The Fur Traders. 5 



Washington Irving said that two great commercial pur- 

 suits were the "pioneer precursors of civilization on the 

 Western Hemisphere — the search for gold and the traffic 

 in peltries. The one led the Spaniards to explore the lands 

 scorched by the tropic sun, and the other caused by buoy- 

 ant Frenchman and the calculating Briton to penetrate the 

 trackless forests of the north. ' ' 



Every careful student of American history knows that 

 the call of the wild alone without any prospect of gain, 

 while it might have attracted men to the luxuriant tropics, 

 would hardly have induced them to push on into the frozen 

 northland until the way to the Arctic Circle was opened 

 up by their daring enterprise. 



"It was because the early French adventurers who set- 

 tled on the banks of the St. Lawrence River found that in 

 the rich peltries of that territory they had sources of 

 wealth that would rival the mines of Mexico and Peru," 

 that they pressed ever further into the unexplored regions 

 of the interior, establishing along the line of their progress 

 the trading posts and supply stations which gradually 

 evolved into the great commercial centers of Canada. When 

 the rapid growth of the settlement at Montreal compelled 

 the Indians to extend 1 le circle of their hunting operations, 

 many of the fur traders accompanied them in their expe- 

 ditions to more distant regions, and in that way became 

 acquainted with the best hunting grounds and the more 

 remote tribes, and by trading direct with the Indians in 

 their own country diverted much business from Montreal 

 and the other places where the large organized companies 

 had their stores. 



I As the Indians at that time had no real knowledge of 

 values, and bartered the most precious furs for worthless 



I trinkets and cheap commodities, the profits of these wan- 

 dering traders were enormous; and on the rare occasions 

 when they returned to Montreal to dispose of their collec- 

 tions and purchase new supplies they startled the settlers 

 (^with their display of reckless prodigality. 



It is not within the province of this work to follow the 

 fortunes of these Couriers-des-bois or rangers of the 

 woods, or to relate how their example corrupted the sim- 

 ple natives, among whom they spent most of their 



