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We also picked up some decayed wood far out of the reach of the water. A few stunted willows were growing near the encampment. Some ducks, gulls, and partridges were seen this day. As I had to make up despatches for England to be sent by Mr. Wentzel the nets were set in the interim and we were rejoiced to find that they produced sufficient fish for the party.
We knew that the dread of the Esquimaux would prevent these men from leaving us as soon as the Indians were at a distance, and we trusted to their becoming reconciled to the journey when once the novelty of a sea voyage had worn off. July 18. As the Indians persevered in their determination of setting out this morning I reminded them, through Mr. Wentzel and St.
Wentzel who resided for many years in that quarter. The Thlingchadinneh or Dog-Ribs or as they are sometimes termed after the Crees, who formerly warred against them, Slaves, inhabit the country to the westward of the Copper Indians as far as Mackenzie's River.
This trial I could not have been induced to undergo but for the reasons they had so strongly urged the day before, to which my own judgment assented and for the sanguine hope I felt of either finding a supply of provision at Fort Enterprise or meeting the Indians in the immediate vicinity of that place, according to my arrangements with Mr. Wentzel and Akaitcho.
Wentzel was furnished with a list of the stores that had been promised to Akaitcho and his party as a remuneration for their services, as well as with an official request to the North-West Company that these goods might be paid to them on their next visit to Fort Providence, which they expected to make in the latter part of November.
I poured out his whisky and soda. He drank a deep draught, curled up his swaggering moustache and suddenly broke into one of his disconcerting peals of laughter. "I haven't told you of the Grefin von Wentzel; I don't know what put her into my head. There has been nothing like it since the world began. Mind you a real live aristocratic Grefin with a hundred quarterings!"
Wentzel would accompany the Expedition agreeably to the desire of the Copper Indians, communicating to him that I had received permission for him to do so from the partners of the North-West Company. Should he be disposed to comply with my invitation I desired that he would go over to Fort Providence and remain near the Indians whom he had engaged for our service.
By my desire he had promised payment to the Indian women who should bring in any of the latter article and had sent several of our own men to the woods to search for it. At this time I communicated to Mr. Wentzel the mode in which I meant to conduct the journey of the approaching summer.
The post is exclusively occupied by the North-West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company having no settlement to the northward of Great Slave Lake. We found Mr. Wentzel and our interpreter Jean Baptiste Adam here with one of the Indian guides: but the chief of the tribe and his hunters were encamped with their families some miles from the fort in a good situation for fishing.
Wentzel to inform Akaitcho in the presence of the other Indians that I wished a deposit of provision to be made at this place previous to next September as a resource should we return this way. He and the guides not only promised to see this done but suggested that it would be more secure if placed in the cellar or in Mr. Wentzel's room.
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