I
Promised To This Savage & His Comrade Each One A Watch-Coat, & Returned To
Them Their Beaver Skins, With The Order Of Going To Join Those Of Their
Nation, & To Wait For Me At The Mouth Of The River.
After that, Captain
Gazer, the Englishman who spoke French, & myself waded into the water
half-leg deep to land upon a little island where my nephew, with his men,
would come on shore.
He had arrived there before us, & he came to meet us,
saluting me, greatly surprised at the union that I had made with the
English. We then proceeded all together in his canoe as far as our old
houses, where I had the English and French to enter, & whilst they
entertained each other with the recital of their mutual hardships, I spoke
privately to my nephew in these terms: -
"It is within your recollection, without doubt, of having heard your father
relate how many pains & fatigues we have had in serving France during
several years. You have also been informed by him that the recompense we
had reason to hope for from her was a black ingratitude on the part of the
Court as well as on the part of the company of Canada; & that they having
reduced us to the necessity of seeking to serve elsewhere, the English
received us with evidences of pleasure & of satisfaction. You know also the
motives that have obliged your father & myself, after 13 years of service,
to leave the English. The necessity of subsisting, the refusal that showed
the bad intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to satisfy us, have given
occasion to our separation, & to the establishment that we have made, & for
which I left you in possession in parting for France.
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