Volume 1

258 MURDER—WIDOWHOOD—ORPHANAGE.
three times, and killed him instantly. The wife and children
cried out, and some of my people ran to the tent just
as L'Hiver came out with the bloody knife in his hand, expecting
we would lay hold of him. The first person he
met was William Henry, whom he attempted to stab in the
breast; but Henry avoided the stroke, and returned the
compliment with a blow of his cudgel on the fellow's head.
This staggered him ; but instantly recovering, he made another
attempt to stab Henry. Foiled in this design, and
observing several coming out of the fort, he took to his
heels and ran into the woods like a deer. I chased him with
some of my people, but he was too fleet for us. We buried
the murdered man, who left a widow and five helpless
orphans, having no relations on this river. The behavior of
two of the youngest was really piteous while we were burying
the body ; they called upon their deceased father not to
leave them, but to return to the tent, and tried to prevent
the men from covering the corpse with earth, screaming in
a terrible manner ; the mother was obliged to take them
away.**
May 2Sth. Embarked for the Forks. 22d. Sent the
brigade off, and Mr. Harrison. Went on horseback to
Riviere la Souris. Made three trips to Portage la Prairie.
Delayed embarking until June 9th, when I left the Forks
in a light canoe, with six men, and on the 20th arrived at
Kamanistiquia, after a passage of only 12 days. This was
extraordinarily expeditious, and I shall always suppose
that a single well-mounted canoe can make the voyage
in a shorter time than several canoes together. Notwithstanding
all their hurry and bustle, I overtook my brigade
below the last rapids, at the storehouse ; had I been an hour
later,
they would have got in before me.
' The seamy side of the fur-trade which Henry shows us with such a steady
hand that we can scarcely follow him with unshaken nerves is simply hell on
earth—hell peopled with no souls above a beaver-skin, fired by King Alcohol
for the worship of Mammon, And worse than anything that has preceded is to
come in the very next chapter—not mere murder by retail, but wholesale slaughter.