This was planned in part to prevent the rival Montreal based North West Company (NWC) to gain a presence along the Pacific Coast, a prospect neither Russian colonial authorities nor Astor favored.

This geographic feature would later be used by hundreds of thousands of settlers traveling over the Oregon, California, and Mormon routes, collectively called the Westward Expansion Trails.

Historian Arthur S. Morton concluded that "The misfortunes which befell the Pacific Fur Company were great, but such as might be expected at the initiation of an enterprise in a distant land whose difficulties and whose problems lay beyond the experience of the traders.

[4] To establish the fledgling PFC trade posts in the distant Oregon Country, Astor's plan called for an extensive movement of large groups of employees overland following the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and navally by sailing around Cape Horn.

Recruiting for the company's two expeditions were led by Wilson Hunt and Donald Mackenzie for the overland party and Alexander McKay for the naval bound group.

The recruitment effort stalled in part from the bitter treatment by the NWC and Hunt's lack of prior experience as a fur merchant, the source of many issues later on.

[11] The following day lodgings at Long Island were reached and the scene was described by clerk Gabriel Franchère:"We sang as we rowed; which, joined to the unusual sight of a birch bark canoe impelled by nine stout Canadians, dark as Indians, and as gayly adorned, attracted a crowd upon the wharves to gaze at us as we glided along.

[16] Due to the possibility of men abandoning their posts to live in the tropical islands, Thorn assembled all of the crew and PFC employees to harass them to remain on the ship.

[17] Commercial transactions with Hawaiians saw the crew purchasing cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts, watermelon, breadfruit, hogs, goats, two sheep,[18] and poultry in return for "glass beads, iron rings, needles, cotton cloth".

[17][16] Upon entering Honolulu, the crew was greeted by Isaac Davis and Francisco de Paula Marín, the latter acting an interpreter in negotiations with Kamehameha I and prominent government official Kalanimoku.

Despite stormy conditions, over several days Thorn ordered two boats dispatched to scout a safe route over the treacherous Columbia Bar.

Late in the month, McDougall reported that there was "little progress in clearing, the place being so full of half decayed trunks, large fallen timber & thick brush.

The personnel assigned to join Stuart were eight men, including Alexander Ross, François Benjamin Pillet, Ovide de Montigny, and Naukane.

Towards the end of August the party began to become troubled with Western Rattlesnake populations and rapids, almost losing one canoe and the men aboard it to a section of swift currents.

[32] Stuart and his men were greeted by Wenatchi leadership at the Wenatchee River, who gave two horses to the fur traders as a gift in addition to several more being purchased.

Prominent members of the nation entreated the fur traders to reside among their people, proclaiming "themselves to be always be our friends, to kill us plenty of beavers, to furnish us at all times with provisions, and to ensure our protection and safety.

Departing on 2 May, McKay led Robert Stuart, Franchère, Ovide de Montigny and a number of voyaguers up the Columbia, with Clatsop noble Coalpo acting as guide and interpreter.

Returning on 24 June, Stuart reported that the Quinault and nearby Quileute nations would kill Sea otters and trade their pelts for the valuable Dentalium shells sold by the Nuu-chah-nulth on Vancouver Island.

The Astorians described the tuber as "a good substitute for potatoes"[42] Purchases of Wapato occurred in such volumes that a small cellar had to be created specifically to house the produce.

Active commercial transactions were completed there, with Omaha merchants offering "jerked buffalo meat, tallow, corn, and marrow" for vermilion, beads and tobacco carrots.

Peace talks were held and the Sioux explained that they had formed to prevent the PFC from trading with the neighboring nations they were at war with, the Arikara, Mandan and the Gros Ventre.

[57] Lisa reminded Dorion of his pending debt to the company, and a duel between the two men was narrowly averted by Bradbury and Henry Marie Brackenridge intervening.

[57] In setting the standard rate for purchasing horses, "carbines, powder, ball, tomahawks knives" were in high demand as the Arikara were planning an attack upon the Sioux.

[59] The Piikáni and other Niitsitapi nations at the time were typically unreceptive to trespass from European descendants and made a showing of military force against the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Over course of the remainder of September through early November, four incidents of canoes capsizing killed one man meant major losses in trade goods and food supplies.

On 23 December, thirteen men assigned to Crooks party were met who gave the unfortunate news that they hadn't seen him since he left Hunt's group.

[63] Donald Stuart and his party of Robert McClellan, John Reed, Étienne Lucier,[39] and seven other men continued to march ahead of the two main PFC groups.

[71] John Day became afflicted by mental instability and Stuart paid several Multnomah men of Cathlapotle village to transport him back to Fort Astoria.

As Franchere recalled, a council of clerks and management noted that the Astorians were "almost to a man British subjects", forcing them to agree to "abandon the establishment" of Fort Astoria and its secondary stations.

During a NWC shareholder meeting in July 1814, the partners declared that the sale "greatly facilitated the getting out of the [Pacific] Country our competitors the American Fur Company.