e privilege of leaving the place within twenty-four
hours, after which he was informed that he was liable to be shot if seen
by them in the locality. They then pillaged the place and set fire to
it, leaving nothing but the remains of the two chimneys which are still
standing. This raid and capture took place on the 1st August, 1852.

"Mr. Campbell dropped down the river, and met some of the local Indians
who returned with him, but the robbers had made their escape. I have
heard that the local Indians wished to pursue and overtake them, but to
this Mr. Campbell would not consent. Had they done so it is probable not
many of the raiders would have escaped, as the superior local knowledge
of the natives would have given them an advantage difficult to estimate,
and the confidence and spirit derived from the aid and presence of a
white man or two would be worth much in such a conflict.

"Mr. Campbell went on down the river until he met the outfit for his
post on its way up from Fort Yukon, which he turned back. He then
ascended the Pelly, crossed to the Liard, and reached Fort Simpson, on
the Mackenzie, late in October.

"Mr. Campbell's first visit to the site of Fort Selkirk was made in
1840, under instructions from Sir George Simpson, then Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company. He crossed from the head waters of the Liard to
the waters of the Pelly. It appears the Pelly, where he struck it, was a
stream of considerable size, for he speaks of its appearance when he
first saw it from 'Pelly Banks,' the name given the bank from which he
first beheld it, as a 'splendid river in the distance.' In June, 1843,
he descended the Pelly to its confluence with the larger stream, which
he named the 'Lewes.' Here he found many families of the native
Indians--'Wood Indians,' he called them. These people conveyed to him,
as best they could by word and sign, the dangers that would attend a
further descent of the river, representing that the country below theirs
was inhabited by a tribe of fierce cannibals, who would assuredly kill
and eat them. This so terrified his men that he had to return by the way
he came, pursued, as he afterwards learned, by the Indians, who would
have murdered himself and party had they got a favorable opportunity.
Thus it was not until 1850 that he could establish, what he says he all
along believed, 'that the Pelly and Yukon were identical.' This he did
by descending the river to where the Porcupine joins it, and