o repair to such place or places as the majority might
direct.

An agent, appointed for the term of five years, was to reside at the
principal establishment on the northwest coast, and Wilson Price Hunt
was the one chosen for the first term. Should the interests of the
concern at any time require his absence, a person was to be appointed,
in general meeting, to take his place.

Such were the leading conditions of this association; we shall now
proceed to relate the various hardy and eventful expeditions, by sea and
land, to which it gave rise.

* Carver's Travels, Introd. b. iii. Philad. 1796.

**Carver's Travels, p. 360.

*** On this point Mr. Jefferson's memory was in error. The
proposition alluded to was the one, already mentioned, for
the establishment of an American Fur Company in the Atlantic
States. The great enterprise beyond the mountains, that was
to sweep the shores of the Pacific, originated in the mind
of Mr. Astor, and was proposed by him to the government.

CHAPTER IV.

Two Expeditions Set on Foot.--The Tonquin and Her Crew.--
Captain Thorn, His Character.--The Partners and Clerks--
Canadian Voyageurs, Their Habits, Employments, Dress,
Character, Songs--Expedition of a Canadian Boat and Its Crew
by Land and Water.--Arrival at New York.--Preparations for a
Sea Voyage.--Northwest Braggarts.--Underhand Precautions--
Letter of Instructions.

IN prosecuting his great scheme of commerce and colonization, two
expeditions were devised by Mr. Astor, one by sea, the other by
land. The former was to carry out the people, stores, ammunition, and
merchandise, requisite for establishing a fortified trading post at
the mouth of Columbia River. The latter, conducted by Mr. Hunt, was to
proceed up the Missouri, and across the Rocky Mountains, to the same
point; exploring a line of communication across the continent and
noting the places where interior trading posts might be established. The
expedition by sea is the one which comes first under consideration.

A fine ship was provided called the Tonquin, of two hundred and ninety
tons burden, mounting ten guns, with a crew of twenty men. She carried
an assortment of merchandise for trading with the natives of the
seaboard and of the interior, together with the frame of a schooner,
to be employed in the coasting trade. Seeds also were provided for the
cultivation of the soil, and not