278 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



Governor, under which the extinction of the Indian title upon 

 liberal terms has invariably been recognized as a necessary pre- 

 liminary to the occupation of a single square yard of native 

 territory. 



It is almost needless to mention that the presence and 

 work of both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries 

 in Red River (the former first appeared in 1818 and the 

 latter in 1820), and elsewhere, have also been very important 

 factors in the foregoing beneficial connection. 



Gen. Sir William F. Butler, who had visited and so- 

 journed for a brief time at many of the Company's inland 

 posts, thus wrote in 1873 : 



Wild, desolate and remote are these isolated trading posts of 

 the vast interior, yet it is difficult to describe the feeling with 

 which one beholds them across some icebound lake or silent river 

 as the dog-trains wind slowly amidst the snow. Coming In from 

 the wilderness, from the wrack of tempest and the bitter cold, 

 wearied with long marches, foot-sore or frozen, one looks upon 

 the wooden dwelling-house as some place of rest and contentment. 

 I doubt if it be possible to know more acute comfort, for its measure 

 is exactly the measure of that other extremity of discomfort which 

 excessive cold and hardship have carried with them. Nor does 

 this feeling of home and contentment lose aught for want of a 

 welcome at the threshold of the lonely resting place. Nothing is 

 held too good for the wayfarer — the best bed and the best supper 

 are his. He has perhaps brought letters or messages from long 

 and absent friends, or he comes with news of the outside world; 

 but be he the bearer of such things or only the chance carrier of 

 his own fortunes, he is still a welcome visitor at the Hudson's 

 Bay post. 



Sir William further writes that — 



In early days Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca, was an 

 important centre of the fur trade, and in later times it has been 

 made the starting-point of many of the exploratory parties to the 

 northern coast. From old Fort Chipewyan Mackenzie set forth 

 to explore the great northern river, and to the same place he 

 returned when, first of all men north of the fortieth parallel, he 

 had crossed in the summers of 1792-93 the American continent to 

 the Pacific Ocean. It was from new Fort Chipewyan that Simpson 



