Alexander Ross was a clerk in John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, and sailed round Cape Horn on the Tonquin to the mouth of the Columbia River. His narrative describes the founding of Astoria, the overland party under Wilson Price Hunt, trade and conflict with the Native nations of the region, and the end of the venture during the War of 1812.
A first-hand source for the opening of the Pacific Northwest, in Reuben Gold Thwaites’s annotated edition. Download the free EPUB.