He Added However That The
Esquimaux Were Very Treacherous And Therefore Recommended That We Should
Advance Towards Them With Caution.
The communications which the chief and the guides then gave respecting
the route to the Copper-Mine River and its course to the sea coincided in
every material point with the statements which were made by Boileau and
Black Meat at Chipewyan, but they differed in their descriptions of the
coast.
The information however, collected from both sources, was very
vague and unsatisfactory. None of his tribe had been more than three
days' march along the sea-coast to the eastward of the river's mouth.
As the water was unusually high this season the Indian guides recommended
our going by a shorter route to the Copper-Mine River than that they had
first proposed to Mr. Wentzel, and they assigned as a reason for the
change that the reindeer would be sooner found upon this track. They then
drew a chart of the proposed route on the floor with charcoal, exhibiting
a chain of twenty-five small lakes extending towards the north, about
one-half of them connected by a river which flows into Slave Lake near
Fort Providence. One of the guides named Keskarrah drew the Copper-Mine
River running through the Upper Lake in a westerly direction towards the
Great Bear Lake and then northerly to the sea. The other guide drew the
river in a straight line to the sea from the above-mentioned place but,
after some dispute, admitted the correctness of the first delineation.
The latter was elder brother to Akaitcho and he said that he had
accompanied Mr. Hearne on his journey and, though very young at the time,
still remembered many of the circumstances and particularly the massacre
committed by the Indians on the Esquimaux.
They pointed out another lake to the southward of the river, about three
days' journey distant from it, on which the chief proposed the next
winter's establishment should be formed as the reindeer would pass there
in the autumn and spring. Its waters contained fish and there was a
sufficiency of wood for building as well as for the winter's consumption.
These were important considerations and determined me in pursuing the
route they now proposed. They could not inform us what time we should
take in reaching the lake until they saw our manner of travelling in the
large canoes, but they supposed we might be about twenty days, in which
case I entertained the hope that, if we could then procure provision, we
should have time to descend the Copper-Mine River for a considerable
distance, if not to the sea itself, and return to the lake before the
winter set in.
It may here be proper to mention that it had been my original plan to
descend the Mackenzie's River and to cross the Great Bear Lake, from the
eastern side of which, Boileau informed me, there is a communication with
the Copper-Mine River by four small lakes and portages; but under our
present circumstances this course could not be followed because it would
remove us too far from the establishments at the Great Slave Lake to
receive the supplies of ammunition and some other stores in the winter
which were absolutely necessary for the prosecution of our journey, or to
get the Esquimaux interpreter whom we expected. If I had not deemed these
circumstances paramount I should have preferred the route by Bear Lake.
Akaitcho and the guides having communicated all the information they
possessed on the different points to which our questions had been
directed I placed my medal round the neck of the chief, and the officers
presented theirs to an elder brother of his and the two guides,
communicating to them that these marks of distinction were given as
tokens of our friendship and as pledges of the sincerity of our
professions. Being conferred in the presence of all the hunters their
acquisition was highly gratifying to them, but they studiously avoided
any great expression of joy because such an exposure would have been
unbecoming the dignity which the senior Indians assume during a
conference. They assured us however of their being duly sensible of these
tokens of our regard and that they should be preserved during their lives
with the utmost care. The chief evinced much penetration and intelligence
during the whole of this conversation, which gave us a favourable opinion
of his intellectual powers. He made many inquiries respecting the
Discovery ships under the command of Captain Parry which had been
mentioned to him, and asked why a passage had not been discovered long
ago, if one existed. It may be stated that we gave a faithful explanation
to all his inquiries, which policy would have prompted us to do if a love
of truth had not; for whenever these northern nations detect a falsehood
in the dealings of the traders they make it an unceasing subject of
reproach, and their confidence is irrecoverably lost.
We presented to the chief, the two guides, and the seven hunters who had
engaged to accompany us some cloth, blankets, tobacco, knives, daggers,
besides other useful iron materials, and a gun to each; also a keg of
very weak spirits and water which they kept until the evening as they had
to try their guns before dark and make the necessary preparations for
commencing the journey on the morrow. They however did not leave us so
soon, as the chief was desirous of being present with his party at the
dance which was given in the evening to our Canadian voyagers. They were
highly entertained by the vivacity and agility displayed by our
companions in their singing and dancing, and especially by their
imitating the gestures of a Canadian who placed himself in the most
ludicrous postures and, whenever this was done, the gravity of the chief
gave way to violent bursts of laughter. In return for the gratification
Akaitcho had enjoyed he desired his young men to exhibit the Dog-Rib
Indian dance; and immediately they ranged themselves in a circle and,
keeping their legs widely separated, began to jump simultaneously
sideways; their bodies were bent, their hands placed on their hips, and
they uttered forcibly the interjection tsa at each jump.
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