the height of land or the Apalachies. That sacrifice which is to be made by France at the most critical moment, is marked by the green colour on the map.

Anything beyond those lines of demarcation, and France must give up Canada, inasmuch as it is evident she cannot preserve it; moreover, to maintain ourselves in that state, the Minister must essentially and constantly occupy himself therewith; but above all things must men be carefully selected, to whom the Government, the Police and Finances are to be confided.

Otherwise we shall labour for our enemies. Canada, bathed in the blood of our unfortunate colonists, will soon be the appenadge of the English. Our clearances, our settlements, our villages, will be so much fruit to be gathered by them when they have arrived at maturity.

Let the height of land and the Apalachies be the limits between the two peoples. Nature appears to have marked them expressly.

The caprice of man cannot change that barrier, always permanent, and always ready to protest against the usurper. People aspire to a factitious peace when they seek to establish it on arbitrary lines which the revolutions of time or the interests of men can destroy. 'Tis, perhaps, a fault into which have fallen our ablest negotiators, yet 'tis the most important object of a treaty of peace, since it destroys or foments the fatal germ which is the occasion of most wars. The height of land and the Apalachies once determined on as the line of separation between the two colonies, the modifications, the compromises I propose, neutralizing certain districts, may be admitted according as circumstances will be more or less favourable to France, when peace will be concluded.

One reflection more remains to be submitted, which, although not bearing directly on the boundaries, is, nevertheless, very intimately connected with them.

Considering the enormous expense entailed on us by the service of Indians in the war, I have always thought that the King would maintain at much less expense in Canada, a permanent corps of troops, capable of defending it at all times; and when I have weighed with reflection the utility of their assistance, I have found it to be only one of opinion and prejudice. But this prejudice is founded on the terror inspired by their cruelty and barbarity in their customs; it consequently will preserve its power.

This terror will be always very useful to the nation which will best be able to manage the alliance and attachment of those people. We possess one real advantage over the English in this regard; let us carefully avoid doing it the smallest damage by any convention with our enemies which would cause the Indians to suspect our alliance and good faith. However simple and natural such an accord might be, the English would not fail to present it to the Indians in the light that would render it odious to them. These people are proud, jealous, suspicious, and vindictive; an appearance of defection on our part, after all the blood they have poured out in our defence, would render these irreconcilable to us from generation to generation, and that would be the greatest of misfortunes for both our colonies.

Our Plenipotentiaries ought to be distrustful on this point. I am fully convinced that the British Ministers will set snares for them on this point, which is of more importance for them in America than the gain of many battles.

As for the rest, a Governor-General, instructed and attentive, will know how to maintain the alliance of all the people of this continent, in peace as in war, without those enormous expenses which knavery conducts and ignorance tolerates.

Paris, 5th April, 1761.

DUMAS

X.

Canadian Enterprise in the North-West after the Conquest: 1761-1819.

EXTRACTS FROM HENRY'S TRAVELS IN CANADA AND THE INDIAN TERRITORIES.*

(1761.) FORT MICHILIMACKINAC was built by order of the Governor-General of Canada, and garrisoned with a small number of militia, who, having families, soon became less soldiers than settlers. Most of those whom I found in the fort had originally served in the French army.

The fort stands on the south side of the strait which is between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. It has an area of two acres, and is enclosed with pickets of cedar wood (Thaya occidentalis); and it is so near the water's edge, that, when the wind is in the west, the waves break against the stockade. On the bastions are two small pieces of brass English cannon, taken some years since by a party of Canadians who went on a plundering expedition against the posts of Hudson's Bay, which they reached by the route of the River Churchill.

Within the stockade are thirty houses, neat in their appearance, and tolerably commodious; and a church in which mass is celebrated by a Jesuit Missionary. The number of families may be nearly equal to that of houses; and their subsistence is derived from the Indian traders who assemble here in their voyages to and from Montreal. Michilimackinac is the place of deposit, and point of departure, between the Upper countries and the Lower. Here the outfits are prepared for the countries of Lake Michigan and the Missisipi, Lake Superior and the North-West, and here the returns in furs are collected and embarked for Montreal.

Relieved as I now imagined myself from all occasion of anxiety as to the treatment which I was to experience from the Indians, I assorted my goods, and hired Canadian interpreters and clerks, in whose care I was to send them into Lake Michigan and the RIVER SAINT PIERRE, in the country of the Nadowessies [Sioux]; into LAKE SUPERIOR, among the Chippeways; and to the GRAND PORTAGE, for the North-West. Everything was ready for the departure, when new dangers sprung up and threatened to overwhelm me.

At the entrance of Lake Michigan, and at about twenty miles to the west of Fort Michilimackinac, is the Village of L'ARBRE CROCHE, inhabited by a band of Otawas, boasting of two hundred and fifty fighting men. L'Arbre Croche, is the seat of the Jesuit MISSION OF ST. IGNACE de Michilimackinac, and the people are partly baptized and partly not. The Missionary resides on a farm attached to the Mission and situated between the village and the fort, both of which are under his care.

At noon, three hundred troops, of the sixtieth regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Leslie, marched into the fort; and this arrival dissipated all our fears from whatever source derived. After a few days, detachments were sent into the BAY DES PUANS, by which is the rout to the Missisipi, and to the mouth of the ST. JOSEPH, which leads to the Illinois. The Indians, from all quarters, came to pay their respects to the commandant ; and the merchants despatched their canoes, though it was now the middle of September, and therefore somewhat late in the season.

The Village of L'Arbre Croche supplies, as I have said, the maize, or Indian Corn with which the canoes are victualled. This species of grain is prepared for use by boiling it in a strong lye, after which the husk may be easily removed; and it is next mashed and dried.

* Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and 1776, in two parts, by Alexander Henry, Esq., pp. 39, 40, 46-7, 51-3, 58, 105, 186, 191-3, 195-6, 214, 218-19, 237-8, 244, 252-3, 255, 259-61, 264-5, 268, 272-3, 314, 317, 319-22, 327.

In this state it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the Voyage is a quart a day; and a bushel with two pounds of prepared fat is reckoned to be a month's subsistence. No other allowance is made of any kind; not even of salt; and bread is never thought of. The men, nevertheless, are healthy, and capable of performing their heavy labour. This mode of victualling is essential to the trade, which, being pursued at great distances, and in vessels so small as canoes, will not admit of the use of other food. If the men were to be supplied with bread and pork, the canoes could not carry a sufficiency for six months; and the ordinary duration of the voyage is not less than fourteen. The difficulty which would belong to an attempt to reconcile any other men than Canadians to this fare, seems to secure to them and their employers a monopoly of the fur trade.

(1762). On the 19th (May) I reached the SAULT [STE. MARIE.] Here was a stockade fort in which under the French Government there was kept a small garrison, commanded by an officer who was called the governor, but was in fact a clerk, who managed the Indian tradehere on government account. The houses were four in number, of which the first was

the governor's, the second the interpreter's and the other two, which were the smallest, had been used for barracks. The only family was that of M. Cadotte, the interpreter, whose wife was a Chipeway.

(1763). Of the English traders that fell into the hands of the Indians at the capture of the fort [of Michilimackinac], Mr. Tracy was the only one who lost his life. Mr. Ezekiel Solomons and Mr. Henry Bostwick were taken by the Otawas, and, after the peace, carried down to Montreal and there ransomed. Of ninety troops, about seventy were killed; the rest, together with those of the posts in the Bay des Puants and at the River St. Joseph, were also kept in safety by the Otawas till the peace, and then either freely restored or ransomed at Montreal.

(1764). On the day [Aug. 9th], following that of the Treaty of Peace, Captain Howard was detached with two companies and three hundred Canadian Volunteers for Fort Michilimackinac, and I embarked at the same time.

(1765). Under the French Government of Canada, the FUR TRADE was subject to a variety of regulations, established and enforced by the royal authority; and in 1765, the period at which I began to prosecute it anew, some remains of the ancient system were still preserved. No person could go into the countries lying to the north-westward of Detroit unless furnished with a license, and the exclusive trade of particular districts was capable of being enjoyed in virtue of grants from military commanders.

The exclusive trade of Lake Superior was given to myself by the Commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, and to prosecute it I purchased goods which I found at this post, at twelve months' credit. My stock was the freight of four canoes, and I took it at the price of ten thousand pounds weight of good and merchantable beaver. It is in beaver that accounts are kept at Michilimackinac ; but in defect of this article, other furs and skins are accepted in payments, being first reduced into their value in beaver. Beaver was at this time at the price of two shillings and sixpence per pound, Michilimackinac currency; otter skins, six shillings each; marten, at one shilling and sixpence, and others in proportion.

To carry the goods to my wintering ground in Lake Superior, I engaged twelve men at two hundred and fifty livres, of the same currency, each; that is a hundred pounds weight of beaver. For provisions, I purchased fifty bushels of maize, at ten pounds of beaver per bushel. At this place specie was so wholly out of the question that in going to a cantine you took with you a marten's skin to pay your reckoning.

(1765). On my arrival at Chagouemig [CHAGOUAMIGON], I found fifty lodges of Indians there. These people were almost naked, their trade having been interrupted first by the English invasion of Canada, and next by Pontiac's war.

Adding the Indians at Chagouemig to those which I had brought with me, I had now hundred families, to all whom I was required to advance goods on credit. At a council which I was invited to attend, the men declared that unless their demands were complied with, their wives and children would perish; for that there were neither ammunition nor

clothing left among them. Under these circumstances I saw myself obliged to distribute goods to the amount of three thousand beaver skins. This done, the Indians went on their hunt at the distance of a hundred leagues. A clerk acting as my agent accompanied them to Fond du Lac, taking with him two loaded canoes. Meanwhile, at the expense of six days' labour, I was provided with a very comfortable house for my winter's residence.

(1767.) On reaching the trading post [of MICHIPICOTEN] which was an old one of French establishment, I found ten lodges of Indians. These were Gens de Terres or O'pimittish Ininirac, [also called Tetes de Boule] of which nation I have already had occasion to speak. It is scattered over all thecountry between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Lake Arabuthcow [Athabasca] and between Lake Superior and Hudson's Bay.

(1768.) On the twentieth day of the month [May] the first party of Indians came in from their winter's hunt. During the season some of them had visited one of the factories of the Hudson's Bay Company. Within a few days following, I had the satisfaction of seeing all those to whom I had advanced goods, return. Out of two thousand skins, which was the amount of my outstanding debts, not thirty remained unpaid; and even the trivial loss which I did suffer was occasioned by the death of one of the Indians for whom his family brought, as they said, all the skins of which he died possessed, and offered to pay the rest from among themselves. His manes, they observed, would not be able to enjoy peace, while his name remained in my books, and his debts were left unsatisfied.

(1775.) On the 10th day of June, I left the Sault [for the North-West] with goods and provisions to the value of three thousand pounds sterling, on board twelve small canoes, and four larger ones. The provisions made the chief bulk of the cargo; no further supply being obtainable till we should have advanced far into the country. Each small canoe was navigated by three men, and each larger one by four.

It was by the River Pijitic* that the French ascended in 1750, when they plundered one of the factories in Hudson's Bay, and carried off the two small pieces of brass cannon, which fell again into the hands of the English at Michilimakinac. On the river are a band of Wood Indians, who are sometimes troublesome to the traders passing.

By this river [NIPIGON] the French carried on a considerable trade with the Northern Indians. They had a fort or trading-house at its mouth, and annually drew from it a hundred packs of beaver of a quality more in esteem than that from the north-west. They had another trading-house at Caministiquia. As we proceed north-west along the lake, the mountains recede widely from the beach.

The LAKE OF THE WOODS is thirty-six leagues long. On the west side is an old French fort or trading-house, formerly frequented by numerous bands of Chipeways, but these have since been almost entirely destroyed by the Nadowessies.

I kept the north side of the lake [WINIPEGON], and had not proceeded far before I was joined by Mr. Pond, a trader of some celebrity in the north-west.

On the seventh of September, we were overtaken by Messrs. Joseph and Thomas Frobisher and Mr. Patterson. On the twentieth we crossed the bay together, composing a fleet of 30 canoes and 130 men.

On the first October we gained the mouth of the RIVER DE BOURBON, Pasquayah, or Sascatchiwaine,† and proceeded to ascend its stream.

At the north end [of Lake de Bourbon, called by the English, after the Indians, Cedar Lake] there was, in the French time, a fort or trading-house called FORT DE BOURBON, and built by M. de St. Pierre, a French officer, who was the first adventurer into these parts of the country.

On the twenty-sixth [October] we reached CUMBERLAND HOUSE, one of the factories of Hudson's Bay Company, seated on Sturgeon Lake in about 54° north latitude and 102° longitude west from Greenwich. This house had been built the year before by Mr. Hearne,

*

[Note by Henry.]--According to Carver, it was by the Michipicoten. If he is correct, it must have been from Moose Fort, in James's Bay, and not from Churchill, that they took the cannon. +[Note by Henry.The lower part of the Sascatchiwaine was once called the River de Bourbon. Pasquayah is the name of an upper portion of the Sascatchiwaine.

This is a mistake. The fort was built by M. de la Verendrye. See ante, pp. 74, 77.

who was now absent on his well-known journey of discovery. We found it garrisoned by Highlanders from the Orkney Islands, and under the command of a Mr. Cockings, by whom, though unwelcome guests, we were treated with much civility. The design in building this house was to prevent the Indians from dealing with the Canadian merchants, and to induce them to go to Hudson's Bay.

At Cumberland House the canoes separated; M. Cadotte going with four to Fort des Prairies; Mr. Pond, with two, to FORT DAUPHIN, and others proceeding on still different routes; Messrs. Frobisher retaining six, and myself four; and we resolved on joining our stock and wintering together. We steered for the River Churchill, or Missinipi, to the east of Beaver Lake, or Lake aux Castors.

Our first object, after crossing BEAVER LAKE, was to procure food. We had only three days' stock remaining, and we were forty-three persons in number. Our forty men were divided into three parties, of which two were detached to the River aux Castors, on which the ice was strong enough to allow of setting the nets in the manner heretofore described. The third party was employed in building our house or fort, and in this, within ten days, we saw ourselves commodiously lodged. Indeed, we have almost built a village, or, in soberer terms, we had raised buildings round a quadrangle such as really assumed, in the wilds which encompassed it, a formidable appearance. In front was the house designed for Messrs. Frobisher and myself, and the men had four houses, of which one was placed on each side and two in the rear.

(1776.) On the first day of January, I left our fort, on Beaver Lake, attended by two men, and provided with dried meat and frozen fish. On the fourth of the month we arrived at Cumberland House. The next morning [5th] I took leave [for FORT DES PRAIRIES.]

No trace of anything human presented itself on our road except that we saw the old wintering ground of Mr. Finlay, who had left it some years before, and was now stationed at Fort des Prairies. This fort was the stage we had to make before we could enter the prairies or plains, and on examining our provisions we found only sufficient for five days, while even at the swiftest rate we had travelled, a journey of twelve days was before us.

At Fort des Prairies, I remained several days, hospitably entertained by friends, who covered their tables with the tongues and marrow of wild bulls. The quantity of provisions which I found collected here exceeded everything of which I had previously formed a notion. In one heap I saw fifty ton of beef, so fat that the men could scarcely find a sufficiency of lean.

Fort of the Prairies, as already intimated, is built on the margin of the Pasquayah or Sascatchiwaine, which river is here two hundred yards across, and flows at the depth of thirty feet below the level of its banks. The fort has an area of about one acre, which is enclosed by a good stockade, though formed only of poplar or aspenwood, such as the country affords. It has two gates, which are carefully shut every evening, and has usually from fifty to eighty men for its defence.

Four different interests were struggling for the Indian Trade of the Sascatchiwaine, but fortunately they had this year agreed to join their stock, and, when the season was over, to divide the skins and meat.

On the 7th [April] we left Cumberland House; and on the 9th, in the morning, we reached our fort on Beaver Lake, where I had the pleasure of finding my friends well.

On the 12th, Mr. Thomas Frobisher, with six men, was despatched to RIVER CHURCHILL, where he was to prepare a fort, and inform such Indians as he might see on their way to Hudson's Bay, of the approaching arrival of his partners.

On the 15th June we reached the River Churchill, Missinibi, or Missinipi, where we found Mr. Thomas Frobisher. The river is called the Churchill River from Fort Churchill, in Hudson's Bay, the most northerly of the Company's factories or trading houses, and which is seated at its mouth. By Mr. Joseph Frobisher it was named English River. We were estimated by the Indians to be distant 300 miles from the sea. Cumber land House was to the south of us, distant 400 miles.. We resolved on ascending the river, and to go as far westward as Lake ARABUTHCOW (called also Athapuscow and Athabasca), distant 450 miles. With these views we embarked on the 16th, with six Canadians, and also one Indian woman in the capacity of a guide. On the fifth