o excessive a desire on the part of any of the
Company's officers for so close an intimacy; and at the end of six
weeks he took his departure without pay or pension from the Company.

In the course of this summer our Algonquins received a visit from a
party of Ottawas, (this tribe occupies the hunting grounds in the
vicinity of Michimmakina or Makinaw, and speaks the Sauteaux
language,) which created considerable alarm in the village, as they
came for the purpose of demanding satisfaction for the murder of one
of their tribe, which had been perpetrated two years before by an
Algonquin. The details of the atrocious deed were communicated to me
as follows. The Ottawas and Algonquins, with their families, were
proceeding in company to the Lake, in the spring of 1819, when being
encamped in the neighbourhood of the long Sault rapid, the Algonquin
sprang upon his unsuspecting companion, and cleft his skull with his
tomahawk, without the least apparent provocation; then dragging the
body to the water's edge, he cut it up into small pieces, and threw
them in. He next despatched the woman, and mutilated her body in the
same savage manner, having first committed the most horrible barbarity
on her person; (the recital of which curdled my blood; and yet our
Christianized (?) Algonquins laughed heartily on hearing it!) The
demon in human form, with the yet reeking tomahawk raised over the
heads of his wife and children, made them swear that they would never
divulge the horrid deed; but they did disclose it; and it was from the
wife the tale of horror was elicited. The object of the Ottawas was
not revenge. Compensation to the full estimated value of the lives of
a man and woman was all they demanded; and that they received to an
amount that far exceeded their expectations. Had the murderer been in
the village the chiefs declared they would have given him up; but they
had already delivered him over to the proper authorities, and he was
then in prison waiting his sentence.

It has been already mentioned, that the Company had assumed the
outstanding debts of the petty traders. When the accounts were closed
this autumn, the aggregate amount of liabilities due to the Company
exhibited the enormous sum of seventy-two thousand dollars--not a
shilling of that sum has ever been repaid.

Soon after the departure of the natives for the interior, I was
notified of my appointment to the charge of the Chats post. My friend
Mac also received m