Indian custom dictated that the trade be conducted with ceremony and solemnity. As a band of Indians approached a fort, it was customary to send several envoys ahead to announce their arrival and secure a few gifts such as tobacco, paint and powder. When within a few yards of the gate, the Indians would fire a salute to the traders which would be returned. The formality of the situation is captured here in the arrival of a chief and his band at Fort Douglas, painted by the young Swiss artist Peter Rindisbacher in the early 1820s. Note that the chief is wearing a European coat and hat. It was a long-standing custom of the traders to bestow such marks of favour upon Indian leaders in order to win theirs allegiance. Here is a description of a typical Hudson's Bay Company outfit given to an Indian captain or leader in the eighteenth century:
A coarse cloth coat, either red or blue, lined with baize with regimental cuffs and collar. The waistcoat and breeches are of baize... a white or checked shirt; a pair of yarn stockings tied below the knee with worsted garters; a pair of English shoes. The hat is laced and ornamented with feathers of different colours. A worsted sash tied round the crown....
