DISCOVERY BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

our canoe, but they declined my offer ; and when they saw
some of my people coming towards us they requested me
to let them return, and I was so satisfied with the progress
I had made in my intercourse with them that I did not
hesitate a moment in complying with their desire.

“During their short stay they observed us and every-
thing about us with a mixture of admiration and astonish-
ment. We could plainly distinguish that their friends
received them with great joy on their return, and that the
articles which they carried back with them were examined
with a general and eager curiosity ; they also appeared to
hold a consultation, which lasted about a quarter of an
hour, and the result of which was an invitation to come
over to them, which was cheerfully accepted. Nevertheless
on our landing, they betrayed evident signs of confusion,
which arose probably from the quickness of our move-
ments. . . . The two men, however, who had come with
us appeared, very naturally, to possess the greatest share of
courage on the occasion and were ready to receive us on
our landing; but our demeanor soon dispelled all their
apprehensions.”

Having secured their confidence by gifts of trinkets and
the like, he was informed that the river on which they had
embarked was long, with a very strong current and several
rapids which no man could safely shoot. Mackenzie’s new
friends described their immediate neighbors, the Shush-
waps, as “a very malignant race, who lived in large sub-
terranean recesses,” and they did their best to dissuade
him from continuing farther, if he valued his life at all.
According to their reports, the Shushwaps then possessed
iron arms and utensils, which they procured from neighbors
in the west, who obtained them from people like Mackenzie.

But he was not to be easily dissuaded. Taking along

1. ‘‘Journal,” pp. 242-5.
43