instructions to follow them up, until the season should be so far
advanced as merely to admit of his return by open water, unless the
Iroquois pitched their tent before then.

I volunteered myself to go after them with an outfit; but no; it would
be dividing our forces, thereby allowing an advantage to our more
formidable opponents; besides, we had not much to apprehend from the
Iroquois with their trifling means. "_Très bien_," I said to myself,
and set off on my return forthwith. I of course lost no time in
executing the orders I had received. My bourgeois had his opinion of
the matter, and I had mine; I knew that the Iroquois, when left to
themselves, would make their own prices for their goods, and thus,
even with the small outfit they had, fleece the Indians of the
principal part of their furs.

Among the Indians whom I had supplied, was an individual whose
advances amounted to a heavy sum. I felt extremely anxious about him,
and resolved to pay him a visit as soon as travelling was practicable;
meantime, Swanston, who had been in pursuit of the Iroquois, returned
from his disagreeable voyage on the 28th November, having learned
nothing more than we already knew.

I set off the next day, ostensibly on a visit to Mr. S., but really
with the intention of starting from his post on my intended
"derouine,"[1] arrived at Fort Coulonge among the drift ice, and on
the 1st December started, accompanied by the interpreter Primeau and
another man, all of us with heavy burdens on our backs. This proved
the most toilsome trip I had yet undertaken; the smaller lakes only
were passable on the ice, and the rivers were nearly all open. The
difficulties we thus encountered necessarily retarded our progress,