Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/494

484 years, had been in charge of the posts of the American Fur Company west of Lake Superior, and east of the Mississippi, in what is now Minnesota, was killed at Red Cedar, now Cass Lake. He was twenty-two years of age, and had come down the night before from Red Lake. One of his voyageurs who had gone to draw some water, came back and said that an Ojibway had broken open and entered the store. Aitkin went and pushed him out, and took from him an axe, but while he was locking the store-door, the Indian fired his gun and killed him. The father, as soon as he received the intelligence, went to Leech Lake for assistance, and in a little time twenty half-breeds, with Francis Brunette, at the head, oftered their assistance. With the father they went to the camp where the murderer was, beyond Cass Lake, determined to cut off the whole band, should they attempt to rescue him.

William Aitkin, in a letter to H.R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie, wrote: "Our friend Mr. Boutwell joined the party with his musket on his shoulders, as a man and a Christian, for he knew it was a righteous cause."

Upon reaching the band, the murderer was seized and the excited parent would have killed the assassin on the spot, but the missionary Boutwell advised to take him where he could be tried under the laws of the land. Two days after his arrest, he managed to escape, but after a six days' pursuit by the half-breeds he was recaptured.

On the 20th of February, 1837, he was brought down to Fort Snelling by the trader Morrison, and on the 11th of May, the accused, and the father of the murdered, left Fort Snelling, to attend the court to be held at Prairie du Chien.

The trial of the Ojibway is said to have been the first murder case under the territorial code of Wisconsin. One of the jurors in the trial of the case writes: "The