21 G THK THF.ATY OF WASHINGTON. 



rcsolveil itst'lf into a more commorcial mulertaking 

 for trade in the lurs of the vast region in the sj)ace 

 between Canada or New France and the Arctic Sea, 

 inhabited only by wandering bands of Indians. 



AVhen the great Succession AVar broke out, involv- 

 ing all Europe, it could not fail to reach America; 

 for the posses5;ions of three of the four ])rincipal 

 powers i-ngagod, — France, Great Britain, and Spain, 

 — ^.occupied alternate points on tlie coast of the At- 

 lantic. The French, of course, endeavc red to avail 

 themselves of the opportunity to drive out or to 

 Aveaken the English on ])oth sides of them, and es- 

 pecially in Ivuj^ert's Land, which they invaded and 

 partly comiuered, but restored by the subsequent 

 Treaty of Utrecht. 



After this time, tbe Company, safe in its arctic sol- 

 itudes, prospered without check lor a century, filling 

 Eupert's Land with forts and factories, and engross- 

 ing the fur trade of North America. 



Thereupon a rival Company entered tlie field, un- 

 der the auspices of the Province of Canada, founding 

 its enterprise on the assertion that Rupert's Land 

 had only a limited extension south and v:«.»st, to cov- 

 er no more than the water-shed terminatin<:C <it Ilud- 

 son's Bay, with no rights or jurisdiction southward 

 and westward to the great Lakes and the Kocky 

 Mountains. 



After a long and violent controversy, the North- 

 west Fur Company was by agreement of parties 

 merged to the Hudson's Bay Company. 



The combined influence of the parties interested in 



