THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 39 



most important post north of the great lakes, and at some seasons 

 of the year the number of traders assembled there was not less than 

 3,000, gathered from all quarters of the Northwest to which the 

 operations of the company had extended. 



But Fort William was something more than the central depot 

 for the exchange of furs and goods. It was the meeting place where 

 the affairs of the company were planned every year between a few 

 of the leading partners at Montreal and partners from the various 

 trading stations in the wilderness. " Here, in an immense wooden 

 building," to quote Washington Irving, " was the great council hall, 

 as also the banqueting chamber, decorated with Indian arms and 

 accoutrements, and the trophies of the fur trade. The house 

 swarmed at this time with traders and voyageurs, some from Mon- 

 treal, bound to the interior posts, some from the interior posts 

 bound to Montreal. The councils were held in great state, for every 

 member felt as if sitting in parliament, and every retainer and de- 

 pendent looked up to the assemblage with awe, as to the house of 

 lords. There was a vast deal of solemn deliberation, and hard 

 Scottish reasoning, with an occasional swell of pompous declama- 

 tion. These grave and weighty councils,'' Irving goes on to say, 

 " were alternated by huge feasts and revels, like some of the old 

 feasts described in Highland castles. The tables in the great ban. 



mark placed on their pack, and consisted of Sir Alexander McKenzie and 

 Messrs. Ogilvy, Richardson and Forsyth ; and of the Northwest Company, 

 at whose head were Messrs. W. and S. McGillivray, McTavish and others. 

 Latterly both these firms united to contend with the old Hudson's Bay 

 Company, acting under the charter of Charles the Second and later parlia- 

 mentary sanction. The American Government, properly conceiving that 

 the Grand Portage, the centre of so much commercial activity, was within 

 their territorj', signified about the year 1802, to the amalgamated company, 

 now called the Northwest Company, their intention of imposing a duty of 

 from twenty to twenty-flve per cent, on all goods landed there. After hav- 

 ing in vain offered a composition of five per cent., the Northwest Company 

 abandoned the place, but not before they had well examined the Pigeon 

 river from the north end of the Grand Portage down to lake Superior. Sir 

 Alexander McKenzie occupied a long time in this task, accompanied by 

 two Indians, bat they found that high falls, rapids and shelving precipices 

 rendered tlie river utterly impracticable for commercial purposes. The 

 company then built their Fort William, and made the Dog river and other 

 streams and lakes their road into the Northwest fur countries, although 

 this is inferior in every respect to the old route, so much so, that the voy- 

 ageurs had to be coaxed and bribed into the use of it. I am obliged to Mr. 

 Astronomer Thompson for this information." — The Shoe and Canoe, or 

 Pictures of Travel in the Canadaa, by John J. Bisby, M. D., vol. 11, pp. 

 240-1. 



