pany 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.[1]
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
- ↑ Sutter papers, 1839-44, 63.
