The more immediate motive for treating with the Indians of Athabasca
has been already referred to, viz., the discovery of gold in the
Klondike, and the astonishing rush of miners and prospectors, in
consequence, to the Yukon, not only from the Pacific side, but,
east of the mountains, by way of the Peace and Mackenzie rivers. Up
to that date, excepting to the fur-traders and a few missionaries,
settlers, explorers, geologists and sportsmen, the Peace River
region was practically unknown; certainly as little known to the
people of Ontario, for example, as was the Red River country thirty
years before. It was thought to be a most difficult country to
reach--a _terra incognita_--rude and dangerous, having no allurements
for the average Canadian, whose notions about it, if he had any, were
limited, as usual, to the awe-inspiring legend of "barbarous Indians
and perpetual frost."
There is a lust, however, the unquenchable lust for gold, which
seems to arouse the dullest from their apathy. This is the _primum
mobile_; from earliest days the sensational mover of civilized man,
and not unlikely to remain so until our old planet capsizes again,
and the poles become the equator with troglodites for inhabitants.
No barriers seem insurmountable to this rampant spirit; and,
urged by it, the gold-seekers, chiefly aliens from the United
States, plunged into the wilderness of Athabasca without
hesitation, and without as much as "by your leave" to the
native.
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