7th.
8th.
9th.
1771. March.
We stopped only one night in company with the Indians whom we met on Pike Lake, and in the morning of the fourth, proceeded to cross the remainder of that {85} Lake; but, though the weather was fine, and though the Lake was not more than twenty-seven miles broad at the place where we crossed it, yet the Indians lost so much time at play, that it was the seventh before we arrived on the West side of it. During the whole time we were crossing it, each night we found either points of land, or islands, to put up in. On the eighth, we lay a little to the East North East of Black Bear Hill,[54] where the Indians killed two deer, which were the first we had seen for ten days; but having plenty of dried meat and fat with us, we were by no means in want during any part of that time. On the ninth, we proceeded on our course to the Westward, and soon met with as great plenty of deer as we had seen during any part of our journey; which, no doubt, made things go on smooth and easy: and as the Spring advanced, the rigour of the Winter naturally abated, so that at times we had fine pleasant weather over-head, though it was never so warm as to occasion any thaw, unless in such places as lay exposed to the mid-day sun, and were sheltered from all the cold winds.
19th.
20th.
On the nineteenth, as we were continuing our course to the West and West by South, we saw the tracks of several strangers; and on following the main path, we arrived that night at five tents of Northern Indians, who had resided there great part of the Winter, snaring deer in the same manner as those before mentioned. Indeed, it should {86} seem that this, as well as some other places, had been frequented more than once on this occasion; for the wood that had been cut down for fewel, and other uses, was almost incredible. Before morning, the weather became so bad, and the storm continued to rage with such violence, that we did not move for several days; and as some of the Indians we met with at this place were going to Prince of Wales's Fort in the Summer, I embraced the opportunity of sending by them a Letter to the Chief at that Fort, agreeably to the tenor of my instructions. By summing up my courses and distances from my last observation, for the weather at that time would not permit me to observe, I judged myself to be in latitude 61° 30' North, and about 19° 60' of longitude to the West of Churchill River. This, and some accounts of the usage I received from the natives, with my opinion of the future success of the journey, formed the contents of my Letter.
23d.