population. But in recent years there were frequently to be found at Fort Vancouver upwards of two hundred voyageurs with their Indian wives and families, in addition to the factors and clerks. Thither also resorted for trading purposes, Chinook, Nootka, Nisqually, Walla-walla, Klikatat, Kalapurgas, Klackamuss, Cowlitz, and other Indians. ”

“ Ogden, although holding strictly to the rights of his company, man- aged to avoid conflict and was on the best of terms with the army officers. Fort Vancouver continued to be the supply point for the company's forts along the coast and at the Sandwich Islands, and the business with the Oregon settlers and the Indians of the interior continued to be large ”