266 A JOURNEY TO THE 
17972. ing to the univerfal cuftom of thofe favages, fur- 
\—\-—~ prifed her and her party in the night, and killed 
ee every foul in the tent, except herfelf and three | 
other young women. Among thofe whom they _ 
killed, were her father, mother, and hufband. 
Her young child, four or five months old, fhe 
concealed in a bundle of clothing, and took with | 
her undifcovered in the night; but when fhe ar- | 
rived at the place where the Athapufcow Indians 
had left their wives, (which was not far diftant,) 
they began to examine her bundle, and finding | 
the child, one of the women tookit from her, and | 
killed it on the fpot. { 
This laft piece of barbarity gave her fucha | 
difguft to thofe Indians, that notwithftanding the — 
man who took care of her treated her in every 
refpect as his wife, and was, fhe faid, remarkably 
kind to, and even fond of her; fo far was fhe | 
from being able to reconcile herifelf to any of the 
tribe, that fhe rather chofe to expofe herfelf to_ 
mifery and want, than live in eafe and affluence 
among perfons who had fo cruelly murdered her 
infant*. The poor woman’s relation of this 
fhocking 
< 
* It is too common a cafe with moft of the tribes of Southern Indiags 
for the women to defire their hufbands or friends, when going to war; 
to bring them a flave, that they may have the pleafure of killing it; and 
fome of thefe inhuman women will accompany their hufbands, and mur- 
der the women and children as faft as their hnfbands do the men. 
When I was at Cumberland Houfe, (an inland fettlement that I efta- 
blifhed for the Hudfon’s Bay Company in the year 17474,) I was particu- 
Jarly acquainted with a very young lady of this extraordinary turn ; who, 
when I defired fonic Indians that were going to war to bring me a young 
. flave, 
