LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 125 



coureurs des bois, or peddling ones, the market promised 

 to be brisk, the more so as a large quantity of ardent 

 spirits was in their possession, which would be dealt 

 with no unsparing hand to put down the opposition of 

 so many competing traders. 



In opening a trade, a quantity of liquor is first given 

 " on the prairie," * as the Indians express it in words, 

 or by signs in rubbing the palm of one hand quickly 

 across the other, holding both flat. Having once tasted 

 the pernicious liquid, there is no fear but they will 

 quickly come to terms ; and not unfrequently the spirit 

 is drugged, to render the unfortunate Indians still more 

 helpless. Sometimes, maddened and infuriated by 

 drink, they commit the most horrid atrocities on each 

 other, murdering and mutilating in a barbarous manner, 

 and often attempting the lives of the traders themselves. 

 On one occasion a band of Sioux, whilst under the 

 influence of liquor, attacked and took possession of a 

 trading fort of the American Fur Company, stripping 

 it of everything it contained, and roasting the trader 

 himself over his own fire. 



The principle on which the nefarious trade is con- 

 ducted is this, that the Indians, possessing a certain 

 quantity of buffalo robes, have to be cheated out of 

 them, and the sooner the better. Although it is 

 explicitly prohibited by the laws of the United States to 

 convey spirits across the Indian frontier, and its intro- 

 duction amongst the Indian tribes subjects the offender 

 to a heavy penalty, yet the infraction of this law is of 

 * " On the prairie," is the Indian term for a free gift. 



