OF THE POLAR SEA. 



295 



summer months on the banks of the river near the Copper Moun- 

 tain ; but we had no goods to spare, and I could not venture to send 

 any part of our small stock of ammunition until I saw what the 

 necessities of our own party required. I told them, however, that 

 I would gladly receive either provisions or leather when we met, and 

 would pay for them by notes on the North- West Company's post ; 

 but, to prevent any misunderstanding with Mr. Weeks, I requested 

 them to take their winter's collection of furs to Fort Providence 

 before they went to the Copper-Mine Kiver. They assured me that 

 the Hook would watch anxiously for our passing, as he was unwell, 

 and wished to consult the doctor. 



Several circumstances having come lately to my knowledge that 

 led me to suspect the fidelity of our interpreters, they were exa- 

 mined upon this subject. It appeared that in their intercourse with 

 the Indians they have contracted very fearful ideas of the danger of 

 our enterprise, which augment as the time of our departure draws 

 near, and have not hesitated to express their dislike to the journey 

 in strong terms amongst the Canadians, who are accustomed to pay 

 much deference to the opinions of an interpreter. But this is not 

 all ; I had more than sufficient reason for suspecting that they had 

 endeavoured to damp the exertions of the Indians, with the hope 

 that the want of provision in the spring would put an end to our 

 progress at once. St. Germain, in particular, had behaved in a very 

 equivocal way, since his journey to Slave Lake. He denied the 

 principal parts of the charge in a very dogged manner, but acknow- 

 ledged that he had told the leader that we had not paid him the 

 attention that a chief like him ought to have received ; and that we 

 had put a great affront on him in sending him only a small quantity 

 of rum. An artful man like St. Germain, possessing as he did such 

 a flow of language, and capable of saying even what he confessed to, 

 had the means of poisoning the minds of the Indians without com- 

 mitting himself by any direct assertion that they could communicate; 



