He combined the salmon fishery with the fur trade.
A
fortified trading post was to be established on the Columbia, to
carry on a trade with the natives for salmon and peltries, and to
fish and trap on their own account. Once a year, a ship was to
come from the United States, to bring out goods for the interior
trade, and to take home the salmon and furs which had been
collected. Part of the goods, thus brought out, were to be
dispatched to the mountains, to supply the trapping companies and
the Indian tribes, in exchange for their furs; which were to be
brought down to the Columbia, to be sent home in the next annual
ship: and thus an annual round was to be kept up. The profits on
the salmon, it was expected, would cover all the expenses of the
ship; so that the goods brought out, and the furs carried home,
would cost nothing as to freight.
His enterprise was prosecuted with a spirit, intelligence, and
perseverance, that merited success. All the details that we have
met with, prove him to be no ordinary man. He appears to have the
mind to conceive, and the energy to execute extensive and
striking plans. He had once more reared the American flag in the
lost domains of Astoria; and had he been enabled to maintain the
footing he had so gallantly effected, he might have regained for
his country the opulent trade of the Columbia, of which our
statesmen have negligently suffered us to be dispossessed.
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