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ernor of the Hudson's Bay Company, with a number of his men, were shot down by the men of the Northwest Company (designated by Bancroft, "X. Y. Northwest Company party," page 262); and in his history, pages 378-9, the results are given.
CHARACTER OF THE H. B. COMPANY FROM BRITISH AUTHORITY.
But we are not left to quote our best authority to show the character and actions of the Hudson's Bay Company while in possession of Oregon by joint-occupancy treaty. We have the best of British authority, prepared at the suggestion of the present Prime Minister of England, when the question came before its parliament in 1849. The book is dedicated to the Rt. Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, M. P., by James Edward Fitzgerald, having but nine chapters. That our American and adopted citizens may understand the character of the British Hudson's Bay Company —what our American trappers, hunters and traders, missionaries and settlers, had to contend with—we will copy liberally from this best of British authority, giving our own personal knowledge, from the day we crossed the Rocky Mountains to the time they abandoned or were driven out of this country.
Permit me to draw the attention of the reader to the introductory remarks of the author referred to in connection with Hon. Mr. Gladstone, present Prime Minister of England, as found on page 10 of the above-named author, who says:
" It is most important to bear in mind the relative value which must attach to evidence from different quarters on a question of this nature. The power of the Hudson's Bay Company over hundreds of thousands of miles of the North American continent is unlimited. Into those remote regions few ever penetrate but the servants of the company. There is hardly a possibility of obtaining any evidence whatsoever which does not come in some way through their hands, and which is not more or less tainted by the transmission. The iron rule which the company holds over its servants and agents, and the subtle policy which has ever characterized its government, have kept those regions almost beyond the knowledge of the civilized world or of any but the few who guide the affairs and transact the business of the company."
Of the American writers to whose testimony so much weight has been attached, it is well to know that they had good reasons for forming a favorable opinion of the operations of the company.
