Fort Vancouver (the depot).
Fort George.
Nez Perce.
Ockanagan.
Colville.
Fort Hall.
Thompson's River.
Fort Langley.
Cootanies.
Flat-head Post.
Nisqually.
Alexandria.
Fort Chilcotin.
Fort James.
Fort Fluz Cuz.
Babine Lake.
And an agency in the Sandwich Islands.
There are seven different grades in the service. First, the labourer,
who is ready to turn his hand to anything; to become a trapper,
fisherman, or rough carpenter at the shortest notice. He is generally
employed in cutting firewood for the consumption of the establishment at
which he is stationed, shovelling snow from before the doors, mending
all sorts of damages to all sorts of things, and, during the summer
months, in transporting furs and goods between his post and the nearest
depot. Next in rank is the interpreter. He is, for the most part, an
intelligent labourer, of pretty long standing in the service, who,
having picked up a smattering of Indian, is consequently very useful in
trading with the natives. After the interpreter comes the postmaster;
usually a promoted labourer, who, for good behaviour or valuable
services, has been put upon a footing with the gentlemen of the service,
in the same manner that a private soldier in the army is sometimes
raised to the rank of a commissioned officer. At whatever station a
postmaster may happen to be placed, he is generally the most useful and
active man there. He is often placed in charge of one of the many small
stations, or outposts, throughout the country. Next are the apprentice
clerks--raw lads, who come out fresh from school, with their mouths
agape at the wonders they behold in Hudson Bay. They generally, for the
purpose of appearing manly, acquire all the bad habits of the country as
quickly as possible, and are stuffed full of what they call fun, with a
strong spice of mischief. They become more sensible and sedate before
they get through the first five years of their apprenticeship, after
which they attain to the rank of clerks. The clerk, after a number of
years' service (averaging from thirteen to twenty), becomes a chief
trader (or half-shareholder), and in a few years more he attains the
highest rank to which any one can rise in the service, that of chief
factor (or shareholder).
It is a strange fact that three-fourths of the Company's servants are
Scotch Highlanders and Orkneymen. There are very few Irishmen, and
still fewer English. A great number, however, are half-breeds and
French Canadians, especially among the labourers and _voyageurs_.
From the great extent, and variety of feature, in the country occupied
by the fur-traders, they subsist, as may be supposed, on widely
different kinds of food. In the prairie, or plain countries, animal
food is chiefly used, as there thousands of deer and bisons wander
about, while the woods are stocked with game and wild-fowl. In other
places, however, where deer are scarce and game not so abundant, fish of
various kinds are caught in the rivers and lakes; and in other parts of
the country they live partly upon fish and partly upon animal food.
Vegetables are very scarce in the more northern posts, owing to the
severity of the winter, and consequent shortness of summer. As the
Company's servants are liable, on the shortest notice, to be sent from
one end of the continent to another, they are quite accustomed to change
of diet;--one year rejoicing in buffalo-humps and marrow-bones, in the
prairies of the Saskatchewan, and the next devouring hung white-fish and
scarce venison, in the sterile regions of Mackenzie River, or varying
the meal with a little of that delectable substance often spoken of by
Franklin, Back, and Richardson as their only dish--namely,
_tripe-de-roche_, a lichen or moss which grows on the most barren rocks,
and is only used as food in the absence of all other provisions.
During the first years of the Company, they were much censured for not
carrying out the provision contained in the royal charter, that they
should prosecute Discovery as much as possible; and it was even alleged
that they endeavoured to prevent adventurers, not connected with
themselves, from advancing in their researches. There is every reason
to believe, however, that this censure was undeserved. A new company,
recently formed in a wild country, could not at first be expected to
have time or funds to advance the arduous and expensive cause of
Discovery. With regard to their having impeded the attempts of others,
it is doubtful whether any one in the service ever did so; but even had
such been the case, the unauthorised and dishonourable conduct of one or
two of their servants does not sanction the condemnation of the whole
Company. Besides, the cause of Discovery was effectively advanced in
former days by Herne, and in later years by Dease and Simpson, Dr Rae,
and others; so that, whatever might have been the case at first, there
can be no doubt that the Company have done much for the cause of late
years.
The trade carried on by the Company is in peltries of all sorts, oil,
dried and salted fish, feathers, quills, etcetera. A list of some of
their principal articles of commerce is subjoined:--
Beaver-skins.
Bear-skins, Black.
Bear-skins, Brown.
Bear-skins, White or Polar.
Bear-skins, Grizzly.
Badger-skins.
Buffalo or Bison Robes (see note below).
Castorum, a substance procured from the body of the beaver.
Deer-skins, Rein.
Deer-skins, Red.
Deer-skins, Moose or Elk.
Deer-skins, parchment.
Feathers of all kinds.
Fisher-skins.
Fox-skins, Black.
Fox-skins, Silver.
Fox-skins, Cross.
Fox-skins, Red.
Fox-skins, White.
Fox-skins, Blue.
Goose-skins.
Ivory (tusks of the Walrus).
Lynx-skins.
Marten-skins.
Musquash-skins.
Otter-skins.
Oil, Seal.
Oil, Whale.
Swan-skins.
Salmon, salted.
Seal-skins.
Wolf-skins
Wolverine-skins.
Note. The hide of the bison--or, as it is called by the fur-traders,
the buffalo--when dressed on one side and the hair left on the other, is
called a robe. Great numbers are sent to Canada, where they are used
for sleigh wrappers in winter. In the Indian county they are often used
instead of blankets.
The most valuable of the furs mentioned in the above list is that of the
_black fox_. This beautiful animal resembles in shape the common fox of
England, but it is much larger, and jet-black, with the exception of one
or two white hairs along the back-bone and a pure white tuft on the end
of the tail. A single skin sometimes brings from twenty-five to thirty
guineas in the British market; but, unfortunately, they are very scarce.
The _silver fox_ differs from the black fox only in the number of white
hairs with which its fur is sprinkled; and the more numerous the white
hairs, the less valuable does it become. The _cross fox_ is a cross
between the black or silver and the red fox. The _red fox_ bears a much
inferior fur to the other kinds; yet it is a good article of trade, as
this species is very numerous. These four kinds of foxes are sometimes
produced in the same litter, the mother being a red fox. The _white
fox_ is of less value than the red, and is also very numerous,
particularly on the shores of Hudson Bay. The variety termed the _blue
fox_ is neither numerous nor valuable. It is of a dirty bluish-grey
colour, and seldom makes its appearance at the Company's posts.
Beaver, in days of yore, was the staple fur of the country; but, alas!
the silk hat has given it its death-blow, and the star of the beaver has
now probably set for ever--that is to say, with regard to men; probably
the animals themselves fancy that their lucky star has just risen. The
most profitable fur in the country is that of the marten. It somewhat
resembles the Russian sable, and generally maintains a steady price.
These animals, moreover, are very numerous throughout most part of the
Company's territories, particularly in Mackenzie River, whence great
numbers are annually sent to England.
All the above animals and a few others are caught in steel and wooden
traps by the natives; while deer, buffaloes, etcetera, are run down,
shot, and snared in various ways, the details of which will be found in
another part of this volume.
Trade is carried on with the natives by means of a standard valuation,
called in some parts of the country a _castor_. This is to obviate the
necessity of circulating money, of which there is little or none,
excepting in the colony of Red River. Thus, an Indian arrives at a fort
with a bundle of furs, with which he proceeds to the Indian
trading-room. There the trader separates the furs into different lots,
and, valuing each at the standard valuation, adds the amount together,
and tells the Indian (who has looked on the while with great interest
and anxiety) that he has got fifty or sixty casters; at the same time he
hands the Indian fifty or sixty little bits of wood in lieu of cash, so
that the latter may know, by returning these in payment of the goods for
which he really exchanges his skins, how fast his funds decrease. The
Indian then looks round upon the bales of cloth, powder-horns, guns,
blankets, knives, etcetera, with which the shop is filled, and after a
good while makes up his mind to have a small blanket. This being given
him, the trader tells him that the price is six castors; the purchaser
hands back six of his little bits of wood, and selects something else.
In this way he goes on till all his wooden cash is expended; and then,
packing up his goods, departs to show his treasures to his wife, and
another Indian takes his place. The value of a castor is from one to
two shillings. The natives generally visit the establishments of the
Company twice a year--once in October, when they bring in the produce of
their autumn hunts; and again in March, when they come in with that of
the great winter hunt.
The number of castors that an Indian makes in a winter hunt varies from
fifty to two hundred, according to his perseverance and activity, and
the part of the country in which he hunts. The largest amount I ever
heard of was made by a man called Piaquata-Kiscum, who brought in furs
on one occasion to the value of two hundred and sixty castors. The poor
fellow was soon afterwards poisoned by his relatives, who were jealous
of his superior abilities as a hunter, and envious of the favour shown
him by the white men.
After the furs are collected in spring at all the different outposts,
they are packed in conveniently-sized bales, and forwarded, by means of
boats and canoes, to the three chief depots on the sea-coast--namely,
Fort Vancouver, at the mouth of the Columbia River, on the shores of the
Pacific; York Fort, on the shores of Hudson Bay; and Moose Factory, on
the shores of James Bay--whence they are transported in the Company's
ships to England. The whole country in summer is, consequently, in
commotion with the passing and repassing of brigades of boats laden with
bales of merchandise and furs; the still waters of the lakes and rivers
are rippled by the paddle and the oar; and the long-silent echoes which
have slumbered in the icy embrace of a dreary winter, are now once more
awakened by the merry voice and tuneful song of the hardy _voyageur_.
This slight sketch of the Hudson Bay Company and of the territories
occupied by them may, for the present, serve to give some idea of the
nature of the service and the appearance of the country. We shall now
proceed to write of the Indiana inhabiting these wild regions.
[Doubtless the reader is aware that the chartered rights of the Hudson
Bay Company now (1875) no longer exist; nevertheless their operations
are still conducted in the same manner as of old, so that the above
description is applicable in almost all respects to the greater part of
the country at the present time.]