ican traders in the field had to rely on
their individual resources, with no aid from a Government too feeble in
its infancy to do more than establish a few Indian agencies, and without
constitutional power to confer charter privileges."

The voyage of Captain Cook had brought to the notice of the fur dealers
of the world the sea otter of the northern Pacific, and the announcement
made upon the return of the expedition drew large numbers of adventurers
to the west coast of America, in search of the valuable skins of these
animals. In 1792, there were twenty-one vessels, principally American,
on the coast.

It was into this field, already occupied by powerful and hostile
corporations, that the young German entered. He was perfectly aware of
the opposition his efforts would encounter from them, but he was not
dismayed. He began business in 1786, in a small store in Water Street,
which he furnished with a few toys and notions suited to the tastes of
the Indians who had skins to sell. His entire capital consisted of only
a few hundred dollars, a portion of which was loaned him by his
brother. He had no assistants. He did all his own work. He bought his
skins, cured, beat, and sold them himself.

Several times during the year he made journeys on foot through western
New York, buying skins from the settlers, farmers, trappers, savages,
wherever he could find them. He tramped over nearly the entire State in
this way, and is said to have had a better knowledge of its geography
and topography than any man living.

"He used to boast, late in life, when the Erie Canal had called into
being a line of thriving towns through the center of the State, that he
had himself, in his numberless tramps, designated the sites of those
towns, and predicted that one day they would be the centers of business
and population. Particularly he noted the spots where Rochester and
Buffalo now stand, one having a harbor on Lake Erie and the other upon
Lake Ontario. He predicted that those places would one day be large and
prosperous cities; and that prediction he made when there was scarcely a
settlement at Buffalo, and only wigwams on the site of Rochester."

During these tramps his business in the city was managed by a partner,
with whom he was finally compelled to associate himself.

As soon as he had collected a certain number of bales of skins he
shipped them to London, and took a steerage passage in the vessel which
conveyed them. He sold hi