3331. FUR TRADE, Aid to Astor.—[continued].
A powerful company is
at length forming for taking up the Indian
commerce on a large scale. They will employ
a capital the first year of $300,000, and raise it
afterwards to a million. The English Mackinac
company will probably withdraw from the
competition. It will be under the direction of
a most excellent man, a Mr. Astor, merchant of
New York, long engaged in the business, and
perfectly master of it. He has some hope of
seeing you at St. Louis, in which case I recommend
him to your particular attention. Nothing
but the exclusive possession of the Indian
commerce can secure us their peace.—
To Meriwether Lewis. Washington ed. v, 321.
Ford ed., ix, 199.
(W.
July. 1808)
