And all experience goes to prove that a life of perfect liberty is apt to degenerate into a life of license.
"Even their own lives, and those of their companions, when it depended upon their own prudence, were but lightly considered.

The constant presence of danger made them reckless.

It is easy to conceive how, under these circumstances, the natives and the foreigners grew to hate each other, in the Indian country, especially after the Americans came to the determination to 'shoot an Indian at sight.' "On the other hand, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were many of them half-breeds, or full-blooded Indians of the Iroquois nation, towards whom nearly all the tribes were kindly disposed.

Even the Frenchmen, who trapped for this Company, were well liked by the Indians on account of their suavity of manner, and the ease with which they adapted themselves to savage life.

They were trained to the life of a trapper, were subject to the will of the Company, and were generally just and equitable in their dealing with the Indians.