ice, which, in
the earlier part of the season, have been driven under the main crust.

CHAPTER XIX.

REFLECTIONS--PROSPECTS IN THE SERVICE--DECREASE OF THE
GAME--COMPANY'S POLICY IN CONSEQUENCE--APPEAL OF THE
INDIANS--MEANS OF PRESERVING THEM, AND IMPROVING THEIR
CONDITION--ABOLITION OF THE CHARTER--OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

The history of my career may serve as a warning to those who may be
disposed to enter the Hudson's Bay Company's service. They may learn
that, from the moment they embark in the Company's canoes at Lachine,
or in their ships at Gravesend, they bid adieu to all that civilized
man most values on earth. They bid adieu to their family and friends,
probably for ever; for if they should remain long enough to attain the
promotion that allows them the privilege of revisiting their native
land--a period of from twenty to twenty-five years--what changes does
not this life exhibit in a much shorter time? They bid adieu to all
the comforts and conveniences of civilized life, to vegetate at some
desolate, solitary post, hundreds of miles, perhaps, from any other
human habitation, save the wig-wam of the savage; without any other
society than that of their own thoughts, or of the two or three
humble individuals who share their exile. They bid adieu to all
the refinement and cultivation of civilized life, not unfrequently
becoming semi-barbarians,--so altered in habits and sentiments, that
they not only become attached to savage life, but eventually lose all
relish for any other.

I can give good authority for this. The Governor, writing me last
year regarding some of my acquaintances who had recently retired,
observes--"They are comfortably settled, but apparently at a loss what
to do with themselves; and sigh for the Indian country, the squaws,
and skins, and savages."

Such are the rewards the Indian trader may expect;--add to these, in
a few cases, the acquisition of some thousands, which, after forty
years' exile, he has neither health, nor strength, nor taste to enjoy.
Few instances have occurred of gentlemen retiring with a competency
under thirty-five or forty years' servitude, even in the best days of
the trade; what period may be required to attain that object in these
times, is a question not easily solved. Up to 1840, one eighty-fifth
share had averaged 400l. per annum; since then, however, the dividends
have been on the decline, nor are they ever likely to reach the same
am