^§ JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



seemed the outlook for Sault Ste. Marie at one time that it was 

 pointed out as offering the best marktt for the farm products of the 

 country around Toronto. " The soil in the neighborhood of York 

 (Toronto) is said to be rich," John Johnston of the Sault wrote in 

 1809, "and the farmers could raise a vast quantity of provisions, 

 were they encouraged by having a sure market for them. This 

 could easily be accomplished by opening a communication with the 

 Bay of Machedash, from whence to the Island of St. Joseph the 

 distance is only ninety leagues. From the bay, a chain of islands 

 extends to the northwest, of which St. Joseph is the last ; these ren- 

 der the navigation perfectly safe, as you may either keep outside of 

 them or between them and the shore, with safe anchorage every- 

 where. By this channel, provisions may be brought to St. Joseph, 

 St. Mary and Michilimackinac in half the time and for half the ex- 

 pense they are procured from Sandwich, Detroit, etc , and there- 

 turns from the above places would arrive much sooner and safer at 

 Montreal." Concerning the fortunes of Matchedash itself under 

 this scheme, Johnston had not a doubt on his mind " but that it 

 would soon become the most thriving place in Upper Canada, and 

 the centre of provisions and transport trade for the fur countries."* 



But the chief seat of the Northwest Company's enterprise was 

 on the north shore of lake Superior. Fort Charlotte, the place first 

 selected, was at Grand Portage, at the mouth of Pigeon river. Fear- 

 ing however that it might be within the United States boundary, a 

 new location for business headquarters was chosen at the mouth of 

 the Kaministiquia river and named Fort William, after William Mc- 

 Gillivray, one of the partners of the company. f It soon became the 



* John Johnston's Account of Lake Superior in Les Bourgeois de la 

 Campagnie du Nord-Ouest, by L. R. Masson, vol. 11. 



t The first fort on this river was built by Dulhut in 1678, and it was 

 re-built by LaNoue under instructions from the French Government in 

 1717. The name Kaministiquia (which has undergone many modifications 

 of orthography) is said by John Johnston to mean the " river of difficult 

 entrance," and by Sir Jolm Richardson the "river that runs far about," 

 while Dr. Bigsby translates it " the river of the isles." 



A further interesting narrative of how the seat of the fur trade on lake 

 Superior came to be transferred from Fort Cliarlotte to Fort William is 

 givea by Dr. Bigsby : " During great part of the eighteenth century," Dr. 

 B. writes, "before the union of the Indian traders into one company, the 

 Northwest, the Lake Superior end of the Grand Portage was a pent-up 

 hornet's nest of conflicting factions intrenched in rival forts. The traders 

 first coalesced into two companies, one called the ' X. Y. Company,' from a 



