A. D. 1787. 129 



•union of a rival company in July 1787 ; and they have ever fincc been 

 known by the name, or fii-m, of the North-ivejl company. Without any 

 exclufive privilege, or any advantages, but what they derive from their 

 capital, credit, and knovvlege of the bufinefs, their prudent regulations, 

 and judicious liberality to their clerks and fervants of all kinds, thev 

 have carried that branch of commerce to a height never before attained. 

 Their goods, properly prepared in Montreal for the Indian market, are 

 conveyed by the River Altawa (which falls into the S'. Lawrence near 

 Montreal) and by other rivers, and by portages, to Lake Nipiiling, 

 Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and thence, by feveral chains of great and 

 fmall lakes and rivers, to Lake Winipeg, Athabafca or Arathapefcow 

 lake, and the Great Slave lake, which are within a few hundred miles 

 of the weflern coafl of America, and of the fea, which apparently forms 

 the northern boundary of that continent. 



In this vaft range of their trade the company have eflablifhed about 

 2,000 people as their agents and fervants at their numerous polls difperfed 

 all over the country, who conduct the bufinefs, and cultivate the friendihip 

 of the Indians, among whom they conftantly refide. Thofe agents have 

 fometimes fallen in with the fervants of the Hudfon's-bay company, by 

 whom they have been threatened with a profecution for infringing their 

 charter : but their threats have never been carried into efFed. 



Though the fur and peltry trade is very far from being the great na- 

 tional objedl: it has on fome occafions been reprefented to be, yet, as it 

 is very lucrative to thofe concerned in it (though they complain that 

 the tedious returns make it a very heavy bufinefs) and as it conflitutes 

 the greateft part of the exports from Canada, I fhall here lay before the 

 reader 



A particular account of the 'various kinds of Jkins exported from Canada in 

 the year i-^SS * 



