84 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



from the scrutinizing eyes of his visitors. This mode of carrying on 

 the trade not only causes the amount of furs, collected by either of 

 the two Companies, to depend more upon the activity of their agents, 

 the knowledge they possess of the motions of the Indians, and the 

 quantity of rum they carry, than upon the liberality of the credits 

 they give, but is also productive of an increasing deterioration of 

 the character of the Indians, and will, probably, ultimately prove 

 destructive to the fur trade itself. Indeed the evil has already, in 

 part, recoiled upon the traders ; for the Indians, long deceived, have 

 become deceivers in their turn, and not unfrequently after having 

 incurred a heavy debt at one post, move off to another, to play the 

 same game. In some cases the rival posts have entered into a 

 mutual agreement, to trade only with the Indians they have re- 

 spectively fitted out ; but such treaties, being seldom rigidly adhered 

 to, prove a fertile subject for disputes, and the differences have 

 been more than once decided by force of arms. To carry on the 

 contest, the two Companies are obliged to employ a great many 

 servants, whom they maintain often with much difficulty, and 

 always at a considerable expense. 



There are thirty men belonging to the Hudson's Bay Fort at 

 Cumberland, and nearly as many women and children. 



The inhabitants of the North West Company's house are still 

 more numerous. These large families are fed during the greatest 

 part of the year on fish, which are principally procured at Beaver 

 Lake, about fifty miles distant. The fishery commencing with the 

 first frosts in autumn, continues abundant till January, and the 

 produce is dragged over the snow on sledges, each drawn by three 

 dogs, and carrying about two hundred and fifty pounds. The journey 

 to and from the lake occupies five days, and every sledge requires 

 a driver. About three thousand fish, averaging three pounds a 

 piece, were caught by the Hudson's Bay fishermen last season ; in ad- 

 dition to which a few sturgeon were occasionally caught in Pine 



