| OCR Text |
Show 90 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE Mr. Dickson, Mr. Paulier anJ myself, sat up until four o'clock in the morning. . . 8tb April, Tuesday.-Were obliged to r~mam thi. d·l on account of some information to be obtamcd here. I' [pent the day in making a rough chart of S.t. Peters, Inaking notes on the Sioux, &c. settlm~ the afEurs of the InJian department with Mr. Dickson, for wl:os: ~omn:u- m.c a t1' 0ns, and those of Mr· Paulicr, I am m. fm1tcly m-debtcd. Made every necessary preparation ior an early embarkation. 9th April, Wcdncsday.-Rose early in the mormng and commenced my arrangements. I laving observcu tw~ Indians drunk, during the night, and finding upon enq~I· ry, that the liquor had been furnished them by a lVJr. G rcig· nor or Jennesse, I sent my interpreter to tlwm to. requcsl they would not sell any strong liquor to the. I~chan~, upon which Mr. Jennesse demanded the restnc ~10ns I.n writing, which were given to him.* On demandn:g his licence it amounted to no more, than merdy a certificate that he had paiJ the tax r quired by a law of the Indi£ma territory, on all retailers of 1nerchandizc ; but it was by no n1cans an Indian licence ; however, I did not think proper to go into a more dose investigation. Last night wa~ so cold that the water was covered with floating cakes of Ice, of a strong consistence. After receiving every mark of at· tention from Messrs. l)ickson and Paulier, I took my clcpar· ture at R o'clock. At 4· P. M. arrived at the house of 1\lr. Paulier, 25 leagues, to whose brother I had a letter. v~as r eceived with politeness by him and a Mr. Veau, who wm· terecl along side of him, on the very island, at which we haJ encamped on the night of the of Oct. in ascending. After having left this place some time, we Jisco.vcr· ed a bark canoe a-head, we gained on it for some tunc, TO THE SOURCES OF THE l\11SSISSIPPL 9 1 when it turned a point about 300 yards before ; and on our turning it also, it had entirely disappeared. This excited my curiosity, I stood up in the barge, and at last discovered it turned up in the grass of the prairie, but after we had passed a good gun shot, three savagl's made their appearance from under it, launcheJ her in the river, and followed, not knowing of my other boats which had just turned the point in1mediatcly upon them. They then came on; and, on 1ny stopping for the night at a vacant trading house also stopped, and addr ssed me " So. .~. go rommandrmt, or" your servant captain." I directed my interpreter to enquire their motives for concealing themselves. They replied, that their canoe leaked, and that they had turned her up to discharge the water. This I Jid not believe, as their conduct was equivocal, I received them rather sternly ; I gave them however a small drain anJ piece of bread. They then re-embarkcd, and continued down the river. Their conduct brought to mind the visit of the Fils de Pinch ow to Mr. l)ickson, d uri11g the winter; one principal cause of which was, that he w.i shed to inform Ine that the seven n1en' whmu I men-tloned to have met when crossing the portage of St. An-thony, had since d clared that they would kill him for agreeing to the peace between the Sioux and ~auteurs : me .for being instrumental in preventing them from taking their revenge for relations killed by the Sauteurs in August 1805; a1~d Thomas, the Fols Avoin chief, for the ~npport he seemed disposed to give me. This inlormati n .h ad not ma· de t1 1 e I· mpressi·O n · It ought to have made, com-mg from so re::>pcctablc a source as the fi rst chief of the village . b t 1 d f ' . ' u t 1e con uct o those fellows put 1nc to the consideration of it. And I appeal to GoJ and 111y country, if >elf preservation would not have justified me, in cutting those r.coundrels to pieces wher ever I found them ? This 111 Y men would have done, if ordered, amidst a thousand |
