located on the shores of the lake, and some of the most foolish of the Indians, headed by Nig-gig (The Otter)—who is still[1] living—proposed to destroy the trader's goods, in accordance with the prophet's teachings to discard the use of everything which the white man had learned them to want. The influence of the chief Mons-o-ne at first checked the young men, but the least additional spark to their excitement caused his voice to be unheard, and his influence to be without effect. John Baptiste Corbin, a young Canadian of good education, was in charge of the post, and through his indiscretion the flame was lighted which led to the pillage of the post, and caused him to flee for his life, one hundred miles through a pathless wilderness, to the shores of Lake Superior. As was the general custom of the early French traders, he had taken to wife a young woman of the Lac Coutereille village, related to an influential family. During the Shawano excitement, he found occasion to give his wife a severe beating, and to send her away almost naked, from under his roof, to her parents' wigwam. This act exasperated the Indians; and as the tale spread from lodge to lodge, the young men leaped into their canoes and paddling over to the trading house, which stood about one mile opposite their village, they broke open the doors and helped themselves to all which the storehouses contained. Mons. Corbin, during the excitement of the pillage, fled in affright. An Ojibway whom he had befriended, followed his tracks, and catching up with him, gave him his blanket, moccasins, and fire-works, with directions to enable him to reach La Pointe, Shag-a waum-ik-ong, on Lake Superior, which he did, after several days of hardship and solitary wandering.
This act, on the part of the Lac Coutereille band, was very much regretted by the rest of the tribe. Keesh-ke-
- ↑ A.D. 1852.
