Feb. 1st.  Mr. William A. Aitkin writes from Sandy Lake:  “Since I left you at St. Peter’s I have had a severe trial to go through.  I came up by Swan River, but heard nothing there of the melancholy event which had taken place during my absence at Upper Red Cedar Lake.  My eldest son had been placed at that place last fall, in charge of that post.  You saw him, I believe, last summer; he was in charge of Leech Lake when you were at that place.  He was a young man of twenty-two years of age, of a very amiable temper, humane and brave, possessed of the most unbounded obedience to my will, and of the most filial affection for my person.  This, my son, was murdered in the most atrocious manner by a bloody monster of an Indian.  My poor boy had arrived the evening previous to the bloody act, from a voyage to Red Lake.  Early the next morning he sent off all the men he had to Lake Winnipeck, excepting one Frenchman, to bring up some things which he had left there in the fall.  A short time after his men had gone, he sent the remaining man to bring some water from the river; the man returned into the house immediately, and told him an Indian had broken open the store, and was in it.  He went very deliberately to the store, took hold of the villain, who tried to strike him with his tomahawk, dragged him out of the store and disarmed him of his axe, threw him on the ground, and then let him go—­and was turned round in the act of locking the store-door.  The villain stepped behind the door, where he had hid his gun, came on him unawares and shot him dead, without the least previous provocation whatever on the part of my poor lost boy.  When arrived, I found the feelings of every one prepared for vengeance.  I immediately, without one moment’s loss of time, proceeded to Leech Lake.  In a moment there were twenty half-breeds gathered round, with Francis Brunette at their head, full-armed, ready to execute any commands that I should give them.  We went immediately to the camp where the villain was, beyond Red Cedar Lake, determined to cut off the whole band if they should raise a finger in his defence.  Our mutual friend, Mr. Boutwell, joined the party, with his musket on his shoulder, as a man and a Christian, for he knew it was a righteous cause, and that the arm of God was with him.  We arrived on the wretches unawares, disarmed the band, and dragged the monster from his lodge.  I would have put the villain to death in the midst of his relations, but Mr. Boutwell advised it would be better to take him where he might be made an example of.  The monster escaped from us two days after we had taken him, but my half-breeds pursued him for six days and brought him back, and he is now on his way to St. Peter’s in irons, under a strong guard.  My dear friend, I cannot express to you the anguish of my heart at this present moment.

“The Indians of all this department have behaved like villains during my absence, particularly the Indians of Leech Lake, committing the greatest depredations on our people, and would surely have murdered them if they had shown the least disposition to resist their aggravations.  You will excuse me from giving you any other news at present.  I’m not in a state of mind to do it.”