The shooter was a hardened veteran of the Texas Revolution, and this time there was no retribution. In his defense Clark claimed the younger McKenzie was drunk and dangerous, so he had cured Owen’s condition by putting three pistols balls through him. Some years later a frontier ruffian named Malcolm Clark killed Owen McKenzie, Kenneth’s half-blood son. That spring, having more or less recovered-and wisely steered clear of McKenzie-he drifted downstream in his canoe.Īfter a long absence McKenzie himself returned to Fort Union, and things simmered down. Dening, the bookkeeper and acting surgeon, found the wounded Bourbonnais, shot clean through but not dying. Larpenteur, I have shot Bourbonnais.’”Įmerging from the post, Larpenteur and E.T. I recollect that it was early one Sunday morning, a little before sunrise, when Brazo came to my room, saying, ‘Mr. John, as good as his word, took his position. John was then ordered to take his rifle into one of the bastions and shoot when he got the chance. “A mulatto named John Brazo-a man of strong nerves and a brave fellow, who had on several occasions been employed to flog men at the flagstaff-was sent for and asked if he had nerve enough to shoot Bourbonnais, in case he should be desired to do so.… The clerks decided to ask Bourbonnais to leave quietly or face the consequences. McKenzie first turned to the fort’s clerks for a solution. McKenzie felt like remaining a prisoner in his besieged fort.” GETTING VENGEANCE But Bourbonnais kept up his guard longer than Mr. McKenzie preferred to remain a day or so in the fort, rather than have any further disturbance. Still thinking that such performances would not last long, Mr. McKenzie to come out of the fort and swearing that he would kill him if he had to remain on the watch for him all winter. Sure enough, he was seen the next morning dressed again in buckskin, with his rifle on his shoulder and pistol on his belt, defying Mr. Bourbonnais, in his fine suit of broadcloth, with the tail of his surtout stretched horizontally to its full extent but unfortunately for the poor fellow, he would not let the affair end in that way and swore vengeance.… Bourbonnais incontinently found his way not only out of the bedroom but also out of the fort, with Mr. The latter, having heard some noises which he thought he ought not to have heard, rushed in upon the lovers and made such a display of his sprig of a shillelagh that Mr. “It happened one evening that Bourbonnais, encouraged by favorable returns of affection, went so far as to enter the apartments reserved for Mr. Wasting no time, Bourbonnais asked McKenzie’s pretty young bedfellow if she might like to change beds, and she expressed interest. Bourbonnais had not been long in the fort before he went shopping and very soon was seen strolling about the fort in a fine suit of clothes, as large as life, with his long pah-ha-zee-zee hanging down over his shoulders.” AN INDECENT PROPOSAL McKenzie, who was nearly 50 years old and perhaps thought it was too cold to sleep alone in the winter, had taken to himself a pretty young bedfellow. This they call pah-ha-zee-zee, and one who is so adorned is sure to please them. Bourbonnais was only about 20 years of age, a very handsome fellow, and one thing in his favor was his long yellow hair, so much admitted by the female sex of this country. “A certain free trapper named Augustin Bourbonnais came down the Missouri in a canoe.…He had been lucky on his hunt and had about a pack of beaver pelts, worth something like $500, which made him feel rich and quite able to pass a pleasant winter. UNWELCOME RIVALĬharles Larpenteur, a French-born trader, clerk and interpreter, recalled one particularly self-serving 1836 incident while he was working for McKenzie at Fort Union-an admittedly extreme case of personal justice or injustice, depending on one’s perspective: He ruled his domain with all the conceit of Pecos Justice of the Peace Roy Bean a half-century later. McKenzie also had enough authority to keep his white and half-blood employees from slaughtering one another in feuds that would have shocked Sir Walter Scott or William Shakespeare. Even after he resorted to smuggling, his product remained mostly whiskey. His American Indian customers remained loyal mostly because the trader didn’t doctor his spirits with an inordinate amount of tobacco, pepper, molasses or water. Ruling Like a King, a North Dakota Fur Trader Dispensed Harsh Justice Close
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |