at at
no very great cost. The distance from the mouth of Red River to York
Factory is about 550 miles; 300 miles of this distance is formed of
lakes--(Lake Winnipeg, 250 miles in length, is navigable for vessels
of forty and fifty tons burden). The greater part of the river
communication might be rendered passable by Durham boats, merely
by damming up the rivers. Along the line of communication, many
situations may be found suitable for farming operations.

CHAPTER XXII.

SIR G. SIMPSON--HIS ADMINISTRATION.

Sir George Simpson commenced his career as a clerk in a respectable
counting-house in London, where his talents soon advanced him to the
first seat at the desk. He was in this situation when first introduced
to the notice of a member of the Committee of the Hudson's Bay
Company, who were at that time engaged in the ruinous competition with
the North-West Company already referred to. While the contest was
at its height, the Company sent out Mr. Simpson as Governor of the
Northern department;--an appointment for which, by his abilities
natural and acquired, he was well qualified. Mr. Simpson combined with
the prepossessing manners of a gentleman all the craft and subtlety of
an intriguing courtier; while his cold and callous heart was incapable
of sympathising with the woes and pains of his fellow-men. On his
first arrival, he carefully concealed from those whom he was about
to supersede, the powers with which he was invested; he studied
the characters of individuals, scrutinized in secret their mode of
managing affairs, and when he had made himself fully acquainted with
every particular he desired to know, he produced his commission;--a
circumstance that proved as unexpected as it was unsatisfactory to
those whose interests it affected.

Making every allowance for Sir George's abilities, he is evidently
one of those men whom the blind goddess "delighteth to honour." Soon
after assuming the supreme command, the North-West wintering partners
undertook the mission to England, already mentioned, which led to
the coalition; and thus Sir George found himself, by a concurrence of
circumstances quite independent of his merits, placed at the head of
both parties; from being Governor of Rupert's Land his jurisdiction
now included the whole of the Indian territory from Hudson's Bay to
the shores of the Pacific Ocean; and the Southern department, at that
time a separate command, was soon after added to his gover