Fort Mandan, North Dakota — Patrick Gass: December 16, 1804

the men to the 1st and 2nd village of the Mandans, and we
were treated with much kindness. Three of the traders from
the N. W. Company came to our fort, and brought a letter
to our commanding officers. They remained with us all
night. The object of the visits we received from the N. W.
Company, was to ascertain our motives for visiting that
country, and to gain information with respect to the change
of government.*
* The North West Company was first formed in the winter of 1783-4, by the
merchants of Canada, engaged in the fur trade, uniting their interests. The concern
– was divided into sixteen shares, without any capital being deposited; each party
furnishing his proportion of the articles necessary for carrying on the trade. After a
severe struggle and rival competition with others engaged in the trade, in the year
1787 more partners were admitted, the shares extended to twenty and the establishment
which was no more than an association of commercial men agreeing among themselves
to carry on the fur trade, founded on a more solid basis.
This and Hudson’s Bay Company, have engrossed and carry on almost the whole
of the fur trade in that extensive country, situated between Hudson’s Bay, the Rocky
mountains, and that high tract of country, west of lake Superior, which separates the
southern from the northern waters; and have factories, forts, and trading establish-
ments on the Winnipic, Assiniboin, Sturgeon, Saskatchiwine, Elk, and most of the
other great lakes and rivers, which communicate with or discharge themselves into
Hudson’s Bay, and the North sea. It is said some change has since taken place in
the establishment of the North West Company.
62 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE