ed by the Indian opinions of good
and bad behaviour; and generally speaking, no pains have been taken to
fill the void with better principles. Hence it is not surprising that
the males, trained up in a high opinion of the authority and rights of
the Company to which their fathers belonged, and unacquainted with the
laws of the civilized world, should be ready to engage in any measure
whatever, that they are prompted to believe will forward the interests
of the cause they espouse. Nor that the girls, taught a certain degree
of refinement by the acquisition of an European language, should be
inflamed by the unrestrained discourse of their Indian relations, and
very early give up all pretensions to chastity. It is, however, but
justice to remark, that there is a very decided difference in the
conduct of the children of the Orkney men employed by the Hudson's Bay
Company and those of the Canadian voyagers. Some trouble is occasionally
bestowed in teaching the former, and it is not thrown away; but all the
good that can be said of the latter is, that they are not quite so
licentious as their fathers are.

Many of the half-breeds, both male and female, are brought up amongst,
and intermarry with, the Indians; and there are few tents wherein the
paler children of such marriages are not to be seen. It has been
remarked, I do not know with what truth, that half-breeds shew more
personal courage than the pure Crees[9].

[9] A singular change takes place in the physical constitution of the
Indian females who become inmates of a fort; namely, they bear
children more frequently and longer, but, at the same time, are
rendered liable to indurations of the mammae and prolapsus of the
uterus; evils from which they are, in a great measure, exempt
whilst they lead a wandering and laborious life.

The girls at the forts, particularly the daughters of Canadians, are
given in marriage very young; they are very frequently wives at twelve
years of age, and mothers at fourteen. Nay, more than once instance came
under our observation of the master of a post having permitted a voyager
to take to wife a poor child that had scarcely attained the age of ten
years. The masters of posts and wintering partners of the Companies
deemed this criminal indulgence to the vices of their servants,
necessary to stimulate them to exertion for the interest of their
respective concerns. Another practice may also be noticed, as she