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 then attempted to pitch it anew, but our strength and ingenuity were not sufficient for the purpose.  We tried afterwards to find shelter under the canoe (the rain pouring in torrents), but the crew were already in possession, and so closely packed, that not an inch was unoccupied.  Thus baffled on every hand, we passed the night completely exposed to the “pelting of the pitiless storm,” learning a lesson of practical philosophy which I have not yet forgotten.

We arrived at Fort Coulonge early the next day, when a portly old gentleman, bearing a paunch that might have done credit to an Edinburgh baillie, came puffing down to the landing-place to receive us.  We soon discovered that Mr. Godin was only “nominally” in charge of the establishment, for that his daughter, a stout, masculine-looking wench, full thirty summers blown, possessed what little authority was required for the management of affairs.

We arrived on Wednesday.  The father proposed setting out for Montreal on Friday; the daughter objected the ill luck of the day:  it was finally determined that they should embark on Thursday, however late.  The necessary preparations were immediately commenced under her ladyship’s superintendence, and being completed late in the evening, they embarked, leaving me perfectly alone.  The contracts with the men had just expired, which I proposed to renew, but the answer from one and all was, “I shall follow my bourgeois.”  This was the result of the old gentleman’s arrangements (having been ordered off contrary to his wishes), and which might have been anticipated by those who appointed me to the situation; but it would have been derogatory to the exalted rank of their highnesses to bestow any consideration on such trivial matters as related to the comfort or convenience of a paltry apprentice!  Their neglect, however, might have been attended on this occasion with serious consequences to the Company’s interests, as I had never seen any of the Indians of that quarter before, and knew very little of their mode of trading.  It was a fortunate circumstance for myself that I understood the language sufficiently well to converse with the natives, otherwise my situation would have been disagreeable in the extreme.  I remained alone until the latter end of July, when I was joined by an English lad, whom I induced by the promise of high wages to leave his former employers (lumbermen) and share my solitude.