| Summary: | P 11 E-SETTLE M ENT ANNALS 15 over, the prairies were annually burned over by the Indians, and until the grass grew again, things lost upon the surface wore i-asily seen and recovered. '1'1-lH FUK COMPANIES. In 1(170, the Hudson Bay Fur company was granted a charter by (Jharles II, of England, giving to Prince Rupert and fourteen other members, their heirs and assigns, the right to the sole trade of the region around Hudson and James bays. The company began to establish themselves on these bays toward the close of the same century. Nearly a century more, however, passed before we read of the Red River Valley being occupied either by this company or by any other of which the members were British subjects. In the meantime exoloring and trading expeditions of the French, coming from Canada by way of the Great Lakes, penetrated the Northwest as far as the Red River Valley and even much farther west. About the year 1079, Sieur Dul.uth. who was conducting trading operations in the country around the head of Lake Su pe- rior. made a brief and probably hasty expedition across northern Minnesota, reaching some point inland about Lake Winnipeg. Alter UuLuth, Sieur Veiendrye, his sons and nephew ,Ier- emaye, next penetrated the country to the valleys of the Red, Assiniboine, Missouri and Yellowstone rivers for the purposes of trade and exploration, and they built a post or two on the Assiniboine. These operations were continued between the years 1731 and 1718. The conquest of Canada by the English in 1759 terminated French exploration, but the work of the missions and operations of individual traders Still continued. The first settler on North Dakota soil is claimed to have been a Canadian French trader who located a.l Pembina in 1780. While his name has not been preserved, the fact is nevertheless mentioned by Prof. Keating, the chronicler of Major Long's expedition This party found the trader still living at Pembina 48 years subsequent to the period of his location at that place. In 1784 David Thompson, a person of some scientific attainments, entered the service of the Hudson Bay company and was appointed clerk. Later lie was employed by the Northwest company as explorer and geographer. He was also an accomplished astronomer. In 1797 be visited the vaileys of the Red, Assiniboine, Mouse and Missouri rivers. He was also sent by the Northwest company to visit the Missouri and the sources of the Mississippi for the purpose, of making geographical and astronomical observations. In 1798 lie was at Cass lake, in Minnesota, and fixed the latitude of the company's post at (hat point. lie also fixed and recorded (he latitude and longitude of many points throughout the Northwest. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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