It then became necessary to urge their attention to them; but it was
evident from the determined commercial opposition and the total want of
intercourse between the two Companies that we could not expect to receive
any cordial advice or the assurance of the aid of both without devising
some expedient to bring the parties together. I therefore caused a tent
to be pitched at a distance from both establishments and solicited the
gentlemen of both Companies to meet Mr. Back and myself there for the
purpose of affording us their combined assistance.
With this request they immediately complied and on May 25th we were
joined at the tent by Mr. Stuart and Mr. Grant of the North-West Company
and Mr. Colin Robertson of the Hudson's Bay Company, all of whom kindly
gave very satisfactory answers to a series of questions which we had
drawn up for the occasion and promised all the aid in their power.
PREPARATIONS FOR OUR JOURNEY TO THE NORTHWARD.
Furnished with the information thus obtained we proceeded to make some
arrangements respecting the obtaining of men and the stores we should
require for their equipment as well as for presents to the Indians; and
on the following day a requisition was made on the Companies for eight
men each and whatever useful stores they could supply. We learned with
regret that, in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of their
goods in support of the opposition, their supply to us would of necessity
be very limited. The men too were backward in offering their services,
especially those of the Hudson's Bay Company who demanded a much higher
rate of wages than I considered it proper to grant.
June 3.
Mr. Smith, a partner of the North-West Company, arrived from the Great
Slave Lake bearing the welcome news that the principal chief of the
Copper Indians had received the communication of our arrival with joy and
given all the intelligence he possessed respecting the route to the
sea-coast by the Copper-Mine River; and that he and a party of his men,
at the instance of Mr. Wentzel, a clerk of the North-West Company whom
they wished might go along with them, had engaged to accompany the
Expedition as guides and hunters. They were to wait our arrival at Fort
Providence on the north side of the Slave Lake. Their information
coincided with that given by Beaulieu. They had no doubt of our being
able to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling to the coast. This
agreeable intelligence had a happy effect upon the Canadian voyagers,
many of their fears being removed: several of them seemed now disposed to
volunteer; and indeed on the same evening two men from the North-West
Company offered themselves and were accepted.
