270 
ee 
January. 
anth. 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
of them lead within feveral hundred miles of | 
—-— Churchill River. ] 
Agrecably to Matonabbee’s propofal, we con- | 
tinued our courfe up the Athapufcow River for 
many days, and though we pafied feveral parts 
which we well knew to have been the former 
Winter-haunts of the Athapufcow Indians, yet we - 
could not fee the leaft trace of any of them hav- | 
ing been there that feafon. In the preceding 
Summer, when they were in thofe parts, they had ! 
fet fire to the woods; and though many months 
had elapfed from that time till our arrival there, 
and notwithitanding the fnow was then very 
deep, the mofs was ftill burning in many places, 
which at firft deceived us very much, as we took 
it for the {moke of ftrange tents; but after going 
much out of our way, and fearching very diligent- 
ly, we could not difcover the leaft track of a 
ftranger. 
Thus difappointed in our expectations of meet- 
ing the Southern Indians, it was refolved (in 
Council, as it may be called) to expend as much 
timein hunting buffalo, moofe, and beaver as we | 
' could, fo that we might be able to reach Prince 
of Wales’s Fort a little before the ufual time of 
the fhips arrival from England. Accordingly, af- 
ter having walked upwards of forty miles by the 
fide of Athapufcow River, on the twenty-feventh 
of January we ftruck off to the Eaftward, and 
left the River at that part where it begins to tend 
due South. 
In 
