parts water,) and distributed among them several fathoms of tobacco,
and they retired to their tents to spend the night in merriment.
Adam, our interpreter, being desirous of uniting himself with the
Copper Indians, applied to me for his discharge, which I granted,
and gave him a bill on the Hudson’s Bay Company for the amount
of his wages. These arrangements being completed, we prepared to
cross the lake.
Mr. Weeks provided Dr. Richardson and I with a cariole each,
and we set out at eleven A.M., on the 15th, for Moose-deer Island.
Our party consisted of Belanger, who had charge of a sledge laden
with the bedding, and drawn by two dogs, our two cariole men,
Benoit, and Augustus. Previous to our departure, we had another
conference with Akaitcho, who, as well as the rest of his party, bade
us farewell, with a warmth of manner rare among the Indians.
The badness of Belanger’s dogs, and the roughness of the ice,
impeded our progress very much, and obliged us to encamp early.
We had a good fire made of the drift wood, which lines the shores
of this lake in great quantities. The next day was very cold. We
began the journey at nine A.M., and encamped at the Big Cape,
having this day also made a short march, in consequence of the
roughness of the ice.
On the 17th, we encamped on the most southerly of the Rein-deer
Islands. This night was very stormy, but the wind abating in the
morning, we proceeded, and by sunset reached the fishing-huts of
the Company at Stony Point. Here we found Mr. Andrews, a clerk
of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who regaled us with a supper of excellent
white fish, for which this part of Slave Lake is particularly
celebrated. Two men with sledges arrived soon afterwards, sent by
Mr. M°Vicar, who expected us about this time. We set off in the
morning before day-break, with several companions, and arrived at
Moose-deer Island about one P.M. Here we were received with
the utmost hospitality by Mr. M'Vicar, the chief trader of the
Hudson’s Bay Company in this district, as well as by his assistant,
Mr. M'Auley. We had also the happiness of joining our friend,
Mr. Back; our feelings on this occasion can be well imagined, and
we were deeply impressed with gratitude to him for his exertions in
sending the supply of food to Port Enterprise, to which, under
Divine Providence, we felt the preservation of our lives to be owing.
He gave us an affecting detail of the proceedings of his party since
our separation; the substance of which I shall convey to the reader,
by the following extracts from his Journal.
Mu. BACK’S NARRATIVE.
821 C a p t a in F r a n k l in having directed me to proceed with
October 4. gt. Germain, Belanger, and Beauparlant, to Fort Enterprise,
in the hope of obtaining relief for the party, I took leave of my companions,
and set out on my journey, through a very swampy country,
which with the cloudy state of the weather and a keen north-east
wind, accompanied by frequent snow-showers, retarded us so much,
that we scarcely got more than four miles before we halted for the
night, and made a meal upon tripe de roche and some old leather.
■ On the 5th we set out early, amidst extremely deep snow, sinking
frequently in it up to the thighs, a labour, in our enfeebled and
almost worn out state, that nothing but the cheering hopes of
reaching the house and affording relief to our friends, could have
enabled us to support. As we advanced we found to our mortification,
that the tripe de roche, hitherto our sole dependence, began to
be scarce, so that we could only collect sufficient to make half a kettleful,
which, with the addition of a partridge each, that St. Germam
had killed, yielded a tolerable meal; during this day I felt very weak