On casting back our eyes over the series of events we have
recorded, we see no reason to attribute the failure of this great
commercial undertaking to any fault in the scheme, or omission in
the execution of it, on the part of the projector.
It was a
magnificent enterprise; well concerted and carried on, without
regard to difficulties or expense. A succession of adverse
circumstances and cross purposes, however, beset it almost from
the outset; some of them, in fact, arising from neglect of the
orders and instructions of Mr. Astor. The first crippling blow
was the loss of the Tonquin, which clearly would not have
happened, had Mr. Astor's earnest injunctions with regard to the
natives been attended to. Had this ship performed her voyage
prosperously, and revisited Astoria in due time, the trade of the
establishment would have taken its preconcerted course, and the
spirits of all concerned been kept up by a confident prospect of
success. Her dismal catastrophe struck a chill into every heart,
and prepared the way for subsequent despondency.
Another cause of embarrassment and loss was the departure from
the plan of Mr. Astor, as to the voyage of the Beaver, subsequent
to her visiting Astoria. The variation from this plan produced a
series of cross purposes, disastrous to the establishment, and
detained Mr. Hunt absent from his post, when his presence there
was of vital importance to the enterprise; so essential is it for
an agent, in any great and complicated undertaking, to execute
faithfully, and to the letter, the part marked out for him by the
master mind which has concerted the whole.
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