62 



harmon's journal. 



have had, this season. — Yesterday, eight families 

 of Crees came in. While drinking, one of their 

 women, who had a sharp pointed knife about her, 

 fell down, and drove it nearly two inches into her 

 side ; but the wound is not thought to be mortal. 

 To see a house full of drunken Indians, consisting 

 of men, women and children, is a most unpleasant 

 sight ; for, in that condition, they often wrangle, 

 pull each other by the hair, and fight. At some 

 times, ten or twelve, of both sexes, may be seen, 

 fighting each other promiscuously, until at last, 

 they all fall on the floor, one upon another, some 

 spilling rum out of a small kettle or dish, which 

 they hold in their hands, while others are throw- 

 ing up what they have just drunk. To add to 

 this uproar, a number of children, some on their 

 mothers' shoulders, and others running about and 

 taking hold of their clothes, are constantly bawl- 

 ing, the older ones, through fear that their par- 

 ents may be stabbed, or that some other misfor- 

 tune may befal them, in the fray. These shrieks 

 of the children, form a very unpleasant chorus to 

 the brutal noise kept up by their drunken par- 

 ents, who are engaged in the squabble. 



Sunday, November 30. This, being St. An- 

 drew's day, which is a fete among the Scotch, and 

 our Bourgeois, Mr. M c Leod, belonging to that 

 nation, the people of the fort, agreeably to the 



