s in this quarter had
shown their acquiescence in these measures by increased exertion during
the preceding winter. Some other very wholesome regulations have been
introduced by the Company; amongst others, the Sabbath is ordered to be
properly observed, and Divine Service to be read at every post. They
have also directed, where the soil will allow, a portion of ground to be
cultivated for the growth of culinary vegetables at each of their
establishments, and I witnessed the good effects of this order, even at
this advanced post, where the ground is rocky; the tables of the
officers being supplied daily, and those of the men frequently, with
potatoes and barley. Such luxuries were very rarely found beyond
Cumberland House, on the route that we travelled during my former
journey.

Feeling a deep interest in the welfare of this country, in which I have
spent a large portion of the last seven years, I have much pleasure in
recording these improvements; and in stating my conviction, that the
benevolent wishes of the Directors, respecting the inhabitants of their
territories, will be followed up with corresponding energy by the
resident Governor, the chief factors, and the traders of the Company.

I mentioned in my former Narrative, that the Northern Indians had
cherished a belief for some years, that a great change was about to take
place in the natural order of things, and that among other advantages
arising from it, their own condition of life was to be materially
bettered. This story, I was now informed by Mr. Stewart, originated with
a woman, whose history appears to me deserving of a short notice. While
living at the N.W. Company's Post, on the Columbia River, as the wife of
one of the Canadian servants, she formed a sudden resolution of becoming
a warrior; and throwing aside her female dress, she clothed herself in a
suitable manner. Having procured a gun, a bow and arrows, and a horse,
she sallied forth to join a party of her countrymen then going to war;
and, in her first essay, displayed so much courage as to attract general
regard, which was so much heightened by her subsequent feats of bravery,
that many young men put themselves under her command. Their example was
soon generally followed, and, at length she became the principal leader
of the tribe, under the designation of the "Manlike Woman." Being
young, and of a delicate frame, her followers attributed her exploits to
the possession of supernatural power, an