We
Promised To Send For Them When We Had Paved The Way For Their Reception,
But Akaitcho, Ever Ready To
Augur misfortune, expressed his belief that
our messengers had been killed and that the Esquimaux, warned of our
approach, were
Lying in wait for us, and "although," said he, "your party
may be sufficiently strong to repulse any hostile attack, my band is too
weak to offer effectual resistance when separated from you, and therefore
we are determined to go on with you or to return to our lands." After
much argument however he yielded and agreed to stay behind, provided Mr.
Wentzel would remain with him. This gentleman was accordingly left with a
Canadian attendant and they promised not to pass a range of hills then in
view to the northward unless we sent notice to them.
The river during the whole of this day's voyage flowed between alternate
cliffs of looses and intermixed with gravel and red sandstone rocks, and
was everywhere shallow and rapid. As its course was very crooked much
time was spent in examining the different rapids previous to running
them, but the canoes descended, except at a single place, without any
difficulty. Most of the officers and half the men marched along the land
to lighten the canoes and reconnoitre the country, each person being
armed with a gun and a dagger. Arriving at a range of mountains which had
terminated our view yesterday, we ascended it with much eagerness,
expecting to see the rapid that Mr. Hearne visited near its base, and to
gain a view of the sea; but our disappointment was proportionably great
when we beheld beyond a plain, similar to that we had just left,
terminated by another range of trap hills, between whose tops the summits
of some distant blue mountains appeared.
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