Page 160 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

156 WIGCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

built by Gov. HULL before the war of 1812. I remained in
Detroit but a short time, when I took passage in a small
schooner for Mackinaw; thence I went to Sault Ste. Marie,
where therc wcre no Americans, and but a few British traders.
I ret~rned to Mackinaw, which was the head quarters of the
American Fur Company. Here all the furs taken in the
whole North-west were brought, and re-packed for New York;
and here the traders connected with this company obtained
their goods in August or September, conveyed them to their
respective trading stations, remained during the fall and
winter, and repaired with their furs to Mackinaw in June or
July.
About this time, Congress passcd an act prohibiting for-
eigners from obtaining licenses to trade in the Indian country.*
So the Fur Company had to employ American clerks, who had
to get the necessary license. It was about this period also,
through the influence of JOHN JACOB ASTOK, that the Secre-
tary of War designated certain points throughout the Indian
country as most suitable for trading establishments, and
licenses to trade were confined to some one of these localities.
This was done to favor the American Fur Company, for if a
license was granted to some adventurous trader not connected
with that Compeny, he was only permitted to trade at some
designated point already occupied by that opulent and formi-
dable Company; and the consequence was, that the Company
would sell goods at half their real value, and thus drive away
the new opposition trader who could not compete with them,
and then the Company would again put up their goods to the
old prices, and soon make up for the little loss sustained while
performing the necessary process of breaking down all show
of opposition.
Among tho traders was WILLIAM FARNSWORTH, who now
resides at Shoboygan. He had been a clerk in the employ
of the American Fur Company; but having had somc diffi-

"This not wns passed at the session of 1815-16: see LOCKWOOD'S Norratiw,
Wis. Hist. Coll. ii. p. 102, 103. L.C.D.