68 Str ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

wishes, and that I suspected he had concealed
from me a principal part of what the natives
had told him respecting the country, lest he
should be obliged to follow me.” ‘The English
Chief indignantly denied the accusation, and
burst into tears; Mackenzie soothed him by
the application of “liquid consolation’, and
friendly relations were restored. But he had
to give up the thought of an overland expedi-
tion for that year.

On August 24 they rejoined Leroux on
Great Slave Lake, and went with him to the
house which he had built on the North Arm,
where he was to spend the winter. Here Mac-
kenzie parted from the English Chief, whom
he sent to encourage the fur-trade among the
Beaver Indians. The passage across the lake
was accompanied by a good deal of risk from
wind and sea, and took several days. On
September 3 they entered the Slave River;
on the gth they passed the portages; and on
the 12th they reached Fort Chipewyan in
safety, after a journey of about three thousand
miles accomplished in one hundred and two
days without loss of life or any serious accident.