captured Indians of the tribe called the Slaves to this day, reduced
to servitude by the Crees, were seen by the early voyageurs, and
gave rise to the French name, of which ours is a translation.
Slavery was common enough amongst the Indians everywhere. A
thriving trade was done at the Detroit in the 18th century in
Pawnees, or Panis, as they were called, captured by Indian
raiders on the western prairies and sold to the white settlers
along the river. I have seen in Windsor, Ont., an old bill of
sale of one of these Pani slaves, the consideration being, if
I recollect aright, a certain quantity of Indian corn.

To return to the river. The distance from Athabasca Landing to
the Lesser Slave is called sixty-five miles, but this must have
been ascertained by measuring from point to point, for, following
the shore up stream, as boats must, it is certainly more. To the
head of the river is an additional sixty miles, and thence to
the head of the lake seventy-five more. The Hudson's Bay Company
had a storehouse at the Forks, and an island was forming where
the waters meet, the finest feature of the place being an echo,
which reverberated the bugler's call at _reveille_ very grandly.

A spurt was made in the early morning, the trackers first following
a bank overgrown with alders and sallows, all of a size, which
looked exactly like a well-kept hedge, but soon gave way to the
usual dense line of poplar and spruce, rooted to the very edges
of the banks, which are low compared with those of the Athabasca.
After ascending it for some distance, it being Sunday, we camped
for the day upon an open grassy point, around which the river
swept in a perfect semi-circle, the dense forest opposite towering
in one equally perfect, and glorious in light and shade and