124 A JOURNEY TO THE 
1771, firuded, they might foon be replaced, without 
\———— any other trouble or expence than a little labour; 
a but this fuppofition can only hold good in places 
where proper materials are eafily procured, which 
was not the cafe here: if it had, they would not 
have been an object of plunder. In the midft of 
a foreft of trees, the wood that would make a 
Northern Indian a bow and a few arrows, or in- 
deed a bow and arrows ready made, are not of 
much value; no more than the man’s trouble 
that makes them: but carry that bow and arrows 
feveral hundred miles from any woods and place 
where thofe are the only weapons in ufe, their 
intrinfic value will be found to increafe, in the 
fame proportion as the materials which are made 
are lefs attainable*. 
To do Matonabbee juftice on this occafion, I 
-muft fay that he endeavoured as much as poflible 
to perfuade his countrymen from taking either 
furrs, clothing, or bows, from the Copper Indi- 
ans, without making them fome fatisfactory re- 
turn; but if he did not encourage, neither did 
he endeavour to hinder them from taking 
as many women as they pleafed. Indeed, the 
Copper Indian women feem to be much efteem- 
ed by our Northern traders; for what reafon I 
know not, as they are in reality the fame people 
in every refpect; and their language differs not 
fo much as the dialeéts of fome of the neareft _ 
counties in England do from each other. ‘ 
t 
* See Pofllethwayt onthe article of Labour. 
