so the British government was acting under the impulse supplied by the Northwest Company. That government, indeed, knew nothing about the situation at the mouth of the Columbia except what it learned from the Northwest Company partners, especially Simon McGillivray, who resided generally in London and had charge of the outfitting of the company's ships. It was McGillivray who learned in some way to us unknown that Captain Biddle of the Ontario had orders to sail to the Columbia and it was he who furnished Mr. Bagot that exciting piece of news; he also furnished Bagot the history of the British claim to the Columbia on which he based his protest to Mr. Adams.[1] We glean from McGillivray that the Northwest Company had planned in 1 810 to take possession of the mouth of the Columbia but that they were delayed by government red tape until it was too late because Astor had forestalled them. When the war broke out, however, they persuaded the admiralty to send a warship to the Columbia to capture Astoria while the company sent the Isaac Todd to begin their establishment.
Excitement over the Ontario's mission. The sending of the Ontario created a decided sensation. The British minister wrote in some alarm to his government, and for the moment it looked as if a serious issue might be made of the incident. Lord Castlereagh,
- ↑ McGillivray's "Statement Relative to the Columbia River," etc. was found with Bagot's dispatch No. 74, Public Record Office, F. O. America 123. The McGillivray statement abounds in errors, but it was all that Bagot had to guide his course.
