It is difficult for Europeans to associate with savages without misunderstandings more or less serious. The savage governs his life by an elaborate ritual which he has inherited from his ancestors. His code is sufficient to cover his dealings with his fellows; but it fails to guide him in his relations with the strange new beings who burst in upon him from what is in truth a different world. The white man, unless he is gifted with unusual tact and sympathy, treats with contempt and scorn the customs of the natives and seldom attempts to understand their ways. Worse still, he feels himself freed from the restraints which bind him in civilized life, and frequently gives rein to the basest passions of his nature. Thus mutual misunderstanding too often breeds hatred, and results in the shedding of blood. To a surprising degree, the traders of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies were able to overcome the difficulties and dangers of dealing with the Indians, and their relations with them were correspondingly successful. Yet even successful traders often lacked the imaginative sympathy which would have enabled them to submit with patience to the complicated ritual of Indian life; and standing aloof as they did from the Indians, they were involved in constant broils and, not infrequently, in danger at their hands. Moreover, in the fierceness of their competition, the traders were too often willing to play sharp tricks on one another, and these practices taught the Indians evil ways. To drug the natives with liquor and steal furs destined for rival firms was a habit only too common. It sometimes happened also that small independent traders had their supplies taken from them, their canoes destroyed and themselves beaten senseless, so that they were driven from the fur countries, ruined men. Individuals like Peter Pond were guilty of offences more serious still. Their hands were stained with the blood of their competitors, and in the rough and tumble of life in the wilds, their crimes were hard to detect and harder still to punish. The Indians had learned that the Great Spirit hates to see the ground reddened with blood. But when they saw thuggery and murder flourish, how could they preserve their simple faith? Throughout his career in the west, Thompson was one of those whose influence among the Indians was almost wholly for good, and whose activities shed lustre on the history of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, whom they served. His travels carried him into the rocky belt south-west of the Bay, over the prairies, through the western forest, and across the mountains of the Pacific slope. Wherever he came in contact with the natives, he easily won their admiration and respect. This was due to the insight with which he studied their customs and to the sympathy with which he regarded their way of life. For Thompson was infinitely more than a trader: he had the mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet.