i 



62 'Journal of a Voyage through the 



to delineate, and accordingly traced out a very long point 

 of land between the rivers, though without paying the 

 least attention to their courses, which he represented as 

 running into the great lake, at the extremity of which, as 

 he had been told by Indians of other nations, there was a 

 Belhoullay Couin, or White Man's Fort. This I took to 

 be Unalascha Fort, and consequently the river to the West 

 to be Cook's River ; and that the body of water or sea 

 into which this river discharges itself at Whale Island, 

 communicates with Norton Sound. I made an advanta- 

 geous proposition to this man to accompany me across the 

 mountains to the other river, but he refused it. At the 

 same time he recommended me to the people already 

 mentioned, who were fishing in the neighbourhood, as bet*, 

 ter qualified to assist me in the undertaking which I had 

 proposed. 



One of this small company of natives was grievously af- 

 flicted with ulcers in his back ; and the only attention 

 which was paid to his miserable condition, as far at least 

 as we could discover, proceeded from a woman, who 

 carefully employed a bunch of feathers in preventing the 

 flies from settling upon his sores. 



At ten this morning we landed near the lodges which 

 had already been mentioned to us, and I ordered my people 

 to make preparation for passing the remaining part of the 

 day here, in order to obtain that familiarity with the na- 

 tives which might induce them to afford me, without re- 

 serve, the information that I should require from them. 

 This object, however, was in danger of being altogether 

 frustrated by a misunderstanding that had taken place be- 

 tween the natives and my young Indians, who were already 

 arrived there. Before the latter could disembark, the for- 

 mer seized the canoe, and dragged it on shore, and in this 

 act of violence the boat was broken, from the weight of the 

 persons in it. This insult was on the point of being seri- 

 ously revenged, when I arrived, to prevent the conse- 

 quences of such a disposition. The variation of the com- 

 pass was about twenty-nine degrees to the East. 



At four in the afternoon I ordered my interpreter to 

 harangue the natives, assembled in council j but his long 

 discourse obtained little satisfactory intelligence from 

 them. Their account of the river to the Westward, was 

 similar to that which we had already received ; and their 

 description of the inhabitants of that country, was still 



