The Hudson’s Bay Company, as it at present exists, was incorporated in the winter of 1820-21, a coalition having been then formed with the North-West Company.  Upon this taking place, an Act of Parliament was obtained which gave them not only the possession of the territory they had originally held by virtue of their royal charter, but also investing them with the same rights and privileges conferred by that charter in and over all the territories that had been settled by the North-West Company for a term of twenty-one years.

The Governor, Deputy-Governor, and managing Committee, are, properly speaking, the only capitalists.  The stock is divided into one hundred shares; sixty of which their Honours retain for themselves; and the remaining forty are divided among the chief traders and chief factors, who manage the affairs in the Indian country.  A chief factor holds two of these shares, and a chief trader one; of which they retain the full interest for one year after they retire, and half interest for the six following years.  These cannot be said to be stock-holders, for they are not admitted to any share in the executive management; but according to the present system they are termed Commissioned Officers, and receive merely the proceeds of the share allotted to them.  They enjoy, however, one very superior advantage,—­they are not subjected to bear their share in any losses which the Company may sustain.  It is generally reckoned that the value of one share is on an average about 350l. sterling a-year.  By the resignation of two chief traders, one share is at the Company’s disposal the year after, which is then bestowed on a clerk.  When two chief factors retire, a chief trader is promoted in like manner.  Promotion also take place when the shares of the retired partners fall in.

CHAPTER II.

I ENTER THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY’S SERVICE—­PADRE GIBERT.

I entered the service of the Company in the winter of 1820-21, and after passing my contract at Montreal in the month of January, I took up my residence for the remainder of the season with a French priest, in the parish of Petit le Maska, for the purpose of studying the French language.  The Padre was a most affable, liberal-minded man, a warm friend of England and Englishmen, and a staunch adherent to their government, which he considered as the most perfect under the sun.  The fact is, that the old gentleman, along with many others of his countrymen who had escaped from the horrors of the French Revolution, had found an asylum in our land of freedom, which they could find nowhere else; and the personal advantages that had accrued to him from that circumstance, naturally induced a favourable disposition towards his benefactors, their laws, and their institutions.  Though the Padre was extremely liberal in his political opinions, his management of his worldly affairs bore the stamp of the most sordid parsimony.  He worshipped the