OF THE FUR TRADE, &c. XVii

take the contagion which had depopulated the country to the Eaftward
of them: but moft unfortunately they caught it here, and carried it with
them, to the deftru€tion of themfelves and the neighbouring tribes.

The country being thus depopulated, the traders and their friends
from Canada, who, from various caufes already mentioned, were very
much reduced in number, became confined to two parties, who began
ferioufly to think of making permanent eftablifhments on the Miffinipi
river, and at Athabafca; for which purpofe, in 1781-2, they feleéted their
beft canoe-men, being ignorant that the fmall pox penetrated that way.
The moft expeditious party got only in time to the Portage la Loche,
or Mithy-Ouinigam Portage, which divides the waters of the Miffinipi from
thofe that fall into the Elk river, to difpatch one canoe ftrong handed,
and light-loaded, to that country; but, on their arrival there, they
found, in every direCtion, the ravages of the fmall pox; fo that,
from the great diminution of the natives, they returned in the fpring
with no more than feven packages of beaver. The ftrong woods and
mountainous countries afforded a refuge to thofe who fled from the
contagion of the plains; but they were fo alarmed at the furrounding
deftruétion, that they avoided the traders, and were difpirited from hunt-
ing except for their fubfiftence. The traders, however, who returned
into the country in the year 1782-3, found the inhabitants in fome fort
of tranquillity, and more numerous than they had reafon to expe, fo
that their fuccefs was proportionably better.

During the winter of 1789-4, the merchants of Canada, engaged in
this trade, formed a jun€tion of interefts, under the name of the North-
c Welt