fourteen miles. We had no meridional observations, because the
sky was obscured.

We had supped, and most of the men had retired to rest, when Mr.
Kendall, in sweeping the horizon with his telescope, saw three Indians
coming down a hill, and directing their steps towards us. More moss was
immediately thrown on the fire, and the St. George's ensign hoisted on
the end of a musquet, to point out to the comers who we were; but as
they hid the youngest of their number in a ravine, at the foot of the
hill, and the two seniors seemed to approach slowly and with suspicion,
Mr. Kendall and I went unarmed to meet them. They came up, one with his
bow and arrows in his hand, and the other with his gun cocked; but as
soon as they recognised our dress, which was the same that I had worn in
our voyage round Bear Lake, the preceding autumn, when I had seen most
of the Hare Indian tribe, they shouted in an ecstasy of joy, shook hands
most cordially with us, and called loudly for the young lad to come up.
The meeting was no less gratifying to us: these people had brought furs
and provisions to Fort Franklin in the winter, and they now seemed to be
friends come to rejoice with us on the termination of our voyage. We
learned from them, partly by signs, and partly from the little we
understood of their language, that by the advice of It-chinnah, the
Hare Indian Chief, they had been hunting for some time in this
neighbourhood, in the hopes of falling in with us on our way from the
sea; that they would give us all the provision they had collected,
accompany us to Bear Lake, and warn all the Indians in the neighbourhood
of our arrival. They appeared much surprised, when, placing the compass
on the ground, we showed them the exact bearing of the mouth of Dease's
River; and they were not able to comprehend how we knew the way in a
quarter through which we had never travelled. They said, however, that
they would conduct us in the morning to the Indian portage road, where
we would have better walking than by keeping the direct route across the
hills. We had reserved but little that we could present to these kind
people, though every one contrived to muster some small article for
them, which they gratefully received. They were dressed, after the
manner of their tribe, with fillets of deer-skin round their heads and
wrists, and carried in their hands a pair of deer's horns and a few
willow twigs, which are all serviceable in enabling them to approach