=Source.=--Sir Alexander Mackenzie's _Voyages from Montreal through
the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in
the years 1789 and 1793_. London, 1801.
5 July, 1789.... There were five families, consisting of
twenty-five or thirty persons, and of two different tribes, the
Slave and Dog-rib Indians. We made them smoke, though it was
evident they did not know the use of tobacco; we likewise supplied
them with grog; but I am disposed to think that they accepted our
civilities rather from fear than inclination. We acquired a more
effectual influence over them by the distribution of knives, beads,
awls, rings, gartering, fire-steels, flints and hatchets; so that
they became more familiar even than we expected, for we could not
keep them out of our tents; though I did not observe that they
attempted to purloin anything.
The information which they gave respecting the river had so much
of the fabulous that I shall not detail it: it will be sufficient
just to mention their attempts to persuade us that it would require
several winters to get to the sea, and that old age would come
upon us before the period of our return: we were also to encounter
monsters of such horrid shapes and destructive powers as could only
exist in their wild imaginations. They added, besides, that there
were two impassable falls in the river, the first of which was
about thirty days march from us.
Though I placed no faith in these strange relations, they had a
very different effect upon our Indians, who were already tired
of the voyage. It was their opinion and anxious wish that we
should not hesitate to return. They said that, according to the
information which they had received, there were very few animals
in the country beyond us, and that, as we proceeded, the scarcity
would increase, and we should absolutely perish from hunger, if no
other accident befell us. It was with no small trouble that they
were convinced of the folly of these reasonings; and, by my desire,
they induced one of those Indians to accompany us, in consideration
of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and some other articles.
Though it was now three o'clock in the afternoon, the canoe was
ordered to be reloaded, and, as we were ready to embark, our new
recruit was desired to prepare himself for his departure, which
he would have declined; but as none of his friends would take
his place, we may be said, after the delay of an hour, to have
compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure a ceremony took
place, of which I could not learn the meaning; he cut off a lock
of his hair, and having divided it into three parts, he fastened
one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head,
blowing on it three times with the utmost violence in his power,
and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened with the same
formalities on the heads of his two children.
During our short stay with these people, they amused us with
dancing, which they accompanied with their voices; but neither
their song or their dance possessed much variety. The men and
women formed a promiscuous ring. The former have a bone dagger or
piece of stick between the fingers of the right hand, which they
keep extended above the head, in continual motion; the left they
seldom raise so high, but work it backwards and forwards in an
horizontal direction; while they leap about and throw themselves
into various antic postures, to the measure of their music, always
bringing their heels close to each other at every pause. The men
occasionally howl in imitation of some animal, and he who continues
this violent exercise for the longest period, appears to be
considered as the best performer.