Volume 1

240 TRICK OF TRADE—MURDER—FIRE.
from them. It was the most disagreeable derouine I ever
made ; however, I got all they had, about a pack of good
furs ; but I was vexed, at having been obliged to fight with
the women. It is true it was all my neighbor's debts.
April 2d. I returned with the furs I had so well purchased.
The grass begins to point out of the ground in the
burned prairies. Fire in the S. W. Of my men, some are
making wheels, others carts, others sawing boards and
squaring timber; the smith is making nails, others sturgeon
nets ; some are smoking tongues ; the most active and
capable are gone with the Indians to hunt beaver and take
care of the furs.
April 4.th.
•
An Indian from Red lake informs us that one
of our men. La Rose,'' has been killed by a Saulteur of
Fond du Lac ; the Indian has since died himself. Red
river now clear of ice. jtJi. Indian families daily camping
at our houses, awaiting the return of the men who are hunting
beaver. loth. My people arrived from Riviere aux
Marais—miserable returns. An Indian tent of eight families
caught fire, by the carelessness of the children, and was
burned to the ground, and everything consumed ;
the four
families that were burned out early in the winter having their
little property again destroyed, nth. I sent two men in
a small canoe with goods to supply the Forks and Riviere
aux Morts. I went to the Hair hills on horseback ; settled
'8
A shady transaction, of which Mr. Henry should have been rather ashamed
than " vexed." Those skins which he secured were due to the X. Y. Co., for
debts the Indians had contracted ; he knew this, and so did the squaws with
whom he " fought," lest they should prevail upon their husbands to deliver the
skins where they were due. Mr. Henry doubtless thought that all things are
fair in trade, as they are said to be in love and war.
" Fran9ois Larose or La Rose appears as interpreter N. W. Co., Red Lake
Dept., 1804. The same name appears as that of a voyageur N. W. Co. Chippewa
r. , 1804.— Baptiste or Jean Baptiste Larose, of the N. W. Co., was at
Lower Fort des Prairies on the Saskatchewan in 1799, and at the Rocky Mountain
house on the Upper Saskatch. with Thompson in 1800.—Aimable de Gere,
dit Larose, b. Montreal, went young to Michilimackinac, entered fur-trade,
took part in the war, was for some years at Baie Verte, d. at Montreal, very
old, unmarried.