founder the profits he expected. But all those involved in the exten-
sive enterprise knew it meant more than stacks of pelts and ledger-
book figures. Thomas Jefferson once described Astoria as "the germ
of a great, free and independent empire." Jefferson believed that
the entire American claim to the lands west of the Rockies rested on
"Astor's settlement near the mouth of the Columbia." John Quincy
Adams agreed. The expansionist-minded secretary of state labeled
the entire Northwest as "the empire of Astoria."

Washington Irving sensed the imperial dimension when he wrote
that Astoria might someday become "the watchword in a contest for
dominion on the shores of the Pacific." Irving concluded Astoria with
that line. It is the beginning point for Astoria and Empire. This book
seeks to explore Astoria as part of a large and complex struggle for
national sovereignty in the Northwest. That struggle was the culmi-
nation of a battle for American empire that had its beginnings in the
Age of Columbus. Astoria and Empire argues the case for a wider
stage and a larger cast. That stage encompasses action from Mon-
treal, New York, and Washington to Canton, Sitka, and St. Peters-
burg. Astoria's larger cast includes American politicians, Montreal
merchants, Hawaiian sailors, and Chinook headmen. They move
through these pages not simply to add dash and color but because
their lives are essential to understanding Astoria's drama. The As-
torians and their rivals were always engaged in more than trading
and trapping. They were advance agents of empire.

If Astoria symbolizes the final struggle of the great powers for
imperial sway in North America, it also represents the cultural diver-
sity that increasingly characterized the continent. Astoria's empire
reached out to touch the lives of French Canadians, Russians, Yan-
kees, Scots, and countless Indians. Astoria counted among its cit-
izens men like the Hawaiian gardener James Kimoo, the Iroquois
hunter Ignace Shonowane, and the Scots partner Duncan McDou-
gall. Homesick voyageurs, footloose adventurers, and scribbling
clerks all called Astoria home. On the Columbia, lines of national
rivalry, personal ambition, and cultural diversity intersected to
shape a larger continental destiny.

-xii-