US Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was the commander of the United States Exploring
Expedition, which explored the portions of the coast and islands of the Pacific Ocean
from 1838-1842. In 1841, the expedition made surveys of the Pacific Northwest coast.
In 1845, Wilkes published a narrative of the expedition in five volumes, from which
the Colonial Office copied excerpts concerning his appraisal of the Hudson's Bay Company,
as a document included in
this despatch, in the
Oregon Territory.