PREFACE

of the six most important forts which flourished long
before that date in the northern interior of the province,
and whose aggregate formed one of the most valuable
districts under the management of the fur-tragers Yet
if any set of individuals ought to be familiar with the early
history of British Columbia, it must surely be the members
of that trading corporation, whose immediate predecessors
discovered and kept under sway more than half of its
territory. Ab uno aisce omnes.

This apparently unaccountable ignorance shall be our
excuse for offering the present volume to the kind appre-
cjation of Canadian and other readers. The originality of
the material of which it is mainly composed and the novelty
of the scenes it records have, in our humble opinion,
rendered it imperative that we should enter intc details and
tarry on minor facts which, under other circumstances,
might well have been passed over with a brief mention.
We have aimed at giving a faithful picture of the times,
persons and places of which we have written. The reader
will judge of the degree of success which our efforts have
met with.

itis hardly necessary to mention that none of the letters
and other manuscript documents we quote from was written
with a view to meet the critical eyes of modern readers.
Therefore it is but fair to remark that, out of considera-
tion and regard for the proprieties of grammar and orthog-
raphy, we have occasionally taken slight liberties—though
as seldom as possible—with the recorded utterances of the
Hudson’s Bay Company and other writers, while religiously
conserving their sense or meaning.

Had it not been for the courtesy of Mr. A.C. Murray,
the gentleman in charge of Fort St. James, on Stuart
Lake, this little work could never have been made what it
is. For the generous access he gave us to all the old papers,

1V.