92 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1770. The person I engaged at Cathawhachaga to carry my 



"^th." canoe proving too weak for the task, another of my crew was 

 obliged to exchange loads with him, which seemed perfectly 

 agreeable to all parties ; and as we walked but short days 

 journies, and deer were very plentiful, all things went on 

 8th. very smoothly. Nothing material happened till the eighth, 

 when we were near losing the quadrant and all our powder 

 from the following circumstance : the fellow who had been 

 released from carrying the canoe proving too weak, as hath 

 been already observed, had, after the exchange, nothing to 

 carry but my powder and his own trifles ; the latter were 

 indeed very inconsiderable, not equal in size and weight to 

 a soldier's knapsack. As I intended to have a little sport with 

 the deer, and knowing his load to be much lighter than mine, I 

 gave him the quadrant [42] and stand to carry, which he took 

 without the least hesitation, or seeming ill-will. Having thus 

 eased myself for the present of a heavy and cumbersome part 

 of my load, I set out early in the morning with some of the 

 Indian men ; and after walking about eight or nine miles, 

 saw, from the top of a high hill, a great number of deer 

 feeding in a neighbouring valley ; on which we laid down our 

 loads and erected a flag, as a signal for the others to pitch 

 their tents there for the night. We then pursued our hunting, 

 which proved very successful. At night, however, when we 

 came to the hill where we had left our baggage, I found that 

 only part of the Indians had arrived, and that the man who 

 had been entrusted with my powder and quadrant, had set off 

 another way, with a small party of Indians that had been in 

 our company that morning. The evening being far advanced, 

 we were obliged to defer going in search of him till the 

 morning, and as his track could not be easily discovered in the 

 Summer, the Southern Indians, as well as myself, were very 

 uneasy, fearing we had lost the powder, which was to provide 

 us with food and raiment the remainder of our journey. The 

 very uncourteous behaviour of the Northern Indians then in 



