I am aware that it was a common belief among the early settlers, because the Hudson's Bay people were less frequently attacked than others, that they enjoyed immunity; but such was not the case.[1] Nothing but their uniform just treatment, and the firmness and intrepidity of the leaders and officers in charge, preserved this apparent security. Except in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver, or among the diseased and wasted tribes of the Willamette and Columbia valleys, there needed to be exercised sleepless vigilance, and a scrupulous regard to the superstitions of the different tribes.
Chief Factor Samuel Black, in charge of Fort Kamloop at the junction of Fraser and Thompson rivers, was a great favorite, and many were the stories told of him.[2] His murder by one of the fort Indians shows that, though he had been among them many years, he was no more safe from their fury or superstition than were others.[3]
William Glen Rae, a large, handsome man, educated at Edinburgh, was a native of the Orkney Islands. From 1834 to 1837 he was employed as trader at the different posts, and was then appointed head clerk at Fort Vancouver. In 1838 he married Maria Eloise, daughter of Dr McLoughlin, soon after which he was appointed chief trader, and sent to Stikeen River in 1840 to receive from the Russians their fort at that place, leased to the Hudson's Bay Company. He left the post at Stikeen in charge of John McLoughlin, son of Dr McLoughlin and brother of his wife. In 1841 he was sent to California to take charge of the
- ↑ Traders of interior posts were in constant danger of Indian attacks. Only a few men could be kept at each post, and the Indians at times were discontented. When in want of provisions they could not get, they would become desperate and easily excited. Burnett's Recollections, MS., i. 112.
- ↑ See Hist. Northwest Coast, passim, this series. Black was an oddity. He had a ring presented him at the coalition of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies, engraved, 'To the most worthy of the worthy Northwesters.' Roberts' Recollections, MS., 9.
- ↑ McKinlay's Nar., MS., 13, 14; Simpson's Nar., i. 157; Roberts' Recollections, MS., 10; Tod's New Caledonia, MS., 13–19.
