HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 



2862 



HUERTA 



canoes floating downstream for miles and miles 

 past forests in which no white men had ever set 

 foot all these form part of the picture which 

 the name of Hudson's Bay Company calls up. 



As soon as it became known in England that 

 the northern region around Hudson Bay was 

 rich in fur-bearing animals, a company was 

 formed to reap profit from it, and in 1670 

 Charles II granted to the company the "sole 

 trade and commerce" of all those lands drained 

 by streams flowing into Hudson Bay. Forts 

 were established in the coast regions, and trade 

 and barter with the Indians was begun. The 

 Indians, with their love of brightness and color, . 

 were glad to exchange the beautiful, soft pelts 

 for beads or printed cloth. The company be- 

 came enormously wealthy, for the demand for 

 furs was great in Europe. 



The company's officials, however, had to con- 

 tend with enemies. Parliament threatened to 

 take from them their charter because they had 

 built their forts and trading posts only in. the 

 coast region and had made no attempt to found 

 settlements in the interior, as they had agreed 

 to do. Then, too, the French in Canada were 

 jealous of their good fortune and sent expedi- 

 tion after expedition against them; nor were 

 matters bettered when, in 1763, Canada was 

 surrendered to the English. Minor fur-trading 

 companies sprang up in Canada proper, and 

 these, joining forces, proved a serious rival to 

 the original association to the north. While 

 one company alone was' bartering for furs, the 

 Indians had perhaps been deceived as to the 

 true value of their wares, and had been cheated, 

 but the white men had done them no other 

 harm; now, with two companies contending 

 fiercely for trade, matters became worse and 

 worse. As a bribe, both companies offered 

 "fire water," or liquors, and the one which 

 could supply this most freely got the trade. 

 The solemn forests looked down on drunken 

 Indians a sight which never before had been 

 witnessed and on drunken white men as well, 

 for not all the fire water was given away. And 

 so anxious were the Indians to obtain this bribe 

 that they killed animals in season and out of 

 season, and there was danger that some of 

 the most valuable species would be exter- 

 minated. 



I Finally, after years of strife, the two com- 

 panies joined forces in 1821, and though seven- 

 teen years later the Hudson's Bay Company 

 succeeded in acquiring the sole right again, 

 their grant expired in 1859. From that time 

 on, all trades had equal privileges. The Hud- 



son's Bay Company did not disband, nor did 

 it give up its original territorial rights until 

 1869, when it received from the British govern- 

 ment about $1,500,000 for them. It is still a 

 prosperous trading company, with a remark- 

 ably-efficient organization and high standards. 

 Consult Reed's The Masters of the Wilderness 

 (a study of the Hudson's Bay Company) ; Bryce's 

 History of the Hudson's Bay Company. 



HUE, a fortified city and the capital of the 

 kingdom of Annam, in French Indo-China, 

 Southeastern Asia, situated on the Hue River 

 about nine miles from its mouth. Fortified 

 walls, five miles in circumference, surround the 

 city. The royal palace, which is distinguished 

 from other great buildings of the city by its 

 yellow-tiled roof, contains a museum of ancient 

 Annamite art. The splendid tombs of the old 

 kings of Annam are in the vicinity. Hue is 

 the seat of the French political resident. 

 Thuan-an, the port at the mouth of the river, is 

 occupied by French soldiers. Population, about 

 60,000. See ANNAM. 



HUERTA, hwair'tah, VICTORIANO (1844- 

 1916), a Mexican soldier and politician, the 

 leading figure in the revolution which deposed 

 President Madero in 1913. Huerta was a de- 

 scendant of the Indian and Spanish races of 

 Mexico, and was 

 born of poor and 

 obscure parents. 

 One day, when a 

 bja n d of troops 

 was passing 

 through his na- 

 tive village of 

 Cototlan, he was 



called upon by 



the commander of 

 the company to 

 act as his secre- VICTORIANA HUERTA 

 tary. Impressed by the boy's ability and intel- 

 ligence and by his expressed desire to become a 

 general, the officer took the lad to Mexico City. 

 He was placed in the National Military School 

 at Chapultepec, and for thirty years after his 

 graduation served in the army under President 

 Porfirio Diaz, who raised him to the rank of 

 brigadier-general . 



Diaz, for good reasons, distrusted his able 

 general, but it was Huerta, then Minister of 

 War, who saw that the deposed President, when 

 exiled in 1911, had safe-conduct when he fled 

 from the capital. During the administration 

 of Madero, the successor of Diaz, Huerta was 

 placed in command of the government troops 



