In fact the Takelly language has not a term in it to express the name of Deity, spirit, or soul.  When the Columbia religion was introduced among them, our interpreters had to invent a term for the Deity—­Yagasita—­the “Man of Heaven.”  The only expression I ever heard them use that conveyed any idea whatever of a superior Being is, that when the salmon fail, they say, “The Man who keeps the mouth of the river has shut it up with his red keys, so that the salmon cannot get up.”  One of our gentlemen, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, teaching the Takellies to make the sign of the cross, with the words used on the occasion, his interpreter translated them, “Au nom du Pere, de son Frere, et puis de son petit Garcon!” (In the name of the Father, his Brother, and his little Boy!)

The accompts and despatches for head-quarters being finished in the beginning of March, I was ordered to convey them to Fort Alexandria, to the charge of which post I was now appointed.  This post is agreeably situated on the banks of Frazer’s River, on the outskirts of the great prairies.  The surrounding country is beautifully diversified by hill and dale, grove and plain; the soil is rich, yielding abundant successive crops of grain and vegetable, unmanured; but the crops are sometimes destroyed by frost.  The charming locality, the friendly disposition of the Indians, and better fare, rendered this post one of the most agreeable situations in the Indian country.  In spring, moreover, the country swarms with game—­pheasants and a small species of curlieu in the immediate vicinity, and ducks and geese within a short distance.  The sport was excellent, and, with the amusement the cultivation of my garden afforded me, enabled me to vegetate in great comfort—­a comfort I was not destined long to enjoy.

Mr. Ogden, chief factor, arrived from Fort Vancouver about the end of May, and Mr. Fisher from Stuart’s Lake a few days afterwards; and having consulted together, determined that I should retrace my steps to Stuart’s Lake without delay.  When I arrived at Fort St. James its dreadful solitude almost drove me to despair.  I found myself sitting alone in the hall where my late excellent bourgeois and friends had passed the time so happily, and I felt a depression of spirits such as I never experienced before.  Fortunately for me, my old friend Mr. Fraser, a gentleman of a gay and lively disposition, arrived soon after, and continued with me for the remainder of the season, and his company soon drove melancholy away.

The particulars of an affair which had occurred here some years before, and threatened the most serious consequences to the post, were about this time related to me by Waccan, the interpreter.