The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1879-12-20
THE STORY OF wAKUzzA.

THE STORY OF wAKUZZA.
One night when I was in the land of
the Blackfeet, on tributary of the
North Saskatchewan, the regular
evening romancing in front of the fire
gave 20 me story of Wakuzza, as told
by a renegade voyageur, who carried
hinder his grizzled hair library of un-
written and imprinted romance.
McAlpine, a factor of the Hudson's
Bay Company, had been ordered, in the
year 1895, to explore the region to the
west and northwest of the bay; to ex-
anime the country about the Great Slave
Lake and the Great Bear Lake; also, to
explOre the Mackenzie River from the
Slave Lake to its mouth in the Arctic
Ocean. New trading posts were to be
Established. A party Of Athabasca In
dians served McAlpine as hunters and
guides. They had reached point to
The north and far to the west of the
Slave Lake, when the Arctic winter of
1797 closed on them. II was the land
Df snow and cold the land where the
northern lights blaze and actually
crackle as they sweep out of the north
ern horizon in waves of fire, flowing
upward through space to the zenith.
McAlpine had made his winter encamp-
hnent in the woods on the banks of the
Moose River. To the west the Rocky
Mountains doomed, in disordered sub
ranges, billowy sea of mountains,
white with snow. Lakes, rivers, swamps,
bill were ice bound. The groans of the
frozen earth and water, as the frost pen
ptrated deeper and deeper, struck
harshly on McAlpine's ears. The split
ling of the sappy birch trees o. nights
bounded like the sharp reports of
rifles. Almost daily q loud noise
ike thunder rolled out from
he not far distant mountains, and the
terror-stricken Athabasca Indians cow
cred as they heard the voice of the
avalanche, which they thought was the
demon of the mountain. The solitude
was intense. They were in the north
ern edge of the Thickwood country.
Deep lay the snow. Superstition, ever
rife in the minds of the North American
Indians, had its silent counterpart in
the brain of the half-civilized McAlpine.
The tales that this hard-headed Scotch
factor of the fur company heard when a
child, knceling at his mothers lap In the
little hut in the Shetlands of Scotland,
game trooping back to him at night in a
group Of uncanny recollections.
Game was scarce in the Thickwood
country, as it is in all forests, and only
by arduous hunting was famine kept
Rloof. They hunted to the south, as to
the north the trees dwarfed rapidly, and
there was no open land. Depression
hung heavily over the camp. All were
discouraged, all uneasy, all alarmed.
Nightly, as their fire was piled high
with logs, the talk of the Indians re-
verted to the countless legends of the
Rocky Mountains. Such blood chilling
tales as The Lost Souls of the Chief
Mountain" The Headless Hunters of
the Cypress Hills" or "The Three
Fishers of the Slave Lake." were told
Rnd retold by the solemn group. Nc
ALPINE became affected with hereditary
second sight, and his nights were made
unhappy by grim visions. Hard-headed,
|cold-hearted, self-contained, he did not
bctray what he saw, and none knew the
anguish he suffered as he thought his
SacOn WIZ tOttCtlBS. Ilc icSOlNSu W
hunt to the north, ostensibly for game,
really for the utter fatigue he needed to
be able to sleep unhaunted by the spec
kers of his brain.
Hunting on the nth of January, 1897,
he descended into little valley. There,
on the surface of the ice-bound river, in
the newly fallen snow, he saw the well
hefined track of a snow-shoe. Startled
by the sight, he halted and examined it,
30 prove to himself that it was real. Sat-
sfied on this point, he cautiously fol-
lowed it for few miles; then, his brain
clearing itself of the fantastic phantoms
bf its idIeness, and restored to practical
Eigor, he thought he had better return
% camp and warn his followers of the
possible danger of hostile Indians. Re-
burned, he told his tale. 1t was re-
ceived with many smothercd exclama-
lions Of surprise. To a soul his follow
hrs refused to believe that he had seen
khc fresh track Of a strange show-shoe.
they declared that no one ever win
|ered in the country; that it was a will
crncss of snow, ice, and demon-haunt-
4 mountains. After long talk it was
ecided by the Indians to follow this
Nm track on the untrodden snow
thern wilds.
Anext morning the tracking
A<he command of their Ath-
s.. Aand hunter, MatonAbee,
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