400 Thirty Years 



ined, and found to be in excellent order, except the 

 powder in one of the magazines, which had become 

 caked from damp. I had ordered a supply of iron- 

 work, knives, and beads, for the sea voyage from Fort 

 Simpson ; they had arrived some days before us, and 

 with our stock thus augmented, we were well furnished 

 with presents for the natives. The packages being 

 finished on the 27th, the boats received their respec- 

 tive ladings, and we were rejoiced to find that each 

 stowed her cargo well, and with her crew embarked 

 'floated as buoyantly as our most sanguine wishes bad 

 anticipated. The heavy stores, however, were after- 

 wards removed into a bateau that was to be taken to 

 the mouth of the river, to prevent the smaller boats 

 from receiving injury in passing over the shoals. 



We waited one day to make some pounded meat 

 we had brought into pemmican. In the meantime 

 the seamen enlarged the foresail of the UeliancV. 



The letters which I received from the Athabasca 

 department informed me that the things I had re- 

 quired from the Company in February last, would be 

 duly forwarded ; they likewise contained a very dif- 

 ferent, version of the story which had led us to suppose 

 that Captain Parry was passing the winter on the 



northern coast. We now Learned that, the Indians 



had only seen some pieces of wood recently cut, and a 



deer that had been killed by an arrow ; these things 



