Chapter IV

Care of Great Britain for her fur companies.--Columbia Fur
Company.--Astor's second fur company.--Major Pilcher's fur
company.--Loss of the ship _Isabel_.--Captain Bonneville's
expedition.--Cause of his failure.--Captain Wyeth's, 1832.--Indians
ask for missionaries in 1833.--Methodist Mission.--Fort Hall
established.--Fort Boise.

By reference to the act of the British Parliament of June 2, 1821, it will be seen that the affairs of the North American British Fur companies were in a fair way to defeat all British interests in America. To suppress these feuds among their own people became a matter of national importance and policy.

To accomplish so desirable an object, Parliament, in the act above referred to, extended the civil and criminal jurisdiction of Canada over all the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company; in the thirteenth article of the act, and in the fourteenth, repealed all that was before taken away from that company, and confirmed absolutely all the rights supposed to have been given by the original charter, as follows:--