The Committee advised the termination of the government of
Vancouver's Island by the Hudson's Bay Company; a recommendation
followed, a year later, by the establishment of a Crown Colony. But
they strongly advised, in the interests of law and order, and of the
Indian population, as well as for the preservation of the fur trade,
that the Hudson's Bay Company "should continue to enjoy the privileges
of exclusive trade which they now possess."
CHAPTER XI.
_Re-organization of Hudson's Bay Company_.
Thus, after a long and continuous period of inquiry and investigation--
a grave game of chess with the Hudson's Bay Company--many anxieties and
a great pecuniary risk, surmounted without the expected help of our
Government, the battle was won. What now remained was to take care that
the Imperial objects, for which some of us had struggled, were not
sacrificed, to indifference in high places at home, or to possible
conflicts between the two Provinces in Canada; and to secure an
energetic management of the business of the fur trade and of land
development by the executive of the Company, whose 144 posts covered
the continent from Labrador to Sitka, Vancouver's Island, and San
Francisco.
It seemed to me that this latter business was of vital and pressing
importance.
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