■74 TRANSACTIONS OP THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. V. 



THE FUR TRADE, 1783-7. 



Bv Capt. E. Cruikshank. 



l^Read 2jrd Febmary, iSg^.'] 



Towards the end of the revolutionary contest, the fur trade had dis- 

 tinctly declined in importance, partly from the disturbed state of the 

 •country, but partly also in consequence of the very serious ravages of 

 hunger and disease among the Indians. 



In March, 1783, Langlade reported that "there were forty Saulteaux, 

 men, women and children who were eating each other because of the 

 famine in La Baye des Noques," and soon afterwards Cadotte wrote from 

 Sault Ste. Marie to say that "all the Indians of Fond du Lac, Rainy Lake, 

 Lac des Sables, and other surroundings, had died of smallpox." At 

 the same time Captain Robertson, the commandant at Mackinac, com- 

 plained that a certain Mons. Bouche, a Canadian having a Spanish 

 commission, was levying blackmail from the traders on the Mississippi at 

 the head of " a gang of moroders." 



One of the first acts of Sir John Johnson after being appointed 

 Superintendent of the Indian Department, was to make a vigorous effort 

 to assert his authority over the traders scattered throughout the vast 

 region to the westward of Detroit, with the object of securing fair dealing 

 with the natives as far as practicable. 



"You are in all matters of trade where the Indians are concerned, to 

 see that the utmost justice be done them," he wrote to Alexander 

 McKee, "for which purpose if the interference of the commanding officer 

 should be necessary, you are to make appjication, as you are to do in all 

 matters where the king's service is concerned, unconnected with the 

 interior economy of the Indian Department." 



It was naturally anticipated that the Americans would " employ every 

 effort to extend as far as possible their frontiers in the upper country, to 

 secure in case of a peace some valuable settlements, and to get the fur 

 trade into their hands." 



The efforts of the British officers at Detroit were accordingly directed 

 to the restraint of the Indians from further hostilities, and with this object 

 Major De Peyster stated that he had " indulged " the Wabash Indians 

 "with a trader in order to induce them to stay at home and follow their 

 huntinsf." 



