78 SKETCH OF A PARTY OF INDIANS. 



light, in search of them. We had hardly rounded 

 the second point, when the sight of a " cache*," 

 suspended from the apex of a deserted lodge, 

 convinced us that we should soon come up with 

 the stragglers ; and, accordingly, about a quarter 

 of a mile farther, two young Indians thrust their 

 dark bodies through the branches of the trees, 

 and called to us to stop. They formed part of the 

 tribe of Slave Lake Indians, who were expected 

 to be in this direction, and their friends were 

 not far from them. They merely told us what 

 we well knew, " that there was little water in 

 the river, and they doubted if we could get 

 up." Shortly afterwards, we met a whole fleet 

 of canoes, whose approach was notified by loud 

 and discordant sounds — a horrible concert of 

 voices of all ages, utterly indescribable. Their 

 chief was an intelligent looking old man, called 

 by the traders, " le camarade de Mandeville ;" 

 and from his extensive knowledge of the coun- 

 try to the northward and eastward of Great Slave 

 Lake, there was every reason to expect consi- 

 derable information, if it could only be wormed 

 out of him. To achieve this, Mr. M'Leod re- 

 turned with the Indians to our encampment ; 

 there with all befitting ceremony to open the 

 preliminaries by the customary pipe : for a social 



* Secreted heap, or store of any thing. 



