95 



Many a night have I sat at the camp-fire, and listened to the 

 recital of bloody and ferocious scenes, in which the narrators 

 were the actors, and the poor Ijidians the victims, and I have felt 

 my blood tingle with shame, and boil with indignation, to hear 

 the diabolical acts applauded by those for whose amusement they 

 were related. Many a precious villain, and merciless marauder, 

 was made by these midnight tales of rapine, murder, and rob- 

 bery ; many a stripling, in whose tender mind the seeds of virtue 

 and honesty had never germinated, burned for an opportunity 

 of loading his pack-horse with the beaver skins of some solitary 

 Blackfoot trapper, who was to be murdered and despoiled of the 

 property he had acquired by weeks, and perhaps months, of toil 

 and danger. 



Acts of this kind are by no means unfrequent, and the subjects 

 of this sort of atrocity are not "always the poor and despised 

 Indians : white men themselves often fall by the hands of their 

 companions, when by good fortune and industry they have 

 succeeded in loading their horses with fur. The fortunate 

 trapper is treacherously murdered by one who has eaten from 

 the same dish and drank from the same cup, and the homicide 

 returns triumphantly to his camp with his ill gotten property. 

 If his companion be inquired for, the answer is that some days 

 ago they parted company, and he will probably soon join them. 



The poor man never returns — no one goes to search for him — 

 he is soon forgotten, or is only remembered by one more steadfast 

 than the rest, who seizes with avidity the first opportunity which 

 is afforded, of murdering an unoffending Indian in revenge for the 

 death of his friend. 



On the 20th, we moved our camp to a spot about twelve 

 miles distant, where Richardson, with two other hunters, stopped 

 yesterday and spent the night. They had killed several buffalo 

 here, and were busily engaged in preparing the meat when we 

 joined them. They gave us a meal of excellent cow's flesh, and 



