LESSEE SLAVE EIVEE AND LAKE 47 



shortly afterwards the Police boat. But getting their steer- 

 ing sweeps fouled and lines entangled, it was nearly an hour 

 before Cyr's boat, being first lightened, could swing to star- 

 board of the York, and take off the passengers. The York 

 boat was then shouldered off the rocks by main force, and all 

 got under way again. At this juncture our old Indian, 

 Peokus — or Pehayokusk, to give him his right name, to wit, 

 " The giblets of a bird " — ^met with a serious accident, which, 

 much to our regret, laid him up for several days. In his 

 eagerness to help he slipped from a sunken log, and the 

 bruise knocked the wind out of him completely. We took off 

 his wet clothes and rubbed him, and laid him by the fire, 

 where the doctor's care and a liberal dram of spirits soon 

 fetched him to rights. A look of pleased wonder passed over 

 his clumsy features as the latter did its work. Caliban him- 

 self could not have been more curiously surprised. 



This was not o\ir last stick: there were other awkward 

 rapids near by ; but by dint of wading, shouldering, pulling 

 and tracking, we got over the last of them and into a deep 

 channel for good, having advanced only five miles after a 

 day of incessant toil, most of it in the water. 



Our camp that night was a memorable one. The day was 

 the fiftieth anniversary of Father Lacombe's ministration 

 as a missionary in the North- West, and all joined in pre- 

 senting him with a suitable address, handsomely engrossed 

 by Mr. Prudhomme on birch bark, and signed by the whole 

 party. A poem, too, composed by Mr. Cote, a gentleman 

 of literary gifts and taste, also written on bark, was read 

 and presented at the same time.* Pere Lacombe made a 

 touching impromptu reply, which was greatly appreciated. 

 Many of us were not of the worthy Father's communion, yet 

 there was but one feeling, that of deep respect for the labours 

 of this celebrated missionary, whose life had been a continu- 

 ous effort to help the unbefriended Indian into the new but 



* The poem, the text of which was secured from the author too late for 

 insertion here, will be found in the Appendix, p. 490. 



