, trading into Hudson's Bay.' The company was founded primarily
to engage in the fur trade. But it was also pledged by its charter to
promote geographical discovery, and both the honour of its sovereign
rights and the promptings of its own commercial interest induced it to
expand its territory of operations to the greatest possible degree.
During its early years, necessity compelled it to cling to the coast.
Its operations were confined to forts at the mouth of the Nelson, the
Churchill, and other rivers to which the Indian traders annually
descended with their loads of furs. Moreover, the hostility of the
French, who had founded the rival Company of the North, cramped the
activities of the English adventurers. During the wars of King William
and Queen Anne, the territory of the bay became the scene of armed
conflict. Expeditions were sent overland from Canada against the
English company. The little forts were taken and retaken, and the
echoes of the European struggle that was fought at Blenheim and at
Malplaquet woke the stillness of the northern woods of America. But
after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the whole country of the Bay was
left to the English.

The Hudson's Bay Company were, therefore, {37} enabled to expand their
operations. By establishing forts farther and farther in the interior
they endeavoured to come into more direct relation with the sources of
their supply. They were thus early led to surmise the great potential
wealth of the vast region that lay beyond their forts, and to become
jealous of their title thereto. Their aversion to making public the
knowledge of their territory lent to their operations an air of mystery
and secrecy, and their enemies accused them of being hostile to the
promotion of discovery. For their own purposes, however, the company
were willing to have their territory explored as the necessities of
their expanding commerce demanded. As early as the close of the
seventeenth century (1691) a certain Henry Kelsey, in the service of
the company, had made his way from York Fort to the plains of the
Saskatchewan. After the Treaty of Utrecht had brought peace and a
clear title to the basin of the bay, the company endeavoured to obtain
more accurate knowledge of their territory and resources.

It had long been rumoured that valuable mines of copper lay in the Far
North. The early explorers spoke of the Eskimos as having copper ore.
Indians who came from the north-west t