44 EXPEDITION TO THE 



cle ; their march was a triumphant one, and presented a 

 much greater concourse of men, women and children than 

 we had expected to meet on those distant prairies. The 

 procession consisted of one hundred and fifteen carts, 

 each loaded with about eight hundred pounds of the finest 

 bufialo meat; there were tln-eo hundred persons, including 

 the women. The number of their horses, some of which 

 were very good, was not under two hundred. Twenty 

 hunters, mounted on their best steeds, rode in abreast; 

 having heard of our arrival, they fired a salute as they 

 passed our camp. These men receive here the name of 

 Gens libres or Freemen, to distinguish them from the ser- 

 vants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who are called En- 

 gages. Those that are partly of Indian extraction, are 

 nick-named Bois brule, (Burnt wood,) from their dark 

 complexion. 



A swift horse is held by them to be the most valuable pro- 

 perty ; they are good judges of horses, particularly of racers, 

 with which they may chace the buffalo. Their horses are 

 procured from our southern prairies, or from the internal 

 provinces of New Spain, whence they are stolen by the In- 

 dians, and traded or re-stolen throughout the whole dis- 

 tance, until they get into the possession of these men. 

 Their dress is singular, but not deficient in beauty ; it is a 

 mixture of the European and Indian habits. All of them 

 have a blue capote with a hood, which they use only in 

 bad weather; the capote is secured round their waist by a 

 military sash; they wear a shirt of calico or painted mus- 

 lin, moccassins and leather leggings fastened round the 

 leg by garters ornamented with beads, &c. The Bois brul6s 

 often dispense with a hat; when they have one, it is gene- 

 rally variegated in the Indian manner, with feathers, gilt 

 lace, and other tawdry ornaments. 



