Volume 1

WINTER POST—INDIAN TRAMP—HORSE THIEVES. 295
At this place we have, for several years past, kept up a
winter establishment ; but the country is now destitute of
beaver and other good furs, and the returns would not pay
expenses.
We proceeded, and soon overtook the Indian who had
left Portage la Prairie this morning. He pretended he
could not walk, and complained of having hurt his legs,
which, however, were not in the least swelled. We, therefore,
were passing on before him, when he began such a
pitiful lamentation, that I prevailed upon V[audry] to give
up his horse for the rest of the day, for I could not leave
the poor fellow on the road, as he said he would certainly
perish were we to leave him behind. So we proceeded,
our old Indian on horseback and V. afoot, till we came
to the first small lakes, nothing more than ponds of stagnated
water, where we stopped for the night. The country
from the Grande Trembliere was very hilly, and the road
mostly heavy, over barren hills, where, in some places, our
horses sank up to the fetlocks. Our course was very serpentine,
but in a direct line, about W., 12 leagues. We
passed through several places so overgrown with willows
and brushwood as to render traveling tedious, and, at the
same time, dangerous to the eyes, as we could scarcely
defend our faces from the twigs and branches which choked
up the road in every valley.
This evening I found myself very weak and unwell. We
fettered our horses, and tied them near the fire for the
night, lest any straggling horse-stealers, who might have
perceived us, should wait until we fell asleep, to make off
with every horse and leave us to shift for ourselves. This
is a very great inconvenience — you are sure of your horse
only when you are on his back, so many Cree and Sonnant
thieves are there, wandering about the Assiniboine.
The Saulteurs and the Red River Indians are
not so thievishly
disposed ; we may pass near any of their camps,
and put up for the night with them, without danger of
losing horses, or any other property, excepting rum—that