OF BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA 309 



vented the man from speaking morp plainly The fort iiiLerpreter. who was of 

 the party and who all along suspected something more than appeared upon the 

 surface, took the precaution to carry his gun with him, and when they drew 

 near to the path which led from the bed of the river to the top of the bank 

 where the Indians were encamped he lingered a little behind. On the others 

 mounting the ascent they were simultaneously shot down, at one discharge, by 

 the natives who were in ambush awaiting them. When the interpreter heard the 

 shots he was convinced of foul play ; he therefore turned and made for the fort 

 as quickly as he could, pursued by the whole party of savages, whose aim was 

 to prevent him from alaiming the establishment. The man was a famous run- 

 ner, and despite the disadvantage of small tripping snow-shoes, which permitted 

 him to sink more deeply than the Indians, who, on their large hunting snow- 

 shoes, almost skimmed over the surface of the snow, he would have reached the 

 houses before them had not the line that confined the show-shoe ou his foot 

 broken. His enemies were too closely upon him to allow time for its repair, so, 

 wishing to sell his life as deai-ly as possible, he levelled his gun at the nearest 

 Indian, who evaded ihe shot by falling upon his face, whereupon the whole party 

 made up and despatched him. After perpetrating this additional murder the 

 band proceeded to the fort, which they reached at early dawn. A poor old 

 Canadian was, without suspicion of evil, cutting fire-wood at the back gate. 

 His brains were dashed out with their axes, and they entered the establishment, 

 whose inhabitants, consisting, with one exception, of women and children, were 

 buried in profound repose. They first opened Mr. Henry's room where he was 

 asleep. The chief pushed him with the end of his gun to awaken him. He 

 did so, and seeing numerous fiendish and stern faces around him, made a spring 

 to reach a pair of pistols that were hanging over his head ; but before he could 

 grasp them, he fell a bleeding corpse on the bosom of bis wife, who, in turn, 

 became a helpless victim of the sanguinary and lustful revenge of the infuriated 

 savages. Maddened by the blood, and demons in heart and act, they next pro- 

 ceeded to wreak their vengeance on the innocent women and children, who ex- 

 pired in agonies and under treatment too horrible to relate. The pillage of the 

 stores was the next step, after which they departed, leaving the bodies of the 

 dead unburied. No measures further than the abandonment of the fort for 

 several years were taken by the Northwest Company, to whom the establish- 

 ment belongecl, to punish the perpetrators of the atrocious deed, yet it is a 

 curious fact that when I visited Fort Liards in 1849, but one of the actors sur- 

 vived, all the others having met with violent deaths, either by accident or at 

 the hands of other Indians. This man, who was at the time only a lad, con- 

 fessed to have dashed the brains out of an infant, taking it by the heels and 

 swinging it against the walls of the house. 



The fear of enemies, when in these peaceful times there are none to dread, is 

 a remarkable trait of the timidity which so strongly influences the minds of the 

 eastern Tinneh. It is, I conjecture, a traditional recollection of the days when 

 the Knisteneaux or Crees made annual forays into the country of the Tinneh, 

 pushing so far as Bear river in search of scalps and plunder, when the Yellow- 

 Knives bullied the Slaves and Dogribs, and the Beavers M-arred with the 

 Sickanies. A strange footprint, or any unusual sound in the forest, is quite 

 sufficient to cause great excitement in the camp. At Fort Resolution I have on 

 several occasions caused all the natives encamped around to flock for protection 

 into the fort during the night by simply whistling, hidden in the bushes. My 

 train of hauling dogs also, of a large breed and great hunters, would, in crashing 

 through the branches in pursuit of an unfortunate hare, frighten some women 

 out gathering berries, who would rush in frantic haste to the tents and fearfully 

 relate a horrific account of some strange painted Indians whom (/ley had seen. 

 It was my custom in the spring, during the wild fowl season, to sleep outside at 

 some distance from the fort. Numerous were the cautions that I received from 



