as bearing upon the future
preservation of peace and order in the Saskatchewan, and as illustrating
the growing difficulties which a commercial corporation like the Hudson
Bay Company have to contend against when acting in an executive capacity,
I must now allude to the subject of Free Trade. The policy of a free
trader in furs is essentially a short-sighted one-he does not care about
the future--the continuance and partial well-being of the Indian is of no
consequence to him. His object is to obtain possession of all the furs
the Indian may have at the moment to barter, and to gain that end he
spares no effort. Alcohol, discontinued by the Hudson Bay Company in
their Saskatchewan district for many years, has been freely used of late
by free traders from Red River; and, as great competition always exists
between the traders and the employees of the Company, the former have not
hesitated to circulate among the natives the idea that they have suffered
much injustice in their intercourse with the Company. The events which
took place in the Settlement of Red River during the winter of '69 and '70
have also tended to disturb the minds of the Indians--they have heard of
changes of Government, of rebellion and pillage of property, of the
occupation of forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, and the stoppage
of trade and ammunition. Many of these events have been magnified and
distorted--evil-disposed persons have not been wanting to spread abroad
among the natives the idea of the downfall of the Company, and the
threatened immigration of settlers to occupy the hunting-grounds and
drive the Indian from the land. All these rumours, some of them vague and
wild in the extreme, have found ready credence by camp-fires and in
council-lodge, and thus it is easy to perceive how the red man, with many
of his old convictions and beliefs rudely shaken, should now be more
disturbed and discontented than he has been at any former period.

In endeavouring to correctly estimate the present condition of Indian
affairs in the Saskatchewan the efforts and influence of the various
missionary bodies must not be overlooked. It has only been during the
last twenty years that the Plain Tribes have been brought into contact
with the individuals whom the contributions of European and Colonial
communities have sent out on missions of religion and civilization. Many
of these individuals have toiled with untiring energy and undaunted
perseverance in the