Away in the Wilderness Read online

  CHAPTER SIX.

  THE OUTPOST.

  On the morning of the second day after the events which I have describedin the last chapter, our three travellers arrived at one of the solitaryoutposts belonging to the fur-traders. It stood on the banks of theriver, and consisted of four small houses made of logs. It coveredabout an acre of ground, and its only defence was a wall of woodenposts, about two inches apart, which completely surrounded thebuildings.

  "This fort is a namesake of mine," said Jasper, when they first sightedit; "they call it Jasper's House. I spent a day at it when I washereaway two years ago."

  "Who is in charge of it?" asked Heywood.

  "A gentleman named Grant, I believe," replied Jasper. "That whitepainted house in the middle of the square is his. The other house onthe right, painted yellow, is where the men live. Mr Grant has onlygot six men, poor fellow, to keep him company; he seldom sees a new facehere from one end of the year to the other. But he makes a trip once ayear to the head post of the district with his furs, and that's a sortof break to him."

  "Are there no women at the place?" inquired the artist.

  "Only two," replied Jasper. "At least there were two when I was herelast; they were the wives of two of the men, Indian women they were,with few brains, and little or nothin' to say; but they were usefulcritters for all that, for they could make coats, and trousers, andmoccasins, and mittens, and they were first-rate cooks, besides bein'handy at almost every kind o' work. They could even use the gun. I'veheard o' them bringin' down a wild goose on the wing, when none o' themen were at hand to let drive at the passing flock. I do believe that'sMr Grant himself standin' at the gate o' the fort."

  Jasper was right. The master of Jasper's House, a big, hearty-lookingman of about five-and-forty, was standing at the gate of his lonelyresidence, leaning against one of the door-posts, with his hands in hisbreeches pockets and a short pipe in his mouth. His summer employmentshad come to an end,--no Indians had been near the place for many weeks,and he happened to have nothing at that time to do but eat, smoke, andsleep; which three occupations he usually attended to with muchearnestness. Mr Grant did not observe the canoe approaching frombelow, for at that time his attention was attracted to something up theriver. Suddenly he started, took his pipe from his lips, and, bendingforward, listened with deep, earnest attention. A faint murmur camefloating down on the breeze, sending a thrill of pleasure to the heartof the solitary man, as well it might, for a new face was a rare sightat Jasper's House.

  At last a loud shout rang through the forest, and five Indian canoesswept round a point of rocks, and came suddenly into view, the mentossing their paddles in the air and sending rainbows of spray overtheir heads as they made for the landing-place. These were three orfour families of Indians, who had come from a long hunting expeditionladen with rich furs.

  Their canoes, though small and light, could hold a wonderful quantity.In the foremost sat a young savage, with a dark-brown face, glitteringblack eyes, and stiff black hair hanging straight down all round hishead, except in front, where it was cut short off just above the eyes inorder to let his face appear. That fellow's canoe, besides himself,carried his three wives--he was a good hunter, and could afford to havethree. Had he been a bad hunter, he would have had to content himself,poor fellow, with one! The canoe also contained six or seven heavypacks of furs; a haunch of venison; six pairs of rabbits; several ducksand geese; a lump of bear's meat; two little boys and a girl; a largetent made of deer-skins; four or five tin kettles; two or threedirty-looking dogs and a gun; several hatchets and a few blankets; twobabies and a dead beaver.

  In short, there was almost no end to what that bark canoe could hold;yet that Indian, with the stiff black hair, could lift it off theground, when empty, lay it on his shoulders, and carry it for milesthrough the forest. The other canoes were much the same as this one.

  In a few minutes they were at the bank, close under the fort, and aboutthe same time Jasper and his friends leaped ashore, and were heartilywelcomed by Mr Grant, who was glad enough to see Indians, but wasoverjoyed to meet with white men.

  "Glad to see you, Jasper," cried Mr Grant, shaking the hunter by thehand; "right glad to see you. It does good to a man to see an oldfriend like you turn up so unexpectedly. Happy, also, to meet with you,Mr Heywood. It's a pleasure I don't often have, to meet with a whitestranger in this wilderness. Pray, come with me to the house."

  The fur-trader turned to the Indians, and, saying a few words to them intheir own language, led the way to his residence.

  Meanwhile, the Indians had tossed everything out of the canoes upon thebank, and the spot which had been so quiet and solitary half an hourbefore, became a scene of the utmost animation and confusion. While thewomen were employed in erecting the tents, the men strode up to the hallof reception, where Mr Grant supplied them with tobacco and food totheir hearts' content.

  These natives, who, owing to the reddish copper-colour of their skins,are called red-men,--were dressed chiefly in clothes made of deer-skin;cut much in the same fashion as the garments worn by Jasper Derry. Thewomen wore short gowns, also made of leather, and leggings of the samematerial; but it was noticeable that the women had leggings moreornamented with gay beads than those of the men, and they wore gaudykerchiefs round their necks.

  These women were poor looking creatures, however. They had a subdued,humble look, like dogs that are used to being kicked; very differentfrom the bold free bearing of the men. The reason of this was, thatthey were treated by the men more as beasts of burden than companions.Women among the North American Indians have a hard time of it, poorcreatures. While their lords and masters are out at the chase, or idlysmoking round the fire, the Indian women are employed in cuttingfirewood and drawing water. Of course, they do all the cooking, and, asthe eating always continues, so the cooking never stops. When thesemore severe labours are over, they employ their time in making andornamenting coats, leggings, and moccasins--and very beautiful work theycan turn out of their hands. On the voyage, the women use the paddle aswell as the men, and, in journeying through the woods, they always carryor drag the heaviest loads. For all this they get few thanks, and oftenwhen the husbands become jealous, they get severely beaten and kicked.

  It is always thus among savages; and it would seem that, just inproportion as men rise from the savage to the civilised state, theytreat their women better. It is certain that when man embraces theblessed gospel of Christ and learns to follow the law of love, he placeswoman not only on a level with himself, but even above himself, andseeks her comfort and happiness before he seeks his own.

  Few of the Red-men of North America are yet Christians, therefore theyhave no gallantry about them--no generous and chivalrous feelingstowards the weaker sex. Most of their women are downtrodden anddegraded.

  The first night at Jasper's House was spent in smoking and talking.Here our friend Jasper Derry got news of Marie. To his immense delighthe learned that she was well, and living with her father at Fort Erie,near the plains, or prairies as they are called, on the SaskatchewanRiver. A long journey still lay before our bold hunter, but that wasnothing to him. He felt quite satisfied to hear that the girl of hisheart was well, and still unmarried.

  Next day the serious business of trading commenced at the outpost.

  "I should like to get that powder and ball before you begin to tradewith the Indians, Mr Grant," said Jasper, after breakfast wasconcluded, "I'm anxious to be off as soon as possible."

  "No, no, Jasper, I'll not give you a single charge of powder or an ounceof lead this day. You must spend another night with me, my man; I havenot had half my talk out with you. You have no need to hurry, for Mariedoes not know you are coming, so of course she can't be impatient."

  Mr Grant said this with a laugh, for he knew the state of Jasper'sheart, and understood why he was so anxious to hasten away.

  "Besides," continued the fur-trader, "Mr Heywood has not half finishedthe drawing of my
fort, which he began yesterday, and I want him to makeme a copy of it."

  "I shall be delighted to do so," said the artist, who was busily engagedin arranging his brushes and colours.

  "Well, well," cried Jasper. "I suppose I must submit. I fancy _you_have no objection to stop here another day, Arrowhead?"

  The Indian nodded gravely, as he squatted down on the floor and began tofill his pipe.

  "That's settled, then," said Jasper, "so I'll go with you to the store,if you'll allow me."

  "With all my heart," replied the fur-trader, who forthwith led the wayto the store, followed by the Indians with their packs of furs.

  Now, the store or shop at a Hudson's Bay trading-post is a mostinteresting and curious place. To the Indian, especially, it is a sortof enchanted chamber, out of which can be obtained everything knownunder the sun. As there can be only one shop or store at atrading-post, it follows that that shop must contain a few articles outof almost every other style of shop in the world. Accordingly, you willfind collected within the four walls of that little room, knives andguns from Sheffield, cotton webs from Manchester, grindstones fromNewcastle, tobacco from Virginia, and every sort of thing from I knownot where all! You can buy a blanket or a file, an axe or a pair oftrousers, a pound of sugar or a barrel of nails, a roll of tobacco or atin kettle,--everything, in short, that a man can think of or desire.And you can buy it, too, without money! Indeed, you _must_ buy itwithout money, for there is not such a thing as money in the land.

  The trade is carried on entirely by barter, or exchange. The Indiangives the trader his furs, and the trader gives him his goods. In orderto make the exchange fair and equitable, however, everything is rated bya certain standard of value, which is called a _made-beaver_ in one partof the country, a _castore_ in another.

  The first man that stepped forward to the counter was a chief. A big,coarse-looking, disagreeable man, but a first-rate hunter. He had twowives in consequence of his abilities, and the favourite wife now stoodat his elbow to prompt, perhaps to caution, him. He threw down a hugepack of furs, which the trader opened, and examined with care, fixingthe price of each skin, and marking it down with a piece of chalk on thecounter as he went along.

  There were two splendid black bear-skins, two or three dozen martens, orsables, five or six black foxes, and a great many silver foxes, besidescross and red ones. In addition to these, he had a number of minks andbeaver-skins, a few otters, and sundry other furs, besides a few buffaloand deer-skins, dressed, and with the hair scraped off. These lastskins are used for making winter coats, and also moccasins for the feet.

  After all had been examined and valued, the whole was summed up, and anumber of pieces of stick were handed to the chief--each stickrepresenting a castore; so that he knew exactly how much he was worth,and proceeded to choose accordingly.

  First he gazed earnestly at a huge thick blanket, then he counted hissticks, and considered. Perhaps the memory of the cold blasts of wintercrossed his mind, for he quickly asked how many castores it was worth.The trader told him. The proper number of pieces of stick were laiddown, and the blanket was handed over. Next a gun attracted his eye.The guns sent out for the Indian trade are very cheap ones, with bluebarrels and red stocks. They shoot pretty well, but are rather apt toburst. Indeed this fate had befallen the chief's last gun, so heresolved to have another, and bought it. Then he looked earnestly forsome time at a tin kettle. Boiled meat was evidently in his mind; butat this point his squaw plucked him by the sleeve. She whispered in hisear. A touch of generosity seemed to come over him, for he pointed to aweb of bright scarlet cloth. A yard of this was measured off, andhanded to his spouse, whose happiness for the moment was complete--forsquaws in Rupert's Land, like the fair sex in England, are uncommonlyfond of finery.

  As the chief proceeded, he became more cautious and slow in his choice.Finery tempted him on the one hand, necessaries pressed him on theother, and at this point the trader stepped in to help him to decide; herecommended, warned, and advised. Twine was to be got for nets andfishing-lines, powder and shot, axes for cutting his winter firewood,cloth for his own and his wife's leggings, knives, tobacco, needles, andan endless variety of things, which gradually lessened his little pileof sticks, until at last he reached the sticking point, when all hissticks were gone.

  "Now, Darkeye," (that was the chief's name), "you've come to the end atlast, and a good thing you have made of it this year," said Mr Grant,in the Indian language. "Have you got all you want?"

  "Darkeye wants bullets," said the chief.

  "Ah, to be sure. You shall have a lot of these for nothing, and sometobacco too," said the trader, handing the gifts to the Indian.

  A look of satisfaction lighted up the chief's countenance as he receivedthe gifts, and made way for another Indian to open and display his packof furs. But Jasper was struck by a peculiar expression in the face ofDarkeye. Observing that he took up one of the bullets and showed it toanother savage, our hunter edged near him to overhear the conversation.

  "Do you see that ball?" said the chief, in a low tone.

  The Indian to whom he spoke nodded.

  "Look here!"

  Darkeye put the bullet into his mouth as he spoke, and bit it until hisstrong sharp teeth sank deep into the lead; then, holding it up, hesaid, in the same low voice, "You will know it again?"

  Once more the savage nodded, and a malicious smile played on his facefor a moment.

  Just then Mr Grant called out, "Come here, Jasper, tell me what youthink this otter-skin is worth."

  Jasper's curiosity had been aroused by the mysterious conduct ofDarkeye, and he would have given a good deal to have heard a little moreof his conversation; but, being thus called away, he was obliged toleave his place, and soon forgot the incident.

  During the whole of that day the trading of furs was carried on much asI have now described it. Some of the Indians had large packs, and somehad small, but all of them had sufficient to purchase such things aswere necessary for themselves and their families during the approachingwinter; and as each man received from Mr Grant a present of tobacco,besides a few trinkets of small value, they returned to the Hall thatnight in high good humour.

  Next day, Jasper and his friends bade the hospitable trader farewell,and a few days after that the Indians left him. They smoked a farewellpipe, then struck their tents, and placed them and their packs of goodsin the canoes, with their wives, children, and dogs. Pushing out intothe stream, they commenced the return journey to their distanthunting-grounds. Once more their shouts rang through the forest, androlled over the water, and once more the paddles sent the sparklingdrops into the air as they dashed ahead, round the point of rocks abovethe fort, and disappeared; leaving the fur-trader, as they found him,smoking his pipe, with his hands in his pockets, and leaning against thedoor-post of his once-again silent and solitary home.