This last was a follower and pupil of the Matonabi who had guided Hearne to the Coppermine River and the eastern end of the Great Slave Lake.

The party of eight whites packed themselves and their goods into one birch-bark canoe.

English Chief and his two wives, together with an additional Amerindian guide and a hunter, travelled in a second and smaller canoe.

The expedition, moreover, was accompanied as far as Slave River by LE ROUX, a celebrated French-Canadian exploring trader who worked for the X.Y.Company.

The journey down the Slave River was rendered difficult and dangerous by the rapids.