n the
part of the officials of the Company as clearly demonstrating a close
affinity between these gentlemen and the Manitou, nor were these
attributes of divinity altogether distasteful to the officers, who found
them both remunerative as to trade and conducive to the exercise of
authority. When, however, the Free Traders and the missionary reached the
Saskatchewan this primitive state of affairs ceased-with the
enlightenment of the savage came the inevitable discontent of the'
Indian, until there arose the condition of things to which I have already
alluded. I am aware that there are persons who, while admitting the
present unsatisfactory state of the Saskatchewan, ascribe its evils more
to mistakes committed by officers of the Company, in their management of
the Indians, than to any material change in the character of the people;
but I believe such opinion to be founded in error. It would be
impossible to revert to the old management of affairs. The Indians and
the half-breeds are aware of their strength, and openly speak of it; and
although I am far from asserting that a more determined policy on the
part of the officer in charge of the Saskatchewan District would not be
attended by better results, still it is apparent that the great isolation
of the posts, as well as the absence of any fighting element in the class
of servants belonging to the Company, render the forts on the Upper
Saskatchewan, in a very great degree, helpless, and at the mercy of the
people of that country. Nor are the engaged servants of the Company a
class of persons with whom it is at all easy to deal. Recruited
principally from the French half-breed population, and exposed, as I
have already shown, to the wild and lawless life of the prairies, there
exists in reality only a very slight distinction between them and their
Indian brethren, hence it is not surprising that acts of insubordination
Should be of frequent occurrence among these servants, and that personal
violence towards superior officers should be by no means an unusual event
in the forts of the Saskatchewan; indeed it has only been by the exercise
of manual force on the part of the officials in charge that the semblance
of authority has sometimes been preserved. This tendency towards
insubordination is still more observable among the casual servants or
"trip men" belonging to the Company. These persons are in the habit of
engaging for a trip or journey, and-frequently select the most