The courtesy of His Excellency Lord Aylmer, and the gratifying attentions of the worthy citizens of Montreal and New York, are of course to be attributed rather to their benevolent sympathy with the main purpose of the expedition, than to any regard for the individual who had been selected to conduct it. So regarded, their conduct is more honourable to them, and is at the same time not the less valued and held in remembrance by me. To express my thanks might savour of presumption; but I take the liberty of recording my feelings, in order that the tribute may be rendered by the British Public.

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CHAPTER I.

Departure from England. - Arrival at Montreal. Preparations for the Expedition. - Fire at the Hotel. Departure from La Chine. The St. Lawrence.

The Ottawa. Lake Huron.-The Sault de Ste. Marie. Arrival at Fort William. Distribution of the Loadings. The Mountain Fall. Lac de la Pluie. -Arrival at Fort Alexander.-Magnetic Observations. -Arrival of Governor Simpson, and Arrangements made by him.-Arrival at Norway House. - Difficulty of procuring Men for the Service. - Departure from Norway House.

ON Sunday, the 17th of February, 1833, accompanied by Mr. Richard King and three men, two of whom had gained experience under Sir J. Franklin, I embarked in the packet ship Hibernia, Captain Maxwell, from Liverpool; and, after a somewhat boisterous passage of thirty-five days, during part of which the ship was entangled amongst ice on St. George's Bank, arrived at New York. We were received with every attention that politeness and hospitality could dictate. The usual forms at the Customhouse were dispensed with in our favour; and all classes seemed anxious to facilitate an undertaking, in the success of which the warmest

A

interest was manifested. The proprietors of the Ohio, steam-boat, offered that fine vessel for our conveyance to Albany; and, as we started from the wharf, upwards of a thousand well-dressed persons, with our friend Mr. Buchanan, the British consul, at their head, gave us three hearty cheers.

From Albany we travelled in coaches or waggons, according to the quality of the roads; and reached Montreal on the 9th of April, a day earlier than I had promised six months before. Mr. Keith, the principal officer of the Hudson's Bay Company at La Chine, lost no time in acquainting me that preparations for the expedition were in a forward state, and would be ready by the appointed time. He entertained, however, some doubt whether he could himself obtain the required number of able voyageurs; and thought that they might be selected, with greater advantage to the service, from among the old "winterers" resorting to a depôt of the Company in the interior, which I should necessarily have to pass. He also informed me that despatches, sent from England, had been forwarded to the resident governor, Mr. Simpson; who, being thus apprised of our movements, would be enabled to co-operate accordingly.

No sooner was it known in Montreal that our little party was in one of the hotels,

1

than the commandant, Lieutenant-Colonel Macdougall, of the 79th regiment, and the officers of the garrison, as well as the principal inhabitants of the town, waited upon us, and vied with each other in administering to our comforts, and rendering as agreeable as possible the short time which remained to us for the enjoyment of civilised society.

I availed myself of this interval to ascertain the rates of the chronometers with the nicest precision, and to make a set of observations for the dip and magnetic intensity, with Dollond's and Hansteen's needles; which operations, with the numerous arrangements necessary for completing our outfit, fully occupied Mr. King and myself until our departure.

Neither was I without a foretaste of the anxiety inseparable from the service on which I had embarked. A refractory spirit had of late been manifested by two of my three men, who even threatened to proceed no farther; for no better reason than a sudden and wayward apprehension of a journey, which the strong expression of public sympathy had taught them to regard as beset with more than ordinary perils. However, by convincing them of the disgrace which would attend a desertion, and then despatching them at once, through the means of Mr. Keith, to a distant post of the

Company, I was enabled to retain their services, which I was not without hope would, in the sequel, turn to good account. Still this incident taught me the little dependence that could be placed on men who shrank from dangers in prospect, and were ready to abandon an expedition in which, but two months before, they had engaged with the utmost alacrity and zeal and as Captain Anderson, of the 6th battalion of Royal Artillery, had intimated the eager desire of several of his best men to accompany me, I wrote to Lord Aylmer, the Governor-general, and His Excellency was pleased to sanction the discharge of four for that purpose. Colonel Godby was equally kind in affording me assistance; and, strengthened by those volunteers, I felt that I had now a check on any that might hereafter prove refractory, as well as the comfortable assurance of having those with me on whom I could rely in the utmost need.

On the evening of the 24th of April a fire broke out in our hotel, just as we were about to quit it. The performance of the Bohemian brothers had brought together a numerous assemblage, principally of ladies; and such was the fury of the flames, that for many the upper windows afforded the only means of escape. Luckily, my baggage was, for the greater part, removed; and thus, though most of the property in the house