28 Sir ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

once formed was not easily broken, even
though it meant five or six months of exhaust-
ing travel. The Hudson’s Bay Company was
able to offer goods at a lower price than the
traders in the interior, as the cost of transport
by canoe from Montreal to Chipewyan was
very heavy. Mackenzie, by persuasion and
by the establishment of posts at wisely chosen
spots, gradually secured most of the trade in
Athabaska for the North West Company.
The heavily laden canoes of the Athabaska
brigade proved each year his vigour and
initiative, and as a partner he more than
earned his share in the profits of the Company.