86 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



by the Hudson's Bay Company and those of the Canadian voyagers. 

 Some trouble is occasionally bestowed in teaching the former, and it 

 is not thrown away ; but all the good that can be said of the latter 

 is, that they are not quite so licentious as their fathers are. 



Many of the half-breeds, both male and female, are brought up 

 amongst, and intermarry with, the Indians ; and there are few tents 

 wherein the paler children of such marriages are not to be seen. It 

 has been remarked, I do not know with what truth, that half-breeds 

 shew more personal courage than the pure Crees. 



A singular change takes place in the physical constitution of the 

 Indian females who become inmates of a fort ; namely, they bear 

 children more frequently and longer, but, at the same time, are 

 rendered liable to indurations of the mammae and prolapsus of the 

 uterus; evils from which they are, in a great measure, exempt 

 whilst they lead a wandering and laborious life. 



The girls at the forts, particularly the daughters of Canadians, 

 are given in marriage very young ; they are very frequently wives at 

 twelve years of age, and mothers at fourteen. Nay, more than one 

 instance came under our observation, of the master of a post hav- 

 ing permitted a voyager to take to wife a poor child that had 

 scarcely attained the age of ten years. The masters and wintering 

 partners of the Companies deemed this criminal indulgence to the 

 vices of their servants, necessary to stimulate them to exertion for 

 the interest of their respective concerns. Another practice may 

 also be noticed, as shewing the state of moral feeling on these sub- 

 jects amongst the white residents of the fur countries. It was not 

 very uncommon, amongst the Canadian voyagers, for one woman to 

 be common to, and maintained at the joint expense of, two men ; 

 nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a season, or altogether, 

 for a sum of money, proportioned to her beauty and good qualities, 

 but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs. 



The country around Cumberland House is flat and swampy, and 



