By means of canoe travel and portages he reached Oxford Lake.

From here he gained Moose Lake, and soon afterwards "the broad waters of the Saskatchewan--the first Englishman to see this great river of the western plains".[3] Twenty-two miles upstream from the point where it reached the Saskatchewan he came to a French fort which had only been standing for a year, and which represented probably the farthest advance northwards of the French Canadians.
[Footnote 2: The young or old reader of this and other books dealing with the exploration of the Canadian Dominion will be indeed puzzled between the various Hendrys and Henrys.

The last-named was a prolific stock, from which several notable explorers and servants of the fur-trading companies were drawn.

In this book a careful distinction must be made between the _Anthony_ Hendrey or Hendey, who commenced his exploration of the west in 1754; the unrelated _Alexander_ Henry the Elder, who journeyed between 1761 and 1776; and the nephew of the last-named, Alexander Henry the Younger, whose pioneering explorations occurred between 1799 and 1814.] [Footnote 3: _The Search for the Western Sea_, by Lawrence J.Burpee.] [Illustration: Map of EASTERN CANADA and NEWFOUNDLAND] The situation was a rather delicate one, for the Hudson's Bay Company was a thorn in the side of French Canada.

However, in this year--1754--the two nations were not actually at war, and the two Frenchmen in charge of the fort received him "in a very genteel manner", and invited him into their home, where he readily accepted their hospitality.