86 Mackenzie’s Voyages

of Horn River, but were not successful in discovering it.
Wind and rain detained them in camp Friday. But three
hours’ sail next day brought them to Slave Lake where the
wind was so violent that they were forced to camp.

The course around the southern shore of the lake would
have been shorter, but there was no certainty of obtaining
sufficient supplies of fish in that direction, now an important
consideration, besides which, Mackenzie expected to meet
M. Le Roux and the Red-Knife Indians at the clerk’s
house on the North Arm.

Sailing on Sunday was fraught with great danger, as they
were off an exposed shore, shallow and boulder-strewn.
‘Two men were continually employed in bailing out the
water which we took in on all sides.” A sprit carried away,
and had their mast gone, as they expected every moment,
the canoe would in all probability have filled and sunk.

At four in the afternoon of Monday, three canoes with
sails hoisted appeared in the distance. ‘They proved to be
M. Le Roux and an Indian family who had been out hunt-
ing for twenty-five days. He was on his way to the river
to leave a letter notifying his chief of his whereabouts.
During the absence of the explorers he had been as far
as Lac 4 la Martre where he met eighteen small canoes of
the Slave Indians from whom he obtained five packs of
marten skins.

English Chief arrived in the evening to relate the wreck
of his canoe on the shallow shore, and he stated that his
people were all lamenting lest they should not overtake the
main party. “This evening I gave my men some rum to
cheer them after their fatigues.”’

Violent winds prevented them from moving for two days.
The journey was then continued, after bidding good-bye
to English Chief and his people, who had become quite