MASSACRE OF ESQUIMAUX. 367 



lips of a witness (in part concerned in the affair), a de- 

 tailed account of the occurrence which had been vaguely 

 communicated to us by some Indians, during our 

 descent of the Mackenzie in July last, and which 

 was now proved to have been an atrocious and 

 treacherous massacre of a party of unoffending Esqui- 

 maux by some of the Loucheux, aided — I blush to 

 say — by one bearing a white skin, which was eternally 

 dishonoured in his person. On the breaking up of 

 the ice in the spring of 1850, a boat containing four 

 white men — Manuel, steersman (French Canadian), 

 M'Kay, Sanderson, and Brown (Orkney men), and two 

 Indians, left Fort Good Hope, on the Mackenzie, to 

 proceed to Eort M'Pherson, the station on the Peel 

 River. They were detained by the stoppage of the 

 ice, which frequently becomes checked in its descent 

 after breaking up, and were in some distress for 

 food, but fortunately shot some geese, which migrate 

 hitherward in the spring. At Point Separation they 

 landed for a short time, some of the party being 

 desirous of inspecting the cdcUe of provisions which 

 had been placed there by Sir John Richardson. 

 Point Separation is nearly the highest spot to which 

 the Esquimaux ever now ascend, and it occurred that 

 just at the time the party beached their boat among 

 the masses of ice which lined the shore, they espied 



