Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/344

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314
WINTER TRANSACTIONS

CHAPTER XIII.

Transactions at Fort Confidence, Winter 18S8-89.—Murder and Distress among the Indians.—Relief afforded them.


We had the satisfaction to find the people in perfect health, and eyerything in good order, on our arrival. The buildings had been rendered more comfortable during the summer; and Ritch had not only purchased a considerable quantity of dried yenison from the Indians, but had also prepared in the same manner several thousand trout and white-fish, taken by his fishermen on either side of the island. A serious misunderstanding with the natives had, however, nearly arisen from a very trivial cause. A person at the house caught a little water-insect, bearing, like the root of the mandrake, some faint resemblance to the human form, and afterwards threw it back into the lake. Out of this incident a story was manufactured and circulated, that the whites had caught and murdered an Indian and cast his body into the water; nor were the natives