SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 103 



and derived from such respectable sources, that any con- 

 cealment of it, or any apparent incredulity on their 

 part, would be a dereliction of duty. Even the most 

 incredulous of the party, or those disposed to entertain 

 the most favourable opinion of the Indians, were at last 

 compelled to acknowledge that all doubt on the subject had 

 been removed from their minds. They have been asked, 

 whether they had ever been present at such a feast, and 

 they have heard it asserted by respectable persons, that 

 nothing but the autoptical observation of the travellers 

 could induce them to place any credit in this imputed canni- 

 balism ; to this it may be replied that, travelling as they 

 did, at a time when the Indians were comparatively in a 

 state of peace, when few and but accidental hostilities had 

 occurred between them, and these always at a distance from 

 the route which they pursued ; it could not be expected 

 that they should have been themselves eye witnesses to 

 these infamous orgies. But if it can be adduced in support 

 of their assertion, that the fact has been acknowledged by 

 the Indians themselves, by those that had perpetrated the 

 deed, that it has been uniformly admitted by the interpre- 

 ters and traders who have long resided among them, who 

 are connected to them by intermixtures, who are them- 

 selves partly Indians, and who declare having been present 

 at the time it took place ; if the names of the individuals 

 who became victims to it, can be mentioned, if the addi- 

 tional circumstance of its having been observed at several 

 thousands of miles distance, but among those Indians who 

 are known to be of the same nation, and who speak dialects 

 of the same language be taken into consideration, if these 

 facts should be corroborated by names expressive of this 

 custom, given to certain localities by the Indians them- 



