TRADING COMPANIES. 327 
ive trades,, the posts of the two companies 
were approximating nearer and nearer to each 
other every year, there was great reason to 
imagine that their differences, instead of 
abating, would become still greater than they 
' were, and finally, perhaps, lead to consequences 
of the most serious nature. A circumstance, 
however, unexpectedly took place, at a time 
when the greatest enmity subsisted between the 
parties, which happily reconciled them to each 
other, ajid terminated all their disputes. 
A very powerful nation of Indians, called 
the Assiniboins, who inhabit an extended tract 
of country to the south-west of Lake Winni¬ 
peg, conceiving that the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ 
pany had encroached unreasonably upon their 
territories, and bad otherwise maltreated a part 
of their tribe, formed the resolution of instantly 
destroying a post established by that company 
in their neighbourhood. A large body of them 
soon collected together, and breathing* the 
fiercest spirit of revenge, marched unperceived 
and unsuspected by the party against whom 
their expedition was planned, till within a short 
distance of their post. Here they halted ac¬ 
cording to custom, waiting only for a favour¬ 
able moment to pounce upon their prey. Some 
oi the. agents of the North-west Company, 
however, who were scattered about this part of 
the country, fortunately got intelligence of their 
