Wilcocke, Samuel Hull. Narrative of Circumstances attending the death of the late Benjamin Frobisher, Esquire a partner of the North West Company of Montreal, ca. 1820. An electronic transcription. MFTP #0019

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was the greatest treasure, next to a gun and ammunition, they could possess. The latter, though frequent and anxious conferences consultations were held as to the means of procuring one them, they could not obtain. A canoe too was a desideratum they could more easily supply, and had they not succeeded in getting one on the spot, they had formed a plan of proceeding as far as the Rock house, on foot, (about 150 miles) and there, by taking to the woods on the opposite side or North bank, which is high ground, to make observations undiscovered where and how the canoes lay, and then cross over and to in the night by swimming, and creeping on all fours through the shallows, and so secure a canoe[.] or if […] A small canoe, however, which lay neglected on the beach by the seaside, unhoused and neglected was was fixed upon to be taken; and having got together their few necessaries, their net, and their small stock of provisions, saved as before said from their rations, and which they considered as likely with strict economy to last them about a fortnight; they stole out of their hut place of confinement o in the dead of the night of the 30th of September. Mr Frobisher carried what they had to the river side, and the two men silently got the canoe over a neck of land into the river. They then embarked, and committing themselves to the mercy of providence, paddled up the stream assisted by the night tide for about ten miles, with lighter hearts and more chearful anticipations of the future than they had for a long time before indulged in.

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