Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/106

96 the Indians was the destruction of its customers, and the consequent ruin of its trade.

When the Indians went to war with each other, the doctor first interposed his mediation, as the common friend and equal of both parties. When all other means failed, he refused to sell them arms and ammunition, saying that it was the business of the company to sell them these articles to kill game with, not to kill each other. By kindness, justice, and discreet firmness, the Indians were generally kept at peace among themselves. They found it almost impossible to carry on war.

But the task of protecting the servants of the company against the attacks of the Indians was one of still greater difficulty. The doctor impressed the Indians with the fact that the company was simply a mercantile corporation, whose purpose was only trade with the natives; that its intention was only to appropriate to its exclusive use a few sites for its trading posts and small parcels of adjacent lands, sufficient to produce supplies for its people, thus leaving all the remainder of the country for the use and in the exclusive possession of the Indians; and that this possession of limited amounts of land by the company would be mutually beneficial. Even savages have the native good sense to discover the mutual benefits of trade. The Indians wanted a market for their furs, and the company customers for its merchandise.

It was an inflexible rule with the doctor never to violate his word, whether it was a promise of reward or a threat of punishment. There is no vice more detested by Indians than a failure to keep one's word, which they call lying. If it were a failure to perform a promised act beneficial to the Indians themselves, they would regard it as a fraud akin to theft: and, if a failure to carry out a threat of punishment, they would consider it the result of weakness or cowardice. In either case, the party who broke his pledged word would forfeit their respect, and in the first case would incur their undying resentment.

To guard against the natural jealousy of the Indians, and insure peace between them and the servants of the company, it became necessary to adopt and enforce the most rigid discipline among the latter. This discipline was founded upon the great principle that, to avoid difficulty with others, we must first do right ourselves. To make this discipline the more efficient, the doctor adopted such measures as substantially to exclude all intoxicating liquors from the country. When a crime was committed by an Indian, the doctor made it a rule not to hold the whole tribe responsible for the unauthorized acts of individuals, but to inflict punishment upon the culprit himself. In cases of crime by Indians, the doctor insisted upon just punishment; and, if the culprit escaped for a time, the