Slavery was rife among the aborigines of the coast, the number of a man's wives and slaves being the two chief items in estimating his importance. The lives of these slaves were completely at the mercy of their owners, who killed them without compunction whenever the occasion seemed to them to call for such a sacrifice.
The custom of flattening the head in infancy was a characteristic of certain of the tribes in the region of the Columbia and Puget's Sound, especially of the Chinooks and Cowlitz Indians. The process, which is well depicted, as well as described by Paul Kane, commenced with the birth of the infant and continued for a period of from eight to twelve months, in which time the head had lost its natural shape and acquired that of a wedge, the front of the skull flat and higher at the crown, giving it a very unnatural appearance. The infants are said to have shown no signs of suffering while subjected to the treatment, but on the contrary to have cried when their bands were removed—nor was their health or acuteness of intellect apparently impaired by it. The Flatheads took their slaves from among the roundhead tribes, the former looking with contempt even upon the whites, whose heads had grown in the natural shape which served to distinguish slaves from their masters.
The fondness of the Indian for arraying himself in the white man's garments, especially if they be of a showy or striking appearance, has been often remarked, and the Indians of the Columbia were no exception to the rule. "I remember old King Comcomly," said the old Hudson's Bay clerk quoted in the earlier part of this article[215], "once marching into Vancouver, with all his naked aides and followers, rigged out in a British general's uniform. But His Majesty had thrown off the pantaloons before he marched out—considering that they impeded his progress"—a scene which reminds one somewhat of the visit of the founder of the late Hawaiian dynasty and his suite to the Tonquin, while she lay at the Sandwich Islands.
The lot of the officers and clerks at the more remote posts of the Hudson's Bay Company was, in most cases, by no means an enviable one. Their letters to their friends and to each other—usually long and neatly written documents—contained many a tale of dangers surmounted and hardships endured. One wrote from Colville, in 1835, "we had five or six hundred Blackfeet upon us and fought some hours"; another, speaking of Fort Simpson in the same year, said: "A winter voyage on that rugged stormy coast is both dangerous and unpleasant and, when arrived, the matter is not much mended. The natives are very numerous, treacherous, daring, savage and ferocious in the extreme." Separated from his family, whom he would not expose to the dangers of the voyage, he exclaims against the country of his exile. Such instances might be multiplied and it is little matter of wonder that the burden of the trader's letter was at all times an expression of longing for the time when he hoped to "go out" to the far away civilized world and that he invariably looked upon one already there as in a situation akin to Paradise. The hope of promotion—which could not begin until after many years of service—the heartburnings at sometimes being passed over, the long waits of twenty or even thirty years for their "parchments," as they termed their commissions as chief factors or chief traders—were the subject of ceaseless thought and some grumbling. Now and again the bullet, knife or tomahawk of some treacherous foe would put an end to the earthly solitude of the trader at a remote post. In spite of all their drawbacks, however, the Hudson's Bay factors, traders and clerks formed a brotherhood of men, who, for courage, loyalty to the service and good comradeship, were unexcelled perhaps anywhere. In Eastern Canada, the Red River settlement and Vancouver Island, which formed the chief havens of their retirement from service, the old Nor'westers and Hudson's Bay men formed a confraternity of large-hearted and often opulent veterans, full of affection for their families and old comrades and of thankfulness to God for mercies vouchsafed them. That not only the highest position in the company's service, but the highest imperial honours as well, were open to the Hudson's Bay clerk possessing the necessary ability, tact, vigour and perseverance is evidenced by the case of the Hon. Sir Donald A. Smith, who, entering company's service as a lad from Scotland, 18 years of age, has risen, step by step, to the highest position in that service, has amassed great wealth, held a seat for many years in the Canadian parliament, and occupies now the important position of High Commissioner for Canada at London, where he holds a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal.
As already stated, the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew headquarters to the north of the present boundary after it became fixed in 1846. Meantime settlement, especially in the Willamette valley, was going on apace and cities and towns arose. Though the fur trade departed, the fisheries have remained and the city of Astoria has been reared chiefly on a diet of fish—for the salmon and sturgeon, as well as smaller fish, of the Columbia, were ever justly celebrated. Ships of all nations found their way in increasing numbers across that bar which has ever been the chief drawback to navigation to and from the Columbia. Across the broad river down which the express boat propelled by the light-hearted, gaily-singing voyageurs, made its way in former times, the swift express train now travels with passengers who mayhap have crossed the continent in less time than would, in the early days, have been consumed in a trip from Spokane to Fort Vancouver.
C. O. Ermatinger.
FOOTNOTES:
[212] Mr. C. O. Ermatinger, of St. Thomas, Ontario, the writer of this paper, is the son of the E. (Edward) Ermatinger and a nephew or the F. (Francis) Ermatinger who are mentioned in the entry on Monday, October 31st, 1825, of the Journal of John Work, which is printed in this Quarterly. Judge Ermatinger is a prominent member of the Elgin (County) Historical and Scientific Institute of Ontario, Canada. This paper was prepared for use in the East some years since; its publication in this Quarterly has now been kindly permitted.—T. C. Elliott.