216 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



resolved itself into a mere commercial undertaking 

 for trade in the furs of the vast region in the space 

 between Canada or New France and the Arctic Sea, 

 inhabited only by wandering bands of Indians. 



When the great Succession War broke out,jnvolv- 

 ing all Europe, it could not fail to reach America; 

 for the possessions of three of the four principal 

 Powers engaged, France, Great Britain, and Spain, 

 occupied alternate points on the coast of the At 

 lantic. The French, of course, endeavored to avail 

 themselves of the opportunity to drive out or to 

 weaken the English on both sides of them, and es 

 pecially in Rupert s Land, which they invaded and 

 partly conquered, but restored by the Subsequent 

 Treaty of Utrecht. 



After this time, the Company, safe in its arctic sol 

 itudes, prospered without check for a century, filling 

 Rupert s Land with forts and factories, and engross 

 ing the fur trade of North America. 



Thereupon a rival Company entered the field, un 

 der the auspices of the Province of Canada, founding 

 its enterprise on the assertion that Rupert s Land 

 had only a limited extension south and west, to cov 

 er no more than the water-shed terminating at Hud 

 son s Bay, with no rights or jurisdiction southward 

 and westward to the great Lakes and the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



After a long and violent controversy, the North 

 west Fur Company was by agreement of parties 

 merged to the Hudson s Bay Company. 



The combined influence of the parties interested in 



