To our great regret Mr. Stuart expressed much doubt as to our prevailing
upon any experienced Canadian voyagers to accompany us to the sea in
consequence of their dread of the Esquimaux who, he informed us, had
already destroyed the crew of one canoe which had been sent under Mr.
Livingstone to open a trading communication with those who reside near
the mouth of the Mackenzie River; and he also mentioned that the same
tribe had driven away the canoes under Mr. Clark's direction, going to
them on a similar object, to which circumstance I have alluded in my
remarks at Isle a la Crosse.
This was unpleasant information but we were comforted by Mr. Stuart's
assurance that himself and his partners would use every endeavour to
remove their fears as well as to promote our views in every other way;
and he undertook as a necessary part of our equipment in the spring to
prepare the bark and other materials for constructing two canoes at this
post.
Mr. Stuart informed us that the residents at Fort Chipewyan, from the
recent sickness of their Indian hunters, had been reduced to subsist
entirely on the produce of their fishing-nets, which did not yield more
than a bare sufficiency for their support; and he kindly proposed to us
to remain with him until the spring but, as we were most desirous to gain
all the information we could as early as possible and Mr. Stuart assured
us that the addition of three persons would not be materially felt in
their large family at Chipewyan, we determined on proceeding thither and
fixed on the 22nd for our departure.
Pierre au Calumet receives its name from the place where the stone is
procured, of which many of the pipes used by the Canadians and Indians
are made. It is a clayey limestone, impregnated with various shells. The
house, which is built on the summit of a steep bank rising almost
perpendicular to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, commands an
extensive prospect along this fine river and over the plains which
stretch out several miles at the back of it, bounded by hills of
considerable height and apparently better furnished with wood than the
neighbourhood of the fort where the trees grow very scantily. There had
been an establishment belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company on the
opposite bank of the river but it was abandoned in December last, the
residents not being able to procure provision from their hunters having
been disabled by the epidemic sickness which has carried off one-third of
the Indians in these parts.
