This question did not make much stir on French Prairie. The idea was this: Indians were much cheaper and better labor than negroes. For a blanket that cost $3 you could hire an Indian a month—or perhaps two months; and many of the Indians were good workers. They could handle an axe like a white man; and on the river they were the best boatmen. They would paddle all day in a canoe, or on a bateau, and want only a little meat and a salmon skin.
Some Southern people who brought their negroes with them wanted to keep them as slaves; but the people of Oregon opposed this and made the law that no negro should come to Oregon. It was never enforced.
AS TO PROHIBITION.
“All were in favor of this. It was no trouble. The Catholic missionaries as well as the Methodists favored it. The Hudson’s Bay Company had liquors stored, but never kept them for public sale. The distiller on French Prairie did not hold out long. Some of the Canadians went to his place to drink, or trade for it; but there was no money in the country, and they could only trade with little articles and there was no profit. A man at Milwaukee Bluff held out about two years, but gave it up—there was no money, and trade did not amount to anything in an illegal business.”
AS TO MONEY, ETC.
“There was no coin. If it was brought to the country it was not received at Vancouver. Furs, at a fixed valuation, were the first currency. Wheat was next.
“Wheat had to be delivered at the Hudson’s Bay warehouse at Champoeg. For this a receipt was given by the H. B. clerk. The receipt passed current as money, and was worth its face in goods at Vancouver.”
To illustrate the modus of doing business, Mr. Matthieu tells the following incident: “I was barefoot and nearly naked, and wanted some clothes. I took an order of Lucier’s, and went down to Fort Vancouver; but, as I had just come across the country, and was not long from Canada, I was met by so many Frenchmen at the fort, who wanted to hear all about my journey, and Canada, which some of them had not seen for twenty years, that I did not get my order in at once. When at last I presented it, the clerk said that I would have to see Douglas, as Lucier’s account was all drawn; so many others had been bringing his paper.”
“Douglas told me to go to McLoughlin. Each had an office in the building. When McLoughlin looked at my order he said he was sorry, but the account was drawn. I said, ‘It will come rather hard on me. I am barefoot, and almost naked, and I supposed Lucier’s credit was good anyhow.’ Then the doctor began to ask me where I was from. I told him ‘Terrebonne, in Canada.’
“‘I am from near that part,’ he said. Then he asked me about the place and people, and of old Doctor Frasier; and kept me about an hour talking. At last he said, ‘You look honest; go to the office and get this filled.’ And gave me an order for about $18 worth of goods.