THE XORTinVESTKRN BOUNDARY-LIXK. 217 



tlic aggregate Company enabled it to obtain for a 

 term of years, first in. 1821, and afterward in l8oS, 

 exelusive rii^iit to trade "with the Indians in certain 

 parts of Xorth America not belonging to Prince Ku- 

 l)ert's Land. 



The regio.i of conntry thus opened by license ex- 

 clusively to the Hudson's Bay Company is described 

 in tlie license of 1S38 as follows: 



"Tiic exclusive pilvilepje of tradini; -witli tlio Indians in all 

 8ueh i>:xrts of North Ainoiica to tlie norllnvard ami to tiio wcst- 

 ■\vaicl ol'tlie lands and territories belonging to the United States 

 of America as should not ibrni part of any of our provinees in 

 Xorth America, or of any lands or territories belonging to the 

 paid United States of America, or to any European Government, 

 State, or Power." 



In so far as these licenses affected only the region 

 ■west and south of Hudson's Bay depending on Lake 

 A\'innipeg, Lake Atliabasca, the two Slave Lakes, and 

 other lands east of the Ilocky Mountains, they did 

 not concern the United States. 



But in so far as they aflected the region west of 

 the Kocky ^Mountains, vsuch a license is in plain viola- 

 tion of treaties with the United States. Tlic Queen 

 oTEnMand could cjivc a license in that rejrion to the 

 Hudson's Bay Company exclusive of (dl other J'JiKjJisli- 

 men; but she could not give any to exclude citizens 

 of the United States. That, indeed, the grant does 

 not profess to do; but, in etfect, it did that and more; 

 for in tlie hands of the Company it was "a charter 

 of licensed usurpation and pillage in the whole of 

 the described region of North America." The Com- 

 pany established forta or jiosts at every eligible or 



