Page "George Simpson (administrator)" Paragraph 4

He went by ship to New York, by boat and cart to Montreal and left by the usual route for York Factory on Hudson Bay.

He met Williams at Rock Depot on the Hayes River.

Since Williams had not been arrested he was William's subordinate and was sent west to Fort Wedderburn on Lake Athabaska.

There he spent the winter learning about, and reorganizing, the fur trade.

On his return journey in 1821 he learned that the two companies had merged.

This put an end to a ruinous and sometimes violent competition and converted the HBC monopoly into an informal government for western Canada.

He escorted that year's furs to Rock Depot and returned upriver to Norway House for the first meeting of the merged companies.

There he learned that he had been made governor of the Northern ( that is, western ) Department and Williams had been made his equal in the Southern Department south of Hudson Bay.

( In December 1821 the HBC monopoly was extended to the Pacific coast.

) After the meeting he returned downstream to take up his duties at York Factory.

In December 1821 he set out on snowshoes for Cumberland House and then the Red River Colony.

By July 1822 he was back at York Factory for the second meeting of the Northern Council, the first that he chaired.

After the meeting he went by water to Lac Île-à-la-Crosse and then by dog sled to Fort Chipewyan and Fort Resolution on the Great Slave Lake.

He then went south to Fort Dunvegan on the Peace River and then Fort Edmonton and after the thaw, back to York Factory.