Seizure of the Hudson's Bay Company Steamers Beaver and Mary Dare
The First United States Court at Olympia
Part 1
Washington Standard
May 30, 1868

Nov. 28. 1851. The usual quiet of an Olympia day (where if monotonous stillness be the evidence of Sabbath, we are blest with seven Sundays per week) was this afternoon disturbed at about 4 o'clock by the appearance of a steamer rounding Poe's point with a brig in tow. The Custom House boats were manned and activity prevailed in that department. Colonel I. N. Ebey and A. J. Simmons were appointed temporary inspectors and, accompanied by the deputy collector, proceeded on board the vessels and welcomed their officers to the port, received the papers, sealed the hatches and left Colonel Ebey on the steamer, which proved to be the Beaver, and A. J. Simmons was placed in charge of the brigantine Mary Dare.

Both vessels belong to the Hudson Bay company, the latter having on board the annual supply for the post at Nisqually. These were the first vessels entering at the new Custom
House. Dr. William. F. Tolmie, a chief trader of the HBC, and agent of the Puget Sound Agricultural company, at present in charge of Fort Nisqually and the adjacent tracts claimed by the latter company under the treaty of 1846, had accompanied the vessels from Nisqually. 

I had considerable curiosity to see this gentleman, having heard so much talk about him by the old settlers. They had represented him as a shrewd, money-loving Scotchman, keen in trade, with all the willingness and diplomacy of a Jesuit, in fact they thought his remaining in the country was a proof that he was a sort of secret agent of the British government, having yet in view the regaining of Northern Oregon.

Guards British Interests.

Certain it is, he is thoroughly British in all his feelings and the very best man to guard British interests on Puget Sound. Under his watchful care the "possessory rights" of the HBC, and the lands, farms, etc., of the P. S. Agricultural Co. will not grow less. Our people say they have steadily and rapidly increased since the treaty. An old settler who came over here in the fall of 1845 said to me that he would for $1,000 put up as good buildings as were here in 1846. 

Dr. Tolmie first came to Nisqually in 1833 and his biography up to 1845 or 1846 would almost present the history of this region. He has acquired much unpopularity among the American settlers by his persistent warning off every American who happens to locate within the imaginary bounds of the "lands claimed under the treaty by the P. S. Agricultural company."

These extend between the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers, from the shore of the Sound to the foot of the Cascade mountains. The settlers say that they no sooner locate upon unimproved lands without a vestige of sign that they have ever been appropriated to man's use or trodden by the hoof of a domestic animal within that area, but Dr. Tolmie warns them off.

Finds Him Smart Man.

Notwithstanding this prejudice of the settlers, so readily accounted for, yet I must confess I was really pleased with the Doctor. I cannot blame him for being English and acting thoroughly his English part, he would be faithless to his trust if he did otherwise, but I do blame our government for making a treaty which opens the door and invites him to be anti-American even while living on American soil. 

Were he to fail to avail himself of this opportunity to aggrandize himself and his employees, though at our expense and our humiliation, I should think him a fool instead of the smart man I have found him. An Adventurous History. Vastly Greater Demonstration. I should judge him by his appearance to be about 40. He is a scholar, well read, and appears to have devoted  much of his time to the New York Tribune, though he takes strong exception to Greeley's protection articles. 

The doctor and I did not agree on the tariff at all, nor could I blame him after learning the prices of goods which the company sends here to supply its posts. If the company were exempt from paying duties, it would be useless for any American merchant to attempt competition. In his intercourse with the Collector, I could not help observing his politeness, not to say obsequiousness. 

On remarking this characteristic, I was told this is the result of education, the English manner of deference to those in authority; for Shakespeare says; "A fool's obeyed in office."

A Veritable Uriah Heep.

As the Doctor has proved himself a gentleman of sense and breeding, I accept this and discard the idea that it is mere cant; but I could not avoid arriving at the conclusion that the character for meekness and humility ascribed by the genial Dickens to his immortal conception of Uriah Heep was not stilted as I had fancied it, for here at the jumping-off place of the United States of America I found the instance of equal meekness and passive submissiveness.

In this same transaction and in many others within the past few months, I might also add that Dickens need not go outside of this Custom House to find a Wilklns Micawber I was much interested in the history of the steamer Beaver. She had not been present on this northwest coast as long as Dr. Tolmie, but she looks as though her experience would tell as much, were she gifted with the power of speech. How much of history is embodied in that quiet, inanimate hull and shape which bespeaks her of the past, for that model is of no modern mechanism.

We think of the sea she has plowed in her lonely voyages to the northward, in every nook and corner of that great archipelago stretching far beyond the far-famed fifty-four forty, which no American ought to mention except in mortification. What we gave up to British rapacity of claim the Beaver has been guardian of, before and since the memorable treaty which brought peace without honor.

An Adventurous History

We dwell on the adventures of her crew and officers, their intercourse with hordes of savages who boarded her decks and poured into her lap the results of their hunting and fishing and the trophies of their contests with rival tribes. There among thousands the little handful to whom she was entrusted performed their accustomed labor without any help at hand, trusting only to her staunch hull, her powerful engines and their own courage to deliver them from harm.

Lifeless though she be, mere inanimate wood and iron, yet the romantic chronicle of the vicissitudes and adventures of the Indian and fur trader are indelibly stamped upon her, and though she will not communicate by words, "yet she speaks a various language," as unmistakable as it is inaudible. Scarce three years before she left her native England to be dedicated to this northwest service, the wonderful feat of a vessel relying exclusively upon steam crossing the Atlantic was blazoned to the world as the triumph of science. 

Yet so shortly after, this little steamer in the unknown Northwest, far remote from workshop, artisans or coal depots, goes and comes unheralded on annual excursions into unknown seas, among barbarous Indians, devoting longer time in each voyage, accomplishing much more of distance, than the famous voyage which was the herald of such high expectations and was chronicled with such exultation.

Vastly Greater Demonstration

Vastly greater was the demonstration of the utility of steam as a motive power furnished by the Beaver in her north Pacific cruises, than in that first Atlantic transit by steam, and yet who ever sang the praises of the Beaver or claimed for her a place among the demonstrators of steam as the great auxiliary of commerce? The Beaver was built at Blackwall, England, early in 1835, and sailed around Cape Horn, her machinery being put up her after her arrival at Fort Vancouver in the spring of 1836. Steamer rigged, she started down the Columbia river into which she has never since entered.

She is a side-wheel steamer of 120 tons register, built of very heavy timbers, of a model to secure strength and hard service rather than beauty or speed. Indeed, she makes no
claim to either of the latter. The engines are low-pressure, manufactured by Bolton & Watts. Her wheels are too small, set to far forward and seriously marring her appearance. Her crew consists of 30, with an armament of four five-pounders and a sufficiency of small arms, pikes, axes, etc. The decks are protected by a netting so as to prevent the access of Indians except by a narrow gang-way through which only one at a time can come aboard.

Discipline Similar to the Navy

The discipline on all the Hudson Bay Co.'s ships varies but little from the naval service and they are all fitted with the design to act as war vessels if the emergency arises, in their intercourse with the natives. Their admirable Indian policy renders this almost unnecessary and it is extremely seldom that occasion has arisen to punish these tribes. When, however, it occurs, the company is prompt, not paying premiums to the wrongdoer but demanding his delivery from his tribe to receive adequate punishment. 

This failing to succeed, they then mete out a just retribution to the tribe or band, who assume the guilt of their member by failing to surrender him. The principal use to which this vessel has been applied has been cruising to the northward, trading with the Indians and collecting furs. Her voyages have extended as far north as 59 degrees. She leaves Fort Victoria on Vancouver's island some time in April, returning in the early part of November with the annual collections of furs and skins by the northern posts.

Fort Simpson, just south of the Russian boundary, is a sort of rendezvous, from which she visits several trading points, her down-cargo being first collected there before shipment to Fort Victoria. She is commanded by Captain Charles Edward Stuart and has just returned from her usual cruise to the north. Waiting for her to give tow to the brig was given as a reason why the vessels had not sooner appeared.