E. Petitot on the Athabasca District. 47 



North-west Company sent hither a Canadian, Joseph Frobisher, 

 who founded the first trading-post. The Hudson's Bay Company 

 soon followed the example of its rival, so that here, as in many 

 other places, these two commercial bodies found themselves in 

 competition at an early date. Nevertheless, the discoveries of 

 Hearne, of Peter Pond in 1779, and even of Sir Alexander Mac- 

 kenzie in 1789, however authentic and scientific, were apparently 

 anticipated by the far-reaching tracks of the coureurs de bois ; 

 for when Pond reached the Great Slave Lake, the half-breed 

 Canadian family of Beaulieu had already settled on the Salt 

 River — one of them, named Jacques, indeed acted as interpreter 

 for this trading-officer, just as, at a later date, his nephew Francois 

 was Sir John Franklin's hunter and interpreter. 



In 1820, and again in 1829, Sir John Franklin, accompanied 

 by Lieutenant Back and Dr. JRickardson, visited Athabasca on 

 their way to the Arctic Ocean, when commencing their explora- 

 tions for the famous North- West passage. The portrait drawn 

 by these travellers of the Chipewyan Tinneys (whom they also 

 call, though wrongly, Athabascans) is anything but a flattering 

 one, and shows the recent change for the better in the character 

 and disposition of these Indians. I can myself speak of as great 

 an alteration in the Beaver Indians, who are now as gentle and 

 inoffensive as they were thievish, shifty, and faithless twenty-five 

 years ago. This is the natural effect of the commercial relations 

 and religious habits acquired since that date by those child-like 

 tribes. 



The Chipewyans, without being as timid as their northern 

 brethren, who deserved the uncomplimentary epithet of " Slaves" 

 bestowed on them by the first explorers, are now a gentle, 

 peaceful, and honest people, comparatively chaste and religious, 

 though they may perhaps be accused of being a little too morose 

 in disposition and fond of solitude. The Catholic Missionaries 

 first visited them in 1847, and two years later settled among them. 

 In 1866 or 1868, if I remember rightly, a clergyman of the 

 church of England was domiciled at Fort Chipewyan ; and lastly, 

 in 1875, the Montreal sisters of charity founded a school with 

 an orphanage and hospital there. This fort has for some years 

 been the seat of an Anglican bishop. 



From the time of the historian Charlevoix a vague acquaint- 



