Page images
PDF
EPUB

eight pounds of solid meat, twelve pounds of fish, or a couple of geese. But this is by no means all that is eaten. Sir George Simpson once made one of a party of twelve, which ate three ducks and twenty-two geese at a meal; and Mr. Kane, after a three days' fast, was set down to forty-two pounds of fish, and caused some alarm for his health by his inability to eat much more than half that quantity at a sitting. To meet this demand, the rivers and lakes supply a great variety of fish. In the south there is buffalomeat, which is either eaten fresh, or kept through the summer in an ice-pit; and in the north there is the flesh of the rein-deer, as well as "dried meat" and "pemmican," the former being buffalo-flesh cut into thin strips, smoked, and packed in bales, the latter pounded buffalo-meat and fat, in nearly equal proportions, boiled together, and made up into bags, sometimes with the addition of a little sugar or a few cranberries. Still, at the more remote posts, there is occasionally great scarcity. The supply of fish fails, and the stock of meat may not hold out against the consequent drain. At Lake Athabasca, Sir George Simpson once went without food for three days and nights. At Peel's River, for one whole winter the hunters brought in nothing but two squirrels and a crow; and the gates had to be barred to keep out the starving Indians, who were bent on devouring the scanty stock of dried flesh. At such times as these, the servants are often sent off on long journeys with only a pint of meal and a little parchment by way of provisions.

Next in dignity to the white population, though scarcely next in usefulness, are the half-breeds. They are to be seen in perfection at the Red River. The highest class among them are the buffalo-hunters, from whom the Company obtain their chief supply of dried meat and pemmican. The great summer hunt begins on June 15th, on which day they start from the Red River, carrying with them their wives and children, and the whole floating population of the settlement. Their first act is to elect ten "guides" and ten "captains," each holding office for a day. While they are in motion, the guide is supreme; but when the standard is lowered at night and the camp formed, the captain takes the command. A priest generally accompanies them, and mass is said on Sundays on the open plain. During their progress to the hunting-grounds many, especially of the women and children, are reduced to great extremities. Some are nearly starving, others have a little tea or flour, or singed wheat, a pheasant or squirrel they have caught, or a few wild roots they have found on the prairie. And to this is added, in the autumn hunt, the danger of being overtaken by a sudden snow-storm, which may cut off their retreat. But when the

scouts bring back word that the buffaloes are in sight, sufferings and dangers are alike forgotten. The hunters gradually quicken their pace until the buffaloes take the alarm, when the bestmounted among the pursuers dart forward at full speed, singling out the fattest cows, and reserving their fire until they come within three or four yards of the prey. They reload at the gallop, carrying their bullets in their mouths, and dropping them into the muzzle without wadding. When the pursuit is over, the hunter retraces his path, skinning and cutting up the carcasses as he goes. Each man claims his own victims, trusting to memory for their identification, and recollecting with wonderful accuracy whether they fell to the right or the left, and in what part they were hit. Meanwhile the carts have arrived to carry back the meat to the camp, where the women are fully employed for the next few days in drying it and making it into pemmican. It is computed that 145,000 buffaloes are yearly slaughtered in the British territory, of which the half-breeds kill about 30,000; but full two-thirds of the flesh is left to rot on the prairie.

The native inhabitants of this portion of the continent belong to two different races: the Esquimaux, and the Indian. The Esquimaux inhabit the whole sea-coast of Arctic America, from the mouth of the Churchill River to the Russian frontier. They are distinct from the Indians in appearance, traditions, and mode of life; and, according to Sir John Richardson, they greatly surpass them in courage and intelligence. But with them the Europeans have very little to do. They never wander far from the sea, and are therefore rarely met with by the furtrader, except at some of the northern posts on the Mackenzie River. The Indians of the interior belong to three "nations," each of which includes several tribes. Taking them in order from north to south, they are:

1. Chipewyans:

i. Chipewyan (proper).
2. Hare Indians.

3. Dog-ribs.

4. Beaver Indians.
5. Lucree.

2. Algonquins:

1. Crees of the Coast.
2. Swampy Crees.
3. Thickwood Crees.
4. Prairie Crees.
5. Mountain Crees.

6. Salteaux, or Chipeways.

3. Dacotahs:

I. Sioux.

2. Assiniboine, or Stone Indians.

3. Blackfeet (including Blood and Piegans).

The Chipewyans extend across the continent, from the Esquimaux territory on the north to the Churchill River on the south. The Crees were formerly confined to the coast of Hudson's Bay, and the wooded country between the Churchill and Saskatchewan Rivers; but since 1819 they have, by means of the fire-arms obtained from the traders, driven the Blackfeet from the eastern part of the Saskatchewan prairies, and established themselves in their room. The Salteaux inhabit the country between Lake Superior and Lake Winipeg. Of the Dacotahs, the Sioux are only occasionally met with within the British frontier, and the Stone Indians have long been living at peace with the Crees, and separated from their own kindred. The Blackfeet occupy the whole western prairies, from the Missouri to the Saskatchewan. They are less dependent on the whites than any of the other tribes we have named, and are still a warlike and powerful people. The number of Indians east of the Rocky Mountains is variously estimated at 40,000 and 60,000, and they are about equally distributed over the prairies and the Thickwoods. The Thickwood Indians are said to be increasing in number, but the Prairie or Plain Indians, who are less under the control of the Company, are daily becoming fewer, from the constant and exterminating wars which they wage among themselves. At each of the four great factories in the Saskatchewan district, there are from 6000 to 7000 Indians constantly coming and going; at Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, 2000; and at Fort Francis, on Rainy Lake, 1500. the smaller forts, the usual number is from 200 to 400. The chiefs are not established in their power until they have been recognised at the fort to which their tribe resorts; the visible sign of this recognition being a solemn investiture with a red

coat.

At

The capture of the fur-bearing animals is carried on almost entirely by the Thickwood Indians, the Company's European servants being only employed in supplying the wants of the hunters, in collecting the skins, and in transporting them to the coast. The number of skins annually taken in the Company's territories is very great. In a single year nearly 6,000,000 furs of all kinds, including 3,000,000 squirrels, 1,000,000 musk-rats, 525,000 racoons, and about the same number of the various species of marten or sable, were exported thence into England. During the summer the Indians wander about in their canoes, living on fish and

[ocr errors]

water-fowl; but before the end of the autumn they make their way to their accustomed trading-posts, and there obtain their winter supplies on credit. They then depart to their hunting grounds, and on reaching them form their tents into a permanent camp, the better to resist the cold, and there spend the winter in taking furs. When the rivers open in the spring, the hunters bring their skins to the forts. On their arrival, they take the furs to the trading room, where the price is fixed, and paid in the shape of so many little sticks or "castors," each of which stands for an average-sized beaver-skin, and serves as a unit of exchange by which all other skins are valued. With these they pay their debts, and then lay out the balance at the shop. The sums paid for the different skins bear little or no relation to their market value. Thus, if one Indian bring in a silver-fox skin worth 107., and another forty musk-rat skins worth 20s., they will each receive four castors. The reason given for adopting this apparently arbitrary standard is, that if the native received a proportionate price for the skins of the more valuable animals, he would devote himself entirely to their capture, and the inevitable consequence would be the speedy extermination of all the rarer species. In the south, competition has already effected this result; but in that part of the continent where the power of the Company is more absolute, the Indian is carefully taught to exercise some control over himself, and especially never to kill during the breeding season. Still these salutary rules would probably be little regarded if they were not aided by a system of payment which renders it a matter of comparative indifference to the hunter whether his captures be more or less valuable.

It is not so easy to ascertain the scale of prices at which goods are sold to the Indians; but it is admitted on all hands that the prices are fixed at an advance on the market value of the articles at home, which is variously estimated at from 200 to 500 per cent. The conclusion drawn from this fact by the enemies of the Company is, that the Indian ought to be paid a better price for his goods, or competition admitted into the market. The answer of the Company is, we think, on the whole satisfactory. They say, first, that in estimating the amount of the discrepancy between the market value of the furs, and that of the goods which the Indian receives in exchange for them, we must take into account the expense of carriage to such remote settlements, and the loss which they annually sustain from the large number of damaged skins which they purchase; their rule being to buy every skin which the natives offer for sale without regard to its quality or condition; and, secondly, that whilst a rise of prices would diminish the number of furs taken, and, by consequence, the profits of the trade, it would not be productive of

any corresponding benefit to the Indian. He is too idle to work except when necessity compels him, and whenever he had earned enough to keep himself and his family for the season, he would leave off hunting. The work of the year would still be just equal to the subsistence of the year, whether that subsistence were gained by the capture of one fox or twenty. Whether the rule of the Company has on the whole been beneficial or injurious to the natives, is a point on which there is much difference of opinion. That they would suffer greatly if it were now suddenly put an end to, is indisputable, since it is upon the traders that they depend for their ammunition, and for food when starving. But before the Europeans came into the country, the amount of game was very much greater than at present, and the Indian could live by his bow and arrow, of which he has now forgotten the use; whilst the supply of food which he obtains from the Company's servants is necessarily uncertain, as, when the wild animals fail, and the hunters come to the forts in their extremity, they often find the inmates no better provided than themselves. Still, there is ample evidence of the kindness with which the natives are generally treated. Stories of starvation and cannibalism lose nothing by long travel and interested repetition; and it must be borne in mind that the indolence of the Indian character is so great, that unless very unmistakable proofs of hunger were demanded of them, they would probably prefer to subsist, however wretchedly, on the produce of other people's labour.

Such, then, is the present condition of the interior of British America. Its necessarily transitional character must be obvious. Things cannot long remain as they are. In one half of the territory hitherto subject to their rule,-and that too the half most necessary for the purposes of their trade, the Hudson's Bay Company now hold office only till their successors are appointed; and their authority has been too often and too rudely questioned of late years to leave much chance of its being peaceably submitted to when they are only tenants by sufferance. The impatience evinced by the Canadians and the inhabitants of the Red River at being shut out from any share in the fur-trade, will be not less likely to show itself in hostile action when the rights of the Company are left to rest on a doubtful interpretation of a disputed charter. When once the work of legislation has begun, it is essential to the peace of British America that it should not stop until the rights of all parties have been ascertained, and invested for the future with a Parliamentary sanction. In discussing the conditions under which this will be best effected, we shall not question the validity of the charter of 1760. Whether Charles II. had any thing to give, whether he had any

« PreviousContinue »