Harmon's journal. 



73 



ed to the fort, well pleased with our jaunt, loaded 

 with furs and provisions, and without having re- 

 ceived the least affront or the smallest injury from 

 the Natives, notwithstanding most of them became 

 intoxicated with the spirits, with which we suppli- 

 ed them. 



Tuesday, February 17. We have now about 

 a foot and an half of snow on the ground. — Mr. 

 Monteur, accompanied by two Canadians, arrived, 

 with letters from our friends, in Fort des Prairies. 

 — This morning, one of our people killed a buffa- 

 loe in the Prairie, opposite to the fort ; and an- 

 other came within ten rods of the fort gate, when 

 the dogs pursued him, and he ran off. 



Thursday, 19. This day, I am twenty three 

 years of age, and how rapidly does this space of 

 time appear to have passed away ! It seems as 

 if it were but yesterday, that I was a child. The , 

 truth is, the time that we are allowed to remain 

 in this fleeting world is so short, even if we should 

 be permitted to reach the utmost boundary of hu- 

 man life, that a person can scarcely have passed 

 the threshhold of existence, before he must set his 

 house in order to die. 



Friday, 20. During the last night, we sat up 

 to deal out spirits to the Indians. One of them has 

 his own daughter for a wife, and her mother at the 

 same time ! Incest, however, is a crime, of which 

 10 



