XX A GENERAL HISTORY

world, and fuffering every oppreffion which a jealous and rival {pirit could
inftigate; after the murder of one of our partners, the laming of another,
and the narrow efcape of one of our clerks, who received a bullet
through his powder horn, in the execution of his duty, they were com-
pelled to allow us a fhare of the trade. As we had already incurred a
lofs, this union was, in every refpett, a defirable event to us, and was

concluded in the month of July 1787.

This commercial eftablifhment was now founded on a more folid bafis

than any hitherto known in the country; and it not only continued

in full force, vigour, and profperity, in {pite of all interference from
Canada, but maintained at leaft an equal fhare of advantage with the
Hudfon’s-Bay Company, notwithftanding the fuperiority of their local
fituation. The following account of this felf-ere&ted concern will mani-
feft the caufe of its fuccels.

It aflumed the title of the North-Weft Company, and was no
more than an affociation of commercial men, agreeing among them-
felves to carry on the fur trade, unconneéted with any other bufinefs,
though many of the parties engaged had extenfive concerns alto-
gether foreign to it. It may be faid to have been fupported entirely
upon credit ; for, whether the capital belonged to the proprietor, or was
borrowed, it equally bore intereft, for which the affociation was annually
accountable. It confifted of twenty fhares, unequally divided among
the perfons concerned. Of thefe, a certain proportion was held by
the people who managed the bufinefs in Canada, and were flyled agents
for the Company. Their duty was to import the neceffary goods from

England