ut parallel; several hundreds having perished of
want--in some instances, even at the gates of the trading post, whose
inmates, far from having it in their power to relieve others, required
relief themselves. Here, as in most other parts of the wooded country,
rabbits form the principal subsistence of the natives, and when they
fail, starvation is the sure and inevitable result; but no former
period has been so productive of distress, to so fearful an extent, as
the present. With the produce of the farm, Mr. L. was enabled to save
the lives of all those who resorted to his own post; but at Forts Good
Hope, Norman, and De Liard, no assistance could be given; as those
posts, like most others in the Indian country, depend entirely on
the means the country affords in fish, flesh, and fowl, for their
subsistence.

CHAPTER XV.

STATEMENTS IN THE EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY--ALLEGED
KINDNESS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY TO THE INDIANS--AND
GENEROSITY--SUPPORT OF MISSIONARIES--SUPPORT
WITHDRAWN--PREFERENCE OF ROMAN CATHOLICS--THE NORTH-WEST
COMPANY--CONDUCT OF A BRITISH PEER--RIVALRY OF THE
COMPANIES--COALITION--CHARGES AGAINST THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY
REFUTED.

A volume of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, in which the Company's
territories are described, came lately into my hands. It is there
remarked, that "the Company's posts serve as hospitals, to which
the Indians resort during sickness, and are supplied with food and
medicine; that when winter arrives, the diseased and infirm are
frequently left there; that the Company have made the most laudable
efforts to instruct and civilize them, employing, at a great expense,
Missionaries and Teachers," &c.

I am well aware that the author of this valuable production took it
for granted that the information he had obtained, relative to our
treatment of the Indians, and other matters, was correct, or he would
not have permitted it to go forth to the world under the authority
and sanction of his name. But without intending any disrespect to the
author, I take leave to state that the above quotations have not the
slightest foundation in fact. Our posts serve as hospitals! I have now
passed twenty-four years of my life-time in the country; I have served
in every quarter of it; and I own that I have never yet known a single
instance of an Indian being retained at any inland post for medical
treatment. The knowledge the natives possess of the medicinal v