he only part of the animal that was left by the
wolves. The head of the dog was boiling in the kettle, and that of the
horse was suspended over it, to receive the smoke of the fire in the
preparation for cooking; while the children were busily employed in
breaking some bones which they had picked up, with an axe, and which
they were sucking in their raw state for their moisture. This was the
suffering extremity not of lazy bad Indians, but of those who bore the
character of good hunters, and were particularly careful of their
families; and I fear it is the case of many more from the exhausted
state of animals in the neighbourhood of Red River: and from the
frequent fires that occur in the plains, which extend also to the
destruction of the woods.

Towards the conclusion of the month we had another melancholy proof of
the Indians suffering extreme want from the few animals that were to be
met with during the winter. An Indian with his wife on their arrival
gave me to understand that they had been without food for twenty days,
and had lost their three children by starvation. Their appearance was
that of a melancholy dejection, and I had my suspicions excited at the
time that they had eaten them. This was confirmed afterwards by the
bones and hands of one of the children being found near some ashes at a
place where they said they had encamped, and suffered their misery. It
appears that two of their children died from want, whom they cooked and
eat, and that they afterwards killed the other for a subsistence in
their dire necessity. I asked this Indian, as I did the other, whether
from having suffered so much, it was not far better to do as the white
people did and cultivate the ground; he said, "Yes;" and expressed a
desire to do so if he could obtain tools, seed wheat and potatoes to
plant. Though it is the character of the savage to tell you what he
will do in future at your suggestion, to prevent the calamity which he
may be suffering from want of food or the inclemency of the weather,
and as soon as the season becomes mild, and the rivers yield him fish,
or the woods and plains provisions, to forget all his sufferings, and
to be as thoughtless and improvident as ever as to futurity; yet, I
think that a successful attempt might be made by a proper superintendance,
and a due encouragement to induce some of the Indians of this quarter
to settle in villages, and to cultivate the soil. The voice of humanity
claims this atte