Hudson's bay company. 59 



agent purchasing the furs from the delinquent. 

 Secretly or openly, this contravention of the right of 

 exclusive trade in fur claimed by the Company is 

 sure to proceed, and, emboldened by success, the 

 young half-breeds are not likely to acknowledge any 

 law that is contrary to their own will. They hold 

 that the territorial right derived from their Indian 

 ancestry is theirs, and not the Company's ; and 

 their claims have been supported by a philan- 

 thropic body in England, and advocated in parlia- 

 ment. Without entering into the question of the 

 chartered rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, or 

 the propriety of maintaining a monopoly of the fur 

 trade, it is my firm conviction, founded on the 

 wide-spread disorder I witnessed in times of com- 

 petition, that the admission of rival companies or 

 independent traders into these northern districts 

 would accelerate the downfall of the native races. 

 This has been rapid on the confines of the settled 

 parts of the United States and of Canada, and has 

 been stayed only by the extinction of the fur-bear- 

 ing animals, by which the power of the Indians 

 to purchase spirits has been cramped. Even the 

 benevolence of the English government in making 

 annual presents of clothing and blankets to the 

 Indians of Canada is converted into an injury by a 

 set of unscrupulous petty dealers, who hang about 

 the encampments to purchase these articles as soon 



