74 



yournal of a Voyage through the 



I requested the English chief to return with me to the 

 other side of the river, in order that he might proceed to 

 discover the natives, whose tracks and habitations we had 

 Been there ; but he was backward in complying with my 

 desire, and proposed to send the young men ; but I could 

 not trust to them, and at the same time was become rather 

 doubtful of him. They were still afraid lest I should ob- 

 tain such accounts of the other river as would induce me 

 to travel over land to it, and that they should be called 

 upon to accompany me. I was, indeed, informed by one 

 of my own people, that the English Chief, his wives and 

 companions, had determined to leave me on this side of 

 the Slave Lake, in order to go to the country of the Bea- 

 ver Indians ; and that about the middle of the winter he 

 would return to that lake, where he had appointed to meet 

 some of his relations, who, during the last spring, had been 

 engaged in war. 



We now traversed the river, and continued to track the 

 Indians till past twelve, when we lost all traces of them ; 

 in consequence, as we imagined, of their having crossed 

 to the Eastern side. We saw several dogs on both shores ; 

 and one of the young Indians killed a wolf, which the men 

 ate with great satisfaction : we shot, also, fifteen young 

 geese that were now beginning to fly. It was eight when 

 we took our evening station, having lost four hours in 

 making our traverses. There was' no interruption of the 

 fine weather during the course of this day. 



Wednesday 12. We proceeded on our voyage at three 

 this morning, and dispatched the two young Indians across 

 the river, that we might not miss any of the natives that 

 should be on the banks of it. W e saw many places where 

 fires had been lately made along the beach, as well as fire 

 running in the woods. At four we arrived at an encamp- 

 ment which had been left this morning. Their tracks 

 were observable in several places in the woods, and as it 

 might be presumed that they could not be at any great 

 distance, it was proposed to the chief to accompany me in 

 search of them. We accordingly, though with some hesi- 

 tation on his part, penetrated several miles into the woods, 

 but without discovering the objects of our research. The 

 fire had spread all over the country, and had burned about 

 three inches of the black, light soil, which covered a body 

 of cold clay, that was so hard as not to receive the least 

 impression of our feet. At ten we returned from our uu- 



