38 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



expenditure of their goods in support of the 

 opposition, their supply to us would, of 

 necessity, be very limited. The men, too, 

 were backward in offering their services, 

 especially those of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, who demanded a much higher rate of 

 wages than I considered it proper to grant. 



June 3. — Mr. Smith, a partner of the 

 North-West Company, arrived from the 

 Great Slave Lake, bearing the welcome 

 news that the principal Chief of the Copper 

 Indians had received the communication of 

 our arrival with joy, and given all the intel- 

 ligence he possessed respecting the route to 

 the sea-coast by the Copper-Mine River; 

 and that he and a party of his men, at the 

 instance of Mr. Wentzel, a clerk of the 

 North-West Company, whom they wished 

 might go along with them, had engaged to 

 accompany the expedition as guides and 

 hunters. They were to wait our arrival at 

 Fort Providence, on the north side of the 

 Slave Lake. Their information coincided 

 with that given by Beaulieu. They had no 

 doubt of our being able to obtain the means 



