Wilcocke, Samuel Hull. Narrative of Circumstances attending the death of the late Benjamin Frobisher, Esquire a partner of the North West Company of Montreal, ca. 1820. An electronic transcription. MFTP #0019

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On the 20th September, Williams left York Factory for the interior and Oon the 25th of September the Prince of Wales sailed from York Factory for England with Messieurs Shaw and MacTavish as Steerage-passengers. We will follow the fates of these gentlemen no farther than to say that not the slightest attempt has been made either in England or in Canada to fasten upon them any allegation of offence, or in any way to justify the execrable treatment they met with. That the real object of the aggressions and outrages that have been detailed was not in any degree to advanced the ends of justice, or even to follow up the Earl of Selkirk's malicious prosecutions, but to cripple the means, destroy the energy, and finally to expel the traders of the North West Company from the country, is thus made evident, and is corroborated, also by a variety of other circumstances besides those already mentioned. Amongst other things it is testified that John Clarke (one of the mo foremost and most violent of the party) as well as one of the most unguarded) declared "that they arrested the partners of the North West Company and their men, in order to retard them, so that the Hudson's Bay people might the ensuing season get to their wintering-grounds and trading-posts before those of the North West Company"; with regard to Ogoniarto, the steersman, "that he had no orders to stop take him, but that he did so merely to detain and inconvenience the canoes"; and speaking of Joseph

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