260 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



periencing the slightest inconvenience, or 

 complaining of tooth-ache. 



After the men had retired, an Indian, 

 who had accompanied them from Fort Pro- 

 vidence, informed me that they had broached 

 the cask on their way up and spent two 

 days in drinking. This instance of breach 

 of trust was excessively distressing to me ; 

 I felt for their privations and fatigues, and 

 was disposed to seize every opportunity of 

 alleviating them, but this, combined with 

 many instances of petty dishonesty with 

 regard to meat, showed how little confi- 

 dence could be put in a Canadian voyager 

 when food or spirits were in question. We 

 had been indeed made acquainted with their 

 character on these points by the traders ; 

 but we thought that when they saw their 

 officers living under equal if not greater 

 privations than themselves, they would have 

 been prompted by some degree of generous 

 feeling to abstain from those depredations 

 which, under ordinary circumstances, they 

 would scarcely have blushed to be detected 

 in. 



