had rained all day, the gun missed fire, and
before he could re-prime, another arrow, better aimed than the first,
struck him in the left side and penetrated between two of his ribs, in
the region of the heart, and would have proved fatal, no doubt, but for
a stone-pipe he had fortunately in his side-pocket, and which was broken
by the arrow; at the same moment his gun was discharged, and the Indian
fell dead. Several others then rushed forward to avenge the death of
their compatriot; but two of the men came up with their loads and their
gun (for these portages were made arms in hand), and seeing what was
going forward, one of them threw his pack on the ground, fired on one of
the Indians and brought him down. He got up again, however, and picked
up his weapons, but the other man ran upon him, wrested from him his
war-club, and despatched him by repeated blows on the head with it. The
other savages, seeing the bulk of our people approaching the scene of
combat, retired and crossed the river. In the meantime, Mr. Stuart
extracted the arrows from his body, by the aid of one of the men: the
blood flowed in abundance from the wounds, and he saw that it would be
impossible for him to pursue his journey; he therefore gave orders for
the canoes and goods to be carried back to the lower end of the portage.
Presently they saw a great number of pirogues full of warriors coming
from the opposite side of the river. Our people then considered that
they could do nothing better than to get away as fast as possible; they
contrived to transport over one canoe, on which they all embarked,
abandoning the other and the goods, to the natives. While the barbarians
were plundering these effects, more precious in their estimation than
the apples of gold in the garden of the Hesperides, our party retired
and got out of sight. The retreat was, notwithstanding, so precipitate,
that they left behind an Indian from the Lake of the Two Mountains, who
was in the service of the Company as a hunter. This Indian had persisted
in concealing himself behind the rocks, meaning, he said, to kill some
of those thieves, and did not return in time for the embarkation. Mr.
Keith regretted this brave man's obstinacy, fearing, with good reason,
that he would be discovered and murdered by the natives. We rowed all
that day and night, and reached the factory on the 9th, at sunrise. Our
first care, after having announced the misfortune of our people, was to
dress the w