t Kaministiquia, or modern Fort William,
named after William McGillivray. Pontiac's War puts a stop to the new
trade, but by 1766 the merchants are west again. Henry goes up the
Saskatchewan to the Forks, and comes back with such wealth of furs he
retires a rich magnate of Montreal. The Frobisher brothers strike for
new hunting ground. So do Peter Pond and Bostonnais Pangman, and the
MacKenzies, Alexander {294} and Roderick. Instead of following up the
Saskatchewan, they strike from Lake Winnipeg northward for Churchill
River and Athabasca, and they bring out furs that transform those
peddlers into merchant princes. A little later the chief buyer of the
Montreal furs is one John Jacob Astor of New York. Then another
change. Rivalry hurts fur trade. Especially do different prices
demoralize the Indians. The Montreal merchants pool their capital and
become known as the Northwest Fur Company. They now hire their
voyageurs outright on a salary. No man is paid less than what would be
$500 in modern money, with board; and any man may rise to be clerk,
trader, wintering partner, with shares worth 800 pounds ($4000), that
bring dividends of two and three hundred per cent. The petty merchants
whom Murray and Carleton despised became in twenty years the opulent
aristocracy of Montreal, holding the most of the public offices,
dominating the government, filling the judgeships, and entertaining
with a lavish hospitality that put vice-regal splendor in the shade.
The Beaver Club is the great rendezvous of the Montreal partners.
"Fortitude in Distress" is the motto and lords of the ascendant is
their practice. No man, neither governor nor judge, may ignore these
Nor'westers, and it may be added they are a law unto themselves. One
example will suffice. A French merchant of Montreal took it into his
head to have a share of this wealth-giving trade. He was advised to
pool his interests with the Nor'westers, and he foolishly ignored the
advice. In camp at Grand Portage on Lake Superior he is told all the
country hereabout belongs to the Nor'westers, and _he_ must decamp.

"Show me proofs this country is yours," he answers. "Show me the title
deed and I shall decamp."

Next night a band of Nor'westers, voyageurs well plied with rum, came
down the strand to the intruder's tents. They cut his tents to
ribbons, scatter his goods to the four winds, and beat his voyageurs
into insensibility.

"Voila! there are our proofs,