Indians and Indian traders from remote interior
positions, were encamped on every green spot. No trader had yet renewed
his license from the government to return. It would be difficult to
indicate a place more favorable than this was, to observe the manners
and customs of the Indians, and the peculiar questions connected with
the Indian trade. I amused myself a few days, by keeping minutes of the
visits of the mixed Indian and metif multitude.
_12th_. Antoine Mauce, Alexis Blais, and Joseph Montre, freedmen, of
Indian blood or connections, ordered from the Indian villages last fall,
presented themselves for a decision on their respective cases.
Mauce stated several facts in extenuation of his offence. He said he had
served as a boatman in the Indian trade ten years, had married an Indian
wife and raised a family, and during all this time, with the exception
of short visits to Mackinac with his _bourgeois_, had resided in the
Indian country. On the expiration of his last engagement he went to St.
Pages:
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644