The disordered state of the times, however, caused such a delay, that
February arrived, while the vessel was yet lingering in port.
At this juncture, Mr. Astor learnt that the Northwest Company were
preparing to send out an armed ship of twenty guns, called the Isaac
Todd, to form an establishment at the mouth of the Columbia. These
tidings gave him great uneasiness. A considerable proportion of the
persons in his employ were Scotchmen and Canadians, and several of them
had been in the service of the Northwest Company. Should Mr. Hunt have
failed to arrive at Astoria, the whole establishment would be under
the control of Mr. M'Dougal, of whose fidelity he had received very
disparaging accounts from Captain Thorn. The British government, also,
might deem it worth while to send a force against the establishment,
having been urged to do so some time previously by the Northwest
Company.
Under all these circumstances, Mr. Astor wrote to Mr. Monroe, then
secretary of state, requesting protection from the government of the
United States. He represented the importance of his settlement, in
a commercial point of view, and the shelter it might afford to the
American vessels in those seas. All he asked was that the American
government would throw forty or fifty men into the fort at his
establishment, which would be sufficient for its defense until he could
send reinforcements over land.
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