that Indian trade already permeated the interior. In interesting
comparison he called their attention to the fact that English commerce
reached along river systems into the remote parts of Europe, and that in
ancient times the Levant had carried on a trade with the distant
interior.[167]

That the value of the fur trade was an important element in inducing the
English to retain Canada is shown by the fact that Great Britain no
sooner came into the possession of the country than she availed herself
of the fields for which she had so long intrigued. Among the western
posts she occupied Green Bay, and with the garrison came traders;[168]
but the fort was abandoned on the outbreak of Pontiac's war.[169] This
war was due to the revolt of the Indians of the Northwest against the
transfer of authority, and was fostered by the French traders.[170] It
concerned Wisconsin but slightly, and at its close we find Green Bay a
little trading community along the Fox, where a few families lived
comfortably[171] under the quasi-patriarchal rule of Langlade.[172] In
1765 trade was re-established at Chequamegon Bay by an English trader
named Henry, and here he found the Chippeways dressed in deerskins, the
wars having deprived them of a trader.[173]

As early as 1766 some Scotch merchants more extensively reopened the fur
trade, using Michillimackinac as the basis of their operations and
employing French voyageurs.[174] By the proclamation of the King in 1763
the Northwest was left without political organization, it being reserved
as crown lands and exempt from purchase or settlement, the design being
to give up to the Indian trade all the lands "westward of the sources of
the rivers which fall into the sea from the West and Northwest as
aforesaid." In a report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and
Plantations in 1772 we find the attitude of the English government
clearly set forth in these words:[175]

"The great object of colonization upon the continent of North America
has been to improve and extend the commerce and manufactures of this
kingdom.... It does appear to us that the extension of the fur trade
depends entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of
their hunting grounds, and that all colonization does in its nature and
must in its consequence operate to the prejudice of that branch of
commerce.... Let the savages enjoy their deserts in quiet. Were they
driven from their forests the peltry trade would de