The charter of the Hudson's Bay Com pany did not extend to Canada, which in 1670 belonged to France, and when Ca nada was ceded to England in 1763, a vast region was opened to the fur traders without a licence. In 1783 various asso ciations and a number of individuals were combined into one great body, the North West Fur Company. A most interesting account of this association is given in Mr. Washington Irving-'s ' Astoria.' This company consisted of twenty-three share holders, or partners, comprising some of the most wealthy and influential British settlers in Canada, and employed about 2000 persons as clerks, guides, interpre ters, and boatmen, or voyageurs, who were distributed over the face of the country. Such of the shareholders as took an active part were called agents ; some of them re sided at the different ports established by the Company in the Indian territory, and others at Quebec and Montreal, where each attended to the affairs of the asso ciation. These active partners met once in every year at Fort William, one of their stations near the Grand Portage on Lake Superior, in order to discuss the affairs of the Company, and agree upon plans for the future. The young men who were employed as clerks were, for the most part, the younger members of respectable families in Scotland, who were willing to undergo the hardships and privations accompanying a residence for some years in these countries, that they might secure the advantage of suc ceeding in turn to a share of the profits of the undertaking, the partners, as others died or retired, being taken from among those who, as clerks, had acquired the experience necessary for the management of the business. About 1806 the hunters of the North-West Company are supposed to have first crossed the Rocky Mountains and to have established posts on the northern head-waters of the Columbia.
In 1813 the Company bought Astoria, on the Columbia River, which Mr. Astor, of New York, and his other partners, were induced to relinquish in consequence of the war between Great Britain and the United States. The activity of the North West Company at length roused the Hud son's Bay Company. In 1812 the lat ter Company exercised for the first time its rights to colonize, by selling a tract of land on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River to Lord Selkirk, who introduced a considerable number of persons from Scotland. An open war was carried on by the partisans of the North-West Com pany for some years against the Hudson's Bay Company. They attacked posts, drove away the inhabitants by force, or waylaid or destroyed them. In 1814 the Red River settlement was the object of attack, and after a war of two years the governor, Mr. Semple, with some others, were massacred, and the survivors were driven away. In 1821 this unfortunate state of things was fortunately put an end to by the union of the rival companies, and the trade has since been prosecuted peacefully and successfully.
To prevent in future the evils of irre gular occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company by private adventurers, an act (1 & 2 Geo. 1V. c. 66) was passed, the preamble of which recites that the ani mosities and feuds of the Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies had for many years past kept the interior of North America in a disturbed state, and it was then enacted that it shall be lawful for his majesty to give licence to any company or persons for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in any part of North America, not being part of the ter ritories of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of any of his majesty's provinces, or of territories belonging to the United States. The act then gives to the courts of Upper Canada civil jurisdiction over every part of North America not within the existing British colonies and not subject to any civil government of the United States.
Under this act his majesty is enabled to appoint justices of the peace within the territories of the Company, and to give them civil and penal jurisdiction not ex tending iu civil suits beyond 200/., or iE penal cases to death or transportation. When the case is met by this limitation, it is reserved for the courts of Western Upper) Canada. The licences which nave been granted in pursuance of this act have been granted to the Hudson's Bay Company. The terms are, that the Company shall provide for the execution of civil and criminal processes over their servants, and that the rules for conduct ing the Indian trade shall be submitted to the Crown, and be of such a nature as is calculated to diminish or prevent the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and tend to their moral and religious im provement. The Company have esta blished missions and schools in various parts of their territories. The right of the crown to establish any colony within the territories assigned to the Company is reserved, and also the right of annexing any part of such territories to any ex isting colony.
In the old territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, comprehended under the charter of 1670, the Company are lords of the soil and can sell their lands ; but in the parts over which they have acquired jurisdiction at a more recent period they have no power to hold lands.
The posts of the Company stretch from the Frozen Ocean and Hudson's Bay to the Pacific on the west, the Columbia River on the south, and the Atlantic on the east. This vast territory is divided into four districts, the Northern, Southern, Columbian, and Montreal Departments, in which there are 136 establishments. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific there are six permanent establish ments on the coasts and sixteen in the in terior country ; and the Companymain tain six armed vessels on the coast, one of which is a steam-vessel The " posts" are described as stockades with wooden bas tions, and they will accommodate thirty or forty persons, but the number of occupants is usually only four or five. The enumera tion of the distances between some of these posts will give some idea of the vast ex tent of country in which the partners and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company carry on their operations. From Fort William on Lake Superior, to Cumber land House on the main branch of the Saskatchewan river, is 1018 miles; from Cumberland House to Fort Chepewyan on Lake Athabasca is 840 miles; thence to Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake is 240 miles. The Mackenzie river flows out of this lake, and there are three forts on it : the first is Fort Simpson, 338 miles from Fort Resolution ; Fort Nor man, 236 miles lower down ; and Fort Good Hope, 312 miles below Fort Nor man, which is the most northerly of the Hudson's Bay Company's forts, is 3800 miles from Montreal. Yet the clerks in charge of these establishments look upon each other as neighbours. Fort Van couver, about ninety miles from the mouth of the Columbia river, is the largest of the Company's forts. It com prises an area of four acres, a village of sixty houses, stores, mills, and workshops. A farm of 3000 acres forms a part of this establishment. The Company have, in fact, several farms in this quarter, and grain and cattle are raised in large quan tities for the use of the Company's ser vants and the supply of the Russian American settlements with provisions. Wool, hides, and tallow are exported to England. The terms of their charter do not permit the Hudsou's Bay Company to embark their capital in trade, and a sub ordinate Company has therefore been formed, the members and officers of which belong to the Hudson's Bay Com pany, while the capital employed is their own. At the colony on the Red River the population exceeds 5000, and there is a Roman Catholic bishop.