de Montigny accompanied the other hired employees and McKay in August and traveled to New York City. Once there, the men waited to sail on aboard the Tonquin, which departed in September. After the ship sailed past Cape Horn, it landed at the Kingdom of Hawaii and hired 24 Hawaiian Kanakas. The ship reached the Columbia River in March 1811.
In the middle of April, de Montigny and his fellow PFC employees began work on what would become Fort Astoria. Reports from near by Chinookan peoples made the management aware of fellow fur traders were operating a trading post in the Pacific Northwest interior. This would later turn out to be the North West Company and its stations in New Caledonia. On 2 May 1811, McKay led a small party that included Robert Stuart, Gabriel Franchère and de Montigny up the Columbia River to investigate these claims.[2] They were accompanied by a Clatsop noble, Coalpo, who already had developed ties with Fort Astoria and would guide the party. The party passed Tongue Point and passed the night at Coalpo's village, "Wahkaykum." On 4 May, de Montigny and Mackay explored the Cowlitz River with Coalpo. While on the river, they encountered a large canoe force of Cowlitz warriors. McKay was able to negotiate with the armed force and create amicable relations. Members of the Cowlitz leadership explained they were in the middle of strife with a ChinookanSkilloot village nearby.[2]
Continuing up the Columbia, the party met the prominent Multnomah Chinookan noble Kiesno. The Multonomah headman had married a daughter of Chinookan noble Comcomly, making him a relative of Coalpo.[3] Afterwards they passed the mouth of the Willamette River, an area described by the Clatsop as full of game and hide bearing animals. On 10 May, the party reached the rapids controlled by various Wasco and Wishram villages which included Celilo Falls. Coalpo would not go further than the borderlands of these people, informing McKay that the Wishram and Wascoes if allowed to would kill him.[3] This was due to a prior military campaign he commanded that destroyed a major settlement in the area. Content to see that the rumored NWC station wasn't at the important fishery, McKay led the party back to Fort Astoria and arrived on 14 May.[citation needed]
Late in June 1811, he and three men were sent to Youngs Bay to collect tree bark in large quantities. The material was used for siding and roofing for the structures of Fort Astoria.[4] de Montigney and the men returned several days later, having not found a satisfactory source of bark.[5]
Shortly before the Tonquin departed to trade with various Indigenous nations on Vancouver Island in June 1811, McKay selected Montingny to accompany him. Montingny however declined, citing an issue with sea sickness.[6] After Jonathan Thorn insulted an elder Tla-o-qui-aht man by slapping him in the face with a beaver pelt, the Tonquin was destroyed. The only known survivor of the crew was the Quinault interpreter Joseachal, who arrived back at Fort Astoria through assistance of prominent Lower Chinookan noble Comcomly.[7]
de Montigny was among the PFC employees dispatched into the interior to establish Fort Okanogan.[8] It was here he remained until the North West Company absorbed the Pacific Fur Company.[9] de Montigny worked in various capacities for the NWC in the region until it was in turn merged into the Hudson's Bay Company.[1]
Jones, Robert F. (1997), "The Identity of the Tonquin's Interpreter", Oregon Historical Quarterly, 98 (3), Oregon Historical Society: 296–314
McDougall, Duncan (1999), Robert F. Jones (ed.), Annals of Astoria: The Headquarters Log of the Pacific Fur Company on the Columbia River, 1811-1813, New York City: Fordham University Press
Watson, Bruce M. (2010), Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858, Okanagan: The Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice of the University of British Columbia
Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of the Columbia River in present-day Vancouver, Washington. The fort was a major center of the regional fur trading. Every year trade goods and supplies from London arrived either via ships sailing to the Pacific Ocean or overland from Hudson Bay via the York Factory Express. Supplies and trade goods were exchanged with a plethora of Indigenous cultures for fur pelts. Furs from Fort Vancouver were often shipped to the Chinese port of Guangzhou where they were traded for Chinese manufactured goods for sale in the United Kingdom. At its pinnacle, Fort Vancouver watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. Today, a full-scale replica of the fort, with internal buildings, has been constructed and is open to the public as Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the upper and Middle Columbia River (Wimahl) from the river's gorge downstream (west) to the river's mouth, and along adjacent portions of the coasts, from Tillamook Head of present-day Oregon in the south, north to Willapa Bay in southwest Washington. In 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the Chinook Tribe on the lower Columbia.
The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades among the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Spanish Empire, the United States of America and the Russian Empire.
Fort Astoria was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff was sent on board the Tonquin, while another party traveled overland from St. Louis. This land based group later became known as the Astor Expedition. Built at the entrance of the Columbia River in 1811, Fort Astoria was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast of North America.
Jonathan Thorn was a career officer of the United States Navy in the early 19th century.
Tonquin was a 290-ton American merchant ship initially operated by Fanning & Coles and later by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC), a subsidiary of the American Fur Company (AFC). Its first commander was Edmund Fanning, who sailed to the Qing Empire for valuable Chinese trade goods in 1807. The vessel was outfitted for another journey to China and then was sold to German-American entrepreneur John Jacob Astor. Included within his intricate plans to assume control over portions of the lucrative North American fur trade, the ship was intended to establish and supply trading outposts on the Pacific Northwest coast. Valuable animal furs purchased and trapped in the region would then be shipped to China, where consumer demand was high for particular pelts.
Spokane House was a fur-trading post founded in 1810 by the British-Canadian North West Company, located on a peninsula where the Spokane River and Little Spokane River meet. When established, the North West Company's farthest outpost in the Columbia River region was the first ever non-Indigenous settlement in the Pacific Northwest. Prior to the arrival of the white traders, the site of what would become Spokane House was a gathering place for area tribes who came to catch and dry salmon, which contributed to its development as a trading post.
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 under which the Columbia District became known as the Columbia Department. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 marked the effective end of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department.
Comcomly (1765–1830) was a Native American leader of the Lower Chinook, a group of Chinookan peoples indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, who inhabited the area near Ilwaco, Washington. Concomly spoke Lower Chinook and was known for his skill with diplomacy and trade.
Étienne Lucier, né Lussier, was a French-Canadian fur trader active primarily in the Pacific Northwest. He was hired by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company and sent to the region to help establish Fort Astoria. Later he became a settler in the Willamette Valley. Lucier attended the Champoeg Meetings and was one of few French-Canadians or "Canadiens" to vote for the Provisional Government of Oregon, an American and Canadian civil authority for the valley. He is credited with becoming the first European descendant farmer within the modern state of Oregon.
Alexander MacKay was a Canadian fur trader and explorer who worked for the North West Company and the Pacific Fur Company. He co-founded Fort Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific coast.
Naukane, also known as John Coxe, Edward Cox, and Coxe was a Native Hawaiian chief who traveled widely through North America in the early 19th century. He was either considered a member of the royal household of Kamehameha I or a chiefly retainer, possibly the same person as Noukana, the son of High Chief Kamanawa, the King's uncle and trusted advisor.
The Battle of Woody Point was an incident in western Canada in June 1811 involving the Tla-o-qui-aht natives of the Pacific Northwest and the Tonquin, an American merchant ship of the Astor Expedition. The vessel had traveled to Clayoquot Sound off Vancouver Island to trade for furs. Following an argument begun during the bartering, the Tla-o-qui-aht captured the vessel and massacred most of the crew; one remaining sailor then scuttled her by detonating the powder magazine.
Duncan McDougall was a native of Scotland who first appears in history as a clerk with the North West Company (NWC) in 1801. This position was likely as a result of his uncles, Angus Shaw and Alexander McDougall, who were both partners in the NWC.
The Wallace House, Wallace Post or Calapooya Fort, was a fur trading station located in the French Prairie of the Willamette Valley. Opened by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) in 1812, it was an important source of beaver pelts and venison. The possibility of either the Royal Navy or North West Company (NWC) competitors attacking Fort Astoria during the War of 1812, motivated the PFC management to sell its assets to the NWC in late 1813. Wallace House was utilized by the NWC until 1814, when they abandoned it in favor of the nearby Willamette Trading Post. The station is now located in Keizer, Oregon.
Joseachal was a Quinault man who lived in the early 19th century. Notably he was the sole survivor of the Tonquin, a trading vessel owned by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) that was destroyed near Vancouver Island. He was hired to act an interpreter for the vessel in negotiations with various Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. Enraged at the prices that the Tla-o-qui-aht insisted upon, captain Jonathan Thorn struck an elder with a pelt. After purchasing PFC blades, the Tla-o-qui-aht attacked and killed the crew. Only Joseachal survived to reach Fort Astoria to inform the PFC officers of the Tonquin's destruction.
John Reed (??-1814) was an American clerk employed by several fur trade companies until his death in 1814.
David Stuart was a fur trader who worked primarily for the North West and Pacific Fur companies throughout his varied career.
François Benjamin Pillet was a French-Canadian fur trapper active in the Pacific Northwest in the early 19th century, primarily employed by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC).
Coalpo was a Clatsop Chinookan leader alive in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He married a daughter of Comcomly, the most prominent Chinookan headman on the lower Columbia River.
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