Government, but the Government gave
them no encouragement.

This was the state of affairs in Quebec when Lieutenant-General Sir
James Craig arrived to take office as Governor-General of the British
Provinces in North America as well as Commander of the Forces. Brock
soon became the _confidant_ of the new administrator, who was not slow
to observe the exceptional capacity of our hero. The day came all too
quickly for the Governor when occasion arose for the presence of a
strong man to take command in Montreal, and with great reluctance he had
to call upon Isaac Brock to assume the office.

CHAPTER IX.

FUR-TRADERS AND HABITANTS.

Montreal--the Mount Royal of Jacques Cartier--was then in the heyday of
its pioneer glory. It was the seat of government of the North-West
Company, which exercised feudal sway over an empire of wilderness, lake
and prairie, and whose title to monopoly was challenged only by the
powerful Hudson's Bay Company. Since 1670 this older syndicate of
adventurers had held the destinies of the great lone land in the farther
North-West, its fruitful plains and pathless forests, in the hollow of
its hand. Later, when the two companies amalgamated, their joint
operations extended from Alaska to Rupert's Land, from Oregon to the
Sandwich Islands, from Vancouver to Labrador, an empire embracing an
area of 4,500,000 square miles.

At Montreal Brock lived with these merchant princes on terms of close
intimacy. He was sensible enough, as a man of the world, to enjoy the
creature comforts of life. The blazing log-fire, with its glow and
crackle, in contrast to the blizzard that raged outside; the dim-lighted
splendour of spacious dining-hall, with hewn rafters and savage trophies
of the explorers; the polished oak floor and carved ceiling, hung with
rare fur and gaudy feathers, appealed to him.

The rubber of whist over, came the fragrant _perfecto_--these traders
ransacked the world for their tobacco--and Brock, under the influence of
the soothing weed, would charm these wild vagrants into unlocking some
of the strange secrets of the wilderness. From these usually silent but
sometimes garrulous merchants he acquired during the long winter nights
a fund of facts that greatly influenced his future actions.

Being superseded at Montreal by General Drummond, he did not relish a
return to Quebec. Separation from the 49th meant actual pain, but, as he
said, "Soldiers must accustom themselves to frequen