Mutterings of discontent were now openly heard among the French Canadians. They had had enough, and would follow the madman no further. Four of them suited the action to the word and deserted. Two of the others Thompson despatched with letters to William Henry, describing the route he had discovered, and ordering Henry to follow him along it with an additional supply of goods. With the remainder, Thompson set forth on the journey up the Columbia. They had gone but one day when they, too, balked at the restless energy of their leader. Faced with incipient mutiny, Thompson had no choice except to return to the mouth of the Wood river, and there pass the rest of the winter. The place of his enforced residence was the famous "Boat Encampment" of later days. At this point, the Columbia, after having pursued a north-westerly course for upwards of two hundred miles from its sources, bent sharply around the head of the Selkirk Mountains, and flowed off to the south. At the bend, the stream was joined by two tributaries, the Wood and Canoe rivers, coming in from the north, and forming at their mouths a wide meadow of rich alluvial soil. There in the midst of a forest of giant pine and larch, the party cleared a site, and built themselves a rough cabin. Thompson, never idle, spent his time exploring the neighbourhood, and constructing a boat for the remainder of the journey. As there was no birch bark available, he built it clinker-fashion of cedar boards split thin; and these, in default of nails, he sewed together with the fine roots of the pine. The snow was not yet off the ground when he was once more on his way. He had counted on reaching the mouth of the Columbia not later than the first of August, and would gladly have made the descent by way of the river itself, which here lay clear before him. Of his canoemen, however, three only had the courage to risk the chances of the voyage. With so few men it would have been madness to venture a long journey on unknown waters and in the midst of possible enemies; so he determined to make his way past his old trading posts to the Salish country. There he knew he could find plenty of free hunters to help him in accomplishing the voyage to the sea.