John Long was an expert woodsman, fur-trader, and explorer who traveled into the largely unexplored regions north and west of Canada. "Long's narrative…portrays conditions during the period of the free trader, responsible to no authority, exploiting the country and the natives for the largest immediate returns, without reference to the preservation of the hunting grounds or the protection of the hunters. The frightful debauchery of the Indians by means of traders' rum, and the necessity for the use of laudanum to control their drunken excesses, are shown in full by Long in his simple narrative of events. The dangers, also, to which this system exposed the trader, are only too evident…As for the competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, it is plain from Long's narrative that the Canadian traders were encroaching on the hunting grounds of this great monopoly…As for the rest of the picture, Long presents the usual traits of the trader and interpreter-a certain rude honesty, taking the form of loyalty to his employer, a disregard of dangers, and small concern for hardships…There is an unvarnished, unflinching directness in his statements, conveying to the reader the impression that he is concealing nothing, doing nought for effect, but telling a straightforward story of travels and adventures."
Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
(1904), 2007, CD-ROM, Graphic Images, Searchable, Adobe v6, PC or Mac, 330 pp.
ISBN: 9780788444326
101-CD4432
