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sufficiently early to benefit by the whole hunting season, I am surprised to see that you write so as the appointment of an officer to head the party was made by council and conse- quently the expedition had to wait until Mr. Ermatinger had closed the business of the Snake Country and arrived here, and in fact we had no other officer to place at its head and the Snake country remained without any manager till Mr. Grant came from York and you will perhaps recollect that Mr. Ermatinger objected to proceed in charge of the expedition and that you spoke to him about it ; but to revert to the party it was equipped in the autumn of 1842 and placed under the command of Mr. Laframboise and cleared 477, but the con- duct of the men was so bad that under no consideration would Mr. Laframboise return. He had only promised to go for a trip. I am, said Mr. Laframboise, through the mercy of God come back safe because I gave way to my men; if I had as- sumed the tone of a master I would have been murdered by them. I will not venture again.
9. As to Mr. Grant's good returns they amounted to 3916.18.6 for outfit 1842, and the gain to 2405.12.8; and for 1841 the returns amounted to 3706.6.3, the profit to only 1389.17.1, in consequence of the heavy expense of the op- position. [American rivalry.]
10. In your fifteenth para, you write in your letter to the Governor and Committee that by opening a store at St. Fran- cisco, having a vessel of 150 tons on the coast, selling at first to retail dealers only and being contented with small profits a good business might be done, on this subject I shall only re- peat my conviction that the sooner the unfortunate business which was badly planned, prematurely and irregularly prose- cuted, be wound up, the better for the interests of the Honour- able Company. I am certain people reading this would suppose that I am the originator of this business. I beg distinctly to state that when it was first suggested to me in 1835 till you proposed it to me in London in 1839, though I always had a good opinion of the business, I opposed it merely because I
