232 EXEMPLARY CONDUCT OF AKAITCHO. 



have yielded to their gloomy superstition, had 

 they not been sustained by his language and for- 

 titude. " It is true," he is reported to have said 

 in answer to one of them, " that both the Yellow 

 Knives and Chipewyans, whom I look upon as 

 one nation, have felt the fatal severities of this 

 unusual winter. Alas! how many sleep with 

 our fathers ! But the Great Chief trusts to us ; 

 and it is better that ten Indians should perish, 

 than that one white man should suffer through 

 our negligence and breach of faith." 



Mr. M c Leod's observations at the fishery where 

 he had been were too unfavourable to give me 

 any confident hope of receiving support from 

 that quarter ; and, under these circumstances, it 

 was consolatory to me that he approved my 

 decision to make a further reduction in our 

 establishment. I say consolatory, because that 

 decision fell particularly heavy on his own family, 

 whom he now offered to remove to a place about 

 half way between us and the Indians, who, he 

 said, would provide him with meat, as the lake 

 would with fish, and in this way the separation 

 might be made still further subservient to our 

 benefit. Before we parted, however, his daughter, 

 a pretty little girl about six years old, took care 

 to remind me, that I had promised, on her father's 

 return, to open the " boite a fer blanc." Ac- 

 cordingly, the treasure was explored ; and she 



