CHAPTER III. 

 TREATY AT LE88EB SLAVE LAKE. 



Om- the 19th of June our little fleet landed at Willow 

 Point. There was a rude jetty, or wharf, at this place, 

 below the little trading village referred to, at which loaded 

 boats discharged. Formerly they could ascend the sluggish 

 and shallow channel connecting the expansion of the Heart 

 River, called Buffalo Lake, with the head of Lesser Slave 

 Lake, a distance of about three miles, and as far as the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's post,' around which another trad- 

 ing village had gathered. This temporary fall in the water 

 level partly accounted for the growth of the village at 

 Willow Point, where sufficient interests had arisen to cause 

 a jealousy between the two hamlets. Once upon a time 

 Atawaywe Kamick was supreme. This is the name the 

 Crees give to the Hudson's Bay Company, meaning literally 

 " the Buying House." But now there were many stores, 

 and " free trade " was rather in the ascendant. In the 

 middle was safety, and therefore the Commissioners decided 

 to pitch camp on a beautiful flat facing the south and front- 

 ing the channel, and midway between the two opposing 

 points of trade. A feu de joie by the white residents of the 

 region, of whom there were some seventy or eighty, wel- 

 comed the arrival of the boats at the wharf, and after a 

 short stay here, simply to collect baggage, a start was made 

 for the camping ground, where our numerous tents soon 

 gave the place the appearance of a village of our own. 



Tepees were to be seen in all directions from our camp — 

 the lodges of the Indians and half-breeds. But no sooner 

 was the treaty site apparent than a general concentration 



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