110 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



the whites. As there were many rival traders, and numerous 

 coureurs, cles 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 rub- 

 bing 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 help- 

 less. Sometimes, maddened and infuriated by drink, they commit 

 the most horrid atrocities on each other, murdering and muti- 

 lating in a barbarous manner, and often attempting the lives of 

 the traders themselves. On one occasion a band of SioRx, while 

 imder the influence of hquor, attacked and took possession of a 

 trading fort of the American Fur Company, stripping it of every 

 thing it contained, and roasting the trader himself over his own fire. 



The principle on which the nefarious trade is conducted is this, 

 that the Indians, possessing a certain quantity of bufTalo robes, 

 have to be cheated out of them, and the sooner the better. Al- 

 though it is explicitly prohibited by the laws of the United States 

 to convey spirits across the Indian frontier, and its introduction 

 among the Indian tribes subjects the offender to a heavy penalty ; 

 yet the infraction of this law is of daily occurrence, perpetrated 

 almost in the very presence of the government officers, who are 

 stationed along the frontier for the purpose of enforcing the laws 

 for the protection of the Indians. 



The misery entailed upon these unhappy people by the illicit 

 traffic must be seen to be fully appreciated. Before the effects 

 of the poisonous " fire-water," they disappear from the earth like 



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



