waiting for some dreadful story not yet told. His father spoke, and he started; then, having given him a live ember to light his half-emptied pipe, he relapsed into his steadfast gaze of

vacancy.

Not a word, not a gesture, had escaped the attentive ears and sparkling eyes of some men of his tribe who arrived just as he began to speak. Never was man more patiently listened to; his grief, or the long pauses which counterfeited it, were not once interrupted, except by his own wailings but when he had concluded, a kind of hollow muttering arose from the grouped Indians; and the spokesman of their number began a speech, at first in a subdued tone, and then, gradually elevating his voice with the energy of one strongly excited, he finished by denouncing him as a murderer and a cannibal. The accused hesitated a few seconds, mechanically whiffing at his exhausted pipe,—and then, with the most stoical indifference, calmly denied the charge.

But, from that instant, his spirits fell; and the anxious and painful expression of his countenance, whenever his son was absent for a moment, betrayed the consciousness of guilt. He could no longer look his fellow man in the face.

Those who had roused this inward storm kept aloof, as from a poisonous reptile; and, having

obtained the trifling articles which they wanted from the store, returned to their hunting.

The wretched man lingered about the Fort for some time, and at length, accompanied by his boy, sulkily left it.

"Back to the thicket slunk

The guilty serpent."

But by a strange infatuation (such are the mysterious ways of Providence), instead of seeking some lonely place where he might have hid his guilt, and lived unmolested, he went to the lodges of the very persons whom he had most cause to avoid, -the men who had branded him as a murderer and cannibal.

He sought their hospitality, and was admitted; but an instinctive loathing, not unmixed with apprehension, induced them to request his departure. After a slight hesitation, he not only refused, but, assuming a tone of defiance, uttered such threats that the endurance of the Indians was exhausted, and they shot him on the spot.

More than one gun having been fired, the boy was also wounded in the arm; and, thinking to mitigate their rage, he fled behind a tree, and offered to confess all he knew, if they would only spare his life. His wish was granted, and then was told the most sickening tale of deliberate cannibalism ever heard. The monster had, in truth,

murdered his wife and

children, and fed upon That the one boy was

their reeking carcasses!

spared was owing, not to pity or affection, but to the accident of their having arrived at the Fort when they did. Another twenty-four hours would have sealed his doom also.

231

CHAP. VIII.

Exemplary Conduct of Akaitcho.- Mr. McLeod and his Family leave us. Arrival of Maufelly. Supply of Deer-flesh. Misunderstanding between Akaitcho and the Interpreter. -Preparation for building Two Boats. -Mr. McLeod's ill Success. - Strange Conduct of Two Indians.- Supply of Food. - Distressing Condition of Mr. McLeod.- Return of Mr. King's Party. - News from York Factory. - Uncertain Fate of Augustus. — Presence of Two Ravens.- Ravens shot by an Iroquois. -News from England. - Discharge of Three Men. -Alteration of Plans. - Appearance of Birds.Adventures by Mr. King. -Arrival of Mr. McLeod. -Anxiety about Williamson. — Sultry Weather. Melancholy Fate of Augustus.

DURING this appalling period of suffering and calamity, Akaitcho proved himself the firm friend of the expedition. The dawn of each morning saw him prepared for the hunt; and, aware of the heavy pressure of that distress which, though he could not altogether avert, it might be in his power to mitigate, he boldly encountered every difficulty, and made others act by the force of his example.

Complaints were incessantly preferred to him by all classes, young and old; and many would

have yielded to their gloomy superstition, had they not been sustained by his language and fortitude. "It is true," he is reported to have said in answer to one of them," that both the Yellow Knives and Chipewyans, whom I look upon as one nation, have felt the fatal severities of this unusual winter. Alas! how many sleep with our fathers! But the Great Chief trusts to us; and it is better that ten Indians should perish, than that one white man should suffer through our negligence and breach of faith."

Mr. McLeod's observations at the fishery where he had been were too unfavourable to give me any confident hope of receiving support from that quarter; and, under these circumstances, it was consolatory to me that he approved my decision to make a further reduction in our establishment. I say consolatory, because that decision fell particularly heavy on his own family, whom he now offered to remove to a place about half way between us and the Indians, who, he said, would provide him with meat, as the lake would with fish, and in this way the separation might be made still further subservient to our benefit. Before we parted, however, his daughter, a pretty little girl about six years old, took care to remind me, that I had promised, on her father's return, to open the "boite à fer blanc." Accordingly, the treasure was explored; and she