the most important ports on Hudson's
Bay were ceded to the French.

The Company's prospects after that surrender were indeed gloomy;
shares fell low, indifference and ignorance prevailing in high places;
and the faithful remnant could only hope for a renewal of the war. But
at last Fortune began to smile again; for although no important
battles were ever afterwards fought in the region of the Bay, the
brilliant campaigns of Marlborough in Europe reflected glory upon the
struggling traders in the New World, and gave them prestige and power;
until finally, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the huge undefined
domain of Hudson's Bay was unconditionally yielded up to Great
Britain. After many years one more hapless attempt was made to
capture the forts of the north; but thenceforth the French put forward
no regular claim to the territory so long disputed.

Although the merchants of New England in due course made efforts to
secure a share of the fur trade, the only real competition, from first
to last, was offered by the French explorers. In 1684 Du Lhut had been
sent westward by Governor La Barre to counteract the influence of the
Hudson's Bay Company with the Indians, and he had only reported to his
master that in two years not a single savage would visit the English
at Hudson's Bay. Iberville's victories in the north, however, had
distracted the attention of the Government from this enterprise, and
the work was left to be carried on by independent traders. A
profitable trade in furs sprang up on the lines of La Verendrye's
discoveries, and the forts of Michillimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie
continued to flourish until the traders were finally withdrawn from
all the outlying regions to defend Quebec against the English.

It had been a gallant fight, in which the native qualities of both
races had been seen to advantage. Ardent, brave, adventurous, the
Frenchman had ever been the best of pioneers. With a faculty for
acquiring languages and dialects, he quickly adapted himself to the
ways of the Indian, won their sympathy, and treated them with an
equality and freedom which made their path of peaceful conquest easy
and trade a cheerful jugglery. From first to last there entered into
the life of the French trader and adventurer an element of patriotism
and romance--conquest for conquest's sake and for the glory of French
enterprise. He must ever remain the more eloquent, the more
picturesque figure, the more admired pioneer