een saved from two
scourges, smallpox and strong drink.[1] But now, unhappily, all
restrictions about trade in alcohol were removed. In their eagerness
to obtain ardent spirits and "high" wine, the Indians eagerly welcomed
British traders and French Canadians in their midst. The fur trade
developed fast. The Hudson's Bay Company had established its trading
stations only in the vicinity or on the coasts of that inland sea, far
away from the two Canadas, from the Middle West and the vast North
West. After a little reluctance and suspicion, most of the northern
Amerindian tribes were persuaded to deflect their caravans from the
routes leading to Hudson Bay, and to meet the British, the New
Englander ("Bostonian"), and the French Canadian traders at various
rendezvous on Lake Winnipeg and its tributary lakes and rivers. The
principal depot and starting-point for the north-west traders was
_Grand Portage_, on the north-west coast of Lake Superior, whence
canoes and goods were transferred by a nine-mile portage to the waters
flowing to Rainy Lake, and so onwards to the Winnipeg River and the
vast system of the Saskatchewan, the Red River, and the Assiniboine.

[Footnote 1: See Sir Alexander Mackenzie's _Travels_, p. 5.]

Amongst the pioneers in this new development of the fur trade, who
became also the great explorers of northernmost America, was Alexander
Henry (already described), THOMAS CURRIE, JAMES FINLAY, PETER POND,[2]
JOSEPH and BENJAMIN FROBISHER, and SIMON M'TAVISH. These and some of
their supporting merchants in Montreal resolved to form a great
fur-trading association, the celebrated North-west Trading Company,
and did so in 1784.

[Footnote 2: Peter Pond was a native of Connecticut, and in the
opinion of his trading associates rather a ruffian. He was strongly
suspected of having murdered an amiable Swiss fur trader named Wadin,
and at a later date he actually did kill his trading partner, Ross.]

Two of the Montreal merchant firms participating in this confederation
(Gregory and M'Leod) were inclined to play a somewhat independent
part, and called themselves the New North-west Trading Company. They
had the foresight to engage as their principal agents in the
north-west (Sir) ALEXANDER MACKENZIE and his cousin RODERICK
MACKENZIE. Both these young men were Highlanders, probably of Norse
origin. Alexander Mackenzie was born at Stornoway, in the Island of
Lewis (Hebrides), in 1763. He was only sixteen when he st