Page
[ Four great Governors of the Hudson's Bay Company]Frontispiece
[ Map of Hudson Bay and Straits]6
[ Arms of the Hudson's Bay Company]18
[ Le Moyne D'Iberville]52
[ Comedey de Maisonneuve]82
[ Junction of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence]94
[ Map of Route of Scottish Merchants up the Ottawa to Lake Athabasca]96
[ Prince of Wales Fort]108
[ The Lac des Allumettes]116
[ Sir Alexander Mackenzie]130
[ Daniel William Harmon, Esq.]130
[ Johann Jacob Astor]194
[ Casanov, Trader and Chief]194
[ Fort Douglas]226
[ Seven Oaks Monument]232
[ Lord Selkirk]260
[ Sir George Simpson]260
[ Fort William, Lake Superior]272
[ Red River Note]284
[ I.—Portage]304
[ II.—Décharge]304
[ Block House of old H.B. Company Post]310
[ Map of the Far North]314
[ Searchers in the North]320
[ Fort Edmonton, on the North Saskatchewan]336
[ Jasper House, Rocky Mountains]336
[ Map of Labrador, and the King's Domains]378
[ Map of Mackenzie River and the Yukon]388
[ Sir James Douglas]398
[ Fort Victoria, B.C.]406
[ Indians of the Plains]432
[ Council of Hudson's Bay Company Commissioned Officers held in Winnipeg, 1887]442
[ Fort Garry—Winter Scenes]460
[ Commissioner Chipman (Winnipeg)]470
[ Hudson's Bay Company's Stores and General Offices, Winnipeg]472
[ Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C.]478

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

[CHAPTER I.]

THE FIRST VOYAGE FOR TRADE.

Famous Companies—"The old lady of Fenchurch Street"—The first voyage—Radisson and Groseilliers—Spurious claim of the French of having reached the Bay—"Journal published by Prince Society"—The claim invalid—Early voyages of Radisson—The Frenchmen go to Boston—Cross over to England—Help from Royalty—Fiery Rupert—The King a stockholder—Many hitherto unpublished facts—Capt. Zachariah Gillam—Charles Fort built on Rupert River—The founder's fame.

Charles Lamb—"delightful author"—opens his unique "Essays of Elia" with a picturesque description of the quaint "South Sea House." Threadneedle Street becomes a magnetic name as we wander along it toward Bishopsgate Street "from the Bank, thinking of the old house with the oaken wainscots hung with pictures of deceased governors and sub-governors of Queen Anne, and the first monarchs of the Brunswick dynasty—huge charts which subsequent discoveries have made antiquated—dusty maps, dim as dreams, and soundings of the Bay of Panama." But Lamb, after all, was only a short time in the South Sea House, while for more than thirty years he was a clerk in the India House, partaking of the genius of the place.

The India House was the abode of a Company far more famous than the South Sea Company, dating back more than a century before the "Bubble" Company, having been brought into existence on the last day of the sixteenth century by good Queen Bess herself. To a visitor, strolling down Leadenhall Street, it recalls the spirit of Lamb to turn into East India Avenue, and the mind wanders back to Clive and Burke of Macaulay's brilliant essay, in which he impales, with balanced phrase and perfect impartiality, Philip Francis and Warren Hastings alike.

The London merchants were mighty men, men who could select their agents, and send their ships, and risk their money on every sea and on every shore. Nor was this only for gain, but for philanthropy as well. Across yonder is the abode of the New England Company, founded in 1649, and re-established by Charles II. in 1661—begun and still existing with its fixed income "for the propagation of the Gospel in New England and the adjoining parts of America," having had as its first president the Hon. Robert Boyle; and hard by are the offices of the Canada Company, now reaching its three-quarters of a century.