Beaver to each of the
persons who had come to our relief at Fort Enterprise. As the debts of
Akaitcho and his hunters had been effaced at the time of his engagement
with us we placed a sum equal to the amount of provision they had
recently supplied to their credit on the Company's books. These things
being, through the moderation of the Indians, adjusted with an unexpected
facility, we gave them a keg of mixed liquors (five parts water) and
distributed among them several fathoms of tobacco, and they retired to
their tents to spend the night in merriment.
Adam, our interpreter, being desirous of uniting himself with the Copper
Indians, applied to me for his discharge which I granted, and gave him a
bill on the Hudson's Bay Company for the amount of his wages. These
arrangements being completed we prepared to cross the lake.
Mr. Weeks provided Dr. Richardson and I with a cariole each and we set
out at eleven A.M. on the 15th for Moose-Deer Island. Our party consisted
of Belanger who had charge of a sledge laden with the bedding and drawn
by two dogs, our two cariole men, Benoit and Augustus. Previous to our
departure we had another conference with Akaitcho who, as well as the
rest of his party, bade us farewell with a warmth of manner rare among
the Indians.
