of the United States on the Pacific slope of the continent.[1]
The pioneer venture of the Columbia marked out the course of traffic to be pursued by the many ships which soon followed. They sailed mainly from the ports of New England, ladened with merchandise and trinkets for the Indians, and passing around Cape Horn went direct to the northwest coast. Here they exchanged with the natives their goods for furs. As the inclement weather approached they resorted to the Hawaiian Islands, where they spent the winter drying and curing their peltries. The following spring found them again trading along the American coast, whence returning to the islands they took on board the skins gathered the year before, and sailed for Canton. By the sale or barter of these furs they laid in a cargo of teas, silks, porcelain, etc., and returned to the United States after an absence of two or three years. The profits of this trade, as already shown, were very large, amounting in successful voyages, according to some narratives, to "one thousand per cent, every second year." But it involved great perils and arduous labors, and called forth energy, courage, and skill—characteristics which distinguished the early American navigators.[2]
Captain Vancouver, R. N., who was sent out by the
- ↑ Hist. of Oregon, etc., R. Greenhow, Boston, 1845, pp. 179, 200, 229, 235; Oregon and Eldorado, T. Bulfinch, Boston, 1866, pp. 1–3; Northwest Fur Trade, W. Sturgis, Hunt's Mag. xiv. 534.
- ↑ Hist. of Oregon, R. Greenhow, 266; 1 Astoria, "Washington Irving, New York, p. 31; Adventures of the First Settlers, etc., A. Ross, London, 1849, p. 4; Hist. of Hawaiian People, W. D. Alexander, New York, 1891, p. 127.
