gly left his canoes behind and
advanced on foot. The party was starving. On a Sunday in July he walked
twenty-six miles and says "neither Bird nor Beast to be seen,--so that
we have nothing to eat." The next day he traveled twenty-four miles
on an empty stomach and then, to his delight, found a supply of ripe
strawberries, "the size of black currants and the finest I ever eat."
The next day his Indians killed two moose. He then met natives who,
when he asked them to go to Hudson Bay to trade, replied that they could
obtain all they needed from the French posts. The tact and skill of the
French were such that, as Hendry admits, reluctantly enough, the Indians
were already strongly attached to them. Day after day Hendry journeyed
on over the rolling prairie in the warm summer days. He came to the
south branch of the Saskatchewan near the point where now stands the
city of Saskatoon and crossed the river on the 21st of August. Then on
to the West, eager to take part in the hunting of the buffalo.

Hendry is almost certainly the first Englishman to see this region. In
the end he reached the mountains. He makes no mention of having seen or
heard anything of Fort La Jonquiere, built three years earlier. He had
aims different from those of La Verendrye and other French explorers.
Not the Western Sea but openings for trade was he seeking. His great
aim was to reach the tribe called later the Blackfeet Indians, who were
mighty hunters of the buffalo. Hendry was alive to the impressions of
nature. The intense heat of August was followed in September by glorious
weather, with the nights cool and the mosquitoes no longer troublesome.
The climate was bracing. He complains only, from time to time, of
swollen feet, and we need not wonder since his daily march occasionally
went beyond twenty-five miles. Sometimes for days he saw no living
creature. At other times wild life was prolific: there were moose in
great abundance, bears, including the dreaded grizzly--one of which
killed an Indian of his company and badly mutilated another--beaver,
wild horses, and, above all, the buffalo. "Saw many herds of Buffalo
grazing like English cattle," he says, on the 13th of September, and the
next day he goes buffalo hunting. Guns and ammunition were costly. His
Indians, who used only bows and arrows, on this day killed seven--"fine
sport," says Hendry. Often the Indians took only the tongue, leaving
the carcass for the wolves, who naturally abounde