1 
* 
INTRODUCTION. 
miles *; and that his Indian guides were well apprized of 
a vaft tradt of continent ftretching farther on in that direc¬ 
tion, is certain from many eircumftances mentioned in his 
Journal; one of which, as, belides eftablifhing this fa 61 , it 
prefents us with a very ftriking pidhire of favage life, has 
been tranfcribed in the following note t. 
What 
* The Hudfon’s Bay Company have a trading poll, called Hudfon’s Houfe , above five 
hundred miles up the country, in lat. 53 0 o / 32", and in long. 106° 27'' 30". 
f This day, Jan. 11, 1772, as the Indians were hunting, fome of them faw a Arrange 
fnow-fhoe track, which they followed, and at a confiderable diftance came to a little hut, 
where they found a young woman fitting alone. They brought her to the tents ; and, 
on examining her, found that fhe was one of the Weftern Dog-ribbed Indians, and had 
been taken prifoner by the Arathapefcow Indians in the fummer 1770; and when the In¬ 
dians, who took her prifoner, were near this part in the fummer 1771, fhe eloped from 
them, with an intent to return to her own country; but it being fo far off and, after being 
taken prifoner, having come the whole way in canoes, with the winding of rivers and 
lakes, fhe had forgot the way; and had been in this little hut ever fince the firfl: fetting 
in of the fall. By her account of the moons paft, fince her elopement, it appears to be 
the middle of laft July when fhe left the Arathapefcow Indians, and had not feen a hu¬ 
man face ever fince. She fupported herfelf very well by fharing of rabbits, partridges, 
and fquirrels, and was now in good health and flefh; and, I think, as fine a woman, of a 
real Indian, as I have feen in any part of North America. She had nothing to make 
fnares of but the finews of rabbits legs and feet, which fhe twifted together for that pur- 
pofe ; and of the rabbits fkins had made herfelf a neat and warm winter’s clothing. The 
flock of materials fhe took with her, when fhe eloped, confined of about five inches of an 
iron hoop for a knife; a ftone fteel, and other hard ftones as flints, together with other 
fire tackle, as tinder, &c.; about an inch and half of the fhank of the fhoeing of an ar¬ 
row, of iron, of which fhe made an awl. She had not been long at the tents, when half 
a fcore of men wreftled to fee who fhould have her for their wife. She fays, when the 
Arathapefcow Indians took her prifoner, that they ftole on the tents in the night, when 
the inhabitants were all afleep, and killed every foul except herfelf and three other young 
women. Her father, mother, and hufband were in the fame tent with her, and they were 
all killed. Her child, of about five months old, fhe took with her, wrapped in a bundle of 
her clothing, undifcovered, in the night. But when arrived at the place where the Ara- 
thapefcows had left their wives, which was not far off, it being then day-break, thefe In¬ 
dian women immediately began to examine her bundle; and having there found the child, 
took 
