Bickersteth's Scripture Help Was
Lying Open Beside The Body As If It Had Fallen From His Hand, And It Is
Probable That He Was Reading It At The Instant Of His Death.
We passed
the night in the tent together without rest, everyone being on his guard.
Next day, having determined on going to the fort, we began to patch and
prepare our clothes for the journey.
We singed the hair off a part of the
buffalo robe that belonged to Mr. Hood and boiled and ate it. Michel
tried to persuade me to go to the woods on the Copper-Mine River and hunt
for deer instead of going to the fort. In the afternoon, a flock of
partridges coming near the tent, he killed several which he shared with
us.
Thick snowy weather and a head-wind prevented us from starting the
following day but on the morning of the 23rd we set out, carrying with us
the remainder of the singed robe. Hepburn and Michel had each a gun and I
carried a small pistol which Hepburn had loaded for me. In the course of
the march Michel alarmed us much by his gestures and conduct, was
constantly muttering to himself, expressed an unwillingness to go to the
fort, and tried to persuade me to go to the southward to the woods where
he said he could maintain himself all the winter by killing deer. In
consequence of this behaviour and the expression of his countenance I
requested him to leave us and to go to the southward by himself.
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