In the first treaty relative to it, under date of October
20th, 1818, the question was left unsettled, and it was agreed that
the country on the northwest coast of America, westward of the Rocky
Mountains, claimed by either nation, should be open to the inhabitants
of both for ten years, for the purpose of trade, with the equal right
of navigating all its rivers. When these ten years had expired, a
subsequent treaty, in 1828, extended the arrangement to ten additional
years. So the matter stands at present.
On casting back our eyes over the series of events we have recorded,
we see no reason to attribute the failure of this great commercial
undertaking to any fault in the scheme, or omission in the execution of
it, on the part of the projector. It was a magnificent enterprise; well
concerted and carried on, without regard to difficulties or expense. A
succession of adverse circumstances and cross purposes, however, beset
it almost from the outset; some of them, in fact, arising from neglect
of the orders and instructions of Mr. Astor. The first crippling blow
was the loss of the Tonquin, which clearly would not have happened, had
Mr. Astor's earnest injunctions with regard to the natives been attended
to. Had this ship performed her voyage prosperously, and revisited
Astoria in due time, the trade of the establishment would have taken its
preconcerted course, and the spirits of all concerned been kept up by
a confident prospect of success.
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