Ba eo BORN EO: 
SKETCHES OF 
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CHAPTER I. 
peat 
Wie N 1670 CHARLES II granted to the Hudson’s Bay Com- 
ete 8 pany a Charter of Incorporation, His Majesty delega- 
ting to the Company actual sovereignty over a very 
large portion of British North America, and assign- 
ing to them the exclusive monopoly of trade and 
mining in the territory. Writing in 1869, Mr. WIL- 
LIAM FORSYTH, Q.C., says:—‘“ I have endeavoured to give an 
account of the constitution and history of the /ast of the 
great proprietary companies of England, to whom a kind of 
delegated authority was granted by the Crown. It was by 
some of these that distant Colonies were founded, and one, 
the most powerful of them all, established our Empire in the 
East and held the sceptre of the Great Mogul. But they have 
passed away 
-fuit Ilium et ingens 
Gloria Teucrorum— 
and the Hudson’s Bay Company will be no exception to the 
rule. It may continue to exist as a Trading Company, but 
as a Jerritorial Power it must make up its mind to fold its 
(buffalo) robes round it and die with dignity.” Prophesying 
is hazardous work. In November, 1881, two hundred and 
