Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/161

CHAPTER IV

1640—1824

THE PIONEERS OF THE FUR TRADE—GROSEILLIERS AND RADISSON—PRINCE RUPERT SENDS OUT A SHIP—THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY—THE NORTHWEST COMPANY OF CANADA—INDEPENDENT AMERICAN TRAPPERS THE RENDEZVOUS THE WAR BETWEEN ENGLISHMEN AND SCOTCHMEN FUR TRADING STARTS FROM ST. LOUIS—THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY—JOHN JACOB ASTOR ENTERS THE FIELD—ORGANIZES THE PACIFIC FUR COMPANY FOUNDS ASTORIA—DESTRUCTION OP ASTOR'S ENTERPRISE TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE FUR TRADERS—THE SERVICES OF THE FUR TRADERS TO CIVILIZATION.

In opening the great Northwest region of North America to the settlement and occupation by white men the catching of wild animals for the value of their furry skins was the first business that promised trade and wealth. Wholly unlike the experiences of the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru, where the invaders found gold and silver beyond the dreams of avarice, and which they could seize by robbery of the lawful owner and then torture him with flames to discover the mines of the precious metals, the explorers of the great Northern wilderness had to contend with all the forces of nature and tax their physical strength to the utmost limit to secure success. And the remarkable contrast between the ethical results of the fur trade pushed by hardy, vigorous and independent men in the wilderness of the north, and the wholesale robbery of simple-minded Aztecs and Peruvians in the south by the armed freebooters of Spain, is one of the most forcible and persistent lessons of civilization on the American continent. On the one hand is seen the heroic examples of the pioneers of the northwest conquering the wilderness by following a peaceful industry and opening the way for great states that command the respect and dominate the forces of the New World, while on the other hand, is beheld the cancer of unrestrained avarice as the curse of feeble and unstable governments that are rent with bloody strife and unceasing rebellion.

With no other object or ambition than to make large profits, the fur traders, their ship captains and wilderness trappers, have been most effective agents in opening new countries and extending the boundaries of civilization to organize governments. When Captain Cook's ship carried over to China and exhibited to the traders of the world the little pack of otter skins that had been picked up at Vancouver's island, an impulse was given to the exploration of the Pacific coast that never halted until Oregon was secured to the United States and gold discovered in California.. Not the Spanish, the French, the English, or the East India Company's ships would have led the way to the settlement of the country and the founding of states. This region was too far from their bases of sup-