The influence of this remarkable man over the Western Indians and the extent of his trading operations with them was great, and has never since been equaled.

About this period Mr.John Jacob Astor informed the government that he had an opportunity, of which he intended to take advantage, to purchase one half of the interest of the Canadian Fur Company, which, notwithstanding the treaty of 1794, engrossed the trade by way of Michilimackinac with our own Indians.
Before that period this lucrative traffic had been exclusively in British hands, and the hostility of the Indian tribes rendered any interference in it by Americans dangerous to life and property, and their participation since had been merely nominal.

Jefferson's cabinet received the proposal with satisfaction, but, in their strict interpretation of the Constitution, could find no way of giving any aid to the scheme beyond the _official_ promise of protection, which it fell to Mr.Gallatin to draft.

Mr.Jefferson wrote to Mr.Astor a letter to the same effect.

Mr.Astor, however, was not deterred from his enterprise, but, under the charter of the American Fur Company granted by the State of New York, extended his project to the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and made of it an immense business, employing several vessels at the mouth of the Columbia River and a large land party beyond the Rocky Mountains.