Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/350

320 Whoever was the real assassin, the alarm occasioned by this atrocious action had well-nigh brought upon our Indians, and upon ourselves, still greater calamities. The natives abandoned their hunting grounds, and flocked for protection to the establishment, where it was afterwards asserted by the female inmates that a plot was actually hatching against us by the relatives of the deceased, the very people who shared most liberally in our bounty; "because," said they, "if the fort had not been on our lands, we should not have been where we were when the misfortune happened!" Be this as it may, many of the Indians must have perished from hunger, had it not been for the prompt and extensive relief we afforded them, not merely while they remained with us, but comprehending provisions to take them to places where they might procure their own subsistence. This was done at our own imminent risk; for, though fall-fisheries were established immediately after our return from the coast, they were unproductive, and the winter fisheries yielded still less than those of the previous season. During the remainder of the year 1838 the natives were a grievous burthen upon us, and rendered us little or no assistance; for the deer had deserted the peninsula, where they were so numerous the former winter, and retired