272 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vo. III. 
morris-bells, razors, combs, looking-glasses, plumes, beads, ribbons, lace 
of several kinds, hats, laced and plain coats, shirts, shoes, and bed-gowns ; 
six sorts of blankets, handkerchiefs, calimancoes, osnaburgs, cottons, 
calicoes, muslins, linens, swanskin and embossed serge fabrics ; white, 
black, blue, brown, green and scarlet cloth of several grades; thimbles, 
needles, thread, pewter-basins, iron pots, brass, copper, and tin kettles, 
snuff and tobacco boxes, bar iron and steel, silver crosses, finger-rings, 
gorgets, arm-bands, wrist-bands, buckles, ear-rings, hangers, brooches, 
moons, earwheels and ear-bobs, beaver-traps, fish-hooks, spears, hoes, and 
fire-steels. All of these things were brought from Montreal in canoes by 
way of the Ottawa as this was found to be both a quicker and cheaper 
mode of transportation than in sailing vessels on the lakes. 
As the beaver gradually disappeared from its favorite haunts in the 
Michigan peninsula both the trade and population perceptibly declined. 
Many of the inhabitants had emigrated to the Wabash and Illinois where 
they hoped to be beyond the grasp of the meddlesome English law. 
The trade then was carried on in a less reputable manner than at 
Mackinac owing chiefly to the size of the settlement and lawless character 
of many of the inhabitants. 
Lieut.-Governor Hamilton reported shortly after his removal in 1776 
that “regulations for the trade with the Indians are either not generally 
known or not enforced. For example great abuses exist in the weights 
and measures used by the traders and for want of an office to stamp the 
silver-works which make a considerable article in the trade with the 
savages, they get their trinkets so debased with copper as to lay open a 
large field for complaint. 
“The number of traders not being limited allows of many engaging in 
it who have no principle of honesty and who impose on these poor people 
in a thousand ways to the detriment of honesty and to the disgrace of 
the name of trader among the savages which usually means with them 
an artful cheat. The distrust and disgust conceived for these traders 
occasion many disputes which frequently ended in murder. This trade 
being lucrative engages several who have little or no capital of their own 
to procure credit sometimes to a considerable amount, their ignorance, 
dishonesty, (or both) occasion frequent failures; the adventurers then 
decamp to some other post where they recommence the same traffic 
improving in art and villainy, and finally become desperate in their 
circumstances and dangerous from their connections and interest with the 
savages.” 
Bad as these men may seem, their exgagés were infinitely worse. 
“They are” says Hamilton, “the most worthless vagabonds imaginable. 
