Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/196

 188 DOCUMENT trict. This party likewise conveys to the different forts along the route, (see map,) goods suitable to the Indian trade; other parties take up supplies, as they may be required, to Walla- wallah, 250 miles above Vancouver; to Colville, 600 miles above; to the fort at the junction of Lewis's river, 700 miles above; and to the south to the Fort McRoys, on the river Umpqua, in latitude 43 50' north: and last year, chief trader McLeod took up to the American rendezvous, in about latitude 43 north, a large supply of British manufactures. This as- semblage of American trappers and hunters takes place annually on the western side of the Rocky mountains, generally in the month of July, and amounts from 450 to 500 men, who bring the result of their year's labor to sell to the American fur traders. These persons purchase their supplies for the trappers at St. Louis; though, after being subject to the duties on these articles, (chiefly of British manufacture,) they transport their goods about 1,400 miles by land, to sell to citizens of the United States within our acknowledged lines of territory. Last year, they met a powerful opponent, in the agent of this foreign monopoly, chief trader McLeod, who could well afford to undersell the American fur trader on his own ground first, by having the advantage of water communication on the Colum- bia and Lewis's rivers for a distance of 700 to 800 miles ; and, secondly, by introducing the goods free of duty, which is equal to at least twenty-five to thirty per centum : but a greater evil than this exists in the influence the, Hudson Bay Company exercises over the Indians, by supplying them with arms and ammunition, which may prove, at some future period, highly dangerous to our frontier settlements. Besides this the policy of this company is calculated to perpetuate the institution of slavery, which now exists, and is encouraged, among all the Indian tribes west of the Rocky mountains. I shall refer to this more particularly hereafter. From what I have seen, I feel perfectly satisfied that no individual enter- prise can compete with this immense foreign monopoly estab- lished in our own waters; for instance, an American vessel, coming from New York or Boston to trade on the northwest