traders were settled in the village, who, whenever the Company entered
the lists against them, laid aside the feuds that subsisted among
themselves, and joined to oppose their united efforts against the
powerful rival that threatened to overwhelm them all. The spring fur
campaign was about to open when I made my _début_ at the post. The
natives being daily expected from the interior, all parties watched
their arrival night and day. This was not a very harassing duty to us,
as we relieved each other; but the situation of our superior was
exceedingly irksome and annoying. The moment an Indian canoe appeared
(the Indians always arrived at night), we were ordered to apprize him
of it; having done so, he was immediately at the landing-place, our
opponents being also there, attending to their own interests. Some of
the natives were supplied by the Company, others by the petty traders;
and according as it happened to be the customers of either that
arrived, the servants assisted in unloading the canoes, conveying the
baggage to their houses, and kindling a fire. Provisions were
furnished in abundance by both parties. While these preliminary
operations were being performed by the servants, the traders
surrounded the principal object of their solicitude--the hunter; first
one, then another, taking him aside to persuade him of the superior
claims each had on his love and gratitude. After being pestered in
this manner for some time, he, (the hunter,) eventually allowed
himself to be led away to the residence of one of the parties, where
he was treated to the best their establishment afforded; the natives,
however, retaining their furs, and visiting from house to house, until
satiated with the good cheer the traders had to give them, when they
at length gave them up, but not always to the party to whom they were
most indebted. They are generally great rogues; the sound of the
dollars, which the Company possessed in abundance, often brought the
furs that were due to the petty trader to the Company's stores; while