Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793, Volumen1

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A.S.Barnes andcompany, 1903

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Página xxx - Curry, with a spirit of enterprize superior to that of his contemporaries, determined to penetrate to the furthest limits of the French discoveries in that country ; or at least till the frost should stop him. For this purpose he procured guides and interpreters, who were acquainted with the country, and with four canoes arrived at Fort Bourbon, which was one of their posts, at the west end of the Cedar Lake, on the waters of the Saskatchiwine. His risk and toil were well recompensed, for he came...
Página cliii - ... and presents it to the officiating person, who receives it standing and holds it between both his hands. He then turns himself to the East, and draws a few whiffs, which he blows to that point. The same ceremony he observes to the other three quarters, with his eyes directed upwards during the whole of it. He holds the stem about the middle between the three first fingers of both hands, and raising them upon a line with his forehead, he swings it three times round from the East, with the sun,...
Página xxxviii - The fatal infection spread around with a baneful xxx vii rapidity which no flight could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. It destroyed with its pestilential breath whole families and tribes...
Página cxliv - ... and fancifully painted as high as the knee ; as it is very loose, it is enclosed round the waist with a stiff belt decorated with tassels, and fastened behind ; the arms are covered to the wrist, with detached sleeves, which are sewed as far as the bend of the arm ; from thence they are drawn up to the neck, and the corners of them fall down behind, as low as the waist.
Página 269 - It was, indeed, a very wild and unreflecting enterprise, and it was a very fortunate circumstance that we failed in our attempt to overtake them, as a stroke from the tail of one of these enormous fish would have dashed the canoe to pieces.
Página cxlviii - ... of domestic drudgery; they dress the leather, make the clothes and shoes, weave the nets, collect wood, erect the tents, fetch water, and perform every culinary service; so that when the duties of maternal care are added, it will appear that the life of these women is an uninterrupted succession of toil and pain. This, indeed is the sense they entertain of their own situation; and, under the influence of that sentiment, they are sometimes known to destroy their female children, to save them from...
Página lxxviii - I have known some of them set off with two packages of ninety pounds each, and return with two others of the same weight, in the course of six hours, being a distance of eighteen miles over hills and mountains.
Página lxxxv - I frequently struck a canoe pole of twelve feet long, without meeting any other obstruction than if the whole were water : it has, however, a peculiar suction or attractive power, so that it is difficult to paddle a canoe over it. There is a small space along the south shore, where the water is deep, and this effect is not felt. In proportion to the distance from this part, the suction becomes more powerful: I have, indeed, been told that loaded canoes have been in danger of being swallowed up, and...
Página xlii - ... dispirited from hunting except for their subsistence. The traders, however, who returned into the country in the year 1782-3, found the inhabitants in some sort of tranquillity, and more numerous than they had reason to expect, so that their success was proportionably better. During the winter of 1783-4, the merchants of Canada engaged in this trade formed a junction of interests, under the name of the North- West Company...

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