ous than that
which Canada imposed. Without doubt, many an Englishman on the Bay
was haunted by the hope and desire to reach the Western Sea. But the
servants of the Company knew that to buy and sell at a profit was their
chief aim. They had been on the whole content to wait for trade to come
to them. By 1740 the Indians, who made the long journey to the Bay
by the intricate waters which carried to the sea the flood of the
Saskatchewan and Lake Winnipeg, were showing to the English articles
supplied by the French at points far inland. It thus became evident that
the French were tapping the traffic in furs near its source and cutting
off the stream which had long flowed to Hudson Bay.

In June, 1754, Anthony Hendry, a young man in the service of the
Company, left York factory on Hudson Bay to find out what the French
were doing. We have a slight but carefully written diary of Hendry's
journey. He does not fail to note that in the summer weather life
was made almost intolerable by the "musketoos." Traveling by canoe he
reached the Saskatchewan River and tells how, on the 22d of July, he
came to "a French house." It was Fort Paskoya. When Hendry paddled up
to the river bank two Frenchmen met him and "in a very genteel manner"
invited him into their house. With all courtesy they asked him, he says,
if he had any letter from his master and where and on what design he was
going inland. His answer was that he had been sent "to view the
Country" and that he intended to return to Hudson Bay in the spring.
The Frenchmen were sorry that their own master, who was apparently
the well-known Canadian leader, St. Luc de la Corne, the successor of
Saint-Pierre, had gone to Montreal with furs, and added their regrets
that they must detain Hendry until this leader's return. At this
Hendry's Indians grunted and said that the French dared not do so. Next
day Hendry took breakfast and dinner at the fort, gave "two feet of
tobacco" (at that time it was sold in long coils) to his hosts, and in
return received some moose flesh. The confidence of his Indian guides
that the French would not dare to detain him was justified. Next day
Hendry paddled on up the river and advanced more than twenty miles,
camping at night by "the largest Birch trees I have yet seen."

Hendry wished to see the country thoroughly and to come into touch with
the natives. The best way to do this and to obtain food was to leave the
river and go boldly overland. He accordin