Belanger did not recover sufficient strength to leave us before the 18th.  His answers as to the exact part of Round-Rock Lake in which he had left Mr. Back were very unsatisfactory, and we could only collect that it was at a considerable distance, and that he was still going on with the intention of halting at the place where Akaitcho was encamped last summer, about thirty miles off.  This distance appeared so great that I told Belanger it was very unsafe for him to attempt it alone and that he would be several days in accomplishing it.  He stated however that, as the track was beaten, he should experience little fatigue, and seemed so confident that I suffered him to depart with a supply of singed hide.  Next day I received information which explained why he was so unwilling to acquaint us with the situation of Mr. Back’s party.  He dreaded that I should resolve upon joining it when our numbers would be so great as to consume at once everything St. Germain might kill, if by accident he should be successful in hunting.  He even endeavoured to entice away our other hunter, Adam, and proposed to him to carry off the only kettle we had and without which we could not have subsisted two days.  Adam’s inability to move however precluded him from agreeing to the proposal but he could assign no reason for not acquainting me with it previous to Belanger’s departure.  I was at first inclined to consider the whole matter as a fiction of Adam’s, but he persisted in his story without wavering, and Belanger when we met again confessed that every part of it was true.  It is painful to have to record a fact so derogatory to human nature but I have deemed it proper to mention it to show the difficulties we had to contend with, and the effect which distress had in warping the feelings and understanding of the most diligent and obedient of our party, for such Belanger had been always esteemed up to this time.

In making arrangements for our departure Adam disclosed to me for the first time that he was affected with oedematous swellings in some parts of the body to such a degree as to preclude the slightest attempt at marching and, upon my expressing my surprise at his having hitherto concealed from me the extent of his malady, among other explanations the details of the preceding story came out.  It now became necessary to abandon the original intention of proceeding with the whole party towards Fort Providence and, Peltier and Samandre having volunteered to remain with Adam, I determined on setting out with Benoit and Augustus, intending to send them relief by the first party of Indians we should meet.  My clothes were so much torn as to be quite inadequate to screen me from the wind and Peltier and Samandre, fearing that I might suffer on the journey in consequence, kindly exchanged with me parts of their dress, desiring me to send them skins in return by the Indians.  Having patched up three pairs of snowshoes and singed a quantity of skin for the journey we started on the morning of