Adventures of the First Settlers
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By Alexander Ross
Introduction by William G. Robbins
2000. 6 x 9 inches. 320 pages.
ISBN 0-87071-528-3. Paperback, $17.95.
Table of Contents
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Four years after Lewis and Clark stimulated American interest in the far western reaches of the continent, John Jacob Astor, a New York businessman, dispatched an overland expedition to establish a fur-trading post on the Columbia River. A second group traveled by sea aboard the
Tonquin, among them Alexander Ross, a clerk in Astor's Pacific Fur Company.
Adventures of the First Settlers is a vivid account of the expedition and its struggles to establish a successful trading venture. Ross details the
Tonquin's dangerous voyage and documents the Astorians' painstaking stuggles to clear the land and build a new trading post. Their settlement, Astoria, became the first American outpost on the Pacific Slope.
Although the Astorians were aggressive in expanding their presence in the Columbia River country, their enterprise was short-lived. Ross chronicles their competition with the rival North West Company for furs and empire, the colorful and hazardous exploits of the fur trapers, and the eventual transfer of Astoria to the north West Company in the midst of the War of 1812. His detailed descriptions of the Columbia River Indians reveal Ross to be an astute and informed observer.
In a new introduction to a book he calls "one of the charter literary documents for the Pacific Northwest," historian William Robbins considers the relationship between exploration, commerce, and empire in the Astorians' experience.
"Adventures of the First Settlers deserves to be regarded as a fur trade classic. Reading it, we are in the presence of a neglected West fixed between the great captains Lewis and Clark and the well-known beavermen. Ross brings that land and time alive with wit, humor, and passion. We could want no better Guide."
--James P. Ronda, author of Astoria and Empire
About the Editor
William G. Robbins is Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State University. His most recent book is
Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story 1800-1940 (University of Washington Press).
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