H. Lloyd keith

Voyage of the Isaac Todd

THE COLD, RAINY WEATHER reflected William McGillivray's mood one April morning in 1812 as he sat down to write letters in the Suffolk Lane offices of the North West Company's London suppliers, McTavish, Fraser, and Company.¹ McGillivray was worried and frustrated. The East India Company was stonewalling his request for a license to trade in China, and the British government would not give a straight answer to his petition for a charter for the North West Company. And deadlines were approaching. At the annual rendezvous at Fort William on Lake Superior the previous July, the agents and wintering partners of the North West Company (NWC or Nor'Westers) resolved to enter into an adventure of trade from England and China to the Northwest coast of America.² To launch such an ambitious enterprise, a considerable investment would be required — trade goods and provisions needed to be purchased and arrangements made for a ship and crew. Personnel would have to be appointed to run the business. All of this required McGillivray's attention and, yet, all would be for naught if a feasible overland route could not be found from the interior through the mountains to the sea coast. As the NWC's chief agent, McGillivray had already started the wheels in motion by ordering goods suitable for the trade; by convincing Donald McTavish, a senior wintering partner, to delay for a year his retirement and take command of the Columbia Enterprise; and by engaging a proper ship and captain. Making these decisions without the necessary information must have worried McGillivray.

The agents and partners anticipated the need for a reconnaissance of the Columbia River as early as July 1810, when they resolved to enter into an adventure to the Columbia.³ That summer, dispatches were sent from the annual fur traders' meeting at Fort William to David Thompson, requesting he postpone his scheduled furlough and return west of the Rockies to complete his reconnaissance of the river all the way to salt water. The nature of the navigation and distance, once known, would determine the feasibility of establishing the fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains — an expansion that became known as the Columbia Enterprise. To provide this information was Thompson's prime objective on his memorable journey to the mouth of the Columbia in 1811. Unforeseen obstacles prevented him from fully completing his task until July 1812, when he provided his much awaited report to the agents and partners at Fort William. Because his report confirmed a Columbia River trade route was navigable, McGillivray's preemptory decisions made in London the previous spring attested to his foresight. Donald McTavish accepted the leadership of the Columbia Enterprise, goods were stockpiled, and the ship Isaac Todd (Captain Frazer Smith) became the vessel by which the goods and leadership would be transported to the Columbia River.⁴

William McGillivray, born in Dunlichity, Scotland, in 1764, was the nephew of the North West Company's controlling partner Simon McTavish. This anonymous painting was finished sometime before he sailed, at age twenty, for Montreal. By 1790, William McGillivray was a partner in the North West Company.

Courtesy of McCord Museum, Montreal, M18682

While Thompson's reconnaissance was welcome news at the 1812 summer meeting, other reports foretold of a new threat to the Columbia Enterprise. The assembled agents and partners learned that, thirty days previously, the United States had declared war on Great Britain. Decisions had to be made in haste. Along with the NWC's supply line along Lakes Huron and Superior, the American war threatened implementation of their anticipated adventure to the Columbia. John Jacob Astor, an American entrepreneur who had previous business ties with the North West Company in the Great Lakes region, threatened to become a continental rival by establishing a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. Like Astor, who was seeking his government's aid in New York, the Nor'Westers sought assistance from their government to protect their business affairs in the Columbia. A letter was written asking their agents in London to petition the government for a naval escort for the Isaac Todd during its voyage to the Columbia River.⁵ Senior partner Donald McTavish carried that request.

McTavish's entourage, assembled that fall of 1812 in Montreal, included fellow partner John McDonald, Hawai'ian Islander Edward John Cox, six French Canadian voyageurs, and clerks Alexander McTavish, James C. McTavish, Alexander Fraser, and Alexander McKenzie, all to serve in the Columbia. At some point, a Dr. Swan was added to the passenger list; although engaged as a resident physician for the Columbia Department, he never served in that capacity.⁶ They embarked on a relatively new ship owned by the North West Company, the Isaac Todd. Named in honor of a retired Montreal fur trader, the Isaac Todd weighed some 350 tons, originally fitted without guns, and sailed with a crew of seventeen.⁷ The three-masted ship was painted black with a narrow yellow stripe along the side. Built at Three Rivers, Quebec, in about 1811, the ship was owned by John McTavish, a nephew of Simon McTavish, who held controlling interest in the Montreal agency of the North West Company, and by a second cousin to Donald McTavish, who was to manage the adventure to the Columbia that first year.⁸ On August 18, 1812, the Isaac Todd, carrying the year's fur returns, left Montreal for England by way of the port of Quebec, where the ship cleared customs sometime before October 19, 1812.⁹

LONDON

The plan laid out by the Montreal agents supposed the ship would be fitted for a voyage of two to three years. The Isaac Todd would deliver European trade goods at the Columbia River in exchange for beaver skins, and with an East India Company license in hand, the skins would be traded in China for either China goods or for specie, or coined money, which would then be taken to England and sold or exchanged. The failure of these plans to materialize contributed significantly to the North West Company's adventure to the Columbia.

British merchants did not have open access to the Chinese market at Canton. For over two hundred years, the charter of "The Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," as the East India Company was first called, gave it exclusive trading rights throughout the Indian and western Pacific oceans.¹⁰ The Indiamen — as East India Company agents were known — were jealous of their prerogatives, and acquiring from them a license to trade in Canton was not easy. As early as 1811, North West Company agents attempted to negotiate the requisite license. Assuming they were near agreement in April 1812, William McGillivray wrote to the wintering partners of the North West Company: "the East India Company appear to be still favorably disposed — the certainty of getting Dollars in Canton for our Beaver Skins removed a Barrier which last year I thought unsurmountable."¹¹ McGillivray was premature in making this statement, for the East India Company never conceded any such thing. His erroneous assumption has led some historians to conclude that the East India Company agreed to such a concession, but a careful reading of the license eventually obtained on January 13, 1813, quickly belies this misconception.¹² Article 8 states

that all the sales to be made of the Cargo of the said Ship ... and all the money to be received at Canton or elsewhere in China or any Goods Wares or Merchandise whatsoever to be sold there by or on the account of the persons concerned in the Adventure hereby licenced shall be paid by their Agents into the Treasury of the said United Company [East India Company] at Canton for Bills of Exchange to be drawn by the said United Companys Super Cargoes on the Court of Directors of the said United Company payable in London three hundred and sixty five days after sight at the same rate of Exchange at which the said Super Cargos shall draw Bills on the said Court of Directors in the same Season.¹³

Not only were the Nor'Westers barred from trading beaver skins for Chinese goods, they also were not allowed to transport specie to England and therefore could not benefit from a possible favorable exchange rate. Compelled to settle for bills of exchange, which did not appreciate in value as specie might, the fur traders also could not expect payment for an entire year after they were presented. In all, the license contained twenty-two articles outlining onerous restrictions on trade in Canton. Rather than return empty to England, the East India Company deigned to allow the Isaac Todd to transport to London a cargo of goods belonging to them for freight-money. The second half of the license details the conditions under which the goods were to be shipped and circumstances under which payment could be withheld.¹⁴ In all, it was not a good contract for the North West Company. Although this seems apparent in hindsight, the company's London agent Simon McGillivray and wintering partner Donald McTavish were blind to the ultimate consequences when they signed the document on January 13, 1813.

After unloading the ship's cargo at the London docks, McTavish and John McDonald, together with the assistance of the North West Company's agents, began outfitting the Isaac Todd for the long voyage to the North American coast and beyond to China, and thence back to London by way of the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Besides resheathing, recaulking, and supplying new canvas, lines, and hawsers, the ship needed modification to accommodate twenty cannon. Because of Britain's continuing conflict with Napoleonic France and the newly declared hostilities with America, the Nor'Westers could expect danger in any quarter. As early as 1808, the company had been petitioning the government for chartered rights to protect its trade west of the Rocky Mountains, and the effort was repeated in 1812. Now, in addition to these efforts for official government protection, the London agents petitioned for a letter of marque and a sloop of war to escort their ship and clear the North American coast of hostile vessels and settlements.¹⁵ A letter of marque is a license granted by a sovereign to a subject to fit out an armed vessel and employ it in the capture of merchant ships belonging to the enemy's subjects. While the company was unsuccessful in its solicitations for a charter from government, it did obtain a letter of marque and naval protection of the Isaac Todd to the Columbia.¹⁶

Meanwhile, delays plagued the departure of the Isaac Todd. Company officials were fearful of possible attack by American warships, as they had received news of the successes of the fifty-four-gun American frigate Constitution. That ship was then preying on British vessels in the Atlantic, and there was a rumor it might be encountered somewhere off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands.¹⁷ In addition, the Americans had sent the relatively small thirty-two-gun U.S. frigate Essex to the Pacific, further buttressing the company's request to the British government for an armed escort. The fitting out of a ship carrying a letter of marque required armament together with the necessary modifications to the deck to accommodate the cannon, all involving time-consuming delays. In November 1812, the NWC petitioned again for a naval escort to accompany the Isaac Todd, scheduled to reach the Columbia in May 1813.¹⁸ The government's final approval did not arrive until after the first of the new year. Simon McGillivray, one of the London agents, pleaded in a letter to the wintering partners:

It is impossible that you can fully understand or that I can within the compass of a letter explain to you the trouble and difficulty which attend applications to Government or Public Bodies in this country; and I mention the matter ... in order to account to you for the delays which we frequently meet with, and the disappointments to which we cannot help being sometimes subjected.¹⁹

This line drawing of an early nineteenth-century merchant ship shows rigging much like that used on the Isaac Todd. Merchant ships of the era were exceedingly slow, and by mid century, the more modern clipper design had superceded that of these earlier ships.

Originally published in Henry B. Culver, The Book of Old Ships ... (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1924). Gordon Grant, artist

PORTSMOUTH

Once properly outfitted, the Isaac Todd set out in February 1813 for Portsmouth, where it would rendezvous with the Atlantic convoy. In times of war, the British government provided naval protection to British merchant shipping in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Prior to the Isaac Todd, such naval protection had not been extended into the Pacific Ocean. An unfortunate delay was caused by the loss of an anchor and cables in The Downs (in the English Channel off the coast from the town of Deal) while in transit from London to Portsmouth.²⁰ Once docked at Portsmouth, McDonald and McTavish were delayed another month while they anxiously awaited final government clearance and incurred additional unforeseen problems. The six French Canadians, recruited by the North West Company for service in the Columbia Department, were detained by a press gang looking for crewmen for the Royal Navy. Detained along with these men were three of the four clerks and Cox. Only through the influence of London agent Edward Ellice, related by marriage to the port admiral, were the men released.²¹ Other distractions, too, occupied the attention of Nor'Wester John McDonald. While in Portsmouth awaiting the final arrangements prior to sailing, the veteran fur trader hired a local woman, Jane Barnes, to accompany him to the Columbia, ostensibly serving as the company's seamstress.

While supervising the refitting and outfitting of the supply ship in Portsmouth, McTavish and McDonald boarded, as was then the custom, at a public house near the docks known as The Crown Inn. While there, McDonald became acquainted with the attractive but unrefined Barnes. She is described in one account as a barmaid and may have been, but there is no direct evidence regarding her occupation or her place of residence other than she at that time lived in Portsmouth.²² McDonald apparently had to tell her where he could be found, so she must not have been employed at the Crown Inn.²³ Writing in 1831, fur trade clerk Ross Cox described Barnes as "a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Albion" who "had been a lively barmaid at an hotel in Portsmouth," a description used invidiously ever since.²⁴

Whatever the circumstances, McDonald and Barnes became acquainted. With unprecedented generosity, the seasoned fur trader offered the young woman a position as "seamstress" if she would accompany him aboard the Isaac Todd to the Columbia. The terms of her engagement exceeded those allowed the most experienced voyageurs and tradesmen employed by the company. She was to receive a full wardrobe, meals apart from the men, transportation back to England when she so desired, and £30 per annum.²⁵ There is evidence she was illiterate and could not read the contract for herself but astutely recognized an opportunity unlikely to occur again; she accepted, sailing aboard the Isaac Todd one week later.²⁶

NWC agents, meanwhile, made efforts to convince British officials not only of the need for a convoy affording the Isaac Todd protection in crossing the Atlantic but also of the possible benefits to the Empire of an armed escort in the Pacific. Atlantic Ocean convoys were common at the time; the novelty of the Nor'Westers' efforts lay in convincing government that danger to British interests existed in the Pacific Ocean and that a possible prize of war lay at the end of the voyage.²⁷ While guilty of some hyperbole, the Nor'Westers insisted "the territorial possession of the Countries bordering on the Columbia River, and finally the whole Northwest coast of the Continent of America, will depend upon the measures to be adopted by His Majesty's government on the present occasion."²⁸ Finally, the Secretary for War and the Colonies, Lord Bathurst, and, through him, the Admiralty agreed, and on March 25, the Isaac Todd, accompanied by HM frigate Phoebe with the East India Company fleet, left Portsmouth en route to the Columbia by way of Rio de Janeiro.²⁹

In times of war, arrangements such as those agreed to between the government and the North West Company required secrecy lest those deemed enemies find out and take countermeasures. Sealed orders were issued to James Hillyar, captain of the Phoebe, to be opened at sea, a precaution intended to prevent an enemy from sniffing out the planned deployment of vessels. In particular, authorities were wary of American John Jacob Astor, whose newly established post near the mouth of the Columbia River — Astoria — was the object of these British machinations. Nevertheless, Astor's counter-surveillance measures confounded British attempts at secrecy. As soon as he received word of the American declaration of war, Astor sent two confidential agents, William J. Pigot and Richard Ebbets, to London to arrange his own secret expedition. Their primary mission was to purchase a ship, munitions, and provisions to supply Astoria with protection against attack. Astor instructed Pigot and Ebbets to work under the guise of sailing to the Russian settlements in North America under neutral (presumably Russian) colors.³⁰ They were successful in purchasing the Forester as well as the required license to ship arms but were subject to the provision that the ship fly British rather than neutral colors. Pigot and Ebbets acted undercover as supercargo and clerk, respectively, while the brig was outfitted for sea at Portsmouth. In these circumstances, they were able to keep tabs on events in the shipyards, and they gained accurate and detailed information regarding the Isaac Todd.

This painting by Ambrose-Louis Garneray shows Portsmouth Harbor as it was around 1810. Prison hulks — decommissioned ships that held prisoners and wartime captives — are lined up in the foreground.

Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

As early as November 1812, the two confidential agents were able to communicate with Astor regarding the "fitting of the Isaac Todd, of about 450 tons, for the Northwest coast." In March 1813, even before the ships sailed, they wrote again, informing Astor of the size of the ship and crew, details about armament and cargo, and the destination of the Isaac Todd and her consort as well as the facts she carried a letter of marque and was licensed by the East India Company to trade at Canton. Astor considered the Isaac Todd "a Heavey Dull Sailor [that] will have a very Lang [sic] passage." As late as July, this information gave Astor hope that if he could convince the American government to send a warship such as the U.S. corvette John Adams to the Columbia, it could in all probability overtake the Isaac Todd and arrive first at the Columbia.³¹ Astor predicted the Isaac Todd would not reach the Columbia River until November or perhaps December. He proved remarkably accurate with regard to the appearance at Astoria of the British warship that was to accompany the Isaac Todd, but the merchant vessel was slowed by storms off Cape Horn and did not arrive until the following April. A war ship, Astor believed, together with the Forester and another armed vessel he sent out on March 6, the Lark, not only would protect Astoria but also might capture or destroy the Isaac Todd and its consort.³² Because of wartime demands for personnel on the Great Lakes, the captain and crew of the John Adams redeployed to Lake Erie and replacements were unavailable. Consequently, the American government was unable to comply with Astor's request for armed intervention at the Columbia. As late as July 17, Astor continued to lobby the war department, suggesting the U.S. Sloop of War Hornet or Constitution could be assigned to the Columbia and offering another of his ships, the Enterprise, to serve as a supply ship for the warship. Still, all his efforts were for naught.³³ The New Yorker was further frustrated when the Lark was lost to shipwreck and the Forester suffered a mutiny near the Sandwich Islands (today's Hawai'i).³⁴

ATLANTIC CROSSING

During times of war, British merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean were routinely protected by the Royal Navy, sailing with them in convoy. Convoys departed Portsmouth each March and, in 1813, the Isaac Todd joined about forty other merchant ships and a naval squadron, which included the Phoebe (Captain James Hillyar). Among Hillyar's papers were secret orders directing him to accompany the Isaac Todd to the Columbia River and to "render every assistance in your power to the British traders from Canada and to destroy and if possible totally annihilate any settlements which the Americans may have formed." Ironically, among the merchant ships accompanying the convoy was the above mentioned spy ship, the Forester.³⁵

Problems hampered the Isaac Todd's progress. Yet another anchor and hawser were lost after departure from Portsmouth, and while calling at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the voyageurs required bail after getting into trouble with Spanish authorities.³⁶ In an Atlantic storm, the Isaac Todd under sail with a full crew could not keep up with her escort, HMS Phoebe, sailing "under bare poles," or so John McDonald alleged with likely exaggeration.³⁷ Delays were also incurred in Rio de Janeiro, where it became necessary to hire twelve new men and two officers to replace those who deserted the Isaac Todd while in port.³⁸ These were trifling inconveniences, however, when compared to the difficulties that lay ahead.

Hints of enmity between Captain Smith and John McDonald appear in an episode that occurred sometime after the Isaac Todd departed Tenerife. McDonald had invited the captain and officers of the Phoebe aboard for dinner, wine, and porter. When they all sat down to partake of their meal, the fine dinner and drinks ordered by McDonald had been intercepted by Smith for his own mess (McDonald had not invited him to dine with the officers of the Phoebe) and poorer fare substituted. Later, when confronting Smith, the crusty fur trader relates "a serious row would have taken place, but McTavish & others came & took me away. No doubt that I would have punished some of them."³⁹

Senior partner Donald McTavish was responsible for outfitting the vessel, and in insisting on twenty cannon, he may have overdone it. The weight of twenty long guns on the Isaac Todd's deck may have so encumbered the ship as to cause it to be what mariners call a "dull sailor." Although a man of limited maritime experience, John McDonald was not shy about criticizing the nautical skills of the officers and crew of the Isaac Todd as well as the seaworthiness of the ship. He complained the ship "proved a miserable sailer [sic] with a miserable commander and a rascally crew" and suggested "it would have been better if she had had only six guns well managed, then she might have sailed better. We had on board cannon balls enough for a line of battle ship."⁴⁰ McDonald may have been correct, for Smith remarked on a later journey that the ship "complains in her upper deck on accot of such heft of metal on her upper deck."⁴¹ This remark, however, was prompted after surviving several days in a terrific gale off the Cape of Good Hope. McDonald's criticisms were overdone; under usual circumstances, the Isaac Todd proved quite adequate. The ship may have had trouble keeping up with sleek frigates-of-war such as the Phoebe, but there was no difficulty in keeping company with other merchant ships.⁴² After weathering the difficulties of an Atlantic crossing, the convoy arrived at Rio de Janeiro on June 11, seventy-eight days after leaving Portsmouth.⁴³

RIO DE JANEIRO

The Isaac Todd and Phoebe laid at anchor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for nearly a month and, while there, received word that an American war ship, the Essex (Captain David Porter) and an armed tender were destroying or capturing British merchantmen in the Pacific Ocean. Captain Hillyar believed the Phoebe, along with the cumbersome Isaac Todd, were inadequate to face such an imposing foe should the Americans be encountered. As added precaution, Vice Admiral Manley Dixon, commander of the British navy's Brazilian Station, decided to send the sloops of war Cherub and Racoon to the Pacific in support of the Phoebe. As a result, on leaving Brazil, the Isaac Todd sailed under the protection of three of His Majesty's ships.⁴⁴

Finally, the Isaac Todd and the three warships embarked from Rio on July 8, 1813, and two days later, Hillyar opened his sealed orders detailing the circumstances just described and ordering him to accompany the merchant ship to the Columbia River. Hillyar immediately requested McDonald to come aboard the Phoebe but, for some reason, McDonald delayed for two days before complying.⁴⁵ When the old fur trader finally complied with Hillyar's request and transferred to the Phoebe, he took with him three Canadians and Cox, the Hawai'ian. Hillyar required the move as a precaution in case the frigate should become separated from the Isaac Todd and arrive first on the Columbia. Should such a circumstance occur, a partner would be aboard to take charge of the company's affairs, and Cox could act as pilot to help find a passage over the bar at the river's mouth. McDonald claimed the switch had been planned while in London and that he left the Isaac Todd without regret, looking forward to "the novelty of the thing" and in "hopes of meeting the Essex."⁴⁶ Whether or not this is true, and that he was privy to Hillyar's secret orders, is open to some doubt. If McDonald was aware of the secret orders, he must have known in Portsmouth, then, that his relationship with Barnes would be short lived, for she would not be allowed to follow him aboard a royal naval vessel. Consequently, a few leagues off the coast of Brazil, Barnes was left in the care of Donald McTavish.

ROUNDING THE HORN

With the transfer of John McDonald to the Phoebe, the movements of the Isaac Todd become clouded, for his autobiography and logbook are the only records of the voyage that have survived. In his logbook, McDonald mentioned speaking with the Isaac Todd on July 23, 1813, about 550 miles east of La Plata (Argentina) in the south Atlantic after nearly losing sight of her during a gale.⁴⁷ Sometime within the ensuing week, he lost sight of the merchant ship and did not know its fate until the end of February 1814, when the officers of the Racoon learned the ship put in at Monterey on the California coast for supplies.⁴⁸ The circumstances that befell the ship and crew in the intervening seven months can only be inferred from what may have been similar experiences recorded by McDonald aboard the Phoebe. The entire convoy approached the boisterous seas surrounding Cape Horn at the worst possible time of year — winter. As they struggled through Drake Passage between Antarctica and Cape Horn, fighting contrary currents and prevailing winds, the three warships took nearly a month to double the cape. They were encumbered by a sheathing of ice along the sides of the hull and the bow some two feet thick. The deck was an ice rink and the sails "one frozen sheet."⁴⁹ In his memoirs, McDonald claimed it took six weeks to double the horn, but his own log, written at the time, reveals the Phoebe made for Steten (Staten) Island at the east entrance to Drake Passage on August 10, passed Diego Ramirez Islands, located about half way through, on August 21, and cast anchor at the Juan Fernàndez Islands, west of Valparaiso, Chile, on September 11.⁵⁰ Lacking proper trim, the Isaac Todd no doubt took much longer. It is reasonable to estimate the Isaac Todd struggled for two months or more before successfully rounding the horn and reaching the Pacific Ocean.

The captains had agreed ahead of time that, if the vessels were separated, they should rendezvous at the islands of Juan Fernàndez, off the coast of Chile or Cocos Island, southwest of present-day Costa Rica. The three warships waited over a week at Juan Fernàndez for the Isaac Todd to appear but finally gave up hope and began making preparations to embark. On September 18, 1813, McDonald, the blacksmith, an unspecified number of Canadian engages, and Cox boarded the Racoon together with eighty-seven bales of trade goods and three casks of beef.⁵¹ The reason for the change in vessels remains ambiguous as a result of conflicting accounts in the surviving records. McDonald stated Hillyar made the decision to send the smaller 423-ton Racoon after consulting charts that, in his opinion, revealed the mouth of the Columbia River was too shallow for the 700-plus ton Phoebe. Another view suggests the presence of the American frigate Essex and her consort drew away the powerful Phoebe and Cherub to do battle after escorting the Racoon to safe waters. Still another account suggests Admiralty planned from the start to send the Racoon to the Columbia while the other two ships engaged the Essex and that Hillyar discovered this intent only after opening his last sealed orders in the South Pacific.⁵² Whatever the circumstances, the three vessels sailed together from Juan Fernàndez to somewhere off the coast of Panama, where it was thought the Racoon was safe to proceed to the Columbia alone, calling at Cocos Island along the way.

Because the Isaac Todd did not appear at Juan Fernàndez, the Racoon put in at Chatham Bay on Cocos Island, where "the Isaac Todd was to take in Wood and Water if required."⁵³ No sign of the merchant ship appeared and, after two days, the Racoon's captain, William Black, ordered the ship's name chiseled on a rock and carved into the bark of a tree as signs for the Isaac Todd. He then put to sea once more for the Columbia. About two weeks later, an accidental explosion occurred while test firing the Racoon's guns, injuring twenty-one people, seven fatally, including the company's blacksmith J. Flett.⁵⁴ McDonald suffered severe injuries and Cox received superficial burns. Finally, the scorched but otherwise undamaged Racoon crossed the Columbia's bar and anchored in Baker Bay on November 30, 1813, a week short of four months since sailing from Rio de Janeiro.

The Racoon remained on the Columbia from November 13, to sometime during December, 1813. To the surprise of the British sailors, the modest trading post was already flying the Union Jack, and there would be no battle — Astoria was already British property. While disappointed on not receiving the war prize they expected, the officers and crew nevertheless made the best of the situation. They delivered up John McDonald and his entourage, unloaded cargo destined for that port, and formally took possession of the establishment and surrounding territory in the name of his most Britannic Majesty, dubbing the stockade Fort George.

Between July 1813 and February 1814, the whereabouts of the Isaac Todd was unknown to those aboard the Racoon, and they feared the ship had either been lost in a storm or captured by an American war ship. The first word of the Isaac Todd's location appears in a log kept aboard the Racoon, which at the time was lying at anchor in San Francisco Bay, disabled and in danger of sinking as a result of damage to the hull after striking the bar at the mouth of the Columbia on the return voyage. At some point in February 1814, Captain Black learned the Isaac Todd was at Monterey, some one hundred miles to the south. The ship had arrived there sometime in January and lay at anchor as late as February 21.⁵⁵ Black sent a message requesting Smith bring the ship into San Francisco Bay to assist them in careening and repairing the damaged warship. Smith complied, arriving on March 2 to assist with the required repairs and to provide the warship with needed stores. Anticipating a shortage of provisions at the Columbia, McTavish purchased corn, tallow, and flour valued at £550 (about $2,750) from the Spaniards at Monterey and San Francisco. Livestock, including two young bulls and two cows, and poultry were also stowed aboard the ship for use in the Columbia Department.⁵⁶

John MacDonald was born in 1771 in Perthshire, Scotland, and left for Canada in 1791 to become a clerk for the North West Company. He was later a partner. This photograph was taken in 1862, in Montreal, by well-known Canadian photographer William Notman.

Courtesy of McCord Museum I-3554.1. William Notman, photographer

COLUMBIA RIVER

After a month's stay at San Francisco, rendering the necessary assistance to the Racoon and loading provisions, the Isaac Todd departed on the first of April and, after a voyage of three weeks, arrived off the mouth of the Columbia. They fired three cannon rounds to alert the men at the trading post of their presence. Because of the war with the United States, tensions ran high among the Nor'Westers at the newly named Fort George.⁵⁷ The Nor'Westers had no way of knowing whether the firing of guns announced the arrival of friend or foe. They believed Duncan McDougall, the erstwhile Astorian who had joined the ranks of the North West Company four months earlier, was most convenient to send across the river to ascertain their identity, while others loaded three boats with goods and supplies ready to flee to the Willamette River should the ship prove to be American. Two anxious days passed before the Nor'Westers learned the ship was the Isaac Todd. The ship managed to cross the river's bar on April 22 and anchored along the north shore in Baker Bay. The next day, the crew cautiously inched the ship upriver to anchor along the north shore opposite Fort George. On April 24, a small party led by Donald McTavish finally went ashore to the welcomed confines of the long-awaited trading post.⁵⁸

Aboard ship, Capt. Frazer Smith found it impossible to get along with McTavish and eagerly anticipated the opportunity to be rid of him and his entourage. Exactly when the rancor started is hard to determine, but Alexander Henry, the proprietor in charge at Fort George, immediately noticed it and initially attributed the cause, for some reason, to the captain's refusal to mess with the first mate, Mr. Sims. Henry apparently assumed McTavish had taken Sims's side in the dispute and the captain had subsequently taken umbrage. A week later, Henry learned the poisoned air was more than a personal feud, for McTavish had earned the enmity of the entire crew.⁵⁹

It is possible the relationship between McTavish and Barnes may have added to the animosity. Because she arrived on the Columbia in his company, subsequent observers have assumed McTavish was responsible for her appearance at the remote fur trade post.⁶⁰ While McDonald bore that responsibility, McTavish felt compelled, perhaps not unwillingly, to act as her protector from the coast of Brazil to the Columbia River. Having arrived at Fort George, Donald McTavish apparently wished to turn Barnes over to someone else. Subsequently, a third company partner, Henry, assumed responsibility for her protection.⁶¹ Whether the woman's presence aboard the Isaac Todd created any acrimony among officers, passengers, and crew can only be guessed at. What is certain is that Smith was eager to rid himself of McTavish and his entourage, while at the same time displaying a peevish unwillingness to cooperate with the Nor'Westers.

Smith refused to moor his ship alongside the newly repaired wharf at Fort George because, he argued, the channel was too shoal, or if not too shoal, too narrow for his heavily laden ship. A vessel the size of the Isaac Todd had not tested the south side channel before, and it sounded either too narrow or too shoal at low tide to accommodate a ship that drew at least twelve feet of water. Although inconvenient, there was sufficient time to off-load the supplies and provisions and to load the outgoing cargo by the planned departure date of August 1.⁶² Despite the sounding by the crew of the Racoon four months earlier, Smith insisted on sounding the channel anew, both above and below Fort George. His refusal to move the ship, much criticized by the Nor'Westers, required them to use their river schooner, Dolly (soon renamed Jane), as well as the ship's boats to ferry the extensive cargo across the river, taking over a half hour each way when the weather permitted. Much tedious and dangerous work could have been avoided and time saved, had Smith the willingness to anchor in the south river channel. Still, there is little doubt Smith's stubbornness was warranted, for he found the upper channel too narrow for his 350-ton vessel, while the lower channel sounded for two-and-a-half fathoms at mid tide; the ship drew two fathoms. Even had he been able to safely anchor in the channel fronting Fort George, he could not have moored alongside the wharf, for even the ship's boats could not off-load their cargo at low tide.⁶³

The long and difficult chore of unloading the vessel was not completed until May 20. Angus Bethune, a clerk at the time who was slated for a partnership the following summer, had been appointed to serve aboard the Isaac Todd on its way to China as supercargo, or officer in charge of the company's financial interests regarding trade goods aboard the ship. He had not been the first choice of the Montreal agent, who believed John George (J.G.) McTavish would have served better, but his services on the Columbia were indispensable.⁶⁴

The need for strong leadership became evident two days later, when tragedy struck. All the cargo had been off-loaded, and now the proprietors expected Captain Smith to bring the Isaac Todd over to the south side, where it would have been more convenient to load the outgoing cargo. He refused, and on Sunday morning, May 22, Donald McTavish, Fort George proprietor Alexander Henry, and five men set out across the river in a small boat to argue the point with the captain. On their way, a sudden squall in mid river caused the boat to capsize, and six of the seven men drowned, including the two proprietors.⁶⁵ Because he was an abrasive man, Smith easily became the scapegoat in the eyes of the stunned fur traders. One Nor'Wester reportedly wrote of "the rascally infamous conduct of Capt. Smith to whom the sad catastrophy [sic] may be attributed besides the other series of disappointments which attended the Isaac Todd all along. God send poor Bethune a safe passage in her — He has much to fear."⁶⁶ However universal this assignment of blame may have been, it does not seem justified by the circumstances. Many men drowned in the Columbia while employed by the several fur companies who did business there. This was but one of many unfortunate accidents in a dangerous trade. Frazer Smith was no more culpable than was Donald McTavish or Alexander Henry for their risking the lives of six engagés manning an open boat on a stormy river when the trip could have been put off until the weather cleared.

The value of the goods finally landed at Fort George amounted to nearly £20,000.⁶⁷ To this amount should be added the £796.4.5 in "sundry goods" sold to the officers of the Racoon at San Francisco in March as well as the value of the livestock and supplies purchased from the Spanish authorities in California for a complete assessment of goods delivered to the Columbia by the Isaac Todd.⁶⁸ The two bulls, two cows, and one pig were especially difficult to off-load. The sow pig was accidentally dropped into the shallop (one of the ship's small open boats) when the slings broke, causing her to prematurely give birth to a litter on the deck. Only two were born alive, both of which soon died.⁶⁹

The invoice of goods shipped aboard the Isaac Todd has not survived but hints exist, here and there, about what was included. A drawback on the duty paid for goods shipped on the Isaac Todd, for instance, referred to silk, glass, and coats.⁷⁰ In September 1813, eighty-seven bales of munitions and trade goods as well as three casks of beef stowed aboard the Isaac Todd were transferred to the Racoon in anticipation of its arriving at the Columbia River first.⁷¹ Henry mentioned landing calico, hides, guns, bacon, weights, coals, six six-pound cannons, and a load of "Hessens" (Hessians). This last item portended a significant innovation on the Columbia. Hessian was a strong, coarse cloth, made of a mixture of jute and hemp, employed by the Nor'Westers to make sails. Although historians believe an American ship, the Jefferson (Captain Roberts) introduced the use of sails on the Northwest coast in the Queen Charlotte Islands twenty years earlier, their use had not diffused as far south as the mouth of the Columbia by 1814. The Nor'Westers may have contributed to the introduction of sails to the Columbia River peoples.⁷²

Henry knew that when the overdue Isaac Todd finally appeared, word must be sent to anxious agents and proprietors at the summer meeting. On May 1, he dispatched an express eastward with news of the ship's safe arrival. Henry outfitted two canoes in the charge of Duncan McDougall, aided by clerks Alexander McTavish and Alexander Fraser, as far as the interior post of Spokane House. There, clerk James Keith assumed command and McDougall returned to Fort George.⁷³ On July 21, McGillivray wrote John George (J.G.) McTavish: "Since I last wrote to you Mr [James] Keith has arrived which has relieved my mind from a load of anxiety — no less for the safety of the ship than for the arrival of Mr [Donald] McTavish whose superintendence appears spiritually necessary for the settlement of matters on the Columbia."⁷⁴ It is ironic that news of the Isaac Todd's arrival proved so expeditious while the drowning of Donald McTavish, Alexander Henry, and the five men was not. As late as June 30, 1815, agents in Montreal were still unaware of the tragedy, although they had heard rumors from, of all people, their chief rival John Jacob Astor. In a letter to J.G. McTavish, William McGillivray wrote:

In a letter I received from Mr Astor about five weeks ago — he mentioned a report which some of the Coast vessels brought to China, that a Mr McTavish & Mr Henry had been drowned by the upsetting of a Boat last September in the Columbia — altho' I care to not give credit to this Account I was much shocked at it — but as no express has yet come down — (which I think to suppose would be the case had there been any truth in the report) my apprehensions are weaning off.⁷⁵

Donald McTavish's gravestone is now held by the Clatsop County Historical Society museum in Astoria, Oregon. The stone reads "In Memory of D.M. Tavish, aged 42 years, drowned crossing this river, May 22, 1814."

Courtesy of the Clatsop County Historical Society

With the deaths of McTavish and Henry, Angus Bethune would have been the most senior Nor'Wester at Fort George and, although not yet a partner, probably assumed temporary command. He must have sent word to Spokane House, informing his senior, J.G. McTavish, of the accident; McTavish immediately returned to the mouth of the Columbia. He was on hand July 8, 1814, when the Columbia (Captain Anthony Robson) arrived, anchoring alongside the Isaac Todd. Initially rigged as a schooner, the Columbia weighed some 185 tons, was armed with ten nine-pounders, and carried a crew of twenty-five. Although smaller than the Isaac Todd, the Columbia sailed faster and required a little more than eleven months to complete the voyage from London to Fort George. It was the second of three vessels purchased for the North West Company for the Columbia trade.⁷⁶ The smaller, shallower drafted Columbia was able to cross over the river the day after its arrival and anchor close to Fort George.

With the arrival of Robson and the Columbia, a solution to the uncomfortable presence of Jane Barnes suggested itself. After the death of Henry and McTavish, some writers suggest protection of Barnes may have initially defaulted to Richard Swan, the company physician.⁷⁷ If so, it was a fleeting guardianship, for no record of Swan can be found subsequent to the drowning of the two partners. He must have left the Columbia with the Isaac Todd, for the department lacked a practicing physician during its first few years.⁷⁸ Management of the Columbia Department fell on J.G. McTavish, and Barnes would more logically have become his responsibility. In any case, the novelty of a white woman at this remote trading post seems to have attracted suitors among the neighboring Chinooks, all of whom Barnes rejected. The resulting hurt feelings caused tensions to mount between the Nor'Westers and their local trading partners, a situation that likely led McTavish to seek the quickest opportunity to rid the outpost of its female guest. Such an opportunity arose with the arrival of the schooner Columbia.

After a trading voyage from Fort George to the Russian settlement at Norfolk Sound (today's Sitka), the Columbia returned to Fort George in October to take on peltry not embarked by the Isaac Todd when it left the river the previous month bound for China.⁷⁹ Ross Cox, a company clerk, implied Barnes returned aboard the Isaac Todd, but most of his observations concerning Barnes were second-hand and, in this case, erroneous.⁸⁰ J.G. McTavish took the occasion of the Columbia's return to ask Captain Robson if he would provide Barnes's transportation back to England aboard the Columbia, to which he assented.

Prior to the arrival of the Columbia at Fort George, the Isaac Todd had begun taking aboard furs for China, both those acquired in the purchase of Astor's Pacific Fur Company and those traded by their own men. Surviving records do not provide a precise account of the total number of packs sent from the Columbia in 1814, but it is known the Nor'Westers purchased 17,705 pounds of parchment beaver and an additional 465 pounds of beaver coating together with an array of other peltry valued at $39,173.66½.⁸¹ These pelts represented the returns for the two years the Pacific Fur Company traders were in the field. It is known these were shipped aboard the Isaac Todd from a letter agent McGillivray wrote to J.G. McTavish on June 19, 1815, where he stated "the Adventure by the Isaac Todd— nearly £15,000 is wrote off for the loss — it would have been much more but for the Profits which have been put on the Skins bought from the assets of Mr Astor."⁸² Added to these furs were some ninety-three packs of peltry obtained by North West Company traders during the 1813–1814 season. Those packs consisted of 3,570 pounds of large and small beaver, another 260 pounds of beaver coating, and a miscellaneous array of other peltry valued at £3819.3 or $15,277.20.⁸³ Because North West Company accounts are not complete, it cannot be said in confidence these ninety-three packs represented their total returns subsequent to David Thompson leaving the Columbia in April 1812. Thompson had carried the returns over the Rocky Mountains that spring, but the ensuing season, Outfit 1812 (the period from June 1, 1812, to May 31, 1813), may or may not have gone to market the same way. Because of the anticipated arrival of the Isaac Todd, they probably were held in storage and shipped out at the same time as the Outfit 1813 returns mentioned above. Reference to these returns cannot be found in any of the surviving accounts.

On July 22, the Isaac Todd was fully loaded and ready for sea. Bethune came aboard to serve as supercargo, and the ship dropped down below Chinook Point. Finding conditions hazardous for crossing the bar, Captain Smith put in at Baker Bay to await the weather. Although the smaller and handier schooner Columbia managed to cross over the bar into the Pacific on August 16, the cautious Smith, with nearly twice the tonnage, remained at anchor until September 26, when, after waiting for more than two months, conditions allowed him to cross the bar in safety.⁸⁴

PACIFIC CROSSING

No log of the Isaac Todd's voyage from the Columbia to China has been found, but it is known from other sources that the ship called at the Sandwich Islands for water and provisions and to return some Islanders previously employed on the Columbia while hiring their replacements.⁸⁵ While there, Captain Smith acquired a most interesting passenger. John Jennings, the erstwhile captain of the brig Forester, requested passage aboard the Isaac Todd as far as China. Jennings had escaped a successful mutiny and was attempting to make his way home or to find another berth.⁸⁶ While in China, he assumed command of the North West Company schooner Columbia when Captain Robson desired to quit the ship and return to England. Robson's decision may have been prompted by some unspecified ill-treatment on the Northwest coast by J.G. McTavish as well as by his unfriendly reception in China by Bethune, who wanted to replace him with Jennings. His attraction to Barnes and a desire to accompany her home to England may also have played a role.⁸⁷

CHINA

The Isaac Todd arrived at Macao Roads sometime in late November or early December 1814, and there, the Nor'Westers encountered the dazzling display of Chinese bureaucracy. The Chinese imperial government strictly regulated foreign trade and limited it to the southern city of Canton. While official tariffs were set in Peking, actual application of import and export duty resided in the hands of a local customs official called the Hoppo. Individuals purchased this position at high cost and for short terms. Self-interest dictated they augment imperial tariffs during their tenure in office to provide for their own financial future. As a result, import and export duties could fluctuate in seemingly inexplicable ways, according to the whims of a particular Hoppo, much to the exasperation of western shippers.⁸⁸ While the Hoppo set tariff policy, the actual business of trade with foreigners was monopolized by a guild of thirteen or so merchants called the Co-hong. On arrival at the Portuguese colony of Macao, a merchant vessel would hire a pilot and acquire a chop, or permit, allowing the ship to proceed up the Pearl River to the height of navigation at Whampoa. Once there, one of the Co-hong merchants assumed responsibility for all financial transactions concerning the ship, including payment of pilotage, import and export duties, the fee for ship clearance, (permission to sail from Macao to Whampoa, the height of navigation on the Pearl River), all required Chinese labor (including a linguist, a "tidewaiter," who watched the ship to prevent smuggling, and a comprador or ship chandler), the unloading and sales of the cargo, and the purchase of a return cargo. Fees were charged for wharfage, for transportation to and from Whampoa and the factories outside the walled city of Canton, and for cumsha, or bribes and presents, for Chinese officials. On arrival at Whampoa, the Hoppo measured the ship to determine the import duty owed — a sum for a vessel the size of the Isaac Todd that could amount to £900 — to which the Hoppo added an additional £682 for cumsha. To these costs the Hoppo added the myriad of fees charged for labor and services while in port.⁸⁹

The above painting on glass by an unknown Chinese artist is an illustration of the docks and Hongs, or foreign factories, in Canton, China, in the early to mid nineteenth century. The flags above the factories are those of France, the United States, England, and Denmark.

Courtesy of the Forbes House Museum, Milton, Mass.

As if these impediments to a profitable trade were not challenging enough, foreign merchants were also subjected to behavioral restrictions. On March 10, 1815, Captain Robson of the Columbia disembarked Barnes and placed her in lodgings at Macao, as the Chinese would not allow her to proceed upriver in the schooner because western women were not allowed in Canton.⁹⁰ Prohibited from venturing inside the walls of Canton, merchants were further required to vacate even the factories during the off season between April and October. While at the factories, westerners were not allowed to go upon the river without a Chinese escort or even to walk its banks. The officers and crew of foreign vessels were not allowed to learn Chinese. Time and place ashore for the crew of foreign vessels were strictly limited to certain hours of the day, all in the interest of preventing misconduct. Between January 1, and March 13, 1815, the crew of the Isaac Todd received only two days of shore leave.⁹¹ Weapons of any kind were not permitted ashore. No direct communication was allowed with the Hoppo or other officials; foreign traders could speak directly only with the Co-hong. Despite the frustrations encountered due to the complex fee structure of the Chinese expenditures and social restrictions, relations between foreign traders and Co-hong merchants were generally friendly and honest.⁹²

The complex web of Chinese bureaucracy was not the only barrier the Nor'Westers faced. Restrictions in the East India Company license made it impossible for them to profit from their transactions in China. As American traders already knew, trade at Canton could not be profitable without a return cargo, which the East India Company had denied the Nor'Westers.⁹³ Because the Isaac Todd was under license of the East India Company, that concern's resident agent handled all business matters and communication between Smith and supercargo Bethune and the Co-hong merchant. Smith was responsible for the affairs of the ship and crew while Bethune ostensibly handled all financial transactions regarding the sale of the cargo. Because this responsibility was co-opted by the East India Company agent, however, Bethune's role reverted to that of an auditor. His presence in China was essentially superfluous. The North West Company furs were purchased on its behalf by the East India Company agent, who gave Smith a bill of exchange for the proceeds, in addition to a nominal interest, which he would present to the proper authorities in England for payment. Even then, the East India Company would not have to pay the bill for a year after Smith presented it.

Normally, Bethune would have also been responsible for the purchase of return goods but, because the license required him to accept only a bill of exchange for the proceeds derived from the sale of the furs, the return cargo was the property of the East India Company and, thus, this duty was performed by the East India Company agent. The license required the Isaac Todd to transport to London a cargo of Bohea tea, Congo tea, Hyson skin tea, and nankeens, amounting to some three hundred tons, for the East India Company. As payment for cartage, the North West Company received sixteen guineas per ton, or £5040. Besides the bill of exchange for the furs, this cartage comprised their only source of revenue from this adventure.⁹⁴ To maximize profit through purchasing the greatest quantity of goods, other shippers such as the Americans — who did not have to deal with British trade restrictions — always augmented their trade of furs with ginseng and specie, a flexibility the license denied the Nor'Westers. The license also proscribed the fur traders from purchasing China goods in any amount on their own account (although Captain Smith seems to have been allowed a private trade).⁹⁵ With the limitations imposed by the license, it became impossible for the North West Company to realize a profit from the adventure of the Isaac Todd. As early as June 19, 1815, William McGillivray, chief agent for the North West Company then writing from Montreal, conceded the adventure of the Isaac Todd would lose nearly £15,000. He could only hope the remaining unsold furs might defray some of the loss.⁹⁶

On March 13, 1815, the Isaac Todd was measured once more, this time to determine export duty, and after receiving its "grand chop" or departure permit, sailed from Whampoa. Angus Bethune and sixteen Sandwich Islanders stayed behind to await the arrival of the next North West Company ship from the Columbia River. Except for the ship itself and the delivery of the bill of exchange, the affairs of the North West Company were at an end aboard the Isaac Todd. On March 15, Captain Smith anchored close in to Macao, finding there the schooner Columbia laying at anchor and awaiting a pilot for Whampoa.⁹⁷

The Isaac Todd completed a circumnavigation of the globe by sailing south through the Dutch East Indies, and then westward across the Indian Ocean to Cape of Good Hope. From there, the ship sailed north to St. Helena, missing the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte by two months, and arrived at the East India Company docks in London on September 20, 1815. Thus ended the North West Company's largest investment in maritime shipping. Capt. Frazer Smith arrived in London with a ship valued at £5,000 and a bill of exchange in his pocket for $101,156.40 (£25,289), unredeemable for another year.⁹⁸ The £2,270 the ship ultimagely sold for would have somewhat reduced the loss McGillivray estimated.⁹⁹ Whatever the final balance sheet came to, the loss was of such proportions as to discourage further investment in maritime shipping, at least on the company's own account. By the time the Isaac Todd arrived in London, the North West Company had already purchased two additional vessels, the 185-ton brig Columbia and the 310-ton brig Colonel Allan, but there would be no more. Except for an investment in the cargo of a brig owned by Anthony Robson, all future shipping to the Columbia was placed in the hands of an American firm, J. and T.H. Perkins and Company of Boston. In a letter to one of the wintering partners, McGillivray explained "The Expense attending the sending our own vessels to China is too heavy — and the Partners of the North West Company do not understand the management of ships or Captains; soliciting and trading skins is their real business."¹⁰⁰

The voyage of the Isaac Todd was a total failure. How mortifying that must have been to William McGillivray and the other erstwhile enthusiasts can only be imagined. Still, instead of reassessing their business plan, the proprietors continued with a seemingly idée fixe that China was a profitable market for Columbia furs, despite the lessons taught in the 1790s that beaver pelts sold poorly on the Canton market and needed to be augmented with other saleable commodities such as ginseng, sandalwood, and specie. Again in 1815, the low prices brought by beaver suggested these same lessons, but the North West Company persisted for six more years to trade in China. By using the desperate ploy of paying American vessels a fourth of the net proceeds to transport their beaver to Canton, the Nor'Westers still hoped to profit from the trade, or at least cut expenses. It was all for naught, and the persistent losses continued until they were ready to give it up in 1821.

The failure of the Isaac Todd's Adventure to the Columbia soured the North West Company on the economic prospects of what one day would be called the Oregon Country. Everything seemed to mitigate against making a profit, including slow realization that the quality of beaver found in the Columbia Basin would not sell in Canton. There was no Asian market for local produce. The promise of the Oregon Country would have to await the Hudson's Bay Company's marketing of Columbia beaver pelts in London, where felters could make hats to suit European tastes.

A number of causes contributed to the failure of the Adventure to China. First, the East India Company's license restrictions prevented a profitable return cargo. Second, the inconsistencies of the Canton market, especially for low-grade Columbia beaver, made trading there a highly speculative affair. Sometimes, beaver could not be sold at all, sometimes at a loss, and sometimes at a small gain. Finally, the Nor'Westers never fully realized the extent to which the exported trade goods must be augmented by specie to be able to purchase a sufficient return cargo to turn a profit. For Americans, such as Astor, 75 percent of the value of imports into China in the years just prior to the Isaac Todd arrived as specie. In the relatively detailed accounts that have survived, there is no mention of the North West Company ever having sent specie to China.¹⁰¹

The lack of financial success, the political uncertainty regarding the sovereignty of the region, and a series of unfortunate accidents all contributed to the lacuna of reliable detail regarding events between 1814 and 1821 in the Pacific Northwest. While the voyage of the Isaac Todd proved economically unsuccessful, it did inaugurate the beginning of transcontinental trade on the Columbia River that ultimately provided economic benefits beyond the imaginations of those early nineteenth-century fur traders.

After the long journey, the Isaac Todd was eventually sold to an unknown buyer for £2,270. The guns were sold separately for £360, and the stores brought in an additional £272.9.¹⁰² The ship plied the waters between England and Quebec until 1821, when it went aground off Gaspé Peninsula in a terrific gale. Passengers and crew were saved, but the ship was a total loss. Salvage rights were sold in Quebec City for £90.¹⁰³

NOTES

H. Lloyd Keith died during the final stages of preparing this article for publication. Although he reviewed all editorial changes, some small errors that he would have caught in final readings perhaps remain. The editor is grateful for Dr. Keith's many significant contributions to the Oregon Historical Quarterly and honored to publish this article.

^1.� Two businesses served as North West Company Agents in London — Inglis, Ellice, and Company, and McTavish, Fraser and Company. They were remnants from an earlier merger of the North West Company and the rival XY Company. The merger agreement retained both London companies to act as agents.

^2.� The use of terms such as agent, proprietor, partner, and wintering partner can become confusing, especially because they are not mutually exclusive. Those agents residing in London acted in the interest of the North West Company in procuring trade goods, selling returns, and making shipping arrangements. They did this for a fee, and individuals acting in this capacity rarely became involved directly in the affairs of North America. The Montreal entrepreneurs who arranged for capitalization of the fur trade enterprise and who hired the workingmen were also called agents. They were the moneyed interests who held shares in the North West Company as well and, thus, were also proprietors or partners. Finally, individuals who held one or more shares in the North West Company and who actually conducted the trade among the Indians and wintered near or among them were called wintering partners, sometimes just partners, or occasionally proprietors. These last three terms were used interchangeably.

^3.� W. Stewart Wallace, Documents Relating to the North West Company (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1934), 268, 495.

^4.� For details from the first two paragraphs, see Wallace, Documents, 268, 271; and William McGillivray to The Gentlemen Wintering Partners of the North West Company, Fort William, April 9, 1812, Library and Archives Canada [hereafter LAC], Selkirk Papers, MG19, E1, vol. 31, 9121–26.

^5.� North West Company to Nathaniel Atcheson, August 18, 1812, National Archives, Public Record Office [hereafter NA, PRO], 42/149/95.

^6.� Charles Gordon Davidson, The North West Company (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1918), 326; L.R. Masson, 2 vols. Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest 2 vols. (1889–90; reprint, New York: Antiquarian Press Ltd., 1960), 43. For notes on these passengers, see Elliott Coues, ed., New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and of David Thompson, vol. 2 (1897; reprint, Minneapolis: Ross and Haines, 1965), 894–98. James P. Ronda gives the date August 18, 1812, for McTavish and McDonald leaving Montreal on their way to London. If this is accurate, the Nor'Westers must have been held up in Quebec City for six weeks, for the earliest date the ship could have left that port was October 4. See Ronda, Astoria and Empire (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 253.

^7.� NA, PRO, Colonial Office Papers, London, England, series 42, vol. 82, cited in Davidson, The North West Company, 136. James Keith, who was present on the Columbia when the Isaac Todd arrived, listed its capacity as 338 tons. See LAC, James Keith Papers, A-676, A-2, Memorandum Book, 48. In his autobiographical notes, eighty-five-year-old John McDonald of Garth claimed the ship mounted ten guns when he sailed from Quebec in 1812 and that it had a letter of marque. The letter of marque, however, was not obtained until after the Isaac Todd arrived in London, suggesting his memory might also have failed him regarding the cannon. For the recommendation the Montreal agents made to their London representatives that application for a letter of marque should be made for the Isaac Todd, see Davidson, The North West Company, 136. See also Masson, Les Bourgeois, 2:43.

^8.� John McTavish would succeed to two shares in the Montreal agency of McTavish, McGillivrays and Company in 1814. Wallace, Documents, 271, 141, 301, 485. His role with the Montreal agency prior to 1814 is unclear as is the reason for his ownership of the Isaac Todd. For a description of its appearance, see Barry M. Gough, ed., The Journal of Alexander Henry the Younger 1799–1814 2 vols. (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1992), 724. Donald McTavish was first cousin to Simon, so that tie would make John McTavish a second cousin to Donald. See Wallace, Documents, 484–85.

^9.� The August 18 date is found in NA, PRO, CO 42/149/95 and quoted by Ronda, Astoria and Empire, 253. If the August 18 date is accurate, the men from Fort William made exceptionally good time, especially considering the wartime conditions on the Great Lakes. This was the second of two voyages the Isaac Todd made from Quebec. The ship cleared customs with a cargo of returns sometime between October 5, 1811, and January 5, 1812. Davidson, The North West Company, 326.

^10.� For a broad history of the East India Company, see John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: HarperCollins, 1991). For the context in which non-company British ships were allowed to trade in East India Company ports, see Anne Bulley, The Bombay Country Ships 1790–1833 (Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon, 2000).

^11.� William McGillivray to the Gentlemen Wintering Partners of the North West Company, April 9, 1812, LAC, Selkirk Papers, MG19, E1, vol. 31, 9121–126. Bills of the East India Company were issued at rates ranging from 4 shillings 10 pence to 6 shillings per dollar, for bills payable 365 days after sight. See Hosea B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China 1638–1834 (Cambridge: The Harvard University Press, 1929), x.

^12.� For an example, see Barry M. Gough, "The North West Company's 'Adventure to China'," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 76:4 (December 1975): 327.

^13.� LAC, Ellice Papers, A-19, 54, no. 19.

^14.� Ibid.

^15.� Davidson, North West Company, 121, 136–37, 283–92. A charter would have provided the company exclusive trading rights.

^16.� Ibid., 136; Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol.2, 45.

^17.� LAC, Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald ... A Partner in the North West Company, 1791–1816, R 3475-O-O-E (formerly, MG19-A17), 73 of typescript. This account was edited from the published version cited above.

^18.� Davidson, The North West Company, 136.

^19.� LAC, Selkirk Papers, MG 19, E1, vol. 31, 9110–111.

^20.� Hudson's Bay Company Archives [hereafter HBCA], North West Company Accounts Books, 1813–1814, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies, (F.4/4), 29.

^21.� Marion O'Neil, "Maritime Activities of the North West Company, 1813–1821," Washington Historical Quarterly 21:4 (October 1930): 249; Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 44–45.

^22.� Barry Gough states Jane Barnes was a "barmaid of questionable repute from a sailors' public house the Shovellers Arms, in Portsmouth, England." See Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 1:lxi. A search of available primary sources fails to substantiate the assertion of prostitution. Ross Cox described Barnes as good looking but also noted that she was illiterate and rough spoken. See Ross Cox, The Columbia River, ed. Edgar I. and Jane R. Stewart (1831; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957), 156–58. Another clerk, Alexander McKenzie, expressed in a letter: "I should offend your modesty were I to mention specimens of what she intended as wit and humour during her stay with us." Alexander McKenzie to J.G. McTavish, March 31, 1819, HBCA F.3/2, fo. 194.

^23.� Université de Montréal, Division des Archives Historiques, François-Louis-Georges Baby Collection [hereafter Baby Collection], u8319.

^24.� Cox, The Columbia River, 156. For use of Cox's phraseology, see Coues, New Light, 896, n11; Kenneth W. Porter, "Jane Barnes, First White Woman in Oregon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 31:2 (June 1930): 125; George I. Quimby, "The Wife of Portsmouth's Tale, 1813–1818," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 71:3 (July 1980): 127; and Don Marshall, Oregon Shipwrecks (Portland: Binford and Mort, 1984), 153, n11. It is noteworthy the one female author writing about Jane Barnes chose not to repeat Cox's phraseology. See Mary W. Avery, "An Additional Chapter on Jane Barnes," The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 42:4 (October 1951): 330–32.

^25.� Baby Collection, u/8319.

^26.� Published sources include B.C. Payette, ed., The Oregon Country under the Union Jack, postscript ed., "Extract from Mr. McDonald's Journal from England to the Columbia River — North West Coast of America," (Montreal: Payette Radio Ltd., 1962), v–x.; and Gough, Alexander Henry, 2:725. A more reliable source can be found in LAC, MG 19, A-17, fos. 1365–73.

^27.� A journal kept aboard the Racoon puts to rest the controversy over whether the officers and crew expected prize money from capturing the American fort called Astoria. They did, expecting to share in a sum of some £50,000. This puts the lie to John McDonald's statement that no prize money was expected. See John A. Hussey, ed., The Voyage of the Racoon: A 'Secret' Journal of a Visit to Oregon, California and Hawaii, 1813–1814 (San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1958), 5; Masson, Les Bourgeois, 2:50.

^28.� Colonial Office Papers, Public Records Office, London, England, series 42, vol. 149, 141; quoted in James Ronda, Astoria and Empire, 255.

^29.� Payette, Oregon Country, "McDonald's Journal," v.

^30.� See Kenneth W. Porter, John Jacob Astor: Business Man, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931), 1:215–16; and Ronda, Astoria and Empire, 252.

^31.� Porter, John Jacob Astor, 1:525. The U.S. Corvette John Adams is not to be confused with other vessels then plying the waters of the Great Lakes. The Corvette John Adams was much too large for sailing in those waters and, at the time, was serving as a prison ship. For the John Adams classification, see Nicholas Tracy, ed., The Naval Chronicle: The Contemporary Record of the Royal Navy at War, vol. 5, 1811–1815 (London: Stackpole Books, Chatham Publishing 1999), 124.

^32.� J.J. Astor to the U.S. Department of State, April 4, 1813, with an extract from an earlier letter dated March 30, 1813, in Porter, John Jacob Astor, 1:523–26; J.J. Astor to James Monroe, Secretary of State, July, 1813, with enclosure "Report on the sailing of Isaac Todd from Portsmouth to destroy the settlement at Astoria," letters from J.J. Astor to William Jones, Secretary of the Navy dated Philadelphia, April 6, 1813, and July 17, 1813, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut, microfilm WA M59. For the sailing of the Lark, see also Ronda, Astoria and Empire, 262.

^33.� J.J. Astor to William Jones, Secretary of the Navy, July 17, 1813, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut, microfilm WA M59.

^34.� Ibid., July 6, 1813. For the fate of the Lark and the Forester, see Peter Corney, Early Voyages in the North Pacific 1813–1818 (1821, reprint, Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1965), 101, 124–26.

^35.� Ronda, Astoria and Empire, 254–57; John D. Haeger, "Business Strategy and Practice in the Early Republic: John Jacob Astor and the American Fur Trade," Western Historical Quarterly 19:2 (May 1988): 195; Hilary Russell, "The Chinese Voyages of Angus Bethune," The Beaver 307:4 (Spring 1977): 23. Ronda names James Hillyar as captain of the Phoebe and cites an Admiralty Office document dated February 16–March 12, 1813, as his source. Haeger names James Milligan as captain and cites two Admiralty Office documents as evidence, one dated February 16, 1813, and the other dated March 12, 1813. See also John Denis Haeger, John Jacob Astor: Business and Finance in the Early Republic (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991), 160, 319. Because John McDonald, who sailed with the convoy, identified Hillyar as captain of the Phoebe, it must be assumed that somehow the ship's command was settled in favor of Hillyar. See Payette, Oregon Country, v.

^36.� Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol.2, 45–46.

^37.� Payette, Oregon Country, v.

^38.� Ibid., vii. Four of the new men were deserters from HM Cutter Dart who were fortunate to find themselves pressed into service aboard the Isaac Todd. The Dart was last seen sailing from Pernambuco on the Brazilian coast for England on October 27, 1813, and was never heard from again. Hussey, ed., The Voyage of the Racoon, 27; "Naval Database," http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/D/01283.html (accessed April 15, 2007); "Sailing Ships of the Royal Navy," http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/D1.HTM (accessed April 15, 2007).

^39.� LAC, Autobiographical Notes, p. 75.

^40.� Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 43–44; Larry G. Green, "An Analysis of the Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald of Garth" (M.A. thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 1999), 162.

^41.� British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, Isaac Todd— 1815 Journal, L/MAR/B/186A, [hereafter Isaac Todd— 1815 Journal], June 7.

^42.� A journal kept aboard the Indiaman Surrey in 1815 has survived and provides a useful comparison with that kept aboard the Isaac Todd on the same voyage. The two merchantmen sailed together most of the way between Whampoa and London. See Isaac Todd— 1815 Journal; and Surrey, 1815, Journal of Voyage from China to London in the Ship Surry, L/MAR/B/191.

^43.� Green, "Analysis of the Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald," 162.

^44.� Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 46. See also Barry M. Gough, "The 1813 Expedition to Astoria," The Beaver 304:2 (Autumn 1973): 46–47; and Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, xi. Hussey published only that portion of the journal dating from November 15, 1813, to June 2, 1814. The original manuscript log is held by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

^45.� Payette, Oregon Country, viii.

^46.� Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 46.

^47.� Coues, New Light, 763; Payette, Oregon Country, viii.

^48.� Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, xxi, 19.

^49.� LAC, Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald, 79. See also Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, xv; and Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 47.

^50.� Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 47; LAC, Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald, 79; Payette, Oregon Country, ix; Coues, New Light, 763.

^51.� Payette, Oregon Country, ix, xi; Coues, New Light, 763; Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 48; LAC, Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald, 81.

^52.� For a discussion of this ambiguity, see Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, xv.

^53.� Payette, Oregon Country, ix.

^54.� In his autobiographical notes, McDonald stated that twenty-six men had been injured and that the blacksmith, an Orcadian named Jack Grant, was killed. In his log, written at the time and probably more accurate, McDonald specified twenty-one injuries resulted from the explosion and identified the fatality as J. Flett and an unnamed Canadian. See Masson, Les Bourgeois, vol. 2, 49; LAC, Autobiographical Notes of John McDonald, 84; Payette, Oregon Country, x; and Coues, New Light, 763.

^55.� The January 1814 date is given in Zoeth Skinner Eldredge, The Beginnings of San Francisco, 2 vols. (San Francisco: Zoeth S. Eldredge, 1912), 1:246. The February 21 date is listed in William Heath Davis, Seventy-five Years in California (1889; reprint, San Francisco: John Howell, 1967), 268. News of the Isaac Todd's presence in Monterey under the date March 1 in Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, 19.

^56.� LAC, James Keith Papers, Memoranda Book, 33; Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 729, 731.

^57.� The previous October, the North West Company had purchased the assets of the Pacific Fur Company, including fort Astoria. When the HMS Racoon arrived in December, Capt. William Black renamed the post Fort George in honor of his king. Many accounts of these events have been published, including the first-hand observations in Gabriel Franchère, Journal of a voyage on the north west coast of North America during the years 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814, transcribed and translated by Wessie Tipping Lamb, edited with an introduction and notes by W. Kaye Lamb (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1969), 129–30, 133.

^58.� Hussey, Voyage of the Racoon, xxi–xxii; 19–20, 27. The Racoon took less than two weeks to sail from a point west of Monterey while the Isaac Todd lumbered along from San Francisco to the Columbia in a little over three weeks. For an account of the arrival of the Isaac Todd at the mouth of the Columbia, see Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 724–26. Editor Gough's transcription of Henry's journal should be read with care, for he confused "Mr. McDougall" for "Mr. McDonald" and "J. C." McTavish for "J. G." McTavish from the dates between March 8, and May 19, 1814 (696–743). See also LAC, James Keith Papers, Memoranda Book, 25.

^59.� Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 730–31, 736.

^60.� See, for example, Coues, New Light, 896, n11; Porter, "Jane Barnes," 125; and Avery, "Additional Chapter," 332. This misconception was finally corrected in 1977 by Hilary Russell, "The Chinese Voyages of Angus Bethune," The Beaver 307:4 (Spring 1977): 23.

^61.� Barnes, a working-class woman, likely had little control over her relationship with the men she interacted with once she made the decision to join John McDonald on a sea voyage to the Columbia. McDonald, and other fur trade proprietors, considered it necessary to extend the aegis of their status to protect her from any sexual advances of sailors and engages. As Alexander Henry phrased it, "my part [in assuming responsibility for Barnes] is more an act of protection to secure her from ill usage." See Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 737.

^62.� The intended date of departure is given in Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 730.

^63.� Ibid., 733, 737, 744. Captain Smith's sounding of the upper channel did not substantiate the earlier work done by the Racoon, and consequently he proved warranted in his caution.

^64.� William McGillivray to J.G. McTavish, May 9, 1813, HBCA, F.3/2, fos. 115–16.

^65.� An account of the accident can be found in Ross Cox, The Columbia River, 162–63. Cox did not witness the accident, and he erred when he wrote that Donald McTavish was found a day later and "interred in a handsome spot behind the north-east bastion of Fort George." Historian Barry Gough repeated this error in his introduction to Alexander Henry, lxiii. McTavish's remains drifted ashore near Cape Disappointment and were buried there. He was not re-interred at Fort George until the following October, when Peter Corney, first mate of the Columbia, assisted in recovering the body and interred it at the fort with Capt. Anthony Robson reading the burial service. Corney, Early Voyages, 105, 117–18. Another account of the accident can be found in Alexander Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West, ed. Kenneth A. Spaulding. (1855; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), 34–35.

^66.� Hilary Russell, "Angus Bethune," 24; Jean Morrison, "Donald McTavish," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983), 560. The author of this remark has not been identified, but it must have been written before July 1, 1815, when Angus Bethune returned aboard the Columbia, which he had boarded the previous March along with the new captain, John Jennings.

^67.� HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.4/4), 30. The account clearly states "amount of Inventories remaining on hand at ... Fort George landed from Isaac Todd" totaling £19, 888.2.2. In a letter dated Montreal, May 9, 1813, to J. G. McTavish, agent William McGillivray claimed "the ships outfit has cost £40,000 S^tg— equal to one-third of all the N W outfits of the year." HBCA, F.3/2, fo. 115. The motive behind McGillivray's exaggeration remains murky.

^68.� HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.4/4), 32; Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 732.

^69.� Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 732. See also O'Neil, "Maritime Activities," 252–53.

^70.� HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.4/4), p. 28.

^71.� Payette, Oregon Country, xi; Coues, New Light, 763. The trade goods included blankets, strouds, tobacco, kettles, shirts, flints, and beads.

^72.� Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 731, 36, 39; Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s. v. "Hessian"; S.F.A. Caufeild and Blanche C. Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework (London: L. Upcott Gill, 1882), 252; F.W. Howay, "A Yankee Trader on the Northwest Coast, 1791–1795," Washington Historical Quarterly 21:2 (April 1930): 89–91.

^73.� At the time, Keith was still a clerk, but at the meetings to which he was headed, he would be made a partner in the concern.

^74.� HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.3/2), fo. 119.

^75.� Ibid., fos. 121d–122. Eleven days earlier, in a previous letter to McTavish, McGillivray wrote "a most unpleasant story reached me about two months ago — by way of New York — that a Mr McTavish and a Mr Henry had been drowned last Fall on the Columbia — the report as you may well suppose gave me much uneasiness — from which I am now greatly relieved — for if any accident of that nature had happened — I should have expected an express out before this time." HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.3/2), fo. 123. This is probably the same report (from Astor) mentioned in the subsequent letter.

^76.� Corney, Early Voyages, 105–13.

^77.� This is the estimate of historian Barry Gough, but there is no direct evidence. See Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 1:lxii.

^78.� After having joined the North West Company in the fall of 1813, Ross Cox commented, "I was upwards of three thousand miles from any professional assistance," and as late as April 1817, the partner in charge at Fort George lacked a doctor. See Cox, Columbia River, 139; William McGillivray and Henry MacKenzie to James Keith, July 26, 1817. University of Aberdeen, James Keith Papers, MSS Davidson & Garden, 2769/I/57/4.

^79.� Corney, Early Voyages, 117.

^80.� Cox, Columbia River, 156–58. In a long footnote mocking Barnes's illiteracy, Ross Cox left the impression he was there at the time (158). By his own account, however, he did not arrive at Fort George until June 11, over two months after John McDonald had left for the interior and three weeks after Donald McTavish drowned while attempting to cross the Columbia in an open boat. Barnes was there during Cox's two months at Fort George in 1814 but not in the company of either of the "Macs" he could have been referring to. For John McDonald's departure from Fort George, see Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, II:709–10, 746. For the drowning accident, see Gough, ed., Alexander Henry, 1:lxii–lxiii and 2:744. Cox mentioned his arrival at Fort George in the summer of 1814 in Columbia River, 155, and his departure on 180.

^81.�Message from the President communicating the Letter of Mr. Prevost and other Documents Relating to an Establishment made at the Mouth of the Columbia River. 17^th Cong., 2d sess., H. doc. 45 (Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1823), 59–60. Values given the furs can also be found in Public Record Office, Foreign Office, 5/208/156–58. The North West Company valued the American furs at 10 shillings a pound whereas they valued their own furs at 15 shillings. See HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.3/2), fo.123. On prices, see Washington Irving, Astoria; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains, rev. ed. (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850), 317–18. At the Canton sales in 1815, beaver sold for between $3.80 and $3.90 per pound. See LAC, Red River Settlement, Selkirk Papers, MG19/E. vol. 31, 9209–210. At this price, costs exceeded profits.

^82.� HBCA, Records of Relating and Subsidiary Companies (F.3/2), fo. 123.

^83.� Ibid., p. 10.

^84.� Corney, Early Voyages, 113–17.

^85.� The terms of agreement in the sale of the Pacific Fur Company to the Nor'Westers required the latter to return to their home those Islanders on the Columbia whose contracts were not renewed. An unknown number of Hawaiians were aboard the Isaac Todd on their way back to the Islands and were replaced by sixteen others. See Article 3 of the sale agreement, found in Message from the President, 17. Sixteen Islanders, along with Angus Bethune, greeted the company ship Columbia when it arrived in China in March, 1815. See Corney, Early Voyages, 124.

^86.� J.J. Astor had sent the Forester, while flying British colors, on a clandestine voyage to re-supply and protect Astoria. On finding American vessels in Hawai'i, the crew rebelled and threatened the captain. Jennings escaped and eventually made his way to Oahu, where he eventually met with the Isaac Todd. See Corney, Early Voyages, 124–27.

^87.� Robson accompanied Jane Barnes to England, where he arrived in May 1816, charging the North West Company some £717.12 for his and her expenses. See Inglis, Ellice and Company to Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Company, May 18, 1816, Baby Collection, u/5932. Barnes and Robson later married, and she and their children accompanied him on a second voyage to the Columbia River in 1818. See HBCA, F.3/2, fo. 194, Alexander McKenzie to John George McTavish, March 31, 1819.

^88.� A few years later, fur trader James Keith noted that duties exacted on the schooner Columbia's first visit to China (including "Hapoo Fees") amounted to $3,246, while, on the second voyage, the ship was charged an additional $30 or $40. He commented, "So much for Chinese regularity & Honesty." LAC, James Keith Papers, Memoranda Book, 18.

^89.� Robert F. Dernberger et al., eds., The Chinese: Adapting the Past, Building the Future (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 1986), 515–16; Paul H. Clyde and Burton F. Beers, The Far East: A History of Western Impacts and Eastern Responses, 1830–1975 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 67–70; Hilary Russell, "The Chinese Voyages of Angus Bethune," The Beaver 307:4 (Spring 1977): 22–27. For clear and thorough description of the Canton System, see James Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992), 50–53, 86–94. The unit of exchange in Canton was the tael, valued at 1.4 Spanish dollars (or 7 British shillings). See Charles Hucker, China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 352. On state measurement of the incoming vessels, see John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: HarperCollins, 1991), 348.

^90.� Corney, Early Voyages, 123.

^91.�Isaac Todd— 1815 Journal.

^92.� Clyde, Far East, 71; Gibson, Otter Skins, 90. Among the friendly Co-hong merchants was one Wu Ping-ch'ien, known to traders as Houqua. The last vessel transporting North West Company furs to China was named in his honor.

^93.� Haeger, John Jacob Astor, 99, 101.

^94.� LAC, James Keith Papers, A-676, A-2. For stipulations of the license, see LAC, Ellice Papers, A-19, Acc. 1993, 1st Inst., Bundle 54, especially Article 8 and the sections following Article 22. For a description of the cargo loaded aboard the Isaac Todd at Whampoa, see the British Library, Isaac Todd Journal — 1815, January 2, 13, 30, February 27, March 8. Bohea and Congo were black teas, which appealed to the British palate, while the various hysons were green teas more marketable in America. See also Gibson, Otter Skins, 93.

^95.�Isaac Todd— 1815 Journal, February 16.

^96.� HBCA, F.3/2, fos. 123–123d. Bethune must have written McGillivray on January 17, revealing the sluggish sales in Canton. It is supposed the letter was sent with an Indiaman then sailing from China for England, from whence it was forwarded to Montreal, where it arrived sometime before June 19. In Canton in 1815, what beaver that could be sold realized $3.80 to $3.90 a skin, far below what was anticipated and needed to bring a profit. LAC, Red River Settlement, Selkirk Papers, MG19/E vol. 31, 9209–210.

^97.� On March 17, the Columbia sailed for Whampoa, where Robson found Bethune and the Sandwich Islanders awaiting him. Bethune replaced Robson with John Jennings as captain of the Columbia and Robson returned to Macao, where he rejoined Barnes and accompanied her on her return to England. By the time she arrived there and the accountants presented with her bills, just the cost of transportation from the Columbia River by way of China amounted to £717.12 or nearly the equivalent of a partner's income from two shares in the company. A portion of this expense occurred when the schooner Columbia arrived in China and Robson was obliged to provide lodging for her at the Portuguese colony of Macao while he completed his business at Whampoa. By the time landing fees, boat hire, clothing, and three weeks of board and room were added up, the expense came to $422.60 or £126.15.7 (126 pounds, 15 shillings, and 7 pence). Barnes may have received her £30 annuity, a small pittance considering the cost of her transportation home, but she was successful in escaping the presumed wretchedness of her life in Portsmouth.

^98.� LAC, Selkirk Papers, 9209–210.

^99.� LAC, James Keith Memorandum Book, 48.

^100.� Inglis, El

lice and Company to Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Company, November 5, 1817, Baby Collection, u/5943.; William McGillivray to J. G. McTavish, April 28, 1816, HBCA, F.3/2, fos. 129–129d.

^101.� The Colonel Allen carried specie but did not call at Canton.

^102.� LAC, James Keith Papers, A-676, A-2, Memorandum Book, 48.

^103.�Montreal Gazette, October 17, 1821. Lists of ships arriving in Quebec between 1813 and 1831 can be found online at www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arrivals/index.htm (accessed November 13, 2008).

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