56 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



lighted our pipes I undertook to hold my first conversa- 

 tion with him in the language of signs. 



The warning most impressed upon me, by all those 

 claiming any knowledge of the country into which I was 

 going, had been against the unreliability of the Indians. 

 I had been told of their tendency to desert under trying 

 conditions, and the little there was to read on the subject 

 emphasized the need of vigilance. That John would grow 

 discouraged, and quietly steal away from the camp some 

 night, was a thought which possessed and worried me 

 considerably. I was prepared to see his dismay as we 

 plodded on in the hard going, and to hear his grumbling, 

 even though I could not understand, but I did not propose, 

 if I could prevent it, awakening one morning to find him 

 and the dogs gone. So I engaged John's attention on 

 this our first night together, and in my best pantomime I 

 tried to make him understand that if he stayed with me 

 to McMurray and was a me-wah-sin Indian, I should be a 

 me-wah-sin "moonyass"; but if he deserted me he had 

 better cut my throat before he left camp, as otherwise 

 I should follow his trail and kill him. John looked very 

 wise and serious during my dramatic recital, and I guess 

 he understood me. Whether he did or not, certainly his 

 discouragement in the trying days we had subsequently 

 never reached a mutinous point, and I fully believe he 

 needed no intimidation to be a " mc-wah-sin Indian." I 

 wondered that night, and as the scene has come up be- 

 fore me many times since I have wondered again, what 

 that Cree must have thought of this white man who was 

 pushing into his country at a time when he himself usu- 

 ally remained in-doors, had pressed him into a service for 

 which he had no liking, and .threatened to take his life 

 if he forsook it. 



