Castoreum, an important by-product of the beaver trade at the time, was much in demand too. Obtained in the spring from the perineal glands of both male and female animals, it was used extensively by perfumers as a base for the flower scents. It was also often used to catch the beaver himself. During mating season both sexes of the beaver deposited the pungent, sticky, yellow substance on spots regularly visited by other beaver and added mud and dead leaves to form scent mounds. These served the natives to locate runways; also to bait the intricate snares they set in lieu of spearing, before the white man provided them with metal traps. The Indians of French Canada fell in readily with the white man’s breathless pursuit of the beaver. They, themselves, had long since learned the warmth and durability of his pelt. They used his sharp teeth to point their cutting and scraping tools. They ate his flesh, the tail of the beaver being considered a special delicacy. Now they could trade his pelt and his castors for many wonderful things they thought they needed--ironware, clothing, guns and brandy. It was not difficult to persuade them to step up their war on the challenging little animal that acted like a man. This soon changed the Indian’s mode of life, making him more and more dependent on the white man’s wares. Eventually it brought about the red man’s destruction. As old cultural habits began falling away and as hardware which the Indian couldn’t make took the place of bone, wood and stone, he became the prey of every evil white man who stood to gain from him. Always deep in the Indian’s breast lay the revenge motive; always liquor stirred his most primal instincts. The displacement of bows and arrows by guns made it possible for him to kill off his aboriginal enemies much faster. But he was dependent on the European’s continued help even in that. Only the European could supply repair parts for the muskets and furnish the required ammunition. It was a case of the red man destroying himself with the white man’s culture. The brass kettle had as much to do with it as guns or brandy--and the process was not restricted to New France. The pattern was to be repeated on every other American frontier, by the English, the Dutch and the Swedes. The fur trade furnished the means of contact between the two widely divergent cultures of white European and red American. Profits were tremendous--on both sides, considering relative values. But the trade led to the Indian’s self-destruction. It also led to bitter rivalries among the white men. IV _Samuel de Champlain Lights a Blaze of Red Terror_ It was the first spectacular profits of the fur trade toward the close of the sixteenth century that brought about a fresh and urgent need for the colonization of New France.