92 Srr ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

seen no natives since May 13, and had no con-
firmation of the old Indian’s story.

At last on the 9th they fell in with a small
party of Indians. At first much frightened,
they threatened the strangers with bow and
spear, and were with difficulty persuaded to
meet them. They had never seen white men,
but they had heard of them, and they pos-
sessed iron which Mackenzie knew was not
the product of the country. Mackenzie was
most anxious to get on good terms so as to
learn the exact situation of the portage. When
they were finally pacified and decked out with
presents, he had them questioned by his inter-
preter. The results were not very satisfactory
at first, for they said that they knew nothing
of a river to the west and that their iron came
from a tribe with which they traded. ‘They
represented the latter as travelling, during a
moon, to get to the country of other tribes,
who live in houses, . . . and that these also
extend their journeys in the same manner to
the sea coast, or, to use their expression, the
Stinking Lake, where they trade with people
like us that come there in vessels as big as-