The supply of furs destined for the…

The supply of furs destined for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1773 had been intercepted inland by the Frobisher brothers, who are soon to found the North-West Company, thereby saving the natives the long paddle to coast where the HBC posts were.

Hearne is dispatched to the southwest in 1774 to construct the Hudson’s Bay Company’s first inland post, Cumberland House, on an island in the Saskatchewan River, which is a key route in the fur trade.

From Cumberland House, one can travel east to Hudson Bay, via Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson River.

One can also travel west as far as the Rocky Mountains.

The island, easy for travelers to locate, had long been a meeting place.

Hearne has set up the Cumberland House sixteen kilometers west of the Pine Lake Trading Post, established by the Frobishers the year before.

Thomas and Joseph Frobisher, on their way to intercept HBC furs at Frog Portage, arrive a month after Hearne finishes building.

Thus begins a leapfrog game of establishing posts ever further west than the competition—a game that is to last until 1821, when the HBC finally absorbs the NWC.