the present day. Between this British company and the French merchants
of Canada, feuds and contests arose about alleged infringements of
territorial limits, and acts of violence and bloodshed occurred between
their agents.

In 1762, the French lost possession of Canada, and the trade fell
principally into the hands of British subjects. For a time, however, it
shrunk within narrow limits. The old coureurs des bois were broken up
and dispersed, or, where they could be met with, were slow to accustom
themselves to the habits and manners of their British employers. They
missed the freedom, indulgence, and familiarity of the old French
trading houses, and did not relish the sober exactness, reserve, and
method of the new-comers. The British traders, too, were ignorant of the
country, and distrustful of the natives. They had reason to be so. The
treacherous and bloody affairs of Detroit and Michilimackinac showed
them the lurking hostility cherished by the savages, who had too long
been taught by the French to regard them as enemies.

It was not until the year 1766, that the trade regained its old
channels; but it was then pursued with much avidity and emulation
by individual merchants, and soon transcended its former bounds.
Expeditions were fitted out by various persons from Montreal and
Michilimackinac, and rivalships and jealousies of course ensued. The
trade was injured by their artifices to outbid and undermine each other;
the Indians were debauched by the sale of spirituous liquors, which had
been prohibited under the French rule. Scenes of drunkeness, brutality,
and brawl were the consequence, in the Indian villages and around the
trading houses; while bloody feuds took place between rival trading
parties when they happened to encounter each other in the lawless depths
of the wilderness.