traffic in arms prohibited; but, as it did not infringe
any municipal law, our government could not interfere. Yet, still it
regarded, with solicitude, a traffic which, if persisted in, might give
offence to Russia, at that time almost the only friendly power to us. In
this dilemma the government had applied to Mr. Astor, as one conversant
in this branch of trade, for information that might point out a way
to remedy the evil. This circumstance had suggested to him the idea of
supplying the Russian establishment regularly by means of the annual
ship that should visit the settlement at the mouth of the Columbia (or
Oregon); by this means the casual trading vessels would be excluded
from those parts of the coast where their malpractices were so injurious
to the Russians.

Such is a brief outline of the enterprise projected by Mr. Astor, but
which continually expanded in his mind. Indeed it is due to him to say
that he was not actuated by mere motives of individual profit. He was
already wealthy beyond the ordinary desires of man, but he now aspired
to that honorable fame which is awarded to men of similar scope of mind,
who by their great commercial enterprises have enriched nations, peopled
wildernesses, and extended the bounds of empire. He considered his
projected establishment at the mouth of the Columbia as the emporium
to an immense commerce; as a colony that would form the germ of a wide
civilization; that would, in fact, carry the American population across
the Rocky Mountains and spread it along the shores of the Pacific, as
it already animated the shores of the Atlantic. As Mr. Astor, by the
magnitude of his commercial and financial relations, and the vigor
and scope of his self-taught mind, had elevated himself into the
consideration of government and the communion and correspondence with
leading statesmen, he, at an early period, communicated his schemes
to President Jefferson, soliciting the countenance of government. How
highly they were esteemed by that eminent man, we may judge by the
following passage, written by him some time afterwards.

"I remember well having invited your proposition on this subject,*** and
encouraged it with the assurance of every facility and protection which
the government could properly afford. I considered, as a great public
acquisition, the commencement of a settlement on that point of the
western coast of America, and looked forward with gratification to the
time when its desc