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.[1] 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.[2] McLeod's Lake at Stockton bears witness to the visits of the English trappers.[3] A. R. McLeod named the Siskiyous,[4] and La Framboise gave the French name Buttes to the rocky hills in the Sacramento valley.[5] Pierre Lebec, one of La Framboise's trappers, left his name to mark the site of a fatal encounter with a grizzly.[6] 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.[7] The Cowlitz was added to the fleet during the 40's.
Captain Slacum is credited with having done much to calm
- ↑ Rensch, Rensch and Hoover, Historic Spots in California, Valley and Sierra Counties, 336.
- ↑ Tinkham, History of Stockton, 25.
- ↑ Information supplied by Mr. Harry Noyes Pratt, Curator Pioneer Museum, Stockton.
- ↑ McArthur, Oregon Geographic Names.
- ↑ Ferris and Smith, History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 104.
- ↑ Historic Spots in California, 130.
- ↑ W. A. Slacum, Memorial, 25th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document, no. 24, 7; Belcher, Narrative, I, 301.
