Excerpt from Old Montreal: John Clarke; His Adventures, Friends and Family

The ensuing monograph will be found of considerable interest to those who take pleasure in reading of the early fur traders or of the past three generations of Montrealers. To them the name of Clarke will be familiar. Washington Irving refers to John Clarke in Astoria, where he connects him with the story of the famous Silver Cup, and attaches some blame to him for a certain alleged imprudence of disposition in treating with Indians. But it must be remembered that Irving wrote without personal knowledge, and the material in possession of Mr. Clarke's family vindicates him completely. He seems to have been a very energetic, courageous and capable leader.

While the French Government possessed Canada, it maintained a large control over the fur trade of the Great Lakes and the West. The Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, having its headquarters in the Chateau de Ramezay, and the surrounding buildings, was the great fur organization of the latter years of the French régime. The British Hudson's Bay Company confined itself to the regions within reach of its posts on and about the Bay. But no sooner had the dominion of France passed than independent fur-traders from the British Colonies began to establish themselves in the former French head quarters, Montreal, and to push their interests along the lines of French endeavor by way of the Great Lakes and the plains beyond. These British traders had previously exploited, principally, the Iroquois and Ohio country. The headquarters of those who came here had mostly been at Albany and Schenectady, and some of them had already had considerable dealings with the French traders. One of the very first to take advantage of the conquest of Canada was Alexander Henry, the elder, who came to Montreal with General Amherst in 1760, and immediately obtained the permission of General Gage, the first British Governor of Montreal, to take up this very work. It was he who initiated John Jacob Astor into the trade, as the latter initiated John Clarke. Although Henry was of English extraction, the causes which so early directed Highland regiments and Highland Loyalists from Northern New York into Canada soon gave the trade a distinctly Highland character, and that strong race pushed its commerce to the most daring limits. Simon Fraser crossed the Rockies tobears his name; wealth poured into Montreal, and in 1783.

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