Mackenzie’s Granp Desicn 149

He was himself drawn at once into the
vortex of conflict in the fur-trade. He threw
his whole weight into the opposition to the
North West Company, and he became head
in 1802 of the rival association which had
begun in 1795 and is generally known as the
X Y Company. His vision of a powerful
combine receded into the distance, and his
whole energy was consumed, as it had been
during his first years in the interior, in fighting
strong rivals for a fair share of the trade. ‘The
North-West was exposed once more to all the
evils which unrestricted competition produced
in an area without a government. It was
thrown into turmoil from end to end; the
amount of liquor used in trade more than
doubled; murder went unpunished; violence,
bribery, and theft were everyday matters.
McTavish answered Mackenzie by reorganiz-
ing the North West Company on stricter lines,
and by pushing its operations into new fields—
even into Hudson Bay. The two were worthy
rivals, and neither, one may be sure, was over-
scrupulous. Feeling was bitter in the extreme;
in 1803 a member of the X Y Company wrote: