CHAPTER II
THE YOUNG FUR-TRADER

py TER travelling through Lakes Huron

and Superior, Mackenzie joined his fel-
low partners, and the clerks and voyageurs
whom they had engaged at Montreal, at
Grand Portage in June, 1785. Grand Portage
was the last outpost of civilization on the edge
of a vast wilderness; and its civilization was
only evident during the two weeks or so each
year for which it was the meeting place be-
tween the traders from the interior and the
agents from Montreal. The men from the
interior did not go further east, nor the men
from Montreal further west. Here came the
goods from Canada which were to be traded
for furs the following winter—powder and
shot, guns, tobacco, paint, kettles, blankets,
tomahawks, knives, mirrors, ribbons, orna-
ments, and, of course, rum and brandy—all
done up neatly into ninety-pound packages
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