OF THE POLAR SBA. 



of our interpreters, they were examined upon this 

 subject. It appeared that in their intercourse 

 with the Indians they have contracted very fearful 

 ideas of the danger of our enterprise, which aug- 

 ment as the time of our departure draws near, 

 and have not hesitated to express their dishke to 

 the journey in strong terms amongst the Cana- 

 dians, who are accustomed to pay much deference 

 to the opinions of an interpreter. But this is not 

 all ; I had more than sufficient reason for suspect- 

 ing that they had endeavoured to damp the exer- 

 tions of the Indians, with the hope that the want 

 of provision in the spring would put an end to our 

 progress at once. St. Germain, in particular, 

 had behaved in a very equivocal way, since his 

 journey to Slave Lake. He denied the principal 

 parts of the charge in a very dogged manner, but 

 acknowledged that he had told the leader that we 

 had not paid him the attention that a chief like 

 him ought to have received ; and that we had put 

 a great affront on him in sending him only a small 

 quantity of rum. An artful man like St. Germain, 

 possessing as he did such a flow of language, and 

 capable of saying even what he confessed to, had 

 the means of poisoning the minds of the Indians 

 without committing himself by any direct asser- 

 tion that they could communicate ; and it is to be 

 remarked, that unless Mr. Wentzel had possessed 



