Note III-27 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: LEECH LAKE TO ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY 1ST-APRIL 30TH, 1806.

The phrase which Pike's interpreter applied to the woman was no doubt "La Bastonnaise." For a long period before and after the end of the last century, "Bostonian" in some form was the nickname of English-speaking whites, especially New Englanders—just as we now say "Yankee." The Indians picked up the word from the Canadian French, and it passed from mouth to mouth across the continent; e. g., it entered the vocabulary of the Chinook jargon spoken on the N. W. Coast. To cite a case: "On my remarking to Mr. Frobisher that I suspected the Bastonnais (Bostonians, or English colonists) had been doing some mischief in Canada, the Indians directly exclaimed, 'Yes; that is the name! Bastonnais.' They were lately from the Grand Portage," etc., Alex. Henry, Trav. of 1761-76, 8vo, N. Y., 1809, p. 329.