Excerpt from The Canadian West: Its Discovery by the Sieur De La Verendrye; Its Development by the Fur-Trading Companies, Down to the Year 1822 When I published the history of the Canadian West in French, it was my intention subsequently to issue an Eng lish edition; but, the translating and printing of such a work demanding considerable outlay, l have been obliged to await more favorable circumstances before putting the project into execution. 'l'o-day, with the assistance of a few generous friends, I feel capable of starting afresh and of carrying the enterprise to a successful issue. My first purpose, in penning a history of the Canadian West, was to recall the memories of two illustrious names, that lto-day are too frequently ignored, even by those who enjoy the fruits of their labors, and to justify them against the calumnies of their contemporaries; my second aim was to disabuse the public mind of certain false impressions regarding events of great importance which occurred in the north-west at a time when exact information was difficult to be obtained. Rarely is his tory impartially written. We are generally inclined to excuse the mistakes of our fellow-countrymen and to ex aggerate those of foreigners. Had the writer allowed himself to be swayed by such feelings, he would have passed a very different judgment upon certain facts from that which is here expressed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."