engage^ in tho.fe diftant. expeditions, and fpresfd the fur trade as fair
Weft as the bapKs of the Safkatcbiwine rivejf, in) 5 ^ North latitpCie, and:
longitude 102 Weft.
i At an. early period of their mtereourfe with the £a»ages,;a;cuftora was;
introdiufe©! of a v«ry .botii&'iMa» unfortunately dtfc
Q^ntinu.edi of uot; f^3w g a^y %irituous liquor to- the, natives.; Th-isi
admirable regulation was' for feme time oMeifved, with aft the refpe^
due to the religion by which it was fan&ioned, and whofe fevereft cen-
fures followed: the: violation, of it. A painful penance could alone reftore
the offender fo j tjaja falpepdod ritsiTof the facrament. Th^oafcftijyt o f
tradje^hswt^erj difeoMi^ed a wt^ to gratify the; Indians with^hpirfavour-
ite- cordial, without incurring the ecclefiailica| penalties-, bp giving,
inftead of felling it to them.
But ijotw.itbftanding all the reftriQfons. with which commerce was;
opprefled under the Fsench government, the fur #trade was extended to.
the immenfe diftance which, has. been already ftated;, and formountedi
many ©oft difcowaging difficulties, which will be hereafter noticed ;j
while, at the fame time, no exertions were made from Hudfbn’s Bay to
obtain even. a. ffiare of the trade of a country, which, according to the
charter o f that company, belonged to it, and, from, its proximity, is fo
much more acceffible toj the mercantile adventurer.
O f thefe; trading commanders, I underftood, that two attempted to
penetrate, to.the Bacifiq Ocean, hut the utraoft extent of their journey I
could never, learn.; which may be attributed, indeed, to-a failure of the
undertaking.
For Lome time1 after the conqtiefi ofCanada, this trade was fufpended,
which muft havé beeri vfefy.advantageous to the Iludfon’s Bay Company,
as all the inhabitants to the WeftWard of Lake Superior, were
obliged-toga to them for fuck articles as thdr habitual ufie had rendered
neceffaiy. . Some ®f the:Canadians who had lived long with them, and
were become attached to a favage life, accompanied them thither annually,
till mercantile adventurers again appeared from their own Gauntry, after
an interval of feveral years,.owing, as I fuppofe, to an ignorance o f the
country ill thé conquerors, and their want of commercial confidence in
the 1 conquered. There were,, indeëd, other difeouragements, fuch as
the immenfe length of the journey, neceffary to rdach the limits beyond
which this eommetree mul begin; the.rifk of property j the expences
attending fuch a long tranfport; and an ignorance of the language of
thbfo who, from their expérience, muft he neceffajHy employed as the
intermediate agents between them and the natives. But, notwithftand-
ing thefe difficulties, the trade, b y degreeâp began to %re|d over the different
parts to which it had been carried by the French, though at a
gréât riïk of the Kres, as weft as the property, o f their néw poffeflbrs,
for'the natives had been tad§M fey their former allfos to mteftain hoftile
difpfefitions towards the Engtilh, from their having been in alliance with,
their natural enemies the Iroquois ; and tlcdteweife hot wanting a fufficient
nuithber>of difeHteMqd, dirappoin4ed people to keep alive fuch a notion*;
fa thar for a long, time they were confideredi and. treated as objeefe of
hoftility. To prove this difpofition of the Insdians,we have only ftp-
T^er Pontiac, at. Detroit, and the furprife and taking
of Michilîmakinae, about this period.. .
Hence