08 Sketches of the 



hunting ground ; the lakes and rivers intersecting which, 

 are portioned out amongst them, partly by the exertion of 

 their own individual strength, and partly by a kind of 

 feudal grantage from those of their o^vn tribe, in whom 

 they acknowledge some undefinable superiority. This 

 latter at least I suppose, as a young Indian who, at one 

 time, accompanied the St. Maurice exploring expedition 

 as a guide, seemed desirous of obtaining an allotment of 

 hunting ground for himself, and informed the party that it 

 was a necessary preliminary to secure the permission of 

 some chief, who he named, as a paramount Lord of the soil. 

 I believe this young man himself was not a T^te de Boule, 

 but the same custom prevails among the Indians of that 

 nation. 



Whatever rank they may formerly have held as a tribe 

 of hunters and warriors, the Tete de Boules of the present 

 day exhibit a melancholy portraiture of degraded human 

 natui-e. Slaves of the fur traders, by the expenses inci- 

 dental to their acquired taste for ardent spirits, they are 

 seldom so independent as to be able to carry their furs to 

 other markets than the neighboring posts ; and indeed, are 

 generally so much in debt for clothing, arms, ammunition, 

 and prov'ifion, independently of rum, to both companies, 

 where there is an opposition between the Hudson's Bay 

 and King's Post agents, that each of these companies have 

 their parties of people constantly engaged running about 

 in small, light birch canoes, searching for Indian encamp- 

 ments, and taking from them whatever peltries they find 

 them in possession of, giving them, in return, some rude 

 token or tally, wel! understood by both parties as a receipt 

 for the value ; nor does it appear that the Indians often 

 make opposition to this rather arbitrary method of trading, 



