At this trading post I met a gentleman who took much notice of me, and tried to persuade me to accompany him to England. I was apprehensive he might leave me there, and that I should not be able to reach my friends in the United States, even if any of them were living. I also felt attached to hunting as a business and an amusement; therefore I declined his invitation. Among other Indians who assembled at this trading-house in the spring, came our old companion and friend, Pe-shau-ba, and, as usual, they expended the products of their winter and spring hunts, their sugar, etc. for whiskey. After they had drank all they could purchase, old Net-no-kwa gave them an additional ten gallon keg, which she had hid the year before under the ashes back of the trader’s house. Their long debauch was attended by mischievous quarrels, and followed by hunger and poverty. Some one proposed, as a method of relieving the pressure of hunger, now becoming severe, that a hunting match should be made, to see who, of all those that were assembled, could take, in one day, the greatest number of rabbits. In this strife I surpassed Pe-shau-ba, who had been one of my first instructors in hunting, but he was yet far my superior in taking large animals.
From this trading-house we returned by the way of Swan River, and the Me-nau-ko-nos-keeg, towards Red River. About the Me-nau-ko-nos-keeg and Ais-sug-se-bee, or Clam River, whose head waters interlock, we stopped for some time to trap beaver, being assisted by a young man called Nau-ba-shish, who had joined us some time before, but at length falling in with a trace on which Indians had passed only two days before, I determined to try to see them. Leaving the old woman and the family with Nau-ba-shish, I mounted my best horse, and followed the path through the prairie. After a few hours I passed a place where had been a lodge the day before, and my horse was stepping over a log which lay across the path, when a prairie hen flew from under it. The horse being frightened, threw me, and I fell upon the log, afterwards upon the ground, but as I still held the bridle rein, the horse stepped with his fore foot upon my breast. For some hours I was not able to get on my horse. When I at last succeeded, I determined still to follow on after the Indians, as I believed myself nearer to them than to my own lodge. When I arrived among them I could not speak, but they perceived that I had been hurt, and treated me with kindness. From this hurt, which was very severe, I have never since recovered entirely.
A part of my object in visiting this band had been to try to hear something from Wa-me-gon-a-biew, but they had not met with him. I now determined to leave the old woman at Menaukonoskeeg and go to Red River by myself. I had four horses, one of which was a very fleet and beautiful one, being considered the best out of one hundred and eighty which a war-party of Crees, Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways, had recently brought from the Fall Indians. In this excursion they had been absent seven months. They had fallen upon and destroyed one village, and taken one hundred and fifty scalps, besides prisoners.
Ten days after I left Menaukonoskeeg on this horse, I arrived at the Mouse River trading-house. Here I learned that Wa-me-gon-a-biew was at Pembinah, on Red River. Mr. M’Kee sent a man to show me the road to the head of the Pembinah River, where I found Aneeb, a trader with whom I was well acquainted. One day’s journey from this house, I found the lodge of the father-in-law of Wa-me-gon-a-biew, but I saw nothing of my brother, and the old man did not receive me kindly. He was living with a party of about one hundred lodges of Crees. Perceiving that something was not as I could have wished, I went to spend the night with an old Cree whom I had seen before. In the morning, the old man said to me, “I am afraid they will kill your horse, go and see how they are abusing him.” I went as he directed, and found that a parcel of young men and boys had thrown my horse down upon the ground, and were beating him. When I came up, I found some were holding him by the head, while one man was standing on his body and beating him. To this man I said, “my friend, you must come down;” he answered, “I wont.” “I shall help you down,” said I, and pushing him down, I took the bridle from those who held him, and led him home, but he had received an injury from which he could never recover.
I now enquired the cause of this unexpected and very unfriendly treatment, and learned that it was on account of Wa-me-gon-a-biew, who had turned away his former wife, and quarrelled with his father-in-law. In this quarrel, the old man’s horse and dog had been killed, which injury his young friends were visiting upon my horse. The origin of this quarrel seemed to me to be such as to leave some appearance of right on the part of Wa-me-gon-a-biew. He had treated his wife as well as is usual among them, and only parted with her because her father refused to part with her, insisting that Wa-me-gon-a-biew should accompany him in all his movements. Rather than do this, he chose to leave his wife altogether, and had done so in a peaceable manner, when her relatives showed a disposition to offer him some molestation. As I was alone, I feared they might follow me, and try to do me some injury at my next encampment. But they did not, and on the following day I arrived at the place where Wa-me-gon-a-biew was now living with his new wife. The old man, his father-in-law, whom I had seen before, met me outside of the lodge, and was surprised to hear that I had come from Menaukonoskego, the distance being greater than they usually go by themselves in that country.
Here I remained four days, hunting with my friends. Then I started, accompanied by Wa-me-gon-a-biew and his wife, to return. We went to the village where they had tried to kill my horse, and though the old man had moved to some distance, he soon heard of us, and came in accompanied by his brothers. We slept at a lodge near the trader’s tent. I intended to have watched, as I was apprehensive that they would attempt either to rob or otherwise injure us, but through fatigue, I fell asleep. Late at night I was waked by Wa-me-gon-a-biew, who said the old man had been in, and taken his gun from over his head. He admitted that he was awake when the old man entered, and had watched him from under his blanket until he went out with the gun. I reproached him for pusilanimity, telling him he deserved to lose his gun if he would suffer an old man to take it away while his eyes were open. Nevertheless, I made an attempt, though an unsuccessful one, to recover the gun.
Before we reached Mouse River, my horse had become so poor and feeble that even the woman could not ride him. We rested two days, and then went on. We had suffered much from hunger, having for many days killed only one poor buffalo, when we met with a small band of Crees, under a chief called O-ge-mah-wah-shish, a Cree word, meaning chief’s son. Instead of relieving our wants, they treated us in an unfriendly manner, and I overheard them talking of killing us, on account of some old quarrel with a band of Ojibbeways. They would sell us nothing but a small badger, and we lost no time in escaping as far as we could from them. We were starved for two days more when we met an Ojibbeway, called Wawb-uche-chawk, (the white crane,) who had very lately killed a fat moose.
With this man we lived about a month, during all which time we had plenty of food, and slept in his lodge. He was moving in the same direction that we were. He did not leave us until we arrived at Rush Lake River. The old woman had gone from the trading house where I left her, to live with Indians, at the distance of four days. My three horses which, before starting, I had fettered and turned out that they might become accustomed to the place, had been neglected, and were now dead; notwithstanding I had given very particular charge to Net-no-kwa to take off the fetters at the commencement of winter. She had neglected it. My horse which I rode to Red River was also dead, and I had none left. Net-no-kwa having apparently relinquished her claim to me, and Wa-me-gon-a-biew now leaving me, I remained for some time entirely alone about the trading house. The trader, whose name was M’Glees, at length took notice of me, and invited me to live with him. He said so much to induce me to leave the Indians, that I felt sometimes inclined to follow his advice, but whenever I thought of remaining long at the trading house, I found an intolerable irksomeness attending it. I felt an inclination to spend all my time in hunting, and a strong dislike to the less exciting employments of the men about a trading house.