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Chicasaws, the Chactaws, and another nation, situate between the British settlements and the Mississippi.

ARTICLE IV. The important privilege granted by the 13th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht, under certain limitations and restrictions, to the subjects of France, for fishing and drying their cod fish on a certain part of the Banks of Newfoundland, has not been refused by Great Britain, but connected with a reciprocal satisfaction on the part of France, with regard to the indispensable object of Dunkirk, which the King has required, and still requires : it is, therefore, on condition that the town and port of Dunkirk shall be put in the condition it ought to have been in the last Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, that His Majesty consents to renew to France the privilege of fishing and of drying their fish, by virtue of the Treaty of Utrecht, upon the aforesaid district of Newfoundland.

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(From the last Memorial of France to England, delivered to Mr. Pitt by M. Bussy, Sept. 13, 1761.)

The King accepts the declaration of the King of England contained in the preamble of the answer, and renews that which he before made to his Majesty on this head, in such manner that it is concluded between the two Courts finally and without ambiguity, that if peace is not the result of the present negotiation, all that has been said, written and negotiated between the two Crowns, since the memorial of the 26th of March inclusive to the moment of the rupture, shall be void and of no effect, and shall not be brought as an argument in favour of either of the parties, in any future negotiation of peace.

ARTICLE I.-The King has declared in his first memorial, and in his ultimatum, that he will cede and guarantee to England the possession of Canada, in the most ample manner. His Majesty still persists in that offer, and without discussing the line of its limits marked on a map presented by Mr. Stanley; as that line, on which England rests its demands, is without doubt the most

extensive bound which can be given to the cession, the King is willing to grant it.

His Majesty had annexed four conditions to his guaranty: it seems that England agrees to them; only the King conceives that the term of one year for the sale of the French effects and for emigration is too short, and his Majesty desires that it may be agreed to extend the term of one year to eighteen months at least.

As the Court of England has added to the first article of its answer to the entire and total cession of Canada, as agreed between the two courts, the word dependencies, it is necessary to give a specific explanation of this word, that the cession might not in the end occasion difficulties between the two Courts with regard to the meaning of the word dependencies.

ARTICLE II. The first paragraph, with regard to the limits of Louisiana, contained in the second article of the answer from England, is agreed to by France. The second paragraph is neither just nor explicit, and it is finally proposed to express in the following terms:

The intermediate savage nations between the lakes and the Mississippi, and within the line traced out, shall be neuter and independent, under the protection of the King, and those without the line, on the side of the English, shall likewise be neuter and independent, under the protection of England. The English traders also shall be prohibited from going among the savage nations beyond the line, on either side; but the said nations shall not be restrained in their freedom of commerce with the French and English, as they have exercised it heretofore.

ARTICLE IV.— * * * England always endeavours to connect the liberty of fishing and drying codfish on part of the coast of Newfoundland, granted by the fifteenth article of the Treaty of Utrecht, with the ninth article of the same treaty, which stipulates the demolition of Dunkirk. It is given in answer to England for the fourth and last time, that the two stipulations of the Treaty of Utrecht have nothing in common between them, unless that they are both comprised in the said treaty; and that the

concession expressed in favour of the French in the thirteenth article of that treaty, is a compensation for the cession of Newfoundland and Annapolis Royal, made on the part of France to England by the twelfth and thirteenth articles of the same treaty.

CANADIAN ENTERPRISE IN THE NORTH-WEST AFTER THE CONQUEST.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in his Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade (1801), shows how the Canadian traders preceded the Hudson's Bay Company in the north-west. The following is abridged from his work, but is given in his own language:

"For some time after the conquest of Canada, this trade was suspended, which must have been very advantageous to the Hudson's Bay Company, as all the inhabitants to the westward of Lake Superior were obliged to go to them for such articles as their habitual use had rendered necessary. Some of the Canadians who had lived long with them, and were become attached to a savage life, accompanied them thither annually, till mercantile adventurers again appeared from their own country, after an interval of several years.

"It was so late as the year 1766, before which, the trade I mean to consider commenced from Michilimakinac. The first who attempted it were satisfied to go the length of the River Camenistiquia, where the French had a principal establishment, and was the line of their communication with the interior country. It was once destroyed by fire. Here they went and returned successful in the following spring to Michilimakinac. Their success induced them to renew their journey, and incited others to follow their example. Some of them remained at Camenistiquia, while others proceeded to and beyond the Grand Portage, which since that time has become the principal entrepôt of that trade, and is situated in a bay, in latitude 48° north, and longitude 90° west.

After passing the usual season there, they went back to Michilimakinac as before, and encouraged by the trade, returned in increased numbers. One of these, Thomas Curry, with a spirit of enterprize superior to that of his contemporaries, determined to penetrate to the furthest limits of the French discoveries in that country; or at least till the frost should stop him. For this purpose he procured guides and interpreters, who were acquainted with the country, and with four canoes arrived at Fort Bourbon, which was one of their posts, at the west end of the Cedar Lake, on the waters of the Saskatchiwine. His risk and toil were well recompensed, for he came back the following spring with his canoes filled with fine furs, with which he proceeded to Canada, and was satisfied never again to return to the Indian country.

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From this period people began to spread over every part of the country, particularly where the French had established settle

ments.

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Mr. James Finlay was the first who followed Mr. Curry's example, and, with the same number of canoes, arrived, in the course of the next season, at Nipawee, the last of the French settlements on the bank of the Saskatchiwine River, in latitude nearly 431° (53) north and longitude 103° west: he found the good fortune, as he followed, in every respect, the example of his predecessor.

"As may be supposed, there were now people enough ready to replace them, and the trade was pursued with such avidity, and irregularity, that in a few years it became the reverse of what it ought to have been. An animated competition 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 following 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 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.

"Thus was the trade carried on for several years, and consequently becoming worse and worse, so that the partners, who met them at the Grand Portage, naturally complained of their ill

success.

"It was about this time, that Mr. Joseph Frobisher, one of the gentlemen engaged in the trade, determined to penetrate into the country yet unexplored, to the north and westward, and, in the spring of the year 1775, met the Indians from that quarter on their way to Fort Churchill, at Portage de Traité, so named from that circumstance on the banks of the Missinipi, or Churchill River, latitude 55° 25′ north, longitude 1031° west. It was, indeed, with some difficulty that he could induce them to trade with him, but he at length procured as many furs as his canoes could carry. He then sent his brother to explore the country still further west, who penetrated as far as the lake of Isle à la Crosse, in latitude 55° 26' north and longitude 108° west.

"The success of this gentleman induced others to follow his example, and in the spring of the year 1778, some of the traders on the Saskatchiwine River, finding they had a quantity of goods to spare, agreed to put them into a joint stock, and gave the charge and management of them to Mr. Peter Pond, who, in four canoes, was directed to enter the English River, so called by Mr. Frobisher, to follow his track, and proceed still further; if possible, to Athabasca, a country hitherto unknown but from Indian report. In this enterprize he at length succeeded, and pitched his tent on the banks of the Elk River, by him erroneously called the Athabasca River, about thirty miles from the Lake of the Hills, into which it empties itself.

"Here he passed the winter of 1778-9; saw a vast concourse of the Knisteneaux and Chepewyan tribes, who used to carry their furs annually to Churchill; the latter by the barren grounds,

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