Volume 1

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156 YOUNG MRS. CROOKED LEGS AGAIN.
entirely melted away.
Crooked Legs and his family arrived
from below. His young wife is now perfectly recovered,
and enjoys a glass. All who had any skins to trade held a
drinking match, during which the lady gave her old husband
a cruel beating with a stick, and then, throwing him
on his back, applied a fire brand to his privates, and rubbed
it in, until somebody interfered and took her away. She
left him in a shocking condition, with the parts nearly
roasted. I believe she would have killed him, had she not
been prevented ; if he recovers, it will be extraordinary.
This was done in revenge for his
time ago.
having stabbed her some
Nov. 26th. Indians sober. Crooked Legs too ill to stir;
his old wife waits on him, and the young one makes fun
of him. 2'/th. A young man arrived from the hills, to
inform us that Charlo's wife died suddenly last night. He
brought a few skins to buy rum for the funeral, to drown
their sorrows, and lament the deceased with a better grace.
He returned immediately with a small keg.
Nov. 28th. Two men from Portage la Prairie arrived
with the two I had sent from here on the 25th, They
met at Reed river, where both parties arrived the same day.
They bring me letters from all my friends on the Assiniboine,
and dispatches from Grand Portage of Aug. 9th.
I find myself obliged to send Desmarais to join Mr.
[Charles Jean Baptiste] Chaboillez at Portage la Prairie.
Larocque, senior, came in from his traps, with a skunk, a
badger, and a large white wolf, all three caught in the same
trap at once, as he said. This we thought extraordinary
indeed, a falsehood—until he explained the affair. His
trap was made in a hollow stump, in the center of which
there was a deep hole in the ground. He found the wolf just
caught, and still alive ; he dispatched him, and on taking
him out, noticed something stirring and making a noise in
the hole in the ground.
Upon looking in he perceived the
badger, which he killed with a stick, and on pulling him out,
smelled the horrid stench of the skunk, which was in one