Volume 1

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204 ACCIDENTAL MATRICIDE—NEW OUTPOSTS.
Their complaint is cough, spitting, and pains in
the breast
they linger for a long time, get very lean, and seldom recover.
This [pulmonary consumption] is the most common
and fatal disease among them.
Sept. i6th. I gave them their usual autumnal present
all were soon intoxicated and more troublesome than before,
as the X. Y. were well established here.
Sept. lyth. A boy about lo years of age was putting his
gun in order to shoot ducks ; his old mother was sitting
opposite in the tent, and observed he was giving himself
trouble to no purpose, as he could not kill a duck. This
was jocular, as she knew he was an excellent little hunter
for his age, and he took it as such. Having loaded and
primed his gun, he aimed it at the old woman's head,
saying, "If I cannot kill a duck I can kill you, if I want
to." The gun went off and blew her brains out. The laci's
gun fell from his hands; when he recollected himself he
declared he had no intention of shooting his mother, and
could not account for the discharge. However, the old
woman was dead ; her brains and hair were sticking to the
tent-pole near which she had been sitting. The lad appeared
much afflicted, as he was very fond of her.
I made up the assortment of goods for the outposts,
equipped the summer men, clerks, etc.
Sept. 20th. I sent Mr. Cameron, with his boat and eight
men, to build at Turtle river;' Augustin Cadotte, with
Antoine Payet [or Paget'] and five men, to build at
Pinancewaywining a post for the Crees, Sonnants, and
Stone Indians; Michel Langlois, with a writer \commis,
clerk], goes to Red lake with a band of Saulteurs. The
two latter posts are overland, and require horses to trans-
4 Branch of Red r., Grand Forks Co., N. Dak.: see note ^o, p. 138.
^ Surname thus variant in the annals of the fur-trade. One Payet, N. W.
Co., was interpreter under Harmon,
Fort Bird Mountain, on the Assiniboine,
winter of 1801-02.—Antoine Payet or Paget is with Henry as said,
1802-03, ^i^d
appears as clerk and interpreter N. W. Co., English r. 1804. — Joseph Paget
appears as voyageur N. W. Co., Upper Red r., 1804.