The Discourse Of The Parents Is Never Restrained By The Presence Of Their
Children, Every Transaction Between The Sexes Being Openly Talked Of
Before Them.
The Crees, having early obtained arms from the European traders, were
enabled to make harassing inroads on the lands
Of their neighbours and
are known to have made war excursions as far to the westward as the Rocky
Mountains, and to the northward as far as Mackenzie's River; but their
enemies being now as well armed as themselves the case is much altered.
They show great fortitude in the endurance of hunger and the other evils
incident to a hunter's life; but any unusual accident dispirits them at
once, and they seldom venture to meet their enemies in open warfare or to
attack them even by surprise unless with the advantage of superiority of
numbers. Perhaps they are much deteriorated in this respect by their
intercourse with Europeans. Their existence at present hangs upon the
supplies of ammunition and clothing they receive from the traders and
they deeply feel their dependent situation. But their character has been
still more debased by the passion for spiritous liquors so assiduously
fostered among them. To obtain the noxious beverage they descend to the
most humiliating entreaties and assume an abjectness of behaviour which
does not seem natural to them and of which not a vestige is to be seen in
their intercourse with each other. Their character has sunk among the
neighbouring nations. They are no longer the warriors who drove before
them the inhabitants of the Saskatchewan and Missinippi.
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