Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-08-14

499 is "a frozen wilderness, where human life
can with difficulty be supported, and where the
earth will not yield its accustomed FRUITS The
most monstrous system of deception was put in
to practice. False maps were published, false
accounts interwrought into the popular geo.
graphes. 1t must be confessed, they have been
completely successful. During the movement
for the settlement Of the Red River region the
Company constantly asserted the impossibility
of founding settlement "in sorcmote and des-
olatc region" Yet experience has shown that
there is not more favorable situation on the
face of the earth for the employment of fagricul-
tural industry than this very "rcmote and desc
late Red River region. How it is with the
rest of the immense territory will be seen by
and by. What is to be thought Of a Corpora
ton that can thus Systematically falsify science,
and misrcprcsent the very DEGREES of Nature
Here is certainly food for reflection.
Another exquisite artifcc is well worth no.
ticing. Immediately after the ccSsion of Cana
da, (about 1860 numerous British subjects en-
gagged in the fur-trade, pushing their enterprise
throughout the whole of British North Ameri-
ca. In 1884 most of these traders united and
formed the Northwest Company of Montroal-
This Company became ere long great and pow
erf1 body, employing over 1000 men. They
dispatched ships round Cape Horn to the mouth
of the Columbia, and sent canoes and batteaus
from Montreal via the lakes to the head of Lake
Superior, and thence across the continent. An
immense and rich trade was thus drawn direct
" into Canada. Hitherto, the lIudson'S Bay
Company had confined their claims to the shores
of IIudson's Bay; but the great success of the
rival Company coming under their notice. thcv
early in the present century, inGugurated that
exquisite system of tactics they have since pur-
sued setting up claim of exclusive right to
the whole domain west to the Rocky Mountains
and the Pacific! 1t was to the creative and
strategetic fancy of Lord Sclkirk to strike out
this bold scheme, and theoretically, about the
years lSlll2, and then practically in 1914 the
modest claim was made. OF course, the Com
panies met and then came the tug OF war. The
interference and oppression of the lludson's
Bay Company brought on a series of the most
revolving enormites. Several disgraceful bat
ties were fought, and much blood shed. 1t is
needless to dwell on the brutal strife that for
several years was carried on between the two
bodies Suffice it to say, that unable to defeat
their rival, the IIndsons Bay Company practic-
ed the Plum Gut dodge, and briJed the North
west Company. The result was that in 1921
the two Companies united under the name of
the Hudson's Bay Company. The consequence
OF this junction was disastrous in the extreme
to Canada, the effect being to turn all traffic in
to lludson's Bay, so destroying great and pros
porous trade with Canada down the lakes. The
route by the lakes was abandoned, not because
it was a more Objectionable one, but because
continuing it as the route would, in all proba-
bility lead to another competition for the trade
by Canadian merchants, and soon both route
and trade were forgotten
ROMANCE AND REALITY OF THE FUR-TRADE.
The population Of the region known as the
Hu1S Rny q yarinnSlx- nSftn tod
at from $4,000 to 100000 persons. A recent
Report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands
makes the Indian tribes number $4,000 souls,
and this is probably about correct. The settle
ment at Red River numbers about 10000 per-
sons, four-fifths of whom are half-breeds. The
half-breeds are an athletic, hardy race of men,
the most expert of roydge,1s. The white pop
ulatipn engaged in the fur trade is reckoncd at
four or five thousand men, mostly Scotchmen.
These are scattered throughout l63 factories or
trading-p posts that dot the immense territory at
distance of three or four hundred miles apart
To these factories the Indians bring their pei
tries, mainly at two seasons of the year--Octo-
ber, when the Autumn chase comes on, and
March, when they bring the product of the great
Winter hunt.
TO combine into whole a picture of this
trapper-fe materials are quite wanting. To the
creative fancy, it is not without its romance
But the dark and direful traits so predominant
as to produce a most sombre effect For two
hundred years have the Company's agents had
their own way. OF course, during the whole
PERIOD the Indians have been entirely at their
mercy-at the mercy of a set of unscrupulous
and irresponsible factors and traders, most of
them Scotchmen, who of all races are the most
fiinty and unfeeling, making the best slave-driv-
ers in the world. The revelations, voluntary
and involuntary, that have occasionally been
made by the Companys servants exhibit the
most complicated mismanagement and opprcs-
sion. "The treatment of the natives,' says one
witness, $50 far from aiming at nstructing their
minds and reforming the manners, is made up
of cruelty to their persons impositions upon
their ignorance or their necessity, and the fer
mentation of spirit of discord among them
that must in time destroy them ALL" "a Toy-
age 10 Hudsoa's Bay by the Dob6s Gaitey and
CgiJo'nia, IN the years 1746 and l747. Ellis.
London 174S.)
Mr. Robson, an employe of the Company for
several years during the last century, and ap-
parently one of the few honest men they ever
had in their service, shocked at the abominable
practices he had witnessed, published an account
of some of their dongs, revealing a most dire
full state of things. His book bears date 1862
(An Account ETA Sir Years Residence IN Hud-
sons Bay, from 1888 and 1876 and l744 to l747,
by Joseph Robson, London, 1922 Here is
part Of his testimony. "The instances of neg
lect and abuse of the natives are so gross that
they would scarcely gain credit even among bar
barians who never heard of the mild precepts
of Christianity" And here is the way they re-
ward honesty: "If there is the least suspicion
of mans having understanding enough to dis
cover their iniquities, and honesty enough to
detect and expose them, he is sure to be undone
in the Company's esteem; he is kept as igno-
rant of the trade and nature of the country as
possible, and when his time is expired, if not
before, is sent home with such character as
will efiectually hinder his return The Com
panys Chaplain at Columbia River testifes with
solemn asseveration, that he believed ''the life
of an Indian was never yet, by trapper, put in
competition with beaver skin! |"
In their tradings the Indians are Of course en-
tirely in the hands of the agents. Their blank
cts, lace, glass beads and gewgaws they pur-
chase at the moderate rate of 1000 per cent.
advance on London prices and the imposition
used to be increased by monstrous species of
traffic called the he"overplus trade" All the glm-
mering spirituality and desire of education and
civilization of the Inlians-for thn Northprn