i66 



ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



powwows, except of the one thing in which we were both 

 most interested. 



Finally the interpreter told Beniah I wanted him to go 

 with me to the Barren Grounds, and did not wish to wait 

 until the usual time of hunting; and Beniah forthwith 

 delivered himself of quite a speech, in which he said he 

 was glad to welcome the first white man to his hunting 

 country, especially one whom he heard was a "great 

 chief"; recited the danger of the Barren Grounds; the 

 impossibility of getting Indians to make the attempt at 

 such a season, even if he were willing; explained the ab- 

 sence of firewood, the chances of freezing or starving to 

 death, and, in fact, told off the difficulties to a length for 

 which I have no space. 



Now, I had sized up the situation long before Beniah 

 arrived at the post, and I had purposely delayed this 

 meeting until I had looked him over a bit in the day, 

 during the smoking and tea-drinking. My knowledge of 

 the Indian character in general, and of this one in partic- 

 ular, had decided me upon a course of diplomacy to induce 

 him to go with me, and I knexv if I secured him that he 

 would insist upon his hunters going, if only that misery 

 likes company. I was determined to get into the Barren 

 Grounds, no matter what its terrors. 



Therefore when I replied to Beniah I treated all the 

 dangers as a matter of course I told him I had come to 

 him because his skill and courage were household words 

 in the great world ; that my one ambition had been, if I 

 reached the North, to hunt musk-oxen with Beniah ; that 

 I had been travelling from my lodge, which was far, far 

 away, by the " big water," for many suns, and that now, 

 being here, I was sure so insignificant a matter as hunger 

 or cold would not deter him from accompanying me. I 

 made Beniah feel that my belief in his courage was un- 



