loneerkozi.et1ion; - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

58 DO1'ALD MANSON.
in the country now known as the Cassiar mining district, was divided. M
Black at the head of one division proceeded to the Columbia, while Mr. Manson
in charge of the other with the journal and maps of the expedition, was to
travel by way of Peace river and lake Athabasca to York factory on Ftudson
Bay.
The route by way of Peace river being somewhat circuitous, requiring a considerable
detour to the north, the party did not reach lake Athabasca until late
in the fall. Here Mr. Manson met an express sent out by Gov. Simpson, containing
instructions to forward the report of the exploring expedition to York
Factory, take charge of the western bound express and with tour men proceed
to Columbia Department and report to Dr. John McLaughlin in charge. Those
strongbrave men, who spent all the mature years of their lives in the wilds of
the fur producing regions of the great Northwest, had entered into a solemn
engagement with their respective companies to labor for the advancement of their
interests and obey the commands of their superior officers. Neither the broad
plains of the wilderness, the wild savage character of its inhabitants, lofty
mountains, nor driving snow storms of mid-winter seemed to daunt the courage
or obstruct the onward march of those hardy mountaineers.
Turning their faces from the midland post at Athabasca, they were once more
enroute toward the setting sun. After a toilsome march over a most rugged
country, Mr. Manson with his four men reached Fort Vancouver, Jan. 6, 1825.
This young Scotch officer had been sent to the Columbia Department by request
of Dr. McLaughlin, who, in 1824 removed the headquarters of hfs department
from Astoria to Vancouver, where he occupied a new stockade fort,
then just completed which was located upon the high point of land a short distance
up the river from the present town. Mr. Manson was appointed by the
Doctor, Superintendent of improvements at the post, with some forty men under
his charge. Dr. McLaughlin finding this location upon the highland inconvenient
on account of the water supply and shipping facilities, decided to begin at
once the erection of a new fort on the site upon which the town of Vancouver
has since been built. To this end, Mr. Manson was instructed to commence
the work of building a new stockade, inclosing two acres of ground, which in
dee time he completed. This was the old Fort Vancouver so well remembered
by all the surviving pioneers who found homes in Oregon during the second
quarter of the present century, the old Fort Vancouver which under the wise
administration of the late Dr. John McLaughlin controlled for nearly a quarter
of a century the lucrative trade of a vast region of the Northwest, lying between
the Rocky mountains and Pacific ocean. Dr. McLaughlin who for many
years, exercised almost illimitable sway over the then new empire, as It were, of