356 Thirty Years 



gin until we had tasted food. The Chief, Akaitcho, 

 shewed us the most friendly hospitality, and all sorts 

 of personal attention, even to cooking for us with his 

 own hands, an office which he never performs for him- 

 self. Anncethaiyazzeh and Humpy, the Chiefs two 

 brothers, and several of our hunters, with their fami- 

 lies, "were encamped here, together with a number of 

 old men and women. In the course of the day we 

 were visited by every person of the band, not merely 

 from curiosity, I conceive, but rather from a desire to 

 evince their tender sympathy in our late distress. "We 

 learned that Mr. Back, with St. Germain and Belan- 

 ger, had gone to Fort Providence ; and that, previous 

 to his departure, he had left a letter in a cache of 

 pounded meat, which he had missed two days ago. 

 As we supposed that this letter might acquaint us 

 with his intentions more fully than we could gather 

 from the Indians, through our imperfect knowledge 

 of their language, Augustus, the Esquimaux, whom 

 we found here in perfect health, and an Indian lad, 

 uric dispatched to bring it. 



Wo found several of the Indian families in great 

 affliction, for the loss of three of their relatives, who 

 had been drowned in the August preceding, by the 

 upsetting of a canoe near to Fort Enter prize. They 



bewailed the melancholy accident every morning and 

 evening, by repeating the names of the persons in a 



