32 



A General History of the Fur Trade. 



this kind of labour, that I have known some of them set off 

 with two packages of ninety pounds each, and return with 

 two others of the same weight, in the course of six hours, 

 being a distance of eighteen miles over hills and mountains. 

 This necessary part of the business being over, if the season 

 be early they have some respite, but this depends upon the 

 time the North men begin to arrive from their winter quar- 

 ters, which they commonly do early in July. At this pe- 

 riod, it is necessary to select from the pork-eaters a num- 

 ber of men, among whom are the recruits, or winterers, 

 sufficient to man the North canoes necessary to carry to the 

 river of the rainy lake, the goods and provision requisite 

 for the Athabasca country ; as the people of that country 

 (owing to the shortness of the season and length of the 

 road, can come no further) are equipped there, and exchange 

 ladings with the people of whom we are speaking, and both 

 return from whence they came. This voyage is performed 

 in the course of a month, and they are allowed proportion- 

 able wages for their services. 



The North men being arrived at the Grande Portage, are 

 regaled with bread, pork, butter, liquor, and tobacco, and 

 such as have not entered into agreements during the winter, 

 which is customary, are contracted with, to return and per- 

 form the voyage for one, two, or three years: their accounts 

 are also settled, and such as choose to send any of their earn- 

 ings to Canada, receive drafts to transmit to their relations 

 or friends : and as soon as they can be got ready, which re- 

 quires no more than a fortnight, they are again dispatched 

 to their respective departments. It is, indeed, very credit- 

 able to them as servants, that though they are sometimes 

 assembled to the number of twelve hundred men, indulging 

 themselves in the free use of liquor, and quarrelling with 

 each other r they always show the greatest respect to their 

 employers, who are comparatively but few in number, and 

 beyond the aid of any legal power to enforce due obedience. 

 In short, a degree of subordination can only be maintained 

 by the good opinion these men entertain of their employers, 

 which has been uniformly the case, since the trade has been 

 formed and conducted on a regular system. 



The people being dispatched to their respective winter 

 quarters, the/ agents from Montreal, assisted by their clerks, 

 prepare to return there, by getting the furs across the port- 

 age, and re-making them into packages of one hundred 

 pounds weight each, to send them to Montreal; where they 

 commonly arrive in the month of September. 



