CASE OF REVENGE FOR INHOSPITALITY. \Q5 



that he is only obeying the natural impulse of 

 self-preservation, in laying forcible hands on 

 whatever falls within his reach. 



At one of the Company's posts in the north- 

 ern department, where the animals, as in our 

 case, were so scarce that the natives could 

 not procure subsistence, they threw themselves 

 on the generosity of the gentleman in charge, 

 and requested a small proportion of the meat 

 out of his well-stocked store, to enable them 

 to recruit their strength for fresh efforts in 

 the chase. They were denied ; and returned 

 dejected to their wintry abode. Now and 

 then a moose deer was killed, but long was 

 the fasting between ; and in those intervals of 

 griping pain, the inhospitality of the white man 

 was dwelt upon with savage indignation, which 

 at last vented itself in projects of revenge. An 

 opportunity presented itself in the arrival at 

 their lodges of the interpreter, who had been 

 despatched from the factory to see what they 

 were doing. This man had not been popular 

 with them before, and the part he had taken in 

 the late transaction had aggravated the feeling 

 against him. Of this he was himself aware ; and 

 being a half-breed, was not without the cautious 

 suspicion which is characteristic of the aboriginal. 

 Still the wonted familiarity, and the friendly pipe 

 that greeted his entrance into the principal 



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