Original - North Central Michigan College Library

Nothing human had hitherto discovered itself,but we had seen several bears and two caribouxon the sides of the mountains, withoutbeing able to kill anything.The course of the river was here from southto north. We continued our voyagetill thetwenty-fourth, when, a large opening beingbefore us, we saw a number of canoes filledwith Indians on their voyage down the stream.71We soon met each other in the most friendlymanner.We made presents of tobacco to the chiefs,and were by them requested to put to shorethat we might encamp together and improveour acquaintance. In a short time we werevisited by the chiefs, who brought us beaverskins, in return for which we gave a secondpresent; and we now proposed to them toreturn with them to our fort, where we wereprovided with large quantities of such goodsas they wanted. They received our proposalwith satisfaction.On the twenty-fifth of June we embarkedwith all the Indians in our company, andcontinued our voyage day and night, stoppingonly to boil our kettle. We reached our houseon the first of July.The Indians comprised two bands, or parties,each bearing the name of its chief, of whomone was caUed the Marten, and the other the71The traders had reached Lake He a la Crosse onthe upper Churchill River. Editor.310