[BURPEE] YORK FACTORY TO THE BRACKFEET COUNTRY 311 
tion. Sir Alexander Mackenzie says that the French had an establish- 
ment at Nipawi long before and at the conquest of Canada in 1763. In 
the Journal of Alexander Henry, the Younger, it is stated (p. 482) 
that he “ camped at the spot where the French formerly had an estab- 
lishment called Fort Saint-Louis, built by Saint-Luc de la Corne in a 
low bottom on the S. side, where some years ago were still to be seen 
remains of agricultural implements and carriage-wheels. Their roa 
to the plains is still to be seen, winding up a valley on the S. side.” 
In foot-notes to the Henry-Thompson Journals (pp. 481-3), Dr. Coues 
clearly identifies the position of this old French fort—La Corne, à la 
Corne, de la Corne, St. Louis, Nipawi, Nippeween, as it was variously 
called—as “ within the present Indian reserve, close to or at the mouth 
of Payoeran cr., and thus about 12 m.in an air line below the forks— 
much more by the bends of the river. The position is about the center 
of Tp. 48, R. xx, W. of the 2d init. merid.” 
From Cocking’s description of the river above Pasquia it is reason- 
ably certain that the point he reached on August 11th, and where he 
says the French formerly had a House, was the site of Fort La Corne, 
although his distances are in that event far astray. He makes the dis- 
tance from Pasquia to this point 150 miles. John Fleming, who sur- 
veyed the river from Fort La Corne to The Pas in 1858 (Hind’s “ Nar- 
rative of the Canadian Red River Expedition,” etc., I, ch. XXI.), makes 
the distance about 213 miles. 
As to the third French post, between Fort La Corne and Fort 
Poskoyac, this would seem to be Judge Prud’homme’s Fort Poskoyac 
(the second), “ appelé aussi Français, fondé à l’entrée du lac Cumber- 
land par M. de la Corne, entre 1753 et 1755”; but if so, it could not 
have been situated at the entrance to Cumberland Lake. Fleming makes 
the distance from The Pas to Cumberland Lake 63 miles. Cocking 
mentions a carrying-place, on the north side of the river, into a lake 
‘named Menistaquatakow, which he makes 52 miles from Pasquia. As 
he apparently took a short cut across Saskeram Lake, and thus avoided 
the deep bend in the river north of that lake, his distances would about 
agree with those of Fleming, and his Menistaquatakow would be Cum- 
berland Lake. But the “old Trading House belonging to the French 
pedlars,” which he passed on August 8th, was about 58 miles above 
Menistaquatakow Lake. In the interval he had passed a small branch 
on the south side of the Saskatchewan which “ joins the river a little 
above Basquia ”—<clearly Sipanok Canal, which runs almost due east 
to Carrot River, the latter joining the Saskatchewan a little above the 
Pasquia. From Sipanok Canal to the old fort Cocking’s distance is 
about 27 miles. ‘A few miles below the fort he passed the mouth of a 
