Editing Fort Vancouver (section)

===Personnel===
For most of its existence, Fort Vancouver was the largest non-Indigenous settlement in the Pacific Northwest. The population of the fort and the environs was mostly [[French Canadians]], Métis, and Kanaka [[Native Hawaiians|Hawaiians]]; there were also English, Scots, Irish, and a variety of Indigenous peoples including [[Iroquois]] and [[Cree]]. The common language spoken at the fort was [[Canadian French]], while company records and official journals were kept in English. However, trading and relations with the surrounding community were done in [[Chinook Jargon]], a [[pidgin language|pidgin]] of Chinook, Nootka, Chehalis, English, French, Hawaiian, and other elements.

A survey of the total personnel at Fort Vancouver in 1846 reveals a culturally and materially diverse populace. Notably, the number of employees from the [[Hebrides]], [[Orkney]], and [[Shetland|Shetland Islands]] was 57 men. This is exactly the same number as the combined number of workers from England and mainland Scotland.{{sfn|Winter|1967|pp=186–187}} The number of men hired from [[Upper Canada]], [[Lower Canada]], and [[Rupert's Land]] was in total 91. These men came from English, French Canadian, Métis, Iroquois, Cree, and other cultural backgrounds. Most notable however, was that Kanaka Hawaiians totaled 154 that year, or 43% of the total fort population.{{sfn|Winter|1967|pp=186–187}}

[[Factor (agent)|Chief Factor]] Dr. [[John McLoughlin]] was its first manager, a position he held for nearly 22 years, from 1824 to 1845.{{sfn|Mackie|1997|p=318}} McLoughlin applied the laws of Upper Canada to British subjects, kept peace with the natives and sought to maintain law and order with American settlers as well. McLoughlin was later hailed as the Father of [[Oregon]] for allowing Americans to settle south of the Columbia River. Against the company's wishes, he provided substantial aid and assistance to westbound American settlers in the territory. He left the company in 1846 to found [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]] in the [[Willamette Valley]].

[[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]] spent nineteen years in Fort Vancouver; serving as a clerk until 1834 when he was promoted to the rank of Chief Trader. From October 1838 to November 1839, while McLoughlin was on furlough in Europe, Chief Trader Douglas was in charge. In November 1839 Douglas was promoted to the rank of Chief Factor. Douglas took on several temporary assignments elsewhere, to set up HBC's trading post at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) California in 1841, and to establish [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] in 1843, but from 1839 to 1845 there were normally two Chief Factors based at Fort Vancouver, with McLoughlin in charge and Douglas as his subordinate.{{sfn|Watson|2010|pp=340, 673, 1052–1056}}