182 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



changing centuries; but the character of the company s 

 personnel has never changed. Prince Bupert, the first 

 governor, was succeeded by the Duke of York (James 

 II); and the royal governor by a long line of distin 

 guished public men down to Lord Strathcona, the pres 

 ent governor, and C. C. Chipman, the chief commis 

 sioner or executive officer. All have been men of noted 

 achievement, often in touch with the Crown, always 

 with that passion for executive and mastery of difficulty 

 which exults most when the conflict is keenest. 



Pioneers face the unknown when circumstances 

 push them into it. Adventurers rush into the un 

 known for the zest of conquering it. It has been to 

 the adventuring class that fur traders have belonged. 



Eadisson and Groseillers, the two Frenchmen who 

 first brought back word of the great wealth in furs 

 round the far northern sea, had been gentlemen ad 

 venturers &quot; rascals &quot; their enemies called them. 

 Prince Eupert, who leagued himself with the French 

 men to obtain a charter for his fur trade, had been 

 an adventurer of the high seas &quot; pirate &quot; we would 

 say long before he became first governor of the Hud 

 son s Bay Company. And the Duke of Marlborough, 

 the company s third governor, was as great an adven 

 turer as he was a general. 



Latterly the word &quot; adventurer &quot; has fallen in such 

 evil repute, it may scarcely be applied to living actors. 

 But using it in the old-time sense of militant hero, 

 what cavalier of gold braid and spurs could be more of 

 an adventurer than young Donald Smith who traded in 

 the desolate wastes of Labrador, spending seventeen 

 years in the hardest field of the fur company, tramping 

 on snow-shoes half the width of a continent, camping 



