BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

336
CHARLES MACKENZIE
Report was in circulation that the company of Sir Alexander
MacKenzie had coalesced with the North· West Co. both forming
but one concern. This was good neW8, for opposition of interest
creates dreadful disturbances, both in means and morals,
throughout these savage countries.
Notwithstanding the difficulty of procuring horses and other
necessaries, our people, with those from Hudson Bay, and our
retul"lls were on the way home in less than four days after Mr.
LaRocque's arrival The Returns formed loads for seven horses.
Mr. La Rocque and I having nothing very particular claiming
attention, we lived contentedly and became intimate with the
gentlemen of the American expedition, who on all occasions
seemed happy to see us, and always treated us WIth civility arid
kindness. It is Lrue, Captain Lewis could not make himself
agreable to us. He could speak fluently and learnedly on all
subjects, but his ill veterate disposition against the British
stained, at least in our eyes, all his eloquence. Captain Clarke
was equally well informed, but his conversation was always
pleasant, for he seemed to dislike giving offence unnecessarily.
The Missurie was free of ice the second of April, then the
American gentlemen sent off their twenty oar boat, with ten
men, for the United States, and, on the 8th following, the
expedition proceeded up the river towards the Rocky Mountains.
It consisted 01 one large Pirogue and seven small wooden
canoes, containing the commanding officers, thirty men and a
woman; the woman, who answered the purpose of wife to
Charbonneau, was of the Serpent nation and lately taken a
prisoner by a war party. She understood a little Gras Ventres,
in which she had to converse with her husband, who was a
Canadian and did not understand English. A mulatto, who
spoke bad French and worse English, served as interpreter to
the Captains, so that a single word to be understood by the
party required to pass from the Natives to the woman, from