Cure the hardlhips which they undergo without a murmur, in order to
convey a general „potion of them.
The men who were no*w with* me; left this place in the beginning df
laft May, and went to the Rainy Lake in .canoes, laden with padcs o f
far, which, from the immenfe length df the voyage, and other concurring
circumftances, is a moftfevere trial of patience and perfeveFan'çe :
there they do not remain a fufficient time for ordinary repofe, when
they tafe a Ipad o f goods in-"exchange, and proceed om-their return,
hi a great meafure, ' day' and night. They had Been arrived near two
months, and, all that time, had been continually engaged in vê¥y toilfome
labour, with nothing more than a common lhed tO-pçOteël Jthem from
the froft and Ihow. Such is the life which thefe people lead; and is
continued with unremitting exertion, till their ftrength isjoft, in prepia-
ture old age.
The Canadians remarked, that the weather we had on the 25th, 26th,
and uyth of this riionth; denoted iuch as we mjght* expert in thqthrëe
fucceeding nionths. On the 29th, the wind being at Nbrih-Edft, andÆfeçe
weather- calm and cloudy, a rumbling noife was heard*in thér air like distant
thunder, when the fky cleared away in the South-Welt; from
whence there Wew a perfect hurricane, Which lafted till eight.
Soon after it commenced, theaitmofphere became fo‘ warm that it
cfiffolved all the fnow on the ground,; even the ice was covered with
water, and had the fame appearance -as when it is. breaking up in
the fpriug. From, eight to. nine the weather became calm, but imrae-
diateLy after a wind arofe £rom the North-Eaft with equal violence,
with
wkh': clouds^ rain, and hail, which continued throughout the night and
till the evening o f the nextday, w & d at turned to fnow.; One of the
people who wintered; at Fort Dauphin in the year 1780, when the fraall-
pox fell? appeared there* infonhed that the weather there was of a
fimilar defcription.
r-;' * v | »793- ■
On the firft day o f January, my people, in . conformity to the ufual January 1.
taftod, awofce me atn&^reak o f dSy with the dtfcbafge Of ire-arms,
with which they congratulated the appearance of the new year. In return,
the^iwere treated with plenty of fpirits;, aiid when there is any
flour, Cakes are always added to their .regales, which was the cafe on
the prelent occafion.
Ontny arrival here laft fall, I found that one of the .young Indians
had loft the Ufe Of Ms right hand by^ the burfting b fa guh, andlthat his
thumb had been maimed in fuch a manner as to hang only by a fmall
ftrip of flelh. Indeed, when he was brought to me, his wound was in
fuch an offenfive ftats^ and emitted fuch a putrid fmell, that it required
alf the fefolution I pofleffed to examine it. His friends had done every
thing in their powet to relieve him ; but as it confifted only in finging
about him, and blowing upon his hand, the wound* as. may be well imagined,
had5got into the deplorable ftate in which I found it. I was
rather alarmed at the difficulty of the cafe, but; as the young man’s life
was in a ftate of hazard, I was determined to rilk my furgical reputation,
and accordingly tbok him under my care. I immediately formed a
; pbultice b f bark, {tripped from the roots o f the fprueeffir, which J
applied to %he wound, having firft walked it with the juice of the
X bark: