46 GEOBGE BRYCE'S PLEA 1^'OR 



the different parts of Canada then occupied. It is by no mere chance that the beaver 

 finds its place on our Canadian escutcheon. Cartier, almost exactly three centuries and 

 a half ago, came with his commission authorizing him to open up this trade with the 

 natives. Captain Chauvin, in 1600, built his trading house at Tadousac to cultivate the 

 fur trade. Champlain returned on his first voyage home in a ship laden down with 

 furs ; and the Huguenot, de Monts, hastening, under the protection of the monopoly 

 granted him, to take the virgin catch of Nova Scotia, found, in the first harbour which 

 he entered on the Acadian shore, that he was forestalled by a fur-trading vessel, whose 

 cargo of furs, however, he promptly seized for his own advantage. "Within fifty years 

 from the time of Champlain's arrival in Canada the shores of straits and bays by scores, to 

 the extremities of the great lakes, were occupied by the posts of the fur-trader. Michilli- 

 mackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and Nipigou, on Lake Superior, were already centres of trade. 

 It was about the end of that century that Lahontan wrote his amusing and extravagant 

 account of the castor. Indeed, to such an extent had the trade grown that in 1*700, in 

 Montreal, three-fourths of the furs were burnt to obtain a market for those that remained. 

 The raison d'etre of the settlement of New France was the fur trade. 



While France, with all the force and glory of her more prosperous days, was pushing 

 her explorations and trade to the far West, England sought a share of the treasures of the 

 wilderness, and in 16*70 laid within Hudson Strait the foundation of her great fur 

 company. Free-handed Charles II gave over with lavish thoughtlessness a vast extent of 

 country to the fur-traders represented by the brave Prince Eupert, General Monk, the king- 

 maker, and the versatih; Lord Ashley. The fur trade was the sole department of trade of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company for a hundred years. On the borders of the Bay, shut up in 

 their forts, the company treated with wandering tribes coming 600 and 800 miles from the 

 interior, justifying, in the keenness of their trade, their motto, " Pro pelle cutem." There is 

 a picturesque interest in these Argonauts of this century of Hudson Bay adventure, as 

 they returned with the Golden Fleece and engaged in the somewhat unromantic, but 

 nevertheless consoling, work of paying large dividends to the shareholders. It is true 

 that their retreat was invaded by the dashing sailor, d'Iberville, and their forts were taken 

 to be restored by the Treaty of Ryswick ; but this was only an episode in a hundred years 

 of successful trade. 



One hundred years of the company's life had not passed before the covetous eyes of 

 rival traders fell upon their operations. It was stated that the company was avaricious, 

 tyrannical, selfish, and revengeful ; and repeated efforts at length obtained a parliamentary 

 investigation in 1*749. The company defended itself with vigor, and its antagonists, though 

 not silenced, were overborne. 



Another movement in the opening up of the interior by way of Canada took place at 

 the same time as this fierce onslaught on the Hudson's Bay Company, though entirely inde- 

 pendent of it. The French explorers had reached the limits of Lake Superior, and heard 

 from Indian sources of vast regions beyond. In the stockade of Michillimackinac was laid 

 the plan for exploring the districts further west. Verandrye, a French officer, who had 

 distinguished himself at Malplaquet, with the advice of a Jesuit priest named Father 

 Gonor, undertook the task. In 1*731 Yerandrye left the shores of Lake Superior ; he and 

 his sons were the first to thread the Red, Assiniboine, and Souris rivers, to cross by a 

 portage to the Missouri, and after ascending it to reach the Rocky Mountains. The same 



