ASSINIBOINB EIVBE AND ITS FOETS. 76 



they built in 1795 the Assiiiiboiue House, a little above tbe mouth of the Souris, and if 

 tradition is to be followed, on the north side of the Assiniboine. Thompson placed this 

 fort in 4r 40' 56" N. and 99' 27' 16". This fort became of great importance as the depot 

 for expeditions to the Mandans of the Missouri Eiver. There is the record oT an expedition 

 in 1804 from this place, which met on the Missouri the celebrated party of Lewis and 

 Clark on their way across the continent. We shall see that the mouth of the Souris be- 

 came the key of the western trade. 



III.— The X Y Company. 



In 1795 great discussions took place among the Nor'-Westers, and in the following 

 year Forsyth, Richardson & Co., of Montreal, began an opposition trade as a separate 

 company. Alexander Mackenzie sympathized with these discontented partners, although 

 he did not join them till 1799. This opposition company was known as the " New North- 

 West Company " (see page 483 Masson's Bourgeois Yol. 2), or " Sir Alexander Mackenzie 

 & Co.," or better still as the " X Y Company." Though theX Y Company was absorbed 

 in the coalition of 1804 after an eight years' existence, yet its operations were conducted 

 with great vigour ; and included the valley of the Assiniboine. We have information that 

 there w^as an X Y fort near that of the Nor'-Westers on the Qu'Appelle, and that in 1804 

 the X Y Company erected a new fort five miles above Alexandria on the Upper Assini- 

 boine. At the mouth of the Souris in 1795 there w^ere five rival forts. These were the 

 newly founded Hudson's Bay Company fort, of which we shall speak, that of the Nor'- 

 Westers, and no doubt the trading house of Forsyth, Eichardson & Co., besides two smaller 

 concerns. There is the evidence of the trader John Pritchard, that he was at the X Y 

 fort à la Souris in 1805, no doubt while it was passing over to the new company, and it is 

 known that this trader was in charge in 1807 of the same fort then under the auspices of 

 the North- West Company. 



IV. — The Hudson's Bay Company. 



The steady-going old Hudson's Bay Company, from the beginning of its career in 

 1670, had for a hundred years drawn by the magnetism of its name and wealth the Indian 

 tribes of the interior to trade with it on the shores of Hudson Bay. The pushing traders 

 of Montreal were, however, becoming formidable, and having penetrated the wilds were 

 cutting off the sources of the English trade. The formal pledge to a decisive battle was 

 given when Joseph Frobisher, on behalf of the Montreal traders in 1772, erected a fort 

 near Sturgeon Lake on the Saskatchewan. This was a strategic point, and threatened to 

 cut off both the north and south supplies of trade that had gone down to Hudson Bay. 

 Immediate steps were taken by the great English company to penetrate the country from 

 the Bay, and in 1774 Samuel Hearn, who had already gained a reputation by the discovery 

 of the Coppermine River, arrived at the Saskatchewan, and five hundred yards distant 

 from the new fort of their Montreal opponents erected Cumberland House. Now began 

 a struggle of the giants. Shortly after 1780 as we have seen, the Nor'-Westers by way of 

 Swan River occupied the Assiniboine valley. Following in their wake the Hudson's Bay 

 Company crossed from Lake Winnipeg, through Lake Winnipegosis, and erected an 

 establishment about 1790 near the mouth of Swan River. This they deserted shortly 



