Behind the Ranges [antikvár]

Outwitting the Red Indians In the autumn of 1785 a boy of fifteen set off with two Indians to walk the hundred and fifty miles from Churchill to Fort York along the shores of Hudson Bay. Such was Dávid Thompson's first taste of exploration in Ganada. Little more than a year before he had been walking the streets of London; now he was apprenticed to the famous Hudson Bay Company for seven years. He made himself an expert surveyor and spent the rest of his life mapping Ganada from Hudson Bay to the Pacific. He opened up new routes never before trodden by a white man. During those years of wandering he met with many adventures not only of Natúre's making-mountain and rapid-but with the Indián tribes who still roamed at will over their ancient territories. Thompson was able to get on good terms with most Red Indians, but there were times when his fate was in their hands, and then it was only by his coolness and daring that he came through. We always think of the Red Indians as experts in all outdoor knowledge-in woodcraft, in tracking, and in the handling of their birchbark canoes. But somé were by no means as skilled as legend makes them. Here is one incident, which shows that the white man