140 Sir ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

from the mean, selfish policy of the Hudson’s
Bay Company styled Honourable.” Next
year they met again; when Thompson made a
report of his surveys, Mackenzie “‘was pleased
to say I had performed more in ten months
than he expected could be done in two years.”
A zeal for accurate exploration such as
Thompson’s was sure of a warm welcome from
Mackenzie. Thompson served the Company
for many years with extraordinary industry
and fidelity; though he made no single journey
as important as either of Mackenzie’s, he
mapped accurately a vast unknown territory
between the Great Lakes and the Pacific.
By 1798 the affairs of the Company were
approaching a crisis. Though most of the old
hands remained faithful, the opposition con-
ducted since 1795 by Forsyth and Richardson
was greatly strengthened by the addition of
several partners from the North West Com-
pany who refused to continue in the parent
concern. Its greatest loss was Mackenzie
himself, though he did not as yet join the
opposition. At Grand Portage in 1799 he
announced, at a stormy meeting of his part-