318 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
them as accomplished horsemen half a century before, and from his 
account it is clear that the Blackfeet had possessed horses for many 
years previously. Probably the earliest years of the eighteenth century 
would be nearer the mark, as the date when the Blackfeet first made 
use of the horse. 
After taking leave of the hospitable Blackfeet, Hendry travelled 
in a leisurely fashion, first to the westward, crossing Knee Hills Creek; 
then north-west to a point near the present line of the Calgary and 
Edmonton railway, about 51° 50° N. This was his farthest point to the 
westward. ‘Turning east, he crossed Three Hills Creek; turned north- 
east and crossed Devils Pine Creek; returned to and re-crossed Three 
Hills Creek; then north-east again to a long, narrow lake which he calls 
Archithinue Lake, and which appears to have been present Devils Pine 
Lake. It was now the end of February, 1755, and a few days later 
Hendry, having travelled north-east from Devils Pine Lake, reached the 
Red Deer once more, many miles above the point where he had crossed 
five months before. He journeyed down-stream on the ice for a few 
miles, and then he and his Indians set to work to build canoes and gather 
provisions for the long trip back to Hudson Bay. ‘April 23rd, the 
river began to break up, and five days later Hendry embarked and pad- 
dled rapidly down-stream. He followed the Red Deer to its junction 
with the South Saskatchewan, and the latter to the Forks. Below the 
Forks he visited a French trading post, an outpost of the main estab- 
lishment at the mouth of the Pasquia. At the latter he was entertained 
by the officer in charge of the district, who had been absent on his out- 
ward journey. This officer was no doubt La Corne. From Fort Poskoyas 
Hendry seems to have followed substantially the same route as on his 
outward trip, and reached York Fort on June 20th, 1755, after an 
absence of almost twelve months. 
In the course of this eventful and very important journey, Hendry 
explored an immense extent of new country. It is a debatable point 
whether he was the actual discoverer of the South Saskatchewan and 
North Saskatchewan. Certainly his is the only description we have of 
any portion of either branch, up to the year 1754. As already men- 
tioned, a party of Saint-Pierre’s men are said to have ascended one of 
the branches to its upper waters, and built Fort La Jonquière there, in 
1751; that is, three years before Hendry’s journey. Here is Saint- 
Pierre’s own account of the matter, in his Journal :—“ The order which 
I gave to the Chevalier de Niverville, to establish a post three hundred 
leagues above that of Paskoya, was executed on the 29th May, 1751. 
He sent off ten men in two canoes, who ascended the river Paskoya as 
far as the Rocky Mountains, where they made a good fort, which T 
