Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/260

 2 3 8 T. C. Elliott. the Northwest Company, and at the period of our arrival there were about twenty men prisoners in it, and upwards of one hundred and twenty women and children, besides dogs innumerable. They were miserably supplied with provisions, and all seemed dejected and emaciated. Their principal reli- ance for food was on the lake ; and when the fish failed, their chief support was tripe de rocher. I conversed with some of the men. They were from the Orkneys, and wished they were safe home again. They spoke in no nattering terms of the treatment they had received from their captors ; but admitted that such of the Northwesters as had been made prisoners by their party fared no better We remained a couple of days at the fort to refresh the men, and were hospitably entertained by our hosts, on excellent white fish and tea without sugar. One of those gentlemen, Mr. Peter Ogden, was nearly related to a high judicial functionary, and in early life was destined for the same profession. The study of provincial jurisprudence, and the seignorial subdivisions of Canadian property, had no charms for the mercurial temperament of Mr. Ogden; and, contrary to the wishes of his friends, he preferred the wild untrammeled life of an Indian trader to the "law's delay," and the wholesome restraints which are provided for the cor- rection of over-exuberant spirits in civilized society. His ac- counts of his various encounters with Orkney men and Indians would have filled a moderate sized octavo, and if reduced to writing would undoubtedly stagger the credulity of any person unacquainted with the Indian country; and although some of his statements were slightly tinctured with the prevalent fail- ing of La Guienne, there was vraisemblance enough through- out to command our belief in their general accuracy. In a country, however, in which there is no legal tribunal to appeal to, and into which the "king's wit does not run," many acts must be committed that would not stand a strict investigation in Banco Regis. 'My legal primer,' said Ogden, 'says that "necessity has no law," and in this place, where the custom of