At Chikago, I was compelled to sell my horses for much less than their value to Captain Bradley and a Mr. Kenzie, who was then agent in place of Dr. Wolcott, as they told me I could not get them taken to Mackinac. One old horse which I left as being of little or no value, I afterwards received fifteen dollars for from some gentlemen who wished to make use of him, but who might have had him for nothing. When Captain Keith, in the schooner Jackson, arrived, he told me, on seeing the paper given me by Governor Clark, that he would have taken my horses to Mackinac for nothing; but it was now too late as they were sold.
A principal part of my design in returning to Mackinac was to engage myself to Col. Boyd, the Indian agent there, as an interpreter; he having very often expressed a wish that I should do so, whenever I had acquired such a knowledge of the English language as would qualify me to discharge the duties of that station. It was now, therefore, a disappointment to me, to be informed that I had come too late, an interpreter having recently been hired to fill the place. He informed me, however, that an agent to be stationed at the Saut De St. Marie would probably arrive in the steam boat which was expected immediately, and Col. Boyd thought I might obtain the situation of interpreter for him. When Mr. Schoolcraft, the gentleman expected, arrived at Mackinac, he readily accepted my proposal. But as he was to stay but an hour or two on the island, he directed me to make my preparations and follow him, allowing me four days after his arrival at the Saut before it was necessary for me to be there. I made my preparations accordingly, and was nearly ready to start when a letter came from Mr. Schoolcraft, stating that he had found an interpreter at the Saut, and therefore did not wish me to join him. I carried back to the traders the furniture and other articles which I had purchased with the expectation of residing at the Saut, and they willingly restored me my money.
CHAPTER XV
Transactions of the agents and clerks of the American Fur Company, in the country about the Lake of the Woods. – Treachery of an Indian woman. – Misfortunes attendant on an attempt to bring my children from the Indian country.
Being now destitute of employment, I engaged to Mr. Stewart, the agent of the American Fur Company, to go with the traders into the Indian country. This I preferred to remaining with the Indian agent, though he again proposed to hire me for a striker in his smith’s shop. For my services with the people of the American Fur Company, I was to receive two hundred and twenty-five dollars per year and a suit of clothes.
My children I placed at school at Mackinac, and went to the Saut De St. Marie with Mr. Morrison, one of the company’s principal clerks. Thence they sent me, in a boat with some Frenchmen, to Fond Du Lac. I was unacquainted with the manners of these people, and should have suffered, and perhaps perished for want of provisions, had I not purchased some occasionally from the crew. From Fond du Lac I went to Rainy Lake with Mr. Cote, but my ignorance of the business in which I had embarked exposed me to much inconvenience. I had still some of my traps with me, with which I took a considerable number of musk rats on this journey, and I was not less surprised than displeased, to be told that the skins did not belong to me. But I was not only compelled to give these up; I was made to paddle by myself a canoe heavily loaded with wild rice, and to submit to various other laborious employments which I did very reluctantly.
When we arrived at Rainy Lake, I went to hunt, but killed nothing. Soon afterwards, they sent me to the rapids of Rainy Lake River, and before the ice had formed so as to put an end to the fishing, I had taken one hundred and fifty sturgeons. The winter had now commenced, and Mr. Cote sent me with one clerk, four Frenchmen, and a small outfit of goods, equal to one hundred and sixty dollars in value, to trade among the Indians. We were furnished with no other food than wild rice at the rate of eighteen quarts per man, and instructed not to return until we should have exchanged for peltries all our goods. As I knew we should be compelled to travel far before we found the Indians, I requested of Mr. Cote permission to remain while I could prepare a train and harness for two good dogs which belonged to me; also snow shoes for ourselves; but he would not hear of a moment’s delay.
Four days after we started, a heavy snow fell, and our wild rice being all expended, the clerk and three of the Frenchmen left me and returned to the Fort. There was now only myself and one Frenchman named Veiage, who however was a hardy, patient, and most excellent man, and we struggled through the snow with our heavy loads as we might.
After some days, and when we were extremely reduced through want of provisions, we found some lodges of Indians, but they also were in a starving condition. With these I left Veiage, and with a few goods, went to visit another encampment at some distance; these also I found perishing of hunger. On my return to the place where I had left my companion, the lodges were removed and no person remained. Here my strength failed entirely, and I sat down expecting to perish, as the night was very cold; but an Indian who had come back to look at his traps, found me, made a fire, and after he had raised me up, assisted me to his lodge. He had taken one beaver, and this was now to be divided among twenty persons, not one of whom had eaten a mouthful in two days, and all were in a starving condition.
Soon after this, as I continued on my journey according to my strength, I found the lodge of my friend Oto-pun-nebe, the man who had taken my part in the affair with Wawbebe-nais-sa. His wife began to cry when she saw the extreme misery of my condition, so much was I reduced and changed in appearance by hunger and fatigue. About this time eight starving Frenchmen came upon us, who had been sent by Mr. Cote, he supposing that I had found buffalo, and must by this time have meat in great abundance. One of my dogs died, and we ate him. We were travelling on the old trail of the Indians, but a deep snow had fallen since they passed. Under this snow we found several dead dogs, and other things thrown away or left by the Indians, such as bones, worn out moccasins, and pieces of leather. With these we were able to sustain life. We killed also, and ate my last dog; but we had yet a long distance to travel before we could reach the buffalo, and as we were all rapidly failing, we consulted together, and determined to kill one of the Fur Company’s dogs. We did so, and this enabled us to reach the buffalo, when our distress was for the present at an end.