become possessed of the fatal fire-arm, and on this occasion, in the whole party of two hundred warriors, they hardly numbered half a dozen guns. They fought with the bow and arrow, and in this consisted the safety and salvation of the twenty Ojibway hunters and Frenchmen who fought against such immense odds, and who, being all supplied with fire-arms, easily kept off their numerous assailants.
The only manner in which they were annoyed was by the enemy's shooting their arrows into the air in such a manner as to fall directly into the inclosure, on the heads of its defenders. The more timid were thus forced to retreat into the house for shelter, as for many minutes, the barbed arrows fell as thick as snowflakes, and two of the hunters being severely wounded, were disabled from further fighting.
Having exhausted their arrows without materially lessening the destructive fire of the Ojibways and Frenchmen, the Dakotas having lost a number of their men, finally retreated, first dragging away their dead, whom they threw into holes made in the ice, to prevent their being scalped.
Shortly after their departure, the hunters in the vicinity of the trading house, who had heard the firing attendant on the late fight, arrived one after another to the scene of action, till, at sunset, forty men had collected, all eager for pursuing the retreating enemy. The trader, however, humanely dissuaded them from the enterprise, and as they had lost no lives in the late attack, they were the more easily persuaded to forego their intent.
