BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

LETTERS 71
Bear Lake, he pushed on to Great Slave Lake, but with
no better success, and he soon after heard of the terrible
disaster which had befallen the expedi tion.
It was generally believed in the N orth-West that Sir
John Franklin paid no attention to the ad vice of lvIr.
Wentzel and of other winterers of the North-West and
Hudson Bay Companies, who warned him against continuing
the expedition before having provided, either
en cache or otherwise, the necessary supplies for the
return The expedition was in a starving condition
from its beginning, and it proved very fortunate for
Mr. Wentzel and the four voyagel6rs who accompanied
him, that he was sent back
Mr. Wentzel was a musici.an; Franklin even says,
" an excellent musician!" This talent of his brightened
the long and dreary hours of his life and contributed to
keep all cheerful around him. A collection of the v()lJageurs
songs made by him is in our possession, bu t they
are mostly obscene and unfit for publication.
Mr. Wentzel, while at Great Bear Lake, took, as a
wife, a Montagnais woman who gave him two children:
a daughter married, first to a Canadian named Lari viere,
then to a half breed, Louison Goulet, and whose children
are settled at Lake Manitoba Mission; and a son, Alexander,
born at lle a la Orosse, who married a half breed
named LaferM. Alexander Wentzel was a carpenter;
he built the church at St. Norbert, 1855, and left four
sons, all living at St. Agathe.