The adventures of Marguerite Trottier are taken from two sources: from McDonald of Garth’s Journal (Masson Journals) and from the Abbé Dugas’ Legends. I hesitated whether to give this shocking and terrible story, for the most thoughtless reader will find between the lines (and it is intended) more than is told. What determined me to give the story was this: Again and again in the drawing rooms of London and New York, I have heard society--men and women, who hold high place in social life--refer to those early marriages of the fur traders to native women as something _sub rosa_, disreputable, best hidden behind a lie or a fig leaf. They never expressed those delicate sentiments to me till they had ascertained that tho’ I had lived all my life in the West, I had neither native blood in my veins nor a relationship of any sort to the pioneer--not one of them. Then some such expressions as this would come out apologetically with mock modest Pharisaic blush--“Is it true that So and So married a native woman?” or “Of course I know they were _all_ wicked men, for look how they married--Squaws!” I confess it took me some time to get the Eastern view on this subject into my head, and when I did, I felt as if I had passed one of those sewer holes they have in civilized cities. Of course, it is the natural point of view for people who guzzle on problem plays and sex novels, but what--I wondered--would those good people think if they realized that “the squaws” of whom they spoke so scornfully were to Northwest life what a Boadicea was to English life--the personification of Purity that was Strength and Strength that was Purity--a womanhood that the vilest cruelties could not defile. Then, to speak of fur traders who married native women as “all wicked” is a joke. Think of the religious mystic, Harmon, teaching his wife the English language with the Bible, and Alexander MacKenzie, who had married a native woman before he had married his own cousin, and the saintly patriot, Dr. McLoughlin--think of them if you can as “wicked.” I can’t! I only wish civilized men and women had as good records. In this chapter I wished very much to give a detailed account of each N. W. C. department with notes on the chief actors, who were in those departments what the feudal barons were to the countries of Europe, but space forbids. It is as impossible to do that as it would be to cram a record of all the countries of Europe into one volume. I have throughout referred to the waters as Hudson Bay; to the company as Hudson’s. This is the ruling of the Geographical societies and is, I think, correct, as the charter calls the company “Hudson’s Bay.” The N. W. C. were sometimes referred to as “the French.” Charles MacKenzie and Larocque in their Journals (Masson Coll.) give the details of the Mandane trade. Henry also touches on it. CHAPTER XXIII 1780-1810