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 Lake, I particularly requested them to explain to that tribe the object of our visit, and to endeavour to procure from them some guides and hunters to accompany our party.”

“On the 10th of May we were gratified by the appearance of spring; the trees began to put forth their leaves, and the mosquitoes visited the warm rooms. On the 17th and 18th there were frequent showers of rain, and much thunder and lightning. This weather caused the ice to waste so rapidly, that, by the 24th, it had entirely disappeared from the Lake Athabasca. The gentlemen belonging to both the companies quickly arrived from the posts in this department, bringing their winter’s collection of furs, which are forwarded from these establishments to the depots.”

Lieutenant Franklin now began to make some arrangements respecting the obtaining of men, and the stores he should require for their equipment, as well as for presents for the Indians; but he learnt with regret, that in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of the Companies’ goods, in support of a determined commercial opposition, their supply to the expedition would, of necessity, be very limited. The men, too, were backward in offering their services, especially those of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who demanded a much higher rate of wages than he considered it would be proper to grant.

“June 3. – Mr. Smith, a partner of the N.W. Company, arrived from the Great Slave Lake, and (says Lieutenant Franklin) was the bearer of the very gratifying intelligence that Akaitcho, the principal chief of the Copper Indians, had received the communication of our arrival with joy, and given all the information he possessed respecting the route to the sea coast by the Copper-mine River; also that he and a party of his men, at the instance of Mr. Frederick Wentzel, a clerk of the N.W. Company, whom they wished might go along with them, had engaged to accompany the expedition as guides and hunters. They were to await our arrival at Fort Providence, on the north side of the Slave Lake. Their information coincided with that given by Beaulieu. They had no doubt of our being able to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling to the coast. This agreeable intelligence had a happy effect upon the minds of the Canadian voyagers; many of their fears being removed: several of them seemed now disposed to volunteer; indeed, on the same evening, two men from the N.W. Company offered themselves, and were accepted. Mr. Smith was left in charge of Fort Chipewyan during the summer, and he soon evinced his desire to further our progress, by directing a canoe to be built