OF THE POLAR SEA. 233 
several of them seemed now disposed to volun- 
teer ; indeed, on the same evening, two men 
from the North-West Company offered themselves 
and were accepted. 
June 5.—This day Mr. Back and I went over 
to Fort Wedderburne, to see Mr. Robertson re- 
specting his quota of men. We learned from 
him that, notwithsanding his endeavours to per- 
suade them, his most experienced voyagers still 
declined engaging without very exorbitant wages. 
After some hesitation, however, six men engaged 
with us, who were represented to be active and 
steady; and I also got Mr. Robertson’s permission 
for St. Germain, an interpreter belonging to this 
Company, to accompany us from Slave Lake, if 
he should choose. The bow-men and steers-men 
were to receive one thousand six hundred livres 
Halifax per annum, and the middle men one 
thousand two hundred, exclusive of their neces- 
sary equipments ; and they stipulated that their 
wages should be continued until their arrival in 
Montreal, or their rejoining the service of their 
present employers. 
_ I delivered to Mr. Robertson an official re- 
quest, that the stores we had left at York Factory 
and the Rock Depét, with some other supplies, 
might be forwarded to Slave Lake by the first 
brigade of canoes which should come in. He 
