Volume 1

402 POOR TOBACCO—UPROAR—MOSQUITOES.
at present. These are collected as required, dried before
the fire
on a fragment of an earthen pot, and smoked by all
the natives. But I find the flowers a very poor substitute
for our own tobacco—a nauseous, insipid weed.
The ripe
leaf is somewhat better, but even that is mere trash, possessed
of neither strength nor virtue.
This afternoon the Assiniboines, old Crane and his party,
all provided with horses, loaded with corn.
left on their return home to their camp at Moose mountain,
Not long afterward
a Mandane who was sitting on his hut looking out,
as they usually do, hallooed that the Assiniboines were
stealing horses belonging to the white people—which, of
course, were ours. In an instant the village was in an
uproar; a number of armed men on horseback went in pursuit,
with Black Cat at their head, declaring he would bring
the scalp of the thief. They were absent about an hour,
when they returned and informed us that they had overtaken
the supposed thief ; he proved to be a Big Belly who,
a few days ago, had a quarrel with a Mandane, and the
latter, on leaving the village of the former, had brought off
one of their horses, the owner of which had sent a young
man for him.
We had a heavy fall of rain during the night, and our
worst enemies, the mosquitoes, were more numerous than
ever. We had flattered ourselves that the season for
those infernal insects was nearly over ; but they annoyed
us sorely this evening. We procured the use of an empty
hut, into which our horses were put for the night ;
but long
before day the flies so tormented them that they broke
down the barrier at the door, and ran off to the woods.
We searched for them in vain ; the darkness, rain, and
mosquitoes soon obliged us to give up the chase and
return to the hut, where we passed the remainder of the
night in great anxiety, fearing the Assiniboines might
return and steal the horses before they could be collected
in the morning.
July 2gth. Daybreak brought rain and swarms of mos-