And I think it due to that gentleman to give his
own explanation of the unfortunate circumstances which prevented him from
fulfilling my instructions respecting the provisions to have been left
for us at Fort Enterprise. (See below.)
In a subsequent conversation he stated to me that the two Indians who
were actually with him at Fort Enterprise whilst he remained there
altering his canoe were prevented from hunting, one by an accidental
lameness, the other by the fear of meeting alone some of the Dog-Rib
Indians.
We were here furnished with a canoe by Mr. Smith and a bowman to act as
our guide and, having left Fort Chipewyan on the 5th, we arrived on the
4th of July at Norway House. Finding at this place that canoes were about
to go down to Montreal I gave all our Canadian voyagers their discharges
and sent them by those vessels, furnishing them with orders on the Agent
of the Hudson's Bay Company for the amount of their wages. We carried
Augustus down to York Factory where we arrived on the 14th of July, and
were received with every mark of attention and kindness by Mr. Simpson
the Governor, Mr. McTavish, and indeed by all the officers of the United
Companies. And thus terminated our long, fatiguing, and disastrous
travels in North America, having journeyed by water and by land
(including our navigation of the Polar Sea) five thousand five hundred
and fifty miles.
...
MR. WENTZEL'S EXPLANATION.
After you sent me back from the mouth of the Copper-Mine River and I had
overtaken the Leader, Guides, and Hunters, on the fifth day, leaving the
sea-coast, as well as our journey up the River, they always expressed the
same desire of fulfilling their promises, although somewhat dissatisfied
at being exposed to privation while on our return from a scarcity of
animals for, as I have already stated in my first communication from
Moose-Deer Island, we had been eleven days with no other food but tripe
de roche. In the course of this time an Indian with his wife and child,
who were travelling in company with us, were left in the rear and are
since supposed to have perished through want, as no intelligence had been
received of them at Fort Providence in December last. On the seventh day
after I had joined the Leader, etc. etc., and journeying on together, all
the Indians excepting Petit Pied and Bald-Head left me to seek their
families and crossed Point Lake at the Crow's Nest, where Humpy had
promised to meet his brother Ekehcho (Akaitcho the Leader) with the
families but did not fulfil, nor did any of my party of Indians know
where to find them, for we had frequently made fires to apprise them of
our approach yet none appeared in return as answers.
