456 AKAITCHO. 



lowers, though not very successful, was not 

 wanting in his contributions. The name of this 

 chief is so associated with Sir John Franklin's 

 first expedition, that it may not be uninteresting 

 to say a few words about him here. He is no 

 longer the same active and important person that 

 he was in those days ; for, besides the infirmities 

 that have crept upon him, he has grown peevish 

 and fickle. His once absolute authority is con- 

 sequently reduced to a shadow ; and, with the 

 exception of his sons and his own family, he can 

 scarcely boast of a single subject or adherent in 

 his summer excursions to hunt. During winter, 

 however, the clan still keep together as formerly. 

 The Yellow Knives have drawn vengeance 

 on themselves by their wanton and oppressive 

 conduct towards their neighbours, the Slave In- 

 dians ; an inoffensive race, whom they plundered 

 of their peltries and women on the most trifling 

 occasions of dispute, and too often out of mere 

 insolence, and the assertion of that superiority 

 with which the fears of the Slaves invested 

 them. At last, after submitting to every scourge 

 that the ingenuity of barbarism could inflict — 

 after beholding their wives and daughters torn 

 from their lodges, and their young men branded 

 with the badge of slavery, they w r ere suddenly 

 animated with a spirit of revenge ; and, in one 

 season, partly by treachery and partly by valour, 



