He then met
natives who, when he asked them to go to Hudson Bay to trade,
replied that they could obtain all they needed from the French
posts. The tact and skill of the French were such that, as Hendry
admits, reluctantly enough, the Indians were already strongly
attached to them. Day after day Hendry journeyed on over the
rolling prairie in the warm summer days. He came to the south
branch of the Saskatchewan near the point where now stands the
city of Saskatoon and crossed the river on the 21st of August.
Then on to the West, eager to take part in the hunting of the
buffalo.
Hendry is almost certainly the first Englishman to see this
region. In the end he reached the mountains. He makes no mention
of having seen or heard anything of Fort La Jonquiere, built
three years earlier. He had aims different from those of La
Verendrye and other French explorers. Not the Western Sea but
openings for trade was he seeking. His great aim was to reach the
tribe called later the Blackfeet Indians, who were mighty hunters
of the buffalo. Hendry was alive to the impressions of nature.
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