SOME IMPORTANT RESULTS FROM THE EXPEDITIONS OF JOHN JACOB ASTOR TO, AND FROM THE OREGON COUNTRY[1]
It sometimes happens that the indirect results of great movements are far greater and more important than the direct results intended. The intentions of the Crusaders to obtain possession of Jerusalem and to establish a permanent European government there failed, but the indirect results were the beginning of the end of feudalism and the new beginning of civilization and culture in Europe. The vanity and luxury of men and women in Europe and in China developed and made to prosper the fur-trade in North America, but the indirect results are the present developments of the Western United States and of Western and Northwestern Canada.
Capt. Robert Gray, looking for furs, when he discovered the Columbia River, May 11, 1792, and also John Jacob Astor, when he organized the Pacific Fur Company in 1810, and founded Astoria, April 12, 1811, had no thoughts of what the great indirect results would be.
In this brief address I cannot go into the details of the growth of the fur-trade in North America. I shall speak of some of its incidents.
Captain Cook's Last Voyage.
Prior to 1766, Russians had established themselves in the fur-trade in what is now called Alaska, but these furs went to China, then the best market for fine furs in the world. It was the eventful third and last voyage of Capt. James Cook, which began in July, 1776, and ended in October, 1780, that the great impetus was given to securing furs in Alaska and in what was afterwards known as the "Oregon Country." This was the indirect result. The object of Cook's voyage was to ascertain whether a northwest passage, i. e., a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, existed. During the
- ↑ Address by Frederick V. Holman, President of the Oregon Historical Society, before the Teachers' Historical Institute, at Astoria, Oregon, September 5, 1911.
