In Lord Selkirk's time the factory was more than half a mile from the Bay and lay between the two rivers.

Miles Macdonell states that it was on "low, miry ground without a ditch." The stagnant water by which the post was surrounded would be productive of much ill-health, were there a longer summer.

The buildings of the Factory were also badly planned, and badly constructed, so that the Fort was unsuitable for quartering the Colonists.

Besides this, Messrs.

Cook and Auld, the former Governor of York Factory, and the latter chief officer of Fort Churchill, having the old Hudson's Bay Company's spirit of dislike of Colonists, decided that the new settlers, being an innovation and an evil, should have separate quarters built for them at a distance from the Fort.
Poor Colonists! Miles Macdonell is wearied with them in their complaining spirit, berates them for indolence, and finds fault with their awkwardness as workmen.