Writing "Astoria"

The long, quiet days spent in his country home on the East River, gave John Jacob Astor leisure for fresh plans, but with advancing years and health impaired, these schemes lacked the personal initiative of an earlier period. Mr. Astor acted through others in these days.

The following letter, written by Washington Irving to his nephew, Pierre Munroe Irving, explains much that follows in connection with the writing of "Astoria":

"My Dear Pierre:

John Jacob Astor is extremely desirous of having a work written on the subject of his settlement of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River; something that might take with the reading world, and secure to him the reputation of having originated the enterprise and founded the colony, that are likely to have such important results in the history of commerce and colonization.

The old gentleman has applied to me repeatedly in the matter, offering to furnish abundance of materials in letters, journals and verbal narratives, and to pay liberally for time and trouble. I have felt aware that a work might be written on the subject, full of curious and entertaining matter, comprising adventurous expeditions by sea and land, scenes beyond the Rocky Mountains, incidents and scenes illustrative of Indian character, and of that singular and but little known class, the traders and voyageurs of the Fur Companies. Still I am so much engrossed with other plans that I have no time for the examination of papers, the digesting of various materials, etc., and have stood aloof from the undertaking, though still keeping the matter open.

Since I have heard of your inclination to return to New York, however, it has occurred to me that you might be disposed to take this subject in hand; to collate the various documents, collect verbal information, and reduce the whole to such form that I might be able to dress it up advantageously, and with little labor, for the press.

In an interview which I had with Mr Astor, a day or two since, in which he laid before me a variety of documents, I accordingly stated to him my inability at present to give the subject the labor that would be requisite, but the possibility that you might aid me in the way I have mentioned; in which case I should have no objection to putting the finishing hand to the work. The old gentleman caught at the idea, and begged me to write to you immediately. He said he would be willing to pay you whatever might be deemed proper for your services, and that, if any profit resulted from the sale of the work, it would belong, of course, to the authors.

I lay this matter before you, to be considered in contrast or in connection with your other plans. If you take it in hand, it will furnish you with employment for at least a year, and I shall take care to secure your being well paid for your current time and labor; the ultimate profits of the work may be a matter of after-arrangement between us,

Mr Astor is a strong-minded man, and one from whose conversation much curious information is to be derived. He feels the want of occupation and amusement, and thinks he may find something of both in the progress of the work. You would find him very kindly disposed, for he was an early friend of your father, for whose memory he entertains great regard; and he has always been on terms of intimacy with your uncle Peter and myself, besides knowing more or less of others of our family. Halleck, the poet, resides a great deal with him at present, having a handsome salary for conducting his affairs.

When you have thought over this matter, and made up your mind, let me hear from you. If you determine in favor of it, the sooner you come on the better."

It is perhaps the only contradiction in an eminently masterful and materially successful life, that Mr. Astor should have been so eager to give to the world the history of the venture that failed. Washington Irving says of him, that in this enterprise Mr. Astor had turned from the desire for personal aggrandizement, and was aiming at a great national benefit, and that also, in his heart was a desire for fame. If into this great scheme he had put the grandest ideals of his life, he might reasonably have hoped and expected that out of the ashes of seeming failure, phoenix-like, would rise a winged success, of which he himself had planted the foundation.

It was the story of this continent-wide, ocean-circled, golden-streaked foundation that he wished the friend of his youth to tell, in the glowing language of a pen that never wrote in somber hues, but in all the rainbow colors of a boundlessly sympathetic imagination.

Pierre Irving consented to undertake the task of collecting and arranging material, provided he could be assured of two thousand dollars in payment for his co-operation. He declined any remuneration from the sale of the book itself.

The work alloted to the nephew by his uncle, was broad in extent, and accurate in detail. Mr. Astor supplied, as he had promised, papers, letters and journals, written by those who had been employed in the enterprise, including accounts of journeys across the Rockies by routes before untraveled. There were various works in French and English, whose study would throw light on the region beyond the Rocky Mountains, particularly on the Columbia River; descriptions of animals and plants and scenery; adventures by sea, and tales of traders, trappers and hunters; of Indian warriors, their characters, personal traits and costumes. Mr. Astor himself, as well as the Northwest traders who occasionally visited him, offered a rare fund of anecdotes and descriptions.

An experience of Washington Irving's youth had given him some insight into the type of life he was to portray. At twenty, Irving was a student in the law office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Ludlow Ogden owned some wild lands on the Oswegatchie, and proposed to lay out a town on its shores. Irving was invited to join a party of seven who were making an expedition to Ogdensburg, Montreal and Quebec. With this purpose in view, they took a sloop to Albany, traveling afterward by wagons over bad roads, through thick woods, or by fields where burnt stumps of trees alternated with the fallen giants of the forests. They often alighted and walked in preference to jolting in the wagon.

At Black River they embarked in a scow, and found in this mode of travel fresh diversions as well as discomforts. Irving gives a humorous account of coming upon two canoes one day, in full pursuit of a deer, that was swimming in the water, and joining in the hunt:

"The deer made for our shore," wrote Irving. "We pushed ashore immediately, and as it passed, Mr. Ogden fired and wounded it. It had been wounded before. I threw off my coat and prepared to swim after it. As it came near, a man rushed through the bushes, sprang into the water, and made a grasp at the animal. He missed his aim, and I, jumping after, fell on his back and sunk him under water. At the same time I caught the deer by one ear, and Mr. Ogden seized it by a leg. The submerged gentleman, who had risen above the water, got hold of another leg. We drew it ashore, when the man immediately despatched it with a knife. We claimed a haunch for our share, permitting him to keep all the rest."

The party still had a sixty-mile journey before reaching Ogdensburg, which they made in wagons. They met with heavy rains, impossible roads, dirty huts and collapsing tents in the midst of downpours. Sometimes there were almost hurricanes, in which trees swayed and fell, and exhausted horses caused them to tramp in mud knee deep. Once they were twenty-four hours without food.

On the banks of the St. Lawrence they were quartered in some rude buildings, belonging to a ruined French fort. Here the party spent happy days rambling in the woods, fishing about the rapids, paddling in Indian canoes on the St. Lawrence, and visiting Indians who still lived on islands in the river. "Everything," writes Irving, "was so grand, and so silent, and so solitary. I don't think any scene in life ever made a more delightful impression upon me."

At last the party reached Montreal, the great head of the fur trade, and were feted in a very grand manner by some of the partners of the Northwest Fur Company. "At their hospitable board," says Irving, "I occasionally met partners and clerks and hardy fur traders from the interior posts; men who had passed years remote from civilized society, among distant and savage tribes, who had wonders to recount of their wide and wild peregrinations, their hunting exploits, and their perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes among the Indians. I was at an age when the imagination lends its coloring to everything, and the stories of these Sinbads of the wilderness, made the life of a trapper and fur trader perfect romance to me."

Mr. Astor asked that the forthcoming book should bear Washington Irving's name, and that he should prepare the vast amount of material gathered for the press. Pierre Irving and Fitz Greene Halleck were invited to be Mr. Astor's guests in town during the winter of 1834. Their host looked upon the review of his great enterprise as a pleasant occupation for the months of frost and snow, and indeed it covered these months, and more which followed. At the close of his task, Pierre Irving received three thousand dollars from Mr. Astor, to which his uncle added another thousand.

When Mr. Irving first reviewed the wealth of material collected by his nephew, he felt at once that he would be able to make of it "a rich piece of mosaic." He writes of '"rough-casting" some of the chapters in June of the following year, and speaks of Pierre Irving as an "excellent pioneer." In August of the same year, he was "getting the narrative into frame," and building his "snug little Dutch nookery" on the Hudson.

Irving spent much of his time after this as a guest of Mr. Astor, until "Astoria" was completed. In September, he wrote:

"For upwards of a month past I have been quartered at Hell Gate with Mr. Astor, and I have not had so quiet and delightful a nest since I have been in America. Here the old gentleman keeps a kind of bachelor hall. Halleck, the poet, lives with him, but goes to town every morning, and comes out to dinner. The only other member of the family is Charles Astor Bristed, one of his grandchildren, a very fine boy of fourteen years of age. Pierre Munroe Irving has been a guest for several weeks past, but has recently returned to New York. I cannot tell you how sweet and delightful I have found this retreat,-pure air, agreeable scenery, a spacious house, profound quiet, and perfect command of my time and self. The consequence is, that I have written more since I have been here than I have ever done in the same space of time. Within the last month I have written more than a volume, and have got within a half dozen chapters of the end of my work,—an achievement which I did not expect to do for months. Of course, there will be much to be done afterward, in extending some parts, touching up others, enriching and embellishing. It will make two good volumes—probably octavo; and Pierre Munroe thinks it will be more liked than anything I have lately written."

The later months of 1835, and earlier part of 1836, Irving was still at Mr. Astor's home busily engaged polishing and perfecting his work. Mr. Astor was building a new house in town which was not finished, so with Washington Irving and his nephew Pierre Irving, to keep him company, they were passing the winter months in the country, facing Hell Gate in its boisterous wintry aspect.

Again, Irving writes: "Mr. Astor does everything in his power to render our residence with him agreeable, and to detain us with him. In consequence of having so much leisure and quiet, I have been able to get on famously with my new work, and hope to finish in the course of a few weeks."

In February, 1836, Irving was completing the book that meant so much to his old friend, the author, and the reading world. "I am giving my last touches to the Astor work. It is this handling, which, like the touching and toning of a picture, gives the richest effects. I am interested and pleased with the work, and feel that the labor that I am now bestowing upon it will contribute greatly to its success."

The book, when finished, proved to be a great gratification to Mr. Astor, and was received by the reading public with marked enthusiasm. By many, on both sides of the sea, it was considered to be Washington Irving's greatest work.

"Wolfert's Roost," now commonly known as Sunnyside, Irving's many-gabled home on the Hudson, had grown simultaneously with "Astoria", and soon after the book was published, we find Mr. Astor surprising Irving by a two days' visit in his "Dutch nook" near Tarrytown.

Washington Irving was a most genial and kindly host. His cordial manner, his warm affection for his friends, and his flights of humor on the slightest occasion, made it a rare pleasure to be his guest. In fact, so enjoyable did Mr. Astor find his stay under the roof of his old friend, that he promised to repeat it as soon as it was good sleighing. From Hell Gate to Tarrytown was not an impossible distance in a sleigh for those days, and the homes at either end of the journey afforded a warm welcome to either guest.

Irving's intercourse with the great capitalist was purely that of friendship, rather than a business relation. Once during the years of their intimacy, Mr. Astor sold Irving a share in a town founded on Green Bay, Michigan. The land advanced in value, but Irving's share was not sold. After the investment had proved unsuccessful, the seller, of his own free will, took back the share and returned the original purchase money.

Irving's refusal to receive any remuneration from Mr. Astor in return for his work on "Astoria," whose publication in itself brought the author gratifying returns, was said to have been offset by Mr. Astor'a appointment of Washington Irving as one of his executors. Acting in this capacity in regard to the Astor fortune, netted Mr. Astor's old friend a sum exceeding any he had received for his works, except the "Life of Columbus."

Among the relics of Mr. Astor's fur-trading days, still preserved, are two medals, such as it was customary for fur companies to bestow on Indian Chiefs, both as marks of favor, and also a sign and a seal of the strength and power of these companies. One of the Astor medals contains a portrait of the great fur merchant, circled by the words, "President of the American Fur Company," of which corporation Mr. Astor was not only President, but the whole company, the title being used to extend and facilitate his operations.

The second medal contains two clasped hands, with the words above and below, "Peace and Friendship," and these, in turn, enclosed by two pairs of tomahawks and pipes of peace. "Fort Union" and "U. M. O." is the circled lettering, the initials standing for "Upper Missouri Outfit," the whole being the name applied to a trading post on the Yellowstone, which later became a Government post. Both medals are pierced with a hole, and have evidently been worn proudly suspended from some savage chieftain's neck.