We tried therefore to throw light upon the subject, by inquiring if the natives, who went up on these expeditions, usually took with them as many goods, as would amount to the number of the slaves they were accustomed to bring back with them.

But we could get no direct answer, from any actual knowledge, to this question.
All had seen the canoes go out and return; but no one had seen them loaded, or had been on board them.

It appeared, however, from circumstantial evidence, that, though the natives on these occasions might take some articles of trade with them, it was impossible from appearances, that they could take them in the proportion mentioned.

We maintained then our inference as before; but it was still uniformly denied.
How then were we to decide this important question?
for it was said, that no white man was ever permitted by the natives to go up in these canoes.

On mentioning accidentally the circumstances of the case, as I have now stated them, to a friend, immediately on my return from my last journey, he informed me, that he himself had been in company, about a year before, with a sailor, a very respectable-looking man, who had been up these rivers.