INTOXICATING LIQUORS.



Ildence of the Indians was sure to be gained by the constancy and good faith
always observed toward them, and the Company obtained thereby numerous
and powerful allies in nearly all the tribes.
  As soon as it was possible to make the change, the Indians were denied
the*
use of intoxicating drinks, the appetite for which had early been introduced
among them by coasting vessels, and even continued by the Pacific Fur Com-
pany at Astoria. It would have been dangerous to have suddenly deprived
them of the coveted stimulus; therefore the practice must be discontinued
by
many wise arts and devices. A public notice was given that the sale of it
-would be stopped, and the reasons for this prohibition explained to the
Indians.
Still, not to come into direct conflict with their appetites, a little was
sold to
the chiefs, now and then, by the clerks, who affected to be running the greatest
risks in violating the order of the company. The strictest secrecy was enjoined
on the lucky chief who, by the friendship of some under-clerk, was enabled
to
smuggle off a bottle under his blanket. But the cunning clerk had generally
managed to get his " good friend " into a state so cleverly between
drunk and
sober, before he entrusted him with the precious bottle, that he was sure
to
betray himself. Leaving the shop with a mien even more erect than usual,
with a gait affected in its majesty, and his blanket tightened around him
to
conceal his secret treasure, the chuckling chief would start to cross the
grounds
within the fort. If he was a new customer, he was once or twice permitted
to
play his little game with the obliging clerk whose particular friend he was,
and
to escape detection.
  But by-and-by, when the officers had seen the offence repeated'more than
once from their purposely contrived posts of observation, one of them would
skillfully chance to intercept the guilty chief at whose comical endeavors
to
appear sober he was inwardly laughing, and charge him with being intoxicated.
Wresting away the tightened blanket, the bottle appeared as evidence that
could not be controverted, of the duplicity of the Indian and the unfaithfulness
of the clerk, whose name was instantly demanded, that he might be properly
punished. When the chief again visited the fort, his particular friend met
him
with a sorrowful countenance, reproaching him for having been the cause of
his disgrace and loss. This reproaeh was the surest means of preventing an-
other demand for rum, the Indian being too magnanimous, probably, to wish
to
get his friend into trouble; while the clerk affected to fear the consequences
too much to be induced to take the risk another time. Thus by kind and care-
ful means the traffic in liquors was at length broken up, which otherwise
would
have ruined both Indian and trader.
  To the company's servants liquor was sold or allowed at certain times:
to
those on the sea-board, one half-pint two or three times a year, to be used
as
medicine,-not that it was always needed or used for this purpose, but too
strict
inquiry into its use was wisely avoided,-and for this the company demanded
pay. To their servants in the interior no liquor was sold, but they were
fur-
-nished as a gratuity with one pint on leaving rendezvous, and another on
arriv-
,ing at winter quarters. By this management, it became impossible for them
to