A short delay, and the party turned northward on July 4th, and with many hardships made their way up the river. On their ascent few things of note happened, the only notable event being the recognition of the fame of the second bourgeois, Jules Quesnel, by giving his name to a river flowing into the Fraser River from the east. The name is still retained, and is also given to the lake which marks the enlargement of the river. On August 6th, the party rejoined Faries and his men in the fort on Stuart Lake. The descent occupied forty-two days, and, as explorers have often found in such rivers as the Fraser, the ascent took less time than the descent. In this case, their upward journey was but of thirty-three days. Fraser returned to the east in the next year and is found in 1811 in charge of the Red River district, two years afterward in command on the Mackenzie River, and at Fort William on Lake Superior, in 1816, when the Fort was taken by Lord Selkirk. After retiring, he lived at St. Andrews on the Ottawa and died at the advanced age of eighty-six, having been known as one of the most noted and energetic fur-traders in the history of the companies. Thus we have seen the way in which these two kings of adventure--Fraser and Thompson--a few years after Sir Alexander Mackenzie, succeeded amid extraordinary hardships in crossing to the Western Sea. The record of the five transcontinental expeditions of these early times is as follows:-- (1) Alexander Mackenzie, by the Tacouche Tesse and Bellacoola River, 1793. (2) Lewis and Clark, the American explorers, by the Columbia River, 1805. (3) Simon Fraser by the river that bears his name, formerly the Tacouche Tesse, 1808. (4) David Thompson, by the Columbia River, 1811. (5) The overland party of Astorians, by the Columbia, 1811. These expeditions shed a flood of glory on the Anglo-Saxon name and fame. FOOTNOTE: [4] The United Empire Loyalists were those British patriots who left the United States after the Revolution. CHAPTER XVII. The X Y COMPANY. "Le Marquis" Simon McTavish unpopular--Alexander Mackenzie his rival--Enormous activity of the "Potties"--Why called X Y--Five rival posts at Souris--Sir Alexander, the silent partner--Old Lion of Montreal roused--"Posts of the King"--Schooner sent to Hudson Bay--Nor'-Westers erect two posts on Hudson Bay--Supreme folly--Old and new Nor'-Westers unite--List of partners. For some years the Montreal fur companies, in their combinations and readjustments, had all the variety of the kaleidoscope. Agreements were made for a term of years, and when these had expired new leagues were formed, and in every case dissatisfied members went into opposition and kept up the heat and competition without which it is probable the fur trade would have lost, to those engaged in it, many of its charms.