_Wednesday, 24._–M. Le Roux purchased of these Indians upwards of
eight packs of good beaver and marten skins; and there were not above
twelve of them qualified to kill beaver. The English chief got upwards
of an hundred skins on the score of debts due to him, of which he had
many outstanding in this country. Forty of them he gave on account of
debts due by him since the winters of 1786 and 1787, at the Slave Lake;
the rest he exchanged for rum and other necessary articles; and I added
a small quantity of that liquor as an encouraging present to him and his
young men. I had several consultations with these Copper Indian people,
but could obtain no information that was material to our expedition; nor
were they acquainted with any part of the river, which was the object of
my research, but the mouth of it. In order to save as much time as
possible in circumnavigating the bays, I engaged one of the Indians to
conduct us; and I accordingly equipped him with various articles of
clothing, etc. I also purchased a large new canoe, that he might embark
with the two young Indians in my service.
This day, at noon, I took an observation, which gave me 62. 24. North
latitude; the variation of the compass being about twenty-six or
twenty-seven degrees to the East.
In the afternoon I assembled the Indians, in order to inform them that I
should take my departure on the following day; but that people would
remain on the spot till their countrymen, whom they had mentioned,
should arrive; and that, if they brought a sufficient quantity of skins
to make it answer, the Canadians would return for more goods, with a
view to winter here, and build a fort,[1] which would be continued as
long as they should be found to deserve it. They assured me that it
would be a great encouragement to them to have a settlement of ours in
their country; and that they should exert themselves to the utmost to
kill beaver, as they would then be certain of getting an adequate value
for them. Hitherto, they said, the Chepewyans always pillaged them; or,
at most, gave little or nothing for the fruits of their labour, which
had greatly discouraged them; and that, in consequence of this
treatment, they had no motive to pursue the beaver, but to obtain a
sufficient quantity of food and raiment.
I now wrote to Messrs. Macleod and Mackenzie, and addressed my papers to
the former, at Athabasca.
