The moment she becomes a wife, she loses her liberty, and is an obsequious slave to her husband, who never loses sight of his prerogative. Wherever he goes she must follow, and durst not venture to incense him by a refusal, knowing that if she neglects him, extreme punishment, if not death, ensues. The chief liberty he allows her is to dance and sing in his company, and is seldom known to take any more notice of her than of the most indifferent person: while she is obliged to perform the drudgery of life, which custom or insensibility enables her to do with the utmost cheerfulness. A circumstance of this kind I recollect reading which happened at Beaver Creek, about twenty-five miles from Fort Pitt. An Indian woman observing some white men to carry fire-wood on their shoulders, took up her hatchet, and brought them in a short time a great burden on her back; and throwing it down by the fire, said, she not only pitied {138} them, but thought it was a great scandal to see men doing that which was properly the work of women. The men consider women as of no other use but to produce them children, and to perform the drudgeries of life; as to the offspring, he prefers the sons to the daughter, because he expects they will all prove warriors. The daughters they do not value for the same reason that they subjugate their wives, deeming them worthy only to wait on warriors and do those things which would disgrace the male sex. We pursued our journey to Lac le Nid au Corbeau, where we killed some wild geese and ducks, which at this season of the year have a fishy taste. Here we rested two days to enable us to pursue the remainder of our voyage with greater vigour. The third morning, at daybreak, we embarked, and arrived at La grande Côte de la Roche, where we were fortunate enough to kill two bears, which eat remarkably fine, and having some leisure time to spare in the cookery, we enjoyed them with as high a relish as in better situations we had done more luxuriant meals. We proceeded to Cranberry Lake, where we caught some fish, and picked as many cranberries as we could conveniently carry; from thence we continued our route to Portage la Rame, where we were again wind-bound for some days; but during our stay we had not a single visitor to disturb us. At length the wind proving favourable, we proceeded to Riviére la Pique; on my arrival I was immediately struck with the remembrance of the escape I had from Payshik Ogashey {139} last year; but my mind was almost as instantly relieved by the recollection of his being killed, and no longer a terror to traders.