Richard Somerset Mackie - Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific, 1793-1843

Trading Beyond the Mountains

This page intentionally left blank

Richard Somerset Mackie

Trading Beyond the Mountains

THE BRITISH FUR TRADE ON THE PACIFIC 1793-1843

UBCPress /Vancouver

UBC Press I997 Reprinted I998, 2000

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher, or, in Canada, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from CANCOPY, 900 - 6 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, ON M5C IH6.

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper ISBN 0-7748-0559-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 0-7748-0613-3 (paperback)

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Mackie, Richard 1957-

Trading beyond the mountains

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7748-0559-5 (bound) - ISBN 0-7748-0613-3 (pbk.)

i. Simpson, George, Sir, i792?-i86o. 2. Hudson's Bay Company - History. 3. Fur trade - British Columbia - Pacific Coast - History. 4.Furtrade United States - Pacific Coast - History. 5. Northwest Coast of North America. I. Title. FC32O7-M32 1996 97i.i'i'o2 096-910486-3

Fio6o.8.M32 1996

Financially assisted by the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Heritage Trust.

UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support to its publishing program from the Canada Council, the Province of British Columbia Cultural Services Branch, and the Department of Communications of the Government of Canada.

UBC Press

University of British Columbia 2029 West Mall

Vancouver, BC V6TIz2

(604) 822-5959

Fax:(604) 822-6083

E-mail: info@ubcpress.ubc.ca www.ubcpress.ubc.ca

To Cathy, Juliet, and Raphael

This page intentionally left blank

CHAPTER i 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Figures, Maps, and Tables I viii Acknowledgments I xi

Introduction I xv

The North West Passage by Land / 3

Managing a New Region / 35

George Simpson and a New Pacific Commerce / 44 Nature Here Demands Attention / 69

From Fort Vancouver to the Vermilion Sea / 95

The North West Coast / 123

New Markets for New Exports / 151

Columbia Country Produce / 184

Beyond the Mere Traffic in Peltries / 218

Crisis in the Fur Trade / 244

Simpson's Reorganization / 257

The Native Foundation of Trade and Labour / 283 Conclusion I

Notes I

Bibliography I

Index I

Contents

FIGURE i

2 3 4

5 6 7

10 11 12

13 14 15

16 17

Henry Warre, Hauling up a Rapid,

Les Dalles des Morts, 1845 /

Henry Warre, Fort Colvile in August 1844 I

Henry Warre, Going through Rapids I

Henry Warre, Ascending the Rocky Mountains,

1846 / 63

Henry Warre, Mount Hoodfrom Les Dalles, 1845 / 84 Mervyn Vavasour, Plan of Fort Vancouver, 1845 / 9^ Henry Warre, Sandstone and Basaltic Rocks on the Snake River I

Alfred Miller, The Rendezvous near Green River ... Final Destination of the American Fur Company

Caravan, 1837 / 109

'North West Coast of America from Lat. 52to

Lat. 573o',' showing islands and capes / 128

Fort Simpson. I

Plan of Fort Vancouver, circa 1846 / 152

Fran9ois Edmund, lies Hawaii, Honorourou capitate de'Oauahou Vu de Mouillage, 1839 / 158

The Sea Town and Port Yerba Buena in St. Francisco Bay in California, circa 1842 / 177

The Russian American Company Headquarters at Sitka, nineteenth century / 182

Paul Kane, A View of Fort Vancouver, Looking South, 1846 or 1847 / I ^7

Edward Belcher, Canoe, Columbia River, 1839 / 190 Henry Warre, Salmon Net Fishing, Head of the Cascades on the Columbia River, 25August 1845 / I I

Figures, Maps, and Tables

Figures, Maps, and Tables be

19 20

22 23

25 26

MAP i 2

3 4

6 7

Edward Mallandaine, Interior of Fort Langley Yard Looking South Showing 'The Hall,' 15 December 1858 / 229 Paul Kane, Crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca,

1847 / 26

'Columbia River, by Thomas Sinclair in 1831.

Cape Disappointment in Lat.46.17.30 N.

Longitude 123.53.00 W.' / 264

Henry Warre, Cape Disappointment at the Mouth of the

Columbia River, 1845 / 272

Henry Warre, Fort Victoria, 27 September 1845 / 7^ Henry Warre, The Bay of Fort Victoria,

27 September 1845 / 279

Henry Warre, H.B.Cos. Settlement & Fort Victoria on

Vancouver^ Island, Straits Juan de Fuca, 1845 / 280

Paul Kane, Fort Victoria and an Indian Village, 1847 / 288 William McMurtrie, Indian Graves, Victoria, c. 1853 / 310

Hudson's Bay Company districts, 1830 (after Arrowsmith) / xvi

Principal English place names of the Columbia Department / xix

Major explorations, 1778-1812 / 6

The Columbia Department of the North West Company, 1821 / 19

The North West Company's Columbia District (redrawn from Alexander Ross map,1821) / 25 Physiographic regions of western North America 71 Climatic regions of western North America 72

X

Figures, Maps, and Tables

9 10

11 12

13 14 15

16 17 18

TABLE i 2

3 4 5 6

7 8 9

Culture areas of western North America / 74

Native language groups, Columbia Department / 75 Average annual precipitation of western

North America / 78

Major drainage basins of western North America / 80 Thompson's River District of the Hudson's Bay Company (redrawn from Archibald McDonald

map, 1827) / 87

Major provisions, British fur trade territories / 90

Major transport routes, Columbia Department, 1843 / 97 The Hudson's Bay Company's Snake and

Southern parties / 105

The Pacific Rim / 156

The lower Columbia and lower Fraser regions, 1843 / ^5 The Columbia Department, 1843 /

North West Company profit and loss,

China venture / 23

Oahu sales of country produce and imported

goods, 1843-4 / 169

Columbia Department shipping, 1839 / 170

Columbia River salmon exports, 1830-43 197 Columbia River lumber exports, 1828-43

Salmon production and export, Fort Langley,

1828-43 /222

Columbia Department, returns and profit, 1821-43 / 252 Columbia Department returns, 1844 / 254

Selected rates of exchange, 1824-47 / ^7

Acknowledgments

M Ly original and perhaps greatest debt is to my brother Alexander. In x-v i

O c t o b e r 1981, A l , a n a r c h a e o l o g i s t , a s k e d i f I c o u l d p r o v i d e h i m

with biographical details about a west coast fur trader named George Blenkinsop. Al had found Blenkinsop's unpublished 1874 report and cen-sus on the Indians of Barkley Sound, on Vancouver Island's west coast, but he knew little about the author, and he asked if I could do some research for him at the British Columbia Archives. I had recently returned from Scotland, where I had acquired an undergraduate degree in medieval history. After a few days at the archives I was hooked. I found that Blenkinsop, even when he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, was much more than a fur trader: he worked as a lumberman, farmer, and coal miner, and provided commodities for export to Pacific markets. His occupational diversity seemed to contradict almost everything written at that time about the west coast fur trade. A year later, I began graduate work in history at the University of Victoria intending to write Blenkinsop's biography. After a few months of fruitful research on Blenkinsop and his contemporaries, I decided to broaden my study to include the economic history of Vancouver Island during the Hudson's Bay Company's era. I suspected that Blenkinsop, an emigrant Cornishman with wide commercial interests, was typical of his generation.

I completed my master's degree in 1984, and a year later enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of British Columbia, determined to locate the origins of the economic patterns I had detected at the western edge of Canada at the very end of the fur trade era. This book is the result of that search. W ith Cole Harris's encouragement, I travelled back in time to the fur trades of the Columbia River, New Caledonia, Red River, Hudson Bay, and the St. Lawrence River, and somewhere along the way I grasped Harold Innis's analysis of the workings of