lection which had enabled
him to observe more than I thought he appeared anxious to communicate, I
invited him into my house, and drew him into conversation on the state
of the trade, and the condition of the Indians at Leech Lake, &c. He
said the prices of goods were high, that the traders were rigorous, and
that there were some practices which he could wish to see abolished, not
so much for his own sake,[53] as for the sake of the Indians generally;
that the traders found it for their interest to treat him and the
principal chiefs well; that he hunted diligently, and supplied himself
with necessary articles. But the generality of the Indians were
miserably poor and were severely dealt by. He said, the last thing that
they had enjoined upon him, on leaving Leech Lake, was to solicit from
me another trader. He had not, however, deemed it proper to make the
request in public council.

[Footnote 53: He was flattered and pampered by them.]

He states that the Indians are compelled to sell their furs to _one
man_, and to take what he pleases to give them in return. That the
trader fixes his own prices, both on the furs and on the goods he gives
in exchange. The Indians have no choice in the matter. And if it
happens, as it did last spring (1828), that there is a deficiency in the
outfit of goods, they are not permitted quietly to bring out their
surplus furs, and sell them to whom they please. He says that he saw a
remarkable instance of this at _Point au Pins_, on his way out, where
young Holiday drew a dirk on an Indian on refusing to let him take a
pack of furs from his canoe. He said, on speaking of this subject, "I
wish my father to take away the sword that hangs over us, and let us
bring down our furs, and sell them to whom we please."

He says that he killed last fall, nearly one thousand muskrats, thirteen
bears, twenty martins, twelve fishers. Beavers he killed none, as they
were all killed off some years ago. He says, that fifty rats are exacted
for cloth for a coat (this chief wears coats) the same for a three point
blanket, forty for a two-and-a-half point blanket, one hundred for a
Montreal gun, one _plus_ for a gill of powder, for a gill of shot, or
for twenty-five bullets, thirty martins for a beaver trap, fifteen for
a rat trap.

Speaking of the war, which has been so long waged between the Chippewas
and Sioux, to the mutual detriment of both, he said that it had
originated in the rival pretensions of a