Making preparations for warfare, if necessary, yet neglecting no chance of re-entering into friendly relations with the natives, Mackenzie set to work to repair the wretched canoe, which was constantly having holes knocked through her.  He dealt tactfully with the almost open mutiny of his French Canadians and Indians.  At last everyone settled down to the making of a new canoe, on an island in the river where there were plenty of spruce firs to provide the necessary bark.  Even here they were plagued with thunderstorms.  Nevertheless, the men set to work, and as they worked Mackenzie addressed them with simple fervour, saying he knew of their plans to desert him, but, come what might, he was resolved to travel on to the westwards until he reached the waters of the Pacific.

This calmed down the mutineers, and, to the great relief of all concerned, that very afternoon the runaway guide of the Atna people returned and apologized for having deserted them.  He then offered once again to conduct them to the seacoast.  Nevertheless, again he fled, and Mackenzie was obliged to guide the expedition, according to the information he had gathered from the natives, up the small western affluent of the upper Fraser, which he called the West Road River (now known as the Blackwater).

His perseverance was rewarded, for after proceeding up this river for some distance he saw two canoes coming towards them containing the runaway guide and six of his relations.  The guide was dressed in a painted beaver robe, and looked so splendid that they scarcely knew him again.  Once more he declared it really was his intention not to disappoint them.  Soon afterwards they landed, buried their property and provisions, and placed their canoe on a stage, shaded by a covering of small trees and branches from the sun.  Each man carried on his back four bags and a half of pemmican, of an average weight of eighty-five pounds, or other loads (instruments, goods for presents, ammunition, &c.) of ninety pounds in weight.  Moreover, each of the Canadians carried a gun.  The Amerindian servants of the expedition were only asked to carry loads of forty-five pounds in weight.  Mackenzie’s pack, and that of his companion, Mackay, amounted to about seventy pounds.  Loaded like this they had to scramble up the wooded mountains, first soaked in perspiration from the heat and then drenched with heavy rain.  Nevertheless they walked for about thirteen miles the first day.  Now they began to meet natives who were closely in touch with the seacoast, which lay to the west at a distance of about six days’ journey.

“We had no sooner laid ourselves down to rest last night than the natives began to sing, in a manner very different from what I had been accustomed to hear among savages.  It was not accompanied either with dancing, drum, or rattle; but consisted of soft, plaintive tones, and a modulation that was rather agreeable:  it had somewhat the air of church music.”  The country through which they travelled abounded in beavers.  It was the month of July, however, and they were harassed with thunderstorms, some of which were followed by hailstones as big as musket balls.  After one such storm the ground was whitened for two miles with these balls of ice.