Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/397



Departure from Fort William—Navigation on Lake Superior—Michipicoton Bay—Meeting a Canoe—Batchawainon Bay—Arrival at Saut Ste. Marie—Occurrences there—Departure—Lake Huron—French River—Lake Nipissing—Ottawa River—Kettle Falls—Rideau River—Long-Saut—Arrival in Montreal—Conclusion.

On the 20th of July, in the evening, Mr. D. Stuart notified me that he should start the next morning for Montreal, in a light canoe. I immediately wrote to my relatives: but the next morning Mr. Stuart told me that I was to be myself the bearer of my letters, by embarking with him. I got ready my effects, and toward evening we quitted Fort William, with fourteen stout voyageurs to man our large canoe, and were soon floating on the bosom of the largest body of fresh water on the surface of the globe. We counted six passengers, namely, Messrs. D. {348} Stuart, D. M'Kenzie, J. M'Donald, J. Clarke, myself, and a little girl of eight or nine years, who came from Kildonan, on Red river.[211] We passed the first night on one of the islands in Thunder bay, so named on account of the frequent storms, accompanied with lightning and thunder, which burst over it at certain seasons of the year. On the 22d and 23d, we continued to range the southern coast of Lake Superior.[212] The navigation of this superb lake would be extremely agreeable but for the thick fogs which reign during a part of the day, and