A General History of the Fur Trade, 



avidity, and irregularity, that in a few years it became the 

 reverse of what it ought to have been. An animated com- 

 petition prevailed, and the contending parties carried the 

 trade beyond the French limits, though with no benefit to 

 themselves or neighbours, the Hudson's-Bay Company; 

 who in the year 1774, and not till then, thought proper to 

 move from home to the East bank of Sturgeon Lake, in 

 latitude 53. 56. North, and longitude 102. 15. West, and 

 became more jealous of their fellow subjects; and, perhaps, 

 with more cause, than they had been of those of France. 

 From this period to the present time, they have been fol- 

 lowing the Canadians to their different establishments, 

 while, on the contrary, there is not a solitary instance that 

 the Canadians have followed them ; and there are many 

 trading posts which they have not yet attained. This, 

 however, will no longer be a mystery when the nature and 

 policy of the Hudson's-Bay Company is compared with 

 that which has been pursued by their rivals in this trade.—- 

 But to return to my subject. 



This competition, which has been already mentioned, 

 gave a fatal blow to the trade from Canada, and, with other 

 incidental causes, in my opinion, contributed to its ruin. 

 This trade Was carried on in a very distant country, out of 

 the reach of legal restraint, and where there was a free 

 scope given to any ways or means in attaining advantage. 

 The consequence was not only the loss of commercial be- 

 nefit to the persons engaged in it, but of the good opinion 

 of the natives, and the respect of their men, who were in- 

 clined to follow their example ; so that with drinking, carous- 

 ing, and quarrelling with the Indians along their route, and 

 among themselves, they seldom reached their winter quar- 

 ters ; and if they did, it was generally by dragging their 

 property upon sledges, as the navigation was closed up by 

 the frost. When at length they were arrived, the object of 

 each was to injure his rival traders in the opinion of the 

 natives as much as was in their power, by misrepresentation 

 and presents, for which the agents employed were peculiar- 

 ly calculated. They considered the command of their em- 

 ployer as binding on them, and however wrong or irregular 

 the transaction, the responsibility rested with the principal 

 who directed them. This is Indian law. Thus did they 

 wa^te their credit and their property with the natives, till the 

 first was past redemption, and the last was nearly exhausted ; 



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