VISIT THE SCHOOL. LEAVE THE FORKS FOR QU'APPELLE. ARRIVAL AT BRANDON
HOUSE. INDIAN CORPSE STAGED. MARRIAGES AT COMPANY'S POST. BAPTISMS.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCRIPTURES. DEPARTURE FROM BRANDON HOUSE.
ENCAMPMENT. ARRIVAL AT QU'APPELLE. CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS OF STONE
INDIANS. STOP AT SOME HUNTERS' TENTS ON RETURN TO THE COLONY. VISIT
PEMBINA. HUNTING BUFFALOES. INDIAN ADDRESS. CANADIAN VOYAGEURS. INDIAN
MARRIAGES. BURIAL GROUND. PEMICAN. INDIAN HUNTER SENDS HIS SON TO BE
EDUCATED. MOSQUITOES. LOCUSTS.
JANUARY 1, 1821.--I went to the school this morning, a distance of
about six miles from my residence, to examine the children, and was
much pleased at the progress which they had already made in reading.
Having addressed them, and prayed for a divine blessing on their
instruction: I distributed to those who could read a little book, as a
reward for their general good conduct in the school. In returning to
the farm, my mind was filled with sentiments of gratitude and love to a
divine Saviour for his providential protection, and gracious favour
towards me during the past year. He has shielded me in the shadow of
his hand through the perils of the sea and of the wilderness from
whence I may derive motives of devotion and activity in my profession.
Thousands are involved in worse than Egyptian darkness around me,
wandering in ignorance and perishing through lack of knowledge. When
will this wide waste howling wilderness blossom as the rose, and the
desert become as a fruitful field! Generations _may_ first pass away;
and the seed of instruction that is now sown, may lie buried, waiting
for the early and the latter rain, yet, the sure word of Prophecy, will
ever animate Christian liberality and exertion, in the bright prospect
of that glorious period, when Christianity shall burst upon the gloomy
scene of heathenism, and dispel every cloud of ignorance and
superstition, till _the very ends of the earth_ shall see the
salvation of the Lord.
As I returned from divine service at the Fort, to the farm, on the 7th,
it rained hard for nearly two hours, which is a very unusual thing
during winter in this northern latitude. We have seldom any rain for
nearly six months, but a continued hard frost the greater part of this
period. The sky is generally clear, and the snow lies about fifteen, or
at the utmost eighteen inches deep. As the climate of a country is not
known by merely measuring its distance from the equator, but is
affected differently in the same parallel of latitude by its locality,
and a variety of circumstances, we find that of Red River, though
situated in the same parallel, far different from, and intensely more
cold than, that of England. The thermometer is frequently at 30° and
40° below zero, when it is only about freezing point in the latter
place. This difference is probably occasioned by the prevailing
north-westerly wind, that blows with piercing keenness over the rocky
mountains, or Andes, which run from north to south through the whole
Continent, and over a country which is buried in ice and snow.
As my instructions were to afford religious instruction and consolation
to the servants in the active employment of the Hudson's Bay Company,
as well as to the Company's retired servants, and other inhabitants of
the settlement, upon such occasions as the nature of the country and
other circumstances would permit; I left the Forks[1] in a cariole
drawn by three dogs, accompanied by a sledge with two dogs, to carry
the luggage and provisions, and two men as drivers, on the 15th of
January, for Brandon House, and Qu'appelle, on the Assiniboine River.
After we had travelled about fifteen miles, we stopped on the edge of a
wood, and _bivouacked_ on the snow for the night. A large fire was
soon kindled, and a supply of wood cut to keep it up; when supper being
prepared and finished, I wrapped myself in my blankets and buffaloe
robe, and laid down with a few twigs under me in place of a bed, with
my feet towards the fire, and slept soundly under the open canopy of
heaven. The next morning we left our encampment before sunrise; and the
country as we passed presented some beautiful points and bluffs of
wood. We started again early the following morning, which was intensely
cold; and I had much difficulty in keeping my face from freezing, on my
way to the encampment rather late in the evening, at the '_Portage de
Prairè_.' In crossing the plain the next morning, with a sharp head
wind, my nose and part of my face were frozen quite hard and white. I
was not conscious of it, till it was perceived by the driver, who
immediately rubbed the parts affected well with snow, and restored the
circulation, so that I suffered no inconvenience from the circumstance,
but was obliged to keep my face covered with a blanket as I lay in the
cariole the remaining part of the day.
[1] So called from the junction of the Assiniboine River with the
Red River.
On the 19th we were on the march as early as half past four, and had a
sharp piercing wind in our faces, which drifted the snow, and made the
track very bad for the dogs. This greatly impeded our progress; and our
provisions being short, I shot some ptarmigans, which were frequently
seen on our route. We perceived some traces of the buffaloe, and the
wolf was frequently seen following our track, or crossing in the line
we were travelling. Jan. 20. We started at sunrise, with a very cold
head wind; and my favourite English watch dog, Neptune, left the
encampment, to follow us, with great reluctance. I was apprehensive
that he might turn back, on account of the severity of the morning; and
being obliged to put my head under the blanket in the cariole, I
requested the driver to encourage him along. We had not pursued our
journey however more than an hour, before I was grieved to find that
the piercing keenness of the wind had forced him to return; and the
poor animal was probably soon after devoured by the wolves.
We arrived at Brandon House, the Company's provision post, about three
o'clock; and the next day, being Sunday, the servants were all
assembled for divine worship at eleven o'clock: and we met again in the
evening at six, when I married the officer of the post, and baptized
his two children. On the following morning, I saw an Indian corpse
staged, or put upon a few cross sticks, about ten feet from the ground,
at a short distance from the fort. The property of the dead, which may
consist of a kettle, axe, and a few additional articles, is generally
put into the case, or wrapped in the buffaloe skin with the body, under
the idea that the deceased will want them, or that the spirit of these
articles will accompany the departed spirit in travelling to another
world. And whenever they visit the stage or burying-place, which they
frequently do for years afterwards, they will encircle it, smoke their
pipes, weep bitterly, and, in their sorrow, cut themselves with knives,
or pierce themselves with the points of sharp instruments. I could not
but reflect that theirs is a sorrow without hope: all is _gross
darkness_ with them as to futurity; and they wander through life
without the consolatory and cheering influence of that gospel which has
brought life and immortality to light.
Before I left this post, I married two of the Company's servants, and
baptized ten or twelve children. As their parents could read, I
distributed some Bibles and Testaments, with some Religious Tracts
among them. On the 24th, we set off for Qu'appelle, but not without the
kind attention of the officer, in adding two armed servants to our
party, from the expectation that we might fall in with a tribe of Stone
Indians, who had been threatening him, and had acted in a turbulent
manner at the post a few days before. In the course of the afternoon,
we saw a band of buffaloes, which fled from us with considerable
rapidity. Though an animal apparently of a very unwieldy make, and as
large as a Devonshire ox, they were soon out of our sight in a laboured
canter. In the evening our encampment was surrounded by wolves, which
serenaded us with their melancholy howling throughout the night: and
when I first put my head from under the buffaloe robe in the morning,
our encampment presented a truly wild and striking scene;--the guns
were resting against a tree, and pistols with powder horns were hanging
on its branches; one of the men had just recruited the fire, and was
cooking a small piece of buffaloe meat on the point of a stick, while
the others were lying around it in every direction. Intermingled with
the party were the dogs, lying in holes which they had scratched in the
snow for shelter, but from which they were soon dragged, and harnessed
that we might recommence our journey. We had not proceeded far before
we met one of the Company's servants going to the fort which we had
left, who told us that the Indians we were apprehensive of meeting had
gone from their track considerably to the north of our direction. In
consequence of this information we sent back the two armed servants who
had accompanied us. In the course of the day we saw vast numbers of
buffaloes; some rambling through the plains, while others in sheltered
spots were scraping the snow away with their feet to graze. In the
evening we encamped among some dwarf willows; and some time after we
had kindled the fire, we were considerably alarmed by hearing the
Indians drumming, shouting, and dancing, at a short distance from us in
the woods. We immediately almost extinguished the fire, and lay down
with our guns under our heads, fully expecting that they had seen our
fire, and would visit us in the course of the night. We dreaded this
from the known character of the Stone Indians, they being great
thieves; and it having been represented to us, that they murdered
individuals, or small parties of white people, for plunder; or stripped
them, leaving them to travel to the posts without clothing, in the most
severe weather. We had little sleep, and started before break of day,
without having been observed by them. We stopped to breakfast at the
_Standing Stone_, where the Indians had deposited bits of tobacco,
small pieces of cloth, &c. as a sacrifice, in superstitious expectation
that it would influence their manitou to give them buffaloes and a good
hunt. Jan. 27th. soon after midnight, we were disturbed by the
buffaloes passing close to our encampment: we rose early, and arrived
at Qu'appelle about three o'clock. Nearly about the same time, a large
band of Indians came to the fort from the plains with provisions. Many
of them rode good horses, caparisoned with a saddle or pad of dressed
skin, stuffed with buffaloe wool, from which were suspended wooden
stirrups; and a leathern thong, tied at both ends to the under jaw of
the animal, formed the bridle. When they had delivered their loads,
they paraded the fort with an air of independence. It was not long
however before they became clamorous for spiritous liquors; and the
evening presented such a bacchanalia, including the women and the
children, as I never before witnessed. Drinking made them quarrelsome,
and one of the men became so infuriated, that he would have killed
another with his bow, had not the master of the post immediately rushed
in and taken it from him. The following day, being Sunday, the servants
were all assembled for divine worship, and again in the evening. Before
I left the fort, I married several of the Company's servants, who had
been living with, and had families by, Indian or half-caste women, and
baptized their children. I explained to them the nature and obligations
of marriage and baptism; and distributed among them some Bibles and
Testaments, and Religious Tracts.
With the Indians who were at the Fort, there was one of the Company's
servants who had been with the tribe nearly a year and a half, to learn
their language as an interpreter. They were very partial to him, and
treated him with great kindness and hospitality. He usually lived with
their chief, and upon informing him who I was, and the object for which
I came to the country, he welcomed me by a hearty shake of the hand;
while others came round me, and stroked me on the head, as a fond
father would his favourite boy. On one occasion, when I particularly
noticed one of their children, the boy's father was so affected with
the attention, that with tears he exclaimed, "See! the God takes notice
of my child." Many of these Indians were strong, athletic men, and
generally well-proportioned; their countenances were pleasing, with
aquiline noses, and beautifully white and regular teeth. The buffaloe
supplies them with food, and also with clothing. The skin was the
principal, and almost the only article of dress they wore, and was
wrapped round them, or worn tastefully over the shoulder like the
Highland plaid. The leggins of some of them were fringed with human
hair, taken from the scalps of their enemies; and their moccassins, or
shoes, were neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. They are notorious
horse-stealers, and often make predatory excursions to the Mandan
villages on the banks of the Missouri, to steal them. They sometimes
visit the Red River for this purpose, and have swept off, at times,
nearly the whole of our horses from the settlement. Such indeed is
their propensity for this species of theft, that they have fired upon,
and killed the Company's servants, close to the forts for these useful
animals. They run the buffaloe with them in the summer, and fasten them
to sledges which they drag over the snow when they travel in the
winter; while the dogs carry burdens upon their backs, like packs upon
the pack-horse. It does not appear that chastity is much regarded among
them. They take as many wives as they please, and part with them for a
season, or permit others to cohabit with them in their own lodges for a
time, for a gun, a horse, or some article they may wish to possess.
They are known, however, to kill the woman, or cut off her ears or
nose, if she be unfaithful without their knowledge or permission. All
the lowest and most laborious drudgery is imposed upon her, and she is
not permitted to eat till after her lord has finished his meal, who
amidst the burdensome toil of life, and a desultory and precarious
existence, will only condescend to carry his gun, take care of his
horse, and hunt as want may compel him. During the time the interpreter
was with these Indians the measles prevailed, and carried off great
numbers of them, in different tribes. They often expressed to him a
very low opinion of the white people who introduced this disease
amongst them, and threatened to kill them all, at the same time
observing, that they would not hurt him, but send him home down the
Missouri. When their relations, or children of whom they are
passionately fond, were sick, they were almost constantly addressing
their manitou drumming, and making a great noise; and at the same time
they sprinkled them with water where they complained of pain. And when
the interpreter was sick, they were perpetually wanting to drum and
conjure him well. He spoke to them of that God and Saviour whom white
people adore; but they called him a fool, saying that he never came to
their country, or did any thing for them, "_So vain were they in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened._"
JAN. 30.--We left Qu'appelle to return to the colony, and stopped for
the night at an encampment of Indians, some of whom were engaged as
hunters for the company. They welcomed me with much cordiality to their
wigwams. We smoked the calumet as a token of friendship; and a
plentiful supply of buffaloe tongues was prepared for supper. I slept
in one of their tents, wrapt in a buffaloe robe, before a small fire in
the centre, but the wind drawing under it, I suffered more from cold
than when I slept in an open encampment. As we were starting the next
morning I observed a fine looking little boy standing by the side of
the cariole, and told his father that if he would send him to me at the
Settlement by the first opportunity, I would be as a parent to him,
clothe him, and feed him, and teach him what I knew would be for his
happiness, with the Indian boys I had already under my care. We
proceeded, and after we had travelled about three hours, the whole
scene around us was animated with buffaloes; so numerous, that there
could not be less, I apprehend, than ten thousand, in different bands,
at one time in our view. It took us nearly the whole day to cross the
plain, before we came to any wood for the night. We resumed our journey
at the dawn of the following morning, and after travelling about three
hours we stopped at a small creek to breakfast: as soon as we had
kindled the fire, two Indians made their appearance, and pointing to
the willows, shewed me a buffaloe that they had just shot. They were
very expert in cutting up the animal, and ate some of the fat, I
observed, with a few choice pieces, in a raw state. Soon afterwards I
saw another Indian peeping over an eminence, whose head-dress at first
gave him the appearance of a wolf: and, fearing some treachery, we
hurried our breakfast and started.
FEB. 2.--The night was so intensely cold that I had but little sleep,
and we hurried from our encampment at break of day. The air was filled
with small icy particles; and some snow having fallen the evening
before, one of the men was obliged to walk in snow shoes, to make a
track for the dogs to follow. Our progress was slow, but we persevered,
and arrived at Brandon house about four o'clock. We saw some persons at
this post, who had just come from the Mandan villages: they informed us
of the custom that prevails among these Indians, as with many others,
of presenting females to strangers; the husband his wife or daughter,
and the brother his sister, as a mark of hospitality: and parents are
known to lend their daughters of tender age for a few beads or a little
tobacco! During our stay, a Sunday intervened, when all met for divine
worship in the morning and evening, and I had an opportunity of
baptizing several more children, whose parents had come in from the
hunting grounds, since my arrival at the Post, in my way to Qu'appelle.
On the 5th we left the fort, and returning by the same track that we
came, I searched for traces of my favourite lost dog, but found none.
The next morning I got into the cariole very early, and the rising sun
gradually opened to my view a beautiful and striking scenery. All
nature appeared silently and impressively to proclaim the goodness and
wisdom of God. Day unto day, in the revolutions of that glorious orb,
which shed a flood of light over the impenetrable forests and wild
wastes that surrounded me, uttereth speech. Yet His voice is not heard
among the heathen, nor His name known throughout these vast territories
by Europeans in general, but to swear by.----Oh! for wisdom, truly
Christian faith, integrity and zeal in my labours as a minister, in
this heathen and _moral desert_.
FEB. 9.--The wind drifted the snow this morning like a thick fog, that
at times we could scarcely see twenty yards from the cariole. It did
not stop us however in our way, and I reached the farm about five
o'clock, with grateful thanks to God, for protecting me through a
perilous journey, drawn by dogs over the snow a distance of between
five and six hundred miles among some of the most treacherous tribes of
Indians in this northern wilderness.
MARCH 4.--The weather continues very cold, so as to prevent the women
and the children from attending regularly divine service on the
Sabbath. The sun however is seldom obscured with clouds, but shines
with a sickly face; without softening at all at present, the piercing
north-westerly wind that prevails throughout the winter.
A wish having been expressed to me, that I would attend a general
meeting of the principal settlers at Pembina, I set off in a cariole
for this point of the Settlement, a distance of nearly eighty miles, on
the 12th. We stopped a few hours at the Salt Springs, and then
proceeded on our journey so as to reach Fort Daer the next morning to
breakfast; so expeditiously will the dogs drag the cariole in a good
track, and with a good driver. We met for the purpose of considering
the best means of protection, and of resisting any attack that might be
made by the Sioux Indians, who were reported to have hostile intentions
against this part of the colony, in the Spring. They had frequently
killed the hunters upon the plains; and a war party from the
Mississippi, scalped a boy last summer within a short distance of the
fort where we were assembled; leaving a painted stick upon the mangled
body, as a supposed indication that they would return for slaughter.
The 18th being the Sabbath, I preached to a considerable number of
persons assembled at the Fort. They heard me with great attention; but
I was often depressed in mind, on the general view of character, and at
the spectacle of human depravity and barbarism I was called to witness.
During my stay, I went to some hunter's tents on the plains, and saw
them kill the buffaloe, by crawling on the snow, and pushing their guns
before them, and this for a considerable distance till they got very
near the band. Their approach to the animals was like the appearance of
wolves, which generally hover round them to devour the leg-wearied and
the wounded; and they killed three before the herd fled. But in hunting
the buffaloes for provisions it affords great diversion to pursue them
on horseback. I once accompanied two expert hunters to witness this
mode of killing them. It was in the spring: at this season the bulls
follow the bands of cows in the rear on their return to the south,
whereas in the beginning of the winter, in their migration to the
north, they preceded them and led the way. We fell in with a herd of
about forty, on an extensive prarie. They were covering the retreat of
the cows. As soon as our horses espied them they shewed great spirit,
and became as eager to chase them as I have understood the old English
hunter is to follow the fox-hounds in breaking cover. The buffaloes
were grazing, and did not start till we approached within about half a
mile of them, when they all cantered off in nearly a compact body. We
immediately threw the reins upon the horses' necks, and in a short time
were intermingled with several of them. Pulling up my horse I then
witnessed the interesting sight of the hunters continuing the chase,
till they had separated one of the bulls from the rest, and after
driving it some distance, they gallopped alongside and fired upon the
animal, with the gun resting upon the front of the saddle. Immediately
it was wounded, it gave chase in the most furious manner, and the
horses aware of their danger, turned and cantered away at the same pace
as the buffaloe. While the bull was pursuing them, the men reloaded
their guns, which they do in a most expeditious manner, by pouring the
charge of powder into the palm of their hand half closed, from a horn
hung over the shoulder, and taking a ball from the pouch that is
fastened to their side, and then suddenly breaking out of the line,
they shot the animal through the heart as it came opposite to them. It
was of a very large size, with long shaggy hair on the head and
shoulders, and the head when separated from the carcase was nearly as
much as I could lift from the ground.
The Indians have another mode of pursuing the buffaloes for
subsistence, by driving them into a pound. They make the inclosure of a
circular form with trees felled on the spot, to the extent of one or
two hundred yards in diameter, and raise the entrance with snow, so as
to prevent the retreat of the animals when they have once entered. As
soon as a herd is seen in the horizon coming in the direction of the
pound, a party of Indians arrange themselves singly in two opposite
lines, branching out gradually on each side to a considerable distance,
that the buffaloes may advance between them. In taking their station at
the distance of twenty or thirty yards from each other, they lie down,
while another party manoeuvre on horseback, to get in rear of the
band. Immediately they have succeeded they give chace, and the party in
ambush rising up as the buffaloes come opposite to them, they all
halloo, and shout, and fire their guns, so as to drive them, trampling
upon each other, into the snare, where they are soon slaughtered by the
arrow or the gun.
The buffaloe tongue, when well cured, is of excellent flavour, and is
much esteemed, together with the _bos_, or hump of the animal, that is
formed on the point of the shoulders. The meat is much easier of
digestion than English beef; and many pounds of it are often taken by
the hungry traveller just before he wraps himself in his buffaloe robe
for the night without the least inconvenience.
On my return to the Fort, I had an opportunity of hearing from a chief
of a small tribe of Chipewyans, surrounded by a party of his young men,
a most pathetic account, and a powerful declaration of revenge against
the Sioux Indians, who had tomahawked and scalped his son. Laying his
hand upon his heart as he related the tragical circumstance, he
emphatically exclaimed, 'It is _here_ I am affected, and _feel_ my
loss;' then raising his hand above his head, he said, 'the spirit of my
son cries for vengeance. It must be appeased. His bones lie on the
ground uncovered. We want ammunition: give us powder and ball, and we
will go and revenge his death upon our enemies.' Their public speeches
are full of bold metaphor, energy and pathos. "No Greek or Roman orator
ever spoke perhaps with more strength and sublimity than one of their
chiefs when asked to remove with his tribe to a distance from their
native soil." 'We were born,' said he, 'on this ground, our fathers lie
buried in it, shall we say to the bones of our fathers, arise, and come
with us into a foreign land?'
One of the Indians left his wampum, or belt, at the Fort as a pledge
that he would return and pay the value of an article which was given to
him at his request. They consider this deposit sacred and inviolable,
and as giving a sanction to their words, their promises and their
treaties. They are seldom known to fail in redeeming the pledge; and
they ratify their agreements with each other by a mutual exchange of
the wampum, regarding it with the smoking of tobacco, as the great test
of sincerity.
In conducting their war excursions, they act upon the same principle as
in hunting. They are vigilant in espying out the track of those whom
they pursue, and will follow them over the praries, and through the
forests, till they have discovered where they halt; when they wait with
the greatest patience, under every privation, either lurking in the
grass, or concealing themselves in the bushes, till an opportunity
offers to rush upon their prey, at a time when they are least able to
resist them. These tribes are strangers to open warfare, and laugh at
Europeans as fools for standing out, as they say, in the plains, to be
shot at.
On the 22nd I reached the Farm, and from the expeditious mode of
travelling over the snow, I began to think, as is common among the
Indians, that one hundred miles was little more than a step, or in fact
but a short distance. It often astonished me to see with what an
unwearied pace, the drivers hurry along their dogs in a cariole, or
sledge, day after day in a journey of two and three hundred miles. I
have seen some of the English half-breeds greatly excel in this
respect. Many of the Canadians however are very expert drivers, as they
are excellent _voyageurs_ in the canoe. There is a native gaiety, and
vivacity of character, which impel them forward, and particularly so,
under the individual and encouraging appellation of '_bon homme_.' When
tripping, they are commonly all life, using the whip, or more commonly
a thick stick, barbarously upon their dogs, vociferating as they go
"_Sacres Crapeaux_," "_Sacrée Marne_," "_Saintes Diables_," and
uttering expressions of the most appalling blasphemy. In the rivers,
their canoe songs, as sung to a lively air and chorus with the paddle,
are very cheerful and pleasing. They smoke immediately and almost
incessantly, when the paddle is from their hands; and none exceed them
in skill, in running the rapids, passing the portages with pieces of
eighty and ninety pounds weight upon their backs, and expeditiously
performing a journey of one thousand miles.
APRIL 1.--Last Friday I married several couples, at the Company's Post;
nearly all the English half-breeds were assembled on the occasion, and
so passionately fond are they of dancing, that they continued to dance
almost incessantly from two o'clock on Friday afternoon, till late on
Saturday night. This morning the Colony Fort was nearly thronged with
them to attend divine service; and it was my endeavour to address them,
with plainness, simplicity, and fidelity. There was much attention;
but, I fear, from their talking, principally, their mother tongue, the
Indian language, that they did not comprehend a great deal of my
discourse. This is the case also, with a few of the Scotch Highland
settlers, who speak generally the Gaelic language.
Marriage, I would enforce upon all, who are living with, and have
children by half-caste, or Indian women. The apostolic injunction is
clear and decisive against the too common practice of the country, in
putting them away, after enjoying the morning of their days; or
deserting them to be taken by the Indians with their children, when the
parties, who have cohabited with them, leave the Hudson's Bay Company's
territories.[2] And if a colony is to be organized, and established in
the wilderness, the moral obligation of marriage must be felt. It is
"the _parent_," said Sir William Scott, "not the _child_ of civil
society." Some _form_, or religious rite in marriage is also requisite,
and has generally been observed by enlightened and civilized nations.
It is a civil contract in civil society, but the sanction of religion
should be superadded. The ancients considered it as a religious
ceremony. They consulted their imaginary gods, before the marriage was
solemnized, and implored their assistance by prayers, and sacrifices;
the gall was taken out of the victim, as the seat of anger and malice,
and thrown behind the altar, as hateful to the deities who presided
over the nuptial ceremonies. Marriage, by its original institution[3]
is the nearest of all earthly relations, and as involving each other's
happiness through life, it surely ought to be entered upon by
professing Christians, with religious rites, invoking heaven as a party
to it, while the consent of the individuals is pledged to each other,
ratified and confirmed by a vow.
[2] 1 Corin. vii. 12.
[3] Gen. ii. 24.
Incestuous cohabitation is common with the Indians, and in some
instances, they will espouse several sisters at the same time; but so
far from adopting the custom of others in presenting their wives, or
daughters as a mark of hospitality due to a stranger, the Chipewyans or
Saulteaux tribe of Red River, appear very jealous of them towards
Europeans. There is something patriarchal in their manner of first
choosing their wives. When a young man wishes to take a young woman to
live with him; he may perhaps mention his wishes to her, but generally,
he speaks to the father, or those who have authority over her. If his
proposal be accepted, he is admitted into the tent, and lives with the
family, generally a year, bringing in the produce of his hunting for
the general mess. He then separates to a tent of his own, and adds to
the number of wives, according to his success and character as a
hunter. The Indians have been greatly corrupted in their simple and
barbarous manners, by their intercourse with Europeans, many of whom
have borne scarcely any other mark of the Christian character than the
name; and who have not only fallen into the habits of an Indian life,
but have frequently exceeded the savage in their savage customs. When a
female is taken by them, it does not appear that her wishes are at all
consulted, but she is obtained from the lodge as an inmate at the Fort,
for the prime of her days generally, through that irresistible bribe to
Indians, rum. Childbirth, is considered by them, as an event of a
trifling nature; and it is not an uncommon case for a woman to be taken
in labour, step aside from the party she is travelling with, and
overtake them in the evening at their encampment, with a new-born
infant on her back. It has been confidently stated that Indian women
suffer more from parturition with half-breed children than when the
father is an Indian. If this account be true, it can only be in
consequence of their approach to the habits of civilized life, exerting
an injurious influence over their general constitution. When taken to
live with white men, they have larger families, and at the same time
are liable to more disease consequent upon it, than in their wild and
wandering state. They have customs, such as separation for forty days
at the birth of a child, setting apart the female in a separate lodge
at peculiar seasons, and forbidding her to touch any articles in common
use, which bear a strong resemblance to the laws of uncleanness, and
separation commanded to be observed towards Jewish females. These
strongly corroborate the idea, that they are of Asiatic origin;
descended from some of the scattered tribes of the children of Israel:
and through some ancient transmigration, came over by Kamtchatka into
these wild and extensive territories. When they name their children, it
is common for them to make a feast, smoke the calumet, and address the
Master of life, asking him to protect the child, whom they call after
some animal, place, or object in nature, and make him a good hunter.
The Stone Indians add to the request, a good horse-stealer. The women
suckle their children generally, till the one supplants the other, and
it is not an uncommon circumstance to see them of three or four years
old running to take the breast. They have a burial ground at the
Settlement, and usually put the property of the deceased into the grave
with the corpse. If any remains, it is given away from an aversion they
have to use any thing that belonged to their relations who have died.
Some of the graves are very neatly covered over with short sticks and
bark as a kind of canopy, and a few scalps are affixed to poles that
are stuck in the ground at the head of several of them. You see also
occasionally at the grave, a piece of wood on which is either carved or
painted the symbols of the tribe the deceased belonged to, and which
are taken from the different animals of the country.
APRIL 6.--One of the principal settlers informed me this morning, that
an Indian had stabbed one of his wives in a fit of intoxication at an
encampment near his house. I immediately went to the Lodge to inquire
into the circumstance, and found that the poor woman had been stabbed
in wanton cruelty, through the shoulder and the arm, but not mortally.
The Indians were still drunk, and some of them having knives in their
hands, I thought it most prudent to withdraw from their tents, without
offering any assistance. The Indians appear to me to be generally of an
inoffensive and hospitable disposition; but spirituous liquors, like
war, infuriate them with the most revengeful and barbarous feelings.
They are so conscious of this effect of drinking, that they generally
deliver up their guns, bows and arrows, and knives, to the officers,
before they begin to drink at the Company's Post; and when at their
tents, it is the first care of the women to conceal them, during the
season of riot and intoxication.
A considerable quantity of snow fell on the night of the 12th, and the
weather continuing very cold, it is not practicable yet to begin any
operations in farming. Though I see not as yet any striking effects of
my ministry among the settlers, yet, I trust, some little outward
reformation has taken place, in the better observance of the Sabbath.
MAY 2.--The rivers have broken up this spring unusually late, and the
ice is now floating down in large masses. The settlers, who went to
Pembina and the plains, for buffaloe meat in the Fall, are returning
upon rafts, or in canoes formed by hollowing the large trunks of trees:
many of them are as improvident of to-morrow as the Indians, and have
brought with them no dried provisions for the summer. This is not the
case however with the Scotch, who have been provident enough to bring
with them a supply of dried meat and pemican for a future day. The
dried meat is prepared by cutting the flesh of the buffaloe thin, and
hanging it on stages of wood to dry by the fire; and is generally tied
in bundles of fifty or forty pounds weight. It is very rough, and
tasteless, except a strong flavour of the smoke. Pemican is made by
pounding the dried meat, and mixing it with boiled fat, and is then put
into bags made of buffaloe skin, which weigh about eighty and a hundred
pounds each. It is a species of food well adapted to travelling in the
country; but so strongly cemented in the bag, that when it is used, it
is necessary to apply the axe; and very much resembles in appearance
tallow-chandler's grease.
The 10th.--The plains have been on fire to a considerable extent for
several days past, and the awful spectacle is seen this evening,
through the whole of the northern, and western horizon. Idle rumours
prevail that the Sioux Indians will attack the Settlement; which
unhappily unsettle the minds, and interrupt the industry of the
colonists. But none of these things move me, in carrying on my plans,
and making arrangements to erect a substantial building, sixty feet by
twenty. The Red River appears to me, a most desirable spot for a
Missionary establishment, and the formation of schools; from whence
Christianity may arise, and be propagated among the numerous tribes of
the north. The settlers are now actively employed in preparing to sow
the small lots of land which they have cleared: but this season is
short from the great length of the winter.--The 20th being Sunday more
than one hundred of them assembled at the Fort for divine service; and
their children from the school were present for public examination.
They gave general satisfaction in their answers to questions from the
"Chief Truths of the Christian Religion, and Lewis's Catechism."--Text
Proverbs iii. 17.
By the arrival of the boats from Qu'appelle, on the 25th, I received
the little Indian boy, I noticed, when leaving the Hunter's Tents,
during my excursion to that quarter in January last. Soon after my
departure, the father of the boy observed, that "as I had asked for his
son, and stood between the Great Spirit and the Indians, he would send
him to me;" and just before the boats left the Post for the Red River,
he brought the boy, and requested that he might be delivered to my
care. Thus was I encouraged in the idea, that native Indian children
might be collected from the wandering tribes of the north, and educated
in "the knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent."
Every additional Indian child I obtained for this purpose, together
with the great inconvenience of having no place appropriated for public
worship, gave a fresh stimulus to exertion in erecting the proposed
building. There was but little willing assistance however, towards this
desirable object; as few possessed any active spirit of public
improvement; and the general habits of the people being those of
lounging and smoking, were but little favourable to voluntary
exertions.
Sturgeon are caught at this period, from sixty to one hundred pounds
weight and more, in great abundance at the Settlement; and also for
about a month in the fall of the year, a little below the rapids
towards the mouth of the river. The oil of this fish is sometimes used
as lamp oil by the settlers; and the sound, when carefully and quickly
dried in the shade, by hanging it upon a line in a good breeze, forms
isinglass, the simple solution of which in water makes a good jelly,
and may be seasoned by the addition of syrup and wine, or of the
expressed juices of any ripe fruit. The roe is often cooked immediately
it is taken from the fish; but, when salted and placed under a
considerable pressure until dry, it forms the very nutritious article
of food named _caviare_. They generally afford us an abundant supply of
provisions for about a month or five weeks; and when they leave the
river, we have usually a good supply of cat fish, weighing about seven
or eight pounds each, and which are taken in greater or less quantities
for the most part of the summer months.
June the 20th. The canoes arrived from Montreal, _via_ Lake Superior,
and brought me the gratifying intelligence, in letters from England,
that my family were all well. It was my intention that they should have
embarked with me in my mission to this country, but circumstances
prevented it; and now that I was surrounded with unexpected
difficulties, situated in the very heart of an Indian territory, most
difficult of access, and without military protection, I deemed it most
advisable that they should defer the voyage, in the hope that another
year might lessen these difficulties, and bring a better arrangement
for the prosperity of the colony. I could undergo privations, and enter
upon any arduous official duties, for the best interests of the natives
and the settlers; but I could not subject Mrs. West (and infant
children) to the known existing trials of the country, whose useful
talents would otherwise have greatly aided me in the formation and
superintendence of schools.
July 2nd. An agreeable change has taken place in the scenery around us;
the trees are breaking into leaves, and many plants are in blossom,
where, but a short time ago, everything bore the aspect of winter. But
this almost sudden and pleasing change has brought an unceasing
torment: night and day we are perpetually persecuted with the
mosquitoes, that swarm around us, and afford no rest but in the
annoying respiration of a smoky room. They hover in clouds about the
domestic cattle, and drive them (almost irritated to madness) to the
smoke of fires lighted with tufts of grass for their relief. The trial
of this ever busy and tormenting insect is inconceivable, but to those
who have endured it. We retire to rest, enveloped in clothes almost to
suffocation, but the musquitoe finds its way under the blankets,
piercing with its envenomed trunk, till we often rise in a fever. Nor
are we relieved from this painful scourge until the return of a slight
frost, in the beginning of September.
20th. The weather is extremely hot, the thermometer more than 90° above
zero. Vegetation is making an astonishingly rapid progress, and the
grain in its luxuriant growth upon a rich soil, presents to the eye the
fairest prospects of a good harvest. But the locust, an insect very
like the large grasshopper, is beginning to make sad ravages, by
destroying the crops, as it has done for the last three years, at the
Settlement. These insects multiply so rapidly, that they soon
overspread the land, or rather the whole country; and had not a wise
Providence limited their existence to a year, they would no doubt (if
permitted to increase) soon destroy the whole vegetative produce of the
world. They seem to devour, not so much from a ravenous appetite, as
from the rage of destroying every vegetable substance that lies in the
way; and their work of destruction is frequently so regular in a field
of corn, as to have the appearance of being cut with a scythe. Where
they are bred, from eggs that are deposited in the earth the autumn
before, they stop during the months of April, May, and June; towards
the latter end of July, they get strong, and have wings, when they rise
together, sometimes so numerous as to form a black cloud, which darkens
the rays of the sun. Their first direction is against the wind, but
afterwards they appear to be driven by its course, and fall, as a
scourge, as they become exhausted by flight. "_The land may be as the
garden of Eden before them, but behind them it is a desolate
wilderness._"