﻿72 CHIPPEWAYS. 



district ; and the Company's officers find little diffi- 

 culty in hiring the young men as occasional 

 labourers. 



The case is otherwise with the Chippeways, who 

 live within the Company's territories. The vici- 

 nity of the rival United States Fur Company's 

 establishments ; the vigorous competition which 

 is carried on between them and the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, in prosecution of which spirituous 

 liquors are dispensed by both parties liberally to 

 the natives ; and the abundance of Folle avoine on 

 Rainy River and the River Winipeg, with the 

 plentiful supply of sturgeon obtained from these 

 waters, rendering the natives independent of either 

 party, have had a demoralising effect, and neither 

 Protestant nor Roman Catholic missionaries have 

 been able to make any impression upon them. 

 One party of these Indians, from whom we pur- 

 chased a supply of sturgeon on Rainy River, are 

 briefly characterised in my notes, made on the 

 spot, as being " fat, saucy, dirty, and odorous." 

 A Roman Catholic church, erected some years ago 

 on the banks of the Winipeg, has been abandoned, 

 with the clearing around it, on account of the want 

 of success of the priest in his endeavours to convert 

 the natives; and neither the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany nor the United States people have been able 

 to extinguish the deadly feud existing between the 



