THE FREE TRADER. 23 



their adventures and the field is open for some 

 other party to go and have, most likely, the same 

 disastrous ending. 



No, I say it with unbiased mind that the 

 opening up of the country to outsiders was a 

 sorry day for the Indians. While they were 

 dealt with exclusively by the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany, they had the care and guidance of a par- 

 ent, but the progress of settlement cannot be 

 stayed and the end of the Indian is inevitable, 

 and, like the buffalo, they will in a very few 

 years be of the past. 



The Great Company, who for two and a quar- 

 ter centuries has been identified with the fur 

 trade, is rapidly becoming a company of shop- 

 keepers in the new towns and villages of the 

 west. With the disappearance of the Indian 

 will go the last of the class of men who caused 

 his undoing, "The Free Trader." 



