124 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



tradinp; post of the North-West Company. Mr. Fidler remained at 

 Nottingham House throughout the winter, but Swain's post on the 

 Peace River, which he had called Mansfield House, had to be abandoned 

 in January, as the Indians refused to work for him, and without them 

 he was unable to obtain sufficient provisions to sustain his men. 



The winter was an unprofitable one for Mr. Fidler, and when the 

 time came for taking his returns to York Factory he had only six packs 

 of furs to show for his whole season's trade. However, on the 19th 

 of May he left Nottingham with three canoes and nine men in the hope 

 that when he returned in the following autumn he would bo able to 

 do better than he had done the previous winter. 



On the 12th of September Mr. Fidler returned with the same num- 

 ber of canoes and men, the canoes loaded with trading goods. Four 

 days later Swain left Nottingham House to build another trading post, 

 this time on the Slave River, twenty-five miles above Great Slave 

 Lake, which he dignified with the name of Chiswick House. 



The winter of 1803-4 was hardly more profitable than the previous 

 one, and when the time came, on the 21st of May, for Peter Fidler to 

 leave for Cumberland House with his Annual returns he took Mr. 

 Swain and two canoes with him, but he had very little more to show 

 than he had had the year before. On the 24th of July he arrived 

 at Cumberland House. After waiting here for a few days to discharge 

 his small cargo of furs and to get an outfit of trading goods and some 

 new men, he left Cumberland on the 3rd of August and started back 

 for Lake Athabasca where he arrived on the 11th of September, finding, 

 as he says in his journal, all well. On the 16th, after a delay of five 

 days at this place, Mr. Swain continued on to Great Slave Lake, where 

 he built a trading post on Moose Island, ten miles west of the western 

 mouth of Slave River. 



On the 24th of the following May, 1805, leaving Mr. Swain in charge 

 of Nottingham House, he again embarked for Cumberland with seven 

 bundles of furs all told, four from Great Slave Lake and three from the 

 headquarters at Athabasca Lake. He took with him two canoes, 

 with four men in each canoe, in order that he might make a quick trip 

 to Cumbeiland, where he arrived on the 18th of June and where David 

 Thompson, his old companion at the same place fifteen years before 

 had arrived two days before him. After a stay of three days he con- 

 tinued on to Oxford House, where he arrived on the 1st of July. On 

 the 3rd the Governor arrived from York Factoiy, but it was the 17th 

 before the supplies for his trade arrived and it was the 19th before 

 he was able to start again for Athabasca Lake. 



On the 2nd of August he arrived at Cumberland House and on the 

 6th ho and Mr. Sutherland left for the north-west, the latter being 



