NORTHERN INTERIOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

The fugitives are hastily recalled, and Simon Fraser, with
John Stuart and his other companions, put ashore in the
presence of a crowd of wondering Carriers.

Lake Stuart was discovered, and a new province was
added to the geographical conquests of the North-West
Company. To accomplish this it had taken Fraser’s party
only seven days less than Mackenzie had required to reach
the seacoast from his winter quarters.!

On landing, Fraser’s men, to impress the natives with a
proper idea of their wonderful resources, fired a volley with
their guns, whereupon the whole crowd of Carriers fell
prostrate to the ground. To allay their fears and make
friends, tobacco was offered them, which, on being tasted,
was found too bitter, and thrown away. Then, to show its
use, the crew lighted their pipes, and, at the sight of the
smoke issuing from their mouths, the people began to
whisper that they must come from the land of the ghosts,
since they were still full of the fire wherewith they had
been cremated. Pieces of soap were given to the women,
who, taking them to be cakes of fat, set upon crunching
them, thereby causing foam and bubbles in the mouth,
which puzzled both actors and bystanders.

All these phenomena, however, were soon explained
away, leaving no suspicion in the native mind, but a most
pronounced admiration for the foreigners and their wares.
That this last impression was not quite reciprocal is
gathered from one of Fraser’s letters, wherein he describes
his new acquaintances.

“They are,” he writes, “a large, indolent, thievish set of
vagabonds, of a mild disposition. They are amazing fond
of goods, which circumstance might lead to imagine that

1. It should be borne in mind that, besides starting from the east instead
of the west side of the Rockies, Fraser had to ascend two important rivers
which Mackenzie did not even see.

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