years before, had witnessed the death of the celebrated Overton. As this
wretch, for a short time, was employed as an English agent by the Fur
Company, his wild and romantic end will probably interest the many
readers who have known him; at all events, the narrative will serve as a
specimen of the lawless career of many who resort to the western
wilderness.

Some forty-four years ago, a Spanish trader had settled among a tribe of
the Tonquewas[14], at the foot of the Green Mountains. He had taken an
Indian squaw, and was living there very comfortably, paying no taxes,
but occasionally levying some, under the shape of black mail, upon the
settlements of the province of Santa Fé. In one excursion, however, he
was taken and hung, an event soon forgotten both by Spaniards and
Tonquewas. He had left behind him, besides a child and a squaw, property
to a respectable amount; the tribe took his wealth for their own use,
but cast away the widow and her offspring. She fell by chance into the
hands of a jolly, though solitary Canadian trapper, who, not having the
means of selecting his spouse, took the squaw for better and for worse.

[Footnote 14: The Tonquewas tribe sprang from the Comanches many years
ago.]

In the meantime the young half-breed grew to manhood, and early
displayed a wonderful capacity for languages. The squaw died, and the
trapper, now thinking of the happy days he had passed among the
civilized people of the East, resolved to return thither, and took with
him the young half-breed, to whom by long habit he had become attached.
They both came to St. Louis, where the half-breed soon learned enough of
English to make himself understood, and one day, having gone with his
"father-in-law" to pay a visit to the Osages, he murdered him on the