Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Hudson's Bay Company in California

HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY IN CALIFORNIA

By ALICE B. MALONEY

THE HUDSON's Bay Company played a dual role in the history of California between the years 1825 and 1845. The major part of the record of the company's activities, first, in its own pursuit of commercial gain, and second, as the instrument of England's hope to acquire the Californias, lie buried in the archives of that nation and in the files of the company at their headquarters in London. There remain the Mexican Provincial records of California, various records in Oregon, diaries and letters and recollections of officials and private individuals concerning the events of those stirring days of the 1830s and 1840s. From these, and from the published histories of Oregon and California, these sidelights of California's history when she played a part in the international scene have been gleaned. The spotlight moves from one character to another, but the whole stage is not yet illuminated.

The Hudson's Bay Company, oldest chartered company in the world, has been doing business in the far corners of the earth since 1670.^[1] Upon its merger in 1821 with the North West Company, its officers took over the business of that company in the far northwest, including Fort George (Astoria) at the mouth of the Columbia River, and the coast trade of the Pacific.

There were rumors that the North West Company had established a trading post in California between the years 1814 and 1821, but these have never been substantiated. McTavish, one of the North West partners, was at Monterey April 22, 1814, with the Isaac Todd, and purchased provisions of all kinds and some livestock, including two bulls, two heifers, cocks, hens, and even a few Spanish cats. November 25, 1814, the North West Company vessel Columbia arrived, and about the middle of July, 1815, she made another trip, picking up eight deserters from the previous trip and four from the Isaac Todd.^[2] August 29, 1816, saw the Colonel Allan at Monterey.^[3] During July of 1817, the Columbia made an unsuccessful trip along the coast,^[4] and thereafter trade seems to have been discontinued until subsequent to the reorganization.

Dr. McLoughlin, former Northwesterner, was sent by the Hudson's Bay Company to take charge of the district of the Columbia. With Governor George Simpson he came to Fort George in 1824, and moved the headquarters 110 miles inland to a site six miles east of the junction of the Willamette River with the Columbia. He called the new factory Fort Vancouver. As soon as affairs were organized at the fort, plans for the opening up of trade with California were undertaken. The schooner Cadboro came from England in 1827 to engage in the fur trade. She made a trip to California in December of that year. By 1832 the company had acquired the Llama, and in 1835 the Beaver, first steam driven vessel to ply Pacific waters, came around the Horn to the Columbia.

It was with the Cadboro, in 1836, that a young clerk of the fort, William Glen Rae, explored the lower coast and possibly found Humboldt Bay.^[5] This young Scot was to play a tragic part in California history.

Lumber was being shipped by 1828 from Fort Vancouver to the Spanish settlements. November 24, 1830, John McLoughlin, chief factor, wrote Captain Aemilius Simpson, of the Cadboro:

We are informed a considerable quantity of beaver is collected at Monterey ... You will endeavor to ascertain if there are any settlers on the Bonaventura. You will also endeavour to learn if we could be allowed to take Cattle, Horses and Mules out of California. You will demand, if you think it safe, the debt due the late N. W. Company by the Government of California.^[6]

There had been tales told of trappers passing between Oregon and California as early as 1820 by the land routes, but the earliest record of such a trip is that of Jedediah Strong Smith, the American who went from San Francisco Bay via the Sacramento valley and the coast trail in 1828.^[7] The earliest of the Hudson's Bay Company brigades reaching as far south as California was led by Alexander Roderick McLeod and guided by Turner, of the Smith party. They reached the Sacramento valley in the summer of 1829.^[8] Ewing Young, another American, went up the coast in 1829. He met a Hudson's Bay party in the San Joaquin under command of Peter Skene Ogden.^[9] This party had entered California from the east, after a detour through Utah.

A. R. McLeod, for whom McCloud's River is named, met disaster on the trip north by the inland route over the Siskiyous in 1829. Nevertheless, the company sent another party. By 1832 yearly brigades entered California for trapping purposes and to trade with the Indians for pelts. One of these parties set out from Fort Vancouver in August, 1832, under command of John Work. He learned that a party of Americans had carried on a large trade with the Indians. When he reached California he found the Indians hostile, influenced, as he supposed, by the Spaniards. The Russians hindered the party and would sell them no supplies.^[10]

Ewing Young, in the fall of 1832, found the San Joaquin already hunted, and on the American River met Michel (La Framboise) with a large force of Hudson's Bay Company trappers.^[11] In March, 1833, John Work applied to Figueroa for a permit to get supplies for his trappers, and in April Padre Guiterrez, of Solano, complained of the presence of forty men at Suisun calling themselves hunters but willing to buy stolen cattle and otherwise disposed to corrupt the neophytes. Hall Kelley, the American promoter, on his way north to Oregon from Mexico in the autumn of 1834, was overtaken by La Framboise and party coming from the south. In June, 1835, it was reported that La Framboise had headquarters on an island in the Sacramento River, and in November of that same year La Framboise was warned to keep out by Vallejo.^[12] In the instructions of the Mexican government to Governor Figueroa in 1832, the colonization of the northern frontier was urged in view of probable encroachments of Russians and Americans.

The Columbia River trappers and traders usually retired in summer northward, to return in September. Vallejo speaks of orders of the government made known to La Framboise the year before (1834) against taking beaver, but in a spirit of hospitality he offered to permit a temporary encampment at Sonoma; otherwise the Frenchman must retire within twenty-four hours or be treated as a smuggler.^[13]

About this time, American Methodists established a mission in the Willamette valley in Oregon, and one of the workers stationed there penned to eastern friends a description of the Spanish brigade, as the southern party of the Hudson's Bay Company was called:

They start for California carrying with them merchandise and English goods for barter with the natives and return laden with furs, principally of the beaver and otter. This company just before entering stopped to remove from their persons stains and traces of travel and dressed themselves in their best attire. They then formed themselves in Indian file, led by Mr. La Framboy, the chief of the party. Next him rode his wife, a native woman, astride as is common with the females, upon her pony, quite picturesquely clad. She wore a man's hat with long black feathers fastened in front and drooping behind very gracefully. Her short dress was of rich broadcloth, leggings beautifully embroidered with gay beads and fringed with tiny bells whose delicate musical tinkling could be heard at several hundred yards distance. Next rode the clerk and his wife in much the same fashion and so on to the officers of less importance and the men and finally the boys driving the pack horses with bales of furs, 180 pounds to each animal. The tramping of the fast walking horses, the silver tinkling of the small bells, the rich handsome dresses and fine appearance of the riders whose numbers amounted to sixty made an array that was patriarchal.^[14]

J. A. Forbes, an Englishman who had come to California in 1831, took charge of the California department of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836. The nearest outpost of the company was at French Camp, near the present city of Stockton.^[15] It was the policy of the company to keep its trappers away from settlements. La Framboise is named as the founder of the settlement, and Captain Weber notes in his recollections that he asked for a grant of this land upon the advice of La Framboise and Francis Ermatinger, another leader of the Hudson's Bay Company.^[16] McLeod's Lake at Stockton bears witness to the visits of the English trappers.^[17] A. R. McLeod named the Siskiyous,^[18] and La Framboise gave the French name Buttes to the rocky hills in the Sacramento valley.^[19] Pierre Lebec, one of La Framboise's trappers, left his name to mark the site of a fatal encounter with a grizzly.^[20] In the pioneer museum at Stockton, an early map of the townsite of Castoria (French Camp) has a reserve on the creek marked Trappers Landing, and a square in the town's center is set aside as a fur traders' rendezvous.

Captain W. A. Slacum, of the United States navy, acting for President Jackson, paid a visit to Fort Vancouver in 1836-37. He records the Hudson's Bay Company vessels engaged in coastwise trade at the time: Nereide, Llama, Cadboro, Broughton, Beaver.

Shortly after, this list was amended to read: Bark Columbia 310 tons, 6 guns, 24 men; Bark Vancouver 324 tons, 6 guns, 24 men; Ship Nereide 283 tons, 10 guns, 26 men; Schr. Cadboro 71 tons, 4 guns, 12 men; Stmr. Beaver 109 tons, s guns, 26 men.^[21] The Cowlitz was added to the fleet during the 40's.

Captain Slacum is credited with having done much to calm the disturbed state of the American settlers in the Oregon country. Their attitude was antagonistic to the Hudson's Bay Company. He persuaded Ewing Young, leader of a hostile group, to cease the operation of a still erected to furnish whiskey to trappers, and organized a company to come to California to purchase cattle to be driven north to the settlements on the Willamette. Dr. John McLoughlin was a large stockholder in the venture, which under the leadership of Young and Philip Leget Edwards, purchased 800 head of cattle and drove them through the Sacramento valley and over the mountains to Oregon, arriving in 1837 with 600 surviving.

Previous to 1837 the only actual trade of the Hudson's Bay Company with California had been for cattle and wheat on the north side of San Francisco Bay. The cattle purchased were driven to Oregon, and a ship came once a year to carry away wheat. The price of beaver was $3 per pound throughout the coast. An American ship arriving, the company's agent would immediately purchase every pound in the hands of trappers or natives. The company, if necessary, would purchase at a higher rate.^[22]

The business in California after 1835, as represented by the dealings of the one company active in coastal trade, met with opposition which grew menacing with the passing years. The Russians were rivals in securing furs, and in 1838 La Framboise reported difficulties over the purchase of horses from them, asking to purchase others of Vallejo.^[23] In 1840, John Sutter, who had come to California, by way of Oregon, Honolulu, and Sitka, the year previous, wrote to Fort Vancouver forbidding the return of La Framboise.^[24] Warnings meant little to La Framboise, who was a seasoned trader, interpreter, diplomat, at times a spy, and at all times a leader and enemy to be feared. No man could rival him in knowledge of trails and tribes.

Negotiations for the purchase by the Hudson's Bay Company of the Russian America Company's holdings at Fort Ross fell through, owing to the high price asked. Sutter purchased these interests in 1840 on credit, and removed the cattle and other livestock to his grant on the Sacramento. The small schooner included in the purchase, he brought around by sea, renaming it Sacramento. The price, which included no land, was $30,000.^[25]

James Douglas, one of the governing council at Fort Vancouver, came to California in January, 1840, with the ship Columbia and a venture of goods. He had a conference with Governor Alvarado regarding the trapping parties of his firm, and notes in his report: "The first topic introduced was a delicate one relating to our party under La Framboise who have been for several years trapping in the Valley of Tulares.” Alvarado, on January 4, wrote the alcalde at San Francisco Bay to urge him to cause the withdrawal of La Framboise until a decision was reached. The terms of the agreement permitted the company to bring in thirty trappers at the principal ports of entry. The trappers must become Mexican citizens and conform to the laws of the country. The company was to pay a tax of two shillings sixpence on every skin taken. Douglas claimed no profit could be made unless the trappers were allowed to range the whole country, whereas Vallejo wished to restrict them to the territory west of the Sacramento. The matter seems to have been left in abeyance, with the result that the trappers ranged wherever possible, and the weak government did nothing.^[26]

Before returning north, Douglas negotiated terms by which the Hudson's Bay Company would be permitted to establish a post within the port of San Francisco; also that their vessels might engage in the California trade if put under the Mexican flag and their commanders naturalized. This agreement was approved by Chief Factor McLoughlin, and a commercial establishment was set up at Yerba Buena in 1841.^[27] The company confined itself in the main to wholesale trade.^[28]

Continued negotiations and arbitrations between the company and the California government were in progress during the years following the opening of the trading post.

Sutter has left a description of the Spanish brigade encamped on American River:

The Hudson's Bay Company sent every year a party of trappers who took a great quantity of furs. Their women who were squaws and half breeds, made moccasins and shirts and pantaloons of dressed deerskin which were greatly in demand. I bought large quantities of this clothing from them, only they could not sell furs. This was considered a great crime by the Hudson's Bay Company. They might sell deerskin, but not beaver or otter.

The Hudson's Bay Company used to send their trappers down from the north. They would enter the valley of California in the fall and leave in the spring, hunting and trapping during the winter. Before I went there the Mexican government could not prevent this. The men were chiefly Canadians, halfbreeds and Indians. The Hudson's Bay Company bought out the North West Company. They came and went in large crowds. When they pitched their tents it was like a village. In every one of these companies was a leader, an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company to whom the trappers delivered their furs and from whom they obtained supplies. This leader's name was La Framboise. He came every year for four or five years.

I did not think it right for them to carry off furs in this manner. They also bought stolen horses from the Indians. So I complained of them to the government and a duty was placed on furs, export duty so high that it ceased to be profitable. An officer was sent to receive this duty. So the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned the valley of California and there were no trappers but my men.^[29]

Sutter was not alone in soliciting governmental aid to stop the English company from trapping. Dr. Marsh, at Mount Diablo, also complained. Dr. Lyman, in his John Marsh, Pioneer, writes:

For at least a part of each year Marsh had a brigade of Hudson's Bay Company for neighbors. They entered the valley in the fall coming from the Oregon country and left in the spring, carrying off with them thousands of dollars worth of pelts and furs. They had little competition until Marsh appeared. The Mexican government could not prevent their coming, and after his arrival he cut into their trade by giving the thirsty trappers aguardiente in exchange for furs. La Framboise was then their leader and he caused Marsh a good deal of trouble by buying mustangs that the Indians had stolen from his corrals. When this trade became so flagrant that he could no longer endure it, Marsh complained to Monterey, with the result that the authorities placed such a high duty on furs that it was no longer profitable for the Hudson's Bay Company to operate in California.^[30]

During May, 1841, the Hudson's Bay Company representative, William Glen Rae, son-in-law of Dr. McLoughlin, arrived to open the company's establishment at San Francisco Bay. In August, Leese sold his store in Yerba Buena to the firm^[31] The Annals of San Francisco records that the history of Yerba Buena from 1841 to 1845 would be a record of the private transactions of the Hudson's Bay Company. Almost the total population was made up of officers and servants of the company.^[32] Bancroft complains that there is a remarkable absence of all contemporary records or correspondence on the subject of the Hudson's Bay Company during these years.^[33]

Oregon and California had reached by 1840-41 a state of prosperity that attracted the attention of several nations of Europe, as well as that of the United States. The Hudson's Bay Company had been extending its forts along the Pacific, and looking forward with hope to negotiations then pending for a cession of at least a portion of California in payment of a debt due from Mexico to British subjects amounting to over $50,000,000. Rumors were rife. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, of the United States navy, made his famous exploring trip at this time. Sir George Simpson included the two localities in the itinerary of his trip around the world. As governor of the northern district of the Hudson's Bay Company, he had a particular interest in both trade and annexation questions. Various individuals made reports on the future possibilities of the settlements on the Pacific coast. Disturbed political conditions made many of these reports secret but Duflot de Mofras, a young Frenchman who came by boat from Mexico to Monterey, and who was an attache of the French legation at Mexico City, published his findings in the most complete book of its time on Oregon and California.

In the year from September, 1840, De Mofras gives the number of ships at Monterey as forty-two. Of these, ten were Mexican, twenty-four American, five British, and there were three others. Importations were $150,000; $70,000 American, $10,000 English, the remainder miscellaneous. Exportations were $280,000, representing hides valued at $210,000; tallow $55,000; and furs, skins, and wool $15,000. Of the furs, 2000 were beaver skins valued at $2 each, 3,000 elk and deer skins at soc to $1. There were exported 12,000 bushels of wheat, which went to the Russians.^[34]

Wilkes, in describing in detail the system of credit used by American hide buyers, says: “When hides are given in payment [for goods] they are valued at two dollars and are at all times the common currency of the country. No money is in circulation unless what is paid out by foreign merchants.”^[35]

The venture of the Hudson's Bay Company in the California trade was a failure; their long established system of cash or barter and no credit could not be departed from. The people of the country had no money. They had been accustomed to buy their goods from the Boston ships on credit, and to pay for them in hides and tallow when they could. With them they knew they could continue to traffic in this manner, so the Hudson's Bay Company's factor found no customers.^[36] Hittell notes: "The great capital of the Hudson's Bay Company gave them an advantage over individual competitors. Americans had paid on delivery, or in merchandise on which a great profit was made. Rae offered half cash and half merchandise, and to pay the merchandise in advance. But in 1842 Sir George Simpson condemned Rae's payment in advance and refused to approve the purchase of the house."^[37]

Rae complained to Alvarado in November, 1841: "Sutter is determined to oppose the government's permission to trap in California, relying on that permission the company has sent a party of hunters whose arrival is daily expected. Serious loss will result if their operations are interfered with. An order is solicited forbidding Sutter's interference, an order which will be used only in case of absolute necessity."^[38]

Bidwell comments that the trappers continued to drive cattle and horses to Oregon on their return trip each spring, more and more as the profits of the fur trade declined. In 1842 there were two parties of trappers under Ermatinger and La Framboise respectively. This was under the provisional permit to hunt on condition of paying duties on all skins obtained, and Vallejo permitted the company's vessels to land supplies for the men at Bodega.^[39]

In a letter dated January 29, 1841, Ethan Estabrook, consular agent, wrote to Larkin, the most influential American in California:

The Hudson's Bay Company is playing the devil with California cattle if not with California itself. ... Capt. Humphrey informs me they want 100,000 cattle and half a million of sheep if they can be had. McKay, the chief hunter, is to have a grant in the Tulares of about 30 miles square. This is destined to be the headquarters of their enterprise in the interior. About 120 hunters, well armed and disciplined, are now in the Tulares, and forty or fifty came as passengers in the bark and proceeded from Monterey to the Tulares.^[40]

Rae's management of affairs at Yerba Buena was not satisfactory to Sir George Simpson. In a letter he complains that Rae had permitted an unwelcome visitor, De Mofras, most inconsiderately to sail for the Columbia on the Company's bark Cowlitz.^[41] In another letter addressed to the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, Sir George wrote:

In California it appears Mr. Rae had much difficulty with the authorities in regard to the duties which are most extravagant, equal to about 50% of the invoice; and in reference to regulations of the port, a compliance with which would have been exceedingly inconvenient.^[42]

By 1844, any one of three emergencies was likely to occur: a rising for independence on the part of Californians, foreign or native; and attempt of England and France to take possession of the country; or war between Mexico and the United States. English schemes of colonization, with the alleged approval of Governor Micheltorena, were being formed. Larkin warned the United States government that the importance of the Hudson's Bay Company had been greatly underrated, and that there had been an application on its behalf for a large grant of land, but whatever may have been its plans in this respect, hunting operations in California seem to have been abandoned after this year.^[43]

Affairs in the company's base at Fort Vancouver were in a disturbed state. The influx of American settlers had started. The right of the company to rule the country was being questioned. The English ship of war Modeste was stationed at the fort by request of the company's officers in case the dispute over the boundary should ignite the Americans to action and threaten destruction of the company's property. A feud of long standing between Sir George Simpson and Dr. John McLoughlin was approaching a crisis. Dr. McLoughlin wrote a "broadside” to his superior, resigned from the company, removed to Oregon City, south of the Columbia, and applied for American citizenship. Personal and land claim aspects of the dispute need not be considered, but certain paragraphs in the letter throw considerable light on the affairs of the company in California. Dr. McLoughlin, in answer to an open criticism from Sir George Simpson, replied in self defense:^[44]

In your 9th paragraph you write—“I am sorry to observe the southern or Bonaventura party have made very poor hunts arising as much from the impoverished state of the country as from their late arrival at the hunting grounds which by good management might have been avoided."

As to you writing the expedition ought to have been dispatched sufficiently early as to benefit from the whole hunting season I am surprised that you write so as the appointment of an officer to head the party was made by council and consequently the expedition had to wait until Mr. Ermatinger had closed the business of the Snake country and had arrived here. ... Mr. Ermatinger objected to proceed in charge of the expedition and you spoke to him about it; but to revert to the party it was equipped in the autumn of 1842 and placed under command of Mr. Laframboise and cleared 477 pounds, but the conduct of the men was so bad that under no consideration would Mr. Laframboise return. He had only promised to go for one trip. "I am," said Mr. Laframboise, “through the Mercy of God come back safe because I gave way to my men; if I had assumed the tone of a master I would have been murdered by them. I will not venture again."

Lined up against the Hudson's Bay Company brigades in California were Sutter, Marsh, the American trappers and settlers, Mexican and Spanish residents, and their old adversaries, the Indians. The situation at San Francisco headquarters was not more encouraging.

Dr. McLoughlin proceeds with his letter:

In your 15th paragraph you write to the Governor and Committee that by opening a store at St. Francisco having a vessel of 150 tons on the coast selling at first to retail dealers only and being contented with small profits a good business might be done. On this subject I shall only repeat my conviction that the sooner the unfortunate business which was badly planned, prematurely and irregularly prosecuted, be wound up the better for the interests of the Honourable Company. I am certain people reading this would suppose that I am the originator of this business. I beg distinctly to state that when it was first suggested to me in 1835 till you proposed it to me in London in 1839, though I had always a good opinion of the business I op- posed it merely because I felt we would not be allowed the necessary latitude to carry on the business in the manner it ought to be conducted, but in 1839 when you mentioned to me that we ought to enter in that business I agreed and made out a requisition by your direction, and in compliance with your instructions sent the outfit in charge of Mr. Rae whom you appointed to it in 1841. It is true I ordered a house to be purchased at St. Francisco because we could not get one to rent and it would have cost more to build a house than we paid for the one we bought and you will see by the current accounts of the outfit it has cleared £1848.5.7 after paying (for) the house and the duties on the inventory for both of which it takes no credit and deducting 40% from the outstanding debts which is much better than I expected considering the position in which Mr. Rae was placed and proves the business is much better than you supposed.

A glimpse of the profits of the great Hudson's Bay Company is afforded us by this letter. The post at Yerba Buena in 1843 cleared something over $8,758, but this was deemed too small by the governor.

In the valley the situation was even worse. Dr. McLoughlin sets forth in continuation:

The following is a comparative statement of the accounts for Outfits 1842-1843 for the districts along the coast

Segregating California Party Southern 1843	gain	loss	1842	gain	loss
	425.4.1			31.18.0

The clouds of war had gathered over California. Rae backed the wrong people at least so it appeared to him. He lent arms and ammunition to Alvarado.^[45] In 1843, Micheltorena called upon Sutter, as a naturalized citizen, to come to his aid against the native Californians and with the armed force which Sutter maintained at his fort.^[46] In Sutter's own list of the men in his company January 1, 1845, we find La Framboise.^[47] His presence there is unexplained. Rae espoused the cause against Micheltorena.^[48] J. A. Forbes, hearing of Sutter's intention to aid Micheltorena, met the party east of San Jose, and in vain tried to dissuade Sutter from his undertaking. The conference was held about January 12th. On the 19th, Rae committed suicide.^[49]

Rumors of domestic infelicity, financial losses, and alcoholic excesses appear in reminiscences of the times. To these must be added political and business pressures, in the light of revelations subsequent to the tragedy, as contributory causes of Rae's act.

Forbes hastened to Yerba Buena from Monterey, and La Framboise is said to have journeyed from French Camp to aid the widow and to assist in handling the business of the company.^[50] Forbes did nothing, says Bancroft, which has left any particular trace in the archives. In addition to his consular activities, he assumed the management of the Hudson's Bay Company post after Rae's death.

Larkin, in his letter to Buchanan and to eastern newspapers, chose to represent that the maintenance of an English and a French consulate in California, where neither nation had any interests to protect nor the slightest apparent need of consular service, costing a salary of $4,000 to Gasquet and $1,000 to Forbes, was a very suspicious circumstance. Indeed, Forbes was permitted to attend to his own private business, and rarely visited Monterey. The fear that the English would seize the country rested on a slightly better foundation, for in his communication Larkin announced that the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company had presented a bill for arms and munitions supplied the Californians in the late struggle; that Forbes raised his consular flag for the first time, and fired a salute on hearing of Micheltorena's overthrow.^[51]

Dugald McTavish came down from the Columbia, and closed out the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company in California. Mellus and Howard bought the property in Yerba Buena.^[52] Thus ended the California venture of the oldest company in the world.

The Oregon boundary question was settled the next year (1846). In 1849, the company removed its Pacific headquarters from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria, the site of the present city of Victoria on Vancouver Island. In September, 1851, James Douglas was made governor of the colony. Thus, at last, were united in one person the authority and interests of the Hudson's Bay Company and the authority and interests of the British colonial government.^[53]

1. The date of the charter was May 2, 1670. The privileges granted were such as no other company ever enjoyed. Over a region of unknown extent it was given absolute proprietorship, supreme jurisdiction in civil and military affairs, the power to make laws and to declare war against pagan peoples and in fact nearly all the attributes of a sovereign and independent government; Chittenden, American Fur Trade, 1935, 90.
2. Marion O'Neil, “Maritime Activities,” Washington Historical Quarterly, XXI, 252.
3. Same, 264.
4. Corney, Voyages, 77.
5. Coy, Humboldt Bay Region, 34-35.
6. Merk, Fur Trade and Empire, 332.
7. Sullivan, Travels of Jedediah Smith.
8. Cleland, History of California, American Period, 81.
9. California Historical Quarterly, I, 114, 118; [[Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 24|Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXIV, 24.
10. Lewis and Phillips, Journal of John Work, 59.
11. Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXIV, 32.
12. Bancroft, History of California, III, 392-93.
13. Vallejo documents, ms., III, 55-81.
14. Allen, Ten Years in Oregon, 119.
15. Rensch, Rensch and Hoover, Historic Spots in California, Valley and Sierra Counties, 336.
16. Tinkham, History of Stockton, 25.
17. Information supplied by Mr. Harry Noyes Pratt, Curator Pioneer Museum, Stockton.
18. McArthur, Oregon Geographic Names.
19. Ferris and Smith, History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 104.
20. Historic Spots in California, 130.
21. W. A. Slacum, Memorial, 25th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document, no. 24, 7; Belcher, Narrative, I, 301.
22. Forbes, History of California, 260.
23. Vallejo documents, ms., volume XXXIII, 177-82.
24. Same, XI, 264; V, 210.
25. Sutter, Diary, 13.
26. California Historical Quarterly, VIII, 98-102.
27. Vallejo documents, ms., XXIII, 177.
28. Phelps, Fore and Aft.
29. Sutter papers, 1839-44, 63.
30. Lyman, John Marsh, Pioneer, 217.
31. Hittell, History of San Francisco.
32. Soule, Gihon, Nisbet, Annals of San Francisco.
33. Bancroft, History of California, IV, 593.
34. Duflot de Mofras, Exploration, I, 504-05.
35. Wilkes, Narrative, V, 209.
36. Phelps, Fore and Aft.
37. Hittell, History of San Francisco, 89.
38. Vallejo documents, ms., XXXIII, 238.
39. Bidwell, California, ms., 99-102.
40. Quoted by Bancroft, History of California, IV, 214.
41. Simpson, "Letters," in American Historical Review, October, 1908.
42. Same.
43. Bancroft, California, IV, 452.
44. Oregon Historical Quarterly, XVII, 215.
45. Bancroft, California, IV, 594.
46. Theodore Hittell, History of California, II, 329.
47. Sutter, Diary, roster.
48. Bancroft, California, IV, 486.
49. Same, 593.
50. Dye, McLoughlin and Old Oregon.
51. Eldridge, History of California, II, 425.
52. Same, 470.
53. Sage, James Douglas.