NORTHERN OCEAN. 83 
‘Company’s fervants to encourage a {pirit of indu- 771 
_ftry among the natives, and to ufe every means in Ina Vad 
their power to induce them to procure furrs and 
_ other commodities for trade, by afluring them of 
a ready purchafe and good payment for every 
thing they bring to the factory: and I can truly 
fay, that this hasever been the grand ebje& of my 
attention. But I muft at the fame time confefs, 
that fuch conduét is by no means for the real be- 
nefit of the poor Indians; it being well known 
that thofe who have the leaft intercourfe with the 
Factories, are by far the happieft. As their whole 
aim is to procure a comfortable fubfiftence, they 
take the moft prudent methods to accomplith it; 
and by always following the lead of the deer, are 
feldom expofed tothe griping hand of famine, 
{fo frequently felt by thofe who are called the an- 
nual traders. It istrue, that there are few of the 
Indians, whofe manner of life I have juft defcrib- 
ed, but have once in their lives at leaft vifited 
Prince of Wales’s Fort ; and the hardfhips and 
dangers which moft of them experienced on thofe 
occafions, have left fuch a lafting impreflion on 
their minds, that nothing can induce them to re- 
‘peat their vifits: nor is it, in faa, the intereft of 
the company that people of this eafy turn, and 
who require only as much iron-work at atime as 
can be purchafed with three or four beaver ikins, 
and that only once in two or three years, fhould 
be invited to the Factories; becaufe what they beg 
and fteal while there, is worth, in the way of 
G 2 trade 
