THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 37 



In 1783 however, a new competitor arose when the Northwest 

 Company was organized, and until the two companies united in 182 1 

 their rivalry was a strife that broke out once or twice into war. The 

 new company was composed largely of Highland Scotch merchants, 

 and most of their ofificers and clerks and many of their employees 

 were of the same nationality; but they also recruited into their ser- 

 vice large numbers of the forest runners trained up in the palmy 

 days of the old French traders. The enterprise of the company was 

 shown by the construction of a canal at Sault Ste. Marie, which was 

 open to navigation in the summer of 1800, being fifty-five years be- 

 fore the completion of the canal on the American side. It had also 

 a shipyard at the beautiful sandy point a few miles above the falls, 

 known as Pointe aux Pins, once covered with red and white pine, 

 the best of which were cut down and used for building the company's 

 vessels for navigating the waters of Lake Superior before the close of 

 last century.* 



Such instances of active enterprise no doubt go far to justify 

 the belief expressed by Masson that had it not been for the quarrel 

 of the Northwest Company with Lord Selkirk and the amalgamation 

 with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, "the opening up of a 

 line of communication between Canada and the Northwest Terri- 

 tories, and consequently the settlement of that country from Canada, 

 would have been advanced by a quarterr of a century." The inter- 

 ests of the Northwest Company, Mr. Masson says, were intimately 

 bound up with those of Canada, while those of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company were in an entirely opposite direction,! So bright indeed 



*In the winter of 1770 Alexander Henry and his associates in a mining 

 enterprise on the north and south shores of Lake Superior, built a barge fit 

 for the navigation of the lake, at their shipyard at Point aux Pins, and laid 

 the keel of a sloop of forty tons ; but it was not until August of 1772 that 

 the sloop was launched. — Henry's Travels, pp. 226 and 234. 



t In Cauchon's memoranduin it is stated that the Canadian Northwest 

 Company were everywhere in advance of their rivals. " They were the 

 first to spread themselves beyond the limits of the French, over the prairies 

 of the Saskatchewan ; they were the first to discover the great river of the 

 north, now bearing the name of Mackenzie, and pursue its course to its dis- 

 charge in the frozen ocean ; they were the first to penetrate the passes of 

 the Northern Cordilleras and plant their postsupon the shores of the Pacific ; 

 and with such indomitable energy did they carry on their business that, 

 at the period of Lord Selkirk's interference, they had upwards of 300 Ca- 

 nadians, ' voyageurs,' employed in carrying on their trade to the west of 

 the Rocky Mountains." 



