The first voyage has settled the dubious point of a practicable North-West passage; and I trust, that it has set that long-agitated question at rest, and extinguished the disputes respecting it for ever. Án enlarged discussion of that subject will be found to occupy the concluding pages of this volume. In this voyage, I was not only without the necessary books and instruments, but also felt myself deficient in the sciences of astronomy and navigation: I did not hesitate, therefore, to undertake a winter's voyage to England, in order to procure the one and acquire the other. These objects being accomplished, I returned, to determine the practicability of a commercial communication through the continent of North America, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.' . These preparatory steps were favourable indications of a spirit of perseverance adequate to such an attempt, and the event has been fully answerable to the prognostics.To account for the lapse of time between the execution of his design and the appearance of his narrative, the author states that this circumstance is owing to the active and busy mode of life in which he has been engaged since the completion of the voyages. In order to enable the reader to comprehend the object and nature of these undertakings, the author has prefixed a general History of the Fur Trade, from Canada to the North-West; of which we shall give a short sketch. When European settlements were first formed in Canada, the country was so populous, that, in the vicinity of the esta blishments, the animals whose skins were most valued soon became scarce. To procure a supply, the Indians were encouraged to penetrate into other parts of the country, and were generally accompanied by some of the European settlers, who found means to induce the remote tribes to bring skins to their settlements. It is not necessary for me, (says Mr. M.,) to examine the cause, but experience proves that it requires much less time for a civilized people to deviate into the manners and customs of savage life, than for savages to rise into a state of civilization. Such was the event with those who thus accompanied the natives on their hunting and trading excursions; for they became so attached to the Indian mode of life, that they lost all relish for their former habits and native homes. Hence they derived the title of Coureurs des Bois, became a kind of pedlars, and were extremely useful to the merchants engaged in the fur trade; who gave them the necessary credit to proceed on their commercial undertakings. Three or four of these people would join their stock, put their property into a birch bark canoe, which they worked themselves, and either accompanied the natives in their excursions, or went at once to the country where they knew they were to hunt. At length, these voyages extended to twelve or fifteen 10 months, months, when they returned with rich cargoes of furs, and followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short time requisite to settle their accounts with the merchants, and procure fresh credit, they generally contrived to squander away all their gains, when they returned to renew their favourite mode of life; their views being an swered, and their labour sufficiently rewarded, by indulging themselves in extravagance and dissipation during the short space of one month in twelve or fifteen. This indifference about amassing property, and the pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon brought on a licentiousness of manners which could not long escape the vigilant observation of the missionaries, who had much reason to complain of their being a disgrace to the Christian religion; by not only swerving from its duties. themselves, but by thus bringing it into disrepute with those of the natives who had become converts to it; and, consequently, obstruct ing the great object to which those pious men had devoted their Kves. They, therefore, exerted their influeuce to procure the suppression of these people, and accordingly, no one was allowed to go up the country to traffic with the Indians, without a licence from the government.'.. The grant of these licences was soon considered as a favour, and they were made transferable, and of course, saleable.. Those who bought were allowed to appoint their own agents, and the agents thus employed were generally the coureurs des bois, whose conduct had given such cause of complaint; so that the remedy proved in fact worse than the disease. At length, military posts were established at convenient places, and several respectable men prosecuted the trade on their own accounts in person; which mode was attended with the twofold benefit of securing the respect of the natives, and the obedience of the people employed in the laborious parts of the business. As for the missionaries, (says the author,) if sufferings and hardships in the prosecution of the great work which they had undertaken deserved applause and admiration, they had an undoubted claim to be admired and applauded: they spared no labour and avoided no danger in the execution of their important office; and it is to be seriously lamented, that their pious endeavours did not meet with the success which they deserved: for there is hardly, a trace to be found, beyond the cultivated parts, of their meritorious functions. The cause of this failure must be attributed to a want of due consideration in the mode employed by the missionaries to propagate the religion of which they were the zealous ministers. They habituated themselves to the savage life, and naturalised themselves to the savage manners; and, by thus becoming dependent, as it were, on the natives, they acquired their contempt rather than their veneration.'' Mr. M. justly thinks that the missionaries should have begun their work by teaching some of those useful arts which are the inlets of knowledge, and lead the mind by degrees to objects of higher comprehension. Agriculture, so formed to fix and combine society, and so preparatory to objects of supeior consideration, should have been the first thing introduced among a savage people.' It is but justice to observe that the late missionaries from this country to other parts of the world, who so zealously devoted their lives and their labours to the improvement of the less cultivated of their fellowcreatures, were men properly qualified to teach those useful arts which most tend to fit and combine society; and from this single circumstance, whatever has been the event, it was reasonable to expect benefit from their endeavours. Under the French government, the Fur Trade from Canada was extended as far. West as the Saskatchisine river, in 53° N. latitude, and ro2° West longitude from Greenwich. Mr. Mackenzie mentions that two of the traders at that time attempted to penetrate to the Pacific Ocean, but he could neverlearn the extent of their journey.-After the conquest of Canada by the English, the trade for furs in that country was for some time suspended; the new possessors having neither knowlege of the Indian language, nor confidence in the natives, who had been accustomed to entertain hostile dispositions towards the English. By degrees, however, the trade revived, and, being encouraged by a few successful adventures, was pursued with such avidity and irregularity, that in a few years it became the reverse of what it ought to have been. An animated competition prevailed, and the contending parties. carried the trade beyond the French limits, though with no benefit to themselves or neighbours, the Hudson's-Bay Company; who in the year 1774, and not till then, thought proper to move from home to the East bank of Sturgeon Lake, in latitude 53° 56' North, and longitude 102° 15' West; and became more jealous of their fellow subjects, and, perhaps, with more cause, than they had been of those of France. From this period to the present time, they have been following the Canadians to their different establishments, while, on the contrary, there is not a solitary instance that the Canadians havefollowed them.' This competition gave a fatal blow to the trade from Canada: but, in 1775, Mr. Joseph Frobisher, one of the gentlemen engaged in this commerce, being more enterprizing than his predecessors, went as far as to 55° 25′ N. and to 103° West longitude, where he met the Indians from that quarter on their way to Fort Churchill, and with some difficulty prevailed 15 wailed on them to trade with him. He went again in the following year, and wss equally successful ;-and his brother afterward penetrated nearly five degrees more to the West. * No long period elapsed before the improper conduct of some of the people from Canada rendered it dangerous for them to remain among the natives. In 1780, at the Eagle hills near the Saskatchiwine river, says Mr. Mackenzie, a large band of the Indians being engaged in drinking about their houses, one of the traders, to case himself of the troublesome importunities of a native, gave him a dose of laudanum in a glass of grog, which effectually prevented him from giving farther trouble to any one, by setting him asleep for ever. This accident produced a fray, in which one of the traders and several of the men were killed; while the rest had no other means to save themselves but by a precipitate flight, abandoning a consider able quantity of goods, and near half the furs which they had collected in the winter.' Similar circumstances, in which, however, the white men were not the aggressors, happened about the same time at other places. It appeared, that the natives had formed a resolution to extirpate the traders; and, without entering into any further reasonings on the subject, it appears to be incontrovertible, that the irregularity pursued in carrying on the trade has brought it into its present forforn situation; and nothing but the greatest calamity that could have befallen the natives, saved the traders from destruction: this was the small-pox, which spred its destructive and desolating power, as the fire consumes the dry grass of the field. The fatal infection spread around with a baneful rapidity which no flight could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. It destroyed with its pestilential breath whole families and tribes.' It was never ascertained by what means this malignant dis order was introduced: but such a state of the country could not be favourable for the traders. Those, however, who ven tured in 1782-3, found the inhabitants in some sort of tran quillity, and more numerous than they had reason to expect.' In the winter of 1783-4, the merchants of Canada, who were engaged in this trade, formed a junction of interests. under the name of the North-West Company: but some who were dissatisfied with the shares allotted to them, and others who considered themselves as neglected, entered into a copartnership separate from that company; and in this associa tion Mr. M. engaged as a partner, and as one of the active This expression is one among the numerous marks of inelegance and incorrectness which characterize the author's style: but he modestly disclaims all pretensions to pre-eminence in the character of an author.' managers. After a severe struggle with their competitors, however, they adopted the wise resolution of agreeing to an union of interests: which new engagement was concluded in July 1787. The author has entered into a detail of the management of the North West Company; and our readers may form some judgement of the extent of the trade, from the following account of the furs and peltries which were the pro duce of the year 1798: 106,000 Beaver skins, 3717,oco Musquash skins, יין 1800 Mink skins, 6000 Lynx skins, 600 Wolverine skins, 3800 Wolf skins, 700 Elk skins, 750 Deer skins, 12co Deer skins, dressed, 500 Buffalo robes, and a quantity of castorum.' The number of men employed in the concern is 50 clerks i 71 interpreters and clerks; 1120 canoe men; and 35 guides, Mr. M. has given, in this part of his work, an Itinerary or description of the route from Montreal to Fort Cheperyan on the South side of the lake of the hills; an establishment which was formed in 1788, in latitude 58° 38′ N. and longitude 110° 26' West. The labour performed by some of the carriers appears extraordinary : When they are arrived at the Grande Portage, which is near nine miles over, each of them has to carry eight packages of such goods and provisions as are necessary for the interior country. This is a labour which cattle cannot conveniently perform in summer, as both horses and oxen were tried by the company without success, They are only useful for light bulky articles; or for transporting upon sledges, during the winter, whatever goods may remain there, especially provision, of which it is usual to have a year's stock on and. · : Having finished this toilsome part of their duty, if more goods are necessary to be transported, they are allowed a Spanish dollar for each package and so inured are they to this kind of labour, that I have known some of them set off with two packages of ninety pounds each, and return with two others of the same weight, in the course of six hours, being a distance of eighteen miles over hills and mountains.' Some of the Indian tribes are described in this introductory history of the fur trade. The Knisteneaux Indians are spred over a great portion of the continent of North America; and Mr. M. remarks that their women are the most comely of any that he has seen among the native Americans. Their figure is generally well proportioned, and the regularity of their features |