gotten ; and as their trade increased, there came with it the 

 desire to fortify their best bay harbor, and preserve their 

 principal entrepot from possible plunder ; so upon a rocky 

 spit, forming one side of and commanding the harbor of 

 Churchill, was commenced Fort Prince of Wales. Vigorously 

 at first was the massive thirty feet wide foundation begun; 

 not, however, on the rude plan of former forts, but from the 

 drawings of military engineers, who had served under Marl- 

 borough. Artisans were brought from England ; the southern 

 and western walls were faced with hammer-dressed stone 

 bastions were placed at each angle with a well of water in 

 each, and after many years of labor and expense, four walls, 

 each over three hundred feet in lena^th, 20 feet high and 20 

 feet wide at the top, closed in and protected great stone build- 

 ings, which contained each one a prince's ransom in rich 

 northern furs. Forty-two guns of the then heaviest calibre 

 furnished the armament of the bastions and walls, and stores 

 of food were provided to enable the defenders to stand a siege. 

 The Chipewyans, from the far off Athabasca and Great Slave 

 lakes, must have gazed with astonishment at its massive walls 

 and portentous artillery ; and its fame throughout all northern 

 tribes must have been great indeed, and have environed with 

 a vague respect the adventurous Hearne, who thrice between 

 1769 and 1772 left its gates, twice to return baffled and de- 

 feated, and lastly on that most adventurous of all Arctic land 

 journeys, to return with the secret of the Arctic coast at the 

 mouth of the Coppermine river in his possession. Years 

 passed on, and as the remembrance of pillaged factories faded 

 and the pressure for increased gain in their rich trade became 

 greater, and the barter more inland, so did the number of 

 men kept at this sea-harbor depot become less, so that it was 

 with great surprise on the 8th of August, 1782, that the 

 thirty-nine defenders of the Prince of Wales Fort saw the 

 bellying sails of three ships making straight for their fortress; 

 and when, at six in the evening, they swung to their anchors 

 six miles away, their pierced sides showing them to be vessels 

 of war, their astonishment was great indeed. Strangers they 



