THE FUR TRADERS. 7 



other adventurers whom they tried to enlist in their serv- 

 ice missed the indulgent freedom of the old trading houses, 

 and did not take kindly to the haughty reserve and exacting 

 methods of the British traders. With the revival of trade 

 in 1766, came new rivalries and jealousies, until business 

 was again injured by the efforts of the various individuals 

 engaged in the traffic to outbid and undermine one another. 

 The Indians were debauched by the sale of spirituous 

 liquors which had been prohibited under the French rule, 

 and once more scenes of drunkenness and brawls were fre- 

 quent in the Indian villages and around the trading posts ; 

 while bloody conflicts often resulted when rival trading 

 parties met "in the lawless depths of the wilderness." 



It was to put an end to these conditions that the famous 

 Northwest Company was organized in 1783 by the Montreal /" 

 merchants under the directorship of Sir Alexander 

 McKenzie ; so that, instead of scattering their energies along 

 a dozen or more individual lines of endeavor, the opposing 

 forces might present a united front in their competition 

 with the Hudson's Bay Company. The only organization 

 whose rivalry the new company had cause to fear, Pond, . 

 Pangman & Co., was absorbed in 1787 ; and from that time 

 on "the Northwest Company held lordly sway over the 

 lakes and boundless forests of the Canadas" until it in 

 turn was absorbed by the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821. 

 For nearly two generations the McTavishes, McGillivrays, 

 McKenzies and Frobishers, who were the resident agents 

 of the Northwest Company at Montreal and Quebec, formed 

 a commercial aristocracy at those places, while the part- 

 ners in charge of the interior stations, each with his score 

 or more of retainers at his command, lived like Highland 

 chieftains in their wilderness fastnesses. The headquarters 

 of the Northwest Company were at Montreal, and its prin- 

 cipal depot was at Grand Portage. Its operations ex- 

 tended into the Northwest between the Hudson Bay terri- 

 tory on the one side and Louisiana on the other. When a 

 survey showed that the headquarters were on United 

 States territory a new post was built further north and 

 named Fort William. It was here that the annual dinners 

 of the company were held. Irving says : " At these meetings 

 the house swarmed with traders and voyageurs. The coun- 



