SCENES OF BLOODSHED AND HORROR. 119 



weie all stolen; — while one of the Indians who defended him wasbrutallj 

 murdered, and several others wounded. 



Not long afterwards, our trader was shot at, three or four times, while 

 % (Engaged in this dangerous traffic, and one of his soldiers severely wounded. 



About tlie same time, the trader of another company received a deep 

 /ab, while dealing out the vile trash, and would have been killed but for 

 he energetic eflbils of his soldiers. 



Previously to the above, tlie Indians seized upon a trader and compelled 

 him to stand over a hot fire until he was nearly roasted alive, — meanwhile, 

 helping themselves to his stock in hand. 



Soon after, tv> o w^arriors came to trade for a blanket at our post, — one 

 of whom was drunk. V/hile being w^aited upon, the latter drew his knife 

 and was in the very act of stabbing the unsuspecting clerk, as I caught his 

 wrist and arrested the blow. 



At another time, as our trader was standing surrounded by us all, he was 

 shot at by a drunken Indian, who, by the merest accident, missed his object. 



Again, one night a party of drunken Indians undertook to fire the house 

 in order to consume us alive,, but were providentially prevented, owing to 

 its being constructed of green pine logs. 



The most dangerous time I experienced during the winter w^as near the 

 closa of it. An Indian employed as our soldier, became crazed upon tlie 

 dragged liquor of the American Fur Company, and made his appearance 

 before us in a high state of excitement. This fellow had been denominated 

 by his people the Bull Eagle, (Tahtunga-mobeliu,) and was a chief, — 

 highly esteemed as a medicine-man, and regarded as the greatest brave in 

 the Sioux nation. He was a tail, well-made, noble-looking person — and, — 

 such eyes ! I never saw the like planted beneath the b, ows of any other 

 mortal. Tliey glared like lightning, and, as they fell upon the individual 

 to w^hom directed, seemed to penetrate the very soul and read the embryo 

 thoughts of his heart. 



Through tlic misrepresentations of those in the interest of the Fur Com- 

 pany, he landed liimself misused by our trader, and came determined on re- 

 venge. Arms in hand and stripped for the contest, accompanied by his wife 

 and two or three friends, he confronted us, — his strange appearance told 

 for what. In ihe fury of passion his every looli gave evidence of the raging 

 demon within. 



Here, lest he should be misunderstood, he premised by a full statement of 

 his grievances. They were many, but the chief of them was, that our 

 trader had employed another to " act soldier" in his stead, while he was too 

 drunk to perform, the duties of that appointment. " I have been dressed"* 

 as a soldier," said he, " to be laughed at, and now Peazeezeef must die !'^ 



The room v/as full of Indians, and one of them, an old man, exclaimed . 



" When Peazeezee dies, let me go under,;}: — I must live no longer !" 



♦Prenously, he had been presented with a citizen's dress to secure him for IM 

 company's interest, 

 t Yellow-hair. The Indian name for our trader. 

 tThis term implies death, or the act of dying- 



