Having, therefore, intimated his acceptance of these demands, he was invited to smoke the pipe of peace, and then obtained permission to depart.

After this the goods demanded were handed over, but Chatik managed to snatch more rum from them before they got safely away.
[Footnote 13: Elsewhere Henry observes the great numbers of pelicans to be seen on Lake Winnipeg.] In the winter of 1776 Henry, who, together with his party, had received welcome hospitality from the Hudson's Bay Company's station at Cumberland House, resolved to reach the western region known as the Great Plains, or Prairies--that immense tract of country through which flow the Athabaska, the Saskatchewan, the Red River, and the Missouri.
He and his party, of course, travelled on snowshoes, and their goods were packed on sledges made of thin boards, and drawn after them by the men.

The cold was intense, so that, besides wearing very warm woollen clothes, they were obliged to wrap themselves in blankets of beaver skin and huge bison robes.

On these plains there were occasional knolls covered with trees, which were usually called "islands".

These provided the precious fuel which alone enabled the travellers to support the intense cold of the nights.
After fifteen days of very difficult travel, during which it had been impossible to kill any game, as the beasts were mostly hidden in the dense woods on these rare hillocks, the situation of his party became alarming.