CHAPTER VI.

TRIP TO FORT COULONGE--MR. GODIN--NATIVES.


A large canoe arrived from Montreal about the latter end of June, by
which I received orders to proceed to Fort Coulonge, situated about
eighty miles higher up the Ottawa, to relieve the person then in
charge of that post. I accordingly embarked in the same canoe,
accompanied by my young friend Mr. MacDougal, who joined me last
autumn, and who kindly volunteered to proceed along with me to my
destination. This canoe was under the charge of people hired for the
trip, and directed by the bowsman, or guide. I soon discovered that I
was considered merely as a piece of live lumber on board. My companion
and myself were reduced to the necessity of cooking our own victuals,
or of going without them. We pitched our tent as best we could, and
packed it up in the morning without the slightest offer of assistance
from the crew.

No incident worthy of notice occurred until we reached the Grand
Calumet Portage, the longest on the Ottawa River. The crew slept at
the further end of the portage, whither the canoe and part of the
cargo had been carried during the day, and we pitched our tent there
also in the usual awkward manner. The weather was very fine in the
evening, but soon after night-fall a tremendous storm burst upon us:
our tent was blown about our ears in an instant. We endeavoured to
compose ourselves to rest underneath, but found it impracticable. We