268 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



sensations as I witnessed the various i 

 ful attempts to relieve Belanger. The distance 

 prevented my seeing distinctly what was going 

 on, and I continued pacing up and down upon 

 the rock on which I landed, regardless of the 

 coldness of my drenched and stiffening garments. 

 The canoe, in every attempt to reach him, was 

 hurried down the rapid, and was lost to the view 

 amongst the rocky islets, with a rapidity that 

 seemed to threaten certain destruction ; once, 

 indeed, I fancied that I saw it overwhelmed in 

 the waves. Such an event would have been 

 fatal to the whole party. Separated as I was 

 from my companions, without gun, ammunition, 

 hatchet, or the means of making a fire, and in 

 wet clothes, my doom would have been speedily 

 sealed. My companions too, driven to the neces- 

 sity of coasting the lake, must have sunk under 

 the fatigue of rounding its innumerable arms and 

 bays, which, as we have learned from the Indians, 

 are very extensive. By the goodness of Provi- 

 dence, however, we were spared at that time, 

 and some of us have been permitted to offer up 

 our thanksgivings, in a civilized land, for the 

 signal deliverances wc then and aftenvards 

 experienced. 



By this accident I had the misfortune to lose 

 my port-folio, containing my journal from Fort 

 Enterprise, together with all the astronomical and 



