55 [231 J 



seemed among Indians to entitle me but little to that hospitality which I need* 

 ed. How I succeeded in pacifying them, remains to be related. 



The Rev. Mr. Boutwell, who was endeavoring to establish a mission 

 among the " pillagers"' who inhabit the borders of Leech lake, would have 

 willingly come to my assistance ; for he had learned that a Kayateicernit- 

 tig-oj (which means " a Prenchman of the oldai Hme^^) had arrived.* He 

 could hear by day and by night the sound of the drum, with the shouts 

 and songs of the Indians. He knew, also, that the principal chief, Eshki- 

 bogikoj, (commonly called Flat Mouth,) was absent, and that the young 

 men would be very troublesome ; but he was on the opposite side of the 

 lake, and the wind had been blowing a gale for several days, so that he 

 could not, without danger, attempt to cross it. On the fourth day, however, 

 he arrived ; and, although totally unknown to each other previously, a 

 sympathy of feeling arose — growing out of the precarious circumstances 

 under which we were both placed, and to which he had been much longer 

 exposed than myself. This feeling, from the kind attentions which he paid 

 me, soon ripened, on my part, into one of affectionate gratitude. On his 

 arrival, things assumed a more peaceful aspect ; 1 succeeded in establishing 

 feelings of good will among them, which they never afterwards belied 

 during the three subsequent years that I had occasion to meet with them 

 in their own country or at St. Peter's. 



Having lessened my equipage, and made arrangements to proceed to 

 Ascent (o the ^'^6 sources of the Mississippi, 1 left Leech lake in a bark canoe 

 sourcesot'ihe of Sufficient size to contain my instruments, some provisions, 

 Mississippi, and three persons besides myself, who were Desire, Francis 

 Brunet, and a respectable Chippeway named Kegwedzissag, who was well 

 acquainted with the country I wished to visit, and which he called his own, 

 as he was in the habit of hunting over it. 



Leaving Leech lake, we crossed several small lakes, and reached the one 

 called Kabekonang,^ the name being derived (wmkabe, todis- 

 i^Kncrmer. embark, and mikan, a path or trail ; or, in its full meaning, 

 " the place where one disembarks to take up the trail or route." 

 We ascended the river which bears the same name, and, flowing in a narrow 

 and deep valley, is said not to freeze before .January ; nor, when frozen, to 

 thaw until July. I found, accordingly, in August, that its waters had a 

 temperature of only 54° ; whilst that of the lakes and rivers which I had 

 taken the preceding days, was between 60° and 70°. But Kabekonang 

 river is well enclosed within its high banks, and well protected from winds 

 of every description, by a thick forest of spruce firs and pines behind and 

 along its banks, and a shrubbery of alders so thickly set that we were 

 obliged to use our hatchets to navigate it. The salient points in the mean- 

 ders of the river are made up of aquatic plants, the stems of which form 

 peaty masses solid and tough, the moisture of which seemed to have but 

 recently thawed. Though, in this latitude of 47° 16', and with a mean 

 annual'temperature of 43°, we are much below the regions where the soil 

 remains frozen all the year round. Moreover, the river has but one small 



♦ In ihe Chippeway tongue, the expression implying the same meaning is Awas-komi^o-wer- 

 nilligoj, viz: a Frenchman from beyond the waters; which expression is translated by th« 

 Canadians, un Francois de France. 



t This lake is not the same mentioned by Mr. Schoolcraft, and which is on La Place river. 



