er would go
himself nor permit his hunters to accompany us. He said there was no wood
within eleven days' march, during which time we could not have any fire
as the moss which the Indians use in their summer excursions would be too
wet for burning in consequence of the recent rains; that we should be
forty days in descending the Copper-Mine River, six of which would be
expended in getting to its banks, and that we might be blocked up by the
ice in the next moon; and during the whole journey the party must
experience great sufferings for want of food as the reindeer had already
left the river.

He was now reminded that these statements were very different from the
account he had given both at Fort Providence and on the route hither; and
that up to this moment we had been encouraged by his conversation to
expect that the party might descend the Copper-Mine River accompanied by
the Indians. He replied that at the former place he had been unacquainted
with our slow mode of travelling and that the alteration in his opinion
arose from the advance of winter.

We now informed him that we were provided with instruments by which we
could ascertain the state of the air and water and that we did not
imagine the winter to be so near as he supposed; however we promised to
return on discovering the first change in the season. He was also told
that, all the baggage being left behind, our canoes would now of course
travel infinitely more expeditiously than anything he had hitherto
witnessed. Akaitcho appeared to feel hurt that we should continue to
press the matter further and answered with some warmth: "Well, I have
said everything I can urge to dissuade you from going on this service on
which it seems you wish to sacrifice your own lives as well as the
Indians who might attend you: however if after all I have said you are
determined to go some of my young men shall join the party because it
shall not be said that we permitted you to die alone after having brought
you hither; but from the moment they embark in the canoes I and my
relatives shall lament them as dead."

We could only reply to this forcible appeal by assuring him and the
Indians who were seated around him that we felt the most anxious
solicitude for the safety of every individual and that it was far from
our intention to proceed without considering every argument for and
against the proposed journey.

We next informed him that it would be very desirable to see the riv