LESSER SLAVE RIVER AND LAKE 43 



Slavery was common enough amongst the Indians every- 

 where. A thriving trade was done at the Detroit in the 

 18th century in Pawnees, or Panis, as they were called, cap- 

 tured by Indian raiders on the western prairies and sold to 

 the white settlers along the river. I have seen in Windsor, 

 Ont., an old bill of sale of one of these Pani slaves, the con- 

 sideration being, if I recollect aright, a certain quantity of 

 Indian corn. 



To return to the river. The distance from Athabasca 

 Landing to the Lesser Slave is called sixty-five miles, but 

 this must have been ascertained by measuring from point to 

 point, for, following the shore up stream, as boats must, it 

 is certainly more. To the head of the river is an additional 

 sixty miles, and thence to the head of the lake seventy-five 

 more. The Hudson's Bay Company had a storehouse at the 

 Forks, and an island was forming where the waters meet, 

 the finest feature of the place being an echo, which reverber- 

 ated the bugler's call at reveille very grandly. 



A spurt was made in the early morning, the trackers first 

 following a bank overgrown with alders and sallows, all of 

 a size, which looked exactly like a well-kept hedge, but soon 

 gave way to the usual dense line of poplar and spruce, rooted 

 to the very edges of the banks, which are low compared with 

 those of the Athabasca. After ascending it for some dis- 

 tance, it being Sunday, we camped for the day upon an open 

 grassy point, around which the river swept in a perfect semi- 

 circle, the dense forest opposite towering in one equally per- 

 fect, and glorious in light and shade and harmonious tints of 

 green, from sombre olive to the lightest pea. The point 

 itself was covered with strawberry vines and dotted with 

 clumps of saskatoons all in bloom. 



It was a lovely and lonely spot, which was soon converted 

 into a scene of eating and laughter, and a drying ground for 

 wet clothes. Towards evening Bishop Grouard and Father 

 Lacombe held a weU-attended service, which in this profound 

 wilderness Avas peculiarly impressive. Listening, one thought 



