Mackenzir’s Granp Drsicn 131

adventurous,” was eager that the fur-trade on the Pacific Coast should develop in British hands. If this was to take place, the estab- lishment of ‘one common interest” to regu- late the trade was the first need. T'wo posts should also be built by the government on the coast. It was possible to conduct trade with the coast from the St. Lawrence across the North-West, but the easiest route from England was by Hudson Bay, the western shore of which is half way across the conti- nent. ‘The route by sea around Cape Horn was also cheaper than the thousands of miles of transport by canoe involved in crossing the continent. The man-supply on the coast should be drawn from Lower Canada, as the voyageurs were far more likely to remain on good terms with the Indians than the crews of trading vessels.

We have seen Mackenzie as explorer and fur-trader; in Simcoe’s report we get the first glimpse of him as a statesman seeking the means to follow up his discoveries by extend- ing British influence and British trade on the Pacific. There were formidable obstacles in