Up To The Period Of His Return
To The Tent His Conduct Had Been Good And Respectful To The Officers, And
In A Conversation Between Captain Franklin, Mr. Hood, And Myself, At
Obstruction Rapid, It Had Been Proposed To Give Him A Reward Upon Our
Arrival At A Post.
His principles however, unsupported by a belief in the
divine truths of Christianity, were unable to withstand the pressure of
severe distress.
His countrymen, the Iroquois, are generally Christians,
but he was totally uninstructed and ignorant of the duties inculcated by
Christianity, and from his long residence in the Indian country seems to
have imbibed or retained the rules of conduct which the southern Indians
prescribe to themselves.
On the two following days we had mild but thick snowy weather and, as the
view was too limited to enable us to preserve a straight course, we
remained encamped amongst a few willows and dwarf pines about five miles
from the tent. We found a species of cornicularia, a kind of lichen that
was good to eat when moistened and toasted over the fire, and we had a
good many pieces of singed buffalo hide remaining.
On the 26th, the weather being clear and extremely cold, we resumed our
march which was very painful from the depth of the snow, particularly on
the margins of the small lakes that lay in our route. We frequently sunk
under the load of our blankets and were obliged to assist each other in
getting up.
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