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Show [ 39 ] 12 caut 1ons are necessary for safety against tho !ndians. Hemained here {i,:c days, and set out. on the fifteen lh J a.nwry, ·wt tl· two men of the 11 udso,n s B.ay Company, who carried t~1e ex1~ress. Our course was do"'~n the Sask 1tch cwinc; :-;onwtimc~ upon 1t, for 1t \-Vas frozen over, (an ~l the JCe _covered with snow;) sometimes over land to cut ofr. bends of the 1:1 ver. '~ e were still on foot, and in snow shoes; but my fnf,t ~tle and labor In travelhng were greatly lessen eel .by a mo. t valuable prese}tt, l~indl~ made. to me . hy Mr. Roane!, of a carnal~, and three good dop.;s to oraw Jt, whtch earned my bag2;:1 ~e alw~tys, and myself often. At about two hundred miles from Edmanlon Honse. we came to Fort Pill, :1 new post, for tra,de with some nei~hborirwlndians: rett1ained there one day, and then cont111ued down the riv~r abouttwo hu11 r! recl miles fnrth er to Carlton Hm.. tsc, where vve arrived on the first of February. This is an old an cxten-;ive e:stablishment, in charge of )1r. Pruden; ai t,1 here \.ve had to remn in eleven days, waiting for the exprrs ... from Great Slave lake. From this point I had intended to proceed south to the 1\tli~.; o uri river; but not being :able to procure a guide, I was compelled to continue with the ex press down the river to Cunzberland I--Iousc, ahout three hundrrd miles further. The prairie region terminated ~t ( ',triton House, nnd the " -oodcn country commenced. This made travelling diHirult, and 1t was as murh as the dogs could do to dra~ 1hc carriole with the l1ag;u··1 ~e and provu;;ions I was consequently thirtP.en days on foot in snow shoes, the snow usually t href' fer.t deep, nnd had a severe time of it. lVT y company from Carlton House was t'-VO youn,e; Indians, trained up to the service of the company, and well fi1ted for the part to acL-vigibnt, active, faithful, and full of resources for c'onquering the difficulties of the way. One of them had brought the expre~s from Ym·k Fac/ory1 on the Hudson's bay, about one thousand miles, on foot, 111 a pair of snow Hhoes; and they were now carrying the express back. This express consists not af letters only, but of all the accounts of the com.pany, collected from every post, and transmitted annually, along the whole 1me, from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson's bay, and thence to the partners o~ the company in England. ~1 ith these V31uable despatches these lndwns.were Intrusted, and every thin~ safely and expeditiously conducted We arnve? at Cut~ berland I-louse on 1 he 24th of lj cbruary-another old and e'\lenstve establishment, wherP Mr. J\'1cintosh commanded. Remained on~ day, and .recommenced our jo1rrney, still proceedin~ down the river, whrch bore a llttle south, .and ~n the first of March arri ve(l at a small post on .l\.Ioose la~{e. Fnnn th1s. pomt we turned to the southeast, and proceeded uP?,n ~l_1e _Ice, ovcr;'l ch~lm of smaJI lakes, to the colony planted by the Earl Selk1r_k on tlw l~ed n ver of lake \Vinnepec-a distance of abou t five hun~red miles from Cumberla~Hi House, which we made iu thirty ony , includJn~ ~everal d:1y-: of detentiOn I remained here three days, h o~pit:Jbly entertame.d by .Governor LVI 'Kenzie. The colony eonsii:its of three or four thousand 1 ~habJtants. and prest~nts a cheering a~peet to a traveller from the dreary. regwns throu~h which I had pa~scd. 'I he soil was excellent, the f~rms 1 ~ good m:der, crops abunrl~nt. houses comfortable and all the val'lety of stock whtch belongs to our settlements. Het·e I sa~v the first church :~~\~~~1 ~~s~lsc.hool which ~ h~td seen for ~our years. I left this coloriy on h a· . aic.h, abo~I.t mr_dmght-the softnc ·s of the snow. which was now . enmht:lnhg to meJt, mnktng It nece ·sary to travel in th:1.t part of the 24 hours ln w ll't the cold was 1rreate"t , 1 tl · l ,_, I r. . ' ~ ~ ' ' an( 1e rce ant snow hardest. 1 he trave - •lng per1od therefore was f· ·d · 1 · . · ' ' • 1om nu ntg 1t until 10 o'clock 1n the mormng, 13 [ 39 ] On the 31st I got clear of the settlements of the colony, :m<l proceeded up the As-·d uahoin r iver ·1bout one h·m.lreci n1i les to B ran don House, the last or mo: ' ~o ut! H rn o( tl1c l3 rilish cstabl1shments. in that quar ter, befwcen latitude 49 and .50. This is a new lf'<wing po. t, iu charge of Doctor Todd, a physi<' ian and p·11 ttwr of the romr.trry. From the col ony I had no othcl' comp :~m y than a hall· breed Ind ian of the coun try , a resident of th colony, ·whom 1 Pnp.;.rgrd to con duct me to the lVl andan Vil1 a~cs. 0 11 the 5th or Apri! left Hraudo 1 lfouse, and in eighteen clays arrivrd at the ~"~ a n dan Villages, the d i..;tance only one hund red nt.d fifty rn iles; but the mrl t i n ~ of the ~ .• ow, the ~1 tern atc freezing and t hawi ng of small lakes, ponds, ancl creeks, made t.av c~ ll i ng :1l n10st imp o~si b i e. I an·j\·ed ::~ t the ~la n d an:-. on lhe ~2 d of April, and had all the ·ensar.ions and C:eli ngs whi ch an arrival at home, afiPr a long and perilous ahsc~ nce, creates; for I h·td been at the l\Iandan b fore ~ it \Va~ within the Ur11lcd ~ t.ates. I k new many of the Indian s, and mC't v\'ith several facps which I J.mcw; lVl r. Sanford, the Sub-Agent for the Upper ;\l is~ouri, Mr. L amont of tbe Ameri c:m Fur- Company, and the German traveller, P Ti itCf Paul of J.f7ir / embu7"/{, who had r.ome, for the second time, to explore this in teri or ref!;ion of N orth :1 mer ica. At the ~'land <~ns I considered my journey term; t.i!lPd, thouf?;h j t was still sixteen hundred miles to St. Louis I had bC'en sc,vc·n n,or th ' grt tin~ frn·11 fort Colvil1e to the Mandans, having been det.1ined three nwnn,,, <: 1d :1 h1 J on the routr , and having ti'c.rveJied Tl C~ r h' o tho nsand Jlvc hu,Hi rC'd mdcs betwee t! these two poi r,ts c1 urinf2; the wmtcr months, and r hrcfl.r in PI' OW sLoes, a sort of wi cker work of four or five feet long, poi nted at each end, and twelve or nr~ee n inches wide at the mjddle, and fa:-t ened under the foot ; thei r usc being to prevent sinking into the snow. From the ger1t leme •' of the Hudson's d ay Company I ex1wrienccd every where the mo ·t kind :md hospitable treatm ent, for wh;ch tny thank~ and gr~ lJtude are eminent ly cl ue, and are cord ia!! y rendered. I{:.. vi ng; given th is brief narrat i vc of my travels, and thereby made k nown ~ome im porta tl t f:~ cLs, and m ad~ man ifc. t my means of information, I propo. e to C1dd some p;eneral observations, which deserve each a separate head and distinct consideration. l. AS TO THE CO.i\fMAND OF THE F UR THADE. It is a well known ol~jc ct of British enterprise, ever since the separation of the United States from the British crown, to oh1ain the com mand of the fur t rade of North America, bol h as an o~jcet of commerce, and as a means of con1rolling the [ndians. Tl,e r clcbratcd fur trader and traveller, Sir Al ~x n ncler J.\1 '1Cenzic, slated this in his j ournal of travels to the Pacific ocenn, as f <lr back as 17 0'3; and the British Governmen t has co nstantly coope rated in the plan which he marked out. For the purpo.::e of showing the extPnt of these plans, and the per~everance and success "vith which they have been followed up and completed, I will here make a quotation from the j ournal of that traveller. "Experience has proved that this trade, from its very nature, cannot be carried on by individuals. A very large capital, or credit, or indeed both, is n ecessary~ an ct , consequently, an assoc iation of men of wealth to direct, with men of e nterprise to act, in one commou interest, must be formed on such prin riplcs, as th at, in due time, the lat ter 111ay succeed the form er, in contrnual nud progressive succession. T he junction of such a commer~ ia l association with 1he Hudson's Bay Company is the important me:-tsure wl11clt 1 wonld propose; and the trade might be carried on "vitl?. a very superior |