798 



TRADE LANGUAGE — TRADING PGST8 



[b. a. e. 



names which mean "Where there are 

 tracks, "or " Branded place. ' ' The carv- 

 ings are of various patterns, some of them 

 resembUng human or animal footprints, 

 "turkey tracks," circles, etc., disposed 

 without any apparent order or purpose. 

 The Cherokee have no definite idea of 

 their origin or meaning, and it is probable 

 that they were made at various times by 

 wandering hunters for their own amuse- 

 ment while resting in the gap. The won- 

 derful description given by Stevenson in 

 1834 and copied without investigation by 

 White (Hist. Coll.Ga., 1855) and Jones 

 (Antiq. Southern Inds., 1873) is greatly 

 exaggerated. For description, illustra- 

 tion, and Indian myths, consult Mooney, 

 Myths of the Cherokee, 19th Rep. B. A. 

 E. See also Footprint sculptures, Picto- 

 graphs. (j. M.) 



Trade language. See Chinook jargon, 

 Comanche, MoJAUan, Sign language. 



Trading posts. The earliest trade be- 

 tween Europeans and the Indians n. 

 of Mexico was through the Basque peo- 

 ple. These daring sailors by following 

 the whale reached the fishijig banks of 

 Newfoundland atan early period. In 1497 

 Cabot touched upon that island and noted 

 its "bigge fysshe." He was told by the 

 natives that they were called haccalaos, 

 the Basque for 'codfish,' and he gave that 

 name to Canada. The word still lingers 

 in Newfoundland as the designation of an 

 island north of Conception bay. When 

 Bretons, Normans, Portuguese, Span- 

 iards, and Englishmen made their way to 

 these fisheries, the Basques, who preceded 

 them, had to a degree familiarized the 

 natives with their tongue, and Basque 

 words became a part of the trade jargon 

 that came into use. Cartier, in 1534-35, 

 found the natives of the gulf and river of 

 St Lawrence familiar with the European 

 fur trade, and certain places on that stream 

 were known to both races as points for 

 the drying of fish and the trading of furs. 

 The traffic spread to the southward, and 

 fi'om a letter of Pedro Menendez to Philip 

 II it is learned that in 1565 and for some 

 years earlier "bison skins were brought 

 down the Potomac and thence carried 

 along shore in canoes to the French about 

 the Gulf of St Lawrence. During two 

 years 6,000 skins were thus obtained." 

 The firsttrading post in 1603 was at Tadou- 

 sac, on the St Lawrence at the mouth of the 

 Saguenay; five years later Quebec was 

 founded, and in 1611 Montreal was made 

 the trading post for all the region west- 

 ward. The earliest English post was 

 with the colony on James r., Va., where 

 pelts and corn were traded, and in 1614, 

 when some needy tribes came to pur- 

 chase maize, Sir Thomas Dale took, in 

 repayment thereof, "a mortgage of their 

 whole countries. ' ' In 1615, six years after 

 the navigation by Hudson of the river 



which bears his name, the Dutf^h built 

 a large post at Albany. For the next 

 50 years the eastern colonies made 

 no special attempt to penetrate the inte- 

 rior of the continent, but in 1673 Canada 

 authorized the movement by which the 

 priest Marquette and the trader Joliet 

 discovered the Mississippi. Meanwhile 

 individual traders had traveled beyond 

 the Great Lakes, and Groseilliers and 

 Radisson, French traders, had found that 

 Hudson bay could be reached overland. 

 The failure of the French Government to 

 award to these men the right to trade 

 and to establish a post on the bay caused 

 them to apply to England, in which they 

 were successful, and in 1668 Ft Charles 

 was built at the southeastern extremity 

 of Hudson bay. The success of this post 

 led to the formation of the monopoly 

 called "The Governor and Company of 

 Adventurers of England trading into 

 Hudson's Bay." Their successors, a hun- 

 dred years later, in 1670, were incorpo- 

 rated b)^ toyal charter as The Hudson's 

 Bay Company, with "absolute proprie- 

 torshi]!, supreme jurisdiction in civil and 

 military affairs, to make laws, and to de- 

 clare war against jMgan peoi)les." For 

 more than half a century the posts of this 

 company controlled the trade and admin- 

 istered whatever of law there existed in 

 the vast regions n. and w. of the Lakes to 

 the Pacific. In 1685 La Salle landed ©n 

 the coast of Texas, opening the way for 

 French trading enterprises on the lower 

 Mississippi and its tributaries, and for the 

 establishment of colonies in that region 

 under the control of commanders of the 

 posts. French trade during the 17th and 

 18th centuries developed a class of men 

 known as courreurs des bois, who made 

 themselves at home with the natives. 

 These were the advance guard of civiliza- 

 tion, and later served as interpreters, 

 clerks, etc., to the Hudson's Bay, North- 

 west, American Fur, and other less im- 

 portant companies engaged in Indian 

 trade up to the middle of the 19th century. 



The trading post was generally a large 

 square inclosed by a stockade; diago- 

 nally at two corners were turrets, with 

 openings for small cannon and rifles in 

 each turret so as to defend two sides of 

 the wall. Within the stockade were the 

 storehouses, quarters for the men, and a 

 room for general trade. 



In Virginia beads early became the 

 ' ' current coin "in trade with the Indians, 

 and in 1621 Capt. Norton was sent over 

 with some Italian workmen to establish a 

 glass furnace for the manufacture of these 

 articles. In 1640 and 1 643 wampum ( q. v. ) 

 was made legal tender in New England and 

 was extensively used in trading with the 

 Indians. During the next century trade 

 was mostly by barter or in the currency 

 of the colonies or the Government. The 



