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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
It is a sort of fair in which the savages are ceremoniously received by the governor-general, after which they display the products of the chase and traffic with the merchants. He relates the restrictions placed upon the sale of liquor to the savages, which restrictions are by no means observed. When drunk the Indians were quarrelsome and dangerous, not only among themselves, but were also a terror to the town.
When it was first discovered that there was abundance of peltries which had a marketable value, the savages thus brought them to the town to be disposed of. Later the coureurs de bois scoured the wilderness and bartered with the savages at their various points of rendezvous. The savages had no appreciation of the value of the skins which they bartered. They gladly exchanged them for the glittering trinkets which they thought of enormous worth. Thus the Indian was cheated outrageously, though he believed himself getting the best of the bargain. Each party to the transaction had supreme contempt for the other, because he considered that which he was parting with of only trifling worth, while that which he was getting in exchange of exceedingly great value. When it became known that there were such enormous profits in the business, the authorities sought to control and restrict it by imposing regulations which diverted a part of the profits to the officials at
the head of affairs. This took the form of a license without which no one was permitted to engage in the trade. These licenses in printed form were granted to gentlemen of political influence, retired officers or their widows. In the case of the last mentioned who could not personally make use of them, they were permitted to sell the license. The merchants were the purchasers and they in turn employed the coureurs de bois in the quality of agents. So there came to be traffic in licenses, as well as in furs. The officials issuing the licenses and the holders of the same all the way down the line shared in the profits of the transaction, and so the matter soon became little short of scandalous.
MICHIGAN
Page 43
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