13 



With the exception of a summer trip on which he accom- 

 panied his old master and life-long friend, Chief Factor and 

 Resident Governor, Donald Alexander Smith (now Lord 

 Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., and Governor of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company in London, England), when he pre- 

 sided at the last Fur-Trade Council, which met at Norway 

 House in July, 1870, and again during the open season of 

 1S86, when he was associated with Chief Trader E. K. Beeston, 

 in conducting an inspection of the Company's posts in Cum- 

 berland district, Mr. Bell's entire period of service was passed 

 at Trade Stations, and in charge of districts situated in the 

 Montreal Department. Many of his earlier years were spent 

 at various points on the lower St. Lawrence River and on the 

 coast of Labrador, mainly under the present Lord Strathcona. 

 He was for several outfits later Manager at La Cloche on 

 Lake Huron, and for twenty years at Michipicoten district, on 

 Lake Superior. Then he was situated for a year or two at 

 Chapleau, C. P. R., as " headquarters " of the latter, and after- 

 wards held the charge of Esquimaux Bay district, until he 

 retired in 1893. It is almost needless to state that Mr. Bell 

 was a very interested, faithful, and valued servant of the Com- 

 pany — his successive promotions prove this. In 1866 he re- 

 ceived the commission of a Chief Trader; in 1872 that of a 

 Factor, and in 1879 he attained the highest position — that of 

 a Chief Factor — conferred upon any officer in their employ. 



The Hudson's Bay service has produced numerous men 

 of good, and some of marked, ability; but it may be asserted 

 with confidence that in point of physical courage, enterprise, 

 and capability of endurance, the officers and servants of the 

 Company have, as a class, the most distinguished record of 

 any body of men in the British Empire, outside of the naval 

 and military services. Those who personally knew and ad- 

 mired the genial, hearty, and energetic nature of the much 

 lamented " Peter Bell," will readily agree that in the foregoing 

 respects he was fully entitled to rank with the very foremost 

 of his fur-trade predecessors and contemporaries. Even to 

 the last his cheerful fortitude was amazing. 



