Original - North Central Michigan College Library

are not large enough to carry provisions,leaving merchandise wholly out of the question.The rice grows in shoal water, and theIndians gatheritby shaking the ears into theircanoes.When morning arrived ajl the village wasinebriated; and the danger of misunderstand-*ing was increased by the facility with whichthe women abandoned themselves to myCanadians. In consequence I lost no time inleaving the place.On the first day of August we encamped on asandy island in the Lake of the Woods, wherewe were visited by several canoes, of whom wepurchased wild rice. On the fourth we reachedthe Portage du Rat.The Lake of the Woods is thirty-six leagueslong. On the west side is an old French fort33or trading-house, formerly frequented bynumerous bands of Chippewa, but these havesince been almost entirely destroyed by theNadowessies. When strong they were troublesome.On account of a particular instance ofpillage they have been called Pilleurs.^ TheThis was Fort St. Charles, built by the French in1732. It stood on the north bank of the inlet of theNorthwest Angle, west of Famine (or Buckett) Island.Editor.4In Warren's History of the Ojibways, Chapter XVIis devdted to an account of the event by which this bandof the Chippewa won the designation of "Pillagers,"and the affair is described as having taken place in 1781.Evidently the affair had become a matter of tribal236