APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_.
"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance
which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were
often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had to
travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we left
Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as Belmont
Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father on his ground.
The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen over, we left the
canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour and pork; and when we
had gone further north, say about sixty miles from the white settlements,
for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for five days in succession,
to such a depth, that it was impossible to shoot or trap anything; our
provisions were exhausted, and we had no means of procuring any more. Here
we were, the snow about five feet deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of
the trees falling all about us, and cracking with the weight of the snow.
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