two Companies, to depend more upon the activity of their agents,
the knowledge they possess of the motions of the Indians, and the
quantity of rum they carry, than upon the liberality of the credits
they give, hut is also productive of an increasing deterioration of
the character of the Indians, and will probably, ultimately prove
destructivfr to the fur trade itself. Indeed the evil has already, in
part, recoiled upon the traders/, for the Indians, long deceived, have
become deceivers in their turn, and not unfrequently after having
incurred a heavy debt at one post, move off to another, to play the
same game. In some cases the rival posts have entered into a mutual
agreement, to trade only with the Indians they have respectively
fitted out; but such treaties, being seldom rigidly adhered to,
prove a fertile subject for disputes, and the differences have been
more than once decided by force of arms. To carry on the
contest, the two Companies are obliged to employ a great many
servants, whom they maintain often with much difficulty, and always
at a considerable expense *. |
There are thirty men belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Fort at
Cumberland, and nearly as many women and children.
The inhabitants of the North-West Company’s. House are still
more numerous. These large families are fed during the greatest
part of the year on fish, which are principally procured at Beaver
Lake, about fifty miles distant. The fishery commencing with the
first frosts in autumn, continues abundant, till January, and the produce
is dragged over the snow on sledges, each drawn by three dogs,
and carrying about two hundred and fifty pounds. The journey, to
and from the lake occupies five days, and every sledge requires a
driver. About three thousand fish, averaging three pounds a piece,
were caught by the Hudson’s Bay fishermen last season; in addition
* As the contending parties have united, the' evils mentioned in this and the two
preceding pages, are now, in all probability, at an end.
to which; a few sturgeon were occasionally caught in Pine Island
Lake ; and towards the spring a considerable quantity of moose meat
was procured from the Basquiau Hill, sixty or seventy miles distant.
The rest of our winter’s provision consisted of geese, salted in the
autumn, and of dried meats and pemmican, obtained from the provision
posts. on the plains of the Saskatchawan. A good many
potatoes are also raised at this post, and a small supply of tea and
sugar is brought from the dépôt at York Factory. The provisions
obtained from these various sources were amply sufficient in the
winter of 1819-20; but through improvidence this post has in
former seasons been reduced to great straits.
Many of the labourers, and a great majority of the agents and
clerks employed by the two Companies, have Indian or half-breed
wives,- and the mixed offspring thus produced has become extremely
numerous.
These métiffs, or as the Canadians term them, bois brûlés, are
upon the whole à good looking people, and where the experiment
has been made, have shewn much aptness in learning, and willingness
to be taught ; they have, however, been sadly neglected. The
example of their fathers has released them from the restraint imposed
by the Indian opinions of good and bad behaviour; and generally
speaking, no pains have been taken to fill the void with better
principles. Hence it is not surprising that the males, trained up in
a high opinion of the authority and rights of the Company to which
their fathers belonged, and unacquainted with the laws of the civilized
world, should be ready to engage in any measure whatever,
that they are prompted to believe will forward the interests of the
cause they espouse. Nor that the girls, taught a certain degree of
refinement by the acquisition of an European language, should be
inflamed by the unrestrained discourse of their Indian relations, and
very early give up all pretensions to chastity. It is however but
justice to remark, that there is a very decided difference in the con