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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.

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.

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,

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.

Nor is this state of things improved in the so-clled colony

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-

: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.

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.

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.

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-.

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-

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

- ! ,

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-

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.

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.

'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

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.

"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-

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.

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,

■-H '

W. M. WATTS, CROWN COURT, TEMRt.E BAU.

Ii<

i H ,1

l(!