long. When he left Astoria, July 23d, David Stuart and his party of eight men journeyed up the river with him and within a short time established a post near the mouth of the Okanogan River. This was known as Fort Okanogan.

From New York, Hunt went to Montreal, westward through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi to St. Louis, at which point he spent more than a month in completing plans for the journey up the Missouri and across the mountains. Ramsey Crooks joined Hunt at Mackinaw and at St. Louis Joseph Miller was added to the company. Leaving the old Missouri town October 21st, in three boats, the company traveled several hundred miles up the Missouri to the mouth of the Nodaway where they went into winter camp. After getting his men settled Hunt returned to St. Louis to obtain more men and among those who joined the expedition at the Nodaway camp were Robert McLellan, John Day and Pierre Dorion. Dorion had with him his half-breed wife and two children. Hunt having returned, the company, now numbering about sixty persons, broke camp about the middle of April. The trip across the plains, over the mountains and down the rivers was marked by the most severe hardships. Food ran low and the company was broken up into small parties. Promising trails ended in unsurmountable difficulties. Dog and horse meat, bought from the Indians, kept the bands from starving. Through the snow-covered Blue Mountains they came in December and January, reaching the Columbia River January 21st. The band reached Astoria February 15th and found that the bands under Reed, McLennan and McKenzie already had arrived.

The men at Astoria had been reduced to short rations at times. Elk, deer and bear were to be found in the hills back of the fort, but the country was so rough and since hearing of the fate of the Tonquin, the men had feared to travel far from the protection of the stockade and the friendly Indians belonging to the tribe of Comcomly. McDougal doubly secured the friendship of this tribe by marrying a daughter of the old chief; a step which both the white man and his bride later regretted.

Spring brought salmon into the Columbia, supplied plenty of food and the Astorians soon recovered normal strength. Plans for outposts were made and a party was sent up the river to Fort Okanogan. With this party started Reed carrying dispatches to New York. Near the Dalles the travelers met a band of Indians who stole a part of the outfit. Reed, in defending the bright tin dispatch box, was so severly wounded that the overland trip was abandoned.

The men turned north up the river to Fort Okanogan. On their return journey they met Ramsey Crooks and John Day, whom Hunt had left on the banks of the upper Snake River in December. After wandering all winter through the deserts and mountains, Crooks and Day reached the friendly Walla Walla Indians and by them were directed to the Columbia. At the Dalles they met a party of Indians who robbed them even of the clothes they wore and set them adrift naked. Day afterward became insane and died at Astoria.

Astoria was reached May 11th. The ship (Beaver) which Astor had promised to send each year, had just arrived from New York. Her arrival put new life into the men and the enterprise. Hunt sailed for the Russian settlements and the little party left at Astoria began stocking the fort with food supplies. The Beaver traded along the coast and was delayed by storms and when she started

to return to the Columbia, the captain, fearing that he could not cross the bar in the winter, induced Hunt to sail for the Hawaiian Islands.

At the islands Hunt found the Albatross, just in from China with the news that the United States and England were at war. Chartering the vessel he returned to Astoria where, after consulting with his partners, it was decided to obtain a larger vessel and move the furs to some place not so likely to be attacked by a British ship. Returning to the islands Hunt bought the brig Peddler and in February was back at Astoria, only to learn that the post had been sold by the weak-kneed McDougal, and that the British flag had superseded the American.

Shortly after Hunt's departure in search of a vessel, McKenzie, with twelve men and two canoes, started up the river to inform the upper posts of the war. He had not traveled far when he met McTavish, of the Northwest company, at the head of a strong party on their way to Astoria. With McTavish was John Clarke, who had been in charge of the Astor post on the Spokane River and who had deserted upon being told that the Isaac Todd and the Phoebe, British ships, were on their way to the Columbia with orders to take Astoria.

The two parties went into camp on the banks of the river. Clarke and McKenzie, unknown to the Northwest men, planned to leave the camp in the night, hasten to Astoria and take measures to prevent the capture of the place by McTavish. Anticipating such a movement the Northwest trader was on the alert and when the Americans slipped away down the river, he also started and both parties arrived in front of the fort October 7th. The British went into camp outside the walls, raised the British flag, and boasted that it soon would be flying over the ramparts of the American post.

This action irritated the young Americans who favored raising the American flag and strongly defending the place, but they were overruled by McDougal who entered into negotiations with McTavish, sold the posts, furs and goods at a price estimated to have been about 40 per cent of value and became an employee of the Northwest company. The sale was consummated October 16, 1813. and Astoria passed under the control of a British corporation.

Thirsting for the glory of capturing the American trading post, Captain Black, commanding the British sloop of war Raccoon, arrived at Astoria December Ist. Deeply chagrined at finding the post sold to a British firm, Captain Black swore it was a "damned Yankee trick" concocted with the object of robbing him of the honor of subduing an enemy fort. He took possession of the territory in the name of his Britannic majesty, fired a salute, ran up the British flag and renamed the post Fort George-a name by which it was known for many years.

Ross Cox, one of the American clerks sent to Astoria on the Beaver, says, in his account of the surrender of the post, that Comcomly urged his son-in-law, McDougal, to permit him to lead his warriors against the British as they came ashore. McDougal rejected the proposal. The Indians had supposed that the capture of the American post would mean slavery for its defenders. Such an absurdity as freedom for prisoners of war was beyond Indian comprehension, and as the Americans were their friends, Comcomly and his warriors were ready to fight for them. Being refused permission to wipe out the 120 men of the

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ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATION

Raccoon, Comcomly shook his head solemnly and declared that his daughter had married a squaw.

February 28th Hunt returned on the brig Peddler. When informed of the sale of the post he declared his purpose to recover it, but he gave up the idea and on April 3d sailed away. Clarke, McKenzie, David Stuart and other members of the company who had not joined the Northwesterners, next day set out overland for New York, taking with them the drafts for $40,000 with which Astoria had been bought.

Under the terms of the treaty of Ghent all posts captured by either Great Britain or the United States were to be returned to the original owners. Astoria, or Fort George, on October 6, 1818, was surrendered to Captain Biddle and J. B. Prevost, American commissioners sent there to receive the property. It was but a nominal surrender-the Northwesterners continuing to occupy it. The Americans, driven from the country through the treachery of McDougal, had disappeared.

Fourteen days after the nominal restoration of Astoria to the American Government, what since has been known as the "joint occupation treaty" was signed in London, Albert Gallatin and Richard Rush representing the United States. This treaty definitely fixed the northern boundary of the Louisiana purchase as the 49th parallel westward from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains and provided for the joint occupancy of the country between the 42d parallel on the south and 54 degrees, 40 minutes, on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.

Some writers pretend to believe that at this time the title of the United States to any of this vast empire was of doubtful character. Gallatin and Rush have been given credit of winning a brilliant diplomatic victory. The American commissioners undoubtedly were entitled to credit, not so much for gaining any American rights in the territory, as for not surrendering rights recognized by Great Britain in the treaty of Ghent under the terms of which Astoria was restored to this Government. Laying aside the American claim to the northern part of the Oregon country, it seems a shameful neglect of American rights to have granted Great Britain joint occupancy privileges to any of the territory lying south of the Columbia River-a territory over which Great Britain herself recognized American sovereignty.

When the treaty of 1818 came before Congress for ratification, Oregon found a friend in Representative John Floyd who declared the United States had earned. a good title to the country and objected to the joint occupancy feature. Floyd's failure to convince Congress did not deter him from continuing his efforts. December 19, 1820, he introduced in the house a resolution providing for the appointment of a select committee with power to inquire into conditions and the advisability of taking steps to occupy the country.

Hall J. Kelley, a Boston school teacher, was one of the leaders in the agitation outside of Congress. Kelley began publishing booklets and newspaper articles on the subject in 1815. Later he lectured to audiences over the country and appeared before Congress. Floyd soon was joined by Senators Thomas H. Benton and Lewis Fields Linn, both of Missouri. Oregon became a live issue.

The joint occupation treaty was followed the next year by the purchase of Florida from Spain. In addition to ceding Florida this treaty established the