308 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE [VoL. IV. 



the place where he intended to winter. Twenty Indians were then hired 

 to assist them in passing La Grand Cote de la Roche, the steep and 

 difificult portage at the mouth of the Nipigon. The journey to Lake 

 Alempigon or Nipigon was accomplished with ease. On the first of 

 August he began his march for Sturgeon Lake, accompanied by fifteen 

 Indians, and on the 25th of September arrived at Lac La Mort (Dead 

 Lake), where he proposed to remain during the winter. In January, 1778, 

 he ran short of provisions and was obliged to remove to Lake 

 Manantoye, where Mr. Shaw, a brother trader, was wintering. The 

 severity of the season was so great that James Clark, a trader in the 

 employ of the same company, had five of his men starved to death at Lake 

 Savan. Between Red Lake and Salt Lake, Long states that there were 

 *' fourteen portages and twenty-two creeks." From the latter to Cariboo 

 Lake it was eight days' march and there were five creeks and three 

 portages to cross. At this lake a French trader had been settled some 

 \-ears before, but Long found it deserteci. The Indians estimated the 

 distance to Lake Schabeechevan (Weed Lake) at ten days march across 

 thirteen portages and the same number of creeks. The trail to Lake 

 Arbitibis passed through three small lakes, and over five portages and 

 eight creeks, and thence to Crow's Nest Lake was a short journey. In 

 April, Long received a letter from one Jacques Sameron, a trader in 

 charge of a party in the service of his employers that had wintered 

 at Lake Schabeechevan, informing him that he intended " to make a 

 grand coupl' by selling his packs to the Hudson Bay Company and 

 embezzling the proceeds. In the hope of preventing this act of 

 dishonesty, Long made a forced march to Sameron's station only to 

 find on his arrival that the delinquent was several days' march on his 

 way to Hudson Bay. On the 23rd of May he finally abandoned his 

 station at Lac La Mort and returned to Pays Plat with 140 packs of 

 furs. 



Remaining there only five days to deliver his furs and receive supplies 

 Long set out on his second expedition, proceeding by the river La Pique, 

 Portage La Rame Nipigon River, Great Crow's Nest Lake and Skunk 

 Lake to Lake Schabeechevan, where he built a house. During the same 

 winter Mr. Fulton established a post at Shekarkestergoan. Joseph La 

 Forme, who led a party to Lac Le Sel, was killed by an Indian, and 

 Long took his men into his own service. In February, 1779, he was 

 visited by a Hudson Bay Company's agent from Fort Albany, which is 

 described as "thirty days' march distant from his station at Lake Schabee- 

 chevan, over ninteen portages and creeks, and fourteen rapids." In the 

 spring, Long returned to Mackinac, where he became the adjutant of a 

 militia company formed by the fur traders for the defence of that place. 



