He Returned Without Success, Not Having Seen Any
Animals.
We had nothing to eat.
In the morning of the 14th the part of the lake before us was quite
frozen. There was so much uncertainty in St. Germain's answers as to the
chance of any Indians being in the direction we were then going (although
he had previously said that the leader had told him he should be there)
and he gave so much dissatisfaction in his hunting excursions that I was
induced to send a note to the Commander, whom I supposed to be by this
time at Fort Enterprise, to inform him of our situation; not that I
imagined for a moment he could amend it, but that by all returning to the
fort we might perhaps have better success in hunting; with this view I
despatched Belanger, much against his inclination, and told him to return
as quickly as possible to a place about four miles farther on where we
intended to fish and to await his arrival. The men were so weak this day
that I could get neither of them to move from the encampment, and it was
only necessity that compelled them to cut wood for fuel, in performing
which operation Beauparlant's face became so dreadfully swelled that he
could scarcely see; I myself lost my temper on the most trivial
circumstances and was become very peevish; the day was fine but cold with
a freezing north-east wind. We had nothing to eat.
October 15.
The night was calm and clear but it was not before two in the afternoon
that we set out, and the one was so weak and the other so full of
complaints that we did not get more than three-quarters of a mile from
our last encampment before we were obliged to put up, but in this
distance we were fortunate enough to kill a partridge, the bones of which
were eaten and the remainder reserved for baits to fish with. We however
collected sufficient tripe de roche to make a meal and I anxiously
awaited Belanger's return to know what course to take. I was now so much
reduced that my shoulders were as if they would fall from my body, my
legs seemed unable to support me and, in the disposition in which I then
found myself, had it not been for the remembrance of my friends behind
who relied on me for relief as well as the persons of whom I had charge,
I certainly should have preferred remaining where I was to the miserable
pain of attempting to move.
October 16.
We waited until two in the afternoon for Belanger but, not seeing
anything of him on the lake, we set out, purposing to encamp at the
Narrows, the place which was said to be so good for fishing and where,
according to St. Germain's account, the Indians never failed to catch
plenty; its distance at most could not be more than two miles.
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