164 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



July 7- — This morning some men, and their families, who had 

 been sent off to search for Indians, with whom they intended to pass 

 the summer, returned to the fort in consequence of a serious accident 

 having befallen their canoe in the Red Deer River: when they were 

 in the act of hauling up a strong rapid, the line broke, the canoe 

 was overturned, and two of the party narrowly escaped drowning; 

 fortunately the women and children happened to be on shore, or, in 

 all probability, they would have perished in the confusion of the 

 scene. Nearly all their stores, their guns, and fishing-nets, were lost, 

 and they could not procure any other food for the last four days than 

 some unripe berries. 



Some gentlemen arrived in the evening with a party of Chipewyan 

 Indians, from Hay River, a post between the Peace River, and the 

 Great Slave Lake. These men gave distressing accounts of sickness 

 among their relatives, and the Indians in general along the Peace 

 River, and they say many of them have died. The disease is said 

 to be dysentery. On the 10th and llth we had very sultry weather, 

 and were dreadfully tormented by musquitoes. The highest tempe- 

 rature was 73°. 



July 13. — This morning Mr. Back and I had the sincere gratifi- 

 cation of welcoming our long-separated friends, Dr. Richardson and 

 Mr. Hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes, having 

 made a very expeditious j ourney from Cumberland, notwithstanding 

 they were detained near three days in consequence of the melancholy 

 loss of one of their bowmen, by the upsetting of a canoe in a strong 

 rapid; but, as the occurrences of this journey, together with the 

 mention of some other circumstances that happened previous to 

 their departure from Cumberland, which have been extracted from 

 Mr. Hood's narrative, will appear in the following chapter, it will be 

 unnecessary to enter farther into these points now. 



The zeal and talent displayed by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, 

 in the discharge of their several duties, since my separation from 



