pert and
Severn Rivers, or at York Factory (Port Nelson) and Churchill (Prince of
Wales). The French governor down in Quebec issued only a limited number
of licenses for the fur trade in Canada; and the old English company had
no fear of rivalry in the north. It never sought inland tribes, but
waited with serene apathy for the Indians to come down to its fur posts
on the bay. Young Le Moyne d'Iberville[4] might march overland from
Quebec to the bay, catch the English company nodding, scale the
stockades, capture its forts, batter down a wall or two, and sail off
like a pirate with ship-loads of booty for Quebec. What did the ancient
company care? European treaties restored its forts, and the honourable
adventurers presented a bill of damages to their government for lost
furs.

But came a sudden change. Great movements westward began simultaneously
in all parts of the east.

This resulted from two events--England's victory over France at Quebec,
and the American colonies' Declaration of Independence. The downfall of
French ascendency in America meant an end to that license system which
limited the fur trade to favourites of the governor. That threw an army
of some two thousand men--_voyageurs, coureurs des bois, mangeurs de
lard_,[5] famous hunters, traders, and trappers--on their own resources.
The MacDonalds and MacKenzies and MacGillivrays and Frobishers and
MacTavishes--Scotch merchants of Quebec and Montreal--were quick to
seize the opportunity. Uniting under the names of North-West Fur Company
and X. Y. Fur Company, they re-engaged the entire retinue of cast-off
Frenchmen, woodcraftsmen who knew every path and stream from Labrador to
the Rocky Mountains. Giving higher pay and better fare than the old
French traders, the Scotch merchants prepared to hold the field against
all comers in the Canadas. And when the X. Y. amalgamated with the
larger company before the opening of the nineteenth century, the Nor'
Westers became as famous for their daring success as their unscrupulous
ubiquity.

But at that stage came the other factor--American Independence. Locked
in conflict with England, what deadlier blow to British power could
France deal than to turn over Louisiana with its million square miles
and ninety thousand inhabitants to the American Republic? The Lewis and
Clark exploration up the Missouri, over the mountains, and down the
Columbia to the Pacific was a natural sequel to the Louisiana Purchase,
and proved