they were compelled to a life of comparative virtue by way of example to their subordinates. He who respected not his own marriage relations, or those of others, must suffer for it, either by incurring the wrath of the company,[1] or the vengeance of the natives, or both. Licentiousness could not be tolerated, and this was one reason why, with so many discordant elements in the service, such perfect order was maintained. And this discipline was as rigidly enforced outside the fort as within it.[2]
Notwithstanding the conjugal relations here described, society at Fort Vancouver embraced many happy elements, and numbered among its members men who would have graced a court.
Foremost among these, we may be sure, was John McLoughlin, always a pleasing character to contemplate. On the consolidation of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay fur companies, he had been sent to
- ↑ There is a story in Cox' Columbia River, 345, in which is given an instance of the seduction by one trader of another's wife; but it resulted in the seducer quitting the company's service, and the discarding of the unfaithful mistress. Cox also tells us that when a trader wished to separate from his Indian wife he generally allowed her an annuity, or married her comfortably to one of the voyageurs, who for a dowry was glad to become the husband of la dame d'un bourgeois. A retired partner, thus disembarrassed, on arriving in Canada was soon an object of interest to the ladies of Montreal and Quebec, where he was met by numerous hospitable invitations, and where, in short, he soon was able to marry a wife to his taste. More often, however, when the period he had fixed upon for quitting the Indian country arrives, he finds the woman who had been for many years a faithful partner cannot in a moment be whistled off and 'let down the wind to prey at fortune.' Children have grown up about him; the natural affection of the father despises the laws of civilized society, the patriot sinks in the parent, and in most cases the temporary liaison ends in a permanent union. See Hist. Northwest Coast, and Hist. Brit. Col., this series.
- ↑ In the spring a clerk who understood the country would go with the trappers, and whatever that clerk said, the others had to do. They were all free, but at the same time they had to come under the control of that one man. They had their by-laws, which were enforced. 'If they did anything wrong, it was reported to the company, and they would be punished accordingly. They all had Indian women, never more than one. Old Doctor McLoughlin would hang them if they had more than one.' Matthieu's Refugee, MS., 17. Saint-Amant asserted that the company's policy of recompensing agents without imposing sacrifices, of maintaining the Indians in absolute dependence with the aid of the Canadians, and of creating more consumers, caused them to favor marriages of subalterns, especially those who had some means, with Indians, and to grant them lands along the Willamette, Cowlitz, and Nisqually.
