arted for
Canada to take up a position as clerk in the partnership concern of
Gregory & M'Leod at Montreal.

It may be said here briefly that this "New North-west Company" went at
first by the nickname of "The Little Company" or "The Potties", this
last being an Amerindian corruption of the French _Les Petits_. Later
it developed into the "X.Y. Company", or "Sir Alexander Mackenzie &
Co.". Although much in rivalry with the original "Nor'-westers", the
rivalry never degenerated into the actual warfare, the indefensible
deeds of violence and treachery, which later on were perpetrated by
the Hudson's Bay Company on the agents of the North-west, and returned
with interest by the latter. Often the New North-west agents and the
original Nor'-westers would camp or build side by side, and share
equably in the fur trade with the natives; their canoemen and
French-Canadian _voyageurs_ would sing their boating songs in chorus
as they paddled side by side across the lakes and down the rivers, or
marched with their heavy loads over the portages and along the trails.
Eventually, in 1804, the X.Y. Company and the North-west fused into
the North-west Trading Company, which until 1821 fought a hard fight
against the encroachments and jealousy of the Hudson's Bay Company.

During the period, however, from 1785 to 1812 the men of the
north-west, of Montreal, and Grand Portage (as contrasted with those
of Hudson Bay) effected a revolution in Canadian geography. They
played the role of imperial pioneers with a stubborn heroism, with
little thought of personal gain, and in most cases with full
foreknowledge and appreciation of what would accrue to the British
Empire through their success. It is impossible to relate the
adventures of all of them within the space of any one book, or even of
several volumes. Moreover, this has been done already, not only in
their own published journals and books, but in the admirable works of
Elliot Coues, Dr. George Bryce, Dr. S.J. Dawson, Alexander Ross, and
others. I must confine myself here to a description of the adventures
of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, with a glance at incidents recorded by
Simon Fraser and by Alexander Henry the Younger.

Mackenzie, having been appointed at the age of twenty-two a partner in
the New North-west Company, proceeded to Grand Portage in 1785, and
by the year 1788 (after founding Fort Chipewayan on Lake Athabaska)
conceived the idea of following the mysterious Slave River to