nd
administered territory, France held but a very limited seacoast from
which to approach it--just the mouth of the Mississippi, and a little
bit of Alabama on the south and Cape Breton Island on the east. Cape
Breton Island was commanded by the immensely strong fortress of
Louisburg, and the possession of this place gave the French some
security in entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence through Cabot Straits.
But Louisburg was captured by the British colonists of New England
(United States) in 1745; and although it was given back to France
again, it was reoccupied in 1758, and served as a basis for the
armaments which were directed against Quebec in 1759, and which
resulted at the close of that year in the surrender of that important
city. In 1763 all Canada was ceded to the British, and Louisiana
(which had become the western barrier of the about-to-be-born United
States) was ceded to Spain; the French flag flew no more on the
Continent of North America, save in the two little islands of St.
Pierre and Miquelon adjoining Newfoundland, wherein it still remains
as a reminder of the splendid achievements of Frenchmen in America.

CHAPTER IX

The Pioneers from Montreal: Alexander Henry the Elder

After 1763, when the two provinces of Canada were definitely ceded to
Great Britain, the exploring energies of the Hudson's Bay Fur-trading
Company revived. But before this rather sluggish organization could
take full advantage of the cessation of French opposition, independent
British pioneers were on their way to explore the vast north-west and
west, soon carrying their marvellous journeys beyond the utmost limits
reached by La Verendrye and his sons. Eventually these pioneers, who
had Montreal for their base and who wisely associated themselves in
business and exploration with French Canadians, founded in 1784 a
great trading association known as the North-west Trading Company. A
few years later certain Scottish pioneers brought a rival exploration
and trading corporation into existence and called it the "X.Y.
Company". In 1804 these rival Montreal fur-trading associations were
fused into a new North-west Trading Company. Between this and the old
Hudson's Bay Company an intensely bitter rivalry and enmity--almost at
times a state of war--arose, and continued until 1821, when the
North-west Company and that of Hudson's Bay amalgamated. It is
necessary that these dry details should be understood in order that
the reader m