Gabriel Franchère, a young clerk from Montreal, sailed round Cape Horn in 1810 for John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company and helped build Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. He records the voyage, trade with the Native peoples, the War of 1812, the sale of the post to the rival North West Company, and his long overland journey home.
A key primary source on the first American settlement on the Pacific coast. Download the free EPUB.