page_title: Alexander Henry the elder
section_title: Lake Superior and the Canadian North West
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Henry the elder / Lake Superior and the Canadian North West
caption_attribution_description: Fur traders in Canada, trading with Indians (1777).
context_page_description: Alexander Henry 'The Elder' was one of the leading pioneers of the British-Canadian fur trade, following the British Conquest of New France; a partner in the North West Company; and a founding member and vice-chairman of the Beaver Club. In 1763–64, he lived and hunted with Wawatam of the Ojibwa, who had adopted him as a brother.
  "Blessed with as many lives as a cat," he recounted his time with the Ojibwa and subsequent explorations in his Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the years 1760 and 1776, which he dedicated to his friend Sir Joseph Banks. The book is considered an adventure classic and one of the best descriptions of Native Indian life at this time.
  An "easy and dignified" raconteur, in 1776 Henry was invited to give an account of his journeys at the Royal Society in London and at Versailles to Queen Marie Antoinette. In the 1780s, Henry introduced John Jacob Astor into the Canadian fur trade; subsequently Astor would stay as Henry's guest during his annual visits to Montreal.
context_section_description: In 1765, Henry acquired a license to trade in the Lake Superior region. Combining British capital with French Canadian experience, he formed a partnership with Cadot. For the next few years Henry was able to maintain a complete monopoly over the Lake Superior trade and without competition he was able to charge exorbitant prices. There he also came into contact with the Frontiersman Robert Rogers, though Henry reported that Rogers never paid him for certain services rendered.
  In 1767–68 he wintered on the Michipicoten River and entered into a partnership with Sir William Johnson, the Duke of Gloucester and others, forming a company to mine silver found in copper ore on the shores of Lake Superior. The expenses involved made the venture unprofitable and the company wound up its affairs in 1774.
  In 1775, Henry took four large and twelve small canoes to explore the territory northwest of Lake Superior. Henry, Cadot, Peter Pond, the brothers Thomas and Joseph Frobisher then began to challenge the Hudson's Bay Company. Their group, with forty men, stopped at Cumberland House and afterwards built a trading post on Amisk Lake, the first post to be built north of the Saskatchewan River. In 1776, Henry set off by foot to Fort à la Corne, following the Saskatchewan River, and having satisfied his curiosity secured some furs from the Assiniboines. He then purchased 12,000 additional beaver skins from a trip up the Churchill River from the Chipewyans, and some of his last packs were forcibly acquired from Robert Longmoor, an agent for the Hudson's Bay Company. Laden with furs, Henry returned to Montreal and gave the governor, Sir Guy Carleton, a large map of the western region through which he had travelled.
caption: A Canadian fur trader in 1777
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