Affidavit of W. H. Gray.
In a conversation had with Dr. John McLaughlin, while he was in charge of the affairs of the Hudson Bay Company, (time I cannot state, except I am confident it was before the news of the treaty of 1846 reached us,) Dr. McLaughlin said to me in relation to Captain N. Wyeth, who [Page 180] left this country in 1836, “That if he (Captain Wyeth) had not accepted his proposition for the purchase of his goods and Forts, the Company would have insisted on other means to get rid of his (Captain Wyeth’s) competition in the fur trade.” I have always understood this intimation to mean that the Company would insist upon letting loose their Indian or Aboriginal allies upon Captain Wyeth or any other American furtrader that might presume to compete with them in the fur trade, the same as I am fully satisfied they did in the case of a Mr. G. Smith, the partner of Sublit & Jackson, in 1828. The Indians were informed that in case they robbed or killed the Americans, the Company would not punish them or take any notice of it. Smith’s party were, eleven of them, killed, bis furs received by the company, who paid a nominal price for them, as per testimony of G. L. Meak, Hudson’s Bay Company, V. S. U. S.
I solemnly swear that the first part of the foregoing state*ment is true, and that I believe the latter part to be true. So help me God.[106]