THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY-LINE. O17 
the aggregate Company enabled it to obtain for a 
term of years, first in 1821, and afterward in 1838, 
exclusive right to trade with the Indians in certain 
parts of North America not belonging to Prince Ru- 
pert’s Land. . 
The region of country thus opened by license ex- 
clusively to the Hudson’s Bay Company is described. 
in the license of 1888 as follows: 
“The exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all 
such parts of North America to the northward and to the west- 
ward of the lands and territories belonging to the United States 
of America as should not form part of any of our provinces in 
North America, or of any lands or territories belonging to the 
said United States of America, or to any European Government, 
State, or Power.” 
In so far as these licenses affected only the region 
west and south of Hudson’s Bay depending on Lake 
Winnipeg, Lake Athabasca, the two Slave Lakes, and 
other lands east of the Rocky Mountains, they did 
not concern the United States. . 
But in so far as they affected the region west of 
the Rocky Mountains, such a license is in plain viola- 
tion of treaties with the United States. The Queen 
of England could give a license im that region to the 
Hudson’s Bay Company exclusive of all other English- 
men; but she could not give any to exclude citizens 
of the United States. That, indeed, the grant does 
not profess to do; but, in effect, it did that and more; 
for in the hands of the Company it was “a charter 
of licensed usurpation and pillage in the whole of 
the described region of North America.” The Com- 
pany established forts or posts at every eligible or 
