Convoy, Bancroft and later Burch, American brig; from Kaigan to Honolulu and back.

La Grange, Snow, Boston ship; at Honolulu from Kaigan and other ports on Northwest Coast.

Beaver, Holms, Hudson's Bay Company's steamer; in Columbia River, the first steamer to visit the coast.

[1837.] Llama, Bancroft, Sangster, Brotchie, and McNeill; from Columbia River to Honolulu and California.

Nereid; still in Columbia River.

Cadboro, William Brotchie, Hudson's Bay Company's schooner; made a trip from Columbia River to California.

Loriot, Bancroft; from Columbia River to California and Sandwich Islands; also a trip to Mazatlan under Captain Handley.

Sumatra, Duncan, English bark; carried missionaries from Honolulu to Columbia River.

Hamilton, S. Barker, American ship; trading trip from Honolulu to the Northwest Coast.

Diana, William S. Hinkley, American brig; carried missionaries from Honolulu to Columbia River; trip to California; name changed to Kamamalu. Sulphur, Edward Belcher, H. B. M. ship; on an exploring voyage round the world; spent a week in Nootka Sound.

Starling, H. Kellett, H. B. M. exploring schooner; in company with the Sulphur.

[1838.] Llama, Bancroft, later Robinson and Perrier; hunting and trading trips to California and Sandwich Islands.

Nereid, Brotchie; at Honolulu from Columbia River, also in California. Cadboro, Robbins; in California from Columbia River.

Joseph Peabody; engaged in fur-trade, according to Kelley's Memoir. Columbia, Humphries; from England to Columbia River and return via Sandwich Islands.

[1839.] Nereid, Brotchie; trip from the Columbia River to the Islands and back.

Vancouver, Duncan, Hudson's Bay Company's bark; from London to Columbia River and back to Honolulu.

Thomas Perkins, Varney; left Sandwich Islands for Northwest Coast to trade.

Joseph Peabody, Dominis; trading on Alaska coast and perhaps farther south.

Sulphur, Belcher; in Columbia River, July to September.

Starling, Kellett; with the preceding.

[1840.] Columbia, Humphries; in California, Sandwich Islands, and Columbia River.

Forager, Thompson, English brig; left Honolulu for Columbia River and California.

Lausanne, Spaulding, American ship; in Columbia River, California, and Sandwich Islands; settlers and missionaries.

Maryland, Couch, Boston brig; in Columbia River, trading for salmon.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MARITIME FUR-TRADE.

1778-1846.

THE SEA-OTTER-COMMENTARIES UPON IT-THE RUSSIAN BEGINNINGSTHE CHINESE MARKET-CAPTAIN COOK'S DISCOVERIES-BOLTS' ENTERPRISE-JOHN LEDYARD AND HIS PLANS-AN ECCENTRIC YANKEE-DISHEARTENING FAILURES-ENGLISH EFFORTS FROM INDIA-HANNA AND HIS FOLLOWERS-IN LONDON-PORTLOCK AND DIXON-FRENCH INVESTIGATION -LA PÉROUSE-MARCHAND'S EXPERIENCE-BEGINNINGS AT BOSTON-KENDRICK AND GRAY-ROUTINE OF THE TRADE-ENGLISHMEN VERSUS AMERICANS-PERILS OF THE BUSINESS-CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES-METHODS OF BARTER-ARTICLES DESIRED-STATISTICS— THE TRADE IN CALIFORNIA-THE ENGLISH COMPANIES-AMERICAN DEVICES-DECLINE OF THE FUR-TRADE.

THE home of the sea-otter was in the waters of the Northwest Coast, Alaska, and the Siberian islands. The fur of this amphibious animal, the most precious of all peltries, was the attraction that brought to these shores all the adventurous navigators whose exploits have been briefly recorded in the preceding chapters. A few did not engage directly in the fur-trade; but all such, with the possible exception of Captain Cook, came because of the operations of the fur-seekers. Much has been said bearing on this branch of commerce in the description of successive voyages; but it seems proper to devote a chapter to the general topic, and to give the information mainly in the words of the participators and writers, the same for the most part. that have been so often cited before in this volume.

Cook describes as follows the first sea-otter seen by him at Nootka, he having had some doubt before

if the skins were really those of that animal: "It was rather young, weighing only twenty-five pounds; of a shining or glossy black colour; but many of the hairs being tipt with white, gave it a greyish cast at first sight. The face, throat, and breast were of a yellowish white, or very light brown colour, which, in many of the skins, extended the whole length of the belly. It had six cutting teeth in each jaw; two of those of the lower jaw being very minute, and placed without, at the base of the two middle ones. In these circumstances, it seems to disagree with those found by the Russians; and also in not having the outer toes of the hind feet skirted with a membrane. There seemed also a greater variety in the colour of the skins, than is mentioned by the describers of the Russian sea-otters. These changes of colour certainly take place at the different gradations of life. The very young ones had brown hair, which was coarse, with very little fur underneath; but those of the size of the entire animal, which came into our possession, and just described, had a considerable quantity of that substance; and both in that colour and state the sea-otters seem to remain, till they have attained their full growth. After that, they lose the black colour, and assume a deep brown or sooty colour; but have then a greater quantity of very fine fur, and scarcely any long hairs. Others, which we suspected to be still older, were of a chestnut brown; and a few skins were seen that had even acquired a perfectly yellow colour."1 "A full grown prime skin," said Captain William Sturgis of Boston, an old trader, "which has been stretched before drying, is about five feet long, and twenty-four to thirty inches wide, covered with very fine fur, about three-fourths of an inch in length, having a rich jet black, glossy surface, and exhibiting a silver color when blown open. Those are esteemed the finest skins which have some white hairs interspersed and

1Cook's Voyage, ii. 295-6. An otter taken by La Pérouse and apparently full sized weighed 70 pounds. La Pérouse, Voyage, ii. 176.

THE RUSSIAN TRAFFIC.

345

scattered over the whole surface, and a perfectly white head. Mr Sturgis said that it would now give him more pleasure to look at a splendid sea-otter skin than to examine half the pictures that are stuck up for exhibition, and puffed up by pretended connoisseurs."2

There were other valuable furs in the country besides that of the sea-otter, and which were profitably exported in connection with the latter; but there were none which of themselves would in the early years have brought the world's adventurous traders on their long and perilous voyages to the coast. The fur-seal, however, was taken in large numbers; and in later years yielded greater profits, on account of its greater abundance, than the sea-otter.

On their first trips to the new continent and islands the Russians discovered the existence of the precious fur, and after 1741 these people, embarking from Siberia in their crazy craft, engaged actively in the hunt. The product was collected in the Kamchatkan ports, and transported by land, a part to Russia, but most to Kiakhta on the frontier, where they were exchanged for Chinese goods, which were carried overland to Europe. Notwithstanding the distances and consequent expense of transportation, making the price of a skin at least three times as much at Kiakhta as at Okhotsk, the traffic was a profitable one." "Furs

2 Sturgis' Northwest Fur Trade, 534. They are sometimes seen many leagues from land, sleeping on their backs, on the surface of the water, with their young ones reclining on their breast...The cubs are incapable of swimming till they are several months old...She will not leave her young ones in the moment of danger, and therefore shares their fate...They are unable to remain under water longer than two minutes...The male otter is, beyond all comparison, more beautiful than the female...Skins of this animal taken in the Corean and Japan seas, are superior to those of Russia or the North Western Coast of America.' Meares' Voy., 241-4. Nothing can be more beautiful than one of these animals when seen swimming, especially when on the lookout for any object. At such times it raises its head quite above the surface.' Jewitt's Nar., 67. See full description, with quotations from various authors, in Marchand, Voyage, ii. 29–37.

3 The Russian fur-trade of the extreme north will be fully treated in a later volume on the History of Alaska. Core's Russian Discoveries, London, 1787, is the authority by which this trade was made known to the world. Coxe mentions a specimen cargo of furs yielding about $50,000 in Kamchatka. Irving, Astoria, 33, takes the following view of the overland transit: 'The Russians

form the principal and favorite dress of the inhabitants of the Northern provinces of China; and those of the rarest kind and the highest prices are eagerly purchased by them.-From five hundred to one thousand dollars, and even a larger sum, are frequently paid for a single suit of this precious cloathing." In the southern provinces also everybody who can afford it has a sea-otter cape at a cost of $6. And after the new system of importation had been introduced, "the reputation of the sea-otter skins brought...the Northern Chinese and Pekin merchants to Canton, a port which they had never before visited, and at the distance of near one thousand miles from the places of their residence.-Yet...they found it answered to their entire satisfaction, from being able to obtain the same species of furs which they had been accustomed to purchase at Kiascha, at a price so much below the usual rate of that market. They arrived at Canton laden with teas, silk and ivory; and took back in return furs and broadcloths." Yet the Chinese, with all their extravagant fondness for furs, by their peculiar commercial policy involving many burdensome restrictions, made the fur-trader's road to fortune by no means a straight and pleasant one.

What was learned from the works of Coxe and others respecting the Russian trade with China, seems to have made no sensation in European commercial circles until verified and amplified by the reports of

had the advantage over their competitors in the trade. The latter had to take their peltries to Canton, which, however, was a mere receiving mart... The Russians, on the contrary, carried their furs, by a shorter voyage [?] directly to the northern parts of the Chinese empire; thus being able to afford them in the market without the additional cost of internal transportation.' Greenhow writes: "The trade in furs had been conducted, almost wholly, by the British and the Russians, between whom, however, there had been no opportunity for competition. The Russians procured their furs chiefly in the northern parts of their own empire; and they exported to China, by land, all such as were not required for their own use. The British market was supplied entirely from Hudson's Bay and Canada; and a great portion of the skins there collected was sent to Russia, whence many of them found their way to China, though none had ever been shipped directly for the latter country.' Or. and Cal., 161.

'Meares' Account of the Trade, etc., lxxxvi.