1849. METHY PORTAGE. 143 



On the 25th we left Fort Simpson, having pre- 

 viously been joined by the men who wintered at 

 Great Slave Lake, and also by the small barge, 

 bringing Brodie and Narcisse Tremble from Bear 

 Lake. We were detained by drift ice at the west 

 end of Great Slave Lake till the 6th of July, and 

 did not reach Fort Resolution till the 11th. On 

 the 19th we arrived at Fort Chepewyan, and on 

 the 26th at Methy Portage, which we crossed on 

 the 27th with all our baggage, on horses hired 

 from the Indians. From L'Esperance, who was 

 encamped with his brigade on Methy Lake, I 

 had the pleasure of receiving English letters, 

 brought up from Canada by the governor's light 

 canoe, Avhich leaves La Chine in May. Mr. Bell 

 at the same time received instructions to return 

 to Mackenzie's River, to conduct the Company's 

 affairs there. This was unpleasant tidings to him, 

 since, having spent the greater part of his life in 

 that northern region, he had been soliciting a 

 change, but the mortification was softened by the 

 society of his two daughters who had been sent 

 from Isle a la Crosse to meet him. In taking 

 leave of this gentleman, I must express my ob- 

 ligations to him for his assiduous endeavours to 

 forward the interests of the expedition, and my 

 high sense of his excellent management of the 

 Indians at Fort Confidence, to which we owed a 



