The
person I engaged at Cathawhachaga to carry my canoe proving too weak for the
task, another of my crew was obliged to exchange loads with him, which seemed
perfectly agreeable to all parties; and as we walked but short days' journies,
and deer were very plentiful, all things went on very smoothly. Nothing
material happened till the eighth, when we were near losing the quadrant and
all our powder from the following circumstance: the fellow who had been
released from carrying the canoe proving too weak, as hath been already
observed, had, after the exchange, nothing to carry but my powder and his own
trifles; the latter were indeed very inconsiderable, not equal in size and
weight to a soldier's knapsack. As I intended to have a little sport with the
deer, and knowing his load to be much lighter than mine, I gave him the
quadrant {42} and stand to carry, which he took without the least hesitation,
or seeming ill-will. Having thus eased myself for the present of a heavy and
cumbersome part of my load, I set out early in the morning with some of the
Indian men; and after walking about eight or nine miles, saw, from the top of a
high hill, a great number of deer feeding in a neighbouring valley; on which we
laid down our loads and erected a flag, as a signal for the others to pitch
their tents there for the night. We then pursued our hunting, which proved very
successful. At night, however, when we came to the hill where we had left our
baggage, I found that only part of the Indians had arrived, and that the man
who had been entrusted with my powder and quadrant, had set off another way,
with a small party of Indians that had been in our company that morning. The
evening being far advanced, we were obliged to defer going in search of him
till the morning, and as his track could not be easily discovered in the
Summer, the Southern Indians, as well as myself, were very uneasy, fearing we
had lost the powder, which was to provide us with food and raiment the
remainder of our journey. The very uncourteous behaviour of the Northern
Indians then in[93]company, gave me little hopes of
receiving assistance from them, any longer than I had wherewithal to reward
them for their trouble and expense; for during the whole time I had been with
them, not one of them had offered to give me the least morsel of victuals,
without asking something in exchange, which, in general, was three times the
value of {43} what they could have got for the same articles, had they carried
them to the Factory, though several hundred miles distant.
I
got up at daybreak, and, with the two Southern Indians, set out in quest of our
deserter. Many hours elapsed in fruitless search after him, as we could not
discover a single track in the direction which we were informed he had taken.
The day being almost spent without the least appearance of success, I proposed
repairing to the place where I had delivered the quadrant to him, in hopes of
seeing some track in the moss that might lead to the way the Indians were gone
whom our deserter had accompanied. On our arrival at that place, we found they
had struck down toward a little river which they had crossed the morning
before; and there, to our great joy, we found the quadrant and the bag of
powder lying on the top of a high stone, but not a human being was to be seen.
On {45} examining the powder, we found that the bag had been opened, and part
of it taken out; but, notwithstanding our loss was very considerable, we
returned with light hearts to the place at which we had been the night before,
where we found our baggage safe, but all the Indians gone; they had, however,
been so considerate as to set up marks to direct us what course to steer. By
the time we had adjusted our bundles, the day was quite spent; seeing, however,
a smoke, or rather a fire, in the direction we were ordered to steer, we bent
our way towards it; and a little after ten o'clock at night came up with the
main body of the Indians;[95]when, after refreshing
ourselves with a plentiful supper, the first morsel we had tasted that day, we
retired to rest, which I at least enjoyed with better success than the
preceding night.
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