Tuesday, 23, descended to the Mississippi, and round to St. Louis, where we arrived at twelve o’clock, and having fired a salute went on shore and received the heartiest and most hospitable welcome from the whole village.
APPENDIX.
Observations and reflections on the present and future state of Upper Louisiana, in relation to the government of the Indian nations inhabiting that country, and the trade and intercourse with the same. By captain Lewis.
With a view to a more complete development of this subject, I have deemed it expedient in the outset, to state the leading measures pursued by the provincial government of Spain, in relation to this subject; the evils which flowed from those measures, as well to the Indians as to the whites, in order that we may profit by their errors, and be ourselves the better enabled to apply the necessary correctives to the remnant of evils which their practice introduced.
From the commencement of the Spanish provincial government in Louisiana, whether by the permission of the crown, or originating in the pecuniary rapacity of their governors general, this officer assumed to himself exclusively the right of trading with all the Indian nations in Louisiana; and therefore proceeded to dispose of this privilege to individuals, for certain specific sums; his example was imitated by the governors of Upper Louisiana, who made a further exaction. Those exclusive permissions to individuals varied as to the extent of country or nations they embraced, and the period for which granted; but in all cases the exclusive licenses were offered to the highest bidder, and, consequently, the sums paid by the individuals purchasing, were quite as much as the profits of the trade would bear, and in many instances, from a spirit of opposition between contending applicants, much more was given than ever the profits of the traffic would justify. The individual, of course, became bankrupt. This, however, was among the least of the evils flowing from this system to the Indian; it produced the evil of compelling him to pay such enormous sums for the articles he purchased, that his greatest exertions would not enable him to obtain as much as he had previously been in the habit of consuming, and which he therefore conceived necessary to him; for as this system progressed the demands of the governors became more exorbitant, and the trader, to meet his engagements, exacted higher prices from the Indians, though the game became scarcer in their country. The morals of the Indian were corrupted by placing before him the articles which he viewed as of the first necessity to him, at such prices, that he had it not in his power to purchase; he was therefore induced, in many instances, to take by force that which he had not the means of paying for; consoling himself with the idea, that the trader was compelled of necessity to possess himself of the peltries and furs, in order to meet his engagements with those from whom he had purchased his merchandise, as well as those who had assisted him in their transportation. He consequently could not withdraw himself from their trade, without inevitable ruin. The prevalence of this sentiment among the Indians, was strongly impressed on my mind by an anecdote related to me by a gentleman, who had for several years enjoyed, under the Spanish government, the exclusive privilege of trading with the Little Osages. It happened, that after he had bartered with them for all their peltries and furs which they had on hand, that they seized forcibly on a number of guns and a quantity of ammunition which he had still remaining; he remonstrated with them against this act of violence, and finally concluded by declaring that he would never return among them again, nor would he suffer any person to bring them merchandise thereafter. They heard him out very patiently, when one of their leaders pertly asked him; if he did not return the next season to obtain their peltries and furs, how he intended to pay the persons from whom he had purchased the merchandise they had then taken from him?
The Indians believed that these traders were the most powerful persons in the nation; nor did they doubt their ability to withhold merchandise from them; but the great thirst displayed by the traders for the possession of their peltries and furs, added to the belief that they were compelled to continue their traffic, was considered by the Indians a sufficient guarantee for the continuance of their intercourse, and therefore felt themselves at liberty to practise aggressions on the traders with impunity: thus they governed the trader by what they conceived his necessities to possess their furs and peltries, rather than governing themselves by their own anxiety to obtain merchandise, as they may most effectually be by a well regulated system. It is immaterial to the Indians how they obtain merchandise; in possession of a supply they feel independent. The Indians found by a few experiments of aggression on the traders, that as it respected themselves, it had a salutary effect; and although they had mistaken the legitimate cause of action on the part of the trader, the result being favourable to themselves, they continued their practice. The fact is, that the trader was compelled to continue his trade under every disadvantage, in order to make good his engagements to the governors; for having secured their protection, they were safe, both in person and property from their other creditors, who were, for the most part, the merchants of Montreal.
The first effect of these depredations of the Indians, was the introduction of a ruinous custom among the traders, of extending to them a credit. The traders, who visited the Indians on the Missouri, arrived at their wintering stations from the latter end of September to the middle of October: here they carried on their traffic until the latter end of March or beginning of April. In the course of the season they had possessed themselves of every skin the Indians had procured, of course there was an end of trade; but previous to their return, the Indians insist upon a credit being given on the faith of payment when he returned the next season. The trader understands his situation, and knowing this credit was nothing less than the price of his passport, or the privilege of departing in safety to his home, of course narrowed down the amount of this credit, by concealing, as far as he could, to avoid the suspicions of the Indians, the remnant of his merchandise. But the amount to be offered must always be such as they had been accustomed to receive; and which in every case, bore a considerable proportion to their whole trade; say the full amount of their summer or redskin hunt. The Indians well knew that the traders were in their power, and the servile motives which induced them to extend their liberality to them, and were therefore the less solicitous to meet their engagements on the day of payment; to this indifference they were further urged by the traders distributing among them, on those occasions, many articles of the last necessity to them. The consequence was, that when the traders returned the ensuing fall, if they obtained only one half of their credits they were well satisfied, as this covered their real expenditure.
Again, if it so happen, in the course of the winter’s traffic, that the losses of the trader, growing out of the indolence of the Indians, and their exorbitant exactions under the appellation of credit, should so reduce his stock in trade that he could not pay the governor the price stipulated for his license, and procure a further supply of goods in order to prosecute his trade, the license was immediately granted to some other individual, who, with an ample assortment of merchandise, visits the place of rendezvous of his predecessor, without the interpolation of a single season. It did not unfrequently happen, that the individuals engaged in this commerce, finding one of their number failing from the rapacity of the Indian nation, with which he had been permitted to trade, were not so anxious to possess themselves of the privilege of trading with that nation; the governor, of course, rather than lose all advantages, would abate of his demands considerably. The new trader thus relieved of a considerable proportion of the tax borne by his predecessor, and being disposed to make a favourable impression on the minds of the Indians, to whom he was about to introduce himself, would, for the first season at least, dispose of his goods to those Indians on more moderate terms than his predecessor had done. The Indians now find that the aggressions they have practised on their former trader, so far from proving detrimental to them, had procured not only their exoneration from the payment of the last credit given them by their former trader, but that the present trader furnished them goods on better terms than they had been accustomed to receive them. Thus encouraged by the effects of this rapacious policy, it was not to be expected that they would alter their plan of operation as it respected their new trader; or that they should appreciate the character of the whites in general in any other manner, than as expressed in a prevailing sentiment on this subject, now common among several nations on the Missouri, to wit: “that the white men are like dogs, the more you beat them and plunder them, the more goods they will bring you, and the cheaper they will sell them.” This sentiment constitutes, at present, the rule of action among the Kanzas, Sioux, and others; and if it be not broken down by the adoption of some efficient measures, it needs not the aid of any deep calculation to determine the sum of advantages which will result to the American people from the trade of the Missouri. These aggressions on the part of the Indians, were encouraged by the pusillanimity of the engagees, who declared that they were not engaged to fight.