netted $11,194.73. However, there were delays in collecting payment from shippers, leading Captain John Atchison to delay paying dividends to investors. Frustrated, Dousman put considerable pressure on Sibley over several months to make a "final settlement" with Atchison. In 1847, Dousman and Sibley, together with Henry Mower Rice, Bernard Brisbois and others, purchased shares in a packet company with steamboats running on a regular schedule between Galena, Illinois and ports in Minnesota. The first boat of the Galena Packet Company, the "Argo," sank in October 1847, but its new boat, the "Dr. Franklin," launched successfully in 1848. General merchandise store In 1844, Sibley contracted with David Faribault to open a general merchandise store in Saint Paul, which was initially independent of Pierre Chouteau Jr. and Company. Because cash was scarce, many customers including white settlers paid for goods with fur pelts and deerskins. From 1847, the store was managed by William Henry Forbes. Business grew as the population of lumbermen and metal prospectors increased steadily east of the Mississippi River. Sibley also opened the first general store in Mendota together with his clerk and business partner Hypolite Dupuis. Trade with the Métis and Ojibwe In 1842, the American Fur Company's Western Outfit was sold to Pierre Choteau Jr. and Company, forming their new Upper Mississippi Outfit. In the original contract, the Upper Mississippi Outfits's trade was described as "trade with whites and Indians," reflecting the changing demographics of the region. As part of Choteau Company, Henry Sibley was no longer bound by the American Fur Company's agreement with the British Hudson's Bay Company to refrain from trading along the border with Canada. In response to market demand, Sibley also shifted his focus to trading for buffalo robes. In 1842, Sibley briefly entered into a secret arrangement with Franklin Steele and Norman Kittson allowing them to conduct trade on a cash basis at Coldwater and up the Minnesota River at Little Rapids, Traverse des Sioux, and Lac qui Parle, even though this brought them into direct competition with Sibley's own traders including Jean-Baptiste Faribault and Joseph Renville. In the spring of 1843, Sibley entered into an agreement with Norman Kittson, in which Kittson would run all of the Upper Mississippi Outfit's western business. Kittson was tasked with supervising Renville at Lac qui Parle, building a new post at Big Stone Lake, and sending traders out along the Sheyenne River and the