17;^ EXPEDITION TO THE 



Avith the North-west Company. Having returned some 

 time after to the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, he was 

 upbraided by the superintendant as a faithless and ungrate- 

 ful man ; he immediately went out of the fort and hung 

 himself. Among w^omen suicide is far more frequent, and 

 is the result of jealousy, or of disappointments in love ; some- 

 times extreme grief at the loss of a child will lead to it. The 

 Chippewas hold it to be a foolish, not a reprehensible ac- 

 tion. They do not consider it as entailing any punishment 

 in the other world. The souls of those who perish in this 

 manner meet, as they think, with a treatment correspond- 

 ing w4th the general tenour of their lives, and not affected 

 by this last act of theirs. 



Duelling is not practised among them ; we heard of but 

 one instance of a combat between two individuals, which, 

 from the attending circumstances, approaches to the nature 

 of the duels of civilized men. Two warriors of distinction 

 who had been noted for their mutual attachment, ceased to 

 be friends ; the cause of their disunion remained a secret ; 

 no apparent motive could be ascribed to it; it did not 

 spring from any quarrel about their mistresses, or from 

 gambling. After the coldness had subsisted for some time, 

 they were again seen together, and hopes were entertain- 

 ed that the breach had been made up. One evening both 

 were known to be in search of each other ; they met, and 

 welcomed with their left hands, uttering an expression 

 corresponding to our word well ; one of them then passed 

 his right hand behind him and drew his knife ; the other 

 immediately did the same, and before the bystanders were 

 aware of their object, each had plunged his knife twice in 

 the bosom of his adversary. Both fell severely wounded ■ 

 one died, the other survived his wounds. He was observed 

 ever after to be melanchol v ; but ho never could be induced 



