thabasca country, &c., learning
this, and being aware that they would not find their usual supply at
_Bas de la Riviere_, resolved to go and recover the seized provisions by
force, if they were not peaceably given up. Things were in this position
when Messrs, de Rocheblave and M'Donald arrived. They found the Canadian
_voyageurs_ in arms, and ready to give battle to the colonists, who
persisted in their refusal to surrender the bags of pemican. The two
peacemakers visited the governor, and having explained to him the
situation in which the traders of the Northwest Company would find
themselves, by the want of necessary provisions to enable them to
transport their peltries to Fort William, and the exasperation of their
men, who saw no other alternative for them, but to get possession of
those provisions or to perish of hunger, requested him to surrender the
same without delay. Mr. M'Donnell, on his part, pointed out the misery
to which the colonists would be reduced by a failure in the supply of
food. In consequence of these mutual representations, it was agreed that
one half of the pemican should be restored, and the other half remain
for the use of the colonists. Thus was arranged, without bloodshed, the
first difficulty which occurred between the rival companies of the
Northwest, and of Hudson's Bay.

[Footnote AH: _Pemican_, of which I have already spoken several times,
is the Indian name for the dried and pounded meat which the natives sell
to the traders. About fifty pounds of this meat is placed in a trough
(_un grand vaisseau fait d'un tronc d'arbre_), and about an equal
quantity of tallow is melted and poured over it; it is thoroughly mixed
into one mass, and when cold, is put up in bags made of undressed
buffalo hide, with the hair outside, and sewed up as tightly as
possible. The meat thus impregnated with tallow, hardens, and will keep
for years. It is eaten without any other preparation; but sometimes wild
pears or dried berries are added, which render the flavor more
agreeable.]

Having spent the 1st of July in repairing our canoes, we re-embarked on
the 2d, and continued to ascend Winipeg river, called also _White
river_, on account of the great number of its cascades, which being very
near each other, offer to the sight an almost continuous foam. We made
that day twenty-seven portages, all very short. On the 3d, and 4th, we
made nine more, and arrived on the 5th, at the _Lake of the Woods_. This
lake ta