Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/106

68 Post—Fort Boise; locality, Oregon territory; department, Oregon; district, Snake Co.; Indians, 200.

Post—Fort Victoria; locality, Vancouver island; department, Western; district, Vancouver island; Indians, 5,000.

Post—Fort Rupert; locality, Vancouver island; department, Western; district, Vancouver island; Indians, 4,000.

Post—Nanimo; locality, Vancouver island; department, Western; district, Vancouver island; Indians, 3,000.

Post—Fort Langley; locality, Indian territory; department, western; district, Frazer river; Indians, 4,000.

Post—Fort Simpson; locality, Indian territory; department, Western; district, Northwest coast; Indians, 10,000.

Post—Fort Simpson; locality, Indian territory; department Western; district, Northern Tribes; Indians, 35,000.

Posts—Kamloops and Fort Hope; locality, Indian territory, department, Western; district, Thompson river; Indians, 2,000.

Posts—Stuart Lake, McLeod Lake, Frazer Lake, Alexandria, Fort George, Baibnes and Connolly Lake; locality, Indian territory; department. Western; district. New Caledonia; Indians, 12,000.

Considering time and circumstances the Hudson Bay Company was the most perfect commercial organization ever operated on the American continent. No phase of its vast business was neglected. No element of success, no matter how small or questionable was forgotten. There was a local governor residing in America with headquarters at York factory, with jurisdiction over all the establishments of the company, together with sixteen chief factors, twenty-nine chief traders, five surgeons, eighty-seven clerks, sixty-seven postmasters, five hundred voyageurs, besides sailors on sea-going vessels, and over two thousand common servants engaged in trapping, mechanic arts, and farming. And besides this army of skilled white men, all armed for war, if war was necessary, was the vast population of native Indians who were at all times subservient to the company, furnished nearly the whole of its business in the furs caught and traded for goods. No exact amount can of course be given if its wide extended business, reaching from Hudson bay to the Pacific ocean, but an accounting by the company to its stockholders for four years commencing with 1834 and ending 1838 is interesting, as showing the vast business done, as follows:

Making a grand total of twenty-three million, four hundred and eighteen thousand, one hundred and nine animals destroyed in four years. If we multiply those figures by ten, we get an approximate estimate of the total destruction of animal life by this great company in the forty years of its hey-day of pros-