Letter by Reverend Father Etienne de Carheil to Monsieur Louis Hector de Callieres, governor [on conditions in the Upper Lakes in 1702]

              1696-1702] CARHEIL TO CALLIMES 197
we gain nothing but the accusation of opposing the King*s service, by endeavoring to prevent a trade that he has permitted.
The second occupation of the soldiers consists in being sent from one post to another by the Com¬ mandants in order to carry their wares and their brandy thither, after having made arrangements together; and none of them have any other object than That of mutually assisting one another in their Traffic. And, in order that This may be more easily done on both Sides according to their wishes, the Commandants must close their eyes, that they may be able to Connive at and not observe the Misconduct of their soldiers,—however visible, public, and scan¬ dalous it may be; the soldiers must, in turn, besides, trafficking in their own wares, become traffickers in Those of their Commandants, who frequently com¬ pel the soldiers to buy merchandise from them, in order to gain permission to go where they please.
Their third occupation consists in making of their fort a place that I am ashamed to call by its proper name, where the women have found out that their bodies might serve in lieu of merchandise and would be still better received than Beaver-skins; accord¬ ingly, that is now the most usual and most Continual Commerce, and that which is most extensively car¬ ried on. Whatever efforts the missionaries may make to denounce and abolish it, this traffic increases, instead of diminishing, and grows daily more and more. All the soldiers keep open house in their dwellings for all the women of their acquaintance. From morning to night, they pass entire Days there, one after another —sitting by their fire, and often on their beds, engaged in conversations and actions