FORT RELIANCE ESTABLISHED. 331 



"The following day being Sunday, divine service was read," writes 

 the leader of the expedition, who also acted as chaplain, " and our imper- 

 fect thanks were humbly offered to Almighty God, for the mercies which 

 had been already vouchsafed to us ; and though, in this imperious climate, 

 with everything to do, time was certainly precious, yet feeling that the 

 first opening of the sacred volume in this distant wilderness ought not 

 to be profaned by any mixture of common labour, I made it a day of real 

 quiet and repose." 



On the 16th September Mr King arrived at the winter quarters with 

 two boats laden with a heavy cargo of stores for the coming season, and 

 bringing with him the remainder of the men engaged for the expedition. 

 Back now [[divided his men into parties, and appointed them to regular 

 tasks — felling trees, squaring them for beams and rafters, sawing them into 

 slabs and planks, dressing blocks of granite for building purposes, and col- 

 lecting mud and grass to be used as plaster, were separate occupations 

 carried on by groups of men told off for the purpose. " It was an animated 

 scene," says Back ; " and set off, as it was, by the white tents and smoky 

 leather lodges of the Indians, contrasting with the mountains and green 

 woods, it was picturesque as well as interesting." The building of the 

 winter establishment, observatory, etc., proceeded apace, and the name given 

 to this temporary house in the bleak desert, was Fort Reliance, " in token," 

 says Back, " of our trust in that merciful Providence, whose protection we 

 humbly hoped would be extended to us in the many difficulties and dangers 

 to which these services are exposed." But the destitute Indians of the dis- 

 trict had found out the house long before it was finished. The sick and 

 miserable soon began to flock in from all quarters, in the hope of obtaining 

 from the white man what the white man could only purchase from the Indian 

 hunters. It might be supposed that these hunters should have supported 

 their own sick and infirm kinsfolk ; but in the Indian, " the savage virtues 

 of our race " are not strong. So long as he is healthy and vigorous himself, 

 he moves about from place to place with almost as much speed as the deer 

 and oxen he pursues, trusting to the humanity of the white man to succour 

 the diseased or starving members of his family. Back was resolved that no 

 party coming to Fort Eeliance should leave any of its members behind ; but 

 in spite of all his efforts he soon found himself hampered with many help- 

 less dependants. This was all the more distressing as the fishery on the 

 lake proved a failure, and little or no meat could be purchased from the 

 Indians. 



In the course of October the observatory, a building twelve feet square, 

 in the construction of which no iron, not even a nail, had been used, was 

 completed ; and here Captain Back, assisted by Mr King, took regular 

 observations for the magnetic force and dip. The season was unusually mild, 



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