Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/187

1768-1782] acknowledgment of the offence induced him to forgive me, and as he said he considered it a frolic of youth, he would pass it over, but cautioned me against playing such tricks again. I felt myself extremely obliged by his lenity, and promised to conduct myself with more propriety in future, which promise I faithfully kept: for though the experiment to admit the squaws would not have been attended with any bad consequences, I did not chuse again to risk the commanding officer's displeasure.

On the 11th of August, the traders arrived from the Mississippi, and brought an account of an extraordinary escape which a Mr. Ramsay and his brother had from a tribe of the nation of the Poes, in their way to St. Joseph.

The Poes are a very wild savage people, have an aversion to Englishmen, and generally give them as much trouble as possible in passing or repassing the Fort of St. Joseph's, where some French traders are settled by their permission.

It seems the Canadians were invited by the Savages to land, and Mr. Ramsay supposing they had some furs to dispose of, ordered his men to go on shore; when standing up in his canoe just before his debarkation, three of the warriors waded through the water neck-high, dragged him out of his canoe, and carried him on shore. Mr. Ramsay's men immediately landed, and were preparing to follow their master, but observing eleven Indians near at hand, and perceiving the bad intention of the chiefs, got again into their canoes, leaving the one in which Mr. Ramsay and his son were, on the beach, and ————