The first of these English traders at Michilimackinac to penetrate into the west, where the French had gone, is said to be Thomas Curry. This man, having by shrewdness and ability procured sufficient capital for the purpose, engaged guides and interpreters, purchased a stock of goods and provisions, and with four canoes reached Fort Bourbon, which was situated at the western extremity of Cedar Lake, on the waters of the Saskatchewan. His venture was successful, and he returned to Montreal with his canoes loaded with fine furs. But he never expressed a desire to repeat the performance, although it was not long before his example was followed by many others. James Finlay was the first of these; he penetrated to Nipawee, the last of the French posts on the Saskatchewan, in latitude 53½, and longitude 103. This trader was equally successful. [Sidenote: Henry's expedition.] After a career of some years in the vicinity of Michilimackinac, of a general character, identical with that pursued a hundred years before by Groseilliers, another intrepid trader, Alexander Henry, decided to strike off into the North-West. He left "the Sault," as Sault Ste. Marie was called, on the 10th of June, 1775, with goods and provisions to the value of £3,000 sterling, on board twelve small canoes and four larger ones. Each small canoe was navigated by three men, and each larger one by four. On the 20th they encamped at the mouth of the Pijitic. It was by this river, he tells us, that the French ascended in 1750, when they plundered one of the Company's factories in the bay, and carried off the two small pieces of brass cannon, which fell again into English hands at Michilimackinac. But here Henry fell into error; for it was by the River Michipicoten that the French went, and the factory plundered of its adornments was Moose, not Churchill, and the year 1756, not 1750. Henry himself was going on a sort of plundering expedition against the Company, which was to be far more effective in setting an example to others, than any the French had yet carried through. Everywhere as he passed along there were evidences of the recent French occupation. To return to 1767, this year had witnessed a clearing up of the mystery surrounding the fate of the _Albany_, the first of the vessels sent by the Company to search for a north-west passage. [Illustration: ALEXANDER HENRY.] [Sidenote: Fate of the "Albany."]