ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 105 



Indians while travelling : they are very comfortable and com- 

 modious, and a squaw accustomed to it, will erect and prepare 

 one for the reception of her husband, while he is removing the 

 trapping, from his horse. I have seen an expert Indian woman 

 stretch a lodge ^in half the time that was required by four white 

 men to perform the same operation with another in the neigh- 

 borhood. 



At the fort, affairs look prosperous : the stockade is fin- 

 ished ; two bastions have been erected, and the work is sin- 

 gularly good, considering the scarcity of proper building tools. 

 The house will now soon be habitable, and the structure 

 can then be completed at leisure by men who will be left 

 here in charge, while the party travels on to its destination, 

 the Columbia. 



On the evening of the 26th, Captain W. Mr. Nuttall and 

 myself supped with Mr. McKay in his lodge. I am much pleased 

 with this gentleman: he unites the free, frank and open manners of 

 the mountain man, with the grace and affability of the Frenchman. 

 But above all, I admire the order, decorum, and strict subordina- 

 tion which exists among his men, so different from what I have 

 been accustomed to see in parties composed of Americans. Mr. 

 McKay assures me that he had considerable difficulty in bringing 

 his men to the state in which they now are. The free and fear- 

 less Indian was particularly difficult to subdue; but steady, 

 determined perseverance, and bold measures, aided by a rigid 

 self-example, made them as clay in his hand, and has finally 

 reduced them to their present admirable condition. If they 

 misbehave, a commensurate punishment is sure to follow : in 

 extreme cases, flagellation is resorted to, but it is inflicted only 

 by the hand of the Captain ; were any other appointed to perform 

 this office on an Indian, the indignity would be deemed so great, 

 that nothing less than the blood of the individual could appease 



the wounded feelings of the savage. 



14 



