North-West Continent of America. 



97 



CHAPTER II. 



Removed from the tent to the house. Build habitations for 

 the people. The hardships they suffer. Violent hurri- 

 cane. Singular circumstances attending it. The com- 

 mencement of the new year. An Indian cured of a dan- 

 gerous xvound. State af the weather. Curious customs 

 among the Indians, on the death of a relation. Account 

 of a quarrel. An Indians reasoning on it. Murder of 

 one of the Indians. The cause of it. Some account of 

 the Rocky Mountain Indians. Curious circumstances 

 respecting a woman hi labour, &c. A dispute between 

 two Indians, which arose from gaming. An account of 



' one of their games. Indian superstition.- Mildness of 

 the season. The Indians prepare snow shoes. Singular 

 customs. Further account of their manners. The slavish 

 state of the women. Appearance of spring. Dispatch 

 canoes with the trade to Fort Chepewyan. Make prepa- 

 rations for the voyage of discovery. 



1792. ") T 



December 23. 5 this day removed from the tent into the 

 house which had been erected for me, and set all the men 

 to begin the buildings intended for their own habitation. 

 Materials sufficient to erect a range of five houses for them, 

 of about seventeen by twelve feet, were already collected. 

 It would be considered by the inhabitants of a milder cli- 

 mate, as a great evil, to be exposed to the weather at this 

 rigorous season of the year, but these people are inured to 

 it, and it is necessary to describe in some measure the 

 hardships which they undergo without a murmur, in order 

 to convey a general notion of them. 



The men who are now with me, left this place in the 

 beginning of last May, and went to the Rainy Lake in 

 panoes, laden with packs of fur, which, from the im- 

 mense length of the voyage, and other concurring circum- 

 stances, is a most severe trial of patience and persever- 

 ance : there they do not remain a sufficient time for ordi- 

 nary repose, when they take a load of goods in exchange, 

 and proceed on their return, in a great measure, day and 

 night. They had been arrived near two months, and > all 



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