32 



journal of a Voyage through the* 



We now steered W est five mites, when we again landed, 

 ; and found two families, containing seven people, but had 

 reason to believe that there were others hidden in the 

 woods. We received from them two dozen of hares, and 

 they were about to boil two more, which they also gave us. 

 We were not ungrateful for their kindness, and left them. 

 Our course was now North- West four miles, and at nine 

 we landed and pitched our tents, when one of our people 

 killed a grey crane. Our conductor renewed his com- 

 plaints, not, as he assured us, from any apprehension of 

 our ill-treatment, but of the Esquimaux, whom he repre- 

 sented as a very wicked and malignant people ; who would 

 put us all to death. He added, also, that it was but two 

 summers since a large party of them came up this river, 

 and killed many of his relations. Two Indians followed 

 us from the last lodges. 



Wednesday 8. At half past two in the morning we em- 

 barked, and steered a Westerly course, and soon after put 

 ashore at two lodges of nine Indians. We made them a 

 few trifling presents, but without disembarking, and had 

 proceeded but a small distance from thence, when we ob- 

 served several smokes beneath an hill, on the North shore, 

 and on our approach we perceived the natives climbing the 

 ascent to gain the woods. The Indians, however, in the 

 two small canoes which were a-head of us, having assured 

 them of our friendly intentions, they returned to their fires, 

 and we disembarked. Several of them were clad in hare- 

 skins, but in every other circumstance they resembled 

 those whom we had already seen. We were, however, 

 informed that they were of a different tribe, called the 

 Hare Indians, as hares and fish are their principal support, 

 from the scarcity of rein-deer and beaver, which are the 

 only animals of the larger kind that frequent this part of 

 the country. They were twenty-five in number ; and 

 among them was a woman who was afflicted with an abcess 

 in the belly, and reduced, in consequence, to a mere ske- 

 leton : at the same time several old women were singing 

 and howling around her ; but whether these noises were to 

 operate as a charm for her cure, or merely to amuse and 

 console her, I do not pretend to determine. A small 

 quantity of our usual presents were received by them with 

 the greatest satisfaction. 



Here we made an exchange of our guide, who had be- 

 come so troublesome that we were obliged to watch him 



