64 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1769. scrubby pines,^ intermixed with some dwarf larch,^ which is 

 ' commonly called juniper in Hudson's Bay. In our road we 

 frequently saw the tracks of deer, and many musk-oxen,^ as 

 they are called there ; but none of my companions were so 

 fortunate as to kill any of them : so that a few partridges were 

 all we could get to live on, and those were so scarce, that we 

 seldom could kill as many as would amount to half a bird a 

 day for each man ; which, considering we had nothing else for 

 the twenty-four hours, was in reality next to nothing. 



26th. [5] By this time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had 

 not the prosperity of the undertaking at heart ; he often painted 

 the difficulties in the worst colours, took every method to 

 dishearten me and my European companions, and several times 

 hinted his desire of our returning back to the factory : but 

 finding I was determined to proceed, he took such methods as 

 he thought would be most likely to answer his end ; one of 

 of which was, that of not administering toward our support ; 

 so that we were a considerable time without any other sub- 

 sistence, but what our two home-guard (Southern) Indians pro- 

 cured, and the little that I and the two European men could 

 kill ; which was very disproportionate to our wants, as we had 

 to provide for several women and children who were with us. 



Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not 

 likely to complete his design, and that we were not to be 

 starved into compliance, at length influenced several of the 



29th. best Northern Indians to desert in the night, who took with 

 them several bags of my ammunition, some pieces of iron 

 work, such as hatchets, ice chissels, files, &c., as well as several 

 other useful articles. 



30th. When I became acquainted with this piece of villany, 1 

 asked Chawchinahaw the reason of such behaviour. To which 

 he answered, that he knew nothing of the affair : but as that 

 was the case, it would not be [6] prudent, he said, for us to 



[' Picea alba (Ait.)— E. A. P.] [* Larix laricina (Du Roi).— E. A. P.] 



[* Ovibos moschaius (Zimm.). — E. A. P.] 



