...mbia River and other waters that empty into the Pacific Ocean. In 1784 John Jacob Astor (q. v.), an enterprising young German merchant of New York, embarked in the fur-trade. He purchased furs in Montreal and sold them in England; after the treaty of 1795 he shipped them to different European ports. In this trade, chiefly, he amassed a fortune of $250,000, when he embarked in a scheme for making a g...