Volume 1

CHAPTER VIII.
THE PEMBINA RIVER POST, CONTINUED :
1805-06.
mAMANISTIQUIA, July 13th, 1805. Sent off the
my
Lower Red River brigade. I4.th. Embarked ;
canoe was loaded with 14 pieces, exclusive of my baggage
and six men. At Little Lake la Pluie I took on board two
pieces more. 31st. Reached the Forks. Sent a man up
the Assiniboine by land.
Aug. 1st. Embarked with a fair wind, which blew a gale
from the N., but kept under sail—about three feet hoisted.
2d. In the afternoon, arrived at Panbian river, having had
an extraordinary breeze all the way. This may be called a
passage of 22 days from Kamanistiquia, and I
believe that,
with such lading, it is impossible to perform the voyage in
less time.
Here I received the unwelcome news that the Sioux had
fallen upon a small camp of my Indians on Tongue river,
not many miles from the fort, on the 3d of July, and killed
and taken prisoners 14 persons—men, women, and children.
My beau-pere was the first man that fell, about eight o'clock
in the morning. He had climbed a tree, to see if the bufTalo
were at hand, as they were tented there to make dried provisions.
He had n« sooner reached the top than two Sioux
discoverers fired at the same moment, and both balls passed
through his body. He had only time to call out to his
family, who were in the tent about icx) paces from him,
" Save yourselves ! the Sioux are killing us !
" and fell dead
to the ground, his body breaking several branches of the
the tree as it dropped. The noise brought the Indians
perceiving their danger, the women
out of the tent ; when,
and children instantly ran through the plains toward an
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