Volume 1

SUMMER WEARS ON—DRINKING CONTINUES. 431
Lake Winipic and cause a horrid stench, as I have already
observed [Aug. 17th, 1800]. They do not make such a formidable
appearance every year.
I found no Indians tented at the fort. My hen began to
lay again, all her chicks being now well grown. Men
hoeing potatoes and corn.
June zjth. Indians from Leech lake with tobacco, concerning
a grand war-party to assemble next September at
L'Eau Claire, where they propose to form a main body of
the Saulteur tribes, being fully determined to seek the
Sioux even upon their own lands and take revenge for the
affair of last autumn, when Tabashaw and his son were
killed. ;^oth. We set night lines and take abundance of
cat-fish {Atniurus nebiilostis],
July 1st.
Transplanted a few cabbages that had escaped
the grasshoppers. '/th. I went hunting on horseback,
with Mr. Langlois. Slept at the Hair Hills fort. Saw
only a few bulls. 8th. Chased bulls ; killed a very fat one
and started homeward, but was overtaken by a storm of
thunder, lightning, and rain, the most terrible I ever saw
in my life ; even our horses were startled at the loud peals
and vivid flashes, becoming at times unmanageable. gth.
My hen having laid 12 eggs, and appearing inclined to set,
I put them under her. nth. My men began to make
3,000 bundles of hay. Poires now ripening ; raspberries
ripe, and in great abundance. The freemen are daily coming
in with dried provisions, beat meat, and grease. 12th.
Indians arrived and camped ; all drinking liquor traded for
dried provisions and skins, i^th. A few more Indians.
20th. More Indians still, bringing a tolerably good hunt
in provisions and skins. Drinking continues. I had sent
four carts to bring the baggage of this band from the other
side of Red river. This was the first essay ever made with
carts in that direction ; there was a thick wood to pass on
leaving the river for about three miles before coming to the
plains, and it had been always supposed impracticable ;
but
I found it otherwise, and the carts arrived at the water's