North-West Continent of America. 



103 



to their remembrance. They also destroy every thing be- 

 longing to any deceased person, except what they consign 

 to the grave with the late owner of them. We had some 

 difficulty to make them comprehend that the debts of a 

 man who dies should be discharged, if he left any furs be- 

 hind him : but those who understand this principle of jus- 

 tice, and profess to adhere to it, never fail to prevent the 

 appearance of any skins beyond such as may be necessary 

 to satisfy the debts of their dead relation. 



On the 8th I had an observation for the longitude. In 

 the course of this day one of my men, who had been some 

 time with the Indians, came to inform me, that one of 

 them had threatened to stab him ; and on his preferring a 

 complaint to the man with whom he now lived, and to 

 whom I had given him in charge, he replied, that he had 

 been very imprudent to play and quarrel with the young 

 Indians out of his lodge, where no one would dare to come 

 and quarrel with him ; but that if he had lost his life where 

 he had been, it would have been the consequence of his 

 own folly. Thus, even among these children of nature, it 

 appears that a man's house is his castle, where the protec- 

 tion of hospitality is rigidly maintained. 



The hard frost which had prevailed from the beginning 

 of February, continued to the I6th of March, when the 

 wind blowing from the South- West, the weather became 

 mild. 



On the 22d a wolf was so bold as to venture among the 

 Indian lodges, and was very near carrying off a child. 



I had another observation of Jupiter and his satellites 

 for the longitude. On the 13th some geese were seen, 

 and these birds are always considered as the harbingers of 

 spring. On the 1st of April my hunters shot five of them. 

 This was a much earlier period than I ever remember to 

 have observed the visits of wild fowl in this part of the 

 world. The weather had been mild for the last fortnight, 

 and there was a promise of its continuance. On the 5th 

 the snow had entirely disappeared. 



At half p&st four this morning I was awakened to be 

 informed that an Indian had been killed. I accordingly 

 hastened to the camp where I found two women employed 

 in rolling up the dead body of a man, called the White 

 Partridge, in a beaver robe, which I had lent him. He 

 had received four mortal wounds from a dagger, two within 

 the collar-bone, one in the left breast, and another in the; 



