REFLECTIONS--PROSPECTS IN THE SERVICE--DECREASE OF THE
GAME--COMPANY'S POLICY IN CONSEQUENCE--APPEAL OF THE
INDIANS--MEANS OF PRESERVING THEM, AND IMPROVING THEIR
CONDITION--ABOLITION OF THE CHARTER--OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
The history of my career may serve as a warning to those who may be
disposed to enter the Hudson's Bay Company's service. They may learn
that, from the moment they embark in the Company's canoes at Lachine,
or in their ships at Gravesend, they bid adieu to all that civilized
man most values on earth. They bid adieu to their family and friends,
probably for ever; for if they should remain long enough to attain the
promotion that allows them the privilege of revisiting their native
land--a period of from twenty to twenty-five years--what changes does
not this life exhibit in a much shorter time? They bid adieu to all
the comforts and conveniences of civilized life, to vegetate at some
desolate, solitary post, hundreds of miles, perhaps, from any other
human habitation, save the wig-wam of the savage; without any other
society than that of their own thoughts, or of the two or three
humble individuals who share their exile. They bid adieu to all
the refinement and cultivation of civilized life, not unfrequently
becoming semi-barbarians,--so altered in habits and sentiments, that
they not only become attached to savage life, but eventually lose all
relish for any other.
I can give good authority for this. The Governor, writing me last
year regarding some of my acquaintances who had recently retired,
observes--"They are comfortably settled, but apparently at a loss what
to do with themselves; and sigh for the Indian country, the squaws,
and skins, and savages."
Such are the rewards the Indian trader may expect;--add to these, in
a few cases, the acquisition of some thousands, which, after forty
years' exile, he has neither health, nor strength, nor taste to enjoy.
Few instances have occurred of gentlemen retiring with a competency
under thirty-five or forty years' servitude, even in the best days of
the trade; what period may be required to attain that object in these
times, is a question not easily solved. Up to 1840, one eighty-fifth
share had averaged 400l. per annum; since then, however, the dividends
have been on the decline, nor are they ever likely to reach the same
amount, for several reasons,--the chief of which is the destruction of
the fur-bearing animals.
In certain parts of the country, it is the Company's policy to destroy
them along the whole frontier; and our general instructions recommend
that every effort be made to lay waste the country, so as to offer no
inducement to petty traders to encroach on the Company's limits. Those
instructions have indeed had the effect of ruining the country, but
not of protecting the Company's domains. Along the Canadian frontier,
the Indians, finding no more game on their own lands, push beyond the
boundary, and not only hunt on the Company's territory, but carry a
supply of goods with them, which they trade with the natives. Their
Honours' fiat has also nearly swept away the fur animals on the west
side of the Rocky Mountains; yet I doubt whether all this precaution
will ensure the integrity of their domains. The Americans have taken
possession of the Columbia, and will speedily multiply and increase:
ere many years their trappers will be found scouring the interior,
from the banks of the Columbia to New Caledonia, and probably
penetrating to the east side of the Rocky Mountains. Should they
do so, that valuable part of the country embraced by the Peace and
McKenzie Rivers would soon be ruined; for the white trapper makes
a clean sweep wherever he goes. Taking all these circumstances
into consideration, I do not see any great probability--to say the
least--that the trade will ever attain the prosperity of days bygone.
Even in such parts of the country as the Company endeavour to
preserve, both the fur-bearing and larger animals have of late become
so scarce, that some tribes are under the necessity of quitting their
usual hunting-grounds. A certain gentleman, in charge of a district to
which some of those Indians withdrew, on being censured for harbouring
them in his vicinity, writes thus:--"Pray, is it surprising, that poor
Indians, whose lives are in jeopardy, should relish a taste of buffalo
meat? It is not the Chippewayans alone that leave their lands to go
in search of food to preserve their lives; the Strongwood Crees and
Assineboines are all out in the plains, because, as they affirm, their
usual hunting-grounds are so exhausted that they cannot live upon
them. It is no wish of mine that those Indians should visit us--we
have trouble enough with our own,--but to turn a poor Indian out of
doors, who arrives at the Company's establishment nearly dead with
hunger, is what I am not able to do."
In the work already quoted I find it stated "that the Company have
carefully nursed the various animals, removing their stations from the
various districts where they had become scarce, and taking particular
care to preserve the female while pregnant! instead, therefore, of
being in a state of diminution, as generally supposed, the produce is
increasing throughout their domains." Fudge! It is unnecessary to
say, that if this statement were correct, we should not hear such
distressing accounts of starvation throughout the country. No people
can be more attached to their native soil than the Indians; and it is
only the most pressing necessity that ever compels them to remove.
In 1842 the Governor and Committee issued positive orders that the
beavers should be preserved, and every effort made to prevent the
Indians from killing them for a period of three years. This was, in a
great measure, "shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen."
The beavers had already been exterminated in many parts of the
country; and even where some were yet to be found, our injunctions to
the natives to preserve them had but little weight. To appease their
hunger they killed whatever game came in their way, and as we were
not permitted to buy the beaver skins, they either converted them into
articles of clothing for themselves or threw them away. Now (1845) the
restriction is removed, and the beavers have sensibly increased; but
mark the result: the natives are not only encouraged but strenuously
urged to hunt, in order that the parties interested may indemnify
themselves for their lost time; and ere three years more shall have
elapsed, the beaver will be found scarcer than ever.
It is thus evident that whatever steps their Honours may take to
preserve the game, the attainment of that object, in the present
exhausted state of the country, is no longer practicable.
As to the Company's having ever issued orders, or recommended any
particular measures for the preservation of the larger animals, male
or female, the statement is positively untrue. The minutes of the
Council are considered the statutes of the land, and in them the
provision districts are directed to furnish so many bags of pemmican,
so many bales of dry meat, and so many cwt. of grease, every year; and
no reference whatever is made to restrictions of any kind in killing
the animals. The fact is, the provisions must be forthcoming whatever
be the consequence; our business cannot be carried on without them.
That the natives wantonly destroy the game in years of deep snow is
true enough; but the snow fell to as great a depth before the advent
of the whites as after, and the Indians were as prone to slaughter the
animals then as now; yet game of every description abounded and
want was unknown. To what cause then are we to ascribe the present
scarcity? There can be but one answer--to the destruction of the
animals which the prosecution of the fur-trade involves.
As the country becomes impoverished, the Company reduce their outfits
so as to ensure the same amount of profit,--an object utterly beyond
their reach, although economy is pushed to the extreme of parsimony;
and thus, while the game becomes scarcer, and the poor natives require
more ammunition to procure their living, their means of obtaining
it, instead of being increased, are lessened. As an instance of the
effects of this policy, I shall mention what recently occurred in the
Athabasca district.
Up to 1842 the transport of the outfit required four boats, when it
was reduced to three. The reduction in the article of ammunition was
felt so severely by the Chippewayans, that the poor creatures, in
absolute despair, planned a conspiracy to carry off the gentleman at
the head of affairs, and retain him until the Company should restore
the usual outfit.
Despair alone could have suggested such an idea to the Chippewayans,
for they have ever been the friends of the white man. Mr. Campbell,
however, who had passed his life among them, conducted himself with so
much firmness and judgment, that, although the natives had assembled
in his hall with the intention of carrying their design into
execution, the affair passed over without any violence being
attempted.
The general outfit for the whole northern department amounted in 1835,
to 31,000l.; now (1845) it is reduced to 15,000l., of which one-third
at least is absorbed by the stores at Red River settlement, and a
considerable portion of the remainder by the officers and servants of
the Company throughout the country. I do not believe that more than
one half of the outfit goes to the Indians.
While the resources of the country are thus becoming yearly more and
more exhausted, the question naturally suggests itself, What is to
become of the natives when their lands can no longer furnish the means
of subsistence? This is indeed a serious question, and well worthy of
the earnest attention of the philanthropist. While Britain makes such
strenuous exertions in favour of the sable bondsmen of Africa, and
lavishes her millions to free them from the yoke, can nothing be done
for the once noble, but now degraded, aborigines of America? Are
they to be left to the tender mercies of the trader until famine and
disease sweep them from the earth? People of Britain! the Red Men of
America thus appeal to you;--from the depths of their forest they send
forth their cry--
"Brethren! beyond the Great Salt Lake, we, the Red Men of America
salute you:--
"Brethren!
"We hear that you are a great and a generous people; that you are as
valiant as generous; and that you freely shed your blood and scatter
your gold in defence of the weak and oppressed; if it be so, you will
open your ears to our plaints.
"Brethren! Our ancients still remember when the Red Men were numerous
and happy; they remember the time when our lands abounded with game;
when the young men went forth to the chase with glad hearts and
vigorous limbs, and never returned empty; in those days our camps
resounded with mirth and merriment; our youth danced and enjoyed
themselves; they anointed their bodies with fat; the sun never set on
a foodless wigwam, and want was unknown.
"Brethren! When your kinsmen came first to us with guns, and
ammunition, and other good things the work of your hands, we were glad
and received them joyfully; our lands were then rich, and yielded with
little toil both furs and provisions to exchange for the good things
they brought us.
"Brethren! Your kinsmen are still amongst us; they still bring us
goods, and now we cannot want them; without guns and ammunition we
must die. Brethren! our fathers were urged by the white men to hunt;
our fathers listened to them; they ranged wood and plain to gratify
their wishes; and now our lands are ruined, our children perish with
hunger.
"Brethren! We hear that you have another Great Chief who rules over
you, to whom even our great trading Chief must bow; we hear that this
great and good Chief desires the welfare of all his children; we hear
that to him the white man and the red are alike, and, wonderful to
be told! that he asks neither furs nor game in return for his bounty.
Brethren! we feel that we can no longer exist as once we did; we
implore your Great Chief to shield us in our present distress; we
desire to be placed under his immediate care, and to be delivered
from the rule of the trading Chief who only wants our furs, and cares
nothing for our welfare.
"Brethren! Some of your kinsmen visited us lately; they asked neither
our furs nor our flesh; their sojourn was short; but we could see
they were good men; they advised us for our good, and we listened to
them. Brethren! We humbly beseech your Great Chief that he would send
some of those good men to live amongst us: we desire to be taught
to worship the Great Spirit in the way most pleasing to him: without
teachers among us we cannot learn. We wish to be taught to till the
ground, to sow and plant, and to perform whatever the good white
people counsel us to do to preserve the lives of our children.
"Brethren! We could say much more, but we have said enough,--we wish
not to weary you.
"Brethren! We are all the children of the Great Spirit; the red man
and the white man were formed by him. And although we are still in
darkness and misery, we know that all good flows from him. May he turn
your hearts to pity the distress of your Red Brethren! Thus have we
spoken to you."
Such are the groans of the Indians. Would to Heaven they were heard by
my countrymen as I have heard them! Would to Heaven that the misery
I have witnessed were seen by them! The poor Indians then would
not appeal to them in vain. I can scarcely hope that the voice of a
humble, unknown individual, can reach the ears, or make any impression
on the minds of those who have the supreme rule in Britain; but if
there are there men of rank, and fortune, and influence, whose hearts
sympathise with the misery and distress of their fellow-men, whatever
be their country or hue--and, thank God! there are not a few--it is to
those true Britons that I would appeal in behalf of the much-wronged
Indians; the true and rightful owners of the American soil.
If I am asked what I would suggest as the most effective means for
saving the Indians, I answer: Let the Company's charter be abolished,
and the portals of the territory be thrown wide open to every
individual of capital and enterprise, under certain restrictions; let
the British Government take into its hands the executive power of
the territory, and appoint a governor, judges, and magistrates; let
Missionaries be sent forth among the Indians;--already the whole
of the Chippewayan tribes, from English River to New Caledonia, are
disposed to adopt our religion as well as our customs, so that the
Missionaries' work is half done. Let those of them who manifest
a disposition to steady industry be encouraged to cultivate the
ground: let such as evince any aptitude for mechanics be taught
some handicraft, and congregated in villages, wherever favourable
situations can be found--and there is no want of them. Let schools be
established and supported by Government--not mere _common_ schools,
where reading, writing, arithmetic, and perhaps some of the higher
branches may be taught; but _training_ and _industrial_ schools. Where
the soil or climate is unfit for husbandry, other means of improving
their condition might be resorted to. In the barren grounds, bordering
on the Arctic regions, rein-deer still abound. Why should not the
Indians succeed in domesticating these animals, and rendering them
subservient to their wants, as the Laplanders do? I have been informed
that the Yellow Knives, and some of the other tribes inhabiting these
desert tracts, have the art of taming the fawns, which they take in
great numbers while swimming after their dams, so that they follow
them like dogs till they see fit to kill them.
Such, in brief, are the measures which, after much experience, and
long and serious consideration, I would venture to propose in behalf
of the Indians; and most happy shall I be if anything I have said
shall have the effect of awakening the public interest to their
condition; or form the groundwork of any plan which, by the blessing
of God, may have the effect of preserving and christianizing the
remnants of these unhappy tribes.
It may be objected, that the Company have had their charter renewed
for a period of twenty-one years, which does not expire till 1863;
and that Government is bound in honour to sustain the validity of the
deed. But if Government is bound to protect the _interests_ of the
Hudson's Bay Company, is it less bound to protect the _property_ and
_lives_ of their weak, ignorant, and wronged subjects? The validity of
the original charter, the foundation of the present, is, however, more
than questioned: nay, it has been declared by high authority to be
null and void. Admitting its validity, and admitting that the dictates
of honour call for the fulfilment of the charter in guarding the
_profits_ of the few individuals (and their dependants) who assemble
weekly in the old house in Fenchurch Street; are we to turn a deaf ear
to the still small voice of justice and humanity pleading in behalf
of the numerous tribes of perishing Indians? Now, now is the time to
apply the remedy; in 1863, where will the Indian be?
If it is urged that the measures I propose violate the charter,
deprive the Company of their sovereignty, and reduce them to the
situation of subjects; still, I say, they will have vast advantages
over every other competitor. Their ample resources, their long
exclusive possession of the trade, their experience, the skill and
activity of their agents, will long, perhaps permanently, secure to
them the greatest portion of the trade; while the Indians will be
greatly benefited by a free competition.
If it be urged that the profits will be so much reduced by
competition, that the trade will not be worth pursuing; I answer,
that competition has certainly a natural tendency to reduce profits;
but experience proves that it has also a tendency to reduce costs.
A monopolist company never goes very economically to work; and,
although much economy, or rather parsimony, of a very questionable and
impolitic kind, has been of late years attempted to be introduced into
the management of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs, a free and fair
competition will suggest economy of a sounder kind--the facilitating
of transport, the improvement of portages, and the saving of labour.
Where are the evils which interested alarmists predicted would follow
the modification of the East India Company's charter?
I have spoken of restrictions to be imposed on those who engage in the
trade. These are;--that no one be allowed to engage in it without
a licence from Government;--that these licensed traders should be
confined to a certain locality, beyond which they should not move, on
any pretext;--and that no spirituous liquors should be sold or given
to the Indians under the severest penalties--such as the forfeiture of
the offender's licence, and of their right to participate in the trade
in all time coming.