After the 16th we had a
succession of cold, snowy, and windy weather. We had become anxious to
hear of the arrival of Mr. Back and his party at Fort Providence. The
Indians, who had calculated the period at which a messenger ought to have
returned from thence to be already passed, became impatient when it had
elapsed and, with their usual love of evil augury, tormented us by their
melancholy forebodings. At one time they conjectured that the whole party
had fallen through the ice; at another that they had been waylaid and cut
off by the Dog-Ribs. In vain did we urge the improbability of the former
accident, or the peaceable character of the Dog-Ribs, so little in
conformity with the latter. "The ice at this season was deceitful," they
said "and the Dog-Ribs, though unwarlike, were treacherous." These
assertions, so often repeated, had some effect upon the spirits of our
Canadian voyagers who seldom weigh any opinion they adopt, but we
persisted in treating their fears as chimerical for, had we seemed to
listen to them for a moment, it is more than probable that the whole of
our Indians would have gone to Fort Providence in search of supplies, and
we should have found it extremely difficult to have recovered them.
The matter was put to rest by the appearance of Belanger on the morning
of the 23rd and the Indians, now running into the opposite extreme, were
disposed to give us more credit for our judgment than we deserved. They
had had a tedious and fatiguing journey to Fort Providence and for some
days were destitute of provisions.
Belanger arrived alone; he had walked constantly for the last
six-and-thirty hours, leaving his Indian companions encamped at the last
woods, they being unwilling to accompany him across the barren grounds
during the storm that had prevailed for several days and blew with
unusual violence on the morning of his arrival. His locks were matted
with snow and he was encrusted with ice from head to foot so that we
scarcely recognised him when he burst in upon us. We welcomed him with
the usual shake of the hand but were unable to give him the glass of rum
which every voyager receives on his arrival at a trading post.
As soon as his packet was thawed we eagerly opened it to obtain our
English letters. The latest were dated on the preceding April. They came
by way of Canada and were brought up in September to Slave Lake by
North-West Company's canoes.
We were not so fortunate with regard to our stores; of ten pieces, or
bales of 90 pounds weight, which had been sent from York Factory by
Governor Williams five of the most essential had been left at the Grand
Rapid on the Saskatchewan, owing, as far as we could judge from the
accounts that reached us, to the misconduct of the officer to whom they
were entrusted and who was ordered to convey them to Cumberland House.
Being overtaken by some of the North-West Company's canoes he had
insisted on their taking half of his charge as it was intended for the
service of Government.
