Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-02-23

only half century, Dut tne WnOle Ol
their lives among the aborigines, some
times from choice and sometimes from
necessity. But what refer to is not a
person, but only common piece of
foolscap paper with writing upon it,
and the strange part of the story con-
nected Herewith.
should qualify that, for it's not a
story, but fact, and an incident hard
ly paralleled by fiction.
The paper alluded to was written
and given to the chief of the Skeena
River Indians by an officer of the Hud-
sons Bay company in 1912, and was re-
turned to the man that wrote it, ex-
actly fifty years after, by the present
governor of the Hudson's Bay COM
pany. at the Windsor hotel, in the city
of Montreal.
1t was at banquet given to the as
scmbled officers of the company who
had met in Montreal for the holding of
the usual yearly council, and Mr.. Camp
bell, the writer of the paper alluded
to, was an invited guest. Mr.. Camp
bell had long since retired from active
service, and had made his home for his
declining years near the beautiful city
of Victoria, Vancouver's 1sland and he
was then, during the last day of the
council, passing through Montreal on
his way home from Scotland. where he
had paid, as he said, his last visit to his
native land.
Some of those assembled at the gen
erous board of the Windsor he had
known as young man just entering the
service, and now they were men past
the prime of life, some of them, in
deed, could be classed as old men.
These. as have said, he had known
years ago filling unimportant positions
in the company, and now in Montreal
he met them as men directing the po-
litical economy of this vast trading
corporation. the oldest commercial
body in the world; for in this good year
of our Lord, 1892. it had had its trading
ramifcations in existence for two hun
dred and twenty-five years Its estab-
lishmentS are to be found from the
Labrador in the east to the Pacific in
the west. and from the rivers falling
into the st. Lawrence on the south to
far up within the arctic circle in the
north.
Mr.. Campbell told us that evening,
over the wine, many strange romances
of his first coming to Canada. say
strange. because it appears so to us
nowadays when we are used to seeing
large ocean steamers landing their
passengers at our docks and the trans
continental railway trains that carry
us to the Pacific with such comfort and
speed.
He spoke of his passage from Quebec
to Montreal on a steamboat of such
. limited power that oxen had to tow her
up the st. Mary's current to the post.
He had then embarked in canoes,
manned by Iroquois, that took three
months to reach Fort Garry, where the
city of Winnipeg now stands
Truly this was a man of the past.
! Our governor, at this juncture, drew
a folded paper from his pocket and,
addressing the old gentleman, said:
Mr.. Campbell, perhaps you are not
aware that at the commencement of
last year the company decided to re-
open the Skeena River district, and
sent Mr.. McFarlain 20 make his head
quarters at Hazleton. Mr.. McFarlain,
shortly after reaching there, received
the paper l hold in my hand from the
young chief, and sent it to me as a
curiosity. AS it was written by you,
almost to a day, half century ago, /
consider l cannot do better than to re-
turn it to your own hands"
With that he leaned across the table
and presented it to the old factor with