The few Indians who now frequent this establishment, belong to the _Swampy Crees_.

There were several of them encamped on the outside of the stockade.

Their tents were rudely constructed by tying twenty or thirty poles together at the top, and spreading them out at the base so as to form a cone; these were covered with dressed moose-skins.

The fire is placed in the centre, and a hole is left for the escape of the smoke.

The inmates had a squalid look, and were suffering under the combined afflictions of hooping-cough and measles; but even these miseries did not keep them from an excessive indulgence in spirits, which they unhappily can procure from the traders with too much facility; and they nightly serenaded us with their monotonous drunken songs.