He became a power among the Indians. With Scottish
shrewdness Henry acquired from the Commandant at Mackinaw the exclusive
right to trade on Lake Superior. He became a partner of Cadot, and they
made a voyage as Canadian Argonauts, to bring back very rich cargoes of
fur. They even went up to the Saskatchewan on Lake Winnipeg. After
Henry, came another Scotchman, Thomas Curry, and made so successful a
voyage that he reached the Saskatchewan River, and came back laden with
furs, so that he was now satisfied never to have to go again to the
Indian country. Shortly afterwards James Findlay, another son of the
heather, followed up the fur-traders' route, and reached Saskatchewan.
Thus the Northwest Fur Trade became the almost exclusive possession of
the Scottish Merchants of Montreal. With the master must go the man. And
no man on the rivers of North America ever equalled, in speed, in good
temper, and in skill, the French Canadian voyageur. Almost all the
Montreal merchants, the Forsythes, the Richardsons, the McTavishes, the
Mackenzies, and the McGillivrays, spoke the French as fluently as they
did their own language. Thus they became magnetic leaders of the French
canoemen of the rivers.
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