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Among the Sioux., where I was, all captives were regarded as slaves; so I was told by a chief. I saw but one slave—a woman. Men were not often taken alive.

This question did not make much stir on French Prairie. The idea was this: Indians were much cheaper and better labor than negroes. For a blanket that cost $3 you could hire an Indian a month- or perhaps two months; and many of the Indians were good workers. They could handle an axe like a white man; and on the river they were the best boatmen. They would paddle all day in a canoe, or on a bateau, and want only a little meat and a salmon skin.

Some Southern people who brought their negroes with them wanted to keep them as slaves; but the people of Oregon opposed this and made the law that no negro should come to Oregon. It was never enforced.

"All were in favor of this. It was no trouble. The Catholic missionaries as well as the Methodists favored it. The Hudson's Bay Company had liquors stored, but never kept them for public sale. The distiller on French Prairie did not hold out long. Some of the Canadians went to his place to drink, or trade for it; but there was no money in the country, and they could only trade with little articles and there was no profit. A man at Milwaukee Bluff held out about two years, but gave it up there was no money, and trade did not amount to anything in an illegal business.