18 Sir ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

trading under totally different conditions at
Detroit, and with only a few trained men
among his French Canadians, was called on
to take up his station nearly fifteen hundred
miles beyond Grand Portage, build his posts,
and secure his furs, all in face of powerful
rivals already in possession of the field.

The animosity between the companies
had not broken out openly at Grand Portage,
but it soon appeared in the interior. The
general results may be given in Mackenzie’s
own words:

After the severest struggle ever known in
that part of the world, and suffering every
oppression which a jealous and rival spirit
could instigate; after the murder of one of our
partners, the laming of another, and the nar-
row escape of one of our clerks, who received
a bullet through his powder horn in the exe-
cution of his duty, they were compelled to
allow us a share of the trade. As we had al-
ready incurred a loss, this union was, in every
respect, a desirable event to us, and was con-
cluded in the month of July, 1787.

Though the struggle was keen, there was
no resort to force in Mackenzie’s own district.