HISTORICAL SUMMARY 87 



found it to end at a distance of 170 miles from its entrance, 

 in a fresh water lake seventy-two miles in length, and from 

 twenty to twenty-five miles wide. In 1791 Captain Duncan 

 examined, for the Hudson's Bay Company, Corbets or Kankin 

 inlet, which proved to be a bay, and Chesterfield inlet, which he 

 found to agree with Norton's description. 



Samuel Hearne, a clerk in the service of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, started, in 1770, with a party of Chipeweyan 

 Indians, and travelled overland on foot to the mouth of the 

 Coppermine river, where the Indians massacred a number of 

 Eskimos. On his return journey he passed Great Slave lake, 

 and reached Fort Churchill in safety after one of the most 

 remarkable journeys ever accomplished. 



This ended for many years the attempts of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company at northern exploration, their undivided energies 

 being required to maintain the trade struggle with their ener- 

 getic rivals, the North-west Company. 



Previous to the conquest of Canada, the French fur traders 

 had carried their trading posts beyond the great lakes, across 

 the wooded country to Lake Winnipeg, and thence up the 

 Saskatchewan to the foot of the Rocky mountains. Shortly 

 after the cession, a number of Scotch and Canadian merchants 

 acquired the rights of the old French company, and prosecuted 

 the trade with such increased vigour as to greatly diminish that 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, who in self-defence were com- 

 pelled to establish trading posts inland close to those of their 

 rivals. In this manner the interior of British America was soon 

 dotted with trading stations that ' extended over the whole 

 territory from the bleak shores of the Atlantic to and beyond 

 the Rocky mountains. The strong rivalry for furs soon led 

 to collisions between the partizans of both companies, and blood 

 was often shed; the natives were debauched with liquor, and 

 general lawlessness continued until the amalgamation of the 

 companies in 1820. 



