of
his extreme sorrow, which he wished to persuade me arose from the
recollection of his having embezzled so much of my property; but I was
of a different opinion, and attributed his grief to arise from the
remembrance of his deceased relations. However, as a small recompense
for my loss, he presented me with four ready-dressed moose skins,
which was, he said, the only retribution he could then make. The moose
skins, though not the twentieth part of the value of the goods which
he had embezzled, were in reality more acceptable to me than the
ammunition and the other articles would have been, on account of their
great use as shoe leather, which at that time was a very scarce
article with us, whereas we had plenty of powder and shot."

During Hearne's stay at Lake Clowey a great number of Indians entered
into a combination with those of his party to travel together to the
Coppermine River, with no other intent than to murder the Eskimo who
frequented that river in considerable numbers. Before leaving Lake
Clowey all the Northern Indians who had assembled there prepared their
arms for the encounter, and did not forget to make shields before they
left the woods of Clowey. These shields were composed of thin boards
about three-quarters of an inch thick, two feet broad, and three feet
long, and were intended to ward off the arrows of the Eskimo.

When the now large expedition reached a river with the fearful name of
Congecathawhachaga, they found a portion of the tribe known as Copper
Indians,[5] and these had never before seen a white man. They gave a
very friendly reception to Hearne on account of Matonabi.

[Footnote 5: Or "Tantsawh[-u]ts". Like the "Dog-rib" Indians,
mentioned farther on, they belonged to the "Northern", Tinne,
Athabaskan type.]

"They expressed as much desire to examine me from top to toe as a
European naturalist would a nondescript animal. They, however, found
and pronounced me to be a perfect human being, except in the colour of
my hair and eyes; the former, they said, was like the stained hair of
a buffalo's tail, and the latter, being light, were like those of a
gull. The whiteness of my skin also was, in their opinion, no
ornament, as they said it resembled meat which had been sodden in
water till all the blood was extracted. On the whole I was viewed as
so great a curiosity in this part of the world that during my stay
there, whenever I combed my head, some or other of them never failed
to as