the power of France was driven from Canada. From the time of the surrender of the French posts in 1760, down to the year 1766, the fur trade from Montreal was in a great measure suspended. The furs which were collected by the Indians from the borders of the lakes, were sold to the traders of Hudson's Bay, who now extended their posts towards the territory which had formerly been occupied by France. In 1766, a few Scotch merchants from Upper Canada, finding the field unoccupied, established a post and factory at Michilimackinac, the central post of the former French fur trade. From this point, their operations soon extended far beyond Lake Superior and the upper waters of the Mississippi, north to Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchawine and Lake Athabasca. These traders, on coming in collision with the traders of Hudson's Bay, were for some time harassed, but not expelled by the latter. Jonathan Carver, an adventurous native of Connecticut, left Boston in 1766, and passing through the Straits of Mackinaw and the upper lakes, passed the two succeeding years in exploring the country west of the Mississippi. His intention was to ascertain the character and acquire the languages of the various Indian tribes which were scattered over those regions, as well as to gain a knowledge of the quality and productions of the soil beyond the Mississippi, and also to discover the breadth of the continent of those regions in its broadest part, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, between the forty-third and the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude. His ultimate object was to propose to the government the establishment of a post in that region, near the "Strait of Anian," which he considered would facilitate the discovery of a passage between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific. These objects, however, he was not destined to complete; as he was obliged to give up the project just as he had advanced to the river St. Peter's. The journal of his travels was published in London, and widely circulated. It contained interesting information relating to the topography of a country which had then been but partially explored, as well as facts relating to the Indian tribes. It soon led to further adventures. In 1784, preparations were made by several European nations for the prose cution of the fur trade; especially between the north-western coast of America and China. At this period, the Russians procured the greater part of their furs from the northern parts of their empire, and transported them to China by land; while the markets of Great Britain were supplied by the factories of Canada and Hudson's Bay. China had been long a valuable mart for furs, which were highly prized in the northern parts of the Celestial Empire, as a defence against the cold, and throughout its whole extent, as a badge of rank and wealth. In 1785, James Hanna, an Englishman, sailed from Canton in April, for the prosecution of the fur trade, and, in August, he arrived in Nootka Sound in the first ship that had ever explored the north-west coast of America. Here he exchanged coarse manufactures, and old iron, for a valuable cargo of furs, with which he returned to the port of Canton. About the same period, an association of merchants termed the "King George's Sound Company," was formed in London for the prosecution of the fur trade on the western coast of America. The scheme of this company was to collect furs on that part of the continent, and to transport them direct to Canton, receiving their return cargo in tea: a special permission having been granted by the East India Company, to carry those teas to London. For this purpose two ships were despatched to the Northern Pacific. In the course of the two following years, two vessels were sent out from Calcutta and Bombay, by the East India Company; from Macao and Canton by the English and Portuguese; and from Ostend under the flag of the Austrian East India Company. The French also, in 1790, despatched expeditions to the north-west coast for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the fur trade. An agent was sent out by Spain to California for the purpose of collecting furs for the market of Canton, in which adventure he appears to have partially succeeded. But the few furs which he had collected were of inferior quality. Meantime the Russians gradually extended their trade on the north-western coast. The American ships Columbia, of 220 tons, and the Lady Washington, of 90 tons, under the command of Kendrick and Gray, were fitted out by an association of merchants in Boston, and furnished with sea letters from the general government. They sailed together on the 30th of September, 1787, for the prosecution of the fur trade on the same coast. During the year 1787, the North-west Company of Montreal was established. This association was formed, for the purpose of preventing the fatal collisions. which had occurred between individual Canadian traders and those of the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as to re-organise the fur trade on a larger and more secure system. Its members were comprised of the principal merchants of Montreal, who had before been engaged in the fur trade around the lakes. This company did not obtain a charter, but constituted themselves a commercial partnership. It consisted of shares unequally divided among individual stockholders, some of whom were engaged in the importation of goods necessary to carry on the trade, in the supply of capital, and in the exportation of the proceeds; and others who were employed in actual trade at the interior posts and among the Indians. The shares of this company were gradually increased. The agents of the company went annually to Detroit, Mackinaw, St. Mary, and the grand portage, where they received the furs, and forwarded them to Montreal. The articles for the trade consisted of woollen and cotton goods, hardware, cutlery, fire-arms, ammunition, some spirits, and those ornaments and tinsels which were prized by the Indians, as well as in the market of Montreal. These goods were annually shipped from London about the first of May, and in the winter they were bartered for furs and peltry, which during the next autumn were shipped from Canada to London. The food which they used was of a coarse kind. The partners of the company, the interpreters, clerks, guides, and all in office, were allowed better provisions; but the canoe-men, or voyageurs, had generally nothing better than fat melted, or boiled, with Indian corn meal. The Hudson's Bay Company, which had exercised supreme dominion over the cold regions of the north, soon found a new company advancing over their territory, and the rivalry of the two companies soon gave rise to violent outbreaks, though they confined themselves within different chartered limits. The North-west Company extended its operations over the north-western lakes: their employés aided by French Canadians, half-breeds, and Indians, with their commanders or agents, occupied the posts which had formerly belonged to the French along the great lakes and the Mississippi; and in two years after the first establishment of the North-west Company, its advanced posts extended as far as Athabasca lake, 800 miles beyond Lake Superior. The following table, exhibiting the number of skins, which were collected by this company during one year, is given in the introduction to the Voyages of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a partner in that association :— PRODUCT of the North-west Company, for one Year previous to 1794. 106,000 beaver skins. 2,100 bear skins. 1,500 fox skins. 4,000 kit fox skins. 4,600 otter skins. 16,000 musksquash skins. 1,800 mink skins. 6,000 lynx skins. 600 wolverine skins. 1,650 fisher skins. 100 racoon skins. 3,800 wolf skins. 700 elk skins. 750 deer skins. Fort William, near the grand portage on the north-western shore of Lake Superior, was the port of annual rendezvous, where the partners from the interior met the leading directors from Montreal, to discuss the interests of the trade. The latter ascended the rivers and lakes of the west in large canoes, manned by Canadian voyagers, and provided with articles of traffic as well as of luxury, not excepting the choicest wines. The place of assemblage was the grand council-house, a large wooden building. The antlers of the elk, the bow, and the war club; Indian ornaments of various kinds; richly sculptured pipes wrought from the red stone of that region, or cut from the horns of the deer, and ornamented with the plumes of birds; buffalo robes, and various trophies of Indian hunting and warfare, adorned the walls of the hall. Bear and buffalo skins formed the carpets. At this season a grand dinner was usually provided: consisting of the flesh of deer, buffalo, hares; of various wild fowl; of fish caught in the lakes or streams; and of the luxuries carried from Montreal. The partner of the company; the French voyageur, decorated with tinsel, and with a red feather waving in his hat; the half-breed, the highlander, and the Indian, were all mingled together. On these occasions the forests and rocks echoed the song and the wild music of revelry; and the Indians and traders shared equally in the pleasures, or intemperance, of this annual orgy. The Russian government was, at the same period, extending its establishments along the western coasts of America. An association was formed by the merchants of Eastern Siberia as early as 1785, for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade upon the northern coasts of the Pacific, under the protection of the Empress Catherine. The government seemed disposed to suppress that company, on account of the cruelty of its agents towards the natives. But the Czar, on the 8th of July, 1799, granted to the association a charter, under the name of the "Russian American Fur Company," giving its shareholders an exclusive right to trade, for twenty years, along a large portion of the coast. This privilege was confirmed by the Emperor Alexander. The directors of this com pany had their residence in Siberia, at their grand depository for the China trade. This chief office was afterwards changed to St. Petersburg, and was placed under the general control of the imperial department of commerce. The Russian fur trade, although more absolute and military than was that of the French, or than that of the English, was governed by nearly the same general system. At this early period, numerous collisions occurred between the Russian and the United States' fur traders, arising from mercantile rivalry; and, among other charges made, it was complained that fire-arms were furnished to the natives by the Americans. During the year 1791, seven vessels from the United States arrived in the North Pacific, in search of furs; and Captain Ingraham, who sailed from Boston, in 1790, discovered the group which he called the Washington islands. That celebrated intrepid traveller, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, traversed the continent of America, to the Pacific, in 1793, but England did not then seize upon the advantages which his experience enabled him to describe. The American vessels which traded to the north-west coast for furs, sailed from the United States or from Europe, to the North Pacific, with cargoes of spirits, wine, sugar, tobacco, fire-arms, gunpowder, iron, and coarse manufactures of various kinds, which were exchanged along the sea-coasts with the natives, or Russians, for furs; or return cargoes were obtained by hiring from the Russian agent, hunters and fishermen to procure furs and fish. These cargoes were then shipped to Canton, and bartered for teas, porcelain, nankeen, and silks, which were shipped to the markets of Europe or the United States; or if the American ships were not able to collect a full cargo of furs, they, in its broadest extent, were laden with sandal-wood, pearl-shells, and tortoise-shells, at the Sandwich Islands, for which articles a market and fair prices were found at Canton. In consequence of the success of the North-west Company of Canada, an American fur trading company was afterwards formed, called, from its principal depôt on the island of Mackinaw, the Mackinaw Company. The North-west and Hudson's Bay Companies traded amidst the regions of the north, and at the head waters of the Missouri; and the Mackinaw Company traded chiefly in canoes to the regions of Iowa and Wisconsin. By a clause in Mr. Jay's treaty, concluded in 1794, British traders were permitted to enter the American territory, to carry on the fur trade. By the purchase of Louisiana, in 1803, the Americans acquired the splendid advantages of navigating the Mississippi, and all its tributaries, from their sources to the sea. Mr. Jefferson, then president, projected an expedition, to be undertaken by the federal government, for the exploration of the country watered by the Missouri, and westward to the Pacific, which led to the expedition of Lewis and Clarke. Those adventurous travellers proceeded up the Missouri towards the Rocky mountains, partly by land and partly by water, exploring the main stream to its source. Here they prepared to cross the Rocky mountains, in August, 1805, and having accomplished their object, they reached the mouth of the Columbia on the 7th of November, of the same year. Soon after the return of Lewis and Clarke, the North-west Company of Montreal resolved to extend their fur trade west of the Rocky mountains; and during the spring of 1806, Mr. Silas Frazer, a partner, established a British trading post on Frazer's lake, near the fifty-fourth parallel, at a place since called New Caledonia. At St. Louis, on the Mississippi, an association was formed, in 1808, called the Missouri Company, which was projected by Manuel Lisa, an enterprising Spaniard. Two years afterwards, a number of trading posts were established upon the Upper Missouri, and one beyond the Rocky mountains, on the Lewis river, by Mr. Henry, and one also on the southern branch of the Columbia. But the enmity of the natives, and the difficulty of obtaining regular supplies of food, obliged Mr. Henry to abandon it in 1810. The operations of the North-west Company, in confederating the numerous tribes at the west, especially those in the forests around the heads of the Mississippi and the great lakes, induced the American government to send out individual traders, to supply the wants of the Indians, and, if possible, to attract their trade towards the United States. These efforts produced, at the time, but little effect. Meanwhile, the Russians were extending their establishments upon the North Pacific coasts, as far as Norfolk Sound, and, as early as 1806, they had made preparations to occupy the mouth of the Columbia river. The territory occupied by the Russian Fur Company was divided into districts, and each district was placed under a commandant, aided by a number of Russians, who kept the |