September 14th

Sunday. Secondary Camp #7. Yesterday the rain continued. At ten o'clock Adams went to the door and saw a large canoe approaching. It contained an Indian, his squaw and three boys, bet. 5 and 12 years of age. He had come to take us down to Bartlett's Bay. Breaking camp in the hard rain was very disagreeable. We finally got off at 4 pm. Adams and Morse were in the one canoe, McBride and I in the boat and the Indian in his canoe an[d] family, with all our baggage that we did not put in our own crafts, and a number of things which we discarded, but which he was not too proud to take. We covered the things as well as we could to keep them dry. As a north wind was blowing we set sail, but after a mile the wind dies out and a little further we encountered a head southerly wind. The north wind was nearly a glorious one.

Finding the progress of the large canoe very slow, the Indian and the squaw using paddles and one small boy an oar, Morse and I went aboard, he taking an oar and I a paddle; one small boy went in the canoe with Adams, and McBride had the boat to himself. This accelerated things considerably, so that when we stopped to camp at 6:30, we had made about 7 miles. Our secondary camp #6 was on a shady beach, where we found good water and some well soaked twigs of dead elder. By a plentiful use of coal-oil we made a good fire and boiled our coffee. The Indian's tent was near ours; he seemed to make himself very comfortable. His large canoe resembles very much the pictures gondolas of the 15th century. Last night he anchored it instead of beaching. We did not have a very agreeable night, as we had to make camp in the rain, and everything was damp and nasty. My shoes and feet were wet; I took off my shoes and my feet dried during the night, but my shoes were still soaking in the morning. We were up this morning at 4:15, had breakfast and were off at 6:30, the weather appearing not quite so bad. I rowed the boat Morse and McBride rowed in the canoe, Adams and a young Indian paddled the canoe. At first all went easily, but soon we rounded a point and then wind and waves both opposed us, so that we found great difficulty in making even a little headway; we finally worked our way into a protected bay and beached our boats at 9 am. not having made more than three miles advance. The rain stopped and the sun came out, but wind and wave continue high so we remain here tonight. Our camp (#7) is beautifully situated, on a lovely bay with green islands and mountains all about; but we are so anxious lest we should not catch the Topeka at Bartlett's Bay, that we can scarcely enjoy anything. Our blankets, tent, and hand-grips have all been spread out today, I fear very much that some of the instruments and our other baggage may have gotten wet. We expect to start tomorrow as early as we can see, if the wind abates or shifts so as to give us a lee shore.