both by the Company and by individuals, in the Company's annual ships to York Factory, and disposed of in the colony at moderate prices. Labour is dear, and produce of all kinds sells at a higher rate than could be expected in such a secluded place.
Governor Simpson has long endeavoured, by arguments and rewards, to excite an exportation to England of hides, tallow, flax, hemp, and wool for the benefit of the settlers, but with little success. The bulky nature of such exports, a long and dangerous navigation to Hudson's Bay, but, above all, the roving and indolent habits of the half-breed race, who form the mass of the population, and love the chase of the buffalo better than the drudgery of agriculture or regular industry, seem to preclude the probability of this colony rising to commercial importance.[1] The currency of the place consists in the Company's notes, with a smaller amount of
- ↑ Since this was written, I have learned with infinite pleasure, that the settlers have at length found out the only practicable outlet for their cattle and grain; the fine level plains leading to the Mississippi and the St. Peter's, where there is the promise of a sufficient market among the Americans. Domestic manufactures too, which ought ever to precede exportation, have at last made some progress, in the shape of coarse cloths, stuffs, shawls, linen, sacking, tanned leather, &c.; all which tend to diminish the annual orders from England, and to render the people independent.
