Commerce not as yet having reached the tribes of whom we write except in the form of trade for their furs and skins, the question as to its ultimate effects, as a cause of civilization, can not by us be determined, but the effects produced by traffic have had a decided tendency toward their improvement and advancement by stimulating their exertions and increasing their knowledge. It must be obvious to every one who is acquainted with the character and history of Indians that they have an antipathy to work, that as long as they can support themselves by hunting they will do so; for through these means they are enabled to avail themselves of the labor and arts of Europeans in procuring articles necessary for their subsistence, in exchange for their furs and skins. This method being more consonant with their fixed habits, is less toilsome though more dangerous than civilized occupations. Having clothing, utensils, arms, ammunition and all kinds of provisions furnished them by the traders certainly increases their desire to obtain these things, stimulates them to greater exertions in hunting, but does not lead to a sufficient energy of mind to endeavor to produce these things by a slower though more certain employment. In the event of a sudden disappearance of game they would be driven to extreme want and thousands would perhaps perish before they would of their own accord apply themselves to agricultural pursuits. If no human exertions be made by those in power to instruct them in the superior advantages of such labors over their present precarious life, they must by a sudden pressure of emigration, and a consequent annihilation of game, become the drudges of the whites, destroyed and degraded by their great banes, whiskey and smallpox. It is impossible to conceal the rapid strides made by emigration or its immoral tendency on the Indians, and it would be very unreasonable to conclude that its destroying effects would so revolutionize the habits of an uneducated Indian as to meet the emergency. The change from savage to civilized life and occupations must be gradual, accompanied by instruction, education, and practical experiment illustrative of its utility. The introduction of woolen goods has been of some advantage to the Indians. It has added to their comfort, cleanliness, and pride, and has had other good effects; but these alone can not be said to have much increased their means of subsistence, though other things have. As long as an Indian is a hunter, his dress must answer that purpose. There is no fabric of European manufacture clothed in which he could crawl after game over the plains covered with cactus in summer or that would protect his body from freezing in winter. Blankets can not supply the place of buffalo robes, cloth the place of skin, boots that of moccasins, in these high latitudes and terrible snowstorms.