rthern Indians.

"Five or six inches of an iron hoop, made into a knife, and the shank
of an arrowhead of iron, which served her as an awl, were all the
metals this poor woman had with her when she eloped, and with these
implements she had made herself complete snowshoes, and several other
useful articles.

"Her method of making a fire was equally singular and curious, having
no other materials for that purpose than two hard sulphurous stones.
These, by long friction and hard knocking, produced a few sparks,
which at length communicated to some touchwood (a species of fungus
which grew on decayed poplars); but as this method was attended with
great trouble, and not always with success, she did not suffer her
fire to go out all the winter...."

Hearne regained Prince of Wales's Fort on Hudson Bay in June, 1772.
Subsequently he was dispatched, in the year 1774, to found the first
great inland trading station and fort of the Hudson's Bay Company
which was established at any considerable distance westward of Hudson
Bay--the first step, in fact, which led to this chartered company
becoming in time the ruler and colonizing agent of Alberta and British
Columbia. Hearne chose for his station of "Cumberland House" a site at
the entrance to Pine Island Lake on the lower Saskatchewan River.

In 1775 he became Governor of his old starting-point on Hudson
Bay--Fort Prince of Wales. During the American war with France, the
French admiral, La Perouse, made a daring excursion into Hudson Bay
(1782), and summoned Hearne to surrender his fort. This he felt
obliged to do, not deeming his small garrison strong enough to resist
the French force.

Samuel Hearne returned to England in 1787, and died (probably in
London) in 1792.

CHAPTER XI

Alexander Mackenzie's Journeys

It has been already mentioned that the conquest of Canada by the
British led to a great increase in travel for the development of the
fur trade. Previously, under the French, permission was only granted
to a few persons to penetrate into the interior to trade with the
natives, commerce being regarded as a special privilege or monopoly to
be sold or granted by the Crown. But after the British had completely
assumed control, nothing was done to bar access to the interior. So
long as the Catholic missionaries had been practically placed in
charge of the Amerindians, and had served as buffers between them and
unscrupulous traders, they--the Amerindians--had b