history.

[Illustration: ASTOR'S FIRST TRIP FOR FURS.]

Astor's employer was not insensible to his merits, and soon promoted him
to a better place. In a little while the latter intrusted him with the
buying of the furs from the men who brought them to the store, and he
gave such satisfaction to his employer that he was rewarded with a still
more confidential post. Montreal was at that time the chief fur depot of
the country, and it was the custom of Mr. Bowne to make an annual
journey to that city for the purpose of replenishing his stock. The
journey was long and fatiguing, and as soon as the old gentleman found
that he could intrust the mission to his clerk, he sent him in his
place. Ascending the Hudson to Albany, Astor, with a pack on his back,
struck out across the country, which was then almost unsettled, to Lake
George, up which he passed into Lake Champlain. Sailing to the head of
the lake, he made his way to Montreal. Then returning in the same way,
he employed Indians to transport his furs from Lake George to Albany,
and dropped down the Hudson in the way he had come. Mr. Bowne was
delighted with the success of his clerk, who proved more than a match
for the shrewd Indians in his bargains. It was doubtless here that Mr.
Astor obtained that facility in "driving a hard bargain" for which he
was afterwards noted.

As soon as Mr. Astor felt himself master of his business, he left the
employ of Mr. Bowne, and began life on his own account. The field upon
which he purposed entering was extensive, but it was one of which he had
made a careful survey. Previous to the peace of 1763, the French and
English divided the control of the fur-bearing regions of America. The
British possessions, extending from Canada to the unexplored regions of
the North, had been granted by a charter of Charles II. to Prince
Rupert, and were, by virtue of that instrument, under the exclusive
control of the Hudson Bay Company. Large quantities of furs were
obtained in this region, and collected at the principal settlement, York
Factory, from which they were shipped to England.

South of this region was Canada, then possessed by the French, who
carried on an extensive trade with the Indians, who brought their furs
down to Montreal in their birch canoes. The French finally settled in
the country of the savages, and married among the natives,
thenceforward entirely devoting themselves to the life of the trapper
and hunter. These marriages p