350 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
He was now reminded that these statements 
were very different from the account he had given, 
both at Fort Providence and on the route hither ; 
and that, up to this moment, we had been en- 
couraged by his conversation to expect that the 
party might descend the Copper-Mine River, 
accompanied by the Indians. He replied, that 
at the former place he had been unacquainted 
with our slow mode of travelling, and that the 
alteration in his opinion arose from the advance 
of winter. 
We now informed him that we were provided 
with instruments by which we could ascertain the 
state of the air and water, and that we did not 
imagine the winter to be so near as he supposed ; 
however, we promised to return on discovering 
the first change in the season. He was also told 
that all the baggage being left behind, our canoes, 
would now, of course, travel infinitely more ex- 
peditiously than any thing he had hitherto wit- 
nessed, Akaitcho appeared to feel hurt, that we 
should continue to press the matter further, and 
answered with some warmth: “ Well, I have said 
every thing I can urge, to dissuade you from 
going on this service, on which, it seems, you 
wish to sacrifice your own lives, as well as the 
» Indians who might attend you : however, if after 
all I have said, you are determined to go, Some 
