AJ-142: Mackenzie, Voyages from Montreal (1793)

              340

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE THROUGH THE

July
1793

from fishing had no more than five salmon; they
refused to sell one of them, but gave me one roasted of a
very indifferent kind. In the houses there
were several
chests or boxes containing different articles that belonged
to the people whom we had lately passed. If I were to judge
by the heaps of
filth beneath these buildings, they must
have been erected at a more distant period than any which we
had passed. From these houses I could perceive
the
termination of the river and its discharge into a narrow arm
of the sea.

As it was now half past six in the
evening, and the weather cloudy, I determined to remain here
for the night, and for that purpose we
possessed
ourselves of one of the unoccupied houses. The
remains of our last meals, which we brought with us, served
for our supper, as we could not procure a
single fish
from the natives. The course of the river is about West and
the distance from the great village upwards of thirty six
miles. There we
had lost our dog, a circumstance of no
small regret to me.

Sunday 20
We rose at a very
early hour this morning, when I proposed to the Indians to
run down our canoe and procure another at this place. To
both these
proposa;s they turned a deaf ear, as they
imagined that I should be satisfied with having come in
sight of the sea. Two of them peremptorily refused
to
proceed, but the other two having consented to continue with
us, we obtained a larger canoe than our former one and
though it was in a leaky state
we were glad to possess
it.

At about eight we got out of the river, which
discharges itself by various