Chief Trader Archibald McDonald Descending the Fraser, 1828.
The Convention of 1818 signed by the United States and Great Britain opened the Columbia region to traders of both nations. The Hudson's Bay Company adopted a policy of "trapping clean" the lands east and south of the Columbia River as a means of discouraging competition in the more profitable region of New Caledonia to the north. Using Fort Vancouver on the Columbia as a base, the Company practised "low profit" or "loss" trading along with the employment of "freemen" trappers. This policy successfully prevented the intrusion of rival trading companies.
Supply for the region remained a difficult problem. The Fraser River was explored and pronounced unusable for transportation in 1808. In 1828, however, the new Chief Trader at Fort Langley, near the mouth of the Fraser, travelled down the river with George Simpson to re-evaluate the river. The painting shows Chief Trader Archibald McDonald shooting rapids above the present town of Yale, British Columbia, on a particularly frightening section of the river. Simpson's report to the London Committee ended consideration of the Fraser as a supply route. "I should consider the passage down, to be certain death, in nine times out of ten. I shall no longer talk of it as a navigable stream." The idea of using Fort Langley as a supply depot was abandoned and Fort Vancouver on the Columbia served as the main centre until the Company was forced to move north to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1849.
