270 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



rivals, Nor' Westers from Montreal, Americans from St. Louis, it 

 must have employed as traders, packers, coureurs, canoe men, 

 hunters, and guides, at least 5000 men ; for its rival employed 

 that number, and "The Old Lady," as the enemy called it, always 

 held her own. Over this wilderness army were from 250 to 300 

 officers, each with the power of life and death in his hands. To 

 the honor of the company, be it said, this power was seldom 

 abused. 1 Occasionally a brutal sea-captain might use lash and 

 triangle and branding along the northern coast ; but officers defence- 

 less among savage hordes must of necessity have lived on terms of 

 justice with their men. 



The Canadian Government now exercises judicial functions ; 

 but where less than 700 mounted police patrol a territory as large 

 as Siberia, the traders' factor is still the chief representative of the 

 law's power. Times without number under the old regime has a 

 Hudson's Bay officer set out alone and tracked an Indian murderer 

 to hidden fastness, there to arrest him or shoot him dead on the 

 spot; because if murder went unpunished that mysterious impulse 

 to kill which is as rife in the savage heart as in the wolf's would 

 work its havoc unchecked. 



Just as surely as "the sun rises and the rivers flow" the savage 

 knows when the hunt fails he will receive help from the fur trader. 

 But just as surely he knows if he commits any crime that same 

 unbending, fearless white man will pursue — and pursue — and 

 pursue guilt to the death. One case is on record of a trader thrash- 

 ing an Indian within an inch of his life for impudence to officers 

 two or three years before. Of course, the vendetta may cut both 

 ways, the Indian treasuring vengeance in his heart till he can 

 wreak it. That is an added reason why the white man's justice 

 must be unimpeachable. "Pro pelle cutem" says the motto of 

 the company arms. Without flippancy it might be said, "An eye 

 for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," as well as "A skin for a skin" 

 — which explains the freedom from crime among northern Indians. 



1 Governor Norton will, of course, be recalled as the most conspicuous for his brutality. 



