David Stuart (c. 1765-1853) was afur trader who worked primarily for theNorth West andPacific Fur companies throughout his varied career.
In the officialFort Astoria logbook maintained by station managerDuncan McDougall, Stuart was recorded in May 1811 as suffering overexertion and potentially a hernia from clearing timber.[1] In the same month, theChinookans reported sighting a merchant vessel near their settlements on the coast. Rather than lose the beaver skins to rivalMaritime fur traders, McDougall sent Stuart on 22 May toComcomly's village across the Columbia River. The reported vessel never actually appeared after its existence was announced by Chinookan traders. This episode has been suggested by historian Robert F. Jones to have been a Chinookan "stratagem" to "secure better prices, perhaps for inferior skins."[1] Stuart returned the following day with only 20 beaver pelts.[citation needed]
Throughout June, Stuart andGabriel Franchère cleared, planted and maintained a garden to grow an amount of fresh produce.[2] In the same month, David was also appointed to oversee two canoes of men to go gather large stockpiles of tree bark. This material was utilised by the fur traders to create roofing and siding for their dwellings and related buildings.[2] He departed with fourFrench-Canadians and fourHawaiianKanakas near the end of June from Astoria toCape Disappointment. The party was taken there byCoalpo on a canoe the Clatsop noble owned. While there he reviewed the general terrain and fur bearing animal populations.[3]
In July 1811, Stuart was given orders to open a second trade post for the PFC. The intelligence for a suitable location came fromKaúxuma Núpika, aTwo-Spirit from theKtunaxa people. Kaúxuma recommended that the station be opened near theconfluence of the Columbia and "theOkannaakken River."[4] The personnel assigned to join Stuart were eight men, includingAlexander Ross,François Benjamin Pillet,Ovide de Montigny, andNaukane.[5] The party left on the 21st, following the course of the Columbia River in the company ofDavid Thompson and his party of NWC men. Thompson had previously came down the Columbia to Fort Astoria on 15 July fromNew Caledonia.
AFrench-Canadian assigned to the interior journey under Stuart back arrived at Fort Astoria in early October. He brought back news of the successful opening ofFort Okanogan and that theSyilx peoples were reportedly favorable to developing commercial ties with the PFC.[4] However, in tours of the hinterlands trade goods of the NWC were found among the local inhabitants near Fort Okanogan's eventual location.[6]
On 18 January 1812, Stuart arrived at Fort Astoria withÉtienne Lucier,Robert McClellan,John Reed and seven other men. McClellan, Reed and Lucier were members of the overland expedition that had traveled overland fromFort Mackinac (in the modern state ofMichigan) underW. Price Hunt's authority. The assembled men told McDougall of the remaining members of the expedition and their privations crossing the continent. Stuart's party had to leave Hunt and the majority of the PFC laborers in theSnake River basin to procure supplies and aid at Astoria.[7] In the meantime Alexander Ross was left alone at Fort Okanogan, wintering among the Syilx. The addition of fifty or more men was feared by McDougall to potentially wreck the already uncertain Astorian food stockpiles.[7] Hunt, about thirty men,Marie Aioe Dorion and her two children reached Fort Astoria on 15 February 1812.[8]
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