a 
232 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure 
of their goods in support of the opposition, their 
supply to us would, of necessity, be very limited. — 
The men, too, were backward in offering their 
services, especially those of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company, who demanded a much higher rate of 
wages than I considered it would be proper to 
grant. £8 
June 3.—Mr. Smith, a partner of the North- 
West Company, arrived from the Great Slave 
Lake, and was the bearer of the very gratifying 
intelligence that the principal Chief of the Copper 
Indians had received the communication of our 
arrival with joy, and given all the intelligence he 
possessed respecting the route to the sea-coast 
by the Copper Mine River; and that he and a 
party of his men, at the instance of Mr. Wentzel, 
a clerk of the North-West Company, whom they 
wished might go along with them, had engaged 
to accompany the Expedition as guides and 
hunters. They were to await our arrival at Fort 
Providence, on the north side of the Slave Lake: 
Their information coincided with that given by 
Beaulieu. They had no doubt of our being able 
to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling 
to the coast. This agreeable intelligence had @ 
happy effect upon the minds of the Canadian 
voyagers, many of their fears being removed: 
