ment that the United States expected to reoccupy the Columbia under the treaty, but two years elapsed before any definite step was taken. The delay may have been due to Mr. Astor, for it is almost certain that the government was merely trying to clear the way for his reoccupation of Astoria. But in September, 1817, the ship Ontario, Captain Biddle, was ordered to the Columbia to "assert the claim of the United States to the (Columbia) country in a friendly and peaceable manner. . . ."
British claims stated. When the British minister at Washington, Mr. Charles Bagot, learned about the orders given Captain Biddle he protested to J. Q. Adams, Secretary of State. Astoria was not one of the "places and possessions "referred to in the treaty, since the fort had been purchased by British subjects before the Raccoon entered the river. Nor was the Columbia valley "territory . . . taken . . . during the war "; it was rather a region "early taken possession of in His Majesty's name, and considered as forming part of His Majesty's dominions."[1] This was the formal opening of the Oregon Question, which required nearly a generation for its settlement, and at one time threatened to bring on a war.
The Northwest Company interested. It is interesting to find that, just as the American government was acting in these matters at the behest of Mr. Astor,
- ↑ It was claimed that Lieutenant Broughton took formal possession of the Columbia country when he entered the river in October, 1792.
