Tue Younc Fur-TRADER 21

been proved by his two years’ experience in
the Churchill district. His enterprise and
foresight soon made him easily the chief
among all the wintering partners, although
his experience was short and his age not yet
thirty. The New Company had won its
battle; three out of its four remaining partners
became partners in the North West Com-
pany. Mackenzie had, by a successful short-
cut, reached a position which might have
taken him eight or ten years to gain if he had
started in the service of the North West Com-
pany. ‘The price, however, had been heavy;
he and his associates had been plunged deep
in debt; but, as usual, the Indians were the
chief sufferers. In the reallotment of posts
which followed the union he was given the
most important and difficult department of
all, Athabaska.

It was a position which required tact as
well as enterprise, for Pond was still in the
district and still a partner in the company.
Mackenzie’s first task was to get his canoes
to their destination before the ice closed the
rivers. He followed the regular route of the

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