150 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION. [Jan. 25, 1858. 
difficulty in obtaining horses and a guide to Crow Wing, Minnesota 
territory, but at length succeeded, for the sum of 65 Z., in obtaining 
the services of a half-breed named Eobert Tate, and his horses, to 
take me there, a distance of about 520 miles. For this sum I was 
supplied with a horse to ride, besides the horses necessary to carry 
our baggage, bedding, and provisions. Unfortunately my horse 
was killed at Pembina, and I had to go on foot about 450 miles 
of the way: the snow, however, was so deep, and the weather so 
cold, that it did not much signify ; and we arrived at Crow Wing on 
the 19th of November. 
From Crow Wing there is stage conveyance to St. Paul and 
Prairie Le Chien, partly by coach and principally by waggons and 
sleighs. At Prairie Le Chien is the railway terminus, from which 
I proceeded via Chicago and Detroit to Montreal. 
* * * * * 
While I was at Eed Eiver on my way to this, I made my arrange- 
ments for proceeding next spring with the expedition, by engaging 
twenty men, and ordering them to proceed on the 10th of March, 
1858, with a sufficient number of dog-sleighs to conv.ey their provi- 
sions up to Carlton House, in order that all may be in readiness for 
as early a start as the season will permit. My course will be, in 
the first instance, to visit Eagle Hills, and thence to strike for the 
south branch of the Saskatchewan, and renew my explorations at 
that point where I left off at the end of September. I regret that I 
am obliged to engage so many men, as their pay and small rations 
will increase the expense of the expedition ; but with a smaller 
number it would be the height of imprudence to venture into the 
south-western part of the Blackfoot and Peagan country. A smaller 
number would only invite the Indians to attempts on the horses. 
It is true I have hitherto only travelled with thirteen men, but the 
Indian camps I have met (with one exception, at Eoche Percee). 
were small ones ; next year the camps I shall fall in with will be 
much larger, and to meet this I must increase the number of my 
men to thirty in all, viz., four men at Carlton, one man at Eed 
Eiver still under pay, five at Carlton to commence pay on 
April 1st, 1858, at 15L for six months, and twenty from Eed Eiver 
to commence pay March 10th, 1858, at 20 1. for six months. After 
this dangerous country shall have been traversed, much fewer men 
will suffice, by returning to the settlement on the Hudson Bay 
Company’s beaten track, via Edmonton. But the country the expe- 
dition will have to traverse next year, in order to fulfil its objects, 
will be so dangerous, that it would be impossible to fulfil my orders 
