THE Younc Fur-TRADER 109)

went westwards into the wilderness; the
canoes for Montreal vanished to the east;
and the busy town became again a tiny
village, occupied only by the caretakers of the
Company’s property.

Mackenzie found that the New Com-
pany could muster only a small establish-
ment. ‘There were but five partners, four
clerks, and a small number of guides and
voyageurs, most of them without experience
of the upper country. It had required but
eight canoes to bring its men and goods from
Montreal, as against twenty-five used that
year by the North West Company. Rapidly
plans were laid, and four chief detachments,
or “outfits,” were sent into the interior.
Mackenzie was allotted the départment of the
English or Churchill River, and John Ross,
another partner, was sent to Athabaska, the
most remote district of all and the most
recently opened to trade. Mackenzie turned
his back on the comforts of life; he was not to
go east of Grand Portage for six years. He, a
newcomer, with no experience beyond what he
had been able to pick up in a single winter’s