354 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



ing provisions and other stores ; all of which he was 

 well qualified to perform, having been twenty years 

 in the country. Here, too, they were waited on by 

 the chief of the Indians, named Akaitcho. He 

 made a speech, purporting that he rejoiced to see 

 such great chiefs on his land ; that his tribe was 

 poor, but they loved white men, who had been their 

 benefactors ; said he would attend them to the end 

 of their journey, and would do all he could to 

 provide them with the means of subsistence. Frank- 

 lin, of course, made a suitable acknowledgment in 

 return. 



On the 2nd August they left Fort Providence, 

 on their way to the Copper Mine River; the party 

 consisting of six Englishmen, six Canadian voyagers, 

 and three interpreters, to which were added Akaitcho 

 and his Indians. The details of the journey as far 

 as Fort Enterprise, on the banks of Winter Lake, 

 the difficulties that occurred in the navigation of 

 the numerous rivers and lakes, and the crossing of 

 portages, could give little or no information of 

 interest to the general reader, and shall therefore 

 be omitted. Suffice it to say, that after numerous 

 difficulties, experienced from scarcity of provisions 

 for the party that attended them, impediments 

 of navigation, and the severe labour of the fre- 

 quent portages, they were glad to arrive, on the 

 20th August, after a slow and tedious progress, 

 at the spot where it was decided to winter, and 



