s are, however, still
living in the neighbourhood.

[Illustration: Place D'Armes, Montreal, in 1807. From a water-colour
sketch after Dillon in M'Gill University Library.]

Before returning to Great Britain, Lord Selkirk rested from his travels
for a time in the city of Montreal, where he was feted by many of the
leading merchants. What the plutocrats of the fur trade had to relate
to Selkirk was of more than passing interest. No doubt he talked with
Joseph Frobisher in his quaint home on Beaver Hall Hill. Simon
M'Tavish, too, was living in a new-built mansion under the brow of
Mount Royal. This 'old lion of Montreal,' who was the founder of the
North-West Company, had for the mere asking a sheaf of tales, as
realistic as they were entertaining. Honour was done Lord Selkirk
during his stay in the city by the Beaver Club, which met once a
fortnight. This was an exclusive organization, which limited its
membership to those who dealt in furs. Every meeting meant a banquet,
and at these meetings each club-man wore a gold medal on which was
engraved the motto, 'Fortitude in Distress.' Dishes were served which
smacked of prairie and forest--venison, bear flesh, and {21} buffalo
tongue. The club's resplendent glass and polished silver were marked
with its crest, a beaver. After the toasts had been drunk, the jovial
party knelt on the floor for a final ceremony. With pokers or tongs or
whatever else was at hand, they imitated paddlers in action, and a
chorus of lusty voices joined in a burst of song. It may be supposed
that Lord Selkirk was impressed by what he saw at this gathering and
that he was a sympathetic guest. He asked many questions, and nothing
escaped his eager observation. Little did he then think that his hosts
would soon be banded together in a struggle to the death against him
and his schemes of western colonization.

{22}

CHAPTER III

THE PURSE-STRINGS LOOSEN

Traffic in furs was hazardous, but it brought great returns. The
peltry of the north, no less than the gold and silver of the south,
gave impetus to the efforts of those who first settled the western
hemisphere. In expectation of ample profits, the fur ship threaded its
way through the ice-pack of the northern seas, and the trader sent his
canoes by tortuous stream and toilsome portage. In the early days of
the eighteenth century sixteen beaver skins could be obtained from the
Indians for a single musket, and ten skins f