On leaving the Gueule Plat’s village, the Surgeon and Interpreter, with Lieut. Allen’s command, were left behind to complete the vaccination of the Indians, while the rest of the party went forward a couple of leagues, to form the night’s encampment. It was after seven o’clock before they came up, and we waited some time after supper, which is generally a late meal in voyaging, for the arrival of the Indian guides, who had been promised to conduct us next day, to the landing of the portage to the river De Corbeau. Morning, however, came without them, and we embarked, (18th,) and proceeded towards the southern shore of the lake, under the hope of being able to find the portage, from the descriptions which had been given of it. Our course lay, for a distance, along the peninsula, on which we had encamped. Its trending too far to the east, induced us to hold a southerly course across a spacious bay. On gaining its centre, doubts arose, as to the proper course. A separation of the party was made. Part of the canoes took a south, and part, a south-east course, having agreed to concentrate on the firing of a gun, a signal which was eventually given, by the southern canoes under Mr. Johnston and Lieut. Allen. They had discovered a path, having every appearance of a portage, being in the required direction. Examination served to confirm this opinion. The baggage was immediately landed, the loose articles put in a portable shape, and the order of march on a portage, taken up. For this purpose, every article of the outfit, is originally put up in the most compact and convenient form, not exceeding ninety pounds weight. Pork is packed in kegs, flour in sail cloth bags, groceries in wooden or tin canisters, goods in corded bales. These are carried on the back, by a strong strap of leather passed around the forehead, and tied by its tapering ends, to the bag, or other article, forming the first, or lower piece. This is swung over the shoulders, and other pieces laid on, to the number of two, or sometimes three, according to the carrier’s strength. He then bends strongly forward, and proceeds at a half trot. He goes on the length of a pause, say half a mile, where the burden is put down, the strap untied, and the carrier, after a few moments rest, briskly returns, for another load. This process is continued till all the goods, are brought up to the first pause. The canoe and its apparatus, are then brought up, when the men commence making the second pause, and this order is repeated at every pause. This is a severe labor, and requires able bodied men, well practiced. And where the ground is low or swampy and often travelled, it soon becomes a perfect bed of mire.
The present portage, however, was found to lie across a pine plain, offering a clean beach of sand to debark on, and a dry smooth path to travel. A portage of 1,078 yards, brought us to the banks of a small lake, after crossing which we came to the entrance of a small clear brook, having not over two or three inches depth of water, spread over a bed of yellow sand. It seemed impossible to ascend it, especially with the larger canoe, but by the men’s first carrying the lading, by widening the channel in cutting down the banks with paddles, and then by walking in the stream and lifting the canoe by its gunnels, they succeeded in getting it up to another lake, called Little Long Lake. We were twenty-four minutes in crossing this latter lake, and found its inlet to be connected with four other small lakes of a pondy character, redolent with nymphæ odorata, through which we successively passed, and debarked at the head of the last lake on a shaking bog, being the commencement of portage Ple. This portage is quite short and dry, lies over a hill-prairie, and terminates on the banks of a transparent, bowl-shaped lake, with elevated shores, where we made our breakfast, at twelve o’clock. This lake, which we may refer to as the Lake of the Mountains, notwithstanding the liveliness and purity of its waters, has no visible outlet, a characteristic of which it partakes in common with a very great number of the small lakes of this quarter, which may be supposed to lie in aluminous strata. Next, in the order of travelling south of it, is the Mountain Portage, appropriately so called. Its extent is nine hundred and ten yards. The elevation is considerable, but no rock strata appear in situ. The soil is diluvial, with boulders. The growth, yellow pine, with small maples and underbrush. It terminates on the Lake of the Island. There is then a portage of two pauses, or 1,960 yards into another lake, quite pond-like, where it is first entered, but assuming a clear and bright surface after turning a prominent point. There is then a further portage of one pause, a part of it, through a morass, but terminating on highlands, surrounding the head and shores of a handsome and comparatively extensive sheet of water called Kagi Nogumaug, or The Long Water, where we encamped for the night. This day’s journey was a hard and fatiguing one, to the men. The Gueule Plat, who with one of the minor chiefs from Leech Lake, overtook us on the banks of the Lake of the Island, expressed his surprise that, with all our baggage and heavy canoes, we had pushed on so far. It was, however, a definite point in the journey. We were now on the source of the Kagági, or De Corbeau river. To have stopped short of it, would have seriously broken in on the labors of the following day; and the knowledge that the series of portages terminated there, and the downward passage commenced, buoyed up the men to make exertions. The day was particularly severe upon the soldiers, who were less accustomed to this species of fatigue. Never were the shadows of night more grateful to men, who had employed the morning, and the noon, and the evening of the day, in hard labor. We had now reached the fourth source of the primary rivers of the Mississippi, and all heading on the elevation of the Hauteur des Terres, within a circle of perhaps seventy miles. These sources are Itasca Lake, its primary, Ossowa, east fork, Shiba Lake and river, source of Leech Lake, and the present source, The Long Water, being the source of the De Corbeau, or Crow-wing river.
Gueule Plat, with his Indian secretary, so to call him, or Mishinowa, and their families, came and encamped with us. The chief said that he had many things to speak of, for which he had found no time during my visit. I invited him to sup with the party. Conversation on various topics ensued, and the hour of midnight imperceptibly arrived, before he thought of retiring to his own lodge. I was rather confirmed in the favorable opinions I have before expressed of him, and particularly in the ordinary, sober routine of his reflections, and the habitual, easy manner, which he evinced of arriving at correct conclusions. I could not say as much for his companion and pipe-lighter, Maji Gabowi, a very tall, gaunt, and savage looking warrior, who appeared to be made up, body and mind, of sensualities. And although he appeared to be quiet and passive, and uttered not a single expression that implied passion or vindiction, I could not divest my mind of the recollection that I was in company with the murderer of Gov. Semple. Whoever has given much attention to north-western affairs, will recollect that this event occurred in the fierce strife carried on between the North West and Hudson’s Bay Company. And that, in the desperate struggles which these corporations made for the possession of the fur trade, the Indians often became the dupes of whichever party appeared, at the moment, to possess the power of influencing them. The event referred to, took place near the close of a long struggle in which the spirit of opposition had reached its acme, in which company was furiously arrayed against company, charter against charter, and agent against agent. A period, at which, like the increasing energies of two powerful bodies moving towards each other, they were destined to come into violent contact, and the destruction of one, or both, seemed inevitable. The dispute respecting territory which imbittered the strife, appeared to be carried on, not so much from political ambition or the intrinsic value of the soil, as to decide which party should have the exclusive right of gleaning from the lodges of the unfortunate natives, the only commodity worth disputing for—their furs and peltries. A question, in which the Indians, in reality, had no other interest, but that which a serf may be supposed to feel on an exchange of masters, in which he has neither the right to choose nor the power to reject. Whichever party prevailed, they were sure to loose or gain nothing, if they kept aloof from the contest, or if they had any hopes from its effects upon their condition, they arose more from a prolongation, than a termination of the rivalry, as they were sure to fare better, both “in script and store,” so long as they possessed the option of rival markets.
Semple had accepted a governorship, which the late John Johnston, Esq. had the forecast to refuse. He appeared to be a man zealously