COUNCIL OF WAR. 283 



We had only one small Indian axe with which 

 to cut our way through the encumhered forest 

 which surrounded us, and w^e knew not how lonsr 

 or difficult the journey before us might be. The 

 Canadians — a party of fifty or sixty strong, all able- 

 bodied men provided with good axes, and expeii] in 

 the use of them — had, after a few days' trial, failed 

 to make any satisfactory progress through the 

 obstructions which beset them, and had evaded the 

 difficulty by braving the dangers of an unknown river 

 full of rocks and rapids. We were a w^eak party, 

 our mainstay, The Assiniboine, having but one hand. 

 Even along the partially cleared trail we had followed 

 thus far, the w^ork of making it passable had been 

 very heavy, and our progress slow and laborious. 

 We had been delayed and harassed every day by 

 the horses miring in muskegs, entangling them- 

 selves amongst fallen timber, rolling dow^n hills, or 

 being lost in the thick w^oods. The attempt to force 

 our w^ay through the forest, therefore, seemed almost 

 a desperate one. On the other hand, to make a 

 proper raft with our small means and strength w^ould 

 occupy many days, and necessitate the abandonment 

 of the horses, our last resource for food. In an 

 ordinarily tranquil stream our weak and motley 

 company was utterly incompetent to manage that 

 most unmanageable of all transports, a large raft. 

 In a stream swollen, rocky, and rapid as the 

 Thompson, the experiment w^as certain to prove 

 disastrous. We had been solemnly and earnestly 

 w^arned by the Shushwaps of The Cache against such 



