Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/302

292 about the sources of the Mississippi, the St. Croix, and Chippeway rivers. The depot was located at Fond du Lac, about two miles within the entry of the St. Louis River, in what is now the State of Wisconsin. A stockaded post had been built the previous year at Sandy Lake, and smaller posts were located at Leech Lake, on the St. Croix and at Lac Coutereille.

Mons. Cadotte procured his outfit of goods for all these posts, at the grand northern depot of the Northwest Company located at Grand Portage, near the mouth of Pigeon River, and within the limits of what is now known as Minnesota Territory. He had busily employed himself all one morning, in loading his canoes, with his outfit of goods, and starting them on ahead towards Fond du Lac, intending to catch up with them in his lighter canoe at the evening encampment, when the following incident occurred, which, to the day of his death the old trader ever spoke of with the deepest emotion.

His canoes had all been sent ahead, and now appeared like mere specks on the bosom of the calm lake towards their destination, and he was preparing to embark himself, in his canoe a liege fully manned, when the book-keeper of the post, coming down to his canoe for a parting shake of the hand, informed him that while he had been engaged in sending off his men and outfit, Sir Alexander McKenzie and other gentlemen of the company had been holding a council with the Indians, and attempting to explain to them the reasons and necessity for evacuating their depot at Grand Portage, which was located within the United States lines, and building a new establishment within the British boundaries, at a spot now known as Fort William.