certain that one or more lives were lost from
their drunken quarrels.

When sobered, the Indians again entered
the fort; but for business this time. Previous
to any trading, it was considered necessary
that the chief and the factor should smoke
the pipe of peace. The Indian trappers and
the factory people having completed this
necessary ceremony, a further repast of bread
and prunes was partaken of, at the conclusion
of which the chief addressed the factors,
preparatory to commencing the barter. One of
these speeches, which has been preserved by
an old servant of the Company is worth
quoting, as giving an insight into the mode of
conducting a barter in those distant regions.

"You told me last year to bring many
Indians to trade, which I promised to do:
you see I have not lied: here are a great
many young men come with me! Use them
kindly. Let them trade good goods, I say.
We lived hard last winter, and hungry, the
powder being short measure and bad. Tell
your servants to fill the measures and not to
put their thumbs within the brims. Take
pity on us, I say. We paddle a long way to
see you. We love the English. Let us trade
good black tobacco, fair weight and hard
twisted. Have pity on us. Let us trade
good light guns, small in the hand and well
made, with locks that will not freeze in the
winter. Let the young men have good
measure and cheap kettles, thick and high.
Give us good measure of cloth: let us see the
old measure: do you mind me? The young
men love you, by coming so far to see you.
Take pity, I say, and let them have good
things."

From the contents of this address, we cannot
help inferring that the scale of weights
in use among the early traders to America
was not very different from that described by
Knickerbocker in his history of New York;
where it is humorously stated that the
invariable custom was for a Dutchman's hand to
be reckoned as one pound and his foot as two
pounds.

Having delivered this oration the Indian
and his people proceeded to examine the
"guns small in the hand," the " kettles thick
and high," and such other things as took
their fancy, for which they then commenced
a rapid barter with their skins. The
Company had a nominal "standard of trade," as
it was called, for the pretended guidance of
their several factors, but, in reality — as one
of their clerks writes — to deceive those who
are not in their secrets.  In all dealings a
beaver skin is taken as a standard of value,
hence every article is looked upon and reckoned
as worth so many beaver skins: it is, in
fact, the Hudson's Bay currency. The above
pretended standard of trade gave twelve
needles, or six thimbles, or a pound of powder,
or a comb, or a yard of gartering, as
equivalents for one beaver skin; a gallon of
brandy was equal to four skins.

Had this tariff been adhered to, the profits
on the trade would have been enormous. In
those days a good beaver skin was worth
twelve shillings; it is easy, therefore, to see
how favourable this pretended scale was to
the Company. But the tariff was only a
blind. In addition to making two gallons of
brandy out of one by the aid of water, the
factors appear to have adopted a scale of
their own construction, which no doubt
fleeced the Indians; who had no alternative
but to take the measure they could get, or
to starve. Just as pocket-combs and copper
kettles had their imaginary equivalents in
beaver skins, so, was there also a scale — on a
similarly sliding principle — for all other skins
in reference to that of the beaver. Thus, by
a factor's fiction, a skin of the beaver was
taken as equal in barter to two white or
two brown foxes, or one old otter, or two
prime martens, or six musquashes, and so
on. Not content with watering the brandy
and measuring the powder in small
measures with their thumbs inside the rim,
they multiplied their enormous gains by false
counting of skins, and so mystifying the
table of equivalents as to completely bewilder
the untutored Indian, who only discovered
the fraud when he came to reckon up his
kettles, knives and glass beads in his native
hut a thousand miles distant, and compared
them with the number of skins he had carried
down to the white man's fort.

In this manner were the fur purchases of
the Company carried on up to the latter part
of the last century. At that period an enemy
of a daring and dangerous character appeared
in the very heart of this vast American
preserve. Attracted by the reputed richness of
those regions in furs, a few enterprising
Canadian traders penetrated beyond the
boundary of their territories; and, making
their way by the streams which fell into Lake
Superior, sought the Indians of the Red
River and Saskatchewan country in their
own villages, and there opened a trade with
them on terms much more favourable to
the natives; who were not long in finding
the advantage of bartering close to their
doors, and at the same time obtaining for
their skins articles at far more moderate
rates.

Large profits and a ready trade soon caused
these straggling Canadians to flock into the
country in considerable numbers, and to
interfere very seriously with the Hudson's
Bay Company; whose officers at length
found themselves compelled, in self-defiance,
to imitate the plans of their rivals and
to establish branch factories and depôts
at various spots throughout the interior of
the country. Henceforward a fierce and
determined opposition was engendered
between the contending traders; until, in the
year seventeen hundred and eighty-three,
the Canadians found it necessary to form
themselves into a party for mutual self-