PIOEWIS. 



115 



to a great extent during the last autumn, and 

 they had only killed a bear, and a few martins, 

 with occasionally a rabbit, as a subsistence for 

 the last two months. This was their report, 

 though they often deceive in their lounging 

 habits of begging at your residence. I 

 assisted them with a little Indian rice and 

 some potatoes, on their promise to strike their 

 tents, and proceed to some other hunting 

 grounds on the following day. When they 

 visit under these destitute circumstances, they 

 are often exceedingly troublesome, acknow- 

 ledging no right of restraint in being shut out 

 from your presence ; they enter your dwelling 

 without ceremony, and covet almost every 

 thing that they see. With a view, therefore, 

 to keep them from my room in the evening, 

 I sent some tea and sugar with a little flour, 

 for the purpose of taking my tea with them in 

 one of their tents. I was accompanied by one 

 of the Indian boys from the school as an inter- 

 preter, who now acted well in that capacity, 

 from the great progress he had made in speak- 

 ing English, and found them all encircling a 

 small fire, by the side of which they had 

 placed a buffaloe robe for me to sit down upon. 

 The pipe was immediately lighted by an Indian 

 whom we generally call c Pigewis's Aid-de- 



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