rOET CHIPEWYAN TO FORT M'MURRAY 111 



" The Forest People," doubtless from its original habitat in 

 this region. 



Owing to the agglutinative character of the aboriginal 

 languages, numbering over four hundred, some philologists- 

 are inclined to attribute them all to a common origin, the 

 Basque tongue being one of the two or three in Europe which 

 have a like peculiarity. In the languages of the American 

 Indians one syllable is piled upon another, each with a dis- 

 tinct root-significance, so that a single word will often 

 contain the meaning of an ordinary English sentence. This, 

 polysynthetic character undoubtedly does point to a common 

 origin, just as the Indo-European tongues trace back tO' 

 Sanskrit. But whether this is indicative of the ancient 

 unity of the American races, whose languages differed in so- 

 many other respects, and whose characteristics were so 

 divergent, is another question. 



One interesting impression^ begot of our environment, was. 

 that we were now emphatically in what might be called 

 " Mackenzie's country." In his " General History of the 

 Fur-Trade," published in London in 1801, Sir Alexander 

 tells us that, after spending five years in Mr. Gregory's, 

 office in ^ontieal, he went to Detroit to trade, and after- 

 wards, in 1785, to the Grand Portage (Fort William). 



The first traders, he tells us, had penetrated to the Atha- 

 basca, via Methy Portage, as early as 1791, and in 1783-4 

 the merchants of Lower Canada united under the name of 

 The JSTorth-West Company, the two Frobishers — Joseph 

 Frobisher had traded on the Churchill Eiver as early as 

 1775 — and Simon McTavish being managers. The Com- 

 pany, he says, " was consolidated in July, 1787," and 

 became very powerful in more ways than one, employing,, 

 at the time he wrote, over 1,400 men, including 1,120 

 canoemen. " It took four years from the time the goods, 

 were ordered until the furs were sold;" but, of course, 

 the profits, compared with the capital invested, were very 

 great, until the strife deepened between the Montrealers- 

 and the Hudson's Bay Company, whose first inland post. 



