A General History of the Fur Trade. g 



measure, checked the evil consequences that followed from 

 the improper conduct of these foresters, and, at the same 

 time, protected the trade. Besides, a number of able and 

 respectable men retired from the army, prosecuted the trade 

 in person, under their respective licences, with great order 

 and regularity, and extended it to such a distance, as, in 

 those days, was considered to be an astonishing effort of 

 commercial enterprize. These persons and the missiona- 

 ries having combined their views at the same time, secured 

 the respect of the natives, and the obedience of the people 

 necessarily employed in the laborious parts of this under- 

 taking. These gentlemen denominated themselves com- 

 manders, and not traders, though they were entitled to both 

 those characters : and, as for the missionaries, if sufferings 

 and hardships in the prosecution of the great work which 

 they had undertaken, deserved applause and admiration, 

 they had an undoubted claim to be admired and applauded : 

 they spared no labour and avoided no danger in the execu- 

 tion of their important office ; and it is to be seriously la- 

 mented, that their pious endeavour did not meet with the 

 success which they deserved: for there is hardly a trace to 

 be found beyond the cultivated parts, of their meritorious 

 functions. 



The cause of this failure must be attributed to a want of 

 due consideration in the mode employed by the missiona- 

 ries to propagate the religion of which they were the zea- 

 lous ministers. They habituated themselves to the savage 

 life, and naturalized themselves to the savage manners, and, 

 by thus becoming dependent, as it were on the natives, they 

 acquired their contempt rather than their veneration. If 

 they had been as well acquainted with human nature, as 

 they were with the articles of their faith, they would have 

 known, that the uncultivated mind of an Indian must be 

 disposed by much preparatory method and instruction to re- 

 ceive the revealed truths of Christianity, to act under its 

 sanctions, and be impelled to good by the hope of its reward, 

 or turned from evil by the fear of its punishments. They 

 should have began their work by teaching some of those 

 useful arts which are the inlets of knowledge, and lead the 

 mind by degrees to objects of higher comprehension. Agri- 

 culture, so formed to fix and combine society, and so pre- 

 paratory to objects of superior consideration, should have 

 been the first thing introduced among a savage people : it at- 

 taches the wandering tribe to that spot where it adds so 



