The Example Of Their Fathers Has Released
Them From The Restraint Imposed By The Indian Opinions Of Good And Bad
Behaviour; And Generally Speaking No Pains Have Been Taken To Fill The
Void With Better Principles.
Hence it is not surprising that the males,
trained up in a high opinion of the authority and rights
Of the Company
to which their fathers belonged and, unacquainted with the laws of the
civilised world, should be ready to engage in any measure whatever that
they are prompted to believe will forward the interests of the cause they
espouse. Nor that the girls, taught a certain degree of refinement by the
acquisition of an European language, should be inflamed by the
unrestrained discourse of their Indian relations, and very early give up
all pretensions to chastity. It is however but justice to remark that
there is a very decided difference in the conduct of the children of the
Orkney men employed by the Hudson's Bay Company and those of the Canadian
voyagers. Some trouble is occasionally bestowed in teaching the former
and it is not thrown away, but all the good that can be said of the
latter is that they are not quite so licentious as their fathers are.
Many of the half-breeds both male and female are brought up amongst and
intermarry with the Indians; and there are few tents wherein the paler
children of such marriages are not to be seen. It has been remarked, I do
not know with what truth, that half-breeds show more personal courage
than the pure Crees.*
(*Footnote.
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