Having Received One Hundred Balls From Fort Providence By Belanger We Distributed Them Amongst The Indians, Informing The Leader At

The same time that the residence of so large a party as his at the house, amounting with women and

Children to forty souls, was producing a serious reduction in our stock of provision. He acknowledged the justice of the statement and promised to remove as soon as his party had prepared snowshoes and sledges for themselves. Under one pretext or other however their departure was delayed until the 10th of the month when they left us, having previously received one of our fishing-nets and all the ammunition we possessed. The leader left his aged mother and two female attendants to our care, requesting that if she died during his absence she might be buried at a distance from the fort that he might not be reminded of his loss when he visited us.

Keskarrah the guide also remained behind with his wife and daughter. The old man has become too feeble to hunt and his time is almost entirely occupied in attendance upon his wife who has been long affected with an ulcer on the face which has nearly destroyed her nose.

Lately he made an offering to the water spirits whose wrath he apprehended to be the cause of her malady. It consisted of a knife, a piece of tobacco, and some other trifling articles which were tied up in a small bundle and committed to the rapid with a long prayer.

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