traps: this was occasioned by jealousy, on account of his wife, who was a pretty young Squaw, of the Rat nation, and whom he suspected of infidelity.
[90] Being short of provisions, and having only one
faithful Canadian in the house, except the Indian and his
wife, I desired him to make a number of marten traps,
and set them in two different roads, called a fork. Having
finished about two hundred, and set them in the woods,
baited with fish heads, which these animals are very
fond of, he returned, and I gave him some rum for his
trouble. Every day, for a considerable time, he went
regularly to examine them, and when successful, was
always rewarded to his satisfaction. Having been unfortunate
several days, I charged him with doing other business,
instead of examining the traps, to which he made
no reply. I communicated my suspicions to my man,
and desired him to watch the Savage. The next day the
Canadian discovered him in the woods dressing some
partridges:[1] when he returned home in the evening he
asked for rum, which I refused, telling him he did not
deserve any. This answer displeased him; and looking
earnestly at me, he replied, that I did not use him well;
for though he had been unsuccessful with his traps, his
trouble was the same; and that he generally found them
out of order, which obliged him to set them right, and
employed him the whole day. This excuse did not make
any alteration in my conduct, and I told him the weather
was too bad to get at any rum. He then began to imagine
that I suspected him, and knew of his laziness, and immediately
opened his mind, telling me very frankly that
————
- ↑ Henry says, "In North-America there is no partridge; but the name is given to more than one species of grouse." This was probably the Canace or Dendragapus Canadensis, black or spotted grouse.—Ed.
