On the 18th Mr. Back and Mr. Wentzel set out for Fort Providence accompanied by Beauparlant, Belanger, and two Indians, Akaiyazza and Tholezzeh, with their wives, the Little Forehead and the Smiling Marten.  Mr. Back had volunteered to go and make the necessary arrangements for transporting the stores we expected from Cumberland House and to endeavour to obtain some additional supplies from the establishments at Slave Lake.  If any accident should have prevented the arrival of our stores and the establishments at Moose-Deer Island should be unable to supply the deficiency he was, if he found himself equal to the task, to proceed to Chipewyan.  Ammunition was essential to our existence and a considerable supply of tobacco was also requisite, not only for the comfort of the Canadians, who use it largely and had stipulated for it in their engagements, but also as a means of preserving the friendship of the Indians.  Blankets, cloth, and iron-work were scarcely less indispensable to equip our men for the advance next season.

Mr. Wentzel accompanied Mr. Back to assist him in obtaining from the traders, on the score of old friendship, that which they might be inclined to deny to our necessities.  I forwarded by them letters to the Colonial Office and Admiralty detailing the proceedings of the Expedition up to this period.

On the 22nd we were surprised by a visit from a dog; the poor animal was in low condition and much fatigued.  Our Indians discovered by marks on his ears that he belonged to the Dog-Ribs.  This tribe, unlike the Chipewyans and Copper Indians, had preserved that useful associate of man although, from their frequent intercourse with the latter people, they were not ignorant of the prediction alluded to in a former page.  One of our interpreters was immediately despatched with an Indian to endeavour to trace out the Dog-Ribs, whom he supposed might be concealed in the neighbourhood from their dread of the Copper Indians; although we had no doubt of their coming to us were they aware of our being here.  The interpreter however returned without having discovered any traces of strange Indians, a circumstance which led us to conclude that the dog had strayed from his masters a considerable time before.

Towards the end of the month the men completed their house and took up their abode in it.  It was thirty-four feet long and eighteen feet wide, was divided into two apartments and was placed at rightangles to the officers’ dwelling and facing the storehouse, the three buildings forming three sides of a quadrangle.

On the 26th Akaitcho and his party arrived, the hunting in this neighbourhood being terminated for the season by the deer having retired southward to the shelter of the woods.