od for two days at a time. But Pike
pushed on, in spite of hunger, cold, and suffering, and at last saw,
through a gap in the mountains, the waters of the Rio Grande. Believing
that it was the Red, he hurried to its banks, only to be seized by the
Spaniards (for he was on Spanish soil), who carried him a prisoner to
Santa Fe, from which city he and his men wandered back to the United
States by way of Mexico and Texas.

[Illustration: %EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTHWEST% BY ZEBULON M. PIKE
%1806-1807%]

%249. Astoria founded.%--The immediate effect of these explorations
was greatly to stimulate the fur trade. One great fur trader, John Jacob
Astor of New York, now founded the Pacific Fur Company and made
preparations to establish a line of posts from the upper Missouri to the
Columbia, and along it to the Pacific, and supply them from St. Louis by
way of the Missouri, or from the mouth of the Columbia, where in 1811 a
little trading post was begun and named Astoria. This completed our
claim to the Oregon country. Gray had discovered the river; Lewis and
Clark had explored the territory drained by the river; the Pacific Fur
Company planted the first lasting settlement.

SUMMARY

1. In 1793 France made war on Great Britain. The United States was bound
by the treaty of alliance of 1778 to "guarantee" the French possessions
in America.

2. This treaty, and the coming of the French minister, forced Washington
to declare the United States neutral in the war.

3. His proclamation of neutrality was resented by the Republicans, who
now became sympathizers with France. The Federalists, who were strongest
in the commercial states, became the anti-French or English party.

4. When France declared war on England, she opened her ports in the West
Indies to the merchant trade of the United States.

5. England held that we should not have a trade with France when at war,
for we had not had it when France was at peace. This was an application
of the "Rule of 1756." In 1793-1794, therefore, England began to seize
our ships coming from the French ports.

6. This so excited the Republicans that they attempted to force the
country into war with England.

7. To prevent war, Washington sent Jay to London, where he made our
first commercial treaty with Great Britain.

8. This offended the French Directory, who refused to receive our new
minister and sent him out of France.

9. War with France now seemed likely. But Adams, in the inte