Introduction: the Methye Portage -- Provincial soldier -- A Connecticut Yankee's pathway to Detroit -- The Great Lakes trade -- Imagining and exploring a continent -- Mississippi trader -- Partners and rivals -- Saskatchewan River trader -- North to Athabasca -- Back east -- The Churchill River and Athabasca, 1781-1784 -- Observing the Northwest -- Voyages, schemes, and petitions -- Athabasca, 1785-1788 -- Final explorations -- Return -- A new world.