Journal of a Voyage through the 



themselves, and that he would be killed if he continued 



with me. Nor did this proposition, aided as it was by 

 the solicitation of the women, fail of producing a consider- 

 able effect upon him, though he endeavoured to conceal 

 it from me. 



I now found that it would be fruitless for me to expect 

 any accounts of the country, or the other great river, till 

 I got to the river of the Bear Lake, where I expected to 

 find some of the natives, who promised to wait for us 

 there. These people had actually mentioned this river to 

 me when we passed them, but I then paid no attention to 

 that circumstance, as I imagined it to be either a misun- 

 derstanding of 11137 interpreter, or that it was an inven- 

 tion which, with their other lies, might tend to prevent 

 me from proceeding down their river. 



We were plentifully supplied with fish, as well dry as 

 fresh, by these people ; they also gathered as many hurtle 

 berries as we chose, for which we paid with the usual ar- 

 ticles of beads, awls, knives, and tin. I purchased a few 

 beaver-skins of them, which, according to their accounts, 

 are not very numerous in this country ; and that they do 

 not abound in moose-deer and buffaloes. They were alarm- 

 ed for some of their young men, who were killing geese 

 higher up the river, and entreated us to do them no harm. 

 About sun-set I was under the necessity of shooting one 

 of their dogs, as we could not keep those animals from 

 our baggage. It was in vain that I had remonstrated on 

 this subject, so that I was obliged to commit the act which 

 has been just mentioned. When these people heard the 

 report of the pistol, and saw the dog dead, they were 

 seized with a very general alarm, and the women tools 

 their children on their backs and ran into the woods. I 

 ordered the cause of this act of severity to be explained, 

 w r ith the assurance that no injury would be offered to them- 

 selves. The woman, however, to whom the dog belong- 

 ed, was very much affected, and declared that the loss of 

 five children, during the preceding winter, had not affected 

 her so much as the death of this animal. But her grief 

 was not of very long duration ; and a few beads, &c. soon 

 assuaged her sorrow. But as they can, without difficulty, 

 get rid of their affliction, they can with equal ease assume 

 it, and feign sickness if it be necessary with the same ver- 

 satility. When w r e arrived this morning, we found the 

 women, in tears, from an apprehension that we were come 



