To Fort George

Fort George, where James Birnie spent many years in the service of the HBC. Image from Library and Archives Canada, number C-040856, and used with their permission. This is, however, not the fort that stood at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1824, that was more properly called Fort George [Astoria.]

In 1824, Governor George Simpson is making his way from York Factory to Fort George [Astoria], at the mouth of the Columbia River, on his first of three visits to the Oregon Country. He has just arrived at Okanogan House, at the junction of the Okanogan River with the Columbia.

“This post is agreeably situated in a fine plain near the Forks of the Okanagan and main River,” he wrote. “The Soil is much the same as at Spokane and produces the finest potatoes I have seen in the Country.” However, he remarked, “Cultivation to any extent has never been attempted, indeed throughout the Columbia no pains have been taken to meet the demands of the trade in that way, which was a great oversight or neglect…Those in charge have preferred the less troublesome and more costly mode of importing them [their provisions] from England, Boston, or California, and employing extra men to deliver it into their Stores. It has been said that Farming is no branch of the Fur Trade, but I consider that every pursuit tending to lighten the Expense of the Trade is a branch thereof.” (We, who are descendants of James Birnie, always felt that it was Birnie himself who made that remark to Governor Simpson.) In fact Simpson accused some of the gentlemen of standing about “with a pair of Gloves on their hands,” while clerks, guides, Interpreters, and others did all the work. In 1824, the expense of the provisions (and especially the mustard) would be his constant complaint on this visit.

On November 2, Simpson took his departure from Fort Okanogan, and his party encamped about an hour after sunset somewhere west of the Wenatchee River. The next day they passed through the strong rapids of Isle de Pierre [Rock Island] and Priests Rapids, in the latter of which, “by a blunder of my foreman who…took the wrong lead we narrowly escaped being upset.” Simpson said it was a close shave, and it seems it was, as his first reaction was to begin to strip off his clothes. The accident didn’t happen, however, They put ashore that night two hours after sunset, but re-embarked after eating and paddled through the night because of the number of Indigenous men who gathered around their camp to smoke. At sunrise the next morning they reached Fort Nez Perces, three or four leagues south of the mouth of the Snake River. Chief Trader John Warren Dease was in charge, and Simpson complained about his constant tea drinking. “Were he to drink a pint of Wine with his Friends on extraordinary occasions, get up earlier in the morning, eat a hearty breakfast and drink less Tea, I should have a much better opinion of him.” Simpson was a judgemental man, and in his mind, what he thought was always correct. However, he said

This post has been progressively improving for these last three years but the profit it yields is still very moderate. There is an establishment of Eleven in all attached to it which will admit of reduction, and by lopping off superfluities in the outfit I am in hopes that next year it will shew a very material amendment….

He decided to cut it down to nine people, with four men to be employed in the Transport business in the summertime. He also borrowed some men from the fort, replacing the Iroquois in his canoes for Canadiens who would be assigned to accompany James McMillan on his exploration of Fraser’s River. Then he armed his boats with three arms chest, in case of attacks from the Indigenous people in this section of the river, and headed south for Fort George on November 5th. On November 6 they left their encampment early, and as they were paddling downriver an Indigenous canoe ran across their path and was run down by the HBC Columbia boat. “The passengers [of the Indigenous canoe] thought nothing of it as they rose from under the water round the canoe like so many Seals; this accident entitled them to a little more Tobacco than their neighbours; they appear quite at home in the Water, and altho’ their Canoe was rendered useless by the blow, they took it all in good part and laughed heartily at their misfortune.” (At a guess, the collision was intentional on the part of the Indigenous men.)

The HBC men passed over the Chutes portage, where hundreds of Indigenous people came to see them and to follow them down the river. “They were very orderly and good humoured, drawn thither principally by curiosity and with the hope of getting a little Tobacco,” Simpson said. Both James McMillan and Thomas McKay were well-known to the Indigenous men, those HBC men “having sent a few of their friends to the other World for their misdeeds.”

Simpson’s party camped that night just above what must have been the Cascades. “The country now begins to get more pleasant, the banks of the River being clothed with fine Timber and occasionally exhibiting a pretty spot.” On November 7, they got to the Cascade Portage at about seven am, and portaged around it. “This portage is occasioned by a heavy Fall or Rapid which cannot be run at any season,” Simpson said. In 1814, the Indigenous people had attempted to pillage a brigade under the charge of Messrs Alexander Stewart and James Keith, when the former was seriously wounded and two Indigenous men killed in retaliation. 

“The River now assumes the appearance of a Lake,” Simpson said, “as it widens in some places to the extent of 2 & 3 Miles, is studded with Islands and the current slack; towards the afternoon we had the benefit of an aft wind, passed a branch of the Willamette River and several fine points named after Vancouver, Broughton, and others, and at dusk put ashore at the Jolie Prairie. The country here is very pleasant, well wooded & Hills, plains, and beautiful openings coming to the view at every reach.” In the map I have, Fort Vancouver was built on a point of land east of the mouth of the Willamette River, so that the Jolie Prairie that is mentioned here might not be the same Jolie Prairie that Fort Vancouver was built on only a few months later. After all, the word Jolie means pretty, and there may be have been many “pretty” stretches of prairie along this river. 

After supper the men all bathed and changed into their good clothes, “as by continuing our march during the night we expected to reach Fort George the following morning. We accordingly embarked about 10 pm, kept our people at their paddles until Day break the 8th, when we put ashore to Breakfast; wrought hard all day against a strong head Wind and got to Tongue Point about 5 pm where we found Chief Factor [Alexander] Kennedy & Mr. [Archibald] McDonald amusing themselves boat sailing.” Archibald McDonald, later of Forts Langley and Colvile, was the accountant at Fort Vancouver at this time.

In his journal of the voyage, Simpson bragged  

We landed at Fort George about Sun Set, having performed the Voyage from Hudson’s Bay across the continent of America to the Northern Pacific Ocean in 84 Days, thereby gaining Twenty Days on any Craft that ever preceded us. By taking the Saskatchewan route, however, instead of the circuitous and tedious course we pursued, I shall undertake next Season if necessary with Eight men to perform the Voyage in not exceeding Two months, so that if any object is to be gained by waiting the arrival of the Ship from England, no danger or inconvenience can arise from remaining at York Factory until the 1st September, as thereafter there is sufficient Season to get to Carlton by open Water, from thence to the headwaters of the Columbia by land, and by making no delays en route to be at Fort George by the 1st November, by which means the Company Dispatches may, in less than Four Months from the Date thereof, be at the most distant Establishment on the borders of the Pacific, and through their medium the East India Company may communicate with China by North America in less than Six Months, which I have no doubt will be found the shortest, most direct, and least expensive route that has yet been discovered. 

OB-VI-OUS-LY, not all of Simpson’s plans worked, and this one certainly did not! I am not sure they even attempted to make it work! But in the letters written to and by Governor Simpson before he made this journey west, the London Committee had made a deal with the East India Company to supply them with 20,000 Beaver and 7,000 Land otter skins, in 1824 and in 1825. So this mention above probably had something to do with that deal.

Governor Simpson described Fort George [Astoria]. For your information, an acre of land is a little more than 200 feet by 200 feet.

The Establishment of Fort George is a large pile of buildings covering about an acre of ground, well stockaded, and protected by Bastions or Blockhouses, having two Eighteen Pounders mounted in front and altogether an air or appearance of Grandeur & consequence which does not become, and is not a all suitable to an Indian Trading Post. Everything appears to me on the Columbia on too extended a scale except the Trade, and when I say that that is confined to Four permanent Establishments, the returns of which do not amount to 20,000 Beaver & Otters, altho’ the country has been occupied upwards of Fourteen Years, I feel that a very Severe reflection is cast on those who have had the management of the Business, as on looking at the prodigious expenses that have been incurred, and the means at their command, I cannot help thinking that no economy has been observed, that little exertion has been used, and that sound judgment has not been exercised, but that mismanagement and extravagance has been the order of the day. It is now, however, necessary that a radical change should take place, and we have no time to lose in bringing it about.

And there, we have the theme for Governor George Simpson’s 1824 visit to the Columbia district. I wonder how the present managers of the district felt about Simpson’s accusations: it was almost certain that he brought up these complaints with them. There would be new rules and expectations from now on: and it would be Chief Factor John McLoughlin’s job to enforce these new rules. Everyone, but everyone, would be required to obey them, and they would all be required to perform better.

Of course, the first thing that Governor Simpson organized on his arrival at Fort George was the departure of the men who belonged to the Fraser River expedition. Here is the beginning of that story! https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fraser-river/

The next thing that Simpson did was that he arranged for a new headquarters to be constructed, on a place which offered good pastures for animals and gardens. Simpson will be spending the winter of 1824-1825 at Fort George, and he will return to the east side of the Rocky Mountains in the spring of 1825. When the next post in this series is written, I will include it here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/whatever-i-call-it/ 

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. 

• ← Governor George Simpson