hundred
shares; sixty of which their Honours retain for themselves; and the
remaining forty are divided among the chief traders and chief factors,
who manage the affairs in the Indian country. A chief factor holds two
of these shares, and a chief trader one; of which they retain the full
interest for one year after they retire, and half interest for the six
following years. These cannot be said to be stock-holders, for they
are not admitted to any share in the executive management; but
according to the present system they are termed Commissioned Officers,
and receive merely the proceeds of the share allotted to them. They
enjoy, however, one very superior advantage,--they are not subjected
to bear their share in any losses which the Company may sustain. It is
generally reckoned that the value of one share is on an average about
350l. sterling a-year. By the resignation of two chief traders, one
share is at the Company's disposal the year after, which is then
bestowed on a clerk. When two chief factors retire, a chief trader is
promoted in like manner. Promotion also take place when the shares of
the retired partners fall in.

CHAPTER II.

I ENTER THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S SERVICE--PADRE GIBERT.

I entered the service of the Company in the winter of 1820-21, and
after passing my contract at Montreal in the month of January, I took
up my residence for the remainder of the season with a French priest,
in the parish of Petit le Maska, for the purpose of studying the
French language. The Padre was a most affable, liberal-minded man, a
warm friend of England and Englishmen, and a staunch adherent to their
government, which he considered as the most perfect under the sun. The
fact is, that the old gentleman, along with many others of his
countrymen who had escaped from the horrors of the French Revolution,
had found an asylum in our land of freedom, which they could find
nowhere else; and the personal advantages that had accrued to him from
that circumstance, naturally induced a favourable disposition towards
his benefactors, their laws, and their institutions. Though the Padre
was extremely liberal in his political opinions, his management of his
worldly affairs bore the stamp of the most sordid parsimony. He
worshipped the golden calf, and his adoration of the image was
manifest in everything around him. He wore a cassock of cloth which
had in former times been of a black colour, but was now of a dusky
grey, th