The Northwest Company had here no Hudson Bay rival; its chief competitor was John Jacob Astor. In 1810 this young German trader founded Fort Astoria, the great fur-mart on Columbia River, familiar to readers of Washington Irving's narrative of the western fur trade. Astor, it appears, was desirous to attach to his service some of the more prominent Scotchmen among the Nor'westers. He even made overtures to the company to join him in partnership. The advantage of an alliance, he pointed out, was his ability to ship furs in American vessels to India and China, which the Northwest Company was unable to do in consequence of the East India Company's monopoly of trade. The resident agents took the matter into consideration, but after an exchange of views with the wintering partners in the interior the proposition was declined, and it was decided to give Mr. Astor and his Pacific Fur Company a lively opposition in Oregon territory. This, of course, occurred long before international boundaries were determined; indeed, it happened within two years of the breaking out of the War of 1812.
But if Astor could not form an alliance with the Canadian company, he could seduce from its employment the men he sought to aid him in his enterprise. By dint of offers of partnership and rapid promotion he enticed twenty Canadians to enter his service. Placing these men at the head of two expeditions, Astor despatched one overland, and the other he sent round Cape Horn to the mouth of the Columbia. The breaking out of the war, and the active competition of the Northwest Company, made havoc of Astor's plans, and ere long broke up the arrangement between him and his Montreal Scotchmen. On the Pacific, Britannia's "wooden walls" were cruising about, and made trading operations too hazardous to be profitably engaged in. Fort Astoria, in the fortunes of war, and through the ceaseless rivalry of the Nor'westers, changed hands and became Fort George; but by the Treaty of Ghent, in December, 1814, the post was restored.
With the collapse of Astor's project, his Scotch partners returned to their former allegiance, and reentered the service of the Northwest Company. Among these Scotchmen, and their countrymen who had remained in the service of the Canadian company, now gathered in the Oregon district, we find representatives of almost all the clans whose patronymics have the prefix of Mac.
In 1818, when Fort Astoria again changed its flag after its restitution to the
Americans under the Treaty of Ghent, most of the Canadian traders returned to
Fort William, to Red River, and to Montreal. Donald Mackenzie was the only one of the influential partners to remain. For several years he continued to trade on the Willamette and Snake rivers and in the country of the Nez Perces, having Fort Walla-Walla as his headquarters. But in 1822 he crossed the mountains to York Factory, and three years later he succeeded Robert Pelly in the governorship of the Red River colony. The departure of the Canadians from Oregon is thus graphically sketched by Bancroft: "It was a grand affair, this journey of the Northwest brigade from the mouth of the Columbia to Fort William and Montreal; it was at once a triumph and a dead-march. Ten canoes, five of bark and five of cedar, each carrying a crew of seven and two passengers, ninety in all, and all well armed, embarked at Fort George (Astoria). Of the party were McTavish, McDonald, John Stuart, David Stuart, Clarke, Mackenzie, Pillot, Wallace, McGillis, Franchere, and others, some of whom were destined for the upper stations. Short was the leave-taking for so large a company, for now there were not many left at the fort to say farewell. The voyageurs donned their broadest bonnets; arms were glittering, flags flying, the guns sounded their adieu, and, midst ringing cheers, in gayest mood the party rounded Tongue Point, and placed their breasts under the current. On April 17th they arrived at Rocky Mountain House on their way to Athabasca River. This post was more a provision-depot for the supplying of the Northwest Company's people in their passage of the mountains than a fur-hunting establishment. The glittering crystal eminences on which was perched the curved-horn mountain-goat, beyond the reach even of hungry wolves; the deep dense forests, snow-whited and sepulchral; the resting streams, laughing or raging according as their progress was impeded; the roystering torrent which no cold, dead, calm breath of nature could hush -- these and like superlative beauties met the eye of the footsore travellers at every turn."
“It is most profitable, it is blessed, to be always looking beyond second causes in all our trials and distresses, and to discern the Lord's hand, in infinite love and wisdom, appointing all. For this brings the soul into a state of resignation and tranquility at least, if not of holy Joy.”
–Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s Commentary, Psalm 17