136 Thirty Years 
baggage being left behind, our canoes would now, of 
course, travel infinitely more expeditiously than any 
thing he had hitherto witnessed. Akaitcho appeared 
to feel hurt, that we should continue to press the 
matter further, and answered with some warmth: 
“Well, I have said everything I can urge, to dissuade 
you from going on this service, on which it seems, you 
wish to sacrifice your own lives, as well as the Indians 
who might attend you: however, if after all I have 
said, you are determined to go, some of my young men 
shall join the party, because it shall not be said, that 
we permitted you to die dlone after having brought 
you hither ; but from the moment they embark in the 
canoes, I and my relatives shall lament them as dead.” 
We could only reply to this forcible appeal, by 
assuring him and the Indians who were seated around 
him, that we felt the most anxious solicitude for the 
safety of every individual, and that it was far from 
our intention to proceed without considering every 
argument for and against the proposed journey. 
We next informed him, that it would be very de- 
sirable to see the river at any rate, that we might 
give some positive information about its situation and 
size, in our next letters to the great chief; and that 
we were very anxious to get on its banks for the pur- 
pose of observing an eclipse of the sun, which we 
described to him, and said would happen in a few 
