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452 River stopped at the trading post in charge of M. Lemoine, and here about 225 was the number of the Ojibway population. While at Sandy Lake, he was informed that on the 19th of February, at a point a half day's journey distant, the Ojibways had lost forty persons in a fight with a party of Sioux, Sauks, and Menomonees.

After the "Northwest Company" of traders was organized, the Ojibways hunted for beaver west of Lake Superior with a firmer foot. Under the auspices of this company, Peter Grant established the first post on the east side of the Red River of the North, opposite the mouth of the Pembina River, and in 1797–98 another post was established on Pembina River near its mouth, by Charles Chabouillier. Until this period, the horse had never been used, and the voyageurs after this invented the peculiar Red River cart.

Alexander Henry, a nephew of the trader, who had a post in Chagouamigon Bay of Lake Superior, who was a partner of the Northwest Company, on the 18th of August, 1800, arrived at the junction of the Red River of the North and Assineboine rivers, and writes in his journal: "I found about forty Saulteurs [Ojibways] waiting my arrival."

In September, Henry built a trading post in the Red River Valley, within a short distance of Little Park River.

On the 2d of January, 1801, Beardash the son of Sucre, the Ojibway chief, visited him, and he is thus described in his journal: "This person is a curious compound. He is a man in every respect, both as to carriage, dress, and manners. His walk and mode of sitting down; his manners and occupations, and language are those of a woman. All the persuasiveness of his father, who is a great chief