CHAPTER II 



THREE COMPANIES IN CONFLICT 



IF only one company had attempted to take posses 

 sion of the vast fur country west of the Mississippi, 

 the fur trade would not have become international his 

 tory; but three companies were at strife for possession 

 of territory richer than Spanish Eldorado, albeit the 

 coin was &quot; beaver &quot; not gold. Each of three compa 

 nies was determined to use all means fair or foul to ex 

 clude its rivals from the field; and a fourth company 

 was drawn into the strife because the conflict menaced 

 its own existence. 



From their Canadian headquarters at Fort William 

 on Lake Superior, the Nor Westers had yearly moved 

 farther down the Columbia towards the mouth, where 

 Lewis and Clark had wintered on the Pacific. In New 

 York, Mr. Astor was formulating schemes to add to his 

 fur empire the territory west of the Mississippi. At 

 St. Louis was Manuel Lisa, the Spanish fur trader, 

 already reaching out for the furs of the Missouri. And 

 leagues to the north on the remote waters of Hudson 

 Bay, the old English company lazily blinked its eyes 

 open to the fact that competition was telling heavily on 

 its returns, and that it would be compelled to take a 

 hand in the merry game of a fur traders war, though 

 the real awakening had not yet come. 

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