LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846 37
of the northwest coast. They supply the Russian establishment at Sitka annually with 15,000 bushels of wheat, and sell them besides, I am told, some furs. The trade in this latter article has become of late years much less profitable than formerly; and it is said to have so far dwindled in amount as to be scarce- ly worth pursuing; but as no statistical reports of profits, or extent of trade, are ever published by the company, it is not possible to say with accuracy what they are doing. In April, 1846, a report reached Oahu that the company's barque Cowlitz had ? after leaving the Sandwich islands for England, been run away with by the crew, and Mr. Pelly, the company's agent, immediately issued advertisements, making it known, and call- ing o'n commanders of ships of war to intercept her. He told me on that occasion that the barque's cargo of furs and specie (which was the usual annual remittance by the company) amounted to nearly two hundred thousand pounds sterling. The rumor about her turned out to have originated in a mistaken apprehension. Although it is well known that furs are not so abundant as formerly, they nevertheless still form an important article of trade, and this is entirely monopolized by the com- pany. Nearly every dollar of specie which comes into the coun- try and there is more of it than might be supposed finds its way sooner or later into the company's chests ; keeping, as they do, a very large stock o'n hand of all those articles most neces- sary to the new settler. Indeed, so extensive and well selected are their supplies, that few country towns in the United States could furnish their 'neighbors so satisfactorily. An annual ship- load arrives from London, which, with the old stock, makes an inventory of one hundred thousand pounds. Goods are invari- ably sold at an advance of one hundred per cent on London prices ; which, taking their good quality into consideration, is cheaper than they are offered by the two or three Americans who are engaged in mercantile business in the country.
The managers of this company, as I have before remarked, are sagacious, far-sighted men; they hold the keys of trade, and establish the value of property and of labor, both of which
