XXVIll INTRODUCTION. 
relationship existed between the youth and our pilot); when it came, I say, to the 
point beyond which there was no receding, the heart of the young man failed him, 
and he begged to be released from his engagement, pleading as his excuse, that 
when he contracted for the voyage, he was under the influence of the good cheer, 
customary on the arrival of a party from a distant trading post. As I was disin- 
clined to take any one against his will, I finally consented to his discharge ; and the 
uncle and nephew were soon wending their way to the southeast, over the prairie, 
carrying with them despatches to our friends, to apprise them of our welfare, and 
of our progress towards the north. 
The anticipation of danger from the natives proved without foundation. With 
the exception of a small party of Pillager* Indians, whom we met ascending the 
upper waters of Red River in search of fish, and who sought to deter us from 
proceeding, by accounts of war-parties of the Sioux roaming about lower down the 
stream, we did not meet, for three weeks, from Otter Tail Lake to Pembina Settle- 
ment,—upwards of five hundred miles,—a single human being, red or white, nor a 
habitation, savage or civilized, except the bare poles of a few deserted Indian 
wigwams. The vast prairies through which we floated, and the narrow belts of 
timber occasionally fringing them, seemed without living inhabitant, except large 
yellow wolves, with a few bears and elk. Buffalo undoubtedly still frequent these 
plains, as evidenced by their deeply trodden paths, their lairs, their dung,+ their 
skeletons, and their half-decayed carcasses; but no herds were actually seen. 
The dangers from the river itself were of a somewhat more serious character, 
than from the savages. Without even a practised steersman, accustomed to guide 
a canoe in difficult water (the lack of whom, even in a river where the rapids and 
portages are known, involves considerable risk), we had here the additional misfor- 
tune of being wholly ignorant of the character of the stream before us; where, if 
anywhere, were its rapids and falls, or where its necessary portages. Its naviga- 
tion, however, proved less hazardous than we expected; and, by keeping a careful 
look-out, we escaped without accident, except on one occasion, namely, at what, we 
afterwards learned, were called, by the Indians, the Falls of Red River, about 
sixty miles below Otter Tail Lake. Here, at a sudden turn in the river, we unex- 
pectedly came upon turbulent rapids, the water foaming among a multitude of 
boulders; and to these we had already so closely approached, that our canoes could 
not be arrested, but shot down them with a velocity which it was impossible to 
* These Indians, residing chiefly about Leech Lake, received their name from having taken violent _ 
possession of the goods of a trader, who had sought to defraud them, in bartering his merchandise against 
their furs. The epithet, at first bestowed as a reproach, has been, it is said, adopted by themselves; and 
they seem not a little proud of the incident by which they earned it. 
¥ Called by the voyageurs Bois de Vaches, because often used by them, in its dry state and when 
wood fails, as a substitute to supply the camp fire. 
