_Ans._--"The Hudson's Bay Company exercised a great influence over the western Indians; that is, the Cayuses, Nez Percés, Flatheads, and Spokans, and others through these; they had no influence over the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains at all, and away south they could do almost any thing with the Indians. I know of one party that was robbed by order of one of the Hudson's Bay Company men, the commander of Fort Wallawalla (Wallula); the party was robbed, and the fur brought back to the fort and sold. I was not with the party; that was my understanding about the matter; and that was what the Indians said, and what the whites said that were robbed." (A fact known to the writer.) _Int. 13._--"Was it not generally understood among the American trappers that the Hudson's Bay Company got a very large quantity of Jedediah Smith's furs, for which he and they failed to account to the company to which they belonged?" (Objected to, because it is leading, immaterial, and hearsay.) _Ans._--"It used to be said so among the trappers in the mountains," (and admitted by the company, as no correct account was ever rendered.) _Int. 14._--"If you remember, state the quantity which was thus reported." (Objected to as before.) _Ans._--"It was always reported as about forty packs." _Int. 15._--"Give an estimate of the value of forty packs of beaver at that time." _Ans._--"Forty packs of beaver at that time, in the mountains, was worth about $20,000. I do not know what they would be worth at Vancouver." _Int. 16._--"State whether the dispute about this matter was the cause of the dissolution of the firm of Smith, Jackson & Sublet, to which you refer in your cross-examination." (Objected to as above.) _Ans._--"I do not know; that was the report among mountain men." With these specimens of testimony on both sides, I will venture a general statement drawn from the whole facts developed. About the time, or perhaps one year before, the notice that the joint occupancy of the country west of the Rocky Mountains was given by the American government to that of the British, the Hudson's Bay Company, as such, had made extensive preparations and arrangements to hold the country west of the Rocky Mountains. This arrangement embraced a full and complete organization of the Indian tribes under the various traders and factors at the various forts in the country. The probability of a Mexican war with the United States, and such influences as could be brought to bear upon commissioners, or the treaty-making power of the American government, would enable them to secure this object. In this they failed. The Mexican war was successfully and honorably closed. The Hudson's Bay Company's claims are respected, or at least mentioned as in existence, in the treaty of 1846, that the 49th parallel should be the boundary _of the two national dominions_.