170 Mackenzie’s Voyages

article was restored. His own people were highly displeased
with him for his determined action, indeed the whole village
was instantly in an uproar, but the leader thought that in
their peculiar circumstances that he was justified in the
measure which he adopted. ‘The axe had been hidden under
the chief’s canoe and was soon returned.

Once again they were en route in a large canoe with
seven natives. The river was a continuous rapid, and their
progress was correspondingly swift. “hey were obliged to
go on shore at the invitation of a person of some consequence,
who regaled them in the same manner as they had been
entertained at the last village and then embarked with them.
In a short time they arrived at another house of very large
dimensions, which was partitioned into different apart-
ments, whose inhabitants received them kindly and
banqueted them in the native fashion.

They finally reached the village at the mouth of the river
consisting of six very large houses erected on_palisades,
rising twenty-five feet from the ground, which were like
the others seen, with the exception of their great elevation.
It appears that Mr. Johnstone of Captain Vancouver’s
expedition had visited this village in the first week of the
previous month.

There is an element of the pathetic in the fact that two
great explorers on the far side of a continent, both of whom
were interested in the same problems, should have missed
each other by such a narrow margin. What a comfort it
would have been to Mackenzie and his discouraged men to
meet people of their own kind who were officials of a powerful
government, strongly armed and well-equipped, and with
all the means to start the expedition back fully provided!