Hudson's Strait and Bay. 



251 



•• Sire jesuis las de conquerir la Bale." The law of the survival of 

 the fittest was illustrated there as elsewhere in nature. The great 

 English company founded by Prince Kupert, the Duke of Albemarle, 

 the Earl of Craven, and others, emerged from these conflicts, trium- 



From L670 to 1870, the Hudson's Bay Company, originally incor- 

 porated under a grant from Charles II., held almost sovereign powers 

 in the region of Hudson's Bay, and for many years, of the region lying 

 between the Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Immense fortunes had been 

 made for its stockholders in that time. This corporation has had the 

 most remarkable history of any on record. Like other corporations, 

 it has had no soul. Possessing in its own territory the power of life 

 and death over its subjects, it has ruled with a rod of iron. It was 

 ever ready, with the inborn pugnacity of an English company, to take 

 up arms against all intruders. The poor traders, whom it could drive 

 out by brute force, were unceremoniously kicked about, maltreated and 

 robbed by the Indian allies of the company and, undoubtedly, at the 

 company's instigation. Competitors, who were too powerful to be 

 bullied, were absorbed into this giant concern. The policy of the 

 company was always to keep the public in the dark as to this region. 

 It spread the most absurd reports as to the awful dangers of naviga- 

 tion in that region; of fearful sufferings from cold, from tempests, 

 from wild beasts, of the savage cruelty and diabolical propensities of 

 the wilder natives. It represented Hudson's Strait to be the gateway 

 to an inland sea of wretchedness, misery, desolation and poverty, and 

 that all who were bold enough to attempt an entrance should leave 

 hope behind. Yet all this time the company was paying large divi- 

 dends on copiously watered stock. 



This great company opposed any attempt to improve the condition 

 of the miserable natives, the Indians and Eskimos. Would-be mis- 

 sionaries were fired out of the country with such vim that they did 



" A Christianized Indian is a lazy Indian, and we will not have them. 

 Teach them to pray, to sing hymns, to go to church, and you ruin 

 them for hunters and trappers." This was the theory of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company." 



The great aim and sole purpose of the Hudson's Jiay Company have 

 been to make money for its stockholders. Its affairs have been man- 

 aged by men of shrewd business tact and acumen. Never was a com- 

 pany more faithfully serv ed by its officers and employes. Every officer, 



