her and to their country. Polygamy is unknown among
them. The greatest neatness and cleanliness are observable about their
persons and lodges.

It was among this tribe that Pierre La Touche, a brave young half-breed
trapper, sought for a wife. He had not long to wait before he found a
maiden whose charms captivated his heart; besides which, she was an
accomplished manufacturer of mocassins, snow-shoes, and garments of
every description; she could also ride a horse and paddle or steer a
canoe; she was fearless in danger, and she had, indeed, been greatly
tried; once especially, when a party of Blackfeet, the hereditary
enemies of her tribe, had made their way over the mountains to recover
some horses which her people had captured. The Cootonais claimed the
right of hunting the buffalo to the east of the Rocky Mountains, on the
prairies which the Blackfeet considered belonged exclusively to
themselves. This was naturally a fertile source of dispute.

Kamela, or the "Young Fawn," the name given to the damsel selected by La
Touche, had been well trained to endure all the hardships and privations
to which a hunter's wife is invariably exposed.

The usual ceremonies having been gone through, the young Kamela went to
La Touche's tent, and became his most loving and devoted wife. He
treated her, not as the Indians would--as a slave, but as an equal and a
friend, except in the presence of her countrymen, when he assumed the
stern, indifferent manner with which they treat their wives. La Touche
did not long remain idle; but away over the mountains, and down streams
and rapids, across lakes, and through dense forests, he had to travel to
join a band of the fur-trading company to which he belonged. Here four
or five years of his life were spent; and the once-graceful Kamela had
become a mother, with two fine children--Moolak, a boy, and a little
Kamela.

One day, towards the end of the year, La Touche received orders to join
Mr McDonald, a factor, with several other men, to assist in
establishing a fort on one of the streams which run into the Fraser
River. The spot selected was on a high bluff, with the river flowing at
its base. The fort was of a simple construction. It was surrounded by
a palisade of stout timbers, fixed deeply in the ground, and united by
cross-bars, further strengthened by buttresses, and loop-holed for
musketry, with a few light guns to sweep the fort should the enemy break
in. The interior co