Astorian adventure: the journal of Alfred Seton, 1811-1815

432 Pages·1993·2.16 MB·English

by  Alfred Seton

Astorian Adventure : The Journal of Alfred
title:
Seton, 1811-1815
author: Seton, Alfred.; Jones, Robert Francis
publisher: Fordham University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0823215032
print isbn13: 9780823215034
ebook isbn13: 9780585125640
language: English
Astoria (Or.)--History, Fur trade--
Northwest, Pacific--History, Northwest,
subject Pacific--Description and travel, Northwest,
Pacific--History, Hawaii--Description and
travel, Seton, Alfred,--1793-1859--Diaries.
publication date: 1993
lcc: F884.A8S48 1993eb
ddc: 979.5/46
Astoria (Or.)--History, Fur trade--
Northwest, Pacific--History, Northwest,
subject: Pacific--Description and travel, Northwest,
Pacific--History, Hawaii--Description and
travel, Seton, Alfred,--1793-1859--Diaries.
Page iii
Astorian Adventure
The Journal of Alfred Seton 1811-1815
edited by
Robert F. Jones
Fordham University Press
New York
1993
Page iv
Copyright © 1993 by Fordham University Press
All rights reserved
LC 93-2067
ISBN 0-8232-1503-2 (clothbound)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seton, Alfred, 1793-1859
Astorian Adventure: the journal of Alfred Seton, 1811-1815/edited by
Robert F. Jones.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0-8232-1503-2 (cloth): $25.00
1. Astoria (Or.)History. 2. Fur TradeNorthwest, Pacific
History. 3. Northwest, Pacific, Description and travel. 4. Northwest,
PacificHistory. 5. HawaiiDescription and travel. 6. Seton, Alfred,
1793-1859Diaries. I. Jones, Robert Francis, 1935-. II. Title.
F884.A8S48 1993
979.5'46dc20 93-2067
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Page v
For Ann and Chris,
Rob,
Ken and Kathy,
Tim,
and Bill
helpers always
Page vii
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
Editorial Procedures & Guidelines 25
1. The Voyage Out 27
2. Hawaiian Stopover 65
3. Astoria, 9 May 1812-25 August 1813 87
4. Astoria, 26 August 1813-26 March 1814 119
5. Alaska, California, and the Return Home 153
Appendix A 181
Appendix B 201
Bibliography 209
Index 215
Illustrations following page 86.
Page ix
List of Illustrations
John Jacob Astor, by Gilbert Stuart. Oil, 29 x 24". Private
collection. Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library.
Negative number 362.
Opening page of the log of the Beaver (1817 copy). Force
Papers, Library of Congress.
Opening page of Seton's journal. Courtesy of Rockefeller
Archives, Pocantico Hills, New York.
The Beaver, by Isaac Power, 1840. Watercolor on paper, 18¼
× 25". Photography by Ozzie Sweet. Private collection.
The Hawaiian scene and people, watercolors by a Russian
visitor, Louis Choris, 1816. Courtesy of Honolulu Academy of
Arts. Gift of Honolulu Art Society, 1944.
L'Interieur d'une Maison d'un chef aux Iles Sandwich.
Watercolor on paper, 10¾ × 7".
Tammeamea, Roi des Iles Sandwich (Kamehameha I).
Watercolor on paper, 3½ × 5'.
Port d'Honarourou, sur l'Ile de Vahou (Iles Sandwich).
Watercolor and graphite on paper. 6 1/8 × 17¾".
Destruction of the Tonquin, from Edward Fanning's Voyage to
the South Seas, the Pacific Ocean, and the Northwest Coast.
New York, 1838.
William Clark's map of the mouth of the Columbia, c. 1806.
Courtesy of the American Philosophical Society Library,
Philadelphia. Neg. number 913.

Page x
View of Fort Astoria, from West Shore Magazine, February
22, 1890. Oregon Historical Society, #OrHi 691.
The Northwest at the Time of Lewis and Clark, 1805-1806,
from Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Nez Perce Indians and the
Opening of the Northwest. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1965. Reprinted with permission of Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
Count Alexander Baranov. Oregon Historical Society, #OrHi
35410.
View of Sitka, from George H. Langsdorff's Voyage and
Travels in Various Parts of the World, During the Years 1803,
1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807. London: Colbern, 1813-1814.
Wilson Price Hunt, by O. L. Erickson. Pastel on canvas.
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society. Negative number
Por-H-87b.
Page 1
Introduction
The fur trade and John Jacob Astor are linked in the minds of most
students of American history through his American Fur Company,
whose trappers roamed the West in the 1820s and 1830s. This is in
spite of Washington Irving's masterly rendering of the history of an
earlier venture of Astor's, the Pacific Fur Company, in Astoria, or,
Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains (1836),
which led to the founding of a post on the Columbia River in 1811.
Not only was the Pacific Fur Company a bold effort in continental and
international trade, it also aimed to strengthen the United States' claim
to a share of the Pacific coast of North America and to head off a
move by the Montreal-based North West Company into the Columbia
basin. Although the Pacific Fur Company was not a commercial
success, it cannot be said to have failed in its other goals, as the post
at Astoria did bolster the American hand in subsequent negotiations
and the geographical knowledge of the Oregon country brought back
by the Astorians encouraged eventual American settlement. Astor, the
Pacific Fur Company, Irving and his history, are all linked in the
journal presented in these pages, as its author, Alfred Seton, a young
New Yorker, enjoyed (or at least thought he did) a privileged
relationship with Mr. Astor when he signed on as a clerk with the
company, and Seton's journal later served as a source for Astoria. This
journal, and Duncan McDougall's Astoria journal (at the Rosenbach
Library, Philadelphia), are apparently the only ones written at the time
which survive today. Neither has been published. Since the Seton
journal is largely unknown to scholars, it is appropriate to give the
reader an idea of its author and of the enterprise in which he enlisted.
Alfred Seton was eighteen years old in 1811 when he signed on for
what was expected to be a five-year tour of duty as a clerk with the