40 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



their necessary equipments ; and they sti- 

 pulated that their wages should be con- 

 tinued until their arrival in Montreal, or 

 their rejoining the service of their present 

 employers. 



I delivered to Mr. Robertson an official 

 request, that the stores we had left at York 

 Factory and the Rock Depot, with some 

 other supplies, might be forwarded to Slave 

 Lake by the first brigade of canoes which 

 should come in. He also took charge of 

 my letters addressed to the Admiralty. 

 Five men were afterwards engaged from 

 the North- West Company for the same 

 wages, and under the same stipulations as 

 the others, besides an interpreter for the 

 Copper Indians; but this man required 

 three thousand livres Halifax currency, 

 which we were obliged to give him, as his 

 services were indispensable. 



The extreme scarcity of provision at the 

 posts rendered it necessary to despatch all 

 our men to the Mammawee Lake, where 

 they might procure their own subsistence 

 by fishing. The women and children 



