150 A JOURNEY TO THE 



177 1, was concluded I was actuated by cowardice ; and they told me, 

 ^^' with great marks of derision, that I was afraid of the Esqui- 

 maux. As I knew my personal safety depended in a great 

 measure on the favourable opinion they entertained of me 

 in this respect, I was obliged to change my tone, and replied, 

 that I did not care if they rendered the name and race of the 

 Esquimaux extinct ; adding at the same time, that though 

 I was no enemy to the Esquimaux, and did not see the 

 necessity of attacking them without cause, yet if I should find 

 it necessary to do it, for the protection of any one of my com- 

 pany, my own safety out of the question, so far from being 

 afraid of a poor defenceless Esquimaux, whom I despised more 

 than feared, nothing should be wanting on my part to protect 

 all who were with me. This declaration was received with 

 great satisfaction ; and I never afterwards ventured to interfere 

 with any of their war-plans. Indeed, when I came to consider 

 seriously, I saw evidently that it was the highest folly for an 

 individual like me, and in my situation, to attempt to turn the 

 current of a national prejudice which had subsisted between 

 those two nations from the earliest periods, or at least as long 

 as they had been acquainted with the existence of each other. 



June, Having got rid of all the women, children, dogs, heavy 

 baggage, and other incumbrances, on the first of June we 

 [117] pursued our journey to the Northward with great speed ; 

 but the weather was in general so precarious, and the snow, 

 sleet, and rain so frequent, that notwithstanding we embraced 



i6th. every opportunity which offered, it was the sixteenth of June 

 before we arrived in the latitude of 6"]" 30', where Matonabbee 

 had proposed that the women and children should wait our 

 return from the Copper-mine River. 



In our way hither we crossed several lakes on the 

 ice ; of which Thoy-noy-kyed Lake ^ and Thoy-coy-lyned 



\} The map shows that he changed his course a little more to the west from 

 the north shore of Clinton-Colden Lake, but actually he altered his course more 

 than is there shown, and, while his map is reasonably correct thus far, it here 



