LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 161 



It is painful to follow the steps of the poor fellows 

 who, thus despoiled of the hardly-earned produce of 

 their hunt, saw all their wealth torn from them at one 

 swoop. The two Canadians were killed upon the night 

 succeeding that of the attack. Worn with fatigue, 

 hungry and cold, they had built a fire in what they 

 thought was a secure retreat, and, rolled in their 

 blankets, were soon buried in a sleep from which they 

 never awoke. An Indian boy tracked them, and 

 watched their camp. Burning with the idea of signalis- 

 ing himself thus early, he awaited his opportunity, and 

 noiselessly approaching their resting-place, shot them 

 both with arrows, and returned in triumph to his people 

 with their horses and scalps. 



La Bonte and Killbuck sought a passage in the 

 mountain by which to cross over to the head-waters of 

 the Columbia, and there fall in with some of the traders 

 or trappers of the North- West. They became involved 

 in the mountains, in a part where was no game of any 

 description, and no pasture for their miserable animals. 

 One of these they killed for food ; the other, a bag of 

 bones, died from sheer starvation. They had very little 

 ammunition, their mocassins were worn out, and they 

 were unable to procure skins to supply themselves with 

 fresh ones. Winter was fast approaching ; the snow 

 already covered the mountains ; and storms of sleet and 

 hail poured incessantly through the valleys, benumbing 

 their exhausted limbs, hardly protected by scanty and 

 ragged covering. To add to their miseries, poor Killbuck 

 was taken ill. He had been wounded in the groin by a 

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