coast, and to repair to such place or places as the majority might
direct.

An agent, appointed for the term of five years, was to reside at the
principal establishment on the northwest coast, and Wilson Price Hunt
was the one chosen for the first term. Should the interests of the
concern at any time require his absence, a person was to be appointed,
in general meeting, to take his place.

Such were the leading conditions of this association; we shall now
proceed to relate the various hardy and eventful expeditions, by sea and
land, to which it gave rise.

* Carver's Travels, Introd. b. iii. Philad. 1796.

**Carver's Travels, p. 360.

*** On this point Mr. Jefferson's memory was in error. The
proposition alluded to was the one, already mentioned, for
the establishment of an American Fur Company in the Atlantic
States. The great enterprise beyond the mountains, that was
to sweep the shores of the Pacific, originated in the mind
of Mr. Astor, and was proposed by him to the government.




CHAPTER IV.

Two Expeditions Set on Foot.--The Tonquin and Her Crew.--