THE CANADIAN JOURNAL 
a NEW SERIES. 
No. XLVIIT.—NOVEMBER, 1863. 
A GLANCE AT THE POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 
IMPORTANCE OF CENTRAL BRITISH AMERICA. 
BY H. Y. HIND, M.A., F.R.G.S. 
Communicated to the Canadian Institute, November, 1863. 
‘The extraordinary commercial activity to which steam and the 
electric telegraph have contributed of late years, lead us to overlook 
the enterprise and daring which distinguished the early French colo- 
nists of Canada nearly two centuries ago. The history of their 
successful attempts to open commercial intercourse with Indian 
nations to the north and north-west, far beyond the present limits 
of Canada, their journeys of discovery and military expeditions to 
the shores of Hudson’s Bay, appear to have faded from the recol- 
lections of their descendants, at a time when the question of extend- 
ing our civilization into the far interior of the continent is exciting 
general attention both in England and Canada. 
If the proposal were now gravely made to send an armed force of 
one hundred and fifty soldiers, or one hundred and fifty emigrants, 
across the uninhabited wilderness between Lake Superior and James 
Bay, or between Quebec and Hudson’s Bay, to establish permanent 
settlements, a large majority of the public would treat the idea as 
Vou. VIII. 25 
