Belanger's Situation However Required Our
First Care As He Came In Almost Speechless And Covered With Ice, Having
Fallen Into A Rapid And, For The Third Time Since We Left The Coast,
Narrowly Escaped Drowning.
He did not recover sufficiently to answer our
questions until we had rubbed him for some time, changed his dress, and
given him some warm soup.
My companions nursed him with the greatest
kindness and the desire of restoring him to health seemed to absorb all
regard for their own situation. I witnessed with peculiar pleasure this
conduct, so different from that which they had recently pursued when
every tender feeling was suspended by the desire of self-preservation.
They now no longer betrayed impatience or despondency but were composed
and cheerful and had entirely given up the practice of swearing, to which
the Canadian voyagers are so lamentably addicted. Our conversation
naturally turned upon the prospect of getting relief and upon the means
which were best adapted for obtaining it. The absence of all traces of
Indians on Winter River convinced me that they were at this time on the
way to Fort Providence and that, by proceeding towards that post, we
should overtake them as they move slowly when they have their families
with them. This route also offered us the prospect of killing deer in the
vicinity of Reindeer Lake, in which neighbourhood our men in their
journey to and fro last winter had always found them abundant. Upon these
grounds I determined on taking the route to Fort Providence as soon as
possible, and wrote to Mr. Back, desiring him to join me at Reindeer Lake
and detailing the occurrences since we parted, that our friends might
receive relief in case of any accident happening to me.
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