THE Great JOURNEY 85

The most arduous days on the Arctic voyage
were easy compared with the toil and danger
which his party was called on to endure at the
very outset of this expedition. Without a
leader of so fine a determination and so inspir-
ing a confidence they would have returned,
beaten and hopeless, within a fortnight.
Their first trouble was that the canoe was
so heavily laden that it began to leak even in
calm water, and they frequently had to stop
to repair it with spruce gum. Their course lay
nearly due west, through beautiful and fertile
country crowded with game; their supply of
food gave them no anxiety, for they could
shoot as many buffalo, moose, bear, and
beaver as they wanted. On May 11 they met
some Beaver Indians on a hunting party, and
Mackenzie was very anxious lest they should
persuade his two hunters to desert; tact with
the chief and a present of tobacco averted the
danger. The river ran now between cliffs only
two or three hundred yards apart, now be-
tween low banks in a broad channel dotted
with islands. With each day’s progress the
current grew more rapid. On the 17th the