and killed by
Indians.[87] Many of these were Astor's men. But how many Indians were
killed by the whites has never been known, nor apparently was there any
solicitude as to whether the number was great or small.

What did Astor pay his men for engaging in this degrading and dangerous
business? Is it not a terrifying commentary on the lengths to which men
are forced to go in quest of a livelihood, and the benumbing effects on
their sensibilities, that Astor should find a host of men ready to
seduce the Indians into a state of drunkenness, cheat and rob them, and
all this only to get robbed and perhaps murdered in turn? For ten or
eleven months in the year Astor's subaltern men toiled arduously through
forest and plain, risking sickness, the dangers of the wilderness and
sudden death. They did not rob because it benefited them; it was what
they were paid to do; and it was likewise expected of them that they
should look upon the imminent chances of death as a part of their
contract.

For all this what was their pay? It was the trifling sum of $130 for the
ten or eleven months. But this was not paid in money. The poor wretches
who gave up their labor, and often their health and lives, for Astor
were themselves robbed, or their heirs, if they had any. Payment was
nearly always made in merchandise, which was sold at exorbitant prices.
Everything that they needed they had to buy at Astor's stores; by the
time that they had bought a year's supplies they not only had nothing
coming to them, but they were often actually in debt to Astor.

But Astor--how did he fare? His profits from the fur trade of the West
were truly stupendous for that period. He, himself, might plead to the
Government that the company was in a decaying state of poverty. These
pleas deceived no one. It was characteristic of his habitual deceit that
he should petition the Government for a duty on foreign furs on the
ground that the company was being competed with in the American markets
by the British fur companies. At this very time Astor held a virtual
monopoly of fur trading in the United States. One need not be surprised
at the grounds of such a plea. Throughout the whole history of the
trading class, this pathetic and absurdly false plea of poverty has
incessantly been used by this class, and used successfully, to get
further concessions and privileges from a Government which reflected,
and represented, its interests. Curiously, enough, however, if a