INDIAN TRADE-GUNS. 221 



of furnishing the best and most reliable details; this 

 was however before the days when these wild hunters 

 became possessed of firearms, which it may well be 

 doubted if they found a real improvement upon the 

 old weapon for this special purpose, though of course 

 as a war weapon to be used upon their forays the gun 

 was immeasurably superior to the old bow and arrow, 

 as also in all cases where the hunter was unable to 

 get within pretty close quarters of his game, for the 

 power of the arrow rapidly falls off with distance. 



The Indians, during the second half of this century, 

 had however almost all of them obtained firearms, 

 and only carried the bow as a reserve, in case of 

 accidents. 



Their guns, of which we have inspected many, were 

 light single-barrelled flint-lock smooth-bores, carrying 

 an ounce ball, mostly of English manufacture, and so 

 far as we could learn, among the northern tribes at 

 aD events, had been in great part obtained at the 

 trading posts of the Hudson Bay Company in exchange 

 for peltries; these were plain but efficient and good 

 guns; but there was another class of weapon flashily 

 got up, sold by 'cute Yankee traders; these guns 

 were unmarked with any maker's name, and in our 

 opinion the barrels often consisted of bits of gas pipe 

 or some such material, so that it became an open 

 question, which was the most dangerous, to fire off 

 these guns or to be fired at with them. As may be 

 supposed numerous accidents occurred by these things 

 bursting, and the poor Indians have frequently exhib- 

 ited to us shattered hands and other grievous wounds 

 sustained in this way. It is impossible to conceive 

 anything more contemptible, cruel, and wicked, than 



