William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[119] of restoring their system-so far as a Protestant people and a secular government can restore their system-by placing these agencies under the control of religious bodies, chiefly Methodists and Quakers. But these purer agents have not stopped the progress of decline, and hardly raised, as yet, the tone of such few stragglers as survive. Old bucks go naked; young bucks get drunk. Fathers still sell their daughters to the Whites. A slave trade more revolting and atrocious than the sale of Negroes is conducted under the eyes of Christian judges, as it used to be conducted under the eyes of Franciscan priors. No native either gives a vote or exercises public trust. The tribes are tied to certain spots, cooped in like kine, from which they may not stir, under penalty of being hunted down, tied up with thongs, and lashed to their old posts. Compelled to work for the White farmers, they are lucky if the master is kind enough to lend them a gun to kill their food. They can be sent from master to master, and removed from one agency to another against their wish.

A man like Vancouver would find it hard to see in what respect their freedom under the Stars and II9