Volume 1

248 JOURNEY FROM KAMINISTIQUIA—PORK EATERS.
than I am attacked by everyone in turn. Some complain
of having a bad canoe ;
others, a heavy one—his assistant
cannot carry her; others have a sick or lame man in the
canoe, yet must keep up to the brigade ; some want bark,
others gum, others wattap, others grease, etc.; unforeseen
accidents having deprived them of those very necessary
articles. Having listened to all the complaints, and redressed
them as far as practicable, I must attend to the
sick and lame, and administer accordingly.
Au£;: 1st. Left my brigade ; exchanged my own canoe
with the Pork Eaters* from Lac la Pluie. The two Fort
des Prairies canoes, Messrs. McDonnell and Harrison, have
13 packs and eight men each; Athabasca river, Mr. G.,'
eight packs and seven men.
Aug: 4.th. At Little Lake portage. Athabasca canoes
still here, preparing to embark ; water very low. We have
terrible weather—wind, rain, thunder and lightning almost
every day. Made a very long, ugly portage in Lac des
Bois, in mud and mire up to the knees ; loading and
unloading is miserable work here in such a season.
^ Mangeurs de Lard or " Pork Eaters," also called " Goers and Comers" in
the N. W. Co., were men employed from May ist to the end of
September, to
go and come between Montreal and Grand Portage (in some cases as far as
Rainy 1.). In 1798 the company had of these, 5 clerks, 18 guides, 350 canoemen.
The guides were paid 800 to 1,000 livres and suitable equipment
;
bowsmen and steersmen, 400 to 600 livres ;
middlemen, 250 to 350 livres, with
a blanket, a shirt, and pair of trousers. All were victualed at the expense of
the company. Similar arrangements naturally continued when headquarters
were removed to Kaministiquia. In the matter of rations, McKenzie, p. xlvi.,
gives an interesting account of things as they were at Grand Portage before
the removal "
: The proprietors, clerks, guides, and interpreters, mess together,
to the number of sometimes an hundred, at several tables, in one large hall,
the provision consisting of bread, salt pork, beef, hams, fish, and venison,
butter, peas, Indian corn, potatoes, tea, spirits, wine, &c. and plenty of milk."
Mechanics had the same ration ; but canoemen were given no subsistence, here
or on the voyage, but corn and grease. The corn was prepared before leaving
Detroit by boiling it in lye to take off the husk, when it was washed and dried.
It was cooked by boiling it into a sagamity, or hominy, and eaten with salt.
A quart of such corn was a ration for 24 hours, costing about 10 pence ;
the
corn was worth about 20 shillings a bushel at Grand Portage.