28 The Home of tlie Wolverene and Beaver. 



resulting from their improper conduct. A good 

 class of respectable people, chiefly retired officers, 

 also prosecuted the trade in person, and gave it a 

 better tone. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, to whose 

 works I am indebted for much of the information 

 here conveyed, says, " These persons and the 

 missionaries having combined their views at the 

 same time, secured the respect of the natives and 

 the obedience of the people necessarily employed 

 in the laborious parts of this undertaking. These 

 gentlemen denominated themselves commanders, 

 and not traders, though they were entitled to both 

 those characters ; and, as for the missionaries, if 

 sufferings and hardships in the prosecution of the 

 great work which they had undertaken deserved 

 applause and admiration, they had an undoubted 

 claim to be admired and applauded : they spared 

 no labour and avoided no danger in the execution 

 of their important office, and it is to be seriously 

 lamented that their pious endeavours did not meet 

 with the success which they deserved ; for there is 

 hardly a trace to be found beyond the cultivated 

 parts of their meritorious functions." 



In the year 1763 Canada passed from the French 

 to the British, and for a short time the fur trade 

 languished, for the interior of the country was but 

 little known to the new rulers, and the coiireurs des 



