little employment,
there being a scribe already in the establishment, whose experience
and industry required no assistance from me. I thus found myself a
supernumerary--a character that did not suit me, but I was obliged to
content myself for the present. We were joined early in winter by some
of the gentlemen in charge of posts, when we managed to pass the time
very agreeably. Mr. D----, superintendent of the district, played
remarkably well on the violin and flute, some of us "wee bodies" could
also do something in that way, and our musical soirees, if not in
melody, could at least compete in noise, numbers taken into account,
with any association of the kind in the British dominions. Chess,
backgammon, and whist, completed the variety of our evening pastimes.
In the daytime each individual occupied himself as he pleased. When
together, smoking, "spinning yarns" about _dog_ racing, canoe sailing,
and _l'amour_; sometimes politics; now and then an animated discussion
on theology, but without bitterness; these made our days fly away as
agreeably as our nights.

While thus pleasantly occupied, a piece of intelligence was received,
which caused the breaking up of our little society, and created some
alarm. A party of seven or eight Indians having been drowned on their
way to Alexandria, in autumn, their relatives imputed the misfortune
to the whites. "Had there been no whites at Alexandria," said they,
"our friends would not have gone there to trade; and if they had not
gone there, they would not have been drowned:" _ergo_--the white men
are the cause of their death, and the Indians must be avenged.

Nothing, however, was known of their hostile intentions until winter,
when Mr. F. had occasion to send a man to Stuart's Lake with
despatches, who, on arriving opposite to the Indian camp, found
himself suddenly surrounded by the natives. They advanced rapidly upon
him, brandishing their arms, and uttering horrid yells, and would
have dispatched him on the spot but for the interference of one of
themselves, who nobly threw himself between the Canadian and the
muzzles of the guns that were levelled at him, and beckoned him to
flee. He took to his heels accordingly, and never looked behind him
till he reached the fort.

A little before Mr. Fisher had learned from his home guards that an
attack on the fort was intended, and that they had been solicited by
their neighbours to join in it, but had refused. So far, indeed, from