Volume 1

190 BURIAL—ANOTHER DEATH—WHITEWASH.
from the hills, bringing his deceased wife on a travaille to
be buried here. It cost me a large keg of mixed liquor, a
blanket, three pots, and a quarter of a pound of vermilion
to cover the corpse. A few Assiniboines, Crees, and Sonnants
begin to come to our mountain house to trade.
i^th. Mr. Cameron started off; I went with him to Gratias
river. lyth. Returned home ; the plains on fire in every
direction. igtJi. Set a man at work to cut my winter
stock of fire wood. 22d. I had a watch-house built
fronting the X. Y. door; placed St. Germain and Le Due'
to watch their motions. Terrible fires all over the plains.
Wayquetoe's wife died of the wounds of last winter, when
her husband shot her.
Oct. 2jtJi. Le Sucrie [Sucre, Sweet, or Wiscoup] and
ten other Indians arrived from Leech lake. Cournoyer '" of
the X. Y. started with four men for the Hair hills, to build
near Langlois. Neither of my neighbors has a horse; all
their transportation is on men's backs. The H. B. Co.
started to build at the Grand Passage on Panbian river. I
sent to the Hair hills for earth to whitewash my houses,
there being none near Red river. This white earth generally
lies in the open plain, covered with about a foot of
black soil. It is sometimes in strata a foot thick, intermixed
with black soil and sand, and, again, is simply
covered with the black soil, under which it is pure and
white, like lime, and answers the same purpose in setting
our buildings.
Nov. 1st. Snow fell about six inches in depth. I went
to the mountain to meet the Stone Indians. Old Frog and
his band have ten tents. I settled with them, and they
made great promises to hunt well. ^th. Panbian river
' Compare note *', p. 182.—One Le Due, of the seigneury of Les Cedres, in
1 76 1 the uppermost white settlement on the St. Lawrence, had been a furtrader
on Lake Superior and at Michilimackinac.—Fran9ois Leduc is listed as a
voyageur, N. W. Co., Nepigon Dept., 1804. — Jean Baptiste Leduc, an old
trader in 1785, was then living with Aimable Roy at Baye Verte.
•" Whether or not the same as Jean Baptiste Cournoyer, listed as voyageur
N. W. Co., Lake Winnipeg, after the fusion of 1804.