176 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



they landed on the other side, a Blackfoot runner, 

 stripped to his breech cloth, breathless and excited, 

 met them, having been sent to warn them of im- 

 pending danger. Eventually the alarm turned out 

 to be a false one, and the peace continued unbroken 

 for the few weeks we remained on the Saskatchewan. 

 At Fort Pitt we engaged another man, who, like 

 Baptiste, expressed his willingness to go with us as 

 far as we might require. Our new attendant, Louis 

 Battenotte, more generally known by the sobriquet 

 of " The Assiniboine," from his having been brought 

 up in childhood by that tribe, was a middle-sized 

 though athletic man, of very Indian appearance. 

 His hair was long and black, and secured by a fillet 

 of silk, his nose prominently aquiline, his mouth 



it. 



small, and with unusually thin and delicate lips. 

 His manner was very mild and pleasing, and the 

 effect of this was increased by the singular softness 

 and melody of his voice. 



At the time we were at Fort Pitt, his youngest 

 child fell ill and died, and he and his v^fe became so 

 unhappy and unsettled on account of the loss, that 

 they became anxious to leave the scene of their 

 misfortune, and volunteered to accompany us. We 

 were willing enough, and indeed anxious, to secure 

 the services of the man, who had the reputation of 

 being the most accomplished hunter and voyageur of 

 the district, but demurred for a long time to his 

 proposal to take with him his wife and son — the 

 latter a boy of thirteen. We were, however, so 

 charmed with the fellow, that we at last agreed, not 



