perform the passage. We profited by the calm, to coast along all day and
a part of the night of the 26th; but to pay for it, remained in camp on
the 27th, till evening: the wind not suffering us to proceed. The wind
having appeared to abate somewhat after sunset, we embarked, but were
soon forced to land again. On the 28th, we passed the openings of
several deep bays, and the isles of _St. Martin_, and camped at the
bottom of a little bay, where the mosquitoes did not suffer us to close
our eyes all night. We were rejoiced when dawn appeared, and were eager
to embark, to free ourselves from these inconvenient guests. A calm
permitted us that day to make good progress with our oars, and we camped
at _Buffalo Strait_. We saw that day two Indian wigwams.

The 30th brought us to Winipeg river, which we began to ascend, and
about noon reached Port _Bas de la Riviere_. This trading post had more
the air of a large and well-cultivated farm, than of a fur traders'
factory: a neat and elegant mansion, built on a slight eminence, and
surrounded with barns, stables, storehouses, &c., and by fields of
barley, peas, oats, and potatoes, reminded us of the civilized countries
which we had left so long ago. Messrs. Crebassa and Kennedy, who had
this post in charge, received us with all possible hospitality, and
supplied us with all the political news which had been learned through
the arrival of canoes from Canada.

They also informed us that Messrs M'Donald and de Rocheblave had passed,
a few days before our arrival, having been obliged to go up Red river to
stop the effusion of blood, which would probably have taken place but
for their intervention, in the colony founded on that river by the earl
of Selkirk. Mr. Miles M'Donnell, the governor of that colony, or rather
of the _Assiniboyne_ district, had issued a proclamation forbidding all
persons whomsoever, to send provisions of any kind out of the district.
The Hudson's Bay traders had conformed to this proclamation, but those
of the Northwest Company paid no attention to it, thinking it illegal,
and had sent their servants, as usual to get provisions up the river.
Mr. M'Donnell having heard that several hundred sacks of pemican[AH]
were laid up in a storehouse under the care of a Mr. Pritchard, sent to
require their surrender: Pritchard refused to deliver them, whereupon
Mr. M'Donnell had them carried off by force. The traders who winter on
Little Slave lake, English river, the A