NORTHERN OCEAN 159 



[127] The Northern Indian women are in general so far 1 771. 

 from being like those I have above described, that it is very 

 [128] uncommon to hear of their ever being guilty of incon- 

 tinency, not even those who are confined to the sixth or even 

 eighth part of a man. 



It is true, that were I to form my opinion of those women 

 from the behaviour of such as I have been more particularly 

 acquainted with, I should have little reason to say much in 

 their favour; but impartiality will not [129] permit me to 

 make a few of the worst characters a standard for the general 

 conduct of ail of them. Indeed it is but reasonable to think 

 that travellers and interlopers will be always served with the 

 worst commodities, though perhaps they pay the best price 

 for what they have. 



It may appear strange, that while I am extolling the 

 chastity of the Northern Indian women, I should acknow- 

 ledge that it is a very common custom among the men of 



of Wales's Fort, in Hudson's Bay, though born and brought up in a country 

 of all others the least favourable to virtue and virtuous principles, possessed 

 them, and ever)' other good and amiable quality, in a most eminent degree. 



Without the assistance of religion, and with no education but what she 

 received among the dissolute natives of her country, she would have shone 

 with superior lustre in any other country : for, if an engaging person, gentle 

 manners, an easy freedom, arising from a consciousness of innocence, an 

 amiable modesty, and an unrivalled delicacy of sentiment, are graces and 

 virtues which render a woman lovely, none ever had greater pretensions to 

 general esteem and regard : while her benevolence, humanity, and scrupulous 

 adherence to truth and honesty, would have done honour to the most en- 

 lightened and devout Christian. 



Dutiful, obedient, and affectionate to her parents ; steady and faithful to 

 her friends ; grateful and humble to her benefactors ; easily forgiving and 

 forgetting injuries ; careful not to offend any, and courteous and kind to all ; 

 she was, nevertheless, suffered to perish by the rigours of cold and hunger, 

 amidst her own relations, at a time when the griping hand of famine was 

 by no means severely felt by any other member of their company; and it 

 may truly be said that she fell a martyr to the principles of virtue. This 

 happened in the Winter of the year 1782, after the French had destroyed 

 Prince of Wales's Fort ; at which time she was in the twenty-second year 

 of her age. 



Human nature shudders at the bare recital of such bnatality, and reason 



