334 JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN 



a lasting peace, but also of establishing a trade and reciprocal 

 interest between the two nations. 



After having performed this great work, he was prevailed 

 upon to visit the Copper-mine River, in company with a 

 famous leader, called I-dat-le-aza ; and it was from the report 

 of those two men, that a journey to that part was proposed to 

 the Hudson's Bay Company by the late Mr. Moses Norton, 

 in one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine. In one 

 thousand seven hundred and seventy he was engaged as 

 the principal guide on that expedition ; which he performed 

 with greater punctuality, and more to my satisfaction, than 

 perhaps any other Indian in all that country would have done. 

 At his return to the Fort in one thousand seven hundred and 

 seventy-two, he was made head of all the Northern Indian 

 nation ; and continued to render great services to the Com- 

 pany during his life, by bringing a greater quantity of furrs to 

 their Factory at Churchill River, than any other Indian ever 

 did, or ever will do. His last visit to Prince of Wales's Fort 

 was in the Spring of one thousand seven hundred and eighty- 

 two, and he intended to have repeated it in the Winter 

 following ; but when he heard that the French had destroyed 

 the Fort, and carried off all the Company's servants, he never 

 afterwards reared his head, but took an opportunity, when no 

 one [357] suspected his intention, to hang himself. This is 

 the more to be wondered at, as he is the only Northern Indian 

 who, that I ever heard, put an end to his own existence. The 

 death of this man was a great loss to the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, and was attended with a most melancholy scene ; 

 no less than the death of six of his wives, and four children, 

 all of whom were starved to death the same Winter, in one 

 thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. 



