Note BH — {247} CHAP. VIII.

It is too common a case with most of the tribes of Southern Indians for the women to desire their husbands or friends, when going to war, to bring them a slave, that they may have the pleasure of killing it; and some of these inhuman women will accompany their husbands, and murder the women and children as fast as their husbands do the men.

When I was at Cumberland House, (an inland settlement that I established for the Hudson's Bay Company in the year 1774,) I was particularly acquainted with a very young lady of this extraordinary turn; who, when I desired some Indians that were going to war to bring me a young slave, which I intended to have brought up as a domestic, Miss was equally desirous that one might be brought to her, for the cruel purpose of murdering it. It is scarcely possible to express my astonishment, on hearing such an extraordinary request made by a young creature scarcely sixteen years old; however, as soon as I recovered from my surprise, I ordered her to leave the settlement, which she did, with those who were going to war; and it is therefore probable she might not be disappointed in her request. The next year I was ordered to the command of Prince of Wales's Fort, and therefore never saw her afterward.