REVIEWS—RED RIVER AND ASSINIBOINE EXPLORATIONS. 17% 
From the foregoing table it appears that the operations of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company extend over territories whose inhabitants owe allegiance to three differ- 
ent and independent governments, British, Russian, and the United States. 
These immense territories, exceeding 4,500,000 square miles in area, are divided, 
for the exclusive purposes of the fur trade, into four departments and thirty-three 
districts, in which are included one hundred and fifty-two posts, commanding the 
services of three thousand agents, traders, voyageurs, and servants, besides giving 
occasional or constant employment to about one hundred thousand savage Indian 
hunters. Armed vessels, both sailing and steam, are employed on the North-West 
Coast to carry on the fur trade with the warlike natives of that distant region. 
More than twenty years ago the trade of the North-West Coast gave employment 
to about one thousand men, occupying twenty-one permanent establishments, or 
engaged in navigating five armed sailing vessels, and one armed steamer, varying 
from one hundred to three hundred tons in burden. History does not furnish 
another example of an association of private individuals exerting a powerful influ- 
ence over so large an extent of the earth’s surface, and administering their affairs 
with such consummate skill and unwavering devotion to the original objects of 
their incorporation.” 
This is a remarkable chapter in British Colonial History. The 
capital, property, and investments, of the company were set down by 
one of their own officials in 1856 at the immense sum of one million, 
two hundred and sixty-five thousand and sixty-seven pounds sterling ; 
and its influence over the destinies alike of natives and settlers 
throughout the vast area extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
shores, is all-predominant and unchecked. 
The history of the Selkirk colony of Red River eae illustrates 
the relations alike of Indians and European settlers to the all-powerful 
trading company. 
‘The Indian wars undertaken by the United States Government during the 
last half century, have cost infinitely more than the most liberal annuities or 
comprehensive efforts for the amelioration of the condition of the aborigines 
would have done ; and in relation to the northern prairie tribes, war is always to 
be expected at a day’s notice. 
“The encroachments of western settlers upon Indian lands are constant and 
increasing in the United States, and there is no reason to suppose that these 
encroachments will diminish for many years to come. Already the Red River 
south of the boundary line, as well as its south-western tributuries, are invaded 
from the valley of the Mississippi, and as the territory of Dakotah has not yet 
been ceded to the United States Government, the prospect of a war with the 
Sioux, whose hunting grounds embrace it, becomes daily more imminent. Lieu- 
tenant Warren, who has conducted several United States’ exploring expeditions 
in Dakotah and Nebraska territories, remarks :—“ The advance of the settlements 
is universally acknowledged to be a necessity of our national development, and is 
justifiable in displacing the native races on that ground alone, But the Govern- 
