Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/154

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
144
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

dwellings, which are still to be found on the spot where it once stood. The murderer was taken to Montreal, and the Indians at this day say that he was torn to pieces by horses being attached to each of his arms and legs, and caused to pull in different directions.

Another account has it, and coming from the lips of old traders and half-breeds, I am disposed to believe it as the truth, that the guilty wretch managed to escape from his keepers on the route to Montreal, and seeking refuge among the Hurons, he adopted their dress and customs, and learned to speak their language. On one occasion being present at a war-dance, when the Indian warriors were striking the "red stake" and telling their different exploits performed in war against their enemies, the murderer stepped into their midst, and likewise striking the stake, he related his deed of treachery and blood, expecting to be honored by the red men as a brave man, for the exploit. He was however mistaken, for before he had finished his tale of the bloody deed, an Indian warrior arose, and stepping up to him with the single exclamation of "Dog," he buried a tomahawk deep into his brain. The narrative of this event has been carefully preserved and handed down by the old traders, and it is presented here as I have learned it from them.

The tale as the Indians tell it, is somewhat mixed with the superstitious and unnatural, though in the main incidents they fully agree with the trader's account. They give as a cause for the murder, that the "Coureur du Bois" had pilfered goods during the winter to such an amount that his master threatened to report his conduct to the Factors on their first visit, and have him taken to Quebec as a culprit. To prevent this disgrace and punishment, the man first killed his master, as has been related, and then attempted rape on his wife, who forced him to kill her by her active self-defence with the Indian spear. Only in