Boston attempted to establish a post for trade with the Indians at a place called Oak Point, on the Columbia River. A house was built and a garden planted. The site was badly chosen, for a rise in the river washed away the garden and the scheme was abandoned,

44. Founding of Astoria. In 1810 the Pacific Fur Company was organized by Astor, who determined to form a settlement on the Pacific coast. He despatched a vessel named the Tonquin, commanded by Captain Thorne, to the mouth of the Columbia River, where they arrived on the 24th of March, 1811. They erected a fort and other houses, cleared a large piece of ground and planted a garden. They named the settlement Astoria in honor of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the company.

45. First Settlement in Washington. While the Astorians were engaged in erecting their buildings, they were visited by a party of the Northwest Company in charge of David Thompson, the surveyor of the company. Finding the Americans already in possession of the mouth of the Columbia, to which they had been despatched from Canada in order to forestall the Americans, they returned up the Columbia as far as the mouth of the Okanogan. Near the junction of this river with the Columbia, Thompson established a post. This was the first settlement in what is now the state of Washington. Thompson and his party remained here during the winter, but there is no record of its further occupation.

46. Supremacy of the Hudson's Bay Company. The war of 1812 caused the abandonment of Astor's enterprise, and the property at Astoria was sold to the Northwest Company in 1813. The name Astoria was changed to Fort George, and the Canadian company was the dominant power in Oregon until 1824, when the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed the Northwest Company, and this old British monopoly ruled the country, with its headquarters at Vancouver on the Columbia, until it was superseded by the provisional government of the American pioneers in 1843.

47. Joint Occupancy of Oregon. On October 18, 1818, the United States and the British governments, in a treaty held in London, agreed "that any country that may be claimed by either Great Britain or the United States on the northwest coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains

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should

be free and open for the term of ten years to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers.' This is known in history as the "Joint Occupation of Oregon."

48. Society For the Settlement of Oregon. In 1829 there was incorporated at Boston under the laws of Massachusetts a company organized by H. J. Kelly and known as "The American Society for the Settlement of Oregon Territory." Mr. Kelly sent agents throughout the eastern states to enlist emigrants for Oregon. This enterprise was not very successful. Mr. Kelly himself visited the scene of his proposed colony, and one of his agents, Nathaniel Wyeth, of

Cambridge, Massachusetts, led an expedition to the Columbia.

49. Wyeth's Expedition. Wyeth crossed the plains to Oregon in 1832 and returned in 1833. Again in 1834 he arrived on the Columbia and established himself as a trader on Wappatoo Island, near the mouth of the Willamette, having sent his goods around Cape Horn in a vessel. He remained on this island about three years, and then sold his property to the Hudson's Bay Company. Nuttal, a naturalist, and Townsend, an ornithologist, accompanied Wyeth, and the accounts of their explorations and observations did much to attract the attention of people to this country. The Methodist missionaries, Lee, Shepard, and Edwards, also came with Wyeth in 1834 and established missions on the Willamette River. They were the first missionaries in the country.

50. Bonneville's Expedition. Captain Bonneville of the United States army obtained a furlough for two years to explore the west. On the 1st of May, 1832, with a force of 110 men Bonneville started from Fort Osage in Missouri and began his march westward. They reached the Umatilla River about the middle of September and proceeded down that river to the Columbia and endeavored to open trade with the Indians. But the Indians were under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had forbidden their trading with the Americans. Bonneville reluctantly abandoned the expedition and returned to the east,

51. First Missionaries in Washington. In 1836 the American Board of Missions sent Whitman and Spaulding to establish missions among the Nez Perce and other Indians. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding accompanied their husbands, and were the first white women to cross the plains to Oregon. Whitman established a mission among the Cayuse Indians at Waiilatpu on the Walla Walla River, about five miles southwest of the present city of Walla Walla. Spaulding went to Lapwai on the Clearwater and established a mission among the Nez Perces.

In 1837

52. Puget Sound Agricultural Company. the Hudson's Bay Company organized a company called the "Puget Sound Agricultural Company," for the purpose of bringing into the country a British agricultural population to counteract the American tide of immigration and to aid by their presence and numbers in the approaching strife for the occupation of the country. In 1841 a party of settlers, under the management of this company, came from Canada and formed two settlements, one on the Cowlitz River and one at Nisqually, near Puget Sound. In 1843 William F. Tolmie was placed in charge at Nisqually, the principal place of business of the company.

53. Roman Catholic Missions. In 1838 the Bishop of Quebec sent two Roman Catholic clergymen, F. N. Blanchett and Modeste Demers, from Canada across the continent to Vancouver as missionaries to the French Canadians, who, after leaving the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, had settled in the

Willamette Valley and on the Cowlitz River. was located at Cowlitz.

Demers

In

54. Emigrants Crossing the Plains in Wagons. 1838 the first emigrants to cross cross the continent in wagons arrived in Oregon. Others followed, and in 1842 a tide of emigrants with their ox-teams, herds, household goods and farming implements began to pour over the Rocky Mountains and down the valley of the Columbia into Oregon. From the Missouri to the Columbia the plains were dotted with the "white schooners of the prairie" during this and subsequent years. The British began to realize that "Joint Occupancy" was not what they wanted after all. Yankee enterprise was too much for them.

55.

Formation of Provisional Government. Early in 1843 the "citizens of the colony," as they styled themselves, began to hold meetings to devise ways and means to protect their stock from the wolves and other wild animals. These meetings led to the formation of the Provisional Government. This was consummated by electing a Supreme Judge and other officers, and a committee to prepare a code of laws to be adopted by a vote of the people. The report of this committee was adopted by the people, and thus began a government for Oregon "for the people and by the people." This form of government was purely American and was completed at Champoeg on July 5th, 1843, and the dominant power of the British fur company ceased in Oregon.