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NOTES

OF A

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' SERVICE

IN THE

HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORY.

BY JOHN M‘LEAN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
R. CLAY. PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to her Majesty.
1849.

PREFACE.

The writer's main object in first committingto writing the following Notes was towhile away the many lonely and wearisomehours which are the lot of the Indian trader;—awish to gratify his friends by the narrativeof his adventures had also some share ininducing him to take up the pen.

While he might justly plead the hackniedexcuse of being urged by not a few of thosefriends to publish these Notes, in extenuationof the folly or presumption, or whatever else itmay be termed, of obtruding them on theworld, in these days of "making manybooks;" he feels that he can rest hisvindication on higher grounds. Althoughseveral works of some merit have appearedin connexion with the subject, the Hudson'sBay territory is yet, comparatively speaking,but little known; no faithful representationhas yet been given of the situationof the Company's servants—the Indiantraders; the degradation and misery of themany Indian tribes, or rather remnants oftribes, scattered throughout this vast territory,is in a great measure unknown; erroneousstatements have gone abroad in regard tothe Company's treatment of these Indians;as also in regard to the government, policy,and management of the Company's affairs;—on these points, he conceives that hisplain, unvarnished tale may throw some newlight.

Some of the details may seem trivial, andsome of the incidents to be without muchinterest to the general reader; still as itwas one chief design of the writer to drawa faithful picture of the Indian trader's life,—its toils, annoyances, privations, and perils,when on actual service, or on a trading orexploring expedition; its loneliness, cheerlessness,and ennui, when not on actual service;together with the shifts to which he is reducedin order to combat that ennui;—such incidents,trifling though they may appear to be, heconceives may yet convey to the reader a livelieridea of life in the Hudson's Bay Company'sterritories than a more ambitious or laboureddescription could have done. No one, indeed,who has passed his life amid the busy hauntsof men, can form any just idea of the interestattached by the lonely trader to the mosttrifling events, such as the arrival of a strangerIndian,—the coming of a new clerk,—a scuffleamong the Indians,—or a sudden change ofweather. No one, unaccustomed to their"short commons," can conceive the intense,it may be said fearful, interest and excitementwith which the issue of a fishing or huntingexpedition is anticipated.

Should his work contribute, in any degree,to awaken the sympathy of the Christianworld in behalf of the wretched anddegraded Aborigines of this vast territory;should it tend in any way to expose, or to