Abstract: In 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company moved its post, Fort Simpson, to a new site on the peninsula. This essay explores the origins, founding and first decade of the Coast village which formed at the new Fort Simpson. Working primarily from fort records, complemented by oral traditions, a close view is available of a variety of elements, persons and events in the village's first years. These include trading relationships involving different groups, Nisga'a, Tongass, Americans, Russians and others, as well as political rivalries and ceremonials. There is a record of the devastation caused by smallpox. Although the journal inevitably reflects the prejudices of the European traders, it nonetheless provides a valuable picture of the cultures of the Northwest Coast, incidentally revealing the ways in which the utilized the European presence.IntroductionIn the summer of 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company removed its post, Fort Simpson, from a location on the north shore of the Nass River estuary to a new and permanent site on the peninsula at McLoughlin Bay, now Port Simpson, British Columbia. Native peoples promptly redirected their voyages to the new fort. This article explores the origins, founding and first decade of the Coast village which formed at the fort's new site. Working primarily from fort records, complemented by oral traditions, a close view is available of a variety of elements, persons and events in the village's first years. The Fort Simpson (later Port Simpson) Coast have been the most studied of the various - speakers -- Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga'a and Gitksan. From Franz Boas, Marius Barbeau and Viola Garfield to Clarence Bolt, the villagers have provided information about culture. They were also the parent community from which Metlakatla sprang, and it too has been much written about, from the late 19th century to recent times.In pre - contact years, the nine tribes of the - speakers later called the Coast or Tsimshian proper had lived on the Skeena River. By the early 19th century these tribes had moved to the present site of Metlakatla, evidently responding to the new ship - borne trade opportunities. From there they moved to the second Fort Simpson, where tribe had previously held camping sites in the area where the fort was erected; each tribe claimed a stretch of beach line. When the moved to Fort Simpson they set up their new village on the tracts of land claimed by the individual tribes. The houses of the chiefs and subchiefs were located in the centre of the row of tribal houses (Garfield 1939: 175ff.). Ultimately, elements of all nine tribes settled at Fort Simpson.The first three years (1834 - 37) of the new fort saw various patterns of adaptation among the Coast and other people who traded there. These replicated patterns established at the Nass site, based on traditional Native patterns of seasonal movement, trade and intertribal contact. By mid - 1837 Coast had begun to settle at the fort, building houses for themselves outside its walls. During the fort's first decade at its new site, 1834 - 43, Coast people were the main suppliers of furs there, with both Tongass and acting as the fort's provisioners. Certain chiefs, especially Legaic I -- who is credited with inviting the Hudson's Bay Company to locate at the site -- established trading links with the fort based in part, at least, on family ties. A daughter or niece of this Legaic was married to Dr. John Frederick Kennedy, an officer of the fort. Legaic, the first holder of his title to be recorded by Europeans, rose to be the senior chief of the Coast through his role as intermediary in the fur trade to the upper Skeena peoples -- Gitksans and Athapascans.The second part of the decade, 1837 - 43, saw intensified economic links between the and the fort. …