Seeing nothing of
Belanger today we gave him up for lost.
On the 11th, after waiting until late in the morning for Michel who did
not come, Hepburn and I loaded ourselves with the bedding and,
accompanied by Mr. Hood, set out for the pines. Mr. Hood was much
affected with dimness of sight, giddiness, and other symptoms of extreme
debility, which caused us to move very slowly and to make frequent halts.
On arriving at the pines we were much alarmed to find that Michel was
absent. We feared that he had lost his way in coming to us in the
morning, although it was not easy to conjecture how that could have
happened, as our footsteps of yesterday were very distinct. Hepburn went
back for the tent and returned with it after dusk, completely worn out
with the fatigue of the day. Michel too arrived at the same time and
relieved our anxiety on his account. He reported that he had been in
chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping-place in the morning
and, although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf
which had been killed by the stroke of a deer's horn and had brought a
part of it. We implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards became
convinced from circumstances, the detail of which may be spared, that it
must have been a portion of the body of Belanger or Perrault. A question
of moment here presents itself, namely whether he actually murdered these
men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in the snow.
Captain Franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter from
knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former
idea, and that both Belanger and Perrault had been sacrificed. When
Perrault turned back Captain Franklin watched him until he reached a
small group of willows which was immediately adjoining to the fire and
concealed it from view, and at this time the smoke of fresh fuel was
distinctly visible. Captain Franklin conjectures that Michel, having
already destroyed Belanger, completed his crime by Perrault's death in
order to screen himself from detection. Although this opinion is founded
only on circumstances and is unsupported by direct evidence it has been
judged proper to mention it, especially as the subsequent conduct of the
man showed that he was capable of committing such a deed. The
circumstances are very strong. It is not easy to assign any other
adequate motive for his concealing from us that Perrault had turned back,
while his request overnight that we should leave him the hatchet and his
cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a
hunter who makes use only of his knife when he kills a deer, seem to
indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he
knew to be frozen. These opinions however are the result of subsequent
consideration.
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