A very powerful nation of Indians, called the Assiniboins, who inhabit an extended tract of country to the south-west of Lake Winnipeg, conceiving that the Hudson’s Bay Company had encroached unreasonably upon their territories, and had otherwise maltreated a part of their tribe, formed the resolution of instantly destroying a post established by that company in their neighbourhood. A large body of them soon collected together, and breathing the fiercest spirit of revenge, marched unperceived and unsuspected by the party against whom their expedition was planned, till within a short distance of their post. Here they halted according to custom, waiting only for a favourable moment to pounce upon their prey. Some of the agents of the North-west Company, however, who were scattered about this part of the country, fortunately got intelligence of their design. They knew the weakness of the place about to be attacked, and forgetting the rivalship subsisting between them, and thinking only how to save their countrymen, they immediately dispatched a messenger to give the party notice of the assault that was meditated; they at the same time sent another messenger to one of their own posts, desiring that instant succour might be sent to that belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, which the Indians were about to plunder. The detachment arrived before the attack commenced, and the Indians were repulsed; but had it not been for the timely assistance their rivals had afforded, the Hudson Bay people were fully persuaded that they must have fallen victims to the fury of the Indians. This signal piece of service was not undervalued or forgotten by those who had been saved; and as the North-west Company was so much stronger, and on so much better terms with the Indians in this part of the country than its rivals, it now evidently appeared to be the interest of the latter to have the posts of the North-west Company established as near its own as possible. This is accordingly done for their mutual safety, and the two companies are now on the most friendly terms, and continue to carry on their trade close to each other. [Sidenote: FUR TRADE.]