An opportunity for the Hudson's Bay Company to dominate the fur trade of the western interior following the surrender of New France passed before the London directors realized their mistake. By the end of the 1760s trade at York Factory was cut in half. This decline continued to such alarming levels that in 1773 the Company decided to reverse its century-old coast factory system of trade. Samuel Hearne, recently returned from his epic trip to the Coppermine River, was assigned the task of establishing Cumberland House, the Company's first interior post. He journeyed inland with the greatest of difficulty as all transport had to be in small, two-person Indian canoes. He established a log trading establishment at Pine Island Lake, 95 kilometres west of present day The Pas, Manitoba. The illustration imagines Hearne discussing building plans with the bearded carpenter Robert Garret. Cumberland House was 1120 kilometres inland by water from York Factory and transportation between the two was a paramount problem. Indians proved unwilling to tie themselves to the lowly role of tripmen in the Company's service. There was no birchbark on the shores of Hudson Bay to build canoes and no skilled labour to handle them. Within a year Hearne informed the Company that a single post offered only weak competition to the pedlars from Quebec and he advocated a series of forts along the rivers of the interior.
