By its charter, it seems, the Hudson Bay Company was allowed the exclusive privilege of trading to the Bay, and along all the rivers and waters connected with it. This charter, however, was granted at a time when the northern parts of the continent were much less known than they are now, for to have the exclusive trade along all the waters connected with Hudson Bay was, literally speaking, to have the exclusive trade of the greater part of the continent of North America. Hudson Bay by a variety of rivers and lakes, is closely connected with Lake Superior, and from that chain of lakes, of which Lake Superior is one, there is a water communication throughout all Canada, and a very great part of the United States; however, when the agents of the North-west Company were fixing trading posts upon some rivers which ran immediately into Hudson’s Bay, it undoubtedly appeared to be an infringement of the charter, and so indeed it must strictly have been, had not the Hudson’s Bay Company itself infringed its own charter in the first instance, or at least neglected to comply with all the stipulations contained therein. A clause seems to have been in the charter, which, at the same time that it granted to the company the exclusive privilege of trading to Hudson’s Bay, and along all the waters connected with it, bound it to erect a new post twelve miles farther to the westward every year, otherwise the charter was to become void. This had not been done; the North-west Company therefore rested perfectly easy about the menaces of a prosecution, satisfied that the other company did not in fact legally possess those privileges to which it laid claim. [Sidenote: TRADING COMPANIES.] The Hudson’s Bay Company, though it threatened, never indeed attempted to put its threats into execution, well knowing the weakness of its cause, but continued nevertheless to watch the motions of its rival with a most jealous eye; and as in extending their respective trades, the posts of the two companies were approximating nearer and nearer to each other every year, there was great reason to imagine that their differences, instead of abating, would become still greater than they were, and finally, perhaps, lead to consequences of the most serious nature. A circumstance, however, unexpectedly took place, at a time when the greatest enmity subsisted between the parties, which happily reconciled them to each other, and terminated all their disputes.