FIRST FOUNDATIONS

the Indians then called Lake Na’kal, the surface of which
was being ploughed into deep furrows. The soap-berries
were ripening, and most of "Kwah’s people were camped
at the mouth of Beaver Creek, to the south-west of the
present Fort St. James, when what appeared to them two
immense canoes were descried struggling against the
wind, around a point which separated them from the
outlet of the lake.

Immediately great alarm arises in the crowd of natives.
As such large canoes have never plied on Carrier waters,
there is hardly a doubt that they must contain Toeyen’s
friends, the wonderful strangers from “the country beyond
the horizon” he had been told to expect back. Mean-
while, the strange crafts are heading for Beaver Creek,
and lo! a song the like of which has never been heard
in this part of the world strikes the native ear. What
can that mean? Might not this be a war party, after all?

“No,” declares Toeyen, who, donning his red piece of
cloth as an apron, seizes a tiny spruce bark canoe lying
on the beach and fearlessly paddles away. On, on he
goes, tossed about by the great waves, until he meets the
strangers, who, recognizing him by his badge, bid him
come on board. His fellow-tribesmen, now seeing in the
distance his own little canoe floating tenantless, take
fright.

“ They have already killed him,” they exclaim. “Ready,
ye warriors ; away with the women!”

At this cry, which flies from mouth to mouth, the men
seize their bows and arrows, and the women and children
seek shelter in the woods. But the curious crafts, which,
on coming nearer, prove to be large birch-bark canoes,
are now within hearing distance, and Toeyen cries out to the
men on shore to be of good cheer and have no fear, as the
strangers are animated by the most friendly dispositions.

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