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 CANADA WEST 
 
 wii 
 
 AND THE 
 
 IIUDSON'S-BAY COMPANY: 
 
 A POLITICAL AND HUMANE QUESTION 
 
 OF VITAL IMPORTANCE TO THE HONOUR OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 TO THE PROSPERITY OF CANADA, 
 
 AND TO THE EXISTENCE OF THE NATIVE TRIBES ; 
 
 .■>'■'.-■", 
 
 nEINO AN 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY LABOUCHERE, 
 
 HER majesty's PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OP STATE 
 FOR THE COLONIES. 
 
 PRESENTED UY THE 
 
 ABORIGINES' PROTECTION SOCIETY. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY BY 
 
 WILLIAM TWEEDIE, 
 
 337, STRAND. 
 1856. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In publisliing the following Address to the Colonial Minister, the 
 Committee of the Aborifjines' Protection Society must emidiati- 
 cally assert lliat it has no interested motive to induce it to take a 
 course which seems opposed to the Hudson's-Bay Company. 
 
 The Society has taken up the question as one of humanity 
 affecting an interesting and deeply-injured race. It has pressed it 
 Avith the growing conviction that it was obeying the call of duty ; 
 and, as it has proceeded, it has met with the strongest evidence, 
 that not merely the rights of the undefended Aborigines, but the 
 national and commercial interests of this country and those of 
 Canada, ever growing in importance, imperatively demand atten- 
 tion to the facts and considerations which are briefly glanced at in 
 this Address. 
 
 All political parties are now agreed as to the universal benefits 
 of free trade and free communication. Why are these to be with- 
 held, to general injury, and sacrificed to the impolitic desires of a 
 Company, which has long betrayed the trust confided to it, and 
 retarded the progress of civilization and religion ? 
 
 The Committee has gratefully to acknowledge that the address 
 was patiently and attentively heard by the Colonial Secretary, 
 who, with great politeness and interest, conversed on several of tliX3 
 points to which it refers. 
 
I 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 mOIlT IIONOKABLE lIENliY LAHOIJCIIEKK, 
 
 HER majesty's PHINCIIML SECilKTAHY OF STATli 
 FOR THE colonies: 
 
 WITH AN AP]>END1X. 
 
 The Committee OF the Aborigines' Protection Society, 
 onbehalf of the Society which tiiey represent, beg to draw the 
 attention of Her Majesty's Government, and especially of Her 
 Majesty's Secretary for the Colonies, to the peculiar circuni- 
 stances in which the aboriginal inhabitants of British North 
 America are at present; placed, and which they believe both call 
 for immediate action on the part of Her Majesty's Government 
 and justify the course the former have taken in brinaina those 
 circumstances to its notice. ° * 
 
 These are — 
 
 1. That throughout the entire territory west of the Great 
 
 Lakes the boundary is still unsettled. 
 
 2. That great displacements of the aboriginal population 
 
 are at the least imminent, if they are not now in pro- 
 gress ; and 
 
 3. That the license of trade which gives to the Hudson's- 
 
 Bay Company unlimited authority over the entire 
 north-west portion of British North America must 
 shortly be brought under the consideration of Her 
 Majesty's Government, as it expires in 1859. 
 
 These facts will be observable in three difFerent'areas, and 
 irom causes varying in each. 
 
 L In the district of the Great Lakes. Even here the 
 boundary is unsettled as between the Hudson's-Bay 
 Company and Canada : it may be said both to the north 
 and west. 
 

 2 
 
 Tlie Indians inhabiting the country about Lake Superior, 
 and, indeed, to the north-west of Lake Huron also, have, until 
 very recently, considered themselves under the government of 
 the Hudson's- Bay Company ; but the frontier of Canada on 
 the west extends, by admission, as far as the height of land 
 between Lakes Superior and Winnipeg: the search for 
 minerals is bringing the district about Lake Superior into 
 general note in Canada ; mining locations arc being rapidly 
 sold ; and the Indian will be as rapidly driven from the shores 
 of the lake : but whether he go to the north or west he can 
 have no permanent settlement, but must remain a wanderer: he 
 can treat neither with the Company nor the Canadian govern- 
 ment ; for, both to the north and west, the latter, or at least the 
 Canadian people, declare their intention to extend their 
 boundary to its ancient limits, which stretch far beyond those 
 claimed by the Hudson's-Bay Company, both to the north and 
 west. (See App. A.) Driven from their hunting and fishing 
 grounds, nothing remains to the remnant of the ancient lords 
 of the soil but their necessarily-resulting immediate and con- 
 tinued suffering, and ultimate extinction, — a result which we 
 are sure Her Majesty's Government cannot contemplate 
 without the deepest concern. 
 
 The remedies for these evils which naturally commend 
 themselves in this, as in the other cases, are, the settlement of 
 the boundary, the reservation of sufficient tracts, in fertile and 
 convenient localities, for the domiciliation of the natives, 
 together with their admission to the rights of citizenship. 
 
 It is true that the number of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 the Lake district is not great, and that they may possibly fade 
 away from the earth without creating difliculties which must 
 force their civilized brethren to acknowledge or take notice 
 of their rights as members of the same great commonwealth. 
 This, however, cannot be the case in the district to which we 
 would next direct your attention. 
 
 2. About Lake Winnipeg, and in the valley of the Saskatche- 
 wan, are to be found, as your Memorialists apprehend, the 
 
seeds of future serious difFiciiIties, not only to the Compimy 
 which now stretches its irresponsihlc rule over thcui, but to 
 the empire at large. 
 
 The ignorance or carelessness of those to whom was ori- 
 ginally committed the settlement of the boundary between the 
 territories of Great Britain and the United States, from the Great 
 Lakes to the Pacific, not to mention other causes of scarcely less 
 importance, led to the serious mistake of conceding the upper 
 part of the Red River to the latter; and thus a door was 
 opened for the intrusion of the citizens of the Union, and all 
 the evils incident to border life far removed from the re- 
 str.aints of law and of public opinion. (See App. B.) 
 
 By that concession, also, the claim of the Hudson's- Bay Com- 
 pany, under their charter, to that territory, a portion of which 
 they had already sold to Lord Selkirk, was ignored, and a 
 precedent established, on which we have reason to believe the 
 Canadians will not be slow to act, whenever an opportunity 
 shall be afforded them ; and by it, moreover, the titles under 
 which a considerable native population, domiciliated there 
 under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, at pre- 
 sent hold farms under cultivation on that river, may hereafter 
 be endangered. (See App. C.) 
 
 The population of the settlement, originally formed by Lord 
 Selkirk, now increased to about eight thousand souls, the 
 larger portion of whom is composed of half-breeds and 
 others of Indian blood, to the amount, probably, of five-sixths 
 of the whole, may therefore be considered as within the scope 
 of the operations of our Society, and as claiming its advocacy. 
 These people, unable, on account of the restrictive laws 
 enforced by the Hudson's-Bay Company, to trade with Canada 
 or with England, are for the most part disposed to seek help 
 from the United States, should the opportunity offer : and for 
 the same reason only, not from any disaffection to the British 
 Government, as is well known, they, at the time of the dispute 
 respecting the Oregon territory, sent a petition to Congress to 
 be admitted under the protection of the Union, with the citi- 
 
zens of wliicb, from the circumstance alrcjidy noted, they had 
 been brought into early and immediate contact. (See App. D.) 
 
 From connexion and simihirity of interests the people of the 
 Red-River Settlement have also acquired considerable influ- 
 ence over the Indians of the plains, who, sullering perhaps 
 even more from the monopoly of trade exercised by the Com- 
 pany, have the usual feelings of slaves for their masters, and a 
 spark only is wanting to kindle a conflagration here: but this 
 is not all. 
 
 The gradual but steady progress of the settlements to the 
 west of the Mississippi and up the valley of the Missouri ; the 
 now constant traffic across the southern pass to California and 
 Oregon ; the opening of other paths, which must necessarily 
 follow the recent surveys of the United-States' Government, to 
 the north ; as they have already resulted in the collection of 
 the warlike equestrian tribes in the valleys and plains of the 
 sources and about the affluents of the Missouri, so they must 
 ultimately result in the displacement of some of these, and 
 viieir irruption into the valley of the Saskatchewan, i. e. from 
 the territories of the United States to those of Great Britain ; 
 and although the Hudson's-Bay Company have, from pru- 
 dential reasons, for a long time vacated the valley of the 
 southern Saskatchewan, (notwithstanding it must be esteemed 
 the finest portion of the territories claimed by them, as well 
 as that through which the best route to the valley of the 
 Columbia will be found,) yet the displacement alluded to must 
 necessarily produce collision between the tribes driven from 
 the valley of the Missouri and those under the rule of the 
 Company, and of course, therefore, with the Company also. 
 Recent events in Oregon, where, as is well known, similar 
 displacements have occurred, and where settlements, esta- 
 blished under the auspices of the Company, have sought for 
 and obtained the protection of the United States (See App. E), 
 and been transferred to their government, resulting, as they 
 have done, in a war of extermination with the natives, more 
 than justify the most serious anticipations of evil in this quarter. 
 
It appears to your Memorialists that the territory in (piesllon 
 is most peculiarly suited for a refufjc for the Aborigines, and 
 mif^ht well he reserved for that purpose ; but, to niai<e it a safe 
 one, the international boundary must be defitiitively marked 
 out, and not left as at present, dependent on astronomical 
 observations; sulTicient power mu«t be maintained to secure 
 the i)redominance of law and order; and the means of civiliza- 
 tion and conversion must be provided for the natives ; nor 
 must their political organization be for^jotten, for experience 
 teaches us, that without this the other advantaji^es may fail of 
 their full realization. (See App. F.) 
 
 We are glad to observe that the first of these rc(]ulrements is 
 acknowledged and sought by the Government of the United 
 States as of national importance, President Pierce, in his address 
 this year, having alluded very pointedly to the necessity for 
 a joint commission being appointed to run the boundary line. 
 For the others we must express our opinion that no Govern- 
 ment can abandon its responsibilities in such matters because 
 of the distance of the spot in question from the centre of their 
 operations, or the difficulties which may seem to interpose. 
 
 We may, however, remark, that the difficulties of such an 
 undertaking are usually much exaggerated •, and that the 
 opening of the navigation of Lake Superior has brought the 
 district in question as near of access from our shipping, as 
 that which may now be esteemed the seaboard of the conti- 
 nent, viz. the shore of Lake Superior, was, within the memory 
 ofsomeofus. (See App. G.) 
 
 8. In the district to the west of the Rocky Mountains difficul- 
 ties increase rather than diminish. With an extensive area, it 
 has but a comparatively short coast line, and, moreover, the 
 principal outlet of the country, the northern branch of the 
 Columbia, leads to the territory of the United States. 
 
 It is to be remarked, also, of this district, that its natural limit 
 southward, i.e. the southern water-shed of the Columbia, is not, 
 as in the former case, near the line selected as the boundary, 
 but far within the limit of the United States (See App. H) ; that, 
 
6 
 
 therefore, whatever probabilities there are of displacements and 
 consequent collision to the east, must be manifestly increased 
 and become more imminent towards the west, and specially so 
 because 'he influence of the Hudson'r-Bay Company, though 
 it no longer extends, as that of the North- West Company for- 
 merly did, into the valley of the Misbissippi, yet has been, until 
 the treaty of 1848, dominant in the west as low down as 
 California; and to this day, as has recently been proved, the 
 Company exercise a paramount influence over the Indians, 
 even within the territories of the Union. And although it has 
 been asserted that this influence has been exercised for good, 
 yet your Memorialists believe, that had the influence of the 
 Company, as such, been beneficial to the moral or mental deve- 
 lopement of the natives, their progress in civilization would 
 have sufficed to prevent the state of things which precipitated 
 the collision, and made the interference of the Company ne- 
 cessary as between the natives and the people of the United 
 States. Indeed, your Memorialists esteem it impossible that a 
 trading company, possessed of irresponsible power, and whose 
 European servants are, from the circumstances of their posi- 
 tion, necessarily precluded from intermarrying with those of 
 their own race, and are shut out from the means of mental and 
 moral improvement, from the habits of civilized society, and 
 the ordinances of religion and are, at the same time in the 
 exercise of irresistible and irresponsible power, can exercise a 
 good moral influence over uncivilized man. (See App. I.) 
 
 On the west coast the case is even worse than in the interior; 
 for while the exclusive right of trade exercised by the Hud- 
 son's-Bay Company keeps off from the coast all British 
 vessels, those of the United States trade there with the 
 natives, without let or hindrance, and, in consequence, spirits 
 and firearms are ordinary articles of barter, and the fierce 
 passions of savage life are developing and increasing, instead 
 of being subdued under the influences of civilization and 
 
 religion. 
 
 I 
 
 S 
 
 Nor is this state of things improved in the so-clled colony 
 
 II 
 
of Vancouver's Island; tor there, in addition to the evils which 
 press on the Aborigines in every place under the sway of the 
 Hudson's-Bay Company, their property in land has been 
 alienated, not only without equivalent, but without acknowledg- 
 ment by the Charter of the colony ; the mineral wealth, now 
 no longer matter of dispute or uncertainty, but acknowledged 
 to be of paramount importance to the opening the trade of the 
 Pacific, has been given also into the hands of the Company ; 
 while the discontent and c^'saftection here as elsewhere rife 
 among the European settlers under the Company's Government 
 leave the evils under which the natives suffer without miti- 
 gation. 
 
 We therefore, on behalf of the Aborigines' Protection 
 Society, beg most earnestly to request your attention and that 
 of Her Majesty's Government, to the condition of the Indians 
 in these parts of British North America, with reference, 
 
 1. To the settlement of the boundaries. 
 
 2. To the reservation of sufficient tracts for the location of 
 
 the natives. 
 
 3. To the political organization, and the appointment of 
 
 proper officers, with sufficient powers for the esta- 
 blishment of order and the protection of the natives. 
 
 4. To the preservation of the natural rights of the Indians 
 5 when the license of trade of the Hudson's-Bay Com- 
 
 . pany and the Charter of Vancouver's Island come 
 before Her Majesty's Government for renewal; and, 
 Lastly, for the establishment of schools for their mental 
 instruction and industrial training, and the appointment 
 of teachers and ministers of religion. ; « , 
 
 The first three of these involve questions which, on the pre- 
 sent occasion, it might be impertinent in us to raise ; but with 
 respect to the two latter, we cannot forbear to remind you, 
 that no people have shewn themselves more susceptible of 
 attachment to the British Government; while few have greater 
 capacity for the reception of the influences of civilization and 
 religion than the aboriginal inhabitants of British North 
 America. Of this too many proofs are extant to need recapi- 
 
8 
 
 :l! 
 
 tulation, and yet no general and systematic effort has ever 
 been made to this end : the mind of their great mother has 
 not been opened unto them, it* her face has not been turned 
 away from them : they have, in short, hitherto been losers, 
 and not gainers, by their connexion with this country. But it 
 would, your Memorialists believe, be as much in accordance 
 with the personal feelings of our gracious Queen, as with the 
 natural characteristics of her sex, that her reign should be 
 signalized by some effort in thia direction and to this end, to 
 which the present state of peace and prosperity throughout 
 the empire also invites. 
 
 The union of the British with the Indian race appears to us to 
 afford ready and efficient means. There are many half-breeds 
 and others of Indian descent whose mental culture does no 
 discredit to the land of their fathers, but whose sympathies and 
 affections are with their native soil and the race of their mothers. 
 (See App. K.) To these, and others whom they might train, 
 the work of regeneration may well be committed: nor should, 
 as your Memorialists think, the pecuniary means be denied, 
 when it is remembered, that, by the industry of the natives of 
 the territories under the government of the Hudson's-Bay Com- 
 pany, it is estimated that 20,000,000/. sterling has been added 
 to the wealth of this country ; that in the district of Lake 
 Superior, as well as on the west coast, enormous deposits of cop- 
 per; and on the Saskatchewan, and on the west coast also, most 
 valuable beds of coal ; to say nothing of the fisheries, timber, 
 and land, naturally the property of the Aborigines, are en- 
 riching and will enrich the British race. Nor can your Memo- 
 rialists entertain a doubt that the duty, now generally recog- 
 nised as incumbent on every landed proprietor, to promote the 
 education and improvement of the people on his estate, must 
 be equally so on those who are defactOy if not de jure, propri- 
 etors of estates larger than the civilized part of Europe ; or 
 that, as in the one case so in the other, failing the performance 
 of that duty by them, the responsibility devolves on the 
 Government by whose authority their rights and property are 
 maintained. 
 
9 
 
 I 
 
 APPENDIX (A). 
 Extracts from the " Montreal Gazette," AprM 26, 1856. 
 A Correspondent of the journal writes as follows : 
 " First I shall proceed to shew, that however legal the Charter 
 of the Company from Charles II. may be, and however wide an 
 interpretation of its provisions may be assented to in favour of that 
 body, the Company have* no right to cut Canada off from this 
 magnificent country, stretching along the valley of the Saskat- 
 chewan to the sources of that river in the Rocky Mountains; that 
 they have been guilty of great cunning and injustice, as well as 
 of much presumption, in forbidding the enterprise and industry of 
 the province to penetrate beyond the vicinity of Lake Superior; 
 and that, even according to the extravagant pretensions of the 
 Company, they have no legal territorial right beyond the coun- 
 try in tiie immediate vicinity of Hudson's Bay. As the Com- 
 pany appear to rest their claim under the Charter of Charles II. 
 so much on the topography and hydrography of the country, it is 
 very advisable that Canada should not rest satisfied with the 
 accounts put forward upon those heads by the Company, but 
 that she should appoint competent persons to make thorough ex- 
 piorarions of those districts to which she can prefer a fair claim. 
 * * * In their eagerness to grasp for more than even their above- 
 mentioned extravagant claim would give them, the Company 
 attempt to wall in Canada within a short distance of the St. Law- 
 rence (into which they would willingly drive her at the moment), 
 by a height of land which, in the neighbourhood of Lake Superior, 
 they place at a distance of from 30 to about 100 miles of the 
 St. I<awrence, thus narrowing the province in this direction to a 
 most insignificant breadth. There is no height of land extending 
 in an unbroken course north and west of Lake Superior where the 
 Hudson's-Bay Company have placed one." 
 
 It is obviously no less important to the future interests of Canada, 
 now so happily and prosperously developing herselfj th-it she 
 should look well to her Western territories, than it is to the United 
 States to attend to theirs. But if the present system be main- 
 tained, it will be obviously impossible to restrain a growing and 
 enterprising population of United States citizens on their own 
 side of the boundary, v/hen there are abundant rich yet waste 
 lands to tempt them immediately beyond it. First, a squatting 
 occupation, and then annexation, are the inevitable consequences. 
 We must not expect the American Government to prevent or 
 check this. The only way is for the British and Canadian 
 Governments to anticipate the process, and prevent it by wise 
 measures; and in this case, as humanity and policy are not at 
 variance, but on the same side, there is reason to hope for somu 
 improvement in our treatment of the Indians. 
 
 m 
 
10 
 
 i . M ; 
 
 
 APPENDIX (B). 
 
 The boumlary question will be found ably discussed in Fitz- 
 gerald's work, " The Hudson's-Bay Company au<l Vancouver's 
 Island." It may, however, be well to note here, that, under 
 their interpretation of the Charter, the Company granted 10,000 
 square miles to Lord Selkirk on the Red River, in 1812, but that 
 subsequently the larger portion of this grant was admitted, by 
 the Treaty of 1818, to be within the territory of the United States. 
 Nor was this done in ignorance; for Mr. Gillivray, writing to 
 the Colonial Minister in 1815, on behalf of the Company, sfiys — 
 " The settlers, by proceeding up beyond the forks of the Red River, 
 have got to the southward of latitude 49 degrees; so that, if 
 the line due west from the Lake of the Woods is to be the boundary 
 with the United States of America, Lord Selkirk's colony will not 
 be a British, but an American settlement, unless specially excepted 
 in the adjustment of the boundary." Accordingly, Pembina Fort, 
 settled by Lord, Selkirk, is now the military station on the boundary 
 of the Government of the Union. 
 
 APPENDIX (C). 
 
 " The Indians who have been converted to the Protestant reli- 
 gion are settled around their respected pastor, at the lower extre- 
 mity of the settlement, within twenty miles of the mouth of the 
 liver They have their mills, and barns, and dwelling- 
 houses; their horses, and cattle, and well-cultivated fields. A 
 happy change ! A few years ago these name Indians were a 
 wretched, vagabond race, * hewers of wood and drawei'S of water ' 
 for the other settlers, as their pagan brethren still are ; they wan- 
 dered about from house to house, half-starved and half-naked, and 
 even in this state of abject misery preferring a glass of * fire-water' 
 to food and raiment for themselves or their children." — M'Lean's 
 " Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's-Bay 
 Territory," vol. ii. pp. 303, 304. 
 
 i 
 
 APPENDIX (D). 
 
 In 1812, British subjects were, by an Act of the legislature of the 
 United States, precluded from hunting within the territories of the 
 Union. Some of the inhabitants of the Red-River Settlement in 
 consequence turned their attention to trade. Mr. James Sinclair 
 sent, in one of the Company's vessels, a small quantity of tallow 
 to London as an experiment. It proved remunerative, and the 
 next year he sent a much larger venture, but this was not allowed 
 to be taken. In the interim, however, application was made to 
 
i 
 •If 
 
 ■irr-. 
 
 I 
 
 % 
 
 11 
 
 the Company hy other settlers, for permission to export tallow at 
 rnoderat(! freij^hts ; but to tiiis no answer was returned. Suhsc?- 
 qiicntly the Company found it necessary to legislate on the subject. 
 From the Minutes of Council on this subject, published June 10, 
 184ij, and from a letter of the Governor of the country, in answer 
 to the application of certain half-breeds to have tiieir position with 
 respect to hunting and trading defined — all of which documents 
 will be found given in extemo in Fitzgerald's " Hudson's-Bay 
 Company and Vancouver's Island" — v.'e learn that it is i\\e funda- 
 mental law of the country that no settler should trade in furs. 
 This is as if the Government of Australia should declare that no 
 settler should trade in gold. 
 
 Further, that while, once in every year, settlers are permitted, 
 at their own risk, to import stores, fur traffickers are excluded from 
 this privilege, but that, even for this, a licence is required ; and, 
 moreover, that while imports to the amount of 50^. are permitted, 
 they must be purchased only with certain specified productions or 
 manufactures of the settlement, carried away the same season : but 
 this privilege is only conceded to those who may have personally 
 accompanied both exports and imports; so that all trade beyond 
 what can be superintended personally by an individual is strictly 
 forbidden. The land deed of the Company — also given by Fitz- 
 gerald — binds the purchaser of land not to infringe, either directly or 
 indirectly, the exclusive rights, privileges, power of commerce, of or 
 belonging, or anywise appertaining to, or held, used, or enjoyed hy 
 the Company ; that he will not carry on or establish a trade or 
 traffic in or relating to any kind of skins, fure, peltry, or dressed 
 leather, in any part of North America. 
 
 The freight charged by the Company from London to York 
 Factory on Hudson's Bay, on articles imported in their ships 
 by settlers at Red River, is about equal to the customary charge 
 from London to Canton. 
 
 Can we wonder that the settlers sigh for free trade ? 
 *' A single Scotch farmer," says M'Lean, "could be found in 
 the colony able alone to supply the greater part of the produce the 
 Company require : there is one, in fact, who offered to do it. If a 
 sure market were secured to the colonists of Red River, they would 
 speedily become the wealthiest yeomanry in the world. Their 
 
 barns and granaries are always full to overflowing The 
 
 Company purchase from six to eight bushels of wheat from each 
 farmer, at the rate of three shillings per bushel ; and the sum total 
 of their yearly purchases from the whole settlement amounts to 
 600 cwts. flour, first and second qualities ; 35 bushels rough 
 barley ; 10 half-firkins butter, 28 pounds each ; 10 bushels Indian 
 corn ; 200 cwt. best kiln-dried flour ; 60 firkins butter, 56 pounds 
 each ; 240 pounds cheese ; 60 hams. . . . 
 
 Where he (the Red- 
 
12 
 
 River farmer) finds a sure market for the remainder of his 
 produce, heaven only knows, I do not. This much, however, 
 I do know, that the incomparable advantanjes this rleliglitful coun- 
 try possesses are not only, in a great measure, lost to the inhabi- 
 tants, but also to the world, so long as it remains under the 
 dominion of its fur-trading rulers." — " Notes of a Twenty-five 
 Years' Service in the Hudson's-Bay Service," by John McLean, 
 vol. ii. pp. 308, 309. 
 
 l! : I 
 
 APPENDIX (E). 
 
 Mr. Fitzgerald says — " There are many, and those well 
 acquainted with the country itself, who assert that the conduct 
 and policy of the Hudson's-Bay Company in the Oregon 
 territory formed the chief part of the title which the United 
 States had to the country, which was gratuitously given to 
 her by the settlement of the boundary. What the United 
 States owe to the Company for its policy on the west side 
 of the Rocky Mountains is a question to which the English 
 public will some day demand a satisfactory answer. But it is 
 right that the public should know what the Company ai'e charged 
 with having done in those parts. Dr. M'Laughlin was formerly 
 an agent in the North-west Company of Montreal. He was one 
 of the most enterprising and active in conducting the war between 
 that association and the Hudson's-Bay Company. In the year 
 1821 he became a factor of the Hudson's-Bay Company ; but his 
 allegiance does not appear to have been disposed of along with his 
 interests, and his sympathy vvith any thing other than British seems 
 to have done justice to his birth and education, which were those 
 of a French Canadian. This gentleman was appointed governor of 
 all the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and he is accused 
 by those who have been in that country of having uniformly en- 
 couraged the emigration of settlers from the United States, and of 
 having discouraged that of British subjects. While the Company 
 in this country were asserting that their settlements on the Co- 
 lumbia River were giving validity to the claim of Great Britain 
 to the Oregon territory, it appears that their chief oflScer on the 
 spot was doing all in his power to facilitate the operations of those 
 whose whole object was to annihilate that claim altogether." 
 
 Mr. Fitzgerald adds, "This much, at least, is certain, thiit Dr. 
 M'Laughlin provided for himself a very large tract of land, on 
 what title no one knows ; that he formed a considerable farm on 
 what was certain to become American territory ; and that he 
 encouraged the immigration of settlers from the United States, 
 knowing that his own property would be thus raised in value. 
 It is certain that he has now left the Hudson's-Bay Company, and 
 
 - ! , 
 
13 
 
 has become nominally — what be seems to have been for years really 
 — an American citizen liviufif in the midst of an American popu- 
 lation, which he collected around him upon soil to which he knew 
 that h\H own country had all alon<; laid claim." 
 
 Sir E. Belcher alludes to this policy. He says, in his " Narra- 
 tive of a Voyage round the World," vol. i. p. 297 — 
 
 " Some years since the Company determined on forming settle- 
 ments on the rich lands situafecl on the Wallamette and other 
 rivers, and for providing for their retired servants, by allotting 
 them farm'^, and further aiding them by supplies of cattle. That 
 on the Wallamette was too inviting a iield for Missionary enthusiasm 
 to overlook ; but instead of selecting a British subject to afford 
 them spiritual assistance, recourse was had to the Americans ; a 
 course pregnant with evil consequences, and particularly in the 
 political 8(iuabblcs pending (this was written in 1843), as will be 
 seen by the result. No sooner had the American and his allies 
 fairly squatted — which they deem taking possession of a country — 
 than they invited their brethren to join them, and called on the 
 American Government for laws and protection." 
 
 Mr. Dunn, also a retired servant of the Company, thus describes 
 his experiences on this subject — 
 
 " While I was stationed at Vancouver, and in the detached forts, 
 and in the trading ships, the excessively benevolent encouragement 
 granted by the Governor to the new importation of American resi- 
 dents, under the designation of American settlers, used to be freely 
 discussed. There were two parties — the j»atriot and the liberal. 
 .... The British patriots maintained that the Governor was too 
 chivalrously generous ; that his generosity was thrown away, and 
 would be badly requited ; that he was nurturing a race of men who 
 would by-and-bye rise from their meek and humble position, as 
 the grateful acknowledgers of his kindness, into the bold attitude 
 of questioners of his own authority, and the British right to Van- 
 couver itself. This party grounded their arguments on an appeal 
 to the conduct and character of the Americans whom they had 
 seen, especially the free-trappers ; and the remnants of the 
 American companies which still dodged about in the country. 
 .... They also maintained that the (American) Missionaries 
 should be Missionaries in reality — men looking to the successful 
 termination of their labours as their principal reward — men above 
 the imputation or suspicion of being guided by self-interest in their 
 exertions — men who would not squat as permanent and fixed hus- 
 bandmen, and occasional traffickers in skins of animals among the 
 natives: but that they should be bond fide pastors of the Christian 
 church — going about in the true spirit of primitive Christianity — 
 instructing the people in the cardinal doctrines of our religion, and 
 in the arts of civilised life." Mr. Dunn, in epitomizing the argu- 
 
14 
 
 ments of the liberal or opposing party, says they argued that 
 " though the Missionaries were none of the bent class, yet they 
 were better than none at all, e8[)ecially when England so grossly 
 neglected the natives. ])r. M'Laughlin may have acted indis- 
 creetly, but he acted justly, in sanctioning these emigrants 
 
 Hut above all, good would grow out of evil in the end ; for the 
 Americans, by their intercourse with the British, would become more 
 humanised, tolerant, and honest. Hence, they said, it was philo- 
 sophical and liberal to encourage the American Missionary squat- 
 ters But I must confess (continues Mr. Dunn) that 
 
 though in the whole range of dispute the patriot party were the 
 victors, yet on one point their antagonists had a clear advantage 
 — the neglect of the conversion and civilisation of the natives on 
 the part of the home government, and of the British and Foreign 
 Missionary Society." — ** History of the Oregon Territory," &c. 
 pp. 17G-182. 
 
 The result has been already described in tlie extract from Sir E. 
 Belcher's work quoted above. 
 
 \ 
 
 H 
 
 It ' 
 
 APPENDIX (F). 
 
 The political organization of the natives, and their admission to 
 equal privileges with the whites, is more important to their civili- 
 zation than may at first appear. They were originally excluded 
 from the exercise of the franchise in the United States and in Ca- 
 nada ; and now, although legally they may have a right to it, prac- 
 tically they are excluded from its exercise. 
 
 It is a question to which we have not yet obtained a satisfactory 
 answer, whether the aboriginal inhabitants, domiciliated and settled 
 on reserves, can exercise the elective franchise. Had they been 
 represented in the Colonial Legislature, the encroachments on their 
 land, from which they have in so many cases suffered, would not 
 have been made. — See Mr. Buller's report, from which it appears 
 that there were recently 3,0(X),000 of acres of fertile land which 
 had been got from the natives by the Government, and re-sold at 
 an advanced price on account of the improvements made by them 
 upon it. 
 
 It appears, also, from the report of the Commissioners of 
 Inquiry upon the Indians of Canada, that they are (were ?) disa- 
 bled by the colonial laws to appear in courts of justice, singly or 
 as tribes, which alone would go far from preventing them from 
 ever becoming civilized. 
 
 APPENDIX (G). 
 This is no exaggeration. Vessels of 400 tons can, by means of 
 
 4^. 
 
OlClgll 
 
 ." &c. 
 
 canals, ronch Lake IFiiron ; vessels of 250 tons, or steamers of the 
 siinu; (Iniuglit, can go from thence to Lake Siij)orior: so tliat the 
 wost shores of Tj^.ke Superior are more accessihlo now than Lake 
 Ontario WO' tliirty years since. There is nothing to prevent an 
 niiinterruMed line of cominunication being opened by watrr to the 
 base of the rocky mountains. — See Synge's " Great Britain one 
 Empire." 
 
 APPENDIX (H). 
 
 Of all boundary lines an astronomical one is the most absurd. 
 In App. A we have already shown the consequences of this 
 absurdity at Red River ; and without noticing similar consequences 
 in the east, it may here be noted, as more relevant to the present 
 subject that the present boundary, the 49' parallel north latitude 
 does, so far as is known, give the heads of all streams falling into 
 the Missouri from the noith to Great Britain, as it does the head 
 of Red River and the southern Saskatchewan, which flow uito 
 Lake Winnipeg, to the United States : it probably cuts the middle 
 course of the Okanagan on the west of the Rocky Mountains in two 
 places, thus separating its central from its upper and lower course, 
 and gives the land to the south of the mouth of Frazer's River also 
 to the United States. 
 
 The natural boundary to the east is the watershed between the 
 affluents of the Missouri and the Saskatchewan, while on the west a 
 conventional one was necessary. If any part of the valley of the 
 Columbia were to be conceded to the United States, a worse line 
 than the present could scarcely have been found. It appears to 
 have been decided in consequence of the oj)inion of Captain Wilkes, 
 of the American Navy, that wheat ivill not grow to the north of 
 parallel 49'. , • 
 
 APPENDIX (I). 
 
 Sir John Richardson states that " the standard of exchange in 
 all mercantile transactions with the natives is a beaver-skin, the 
 relative value of which, as originally established by the traders, 
 differs considerably from the present worth of the article it repre- 
 sents ; but the Indians are averse to change. Three martens, eight 
 musk-rats, or a single lynx or wolverine's skin, are equivalent to 
 one beaver ; a silver fox, white fox, or other, are reckoned two 
 beavers ; and a black fox or large black bear is equal to four : a 
 mode of reckoning which has very little connection with the real 
 value of those different furs in the European markets. Neither 
 has any attention been paid to the original costs of iMiropean 
 articles in fixing the tarift' by which they are sold to the Indians. 
 
10 
 
 'III! 
 
 A coarse butcher*8 knife is one skin ; a woollen blanket; or a 
 lutliom of coarse cloth, eiglit; and a fowling-piece fifteen." 
 
 Mr. Alexander Himpsnn, one of the Company's chief traders, 
 makes the following Htriking admission. lie says, " That body 
 has asHumed much credit for its discontinuance of the sale of spi- 
 rituous liquors at its trading establishments; but I apprehend that 
 in this matter it has both cliiinjod and received more of praise than 
 is its due. The issue of 8|)irits has not been discontiniied by it on 
 j)7'inc}ple ; indeed, has not been discontinued at all where there is a 
 possibility of diminution of trade through the Indians having the 
 power to resent this deprivation of their accustomed and much- 
 loved annual jollification, by carrying their furs to another market." 
 
 The following entries occur in Mr. Dunn's MS. journal — 
 
 ** Sundaj/f 3/«r<;/i 11, 1832 — It being Sunday, the Indians re- 
 mained in their huts (perhaps) praying, or most likely singing 
 over the rum they had traded with us on Saturday, making a 
 great noise. 
 
 *' Thursday f Api'il 20 — This has been a very fine day. A great 
 many Indians on board, and we have traded a number of skins. 
 They seem to like rum very much here. We have sold an immense 
 quantity of molasses also. 
 
 "Friday, May 4 — A few Indians on board with skins in the 
 evening. They were all drunk. Went on shore ; made a fire 
 about eleven o'clock ; being then all drunk, began firing upon one 
 another. 
 
 " Saturday, June 30 — The Indians are now bringing their 
 blnnkets to trade, as their skins are all gone. They seem very 
 fond of 9'um. 
 
 " Wednesday, July 11 — This morning the chiefs had a grand 
 feast among themselves. They traded a quantity of rum from us, 
 singing during the day." 
 
 Sir John Richardson says: "Another practice may also be noticed, 
 as showing the state of moral feeling .... amongst white resi- 
 dents of the fur countries. It was not \evy imcommon amongst 
 the Canadian voyageurs for one woman to be common to, and 
 maintained at the joint expense of, two men ; nor for a voyageur to 
 sell his wife, either for a season, or altogether, for a sum of money 
 proportioned to her beauty and good qualities, but always inferior 
 to the price of a team of dogs." — Vol. i. p. 167. 
 
 " A few days afterwards the natives began to make their appear- 
 ance, and scenes of a revolting nature were of frequent occurrence. 
 Rum and brandy flowed in streams, and dollars were scattered 
 about as if they had been of no greater value than pebbles on the 
 beach. The expenses incurred by both parties were very great ; 
 but while this lavish expenditure seriously affected the resources 
 of the petty traders, the coffers of the Company were too liberally 
 
n 
 
 j^ 
 
 "4 
 
 nilml to be rtonMil)ly diminiHliod hy niicli an oulltiv. NcvoitlielcHH, 
 tlu! natives would not diHpoHt; of tliuir i'lU'H until llioy roncluul the 
 villafrc."— M'Lenn'B "Notes," vol. i. p. 4(5. 
 
 " As to the instruction the natives iccolvc from us, I am ataloHs 
 to know what it is, where imparted, and by whom pivdi. ' A tule 
 [could unfold.' Uut let it pass: certain it is, thrit neither our 
 example nor our precept hiis had the effect of improvirjg the morals 
 or principles of the natives: they arc ncitiier nu)re enlightened 
 nor more civilised, by our endeavours, than if wo had never 
 appeared among them. The native interpreters even grow old iu 
 our 8<>rvice as ignorant of Christianity as the rudest savages who 
 have never seen the face of a white man." — M'Lenn, vol. ii. p. 201). 
 
 " Some years ago five Missionaries were sent out to tlie Hud- 
 son's-Hay territory by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. After 
 having laboured for some time in the territory, by a decision of the 
 council, the rank of commissioned gentlemen, together with the 
 usual allowances attached to that rank, was conferred on them. 
 . . . . The good fruits (of theii labours) weie soon apparent ; in 
 some parts of the country successful attempts were made to collect 
 the natives ; they were taught to cultivate the soil, to husband 
 their produce, so as to render them lei's dependent on fortuitous 
 circumstances for a living; they were taught to read and write, 
 and to worship God 'in spirit and in truth,' and numbers were 
 daily added to the church ; when lo ! it was discovered that the 
 time devoted to religious exercises, and other duties aritiing out of 
 the altered circumstances of the converts, was so much time lost to 
 the fur hunt ; and from the moment this discovery was made, no 
 further encouragement was given to the innovators. Their labours 
 were strictly confined to the stations they originally occupied, and 
 every obstacle was thrown in the way of extending their missions." 
 — M'Lean, vol. ii. pp. 210—212. 
 
 " In that winter (1830-37) a party of men, led by two clerks, 
 was sent to look for some horses that were grazing at a conside- 
 rable distance from the post. As they approached the spot they 
 perceived a band of Assineboine Indians, eight in number (if I 
 remember rightly), on an adjacent hill, who immediately joined 
 them, and, delivering up their arms, encamped with them for the 
 night. Next morning a court-martial was held by the two clerks 
 and some of the men, to determine the punishment due to the 
 Indians for having been found near the Company's horses, with 
 the supposed intention of carrying them off. What was the deci- 
 sion of this mock court-martial? I shudder to relate that the 
 whole band, after having given up their arms, and partaken of 
 their hospit.ility, were condemned to death, and the sentence 
 carried into execution on the spot : all were butchered in cold 
 blood."— M'Lean, vol. ii. pp. 222, 223. 
 
18 
 
 <t 
 
 U 
 
 "The hiHtory of my cnrcor," Hsiys M'Lcii. " may srrvc ns a 
 warnir)^ to iIiohc who iimy l)(! (liH|)oHO(l to I'litj-r the IliulsoirH-IJiiy 
 Com|iaiiy'H siirvicc. They iniiy Uiani tliiif, iVoiii Mm iiiornciit I hoy 
 ('iiihiirk ill th<! Cornpimy 8 cnriocei (It liU(-hiii(>, or in their 8hi|)8 at 
 Gravdsctid, they hid adieu to all that civiliHcd iiinri must vahiu on 
 earth They hid adieu to all the reliiiemeut and cultiva- 
 tion of civilised life, not unfie(|uently hecomin^ Homi-harharians, — 
 go altered in hahits and sentiments, that they not only hceomo 
 attached to 8avap;(' life, hut eventually lose; all relisJi for any other. 
 I can give pjoo<l authority for thin. The Governor \vritin«; me last 
 year re^ariliiiij some of my aeouaintanceH who had recently retired, 
 observe!* — * They are comfortably settled, but apparently at a loss 
 what to do with themselves ; and .<<}(/fiJ<ir the Indian country, tlie 
 xqiiawsy and skins, and saiHujfis.' " — Vol. ii. pp. 2(10, 2(51. 
 
 "That the Indians wantonly destroy the game in years of 
 deep snow is true enough ; but the snow fell to as great depth be- 
 fore tlio advent of the wliites as after, and the Indians were as 
 |)rone to slaugiiter the animals then as now, yet game of every 
 description abounded, and want was unknown. To what causes, 
 then, are we to attribute the present scarcity ? There can be but 
 one answer — to the destruction of the animals which the prose- 
 cution of the fur trade involves. As the country becomes impo- 
 verished the Company reduce their outfits so as to ensure the same 
 amount of profits, an object utterly beyond their reach, although 
 economy is pushed to the extreme of parsimony ; and thus, while 
 the game becomes scarcer, and tli^ poor natives require more ammu- 
 nition to procure their living, tlieir means of ol)taining it, instead 
 of being increased, are lessened. . . . The general outfits for the 
 whole northern department amounted, in 1835, to 31,(X)0/., now 
 (1845) it is reduced to 15,000/., of which one-third at least is ab- 
 sorbed by the stores at Red River settlement, and a considerable 
 portion of the remainder by the officers and servants of the Com- 
 pany 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 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 fiivour 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 ?" M'Lean. Vol. ii., pp. 266 
 -260. 
 
 The territory granted to the Company by their Charter what- 
 
 
 m 
 
19 
 
 T 
 
 ever iiii|^!it 1)0 its j-xtont, was inopcrly llio colony of Hiipcrt'H 
 liiiiid. It will li(> Mccii, Itv til*- rollowiiiH^ fxtnict tVoiii the iiistnic- 
 fioiirt (Iniwii i'|» fur the ('(dotiiul Oflici! ot'Clniilcs II., I>y uliniu 
 tliiit Cliiirlcr wiis i>riiiit('(l, \vli;if wiis <'X|M'ct('(l from (iovcrtiors ol" 
 colonicH willi rt'H|(f'ct to llic Almri'^iiu's — *' Imu'iihiimicIi nn nioHt 
 of our coliiiiitH do liurdcr ii|iuti tlio liidiwiis, aiul iicacc is not to l>o 
 ••x|tr'(;t(.(l without due (discrvaiicc and |»r('>icrvati()n of" juHticn to 
 llicin, you arc, in our name, to conunand nil. (tdrcrtiors that tlicy 
 at no tiriio \f\vv any just provocation to any of tlin said IndiniiH 
 that arc at peace witli ih," iScc. " With rcHp"ct to Indians who <lo 
 d«!>.iro to put lheins(;lves under our proteetioii that they he r(M.'('ivod. 
 That the (iovcrriors <l() always friendly seek to ohli^e them. 
 That tlioy do not only carefully protect and defend tlicni fr(»ni 
 adversaries, hut that tliey mom csjurid/li/ taltc cdra that tionc «)!' 
 our own suhjects, tior any of their servants, do nnv way harm th(>ni. 
 And that if any shall dare to offer any vioh ncc to them in 
 th(;ir person*", <roods, or po-^sossions, the said (rovcrnors do Hcvcrcly 
 punish the said injuries a<j;rooal)ly to justice; and ri<j;ht. And you 
 arc to consider how the Indians ami slaves may he best insfnirtcd 
 m (i)ul united to the Christian religion ; it l»ein<^ both for the 
 lionour of the Crown and of the Protestant religion itself, that all 
 persons within any of our territories, thoiinh never so remote, 
 should be taui^ht the knowledge of God, and lici nuulc aeepiainted 
 with the mysteries of salvation." 
 
 It remains for the Company to shew why tin; colony of Rupert's 
 Land sliould be exempt from the operation of these instructions. 
 
 t 
 
 APPENDIX (K). 
 
 " These half-breeds," says Fitzgerald, p. 243, " are not to be 
 despise<l or nej^lected. They arc a line race of men, combininpf tlic 
 ready intelligence, that quickness in acqniring knowledge, and the 
 desire for improvement which belong to civilized men, with the 
 endurance, the enterprise, the intolerance of oppression, the deter- 
 mination to revenge, which are pecidiar to the savage. Through 
 the half-breed race the means are open for civilizing the whohi 
 country by acting on the Indian families who are related to them. 
 If there were any real desire on the j)art of the Company to do so, 
 the Indians could, by the influence which might thus be brought to 
 act upon them, be induced to leave their wandering life, and quit 
 the precarious subsistence of the chase for the surer livelihood to 
 be drawn from the cultivation of the soil. Without this, there can 
 be no hope of reclaiming the Indians : by it, that result might be 
 secured." 
 
 .-'^. 
 
mjf, 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 ■-H ' 
 
 W. M. WATTS, CROWN COURT, TEMRt.E BAU. 
 
 Ii< 
 
 i H ,1 
 
 l(!