158 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. food and clothing only, yet nature at times gets the better 



June. ^£ j,yg|.Qj^^ ^j^j ^j^g spirit of jealousy makes its appearance 



among them : however, as the husband is always arbitrator, 



he soon settles the business, though perhaps not always to 



the entire satisfaction of the parties. 



Much does it redound to the honour of the Northern 

 Indian women when I affirm, that they are the mildest and 

 most virtuous females I have seen in any part of North 

 [126] America; though some think this is more owing to 

 habit, custom, and the fear of their husbands, than from real 

 inclination. It is undoubtedly well known that none can 

 manage a Northern Indian woman so well as a Northern 

 Indian man ; and when any of them have been permitted to 

 remain at the Fort, they have, for the sake of gain, been easily 

 prevailed on to deviate from that character ; and a few have, 

 by degrees, become as abandoned as the Southern Indians, who 

 are remarkable throughout all their tribes for being the most 

 debauched wretches under the Sun. So far from laying any 

 restraint on their sensual appetites, as long as youth and inclina- 

 tion last, they give themselves up to all manner of even in- 

 cestuous debauchery ; and that in so beastly a manner when they 

 are intoxicated, a state to which they are peculiarly addicted, 

 that the brute creation are not less regardless of decency. I 

 know that some few Europeans, who have had little opportunity 

 of seeing them, and of enquiring into their manners, have been 

 very lavish in their praise ; but every one who has had much 

 intercourse with them, and penetration and industry enough 

 to study their dispositions, will agree, that no accomplishments 

 whatever in a man, is sufficient to conciliate the affections, or 

 preserve the chastity of a Southern Indian woman.* 



* Notwithstanding this is the general character of the Southern Indian 

 women, as they are called on the coasts of Hudson's Bay, and who are the same 

 tribe with the Canadian Indians, I am happy to have it in my power to insert a 

 few lines to the memory of one of them, whom I knew from her infancy, and who, 

 I can truly affirm, was directly the reverse of the picture I have drawn. 



Mary, the daughter of Moses Norton, many years Chief at Prince 



