Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/303

Rh The Indians could not, or would not, understand the necessity of this movement, as they claimed the country as their own, and felt as though they had a right to locate their traders wherever they pleased. They could not be made to understand or acknowledge the right which Great Britain and the United States assumed, in dividing between them the lands which had been left to them by their ancestors, and of which they held actual possession. The book-keeper further informed Mons. Cadotte that the gentlemen of the company were in considerable trouble for want of an efficient interpreter, to explain these matters to the satisfaction of the Indians, and they would have called on him for his services, but were fearful of retarding his movements, and as he was his own master, they could not command him. On hearing this, Mons. Cadotte (who already bore the name of being the best Ojibway interpreter in the northwest), immediately stepped out of his canoe, and walking up to the council room, he offered to act as interpreter between McKenzie and the Indians. His timely and voluntary offer was gladly accepted, and he soon explained the difficult and intricate question of right, which so troubled the minds of the Ojibways, to the entire satisfaction of all parties; and as he once more proceeded to embark in his canoe, which lay at the water-side, waiting for him, the gentlemen of the fur company escorted him to the beach, and as Sir Alex. McKenzie shook his hand at parting, he presented him with a sealed paper, with the remark that it was in payment of the service which he had just now voluntarily rendered them.

When arrived at some distance out on the lake, Mons. Cadotte opened the paper, and was surprised to discover it to be a clear quittance of all his indebtedness to Alexander Henry, which had always been a trouble on his mind, and which he had not been made aware had been bought up by his employers. On the impulse of the moment he ordered his canoe turned about, in order that he might