1892-93.] EARLY TRADERS AND TKADE ROUTES, -509 



In that capacity he accompanied the expedition to Prairie du Chien next 

 year. 



The formation of the Northwest Fur Company in 1783, marks the 

 beginning of a new era in the Canadian fur trade. The number of 

 " adventurers " engaged in the Northwest trade had by this time been 

 reduced by keen competition, mismanagement, or ill-success to twelve. 

 Among 'these, the brothers Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher were 

 particularly distinguished by their activity and energy. When the 

 treaty of peace was published and it became probable that the Grand 

 Portage would be found to lie within the United States, they at once 

 began explorations for a new route within British territory, in which they 

 succeeded beyond their expectations. They next took an active part 

 in the organization of a company to include all the traders still concerned 

 in that business. " Being convinced by long experience of the advantages 

 that would arise from a general connection not only calculated to secure 

 and promote their mutual interests but also to guard against any 

 encroachments of the United States on the line of boundary as ceded to 

 them by treaty from Lake Superior to Lake du Bois, they entered upon 

 and concluded articles of agreement under the title of the North- 

 west Company, of which we were named directors, dividing it into 

 sixteen shares, of which each proprietor holds a certain number propor- 

 tionate to the interest he then had in the country." 



With this event the first period of the history of the fur trade 

 naturally terminates. 



Navigation of the Great Lakes — 1760- 1782 



Much of the commerce on the lakes continued to be carried on in 

 batteaux or large canoes, although these were being gradually superseded 

 by sailing vessels. The attendant perils of this kind of navigation were 

 not restricted to the danger of shipwreck and drowning. The Annual 

 Register for 1770 records this ghastly tale. 



" Letters from Detroit by Monday's New York mail inform us that 

 several boats with goods had been seventy days in crossing Lake Erie, 

 in which time the distress of the people was so great that they had been 

 obliged to keep two human bodies which they found unburied on the 

 shore, in order to collect and kill the ravens and eagles which came 

 to feed on them, for their subsistence. Many other boats have been 

 frozen up within forty miles of Detroit and several traders' small boats 

 with goods had been lost." 



On Lake Ontario, even at that date, much of the transportation was 

 done in the " king's ships*" 



