immediately into the barter for which the Indians were eager. Some of his goods having got wet by rain, were untied by his men, and exposed to the sun to dry. The temptation to the almost naked Indians, who had not seen a trader for a long time, was too great to be easily overcome, and being on the eve of their grand festival rite, when they are accustomed to display all the finery of which they are possessed, caused them doubly to covet the merchandise of the sick trader. They possessed plenty of furs, which they offered repeatedly to exchange, but the trader's men refused to enter into a trade till their master was sufficiently recovered to oversee it. There was no preconcerted plan, or even intention of pillage, when the rifling of the trader's effects actually commenced.
A number of young men, women, and children, were standing around, admiring the goods which had been exposed to dry, and longing for possession, as much as an avaricious white man for a pile of yellow gold, when a forward young warrior approached a roll of cloth, and after feeling, and remarking on its texture, his itching fingers at last tore off a piece sufficient to make him a breech clout, at the same time he remarked, that he had beaver skins in his lodge, and when the trader got well, he would pay his demands. The trader's men stood dumb, and making no effort to prevent the young pillager from carrying off the cloth, others becoming bold followed his example, and tearing off pieces of calico for shirts, cloth for blankets, the goods spread out to dry soon disappeared at a very uncertain credit.
The young pillagers taking their trophies to the lodges, the excitement in the village became general, as each person became determined to possess a share of the trader's remaining bales. The crediting of the goods was now changed to an actual pillage, and the only anxiety evinced by the Indians, men, women, and children, was, who would secure
