Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/275

Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 253 consequently the trade has been stopped at Nasse and Mil- bank." It is hinted in history that trading vessels from Bos- ton and vicinity dealt profitably in rum in other parts of the world also. To the credit of the H. B. Co. be it said that by agreement with the Russian-American Fur Co. some years later liquor was abolished as an article of trade with the Indians of the coast. The same journal entry by Dr. Tolmie says : "H. B. Ship Cadboro arrived from/Milbank Sound with news. * * * Mr. Ogden has gone northwards to Stikeen with the Llama and Vancouver, which place he is to survey." That took him beyond the Russian boundary and into the trading territory of the Russian-American Fur Company at New Archangel (Sitka), but the plan was to build a fort upon the Stikeen river above the thirty league limit. Dr. Tolmie was trans- ferred to Fort McLoughlin that fall and the following spring joined Mr. Ogden's expedition (outfitted at Fort Vancouver) to the Stikeen, and his journals for June, 1834 (the originals of which are in Victoria, B. C), relate in detail the exchange of courtesies with the Russian officers off the mouth of the river and the attempts of Mr. Ogden to bluff his way past their vessel and rude block house, and the decision finally to abandon the enterprise and return southward. Hubert Howe Bancroft seems to have had access to this same source in writing his History of the Northwest Coast and the inci- dent is told by him with considerable accuracy and need not be repeated here. But that it became an item for discussion and comment among the fellow traders of Mr. Ogden is manifest from another letter which follows, the answer to which could it be found would be even more interesting to read : official Stuarts Lake Western Caledonia George Simpson Esq 20th Feby, 1838-- Governor in Chief of Ruperts Land Sir Had I last year called upon you for your opinion respecting my conduct in the discharge of my duty as con-