A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
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Title: A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
Author: Samuel Hearne
Author of introduction, etc.: Sir Edmund Walker
Editor: Joseph Burr Tyrrell
Release date: December 24, 2011 [eBook #38404]
Language: English
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THE PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY
VI
THE
PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY
HEARNE:
A JOURNEY FROM PRINCE OF
WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY
TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN
[Illustration]
TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY
_Five Hundred and Twenty Copies of
this Volume have been printed. Twenty
are reserved for Editorial purposes.
The remaining Five Hundred are
supplied only to Members of the
Society and to Subscribing Libraries.
This copy is No. 229_
A JOURNEY
FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S
FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY TO
THE NORTHERN OCEAN
In the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772
BY
SAMUEL HEARNE
NEW EDITION
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY
J. B. TYRRELL, M.A.
TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY
1911
_All rights reserved._
PREFACE
BY SIR EDMUND WALKER
_President of the Champlain Society_
When the Champlain Society was first organised in 1905 one of the works
on its list of proposed publications was the _Journal_ of Samuel Hearne.
This book, written with great literary charm, is the first account
preserved to us of an attempt to explore the interior of far-northern
Canada from a base on Hudson Bay. The natives had brought to Fort Prince
of Wales glowing reports of a vast store of copper at the mouth of a
river which flowed into the Arctic Ocean. An attempt to find it was
inevitable. Twice Hearne failed, but his third effort succeeded and,
after a laborious journey, he reached the mouth of the Coppermine River.
Soon after he was promoted to command at Fort Prince of Wales, now
Churchill, on Hudson Bay. France had joined Britain's revolted colonies
in their war on the mother land, and one day, in 1782, a French
squadron, under the well-known seaman, La Pérouse, dropped anchor before
Fort Prince of Wales. Hearne, mightier with the pen than with the sword,
surrendered meekly enough in spite of his massive walls from thirty to
forty feet thick. Thus ingloriously he dies out of history.
Hearne's _Journal_, published after his early death, has become a rather
rare book. Besides the narrative of what he did, it contains copious
notes on the natural history of the region which he was the first white
man to make known. A new edition has long been needed. Yet to secure
competent editing was a difficult task, since few knew the remote
country which Hearne explored. It may be regarded as fortunate that the
new edition has been delayed, for only now are we able to present
Hearne's story with the annotations necessary to give it the last
possible elucidation. The needed knowledge is supplied by Mr. J. B.
Tyrrell and Mr. E. A. Preble, two writers pre-eminently suited for their
task by journeys in the regions described by Hearne, on parts of which
so few white men have set eyes.
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell began his work of exploring in North Western Canada in
1883, and during the ensuing fifteen years he made many important
additions to our knowledge of the geology and geography of what is still
the least known part of Canada. In 1893, accompanied by his brother, Mr.
J. W. Tyrrell, as his assistant, he traversed the so-called Barren
Grounds from Lake Athabasca eastward to Chesterfield Inlet, and from
there his party paddled in canoes down the west shore of Hudson Bay to
Fort Churchill. Of the 3200 miles thus traversed, 1650 were previously
unsurveyed and unmapped. From Fort Churchill Mr. Tyrrell walked eight or
nine hundred miles on snowshoes to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg. In
1894 he again crossed the Barren Grounds, this time travelling from the
north end of Reindeer Lake to a point on Hudson Bay, about 200 miles
south-west of Chesterfield Inlet. Thence he went to Churchill as before
in canoes along the open coast. From Churchill Mr. Tyrrell again, but by
another route, walked on showshoes to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg.
On this journey he travelled about 2900 miles, of which 1750 were by
canoe and 750 on snowshoes. Almost the whole journey was through
previously unexplored country. For the geographical work done in these
two years he was awarded the Back Premium by the Royal Geographical
Society of London.
In response to an enquiry whether any other white man has visited the
regions described by Hearne, Mr. Tyrrell writes:--
"I happen to be the only one since Hearne who has conducted
explorations in the country lying between Fort Churchill and the
eastern end of Great Slave Lake and south of latitude 63° N.
Except Hearne, I and those who accompanied and assisted me are
the only white men who have crossed that great stretch of
country, north of a line between the mouth of the Churchill
River and Lake Athabasca and a line between the east end of
Great Slave Lake and Chesterfield Inlet. Absolutely the only
information that I had about the region when I visited it, other
than what I had secured in conversation with Indians, was
contained in Hearne's book. My last journey was made sixteen
years ago, and no white man has since travelled across that
country. With the building of the railroad to Fort Churchill, it
will doubtless soon be visited. Since I made a survey of
Chesterfield Inlet and its vicinity, my brother, Mr. J. W.
Tyrrell, has crossed from the east end of Great Slave Lake by
the Hanbury River to Chesterfield Inlet, making a survey as he
went, and the Royal North West Mounted Police have sent parties
from the Mackenzie River to Hudson Bay along this route, using
my brother's maps as their guide. It is hardly necessary to say
that a magnificent field for exploration is still left in that
far northern country."
So much as to Mr. Tyrrell's work. For the notes explaining Hearne's many
observations on natural history we are indebted to Mr. E. A. Preble of
Washington. Mr. Preble spent a summer on the west shore of Hudson Bay
north of Fort Churchill. He also spent the summers of 1901 and 1903, the
winter of 1903-4, and the summers of 1904 and 1907 on the Athabasca and
Mackenzie Rivers and on the Barren Grounds north of Great Slave Lake.
This most important study of the fauna of Northern Canada was undertaken
by Mr. Preble on behalf of the Biological Survey of the United States
Department of Agriculture. The various reports and other publications
arising from the journeys of Mr. Tyrrell and the investigations of Mr.
Preble are mentioned in a bibliographical note at the end of this
volume.
This is the first work relating to the West to be published by the
Champlain Society. It has already begun an extensive list of the works
of early writers on Eastern Canada. The year 1911 will, it is hoped, see
the completion of the three volumes of Lescarbot's _History of New
France_, now for the first time entirely translated into English. In
this as in all other publications of the Society the original text is
given with the translation. Nicolas Denys was the first writer to
describe in detail the coasts of eastern Canada, and the Society has
republished his great book, adequately translated and with copious
notes. It has done the same with Le Clercq's account of Gaspé and its
interesting natives. The writings of Champlain, entirely translated into
English for the first time, will soon appear in six volumes. The regions
lying west of Lake Superior have a history as interesting, but the
material is scattered. Hearne's _Journal_ makes a good beginning. In
preparation are the _Journals_ of La Vérendrye, the first white man to
come in sight of the Rocky Mountains by an overland route. His writings
will now for the first time be translated into English. The Society is
sparing no pains to provide volumes bearing on the Hudson's Bay Company.
Much further work on examining and classifying the papers of the Company
will, however, be necessary before anything final can be done. Meanwhile
members will enjoy the pleasant narrative of Hearne edited by the
competent observers whose services the Society has had the good fortune
to secure.
TORONTO, _January 1911_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 1
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 29
AUTHOR'S CONTENTS 33
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 41
A JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN 61
BIBLIOGRAPHY 419
INDEX 427
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN ORIGINAL VOLUME
A NORTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S
FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY, NORTH AMERICA _To face p._ 61
INDIAN IMPLEMENTS " 134
A WINTER VIEW IN ATHAPUSCOW LAKE " 232
INDIAN IMPLEMENTS " 310
A MAP EXHIBITING MR. HEARNE'S TRACKS
IN HIS TWO JOURNIES FOR THE DISCOVERY
OF THE COPPER MINE RIVER
IN THE YEARS 1770, 1771, AND 1772, UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY
COMPANY _At end_
PLAN OF THE COPPER MINE RIVER "
PLAN OF ALBANY RIVER IN HUDSON'S BAY "
PLAN OF MOOS RIVER IN HUDSON'S BAY "
PLAN OF SLUDE RIVER "
ADDITIONS IN PRESENT VOLUME
MAP OF PART OF NORTHERN CANADA AS
AT PRESENT KNOWN _At end_
Drawn on the same projection and scale as
Hearne's general Map
MAP OF COPPERMINE RIVER _At end_
As surveyed by Sir John Franklin in 1821.
From "Franklin's First Journey,"
London, 1823.
MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA _To face p._ 18
Showing Hearne's course as first
published. From "Cook's Third
Voyage," 1784.
MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA, 1787 " 18
From Supplement to "Pennant's
Arctic Zoology."
PLAN OF FORT PRINCE OF WALES AS IT
APPEARED IN 1894. By J. B. TYRRELL _page_ 22
MAP OF YATH-KYED LAKE AND PART OF
KAZAN (CATHAWHACHAGA) RIVER. By
J. B. TYRRELL _To face p._ 86
MAP OF DUBAWNT LAKE AND PART OF
DUBAWNT RIVER. By J. B. AND J. W. TYRRELL " 90
HEARNE'S NAME ON ROCK AT CHURCHILL " 4
SAMUEL HEARNE " 25
DUBAWNT LAKE " 96
DUBAWNT RIVER WHERE HEARNE CROSSED IT " 96
A SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT " 106
WHOLDIAH LAKE " 120
GROVE OF SPRUCE WITHIN BARREN LANDS " 120
ARTILLERY LAKE, LAST WOODS " 138
ARTILLERY LAKE " 138
BLOODY FALLS, COPPERMINE RIVER " 178
From "Franklin's First Journey," p. 360.
COPPER IMPLEMENTS FROM COPPERMINE RIVER " 178
HERD OF CARIBOU ON BARREN LANDS NEAR
DUBAWNT RIVER _To face p._ 234
DRYING CARIBOU MEAT " 234
WOODS OF SPRUCE AND LARCH, SOUTH-WEST
OF CHURCHILL, IN WINTER " 288
STONY BARREN LANDS IN SUMMER " 288
CHIPEWYAN INDIANS FROM KAZAN RIVER " 296
VALLEY OF THLEWIAZA RIVER " 296
FORT PRINCE OF WALES, GATE " 328
FORT PRINCE OF WALES, INTERIOR " 328
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Samuel Hearne, the author of the book here republished, is one of the
most interesting characters to be met with in the annals of exploration
in North America. When a young man, only twenty-four years old, he was
sent on foot to explore the interior of a great continent. Though he
knew nothing of mines or minerals, he, like many a man similarly
equipped since his day, was to report on a great mining property.
Naturally his report on the "mine" of copper is of little value, but his
account of Northern Canada and of the life of the natives who inhabited
it is the first published detailed description of any portion of the
interior of Western Canada. Very few men of his age accomplished so
much, and fewer still have published such admirable narratives of their
enterprises.
All that we know of Hearne's early life is contained in an obituary
notice which appeared in the _European Magazine and London Review_ for
June 1797, entitled "Some Account of the late Mr. Samuel Hearne, Author
of 'A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort, in Hudson's Bay, to the
Northern Ocean, undertaken by order of the Hudson's Bay Company for the
discovery of Copper Mines, a North-West Passage, &c., in the years 1769,
1770, 1771, and 1772.'"
"Mr. Samuel Hearne was born in the year 1745. He was the son of
Mr. Hearne, Secretary to the Waterworks, London Bridge, a very
sensible man, and of a respectable family in Somersetshire; he
died of fever in his 40th year, and left Mrs. Hearne with this
son, then but three years of age, and a daughter two years
older. Mrs. Hearne, finding her income too small to admit her
living in town as she had been accustomed to, retired to
Bimmester, in Dorsetshire (her native place), where she lived as
a gentlewoman, and was much respected. It was her wish to give
her children as good an education as the place afforded, and
accordingly [she] sent her son to school at a very early period,
but his dislike to reading and writing was so great that he made
very little progress in either. His masters, indeed, spared
neither threats nor persuasion to induce him to learn, but their
arguments were thrown away on one who seemed predetermined never
to become a learned man; he had, however, a very quick
apprehension, and, in his childish sports, showed unusual
activity and ingenuity; he was particularly fond of drawing, and
though he never had the least instruction in the art, copied
with great delicacy and correctness even from nature. Mrs.
Hearne's friends, finding her son had no taste for study,
advised her fixing on some business, and proposed such as they
judged most suitable for him; but he declared himself utterly
averse to trade, and begged he might be sent to sea. His mother
very reluctantly complied with his request, took him to
Portsmouth, and remained with him till he sailed. His captain
(now Lord Hood) promised to take care of him, and he kept his
word; for he gave him every indulgence his youth required. He
was then but eleven years of age. They had a warm engagement
soon after he entered, and took several prizes. The captain told
him he should have his share, but he begged, in a very
affectionate manner, it should be given to his mother, and she
should know best what to do with it. He was a midshipman several
years under the same commander; but, either on the conclusion of
the war, or having no hopes of preferment, he left the navy, and
entered into the service of the Hudson's Bay Company as mate of
one of their sloops. He was, however, soon distinguished from
his associates by his ingenuity, industry, and a wish to
undertake some hazardous enterprise by which mankind might be
benefited. This was represented to the Company, and they
immediately applied to him as a proper person to be sent on an
expedition they had long had in view, viz. to find out the
North-West Passage. He gladly accepted the proposal, and how far
he succeeded is shown to the public in his Journal. On his
return he was advanced to a more lucrative post at Prince of
Wales Fort, on Hudson Bay, and in a few years was made
Commander-in-Chief, in which position he remained till 1782,
when the French unexpectedly landed at Prince of Wales Fort,
took possession of it, and after having given the governor leave
to secure his own property, seized the stock of furs, &c. &c.,
and blew up the fort. At the Company's request Mr. H. went out
the year following, saw it rebuilt,[1] and the new Governor
settled in his habitation (which they took care to fortify a
little better than formerly), and returned to England in 1787.
He had saved a few thousands, the fruits of many years'
industry, and might, had he been blessed with prudence, have
enjoyed many years of ease and plenty; but he had lived so long
where money was of no use that he seemed insensible of its value
here, and lent it with little or no security to those he was
scarcely acquainted with by name. Sincere and undesigning
himself, he was by no means a match for the duplicity of others.
His disposition, as may be judged by his writing, was naturally
humane; what he wanted in learning and polite accomplishments he
made up in native simplicity and innate goodness; and he was so
strictly scrupulous with regard to the property of others that
he was heard to say a few days before his death, 'He could lay
his hand on his heart and say he had never wronged any man of
sixpence.'
"Such are the outlines of Mr. Hearne's character, who, if he had
some failings, had many virtues to counterbalance them, of which
charity was not the least. He died of the dropsy, November 1792,
aged 47."
He seems to have entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and to
have been sent to Fort Prince of Wales, the great stone fortification on
the low bare rocky point at the mouth of the Churchill River on Hudson
Bay, when he was about twenty years old. For several years he was
engaged in the fur trade with the Eskimos, up and down the coast of
Hudson Bay, north of Churchill River. One little glimpse is caught of
him, on July 1, 1767, for on that day he chiselled his name on the
smooth hard rock of Sloops Cove, on the west side of Churchill harbour.
When I visited the place, in 1894, the name was as fresh and plain as if
his hammer and chisel had just been laid aside.
Being possessed of much more than the average amount of ability and
enthusiasm, he was chosen by Moses Norton, the energetic Governor of
Fort Prince of Wales, to go out with the Indians into the vast, and as
far as that was then known, limitless, territory west of Hudson Bay, in
order to find and prospect the place where the native copper had been
found which the Indians often brought with them to the fort.
During the year preceding his departure on his first expedition, he had
had an excellent opportunity to perfect himself in a knowledge of
astronomical and geodetic work, for in the summer of 1768 the annual
ship had brought William Wales, F.R.S., and Joseph Dymond from London,
commissioned by the Royal Society to remain at Fort Prince of Wales
throughout the ensuing year in order to observe the transit of Venus
over the sun on the 3rd of June 1769.[2] They remained at the fort until
the ship left again for London in August of the following year (1769).
Mr. Wales was one of the foremost astronomers, mathematicians, and
litterateurs of his age. Shortly after his return to England he was
appointed to accompany Captain Cook on his voyage around the world in
the _Resolution_ in 1772-74, and again on his last voyage in 1776-79.
His presence for more than a year among the little band of white men
assembled at this remote fur-trading post on Hudson Bay must have had a
helpful influence in preparing Hearne for his great explorations
overland to the Arctic Ocean. This book is an account of three journeys
which he undertook in rapid succession into the country west of Hudson
Bay and north-west of Fort Prince of Wales in search of the fabled bed
of copper ore, from which pure copper could be loaded directly into
ships at trifling expense. In the first and second journeys he was
obliged to turn back before reaching his destination, but in the third
journey all difficulties were finally overcome, and he was taken to and
shown the "mine" of copper.
It has been my good fortune to travel over parts of the same country
through which Hearne had journeyed one hundred and twenty-three years
before me, and into which no white man had ventured during the
intervening time. The conditions which I found were just such as he
describes, except that the inhabitants had changed. The Chipewyan
Indians, whom he found occupying advantageous positions everywhere as
far as the north end of Dubawnt Lake, had disappeared, and in their
places the country had been occupied by scattered bands and families of
Eskimos, who had almost forgotten the ocean shores of the north, from
which they had come. They were depending entirely, for food and
clothing, on the caribou, which they killed on the banks of the inland
streams and lakes. Traces of old Indian encampments were seen in a few
of the scattered groves that are growing along the banks of Dubawnt and
Kazan Rivers, but these camps had evidently not been occupied for many
years.[3]
[Illustration: _Photo. J. B. Tyrrell, Oakley, 1894._
S. HEARNE'S NAME ON THE SMOOTH GLACIATED ROCK AT SLOOP'S COVE, NEAR
CHURCHILL]
Whether Hearne remained at Fort Prince of Wales after his return is not
certain, but it is possible that he may have gone to some of the other
factories near the southern shore of Hudson Bay, and the plans of
Albany, Moos, and Slude (East Main) Rivers, at the end of this book, the
first two of which are dated 1774, may have been made by him at this
time. In the latter year, however, he was at York Factory, and from
there, in May or June, he was sent inland to the Saskatchewan River,
where he established Cumberland House on Pine Island Lake, close to a
trading-post which had been previously built by Joseph Frobisher, an
enterprising merchant from Montreal. The following year he was recalled
to Hudson Bay to take charge of his old home, Fort Prince of Wales, in
the place of Governor Norton, who had died, and there he remained
quietly trading with the Indians till August 1782, when the fort was
taken and burnt by the French under Admiral La Pérouse.
As soon as the French with three vessels of war appeared before the
fort and demanded its capitulation, Hearne surrendered at discretion,
without firing a shot. He was at once taken on board the French ships,
and allowed to retain all his private papers and effects, while the furs
and other property of the Hudson's Bay Company were either confiscated
or burnt. After pillaging and destroying the fort, La Pérouse sailed
southward to York Factory, which also surrendered to him as soon as he
appeared before it, and then, with all his prisoners on board, including
the Governors of Fort Prince of Wales, York, and Severn, he sailed for
France.
Hearne does not appear to have been treated by La Pérouse as an enemy
who had been taken prisoner at the capture of a hostile fort, but rather
as a literary man whom he was anxious to encourage and patronise. While
a prisoner on board the French ships he was treated with every
consideration, and his generous captor, who was one of the foremost
geographers of his time, read his manuscript journal with evident
interest, and returned it to him on the express condition that he would
print and publish it immediately on his arrival in England.
On the signing of peace with the French in the following year, Hearne
was sent back by the Hudson's Bay Company to Churchill. He made no
attempt to live again in the fort, which was very unfavourably situated
for obtaining both wood and water, but took up his residence on the site
of the original trading-post of the Hudson's Bay Company, five miles
south of Fort Prince of Wales, where the buildings of the Company stand
at the present day.
In 1784, while Hearne was at Churchill, there arrived from England a
boy, fourteen years old, named David Thompson, who afterwards became the
great geographer of North-Western America. Thompson remained at
Churchill for only one year, during which time he copied some of
Hearne's Journal, and though he did not carry away any very friendly
feelings towards his superior officer, the knowledge which he gained of
the interior country, and of the possibilities of travel through it,
must have had a stimulating effect on him in after life. His note-books,
which are now in possession of the Government of the Province of
Ontario, are filled with detailed information about North-Western
America, so much of which he subsequently explored. In 1787 Hearne left
Churchill and returned to England, and from that date until his death,
in 1792, he probably spent most of his time in revising and preparing
his Journal for publication.
Before discussing Hearne's character and the extent and value of his
work, it will be interesting to recount briefly the circumstances which
led up to the expedition to the Coppermine River. In the seventeenth
century the search for gold and silver monopolised the thoughts of many
of the adventurers in the Southern Seas, but those adventurers who
turned their attention to the more northern countries recognised that
there were other sources of wealth beside the precious metals. They saw
that the furs of many of the wild animals which roamed through the
forests might easily be obtained from the natives in exchange for
articles of European manufacture of but trifling value, and that these
furs might be sold in the markets of Europe and Asia at an enormous
profit. In this way what is known as the fur trade had its beginning on
the American continent.
The Dutch, French, and English strove for shares in this lucrative
trade, and many of the wars and massacres of that time had their origin
in the strenuous endeavours of one or other of these nations to outwit
its rivals. The Dutch had headquarters on the Hudson River, in what is
now the State of New York, the French on the St. Lawrence River, in the
present Provinces of Quebec and Ontario, while the English established
themselves on the shores of Hudson Bay, founding a fur-trading company,
which was destined to survive till the present time, and to be one of
the greatest commercial corporations that the world has ever known.
This Company was called "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of
England, trading into Hudson's Bay," or in brief, "The Hudson's Bay
Company." At first it occupied a few small buildings, called factories
or forts, situated at advantageous places near the mouths of rivers on
the shore of Hudson Bay, where the Indians, who were accustomed to roam
through the great unknown inland country, could come down in canoes to
trade their furs for guns, knives, and other commodities brought from
England by the white people.
About the beginning of the eighteenth century, some of the Indians who
came to the more northern factories or trading-posts, and especially to
those situated at the mouths of the Churchill and Nelson Rivers, brought
with them rough pieces of native copper, and ornaments and weapons
fashioned from this metal. On being asked where the copper came from,
they said that they found it on the banks of a river, far away to the
north, and that it could be collected from the surface in great
abundance, but that the distance through which it was necessary for them
to carry it prevented them from bringing much of it to the factories.
These stories, along with the specimens which the Indians had in their
possession, gradually aroused more and more interest in the minds of the
fur-traders. At last they determined that there were far greater riches
within their reach than could be obtained by trading with the Indians
for furs, and decided to go in search of the copper mines whatever the
cost of such a search might be. Among the first to take up this quest
was Captain James Knight, a man of about eighty years of age, who had
spent most of his life in trading for furs with the Indians, and who for
several years had been in charge of York Factory for the Hudson's Bay
Company. With him were Captain Barlow, another fur-trader from Fort
Albany, and Captain Vaughan.
When the Committee, appointed in 1748 by the British House of Commons to
inquire into the state and conditions of the countries adjoining Hudson
Bay, was taking evidence, one of the chief witnesses was a Captain
Carruthers, who in his evidence stated "that he had heard a good deal of
a Copper Mine to the northward of the Churchill River--that the Governor
(Knight) was mighty fond of the Discovery, and made great inquiries
about it,--that the witness had seen copper which was said to be brought
from thence,--that the Governor (Knight) was very earnest in this
Discovery, which was always his topic."
Joseph Robson states that "Governor Knight and Captain Barlow being well
assured that there were rich mines to the northward, from the accounts
of the Indians of those parts who had brought some of the ore to the
factory, they were bent upon making the discovery; and the Governor said
he knew the way to the place as well as to his bedside."[4] In the year
1719, Captain Knight and his associates sailed from England in two
ships, the _Albany_ and the _Discovery_, well provided with stores and
provisions, and even with strong iron-bound boxes in which to bring back
the copper and other precious metals. Unfortunately the expedition was
wrecked on Marble Island, and all the officers and crew were lost,
although their fate was not definitely known until nearly half a century
later.
Three years later, when the two ships had not returned, and no word had
been received from them, Captain Scroggs was sent by the Hudson's Bay
Company from Churchill to look for them, and at the same time to
continue the search for copper. The story of his journey, as given by
Dobbs in his "Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay"
(London, 1744), says nothing about the explorers who had been lost, but
comments on the copper deposits as follows:--
"He [Scroggs] had two Northern [Chipewyan] Indians with him, who
had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a copper mine
somewhere in that country upon the shore near the surface of the
earth, and they could direct the sloop so near it, as to lay her
side to it, and be soon laden with it; and they brought some
pieces of copper from it to Churchill that made it evident there
was a mine thereabouts. They had sketched out the country with
charcoal upon a skin of parchment before they left Churchill,
and so far as they went it agreed very well. One of the Indians
desired to leave him, saying he was within three or four days'
journey of his own country, but he would not let him go. Captain
Norton, late Governor of Churchill, was then with him."
The Captain Norton here mentioned was the father of Governor Moses
Norton who afterwards despatched Hearne to look for the Coppermine
River. Captain Carruthers, who is mentioned above, and who, according to
his own statement, had "quitted" the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
thirty-five years before 1748, said that he "himself carried Mr. Norton,
who was afterwards Governor, and two Northern Indians to Churchill where
he put them in a canoe, and the purpose of their voyage was to make
discoveries and encourage the Indians to come down to trade and bring
copper ore."[5]
The journey of Mr. Norton referred to by Captain Carruthers was probably
undertaken about 1714, in which year York Factory was restored to the
English, after having been occupied by the French for seventeen years.
Probably it was on account of this and similar journeys that, in 1719, a
gratuity of £15 was voted to Mr. Norton by the Hudson's Bay Company, on
account of having endured "great hardships in travelling among the
Indians." In 1733 the same Mr. Norton wrote to the directors of the
Hudson's Bay Company in London that he had "served your Honors many
years and gone through many difficulties and hardships in taking long
journeys with the natives to promote your trade with them, even many
times to the hazard of my own life."[6]
In the same Parliamentary Report Alexander Browne, a surgeon who had
been for six years in the Company's service, testified "that the Indians
brought down the ore at the request of Governor Norton," and also "that
he had heard the late Mr. Norton say that he had been at this mine and
that a considerable quantity of copper might be brought down."[7] It is
not probable that Browne's statement with reference to Norton having
visited the Coppermine River is correct, but it would be rash to deny
that such a journey had been accomplished until the letters and records
of the Hudson's Bay Company are finally made public.
After the unsuccessful voyages of Captains Knight and Scroggs, several
other expeditions were sent from Churchill northward along the shore of
Hudson Bay. Most of these doubtless more than paid their way by trading
for furs with the Eskimos, but to the outside public they were
ostensibly to find the North-West Passage to China and the "mine" of
copper ore. The most important of these expeditions were those of the
_Furnace_ and _Discovery_ under Captains Middleton and Moor, in 1741-2,
and of the _Dobbs_ and _California_ under Captains Moor and Smith in
1746-7. After these expeditions, interest in the copper may have
languished for a while, but the numerous references to it in the
Hudson's Bay Report of 1749 show that it was not by any means forgotten.
Meanwhile, Richard Norton of Churchill had died, and his half-breed son
Moses Norton had been appointed Governor in his stead. In the year 1767
the remains of Knight's ill-fated expedition were found on Marble
Island, and the thoughts of the people on Hudson Bay were undoubtedly
again turned to the object for which his voyage had been undertaken. To
add to the interest in the copper, the Northern Indians, who came to
Churchill in the year 1768, brought with them some fine specimens of ore
which they said came from Coppermine River. By this time Governor Moses
Norton's interest was thoroughly aroused in the possible value of the
copper "mines," and as they were said to be only four hundred miles from
Churchill, he determined that, if possible, something definite should be
learned about them. Accordingly, that very summer, when the ship came
from England, he took passage back in it to London, and laid a plan for
the discovery of this supposed great body of copper ore before the
directors of the Company and received their approval for its execution.
The plan was not to entail any very great expense to the Company. A man
was to be sent out with the Indians, who should be supported by them and
live as they lived.
Before that time other men had been sent into the wilderness, in the
same way, from factories, especially from York, where, in 1690, Henry
Kelsey had travelled southward until he met the so-called "Naywatamee
poets" or Mandan Indians, somewhere near the banks of the Assiniboine or
South Saskatchewan Rivers,[8] and in 1754 Anthony Hendry had made a
notable journey up the North Saskatchewan River to the great plains,
where he had endeavoured to establish friendly relations with the
Blackfeet Indians and their allies, and to prevent them from selling
their furs to Luc la Corne and the French merchants from Montreal, who
had penetrated into the same country several years before. Both these
men had been treated with the greatest kindness by the natives and had
brought back intelligent accounts of the countries visited by them,
though neither of them had the ability of Samuel Hearne to enable them
to prepare a report such as the one here published.
Governor Norton was a man of much more than the ordinary intelligence
and strength of character, and he saw that if the expedition was to be a
success it must be conducted by some one who would be able to make full
and accurate surveys of the route followed, and who could intelligently
describe the character and value of the "mine" and determine its
latitude and longitude by astronomical observations. For this purpose he
chose Samuel Hearne, now a young man twenty-four years of age, who,
after his service as a midshipman in the British Navy, was at the time
employed as a mate on the _Charlotte_, one of the Company's sloops
trading from Churchill with the Eskimos. The story of his journey, the
hardships which he endured, and the success which he achieved, form the
subject of this book and need not be discussed here.[9]
Hearne's character, which had been moulded to a large extent by his
surroundings, can be fairly well understood from a careful reading of
his book. He was diligent and reasonably accurate but not strong or
forceful. In this latter particular he differed from his great
successor, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who descended the Mackenzie River
eighteen years after Hearne had reached its waters at Great Slave Lake.
Alexander Mackenzie was a man of masterful temperament, and those who
accompanied him, whether white men or natives, were merely so many
instruments to be used in the accomplishment of any purpose which he had
in hand. Their likes and dislikes, and their habits of life, were merely
interesting to him in so far as they affected the results that he wished
to attain. His book is a detailed description of the directions and
distances which he travelled each day, and of the incidents of travel as
they occurred. To Samuel Hearne the natives with whom he travelled were
beings whose thoughts and habits of life he found supremely interesting.
Their intentions and desires largely controlled the expeditions on which
he had embarked. With the exception of the accomplishment of the main
object in view, of reaching the Coppermine River, their wishes were
everything, his nothing.
His first expedition was a complete failure, as the Indians simply took
him off with them for a couple of hundred miles into the wilderness
until they became tired of his company and then robbed him of everything
he had and left him to find his own way back to Churchill as best he
could. His second expedition was more successful, as the Indians
tolerated his company for eight months and supported him as long as food
was plentiful, but their enthusiasm, or duty to the Master at Churchill,
did not last long enough to carry them to the Coppermine River.
Of his third and successful expedition Hearne was the historian and
surveyor, while Matonabbee, a bold and forceful Chipewyan Indian about
ten years his senior, was its leader. If at any time Hearne tried to
interfere with the arrangements made by the leader he was promptly told
to follow instructions if he wished to reach the copper mine. While
Matonabbee probably reciprocated, to some extent at least, Hearne's
affection for him, he was evidently thinking of and working for Moses
Norton, the rough but powerful governor of Fort Prince of Wales, rather
than for the quiet and observant young man who was accompanying him.
Hearne's sketch of the life of Matonabbee is one of the most
appreciative and sympathetic accounts of a North American Indian that
has come to my notice.
Hearne was evidently gifted with a very retentive memory, and had the
artist's faculty of seeing the interesting features of his surroundings
in their true perspective. Though, like Robert Louis Stevenson and many
others, he had not been a brilliant student at school, he possessed the
literary ability to present what he saw or knew in an interesting and
attractive form. In the ordinary quietude of his tent or office, when
thinking of nothing but the subject which he was describing, he
undoubtedly recorded his observations with accuracy. But in the warmth
of dispute, when endeavouring to overcome the criticisms or objections
of others, he was liable to be carried beyond the points of strict
accuracy and, in order to strengthen his argument, to fill in blanks in
his record from his imagination. He says, for example, that the sun was
above the horizon at midnight at the mouth of the Coppermine River. But
it is certain either that, on the night which he spent there, the
weather was too cloudy to permit of seeing the sun, if it had been above
the horizon, or that, even if the weather was clear, the sun must
necessarily have been below the horizon at the time. His sketch of Moses
Norton also has the appearance of being highly coloured by his evident
personal dislike of the man. No one can justly accuse Hearne of lack of
personal courage, for the annoyances, hardships, and sufferings, which
he endured without complaining, put the thought of personal cowardice
entirely out of the question. He had acquired the stoicism of the Indian
and he suffered quietly, just as an Indian is prepared to suffer. During
the years which Hearne spent among the Indians, living on what they were
able to obtain from day to day, as well as in his general intercourse
with them as a trader bartering for the furs which they were able to
collect and bring to him, he had learned to endure privations, to
compromise rather than to fight, and to accomplish his purpose by
politic and peaceful, rather than by warlike, methods. Naturally of a
complaisant disposition, he had learned to give whatever was demanded of
him, no matter who made the demand. Nothing could be more typical of the
habits which he had thus acquired than the little experiences in
trading, recounted on page 285, where, after an Indian had received full
payment for the furs which he had brought in, he was given in addition
the long list of articles there enumerated. Apparently, the Indian was
not refused anything if he persisted in asking.
This habit of acceding to requests to avoid dispute and difficulty,
rather than any real fear of personal danger, accounts for Hearne's
surrender of Fort Prince of Wales to the French without a struggle. In
this case it is quite possible that, in spite of the great strength of
the fort which he occupied, he was really not able to make effective
resistance against his powerful and determined enemy, who outnumbered
him more than ten to one. Although the fort mounted forty heavy guns,
and was provided with plenty of ammunition and small arms, it had only
thirty-nine men within its walls at the time. But even if Hearne had had
a stronger garrison, it is doubtful whether he would have attempted
resistance, for his training in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
had taught him to preserve the peace at any price, and it was impossible
for him to set aside at a moment's notice what had become second nature
to him.
We have seen that Hearne had not the forceful character possessed by
Alexander Mackenzie; yet, as a man must be judged by the results which
he achieves, it is perhaps all the more creditable to him to have done
what he did with his more complaisant and observant disposition. Though
he could not control the Indians with whom he travelled, he nevertheless
accomplished his purpose of making the journey, and has left a splendid
record of it to enrich posterity. He was hardly a great geographer,
though he added largely to the geographical knowledge of Northern Canada
west of Hudson Bay. It was he who finally set at rest the question of a
north-west passage by sea to China and the Orient, south of the mouth of
the Coppermine River. He knew nothing of mines or ores, and the
information he brought back about the "mine" of copper which he was
sent to explore was exceedingly meagre. He verified the report of the
existence of native copper on the surface in uncertain quantity.
Incidentally he showed that the place where it occurred was too remote
and difficult of access to permit of a copper mine being worked at a
profit, even if the copper should be found in great abundance. But that
was all. In fact, even to the present time, we have very little accurate
knowledge of the character and extent of this copper deposit near the
Coppermine River, as may be seen by referring to the notes on pages 194
_et seq._
On Hearne's first and second journeys he had quite adequate scientific
apparatus, and so could take astronomical observations to determine his
true position. So we find that he occasionally made use of his quadrant
and took such observations; consequently the positions given on the map
for the principal points in these two journeys are approximately
correct. But he started on his third journey with very faulty
instruments, and he would appear to have made very little use even of
them. The map of the course followed by him on this journey strongly
suggests a rough sketch made by his Indian guide, rather than a careful
plan worked out by himself, from day to day, or week to week. For
example, between Island and Kasba Lakes, near the beginning of his
journey, and shortly after he had diverged from his course of the
previous year, he began to go wrong. If he was using his compass at all,
it is possible that some source of local magnetic attraction was
influencing it, for the position of the last-named lake (on his map) is
some sixty or seventy miles too far north. It is inconceivable that he
could have made any serious effort to correct this faulty course by
astronomical observations with his quadrant. His book is chiefly
valuable therefore not so much because of its geographical information,
but because it is an accurate, sympathetic, and patently truthful record
of life among the Chipewyan Indians at that time. Their habits, customs,
and general mode of life, however disagreeable or repulsive, are
recorded in detail, and the book will consequently always remain a
classic in American ethnology.
The manuscript report on Hearne's exploration was submitted to the
directors of the Hudson's Bay Company immediately after his return, and
they highly commended him for the work he had done, and gave him a
handsome bonus.[10] The first account of his journey which seems to have
been published was given to the world in 1784 in the "Introduction to
Cook's Third Voyage," pp. xlvi-l, written by Dr. John Douglas, Bishop of
Salisbury, who later also edited Hearne's own book. The route followed
by Hearne on his successful third journey is incorporated in the general
map of the world accompanying this book. A Mr. Roberts, who prepared
this map, makes the following note with regard to it:--
"The whole of Hudson's Bay I took from a chart compiled by Mr.
Marley, from all the most authentic maps he could procure of
those parts, with which I was favoured by Samuel Wegg, Esq.,
F.R.S., and Governor of that Company, who also politely
furnished me with Mr. Hearne's Journals and the map of his route
to the Coppermine River, which is faithfully inserted in the
chart.
"(Sgd.) HENRY ROBERTS.
"SHOREHAM, SUSSEX, _May 18, 1784_."[11]
Another brief account of Hearne's trip is given in "Pennant's Arctic
Zoology," also published in 1784, while his map is incorporated in one
of the maps published in "Pennant's Supplement to Arctic Zoology," 1787.
Some of the names used on these two maps were continued on the map
accompanying Alexander Mackenzie's "Voyages," and also on Arrowsmith's
maps up to comparatively recent dates.
[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA
Being a portion of the Map of the World in "Cook's Third Voyage,"
published in 1784 Hearne's route was first published on this map]
[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA
Showing General Course of Hearne's Third Journey _From the Second Map of
Mr. Pennant's "Arctic Zoology," 1787_]
The book here republished appeared first in 1795, three years after
Hearne's death, as a large quarto volume of xliv + 458 pages, with five
maps, and four full-page illustrations. It was edited by the above-named
Dr. John Douglas, who is said to have drawn up the narrative, and to
have finished the Introduction, though just how much Hearne's diction
was altered by the editor is not known. It is probable, however, that
the MS. was published almost exactly as Hearne had written it. An octavo
edition, similar in letterpress to the original quarto one, but with
some slight omissions or differences in the text and in the general map,
was published in Dublin in 1796.
A French translation of the 1795 edition, by Lallemant, one of the
secretaries in the French Department of the Marine, was published at
Paris in 1799. Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, the Archivist of the Dominion of
Canada, has very kindly compared this edition with the English one of
1795, and makes the following remarks with regard to it:--
"The dedication of the English version is omitted in the French.
In the Introduction, page 27, there is a note in the English
edition which is not translated. Pages 441 to 445 of the English
edition are omitted in the French. At the beginning of the
French version there is a note on Hearne from the 'Voyage of La
Pérouse,' and some remarks by Lallemant. The translation of the
whole volume appears to be good."
The note from the "Voyage of La Pérouse" and the remarks of Lallemant
are as follows:--
"A LA PÉROUSE.--C'est à vous que l'Europe est redevable de la
publication de cet ouvrage, dont le manuscrit fut trouvé parmi
les papiers du Gouverneur du fort du Prince de Galles, lorsque
vous vous rendîtes maître des établissements anglais dans la
Baie de Hudson. En le remettant à son auteur, à la condition
expresse de le faire imprimer et publier, jamais vainqueur
n'exerça plus utilement son droit de conquête et n'imposa au
vaincu une condition plus honorable.[12] Elle était digne du
marin aussi généreux qu'éclairé qui devait, quelques années
après, entreprendre un voyage non moins important, et dont
aujourd'hui nous déplorons la perte.
"Pourquoi faut-il, brave et excellent _Dupetit-Thouars_, que
vous nous ayez été aussi ravi! vous qui m'excitâtes avec tant
d'ardeur à traduire la relation de _Samuel Hearne_, et qui,
après avoir tout sacrifié pour aller redemander _la Pérouse_ aux
îles de la mer du Sud, soupiriez après la paix pour reprendre
vos projets de découvertes. Accablé par le nombre au combat
d'_Aboukir_, une mort glorieuse vous a enlevé à votre patrie, à
deux soeurs chéries, à l'amitié, aux sciences, et il ne nous est
revenu de vous que cette réponse héroïque à l'ennemi: '_Voyez
mon pavillon; on ne le déplacera qu'en m'ôtant la vie._'
"_La Pérouse_, vous l'eussiez pleuré comme nous! il était si
attaché à son pays, à son métier, et si passionné pour leur
gloire. Il avait une âme si forte et un coeur si sensible; un
esprit si cultivé et des dehors si modestes. Il était ami si
vrai et frère si tendre. _Perpetue, Félicité_, j'en appèle à
votre douleur profonde!
"En associant son nom au vôtre, _la Pérouse_, permettez qu'il
partage avec vous l'hommage d'une traduction à laquelle je me
suis empressé de consacrer mes veilles pour concourir à vos vues
respectives d'utilité. Puisse ce monument être digne de vous
deux!
"LALLEMANT,
"l'un des Secrétaires de la Marine."
Hearne intimates on page 32 that the map here reproduced differs
slightly from those which he had previously published, a reference
doubtless to the one in Cook's "Voyage," but he claims that this one is
the most accurate, since he had revised it with great care. Both maps
are here given; further explorations in the northern country alone can
determine which is the more correct.
Fort Prince of Wales, from which place Hearne started on his expedition,
was built by the Hudson's Bay Company in the years 1733 to 1771. It is
said to have been designed by English military engineers, and, according
to Joseph Robson, was built under the direction of the resident
Governor, though Robson himself had much to do with its construction.
The fort, which is one of the most interesting military ruins on the
continent, stands on Eskimo Point, just west of the mouth of Churchill
River, and though some parts of the walls have fallen, it was, when I
visited it, in much the same condition as when built, except that the
houses within it had been gutted by fire. It is 310 feet long on the
north and south sides, and 317 feet long on the east and west sides,
measured from corner to corner of the bastions. The walls are from 37 to
42 feet thick, and 16 feet 9 inches high to the top of the parapet,
which is 5 feet high and 6 feet 3 inches wide. On the outside the wall
was faced with dressed stone, except towards the river, while on the
inside undressed stone was used. The interior of the wall is a rubble of
boulders, held together by a poor mortar. In the parapet are forty
embrasures and forty guns, from six to twenty-four pounders, are lying
on the wall near them, now partly hidden by low willows, currant and
gooseberry bushes. The three store-houses and the magazine, which once
occupied the centres of the bastions, have disappeared. Within the
square enclosure are the stone walls of a house 103 feet long, 33 feet
wide, and 17 feet high, which is said to have had a flat roof covered
with lead. The small observatory used by Mr. Wales in 1769 was situated
on the south-east bastion.
[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT PRINCE OF WALES.
By J. B. TYRRELL. 1894. Walls, 37 to 42 feet thick, 16 feet 9 inches
high. Scale: 80 feet = 1 inch.]
This new edition is a reprint of the quarto edition of 1795. The
pagination of the original has been inserted, enclosed within square
brackets, at the proper places in the text, and the notes are given as
in the original volume. The notes of the present editor are indicated by
Arabic numerals.
Most of the photographs here reproduced were taken by the editor in 1893
and 1894, but those of Artillery Lake were taken by Mr. J. W. Tyrrell in
1900, and the Eskimo implements of native copper were obtained by him at
that time.
Several additional maps have been added. Among these are the portions of
Cook's and Pennant's maps of parts of North America showing the first
published records of Hearne's courses; a map of the Coppermine River as
surveyed by Sir John Franklin in 1821; and a general map of Northern
Canada drawn on the same scale and projection as Hearne's large map, and
with his routes laid down as correctly as it has been possible for me to
determine them. The latter map is much more easily compared with
Hearne's original map than one drawn on the polyconic projection in
common use at the present time.
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Edward A. Preble of the
Biological Survey, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., author of "A Biological
Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region" and "A Biological Investigation
of the Athabaska-Mackenzie Region," who has so kindly annotated Chapter
X. on the fauna and flora of Hudson Bay, and has also added the notes to
which his initials are attached in other parts of the volume.
J. B. TYRRELL.
TORONTO, _February 1, 1910_.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This is an error, as the fort was neither rebuilt nor refortified.
[2] The results of their observations were published in the
_Philosophical Transactions_, vol. lix. (1769), pp. 467 and 480, and
vol. lx. (1770), pp. 100 and 137.
[3] "Report on the Dubawnt, Kazan, and Ferguson Rivers," by J. B.
Tyrrell. "Geological Survey of Canada," Part F, vol. ix. 1896. Ottawa,
1897.
[4] "Six Years' Residence in Hudson's Bay," by J. Robson, 1752, p. 15.
Robson strongly urged an overland expedition to discover the copper, p.
60.
[5] Hudson's Bay Report, 1749, p. 230.
[6] Ibid., p. 271.
[7] Hudson's Bay Report, 1749, p. 226.
[8] Henry Kelsey's account of this journey has given rise to a good deal
of dispute and scepticism. It gives me the impression that it is a story
written from memory years after the journey was performed, but his
general description of the country on the Red Deer River just north of
the Province of Manitoba, and of the plains of Saskatchewan to the
south-west of it, is too clear to be mistaken. I am indebted to
Professor W. H. Holmes, Director of the United States Bureau of
Ethnology, for assistance in identifying the "Naywatamee poets" with the
Mandan Indians.
[9] As farther evidence that this expedition was undertaken solely for
the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of the whereabouts of the copper
deposits, Edward Umfreville, who was employed as a writer at York
Factory in Hearne's time, makes the following interesting statement:
"Some years since, the Company being informed that the Indians
frequently brought fine pieces of copper to their Settlements on
Churchill River, they took into consideration, and appointed a person
(S. Hearne) with proper assistants, to survey and examine the river
where the valuable acquisition was supposed to be concealed."--_The
Present State of Hudson's Bay_, by Edward Umfreville, p. 45. London,
1790.
[10] Mr. Beckles Willson, in his book "The Great Company," says, on I
know not what authority, that it was £200.
[11] "Cook's Third Voyage," vol. i. Introduction, p. lxxxi. London,
1784. For purposes of comparison, the portion of this map which refers
to Hearne is republished at the end of the present volume. It is stated
by Beckles Willson in "The Great Company" that short accounts of his
journey had been published in 1773 and again in 1778-80, but though
diligent search has been made for these accounts in the British Museum
and elsewhere, no trace of them can be found.
[12] "Le Gouverneur _Hearne_ avait fait, en 1772, un voyage par terre
vers le Nord, en partant du fort Churchill dans la Baie de Hudson,
'_Samuel Hearne partit du fort du Prince de Galles le 7 Décembre 1770_,'
voyage dont on attend les détails avec impatience; le journal manuscrit
en fut trouvé par _la Pérouse_ dans les papiers de ce Gouverneur, qui
insista pour qu'il lui fût laissé comme sa propriété particulière. Ce
voyage ayant été fait néanmoins par ordre de la Compagnie de Hudson,
dans la vue d'acquérir des connaissances sur la partie du Nord de
l'Amérique, le journal pouvait bien être censé appartenir à cette
Compagnie, et par conséquent être dévolu au vainqueur; cependant _la
Pérouse_ céda, par bonté, aux instances du Gouverneur _Hearne_, et lui
rendit le manuscrit; mais à la condition expresse de la faire imprimer
et publier dès qu'il serait de retour en Angleterre. Cette condition ne
paraît pas avoir été remplie jusqu'à present.[A] Espérons que la
remarque qui en est faite, rendue publique, produira l'effet attendu ou
qu'elle engagera le Gouverneur à faire connaître si la Compagnie de
Hudson, qui redoute qu'on ne s'immisce dans ses affaires et son
commerce, s'est opposée à sa publication."--Discours préliminaire du
Voyage de _la Pérouse_ autour du monde, pp. xlvi et xlvii de l'in-4^º.
[A] Le Voyage de Samuel Hearne a été publié à Londres en l'an 3, et
celui de _la Pérouse_ à Paris, en l'an 6. (_Note du Traducteur du Voyage
de_ Samuel Hearne.)
[Illustration: M^R. SAMUEL HEARNE
_Late Chief at Prince of Wales's Fort. Hudson's Bay. Published as
the Act directs by J. Sewell, Cornhill Aug^t. 1^{st}. 1796 From the
"European Magazine," June, 1797_]
A
JOURNEY
FROM
Prince of Wales's Fort, in Hudson's Bay,
TO
THE NORTHERN OCEAN.
UNDERTAKEN
_BY ORDER OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY._
FOR THE DISCOVERY OF
COPPER MINES, A NORTH WEST PASSAGE, &c.
In the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, & 1772.
By SAMUEL HEARNE.
LONDON:
Printed for A. STRAHAN and T. CADELL:
And Sold by T. CADELL Jun. and W. DAVIES, (Successors to
Mr. CADELL,) in the Strand.
1795
TO
SAMUEL WEGG, ESQ., GOVERNOR,
SIR JAMES WINTER LAKE, DEPUTY GOVERNOR,
AND
THE REST OF THE COMMITTEE
OF THE HONOURABLE
_HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY._
* * * * *
HONOURABLE SIRS,
As the following Journey was undertaken at your Request and Expence, I
feel it no less my Duty than my Inclination to address it to you; hoping
that my humble Endeavours to relate, in a plain and unadorned Style, the
various Circumstances and Remarks which {iv} occurred during that
Journey, will meet with your Approbation.
I am, with much Esteem and Gratitude,
HONOURABLE SIRS,
Your most obedient, and
most obliged humble Servant,
SAMUEL HEARNE.
PREFACE.
Mr. Dalrymple, in one of his Pamphlets relating to Hudson's Bay, has
been so very particular in his observations on my Journey, as to remark,
that I have not explained the construction of the Quadrant which I had
the misfortune to break in my second Journey to the North. It was a
Hadley's Quadrant, with a bubble attached to it for a horizon, and made
by Daniel Scatlif of Wapping. But as no instrument of the same principle
could be procured when I was setting out on my last Journey, an old
Elton's Quadrant, which had been upwards of thirty years at the Fort,
was the only instrument I could then be provided with, in any respect
proper for making observations with on the land.
Mr. Dalrymple also observes, that I only inserted in my last Journal to
the Company, one observation for the latitude, which may be true; but I
had, nevertheless, several others during that Journey, particularly at
Snow-bird Lake, Thelwey-aza-yeth, and Clowey, exclusive of that
mentioned in the Journal taken at Conge-cathawhachaga. But when I was on
that Journey, and for several {vi} years after, I little thought that
any remarks made in it would ever have attracted the notice of the
Public; if I had, greater pains might and would have been taken to
render it more worthy of their attention than it now is. At that time my
ideas and ambition extended no farther than to give my employers such an
account of my proceedings as might be satisfactory to them, and answer
the purpose which they had in view; little thinking it would ever come
under the inspection of so ingenious and indefatigable a geographer as
Mr. Dalrymple must be allowed to be. But as the case has turned out
otherwise, I have at my leisure hours recopied all my Journals into one
book, and in some instances added to the remarks I had before made; not
so much for the information of those who are critics in geography, as
for the amusement of candid and indulgent readers, who may perhaps feel
themselves in some measure gratified, by having the face of a country
brought to their view, which has hitherto been entirely unknown to every
European except myself. Nor will, I flatter myself, a description of the
modes of living, manners, and customs of the natives (which, though long
known, have never been described), be less acceptable to the curious.
I cannot help observing, that I feel myself rather hurt at Mr.
Dalrymple's rejecting my latitude in so peremptory a manner, and in so
great a proportion, as he has done; because, before I arrived at
Conge-cathawhachaga, the {vii} Sun did not set during the whole night: a
proof that I was then to the Northward of the Arctic Circle. I may be
allowed to add, that when I was at the Copper River, on the eighteenth
of July, the Sun's declination was but 21°, and yet it was certainly
some height above the horizon at midnight; how much, as I did not _then_
remark, I will not _now_ take upon me to say; but it proves that the
latitude was considerably more than Mr. Dalrymple will admit of. His
assertion, that no grass is to be found on the (rocky) coast of
Greenland farther North than the latitude of 65°, is no proof there
should not be any in a much higher latitude in the interior parts of
North America. For, in the first place, I think it is more than
probable, that the Copper River empties itself into a sort of inland
Sea, or extensive Bay, somewhat like that of Hudson's: and it is well
known that no part of the coast of Hudson's Straits, nor those of
Labradore, at least for some degrees South of them, any more than the
East coast of Hudson's Bay, till we arrive near Whale River, have any
trees on them; while the West coast of the Bay in the same latitudes, is
well clothed with timber. Where then is the ground for such an
assertion? Had Mr. Dalrymple considered this circumstance only, I
flatter myself he would not so hastily have objected to woods and grass
being seen in similar situations, though in a much higher latitude.
Neither can the reasoning which Mr. Dalrymple derives from the error I
committed in estimating the distance to Cumberland House, any way affect
the question under {viii} consideration; because that distance being
chiefly in longitude, I had no means of correcting it by an observation,
which was not the case here.
I do not by any means wish to enter into a dispute with, or incur the
displeasure of Mr. Dalrymple; but thinking, as I do, that I have not
been treated in so liberal a manner as I ought to have been, he will
excuse me for endeavouring to convince the Public that his objections
are in a great measure without foundation. And having done so, I shall
quit the disagreeable subject with declaring, that if any part of the
following sheets should afford amusement to Mr. Dalrymple, or any other
of my readers, it will be the highest gratification I can receive, and
the only recompence I desire to obtain for the hardships and fatigue
which I underwent in procuring the information contained in them.
Being well assured that several learned and curious gentlemen are in
possession of manuscript copies of, or extracts from, my Journals, as
well as copies of the Charts, I have been induced to make this copy as
correct as possible, and to publish it; especially as I observe that
scarcely any two of the publications that contain extracts from my
Journals, agree in the dates when I arrived at, or departed from,
particular places. To rectify those disagreements I applied to the
Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, for leave to peruse
my original Journals. This was granted with the greatest affability {ix}
and politeness; as well as a sight of all my Charts relative to this
Journey. With this assistance I have been enabled to rectify some
inaccuracies that had, by trusting too much to memory, crept into this
copy; and I now offer it to the Public under authentic dates and the
best authorities, however widely some publications may differ from it.
I have taken the liberty to expunge some passages which were inserted in
the original copy, as being no ways interesting to the Public, and
several others have undergone great alterations; so that, in fact, the
whole may be said to be new-modelled, by being blended with a variety of
Remarks and Notes that were not inserted in the original copy, but which
my long residence in the country has enabled me to add.
The account of the principal quadrupeds and birds that frequent those
Northern regions in Summer, as well as those which never migrate, though
not described in a scientific manner, may not be entirely unacceptable
to the most scientific zoologists; and to those who are unacquainted
with the technical terms used in zoology, it may perhaps be more useful
and entertaining, than if I had described them in the most classical
manner. But I must not conclude this Preface, without acknowledging, in
the most ample manner, the assistance I have received from the perusal
of Mr Pennant's Arctic Zoology, which has enabled me to give several of
the birds their proper {x} names; for those by which they are known in
Hudson's Bay are purely Indian, and of course quite unknown to every
European who has not resided in that country.
To conclude, I cannot sufficiently regret the loss of a considerable
Vocabulary of the Northern Indian Language, containing sixteen folio
pages, which was lent to the late Mr. Hutchins, then Corresponding
Secretary to the Company, to copy for Captain Duncan, when he went on
discoveries to Hudson's Bay in the year one thousand seven hundred and
ninety. But Mr. Hutchins dying soon after, the Vocabulary was taken away
with the rest of his effects, and cannot now be recovered; and memory,
at this time, will by no means serve to replace it.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 41
CHAP. I.
Transactions from my leaving Prince of Wales's Fort on my first
Expedition, till our Arrival there again.
Set off from the Fort; arrive at Po-co-ree-kis-co River--One of
the Northern Indians deserts--Cross Seal River, and walk on the
barren grounds--Receive wrong information concerning the
distance of the woods--Weather begins to be very cold,
provisions all expended, and nothing to be got--Strike to the
Westward, arrive at the woods, and kill three deer--Set forward
in the North West quarter, see the tracks of musk-oxen and deer,
but killed none--Very short of provisions--Chawchinahaw wants us
to return--Neither he nor his crew contribute to our
maintenance--He influences several of the Indians to
desert--Chawchinahaw and all his crew leave us--Begin our return
to the Factory; kill a few partridges, the first meal we had had
for several days--Villany of one of the home Indians and his
wife, who was a Northern Indian woman--Arrive at the Seal River,
kill two deer; partridges plenty--Meet a strange Northern
Indian, accompany him to his tent, usage received there; my
Indians assist in killing some beaver--Proceed toward home, and
arrive at the Fort 61
CHAP. II.
Transactions from our Arrival at the Factory, to my leaving it
again, and during the First Part of my Second Journey, till I
had the misfortune to break the Quadrant.
Transactions at the Factory--Proceed on my second
journey--Arrive at Seal River--Deer plentiful for some
time--Method of angling fish under the ice--Set our
fishing-nets--Method of setting nets under the ice--My guide
[xii] proposes to stay till the geese should begin to fly; his
reasons accepted--Pitch our tent in the best manner--Method of
pitching a tent in Winter--Fish plentiful for some time; grow
very scarce; in great want of provisions--Manner of employing my
time--My guide killed two deer--Move to the place they were
lying at; there kill several more deer, and three beavers--Soon
in want of provisions again--Many Indians join us from the
Westward--We begin to move towards the barren ground--Arrive at
She-than-nee, there suffer great distress for want of
provisions--Indians kill two swans and three geese--Geese and
other birds of passage plentiful--Leave She-than-nee, and arrive
at Beralzone--One of my companions guns bursts, and shatters his
left hand--Leave Beralzone, and get on the barren ground, clear
of all woods--Throw away our sledges and snow shoes--Each person
takes a load on his back; my part of the luggage--Exposed to
many hardships--Several days without victuals--Indians kill
three musk-oxen, but for want of fire are obliged to eat the
meat raw--Fine weather returns; make a fire; effects of long
fasting; stay a day or two to dry some meat in the Sun--Proceed
to the Northward, and arrive at Cathawhachaga; there find some
tents of Indians--A Northern Leader called Keelshies meets us;
send a letter by him to the Governor--Transactions at
Cathawhachaga; leave it and proceed to the Northward--Meet
several Indians--My guide not willing to proceed; his reasons
for it--Many more Indians join us--Arrive at Doobaunt Whoie
River--Manner of ferrying over rivers in the Northern Indian
canoes--No rivers in those parts in a useful direction for the
natives--Had nearly lost the quadrant and all the powder--Some
reflections on our situation, and conduct of the Indians--Find
the quadrant and part of the powder--Observe for the
latitude--Quadrant broke--Resolve to return again to the Factory
69
CHAP. III.
Transactions from the time the Quadrant was broken, till I
arrived at the Factory.
Several strange Indians join us from the Northward--They plunder
me of all I had; but did not plunder the Southern Indians--My
guide plundered--We begin our return to the Factory--Meet with
other Indians, who join our company--Collect deer-skins for
clothing, but could not get them {xiii} dressed--Suffer much
hardship from the want of tents and warm clothing--Most of the
Indians leave us--Meet with Matonabbee--Some account of him, and
his behaviour to me and the Southern Indians--We remain in his
company some time--His observations on my two unsuccessful
attempts--We leave him, and proceed to a place to which he
directed us, in order to make snow-shoes and sledges--Join
Matonabbee again, and proceed towards the Factory in his
company--Ammunition runs short--Myself and four Indians set off
post for the Factory--Much bewildered in a snow storm; my dog is
frozen to death; we lie in a bush of willows--Proceed on our
journey--Great difficulty in crossing a jumble of rocks--Arrive
at the Fort 96
CHAP. IV.
Transactions during our Stay at Prince of Wales's Fort, and the
former Part of our third Expedition, till our Arrival at Clowey,
where we built Canoes, in May 1771.
Preparations for our departure--Refuse to take any of the
home-guard Indians with me--By so doing, I offend the
Governor--Leave the Fort a third time--My instructions on this
expedition--Provisions of all kinds very scarce--Arrive at the
woods, where we kill some deer--Arrive at Island
Lake--Matonabbee taken ill--Some remarks thereon--Join the
remainder of the Indians' families--Leave Island
Lake--Description thereof--Deer plentiful--Meet a strange
Indian--Alter our course from West North West to West by
South--Cross Cathawhachaga River, Cossed Lake, Snow-Bird Lake,
and Pike Lake--Arrive at a tent of strangers, who are employed
in snaring deer in a pound--Description of a pound--Method of
proceeding--Remarks thereon--Proceed on our journey--Meet with
several parties of Indians; by one of whom I sent a letter to
the Governor at Prince of Wales's Fort--Arrive at
Thleweyazayeth--Employment there--Proceed to the North North
West and North--Arrive at Clowey--One of the Indian's wives
taken in labour--Remarks thereon--Customs observed by the
Northern Indians on those occasions 106
{xiv} CHAP. V.
Transactions at Clowey, and on our Journey, till our Arrival at
the Copper-mine River.
Several strange Indians join us--Indians employed in building
canoes; description and use of them--More Indians join us, to
the amount of some hundreds--Leave Clowey--Receive intelligence
that Keelshies was near us--Two young men dispatched for my
letters and goods--Arrive at Peshew Lake; cross part of it, and
make a large smoke--One of Matonabbee's wives elopes--Some
remarks on the natives--Keelshies joins us, and delivers my
letters, but the goods were all expended--A Northern Indian
wishes to take one of Matonabbee's wives from him; matters
compromised, but had like to have proved fatal to my
progress--Cross Peshew Lake, when I make proper arrangements for
the remainder of my journey--Many Indians join our party, in
order to make war on the Esquimaux at the Copper
River--Preparations made for that purpose while at
Clowey--Proceed on our journey to the North--Some remarks on the
way--Cross Cogead Lake on the ice--The sun did not set--Arrive
at Congecathawhachaga--Find several Copper Indians
there--Remarks and transactions during our stay at
Congecathawhachaga--Proceed on our journey--Weather very
bad--Arrive at the Stoney Mountains--Some account of them--Cross
part of Buffalo Lake on the ice--Saw many musk-oxen--Description
of them--Went with some Indians to view Grizzlebear Hill--Join a
strange Northern Indian Leader, called O'lye, in company with
some Copper Indians--Their behaviour to me--Arrive at the
Copper-mine River 133
CHAP. VI.
Transactions at the Copper-mine River, and till we joined all
the Women to the South of Cogead Lake.
Some Copper Indians join us--Indians send three spies down the
river--Begin my survey--Spies return, and give an account of
five tents of Esquimaux--Indians consult the best method to
steal on them in the night, and {xv} kill them while
asleep--Cross the river--Proceedings of the Indians as they
advance towards the Esquimaux tents--The Indians begin the
massacre while the poor Esquimaux are asleep, and slay them
all--Much affected at the sight of one young woman killed close
to my feet--The behaviour of the Indians on this occasion--Their
brutish treatment of the dead bodies--Seven more tents seen on
the opposite side of the river--The Indians harass them, till
they fly to a shoal in the river for safety--Behaviour of the
Indians after killing those Esquimaux--Cross the river, and
proceed to the tents on that side--Plunder their tents, and
destroy their utensils--Continue my survey to the river's
mouth--Remarks there--Set out on my return--Arrive at one of the
Copper-mines--Remarks on it--Many attempts made to induce the
Copper Indians to carry their own goods to market--Obstacles to
it--Villany and cruelty of Keelshies to some of those poor
Indians--Leave the Copper-mine, and walk at an amazing rate till
we join the women, by the side of Cogead Whoie--Much
foot-foundered--The appearance very alarming, but soon changes
for the better--Proceed to the southward, and join the remainder
of the women and children--Many other Indians arrive with them
173
CHAP. VII.
Remarks from the Time the Women joined us till our Arrival at
the Athapuscow Lake.
Several of the Indians sick--Methods used by the conjurors to
relieve one man, who recovers--Matonabbee and his crew proceed
to the South West--Most of the other Indians separate, and go
their respective ways--Pass by White Stone Lake--Many deer
killed merely for their skins--Remarks thereon, and on the deer,
respecting seasons and places--Arrive at Point Lake--One of the
Indian's wives being sick, is left behind to perish
above-ground--Weather very bad, but deer plenty--Stay some time
at Point Lake to dry meat, &c.--Winter set in--Superstitious
customs observed by my companions, after they had killed the
Esquimaux at Copper River--A violent gale of wind oversets my
tent and breaks my quadrant--Some Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians
join us--Indians propose to go to the Athapuscow Country to kill
moose--Leave Point Lake, and arrive at the wood's edge--Arrive
at Anawd Lake--Transactions there--Remarkable instance of a man
being cured of the palsey by the conjurors--Leave Anawd
Lake--Arrive at the great Athapuscow Lake 209
{xvi} CHAP. VIII.
Transactions and Remarks from our Arrival on the South Side of
the Athapuscow Lake, till our Arrival at Prince of Wales's Fort
on Churchill River.
Cross the Athapuscow Lake--Description of it and its
productions, as far as could be discovered in Winter, when the
snow was on the ground--Fish found in the lake--Description of
the buffalo; of the moose or elk, and the method of dressing
their skins--Find a woman alone that had not seen a human face
for more than seven months--Her account how she came to be in
that situation; and her curious method of procuring a
livelihood--Many of my Indians wrestled for her--Arrive at the
Great Athapuscow River--Walk along the side of the River for
several days, and then strike off to the Eastward--Difficulty in
getting through the woods in many places--Meet with some strange
Northern Indians on their return from the Fort--Meet more
strangers, whom my companions plundered, and from whom they took
one of their young women--Curious manner of life which those
strangers lead, and the reason they gave for roving so far from
their usual residence--Leave the fine level country of the
Athapuscows, and arrive at the Stony Hills of the Northern
Indian Country--Meet some strange Northern Indians, one of whom
carried a letter for me to Prince of Wales's Fort, in March one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-one, and now gave me an
answer to it, dated twentieth of June following--Indians begin
preparing wood-work and birch-rind for canoes--The equinoctial
gale very severe--Indian method of running the moose deer down
by speed of foot--Arrival at Theeleyaza River--See some
strangers--The brutality of my companions--A tremendous gale and
snow-drift--Meet with more strangers; remarks on it--Leave all
the elderly people and children, and proceed directly to the
Fort--Stop to build canoes, and then advance--Several of the
Indians die through hunger, and many others are obliged to
decline the journey for want of ammunition--A violent storm and
inundation, that forced us to the top of a high hill, where we
suffered great distress for more than two days--Kill several
deer--The Indians' method of preserving the flesh without the
assistance of salt--See several Indians that were going to
Knapp's Bay--Game of all kinds remarkably plentiful--Arrive at
the Factory 252
{xvii} CHAP. IX.
A short Description of the Northern Indians, also a farther
Account of their Country, Manufactures, Customs, &c.
An account of the persons and tempers of the Northern
Indians--They possess a great deal of art and cunning--Are very
guilty of fraud when in their power, and generally exact more
for their furs than any other tribe of Indians--Always
dissatisfied, yet have their good qualities--The men in general
jealous of their wives--Their marriages--Girls always betrothed
when children, and their reasons for it--Great care and
confinement of young girls from the age of eight or nine
years--Divorces common among those people--The women are less
prolific than in warmer countries--Remarkable piece of
superstition observed by the women at particular periods--Their
art in making it an excuse for a temporary separation from their
husbands on any little quarrel--Reckoned very unclean on those
occasions--The Northern Indians frequently, for the want of
firing, are obliged to eat their meat raw--Some through
necessity obliged to boil it in vessels made of the rind of the
birch-tree--A remarkable dish among those people--The young
animals always cut out of their dams, eaten, and accounted a
great delicacy--The parts of generation of all animals eat by
the men and boys--Manner of passing their time, and method of
killing deer in Summer with bows and arrows--Their tents, dogs,
sledges, &c.--Snow-shoes--Their partiality to domestic
vermin--Utmost extent of the Northern Indian country--Face of
the country--Species of fish--A peculiar kind of moss useful
for the support of man--Northern Indian method of catching fish,
either with hooks or nets--Ceremony observed when two parties of
those people meet--Diversions in common use--A singular disorder
which attacks some of those people--Their superstition with
respect to the death of their friends--Ceremony observed on
those occasions--Their ideas of the first inhabitants of the
world--No form of religion among them--Remarks on that
circumstance--The extreme misery to which old age is
exposed--Their opinion of the _Aurora Borealis_, &c.--Some
account of Matonabbee, and his services to his country, as well
as to the Hudson's Bay Company 297
{xviii} CHAP. X.
An Account of the principal Quadrupeds found in the Northern
Parts of Hudson's Bay: The Buffalo, Moose, Musk-ox, Deer, and
Beaver--A capital Mistake cleared up respecting the We-was-kish.
Animals with Canine Teeth: The Wolf--Foxes of various
colours--Lynx, or Wild Cat--Polar, or White Bear--Black
Bear--Brown Bear--Wolverene--Otter--Jackash--Wejack--Skunk--Pine
Martin--Ermine, or Stote.
Animals with cutting Teeth: The Musk Beaver--Porcupine--Varying
Hare--American Hare--Common Squirrel--Ground Squirrel--Mice of
various kinds--and the Castor Beaver.
The Pinnated Quadrupeds with finlike Feet, found in Hudson's
Bay, are but three in number, viz.: The Walrus, or
Sea-Horse--Seal--and Sea-Unicorn.
* * * * *
The Species of Fish found in the Salt Water of Hudson's Bay are
also few in number: being the Black Whale--White
Whale--Salmon--and Kepling.
Shell-fish, and empty Shells of several kinds, found on the Sea
Coast near Churchill River.
* * * * *
Frogs of various sizes and colours; also a great variety of
Grubbs, and other Insects, always found in a frozen state during
Winter, but when exposed to the heat of a slow fire, are soon
re-animated.
* * * * *
An account of some of the principal Birds found in the Northern
Parts of Hudson's Bay; as well those that only migrate there in
Summer, as those that are known to brave the coldest Winters:
Eagles of various kinds--Hawks of various sizes and
plumage--White or Snowy Owl--Grey or mottled
Owl--Cob-a-dee-cooch--Raven--Cinerious Crow--Wood Pecker--Ruffed
Grouse--Pheasant--Wood Partridge--Willow Partridge--Rock
Partridge--Pigeon--Red-breasted Thrush--Grosbeak--Snow
Bunting--White-crowned Bunting--Lapland Finch, two
sorts--Lark--Titmouse--Swallow--Martin--Hopping Crane--Brown
Crane--Bitron--Carlow, two sorts--Jack Snipe--Red
Godwart--Plover--Black Gullemet--Northern Diver--Black-throated
Diver--Red-throated Diver--White Gull--Grey
Gull--Black-head--Pelican--Goosander--Swans of two
species--Common {xix} Grey Goose--Canada Goose--White or Snow
Goose--Blue Goose--Horned Wavy--Laughing Goose--Barren
Goose--Brent Goose--Dunter Goose--Bean Goose.
The species of Water-Fowl usually called Duck, that resort to
those Parts annually, are in great variety; but those that are
most esteemed are, the Mallard Duck--Long-tailed Duck--Wigeon,
and Teal.
* * * * *
Of the Vegetable Productions as far North as Churchill River,
particularly the most useful; such as the Berry-bearing Bushes,
&c.: Gooseberry--Cranberry--Heathberry--Dewater-berry--Black
Currans--Juniper-berry--Partridge-berry--Strawberry--Eye-berry--
Blue-berry--and a small species of Hips.
Burridge--Coltsfoot--Sorrel--Dandelion.
Wish-a-capucca--Jackashey-puck--Moss of various sorts--Grass of
several kinds--and Vetches.
The Trees found so far North near the Sea, consist only of
Pines--Juniper--Small Poplar--Bush-willows--and Creeping Birch
335
INTRODUCTION.
For many years it was the opinion of all ranks of people, that the
Hudson's Bay Company were averse to making discoveries of every kind;
and being content with the profits of their small capital, as it was
then called, did not want to increase their trade. What might have been
the ideas of former members of the Company respecting the first part of
these charges I cannot say, but I am well assured that they, as well as
the present members, have always been ready to embrace every plausible
plan for extending the trade. As a proof of this assertion, I need only
mention the vast sums of money which they have expended at different
times in endeavouring to establish fisheries, though without success:
and the following Journey, together with the various attempts made by
Bean, Christopher, Johnston, and Duncan,[13] to find a North West
passage, are recent proofs that the present members are as desirous of
making discoveries, as they are of extending their trade.
That air of mystery, and affectation of secrecy, perhaps, which formerly
attended some of the Company's proceedings in the Bay, might give rise
to those conjectures; and the unfounded assertions and unjust aspersions
of Dobbs, {xxii} Ellis, Robson, Dragge, and the American Traveller,[14]
the only Authors that have written on Hudson's Bay, and who have all,
from motives of interest or revenge, taken a particular pleasure in
arraigning the conduct of the Company, without having any real knowledge
of their proceedings, or any experience in their service, on which to
found their charges, must have contributed to confirm the public in that
opinion. Most of those Writers, however, advance such notorious
absurdities, that none except those who are already prejudiced against
the Company can give them credit.[B]
Robson, from his six years' residence in Hudson's Bay and in the
Company's service, might naturally have been supposed to know something
of the climate and soil immediately round the Factories at which he
resided; but the whole of his book is evidently written with prejudice,
and dictated by a spirit of revenge, because his romantic and
inconsistent schemes were rejected by the Company. Besides, it is well
known that Robson was no more than a tool in the hand of Mr. Dobbs.
The American Traveller, though a more elegant writer, has still less
claim to our indulgence, as his assertions are {xxiii} a greater tax on
our credulity. His saying that he discovered several large lumps of the
finest virgin copper[C] is such a palpable falsehood that it needs no
refutation. No man, either English or Indian, ever found a bit of copper
in that country to the South of the seventy-first degree of
latitude,[16] unless it had been accidentally dropped by some of the far
Northern Indians in their way to the Company's Factory.
The natives who range over, rather than inhabit, the large tract of land
which lies to the North of Churchill River, having repeatedly brought
samples of copper to the Company's Factory, many of our people
conjectured that it was found not far from our settlements; and as the
Indians informed them that the mines were not very distant from a large
river, it was generally supposed that this river must empty itself into
Hudson's Bay; as they could by no means think that any set of people,
however wandering their manner of life might be, could ever traverse so
large a tract of country as to pass the Northern boundary of that Bay,
and particularly without the assistance of water-carriage. The following
Journal, however, will show how much those people have been mistaken,
and prove also the improbability of putting their favourite scheme of
mining into practice.
{xxiv} The accounts of this grand River, which some have turned into a
Strait, together with the samples of copper, were brought to the
Company's Factory at Churchill River immediately after its first
establishment, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifteen; and
it does not appear that any attempts were made to discover either the
river or mines till the year one thousand seven hundred and nineteen,
when the Company fitted out a ship, called the _Albany Frigate_, Captain
George Barlow,[D] and a sloop {xxv} called the _Discovery_, Captain
David Vaughan. The sole command of this expedition, however, was given
to Mr. James Knight, a man of great experience in the Company's service,
who had been many years Governor at the different Factories in the Bay,
and who had made the first settlement at Churchill River.
Notwithstanding the experience Mr. Knight might have had of the
Company's business, and his knowledge of those parts of the Bay where he
had resided, it cannot be supposed he was well acquainted with the
nature of the business in which he then engaged, having nothing to
direct him but the slender and imperfect accounts which he had received
from the Indians, who at that time were little known, and less
understood.
{xxvi} Those disadvantages, added to his advanced age, he being then
near eighty, by no means discouraged this bold adventurer; who was so
prepossessed of his success, and of the great advantage that would arise
from his discoveries, that he procured, and took with him, some large
iron-bound chests, to hold gold dust and other valuables, which he
fondly flattered himself were to be found in those parts.
The first paragraph of the Company's Orders to Mr. Knight on this
occasion appears to be as follows:
"_To_ CAPTAIN JAMES KNIGHT.
"_4th June, 1719._
"SIR,
"From the experience we have had of your abilities in the
management of our affairs, we have, upon your application to us,
fitted out the _Albany_ frigate, Captain George Barlow, and the
_Discovery_, Captain David Vaughan, Commander, upon a discovery
to the Northward; and to that end have given you power and
authority to act and do all things relating to the said voyage,
the navigation of the said ship and sloop only excepted; and
have given orders and instructions to our said Commanders for
that purpose.
"You are, with the first opportunity of wind and weather, to
depart from Gravesend on your intended {xxvii} voyage, and by
God's permission, to find out the Straits of Anian, in order to
discover gold and other valuable commodities to the Northward,
&c. &c."
Mr. Knight soon left Gravesend, and proceeded on his voyage; but the
ship not returning to England that year, as was expected, it was judged
that she had wintered in Hudson's Bay; and having on board a good stock
of provisions, a house in frame, together with all necessary mechanics,
and a great assortment of trading goods, little or no thoughts were
entertained of their not being in safety; but as neither ship nor sloop
returned to England in the following year, (one thousand seven hundred
and twenty), the Company were much alarmed for their welfare; and, by
their ship which went to Churchill in the year one thousand seven
hundred and twenty-one, they sent orders for a sloop called the
_Whale-Bone_, John Scroggs Master, to go in search of them; but the ship
not arriving in Churchill till late in the year, those orders could not
be put in execution till the Summer following (one thousand seven
hundred and twenty-two).
The North West coast of Hudson's Bay being little known in those days,
and Mr. Scroggs finding himself greatly embarrassed with shoals and
rocks, returned to Prince of Wales's Fort without making any certain
discovery respecting the above ship or sloop; for all the marks he saw
among the Esquimaux at Whale Cove scarcely {xxviii} amounted to the
spoils which might have been made from a trifling accident, and
consequently could not be considered as signs of a total shipwreck.
The strong opinion which then prevailed in Europe respecting the
probability of a North West passage by the way of Hudson's Bay, made
many conjecture that Messrs. Knight and Barlow had found that passage,
and had gone through it into the South Sea, by the way of California.
Many years elapsed without any other convincing proof occurring to the
contrary, except that Middleton, Ellis, Bean, Christopher, and Johnston,
had not been able to find any such passage. And notwithstanding a sloop
was annually sent to the Northward on discovery, and to trade with the
Esquimaux, it was the Summer of one thousand seven hundred and
sixty-seven, before we had positive proofs that poor Mr. Knight and
Captain Barlow had been lost in Hudson's Bay.
The Company were now carrying on a black whale fishery, and Marble
Island was made the place of rendezvous, not only on account of the
commodiousness of the harbour, but because it had been observed that the
whales were more plentiful about that island than on any other part of
the coast. This being the case, the boats, when on the look-out for
fish, had frequent occasion to row close to the island, by which means
they discovered a new harbour near the East end of it, at the head
{xxix} of which they found guns, anchors, cables, bricks, a smith's
anvil, and many other articles, which the hand of time had not defaced,
and which being of no use to the natives, or too heavy to be removed by
them, had not been taken from the place in which they were originally
laid. The remains of the house, though pulled to pieces by the Esquimaux
for the wood and iron, are yet very plain to be seen, as also the hulls,
or more properly speaking, the bottoms of the ship and sloop, which lie
sunk in about five fathoms water, toward the head of the harbour. The
figure-head of the ship, and also the guns, &c. were sent home to the
Company, and are certain proofs that Messrs. Knight and Barlow had been
lost on that inhospitable island, where neither stick nor stump was to
be seen, and which lies near sixteen miles from the main land. Indeed
the main is little better, being a jumble of barren hills and rocks,
destitute of every kind of herbage except moss and grass; and at that
part, the woods are several hundreds of miles from the sea-side.
In the Summer of one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine, while we
were prosecuting the fishery, we saw several Esquimaux at this new
harbour; and perceiving that one or two of them were greatly advanced in
years, our curiosity was excited to ask them some questions concerning
the above ship and sloop, which we were the better enabled to do by the
assistance of an Esquimaux, who was then in the Company's service as a
linguist, and annually sailed in one of their vessels in that character.
The {xxx} account which we received from them was full, clear, and
unreserved, and the sum of it was to the following purport:
When the vessels arrived at this place (Marble Island) it was very late
in the Fall, and in getting them into the harbour, the largest received
much damage; but on being fairly in, the English began to build the
house, their number at that time seeming to be about fifty. As soon as
the ice permitted, in the following Summer, (one thousand seven hundred
and twenty), the Esquimaux paid them another visit, by which time the
number of the English was greatly reduced, and those that were living
seemed very unhealthy. According to the account given by the Esquimaux
they were then very busily employed, but about what they could not
easily describe, probably in lengthening the long-boat; for at a little
distance from the house there is now lying a great quantity of oak
chips, which have been most assuredly made by carpenters.
Sickness and famine occasioned such havock among the English, that by
the setting in of the second Winter their number was reduced to twenty.
That Winter (one thousand seven hundred and twenty) some of the
Esquimaux took up their abode on the opposite side of the harbour to
that on which the English had built their houses,[E] and {xxxi}
frequently supplied them with such provisions as they had, which chiefly
consisted of whale's blubber and seal's flesh and train oil. When the
Spring advanced, the Esquimaux went to the continent, and on their
visiting Marble Island again, in the Summer of one thousand seven
hundred and twenty-one, they only found five of the English alive, and
those were in such distress for provisions that they eagerly eat the
seal's flesh and whale's blubber quite raw, as they purchased it from
the natives. This disordered them so much, that three of them died in a
few days, and the other two, though very weak, made a shift to bury
them. Those two survived many days after the rest, and frequently went
to the top of an adjacent rock, and earnestly looked to the South and
East, as if in expectation of some vessels coming to their relief. After
continuing there a considerable time together, and nothing appearing in
sight, they sat down close together, and wept bitterly. At length one of
the two died, and the other's strength was so far exhausted, that he
fell down and died also, in attempting to dig a grave for his companion.
The {xxxii} sculls and other large bones of those two men are now lying
above-ground close to the house. The longest liver was, according to the
Esquimaux account, always employed in working of iron into implements
for them; probably he was the armourer, or smith.
Some Northern Indians who came to trade at Prince of Wales's Fort in the
Spring of the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, brought
farther accounts of the grand river, as it was called, and also several
pieces of copper, as samples of the produce of the mine near it; which
determined Mr. Norton, who was then Governor at Churchill, to represent
it to the Company as an affair worthy of their attention; and as he went
that year to England, he had an opportunity of laying all the
information he had received before the Board, with his opinion thereon,
and the plan which he thought most likely to succeed in the discovery of
those mines. In consequence of Mr. Norton's representations, the
Committee resolved to send an intelligent person by land to observe the
longitude and latitude of the river's mouth, to make a chart of the
country he might walk through, with such remarks as occurred to him
during the Journey; when I was pitched on as a proper person to conduct
the expedition. By the ship that went to Churchill in the Summer of one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine, the Company sent out some
astronomical instruments, very portable, and fit for such observations
as they required me {xxxiii} to make, and at the same time requested me
to undertake the Journey, promising to allow me at my return, a gratuity
proportionable to the trouble and fatigue I might undergo in the
expedition.[F]
{xxxiv} I did not hesitate to comply with the request of the Company,
and in the November following, when some Northern Indians came to trade,
Mr. Norton, who was then returned to the command of Prince of Wales's
Fort, engaged such of them for my guides as he thought were most likely
to answer the purpose; but none of them had been at this grand river. I
was fitted out with everything thought necessary, and with ammunition to
serve two years. I was to be accompanied by two of the Company's
servants, two of the Home-guard[G] (Southern) Indians, {xxxv} and a
sufficient number of Northern Indians to carry and haul my baggage,
provide for me, &c. But for the better stating this arrangement, it will
not be improper to insert my Instructions, which, with some occasional
remarks thereon, will throw much light on the following Journal, and be
the best method of proving how far those orders have been complied with,
as well as shew my reasons for neglecting some parts as unnecessary, and
the impossibility of putting other parts of them in execution.
"ORDERS _and_ INSTRUCTIONS _for_ Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE, _going on an
Expedition by Land towards the Latitude 70° North, in order to
gain a Knowledge of the Northern Indians Country, &c. on Behalf
of the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company, in the Year 1769_.
"Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE,
"SIR,
"Whereas the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company have been informed
by the report from Indians, that there is a great probability of
considerable advantages to be expected from a better knowledge
of their country by us, than what hitherto has been obtained;
and as it is the Company's earnest desire to embrace every
circumstance that may tend to the benefit of the said Company,
or the Nation at large, they have requested you to conduct this
Expedition; and as you {xxxvi} have readily consented to
undertake the present Journey, you are hereby desired to proceed
as soon as possible, with William Isbester sailor, and Thomas
Merriman landsman, as companions, they both being willing to
accompany you; also two of the Home-guard Southern Indians, who
are to attend and assist you during the Journey; and Captain
Chawchinahaw, his Lieutenant Nabyah, and six or eight of the
best Northern Indians we can procure, with a small part of their
families, are to conduct you, provide for you, and assist you
and your companions in every thing that lays in their power,
having particular orders so to do.
"2dly, Whereas you and your companions are well fitted-out with
every thing we think necessary, as also a sample of light
trading goods; these you are to dispose of by way of presents
(and not by way of trade) to such far-off Indians as you may
meet with, and to smoke your Calimut[H] of Peace with their
leaders, in order to establish a friendship with them. You are
also to persuade them as much as possible from going to war with
each other, to encourage them to exert themselves in procuring
furrs and other articles for trade, and to assure them of good
payment for them at the Company's Factory.
"It is sincerely recommended to you and your companions to treat
the natives with civility, so as not to give {xxxvii} them any
room for complaint or disgust, as they have strict orders not to
give you the least offence, but are to aid and assist you in any
matter you may request of them for the benefit of the
undertaking.
"If any Indians you may meet, that are coming to the Fort,
should be willing to trust you with either food or clothing,
make your agreement for those commodities, and by them send me a
letter, specifying the quantity of each article, and they shall
be paid according to your agreement. And, according to the
Company's orders, you are to correspond with me, or the Chief at
Prince of Wales's Fort for the time being, at all opportunities:
And as you have mathematical instruments with you, you are to
send me, or the Chief for the time being, an account of what
latitude and longitude you may be in at such and such periods,
together with the heads of your proceedings; which accounts are
to be remitted to the Company by the return of their ships.[I]
"3dly, The Indians who are now appointed your guides, are to
conduct you to the borders of the Athapuscow[J] Indians country,
where Captain Matonabbee {xxxviii} is to meet you[K] in the
Spring of one thousand seven hundred and seventy, in order to
conduct you to a river represented by the Indians to abound with
copper ore, animals of the furr kind, &c., and which is said to
be so far to the Northward, that in the middle of the Summer the
Sun does not set, and is supposed by the Indians to empty itself
into some ocean. This river, which is called by the Northern
Indians Neetha-san-san-dazey, or the Far Off Metal River, you
are, if possible, to trace to the mouth, and there determine the
latitude and longitude as near as you can; but more particularly
so if you find it navigable, and that a settlement can be made
there with any degree of safety, or benefit to the Company.
"Be careful to observe what mines are near the river, what water
there is at the river's mouth, how far the woods are from the
sea-side, the course of the river, the nature of the soil, and
the productions of it; and make any other remarks that you may
think will be either necessary or satisfactory. And if the said
river be likely to be of any utility, take possession of it on
behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company, by cutting your {xxxix} name
on some of the rocks, as also the date of the year, month,
&c.[L]
"When you attempt to trace this or any other river, be careful
that the Indians are furnished with a sufficient number of
canoes for trying the depth of water, the strength of the
current, &c. If by any unforeseen accident or disaster you
should not be able to reach the before-mentioned river, it is
earnestly recommended to you, if possible, to know the event of
Wager Strait;[M] for it is represented by the last discoverers
to terminate in small rivers and lakes. See how far the woods
are from the navigable parts of it; and whether a settlement
could with any propriety be made there. If this should prove
unworthy of notice, you are to take the same method with Baker's
Lake, which is the head of {xl} Bowden's or Chesterfield's
Inlet;[N] as also with any other rivers you may meet with; and
if likely to be of any utility, you are to take possession of
them, as before mentioned, on the behalf of the Honourable
Hudson's Bay Company. The draft of Bowden's Inlet and Wager
Strait I send with you, that you may have a better idea of those
places, in case of your visiting them.
"4thly, Another material point which is recommended to you, is
to find out, if you can, either by your own travels, or by
information from the Indians, whether there is a passage through
this continent.[O] It will be {xli} very useful to clear up this
point, if possible, in order to prevent farther doubts from
arising hereafter respecting a passage out of Hudson's Bay[P]
into the Western Ocean, as hath lately been represented by the
American Traveller. The particulars of those remarks you are to
insert in your Journal, to be remitted home to the Company.
"If you should want any supplies of ammunition, or other
necessaries, dispatch some trusty Indians to the Fort with a
letter, specifying the quantity of each article, and appoint a
place for the said Indians to meet you again.
"When on your return, if at a proper time of the year, and you
should be near any of the harbours that are frequented by the
brigantine _Charlotte_, or the sloop _Churchill_, during their
voyage to the Northward, and you should chuse to return in one
of them, you are desired to make frequent smokes as you approach
those harbours, and they will endeavour to receive you by making
smokes in answer to yours; and as one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-one will probably be the year in which you will return,
the Masters of those vessels at that period shall have
particular orders on that head.
{xlii} "It will be pleasing to hear by the first opportunity, in
what latitude and longitude you meet the Leader Matonabbee, and
how far he thinks it is to the Coppermine River, as also the
probable time it may take before you can return. But in case any
thing should prevent the said Leader from joining you, according
to expectation, you are then to procure the best Indians you can
for your guides, and either add to, or diminish, your number, as
you may from time to time think most necessary for the good of
the expedition.
"So I conclude, wishing you and your companions a continuance of
health, together with a prosperous Journey, and a happy return
in safety. Amen.
"MOSES NORTON, Governor.
"Dated at Prince of Wales's Fort, Churchill River, Hudson's
"Bay, North America, November 6th, 1769."
Isbester and Merriman, mentioned in my Instructions, actually
accompanied me during my first short attempt; but the Indians knowing
them to be but common men, used them so indifferently, particularly in
scarce times, that I was under some apprehensions of their being starved
to death, and I thought myself exceedingly happy when I got them safe
back to the Factory. This extraordinary behaviour of the Indians made me
determine not to take any Europeans with me on my two last expeditions.
{xliii} With regard to that part of my Instructions which directs me to
observe the nature of the soil, the productions thereof, &c., it must be
observed, that during the whole time of my absence from the Fort, I was
invariably confined to stony hills and barren plains all the Summer, and
before we approached the woods in the Fall of the year, the ground was
always covered with snow to a considerable depth; so that I never had an
opportunity of seeing any of the small plants and shrubs to the
Westward. But from appearances, and the slow and dwarfy growth of the
woods, &c. (except in the Athapuscow country), there is undoubtedly a
greater scarcity of vegetable productions than at the Company's most
Northern Settlement; and to the Eastward of the woods, on the barren
grounds, whether hills or vallies, there is a total want of herbage
except moss, on which the deer feed; a few dwarf willows creep among the
moss; some wish-a-capucca and a little grass may be seen here and there,
but the latter is scarcely sufficient to serve the geese and other birds
of passage during their short stay in those parts, though they are
always in a state of migration, except when they are breeding and in a
moulting state.
In consequence of my complying with the Company's request, and
undertaking this Journey, it is natural to suppose that every necessary
arrangement was made for the easier keeping of my reckoning, &c., under
the many inconveniences I must be unavoidably obliged to labour in such
an expedition. I drew a Map on a large skin of parchment, that contained
twelve degrees of latitude {xliv} North, and thirty degrees of longitude
West, of Churchill Factory, and sketched all the West coast of the Bay
on it, but left the interior parts blank, to be filled up during my
Journey. I also prepared detached pieces on a much larger scale for
every degree of latitude and longitude contained in the large Map. On
those detached pieces I pricked off my daily courses and distance, and
entered all lakes and rivers, &c., that I met with; endeavouring, by a
strict enquiry of the natives, to find out the communication of one
river with another, as also their connections with the many lakes with
which that country abounds: and when opportunity offered, having
corrected them by observations, I entered them in the general Map. These
and several other necessary preparations, for the easier, readier, and
more correctly keeping my Journal and Chart, were also adopted; but as
to myself, little was required to be done, as the nature of travelling
long journies in those countries will never admit of carrying even the
most common article of clothing; so that the traveller is obliged to
depend on the country he passes through, for that article, as well as
for provisions. Ammunition, useful iron-work, some tobacco, a few
knives, and other indispensable articles, make a sufficient load for any
one to carry that is going a journey likely to last twenty months, or
two years. As that was the case, I only took the shirt and clothes I
then had on, one spare coat, a pair of drawers, and as much cloth as
would make me two or three pair of Indian stockings, which, together
with a blanket for bedding, composed the whole of my stock of clothing.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] John Bean was master of the Company's sloop trading to Knapp's Bay
and Whale Cove in 1756 and subsequent years, but no more is known of
him. Captain Christopher was sent from Churchill in 1761 to examine
Chesterfield Inlet, and during that and the following years he explored
it to the head of Baker Lake. Magnus Johnson explored Rankin Inlet in
1764. Captain Duncan in 1791 explored Corbett's Inlet, and in the
following year made a re-examination of Chesterfield Inlet, and ascended
a short distance up Dubawnt River.
[14] "An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay." By Arthur
Dobbs. London, 1774.
"A Voyage to Hudson's Bay by the _Dobbs Galley_ and _California_ in the
Years 1746 and 1747." By Henry Ellis. London, 1748.
"An Account of Six Years' Residence in Hudson's Bay." By Joseph Robson.
London, 1752.
"An Account of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage
Performed in the Years 1746 and 1747," 2 vols. By the Clerk of the
_California_ [T. S. Dragge]. London, 1748.
"The American Traveller." By an Old and Experienced Trader [Alexander
Cluny], London, 1769.
[B] Since the above was written, a Mr. Umfreville has published an
account of Hudson's Bay, with the same ill-nature as the former Authors;
and for no other reason than that of being disappointed in succeeding to
a command in the Bay, though there was no vacancy for him.[15]
[15] Umfreville states (p. 3) that he entered the service of the
Hudson's Bay Company in the capacity of writer at the salary of £15 a
year, and continued in that employ eleven years. But some disagreement
arising in point of salary he quitted the service. ("The Present State
of Hudson's Bay." By Edward Umfreville. London, 1790.)
[C] American Traveller, p. 23.[17]
[16] As Hearne's latitudes of the Coppermine River are much too far
north, this should be changed to read "the sixty-seventh degree of
latitude."
[17] The American Traveller is speaking of the possibility of opening up
a trade in copper, and he says that in 1744 he discovered several large
lumps of copper, but he doubtless meant that he was shown it by the
natives, or found it with them.
[D] Captain Barlow was Governor at Albany Fort when the French went over
land from Canada to besiege it in 1704. The Canadians and their Indian
guides lurked in the neighbourhood of Albany for several days before
they made the attack, and killed many of the cattle that were grazing in
the marshes. A faithful Home-Indian, who was on a hunting excursion,
discovering those strangers, and supposing them to be enemies,
immediately returned to the Fort, and informed the Governor of the
circumstance, who gave little credit to it. However, every measure was
taken for the defence of the Fort, and orders were given to the Master
of a sloop that lay at some distance, to come to the Fort with all
possible expedition on hearing a gun fired.
Accordingly, in the middle of the night, or rather in the morning, the
French came before the Fort, marched up to the gate, and demanded
entrance. Mr. Barlow, who was then on the watch, told them that the
Governor was asleep, but he would get the keys immediately. The French,
hearing this, expected no opposition, and flocked up to the gate as
close as they could stand. Barlow took the advantage of this
opportunity, and instead of opening the gate, only opened two port
holes, where two six-pounders stood loaded with grape shot, which were
instantly fired. This discharge killed great numbers of the French, and
among them the Commander, who was an Irishman.
Such an unexpected reception made the remainder retire with great
precipitation; and the Master of the sloop hearing the guns, made the
best of his way up to the Fort; but some of the French who lay concealed
under the banks of the river killed him, and all the boat's crew.
The French retired from this place with reluctance; for some of them
were heard shooting in the neighbourhood of the Fort ten days after they
were repulsed; and one man in particular walked up and down the platform
leading from the gate of the Fort to the Launch for a whole day. Mr.
Fullarton, who was then Governor at Albany, spoke to him in French, and
offered him kind quarters if he chose to accept them; but to those
proposals he made no reply, and only shook his head. Mr. Fullarton then
told him, that unless he would resign himself up as a prisoner, he would
most assuredly shoot him; on which the man advanced nearer the Fort, and
Mr. Fullarton shot him out of his chamber window. Perhaps the hardships
this poor man expected to encounter in his return to Canada, made him
prefer death; but his refusing to receive quarter from so humane and
generous an enemy as the English, is astonishing.
[E] I have seen the remains of those houses several times; they are on
the West side of the harbour, and in all probability will be discernible
for many years to come.
It is rather surprising, that neither Middleton, Ellis, Christopher,
Johnston, nor Garbet, who have all of them been at Marble Island, and
some of them often, ever discovered this harbour; particularly the
last-mentioned gentleman, who actually sailed quite round the island in
a very fine pleasant day in the Summer of 1766. But this discovery was
reserved for a Mr. Joseph Stephens! a man of the least merit I ever
knew, though he then had the command of a vessel called the _Success_,
employed in the whale-fishery; and in the year 1769, had the command of
the _Charlotte_ given to him, a fine brig of one hundred tons; when I
was his mate.
[F] The conditions offered me on this occasion cannot be better
expressed than in the Company's own words, which I have transcribed from
their private letter to me, dated 25th May 1769:
"From the good opinion we entertain of you, and Mr. Norton's
recommendation, we have agreed to raise your wages to £----[18] _per
annum_ for two years, and have placed you in our Council at Prince of
Wales's Fort; and we should have been ready to advance you to the
command of the _Charlotte_, according to your request, if a matter of
more immediate consequence had not intervened.
"Mr. Norton has proposed an inland Journey, far to the North of
Churchill, to promote an extension of our trade, as well as for the
discovery of a North West Passage, Copper Mines, &c.; and as an
undertaking of this nature requires the attention of a person capable of
taking an observation for determining the longitude and latitude, and
also distances, and the course of rivers and their depths, we have fixed
upon you (especially as it is represented to us to be your own
inclination) to conduct this Journey, with proper assistants.
"We therefore hope you will second our expectations in readily
performing this service, and upon your return we shall willingly make
you any acknowledgment suitable to your trouble therein.
"We highly approve of your going in the _Speedwell_, to assist on the
whale-fishery last year, and heartily wish you health and success in the
present expedition.
"We remain your loving Friends,
"BIBYE LAKE, Dep. Gov.
"JOHN ANTHONY MERLE.
"ROBERT MERRY.
"SAMUEL WEGG.
"JAMES WINTER LAKE.
"HERMAN BERENS.
"JOSEPH SPURREL.
"JAMES FITZ GERALD."
The Company had no sooner perused my Journals and Charts, than they
ordered a handsome sum to be placed to the credit of my account; and in
the two first paragraphs of their letter to me, dated 12th May 1773,
they express themselves in the following words:
"Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE,
"SIR,--Your letter of the 28th August last gave us the agreeable
pleasure to hear of your safe return to our Factory. Your
Journal, and the two charts you sent, sufficiently convince us
of your very judicious remarks.
"We have maturely considered your great assiduity in the various
accidents which occurred in your several Journies. We hereby
return you our grateful thanks; and to manifest our obligation
we have consented to allow you a gratuity of £----[19] for those
services."
As a farther proof of the Company's being perfectly satisfied with my
conduct while on that Journey, the Committee unanimously appointed me
Chief of Prince of Wales's Fort in the Summer of 1775; and Mr. Bibye
Lake, who was then Governor, and several others of the Committee,
honoured me with a regular correspondence as long as they lived.
[18] Stated by Beckles Willson to be £130.
[19] Stated by Beckles Willson to be £200.
[G] By the Home-guard Indians we are to understand certain of the
natives who are immediately employed under the protection of the
Company's servants, reside on the plantation, and are employed in
hunting for the Factory.[20]
[20] The Southern or Homeguard Indians here referred to were Crees, one
of the most numerous tribes of the Algonquian family. The Northern
Indians were Chipewyans, a tribe of the Tinné family.
[H] The Calimut is a long ornamented stem of a pipe, much in use among
all the tribes of Indians who know the use of tobacco. It is
particularly used in all cases of ceremony, either in making war or
peace; at all public entertainments, orations, &c.
[I] No convenient opportunity offered during my last Journey, except
one, on the 22d March 1771; and as nothing material had happened during
that part of my Journey, I thought there was not any necessity for
sending an extract of my Journal; I therefore only sent a Letter to the
Governor, informing him of my situation with respect to latitude and
longitude, and some account of the usage which I received from the
natives, &c.
[J] By mistake in my former Journal and Draft called Arathapefcow.
[K] This was barely probable, as Matonabbee at that time had not any
information of this Journey being set on foot, much less had he received
orders to join me at the place and time here appointed; and had we
accidentally met, he would by no means have undertaken the Journey
without first going to the Factory, and there making his agreement with
the Governor; for no Indian is fond of performing any particular service
for the English, without first knowing what is to be his reward. At the
same time, had I taken that rout on my out-set, it would have carried me
some hundreds of miles out of my road. See my Track on the Map in the
Winter 1770, and the Spring 1771.
[L] I was not provided with instruments for cutting on stone; but for
form-sake, I cut my name, date of the year, &c., on a piece of board
that had been one of the Indian's targets, and placed it in a heap of
stones on a small eminence near the entrance of the river, on the South
side.
[M] There is certainly no harm in making out all Instructions in the
fullest manner, yet it must be allowed that those two parts might have
been omitted with great propriety; for as neither Middleton, Ellis, nor
Christopher were able to penetrate far enough up those inlets to
discover any kind of herbage except moss and grass, much less woods, it
was not likely those parts were so materially altered for the better
since their times, as to make it worth my while to attempt a farther
discovery of them; and especially as I had an opportunity, during my
second Journey, of proving that the woods do not reach the sea-coast by
some hundreds of miles in the parallel of Chesterfield's Inlet. And as
the edge of the woods to the Northward always tends to the Westward, the
distance must be greatly increased in the latitude of Wager Strait.
Those parts have long since been visited by the Company's servants, and
are within the known limits of their Charter; consequently require no
other form of possession.
[N] See the preceding Note.
[O] The Continent of America is much wider than many people imagine,
particularly Robson, who thought that the Pacific Ocean was but a few
days journey from the West coast of Hudson's Bay. This, however, is so
far from being the case, that when I was at my greatest Western
distance, upward of five hundred miles from Prince of Wales's Fort, the
natives, my guides, well knew that many tribes of Indians lay to the
West of us, and they knew no end to the land in that direction; nor have
I met with any Indians, either Northern or Southern, that ever had seen
the sea to the Westward. It is, indeed, well known to the intelligent
and well-informed part of the Company's servants, that an extensive and
numerous tribe of Indians, called E-arch-e-thinnews, whose country lies
far West of any of the Company's or Canadian settlements, must have
traffic with the Spaniards on the West side of the Continent; because
some of the Indians who formerly traded to York Fort, when at war with
those people, frequently found saddles, bridles, muskets, and many other
articles, in their possession, which were undoubtedly of Spanish
manufactory.
I have seen several Indians who have been so far West as to cross the
top of that immense chain of mountains which run from North to South of
the continent of America. Beyond those mountains all rivers run to the
Westward. I must here observe, that all the Indians I ever heard relate
their excursions in that country, had invariably got so far to the
South, that they did not experience any Winter, nor the least appearance
of either frost or snow, though sometimes they have been absent eighteen
months, or two years.[21]
[21] In the year 1745 Anthony Hendry, under instructions from the
Hudson's Bay Company, had travelled inland from York Factory to the
upper waters of the Saskatchewan River, where he met the
E-arch-e-thinnews or Blackfeet Indians.
[P] As to a passage through the continent of America by the way of
Hudson's Bay, it has so long been explored, notwithstanding what Mr.
Ellis has urged in its favour, and the place it has found in the
visionary Map of the American Traveller, that any comment on it would be
quite unnecessary. My latitude only will be a sufficient proof that no
such passage is in existence.
[Illustration: A NORTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S
BAY, NORTH AMERICA
By Samuel Hearne, 1777]
A
JOURNEY
TO THE
NORTHERN OCEAN.
CHAP. I.
Transactions from my leaving Prince of Wales's Fort on my first
expedition, till our arrival there again.
_Set off from the Fort--Arrive at Po-co-ree-kis-co River--One of
the Northern Indians desert--Cross Seal River, and walk on the
barren grounds--Receive wrong information concerning the
distance of the woods--Weather begins to be very cold,
provisions all expended and nothing to be got--Strike to the
Westward, arrive at the woods, and kill three deer--Set forward
in the North West quarter, see the tracks of musk-oxen and deer,
but killed none--Very short of provisions--Chawchinahaw wants us
to return--Neither he nor his crew contribute to our
maintenance--He influences several of the Indians to
desert--Chawchinahaw and all his crew leave us--Begin our return
to the factory; kill a few partridges, the first meal we had had
for several days--Villany of one of the home Indians and his
wife, who was a Northern Indian woman--Arrive at Seal River,
kill two deer; partridges plenty--Meet a strange Northern
Indian, accompany him to his tent, usage received there; my
Indians assist in killing some beaver--Proceed toward home, and
arrive at the Fort._
[Sidenote: 1769. November 6th.]
[Sidenote: 1769. November.]
Having made every necessary arrangement for my departure on the sixth of
November, I took leave of the Governor, and my other friends, at Prince
of Wales's Fort, and began my journey, under the salute of seven
cannon.
[Sidenote: 8th.]
{2} The weather at that time being very mild, made it but indifferent
hauling,[Q] and all my crew being heavy laden, occasioned us to make but
short journeys; however, on the eighth, we crossed the North branch of
Po-co-ree-kis-co River,[22] and that night put up in a small tuft of
woods, which is between it and Seal River. In the night, one of the
Northern Indians deserted; and as all the rest of my crew were heavy
laden, I was under the necessity of hauling the sledge he had left,
which however was not very heavy, as it scarcely exceeded sixty pounds.
[Sidenote: 9th.]
The weather still continued very fine and pleasant; we directed our
course to the West North West, and early in the day crossed Seal River.
In the course of this day's journey we met several Northern Indians, who
were going to the factory with furs and venison; and as we had not
killed any deer from our leaving the Fort, I got several joints of
venison from those strangers, and gave them a note on the Governor for
payment, which seemed perfectly agreeable to all parties.
[Sidenote: 1769. November.]
When on the North West side of Seal River, I asked Captain Chawchinahaw
the distance, and probable time it would take, before we could reach the
main woods; which he assured me would not exceed four or five days
journey. This put both me and my companions in good {3} spirits, and we
continued our course between the West by North and North West, in daily
expectation of arriving at those woods, which we were told would furnish
us with every thing the country affords. These accounts were so far from
being true, that after we had walked double the time here mentioned, no
signs of woods were to be seen in the direction we were then steering;
but we had frequently seen the looming of woods to the South West.
[Sidenote: 19th.]
The cold being now very intense, our small stock of English provisions
all expended, and not the least thing to be got on the bleak hills we
had for some time been walking on, it became necessary to strike more to
the Westward, which we accordingly did, and the next evening arrived at
some small patches of low scrubby woods, where we saw the tracks of
several deer,[23] and killed a few partridges. The road we had traversed
for many days before, was in general so rough and stony, that our
sledges were daily breaking; and to add to the inconveniency, the land
was so barren, as not to afford us materials for repairing them: but the
few woods we now fell in with, amply supplied us with necessaries for
those repairs; and as we were then enabled each night to pitch proper
tents, our lodging was much more comfortable than it had been for many
nights before, while we were on the barren grounds, where, in general,
we thought ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs
as would make a fire; but it {4} was scarcely ever in our power to make
any other defence against the weather, than by digging a hole in the
snow down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying
down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.
[Sidenote: 21st.]
[Sidenote: 1769. November.]
On the twenty-first, we did not move; so the Indian men went a hunting,
and the women cut holes in the ice and caught a few fish in a small
lake, by the side of which we had pitched our tents. At night the men
returned with some venison, having killed three deer, which was without
doubt very acceptable; but our number being great, and the Indians
having such enormous stomachs, very little was left but fragments after
the two or three first good meals. Having devoured the three deer, and
given some necessary repairs to our sledges and snow shoes, which only
took one day, we again proceeded on toward the North West by West and
West North West, through low scrubby pines,[24] intermixed with some
dwarf larch,[25] which is commonly called juniper in Hudson's Bay. In
our road we frequently saw the tracks of deer, and many musk-oxen,[26]
as they are called there; but none of my companions were so fortunate as
to kill any of them: so that a few partridges were all we could get to
live on, and those were so scarce, that we seldom could kill as many as
would amount to half a bird a day for each man; which, considering we
had nothing else for the twenty-four hours, was in reality next to
nothing.
[Sidenote: 26th.]
{5} By this time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had not the
prosperity of the undertaking at heart; he often painted the
difficulties in the worst colours, took every method to dishearten me
and my European companions, and several times hinted his desire of our
returning back to the factory: but finding I was determined to proceed,
he took such methods as he thought would be most likely to answer his
end; one of which was, that of not administering toward our support;
so that we were a considerable time without any other subsistence, but
what our two home-guard (Southern) Indians procured, and the little that
I and the two European men could kill; which was very disproportionate
to our wants, as we had to provide for several women and children who
were with us.
[Sidenote: 29th.]
Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not likely to
complete his design, and that we were not to be starved into compliance,
at length influenced several of the best Northern Indians to desert in
the night, who took with them several bags of my ammunition, some pieces
of iron work, such as hatchets, ice chissels, files, &c., as well as
several other useful articles.
[Sidenote: 30th.]
[Sidenote: 1769. November.]
When I became acquainted with this piece of villany, I asked
Chawchinahaw the reason of such behaviour. To which he answered, that he
knew nothing of the affair: but as that was the case, it would not be
{6} prudent, he said, for us to proceed any farther; adding, that he and
all the rest of his countrymen were going to strike off another way, in
order to join the remainder of their wives and families: and after
giving us a short account which way to steer our course for the nearest
part of Seal River, which he said would be our best way homeward, he and
his crew delivered me most of the things which they had in charge,
packed up their awls, and set out toward the South West, making the
woods ring with their laughter, and left us to consider of our unhappy
situation, near two hundred miles from Prince of Wales's Fort, all
heavily laden, and our strength and spirits greatly reduced by hunger
and fatigue.
Our situation at that time, though very alarming, would not permit us to
spend much time in reflection; so we loaded our sledges to the best
advantage (but were obliged to throw away some bags of shot and ball),
and immediately set out on our return. In the course of the day's walk
we were fortunate enough to kill several partridges, for which we were
all very thankful, as it was the first meal we had had for several days:
indeed, for the five preceding days we had not killed as much as
amounted to half a partridge for each man; and some days had not a
single mouthful. While we were in this distress, the Northern Indians
were by no means in want; for as they always walked foremost, they {7}
had ten times the chance to kill partridges, rabbits, or any other thing
which was to be met with, than we had. Beside this advantage, they had
great stocks of flour, oatmeal, and other English provisions, which they
had embezzled out of my stock during the early part of the journey; and
as one of my home Indians, called Mackachy, and his wife, who is a
Northern Indian woman, always resorted to the Northern Indians tents,
where they got amply supplied with provisions when neither I nor my men
had a single mouthful, I have great reason to suspect they had a
principal hand in the embezzlement: indeed, both the man and his wife
were capable of committing any crime, however diabolical.
[Sidenote: 1769. December. 1st.]
This day we had fine pleasant weather for the season of the year: we set
out early in the morning, and arrived the same day at Seal River, along
which we continued our course for several days. In our way we killed
plenty of partridges, and saw many deer; but the weather was so
remarkably serene that the Indians only killed two of the latter. By
this time game was become so plentiful, that all apprehensions of
starving were laid aside; and though we were heavily laden, and
travelled pretty good days' journeys, yet as our spirits were good, our
strength gradually returned.
[Sidenote: 5th.]
In our course down Seal River we met a stranger, a Northern Indian, on a
hunting excursion; and though {8} he had not met with any success that
day, yet he kindly invited us to his tent, saying he had plenty of
venison at my service; and told the Southern Indians, that as there were
two or three beaver houses near his tent, he should be glad of their
assistance in taking them, for there was only one man and three women at
the tent.
[Sidenote: 1769. December.]
Though we were at that time far from being in want of provisions, yet we
accepted his offer, and set off with our new guide for his tent, which,
by a comparative distance, he told us, was not above five miles from the
place where we met him, but we found it to be nearer fifteen; so that it
was the middle of the night before we arrived at it. When we drew near
the tent, the usual signal for the approach of strangers was given, by
firing a gun or two, which was immediately answered by the man at the
tent. On our arrival at the door, the good man of the house came out,
shook me by the hand, and welcomed us to his tent; but as it was too
small to contain us all, he ordered his women to assist us in pitching
our tent; and in the mean time invited me and as many of my crew as his
little habitation could contain, and regaled us with the best in the
house. The pipe went round pretty briskly, and the conversation
naturally turned on the treatment we had received from Chawchinahaw and
his gang; which was always answered by our host with, "Ah! if I had
been there, it should not have been so!" when, notwithstanding his
hospitality on the present occasion, he {9} would most assuredly have
acted the same part as the others had done, if he had been of the party.
Having refreshed ourselves with a plentiful supper, we took leave of our
host for a while, and retired to our tent; but not without being made
thoroughly sensible that many things would be expected from me before I
finally left them.
[Sidenote: 6th.]
Early in the morning, my Indians assisted us in taking the beaver houses
already mentioned[27]; but the houses being small, and some of the
beavers escaping, they only killed six, all of which were cooked the
same night, and voraciously devoured under the denomination of a feast.
I also received from the Indians several joints of venison, to the
amount of at least two deer; but notwithstanding I was to pay for the
whole, I found that Mackachy and his wife got all the prime parts of the
meat; and on my mentioning it to them, there was so much clanship among
them, that they preferred making a present of it to Mackachy, to selling
it to me at double the price for which venison sells in those parts: a
sufficient proof of the singular advantage which a native of this
country has over an Englishman, when at such a distance from the
Company's Factories as to depend entirely on them for subsistence.
[Sidenote: 7th.]
{10} Thinking I had made my stay here long enough, I gave orders to
prepare for our departure; and as I had purchased plenty of meat for
present use while we were at this tent, so I likewise procured such a
supply to carry with us, as was likely to last us to the Fort.
[Sidenote: 8th.]
[Sidenote: 1769. December. 11th.]
Early in the morning we took a final leave of our host, and proceeded on
our journey homewards. One of the strangers accompanied us, for which at
first I could not see his motive; but soon after our arrival at the
Factory, I found that the purport of his visit was to be paid for the
meat, said to be given _gratis_ to Mackachy while we were at his tent.
The weather continued very fine, but extremely cold; and during this
part of my journey nothing material happened, till we arrived safe at
Prince of Wales's Fort on the eleventh of December, to my own great
mortification, and to the no small surprise of the Governor, who had
placed great confidence in the abilities and conduct of Chawchinahaw.
FOOTNOTES:
[Q] The colder the weather is, the easier the sledges slide over the
snow.
[22] On modern maps this stream is known as Pauk-athakuskow River. The
Chipewyan Indians of Fort Churchill and vicinity know it by the name of
Beskai dézé or Knife River, while the white people at Churchill know it
as North River. Churchill River is called by the Chipewyans 'Tsan dézé,
meaning Iron or Metal River.
[23] _Rangifer arcticus_ (Rich.).--E. A. P.
[24] _Picea alba_ (Ait.).--E. A. P.
[25] _Larix laricina_ (Du Roi).--E. A. P.
[26] _Ovibos moschatus_ (Zimm.).--E. A. P.
[27] _Castor canadensis_ Kuhl. This is the most northerly record near
the coast.--E. A. P.
{11} CHAP. II.
Transactions from our arrival at the Factory, to my leaving it
again, and during the first part of my second journey, till I
had the misfortune to break the quadrant.
_Transactions at the Factory--Proceed on my second
journey--Arrive at Seal River--Deer plentiful for some
time--Method of angling fish under the ice--Set our fishing
nets--Methods of setting nets under the ice--My guide proposes
to stay till the geese began to fly; his reasons accepted--Pitch
our tent in the best manner--Method of pitching a tent in
winter--Fish plentiful for some time; grow very scarce; in great
want of provisions--Manner of employing my time--My guide killed
two deer--Move to the place they were lying at; there kill
several more deer, and three beavers--Soon in want of provisions
again--Many Indians join us from the Westward--We begin to move
towards the barren ground--Arrive at She-than-nee, and there
suffer great distress for want of provisions--Indians kill two
swans and three geese--Geese and other birds of passage
plentiful--Leave She-than-nee, and arrive at Beralzone--One of
my companions guns bursts, and shatters his left hand--Leave
Beralzone, and get on the barren ground, clear of all
woods--Throw away our sledges and snow shoes--Each person takes
a load on his back; my part of the luggage--Exposed to many
hardships--Several days without victuals--Indians kill three
musk oxen, but for want of fire are obliged to eat the meat
raw--Fine weather returns; make a fire; effects of long fasting;
stay a day or two to dry some meat in the sun--Proceed to the
Northward, and arrive at Cathawhachaga; there find some tents of
Indians--A Northern leader called Keelshies meets us; send a
letter by him to the Governor--Transactions at Cathawhachaga;
leave it, and proceed to the Northward--Meet several Indians--My
guide not willing to proceed; his {12} reasons for it--Many more
Indians join us--Arrive at Doobaunt Whoie River--Manner of
ferrying over rivers in the Northern Indian canoes--No rivers in
those parts in a useful direction for the natives--Had nearly
lost the quadrant and all the powder--Some reflections on our
situation, and the conduct of the Indians--Find the quadrant and
part of the powder--Observe for the latitude--Quadrant
broke--Resolve to return again to the Factory._
[Sidenote: 1770. February.]
During my absence from Prince of Wales's Fort on my former journey,
several Northern Indians arrived in great distress at the Factory, and
were employed in shooting partridges for the use of our people at the
Fort. One of those Indians called Conne-e-quese, said he had been very
near to the famous river I was engaged to go in quest of. Accordingly
Mr. Norton engaged him and two other Northern Indians to accompany me on
this second attempt; but to avoid all incumbrances as much as possible,
it was thought advisable not to take any women,[R] that the Indians
might have fewer to provide for. I would not permit any European to go
with me, but two of the home-guard (Southern) Indian men were to
accompany me as before. Indeed the Indians, both Northern and Southern,
paid so little attention to Isbester and Merriman on my former journey,
particularly in times of scarcity, that I was determined not to take
them with me in future; though the former was very desirous to accompany
me again, and was well calculated to encounter the hardships of {13}
such an undertaking. Merriman was quite sick of such excursions, and so
far from offering his service a second time, seemed to be very thankful
that he was once more arrived in safety among his friends; for before he
got to the Factory he had contracted a most violent cold.
Having come to the above resolutions, and finally determined on the
number of Indians that were to accompany us, we were again fitted out
with a large supply of ammunition, and as many other useful articles as
we could conveniently take with us, together with a small sample of
light trading goods, for presents to the Indians, as before.
[Sidenote: 1770. February.]
My instructions on this occasion amounted to no more than an order to
proceed as fast as possible; and for my conduct during the journey, I
was referred to my former instructions of November 6th, 1769.
[Sidenote: 23rd.]
Every thing being in readiness for our departure, on the twenty-third of
February I began my second journey, accompanied by three Northern
Indians and two of the home-guard (Southern) Indians. I took particular
care, however, that Mackachy, though an excellent hunter, should not be
of our party; as he had proved himself, during my former journey, to be
a sly artful villain.
The snow at this time was so deep on the top of the ramparts, that few
of the cannon were to be seen, {14} otherwise the Governor would have
saluted me at my departure, as before; but as those honours could not
possibly be of any service to my expedition, I readily relinquished
everything of the kind; and in lieu of it, the Governor, officers, and
people, insisted on giving me three cheers.
After leaving the Factory, we continued our course in much the same
direction as in my former journey, till we arrived at Seal River; when,
instead of crossing it, and walking on the barren grounds as before, we
followed the course of the river, except in two particular places, where
the bends tended so much to the South, that by crossing two necks of
land not more than five or six miles wide, we saved the walking of near
twenty miles each time, and still came to the main river again.
[Sidenote: 1770. March. 8th.]
The weather had been so remarkably boisterous and changeable, that we
were frequently obliged to continue two or three nights in the same
place. To make up for this inconveniency, deer were so plentiful for the
first eight or ten days, that the Indians killed as many as was
necessary; but we were all so heavy laden that we could not possibly
take much of the meat with us. This I soon perceived to be a great evil,
which exposed us to such frequent inconveniences, that in case of not
killing any thing for three or four days together, we were in great
want of provisions; we seldom, however, went to bed entirely supperless
{15} till the eighth of March; when though we had only walked about
eight miles that morning, and expended all the remainder of the day in
hunting, we could not produce a single thing at night, not even a
partridge! nor had we discerned the track of any thing that day, which
was likely to afford us hopes of better success in the morning. This
being the case, we prepared some hooks and lines ready to angle for
fish, as our tent was then by the side of a lake belonging to Seal
River, which seemed by its situation to afford some prospect of success.
[Sidenote: 9th.]
Early in the morning we took down our tent, and moved about five miles
to the West by South, to a part of the lake that seemed more commodious
for fishing than that where we had been the night before. As soon as we
arrived at this place, some were immediately employed cutting holes in
the ice, while others pitched the tent, got fire-wood, &c.; after which,
for it was early in the morning, those who pitched the tent went a
hunting, and at night one of them returned with a porcupine,[28] while
those who were angling caught several fine trout, which afforded us a
plentiful supper, and we had some trifle left for breakfast.
Angling for fish under the ice in winter requires no other process, than
cutting round holes in the ice from one to two feet diameter, and
letting down a baited hook, which is always kept in motion, not only to
{16} prevent the water from freezing so soon as it would do if suffered
to remain quite still, but because it is found at the same time to be a
great means of alluring the fish to the hole; for it is always observed
that the fish in those parts will take a bait which is in motion, much
sooner than one that is at rest.
[Sidenote: 19th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. March.]
[Sidenote: 20th.]
Early in the morning we again pursued our angling, and all the forenoon
being expended without any success, we took down our tent and pitched it
again about eight miles farther to the Westward, on the same lake, where
we cut more holes in the ice for angling, and that night caught several
fine pike.[29] The next day we moved about five miles to the South West,
down a small river, where we pitched our tent; and having set four
fishing nets, in the course of the day we caught many fine fish,
particularly pike, trout,[30] tittymeg, and a coarse kind of fish known
in Hudson's Bay by the name of Methy.[31][S]
To set a net under the ice, it is first necessary to ascertain its exact
length, by stretching it out upon the ice near the part proposed for
setting it. This being done, a number of round holes are cut in the ice,
at ten or twelve feet distance from each other, and as many in number as
will be sufficient to stretch the net at its full length. A line is then
passed under the ice, by means {17} of a long light pole, which is first
introduced at one of the end holes, and, by means of two forked sticks,
this pole is easily conducted, or passed from one hole to another, under
the ice, till it arrives at the last. The pole is then taken out, and
both ends of the line being properly secured, is always ready for use.
The net is made fast to one end of the line by one person, and hauled
under the ice by a second; a large stone is tied to each of the lower
corners, which serves to keep the net expanded, and prevents it rising
from the bottom with every waft of the current. The Europeans settled in
Hudson's Bay proceed much in the same manner, though they in general
take much more pains; but the above method is found quite sufficient by
the Indians.
In order to search a net thus set, the two end holes only are opened;
the line is veered away by one person, and the net hauled from under the
ice by another; after all the fish are taken out, the net is easily
hauled back to its former station, and there secured as before.
[Sidenote: 1770. March. 21st.]
As this place seemed likely to afford us a constant supply of fish, my
guide proposed to stay here till the geese began to fly, which in those
Northern parts is seldom before the middle of May. His reasons for so
doing seemed well founded: "The weather," he said, "is at this time too
cold to walk on the barren grounds, and the woods from this part lead so
much {18} to the Westward, that were we to continue travelling in any
tolerable shelter, our course would not be better than West South West,
which would only be going out of our way; whereas, if we should remain
here till the weather permit us to walk due North, over the barren
grounds, we shall then in one month get farther advanced on our journey,
than if we were to continue travelling all the remainder of the winter
in the sweep of the woods."
These reasons appeared to me very judicious, and as the plan seemed
likely to be attended with little trouble, it met with my entire
approbation. That being the case, we took additional pains in building
our tent, and made it as commodious as the materials and situation would
admit.
[Sidenote: 1770. March.]
To pitch an Indian's tent in winter, it is first necessary to search for
a level piece of dry ground; which cannot be ascertained but by
thrusting a stick through the snow down to the ground, all over the
proposed part. When a convenient spot is found, the snow is then cleared
away in a circular form to the very moss; and when it is proposed to
remain more than a night or two in one place, the moss is also cut up
and removed, as it is very liable when dry to take fire, and occasion
much trouble to the inhabitants. A quantity of poles are then procured,
which are generally proportioned both in number and length to the {19}
size of the tent cloth, and the number of persons it is intended to
contain. If one of the poles should not happen to be forked, two of them
are tied together near the top, then raised erect, and their buts or
lower ends extended as wide as the proposed diameter of the tent; the
other poles are then set round at equal distances from each other, and
in such order, that their lower ends form a complete circle, which gives
boundaries to the tent on all sides: the tent cloth is then fastened to
a light pole, which is always raised up and put round the poles from the
weather side, so that the two edges that lap over and form the door are
always to the leeward. It must be understood that this method is only in
use when the Indians are moving from place to place every day; for when
they intend to continue any time in one place, they always make the door
of their tent to face the south.
The tent cloth is usually of thin Moose leather, dressed and made by the
Indians, and in shape it nearly resembles a fan-mount inverted; so that
when the largest curve incloses the bottom of the poles, the smaller one
is always sufficient to cover the top; except a hole, which is
designedly left open to serve the double purpose of chimney and window.
The fire is always made on the ground in the center, and the remainder
of the floor, or bottom of the tent, is covered all over with small
branches of the pine tree, {20} which serve both for seats and beds. A
quantity of pine tops and branches are laid round the bottom of the
poles on the outside, over which the eaves of the tent is staked down; a
quantity of snow is then packed over all, which excludes great part of
the external air, and contributes greatly to the warmth within. The tent
here described is such as is made use of by the Southern Indians, and
the same with which I was furnished at the Factory; for that made use of
by the Northern Indians is made of different materials, and is of a
quite different shape, as shall be described hereafter.
[Sidenote: 1770. March.]
The situation of our tent at this time was truly pleasant,[32]
particularly for a spring residence; being on a small elevated point,
which commanded an extensive prospect over a large lake, the shores of
which abounded with wood of different kinds, such as pine, larch, birch,
and poplar; and in many places was beautifully contrasted with a variety
of high hills, that shewed their snowy summits above the tallest woods.
About two hundred yards from the tent was a fall, or rapid, which the
swiftness of the current prevents from freezing in the coldest winters.
At the bottom of this fall, which empties itself into the above lake,
was a fine sheet of open water near a mile in length, and at least half
a mile in breadth; by the margin of which we had our fishing nets set,
all in open view from the tent.
{21} The remaining part of this month passed on without any
interruption, or material occurrence, to disturb our repose, worth
relating: our fishing nets provided us with daily food, and the Indians
had too much philosophy about them to give themselves much additional
trouble; for during the whole time not one of them offered to look for a
partridge, or anything else which could yield a change of diet.
As the time may now be supposed to have lain heavy on my hands, it may
not be improper to inform the reader how I employed it. In the first
place, I embraced every favourable opportunity of observing the latitude
of the place, the mean of which was 58° 46' 30" North; and the longitude
by account was 5° 57' West, from Prince of Wales's Fort. I then
corrected my reckoning from my last observation; brought up my journal,
and filled up my chart, to the place of our residence. I built also some
traps, and caught a few martins; and by way of saving my ammunition, set
some snares for partridges. The former is performed by means of a few
logs, so arranged that when the martin attempts to take away the bait
laid for him, he with very little struggle pulls down a small post that
supports the whole weight of the trap; when, if the animal be not killed
by the weight of the logs, he is confined till he be frozen to death, or
killed by the hunter going his rounds.
[Sidenote: 1770. April.]
{22} To snare partridges requires no other process than making a few
little hedges across a creek, or a few short hedges projecting at right
angles from the side of an island of willows, which those birds are
found to frequent. Several openings must be left in each hedge, to admit
the birds to pass through, and in each of them a snare must be set; so
that when the partridges are hopping along the edge of the willows to
feed, which is their usual custom, some of them soon get into the
snares, where they are confined till they are taken out. I have caught
from three to ten partridges in a day by this simple contrivance; which
requires no further attendance than going round them night and morning.
[Sidenote: 1st.]
I have already observed that nothing material happened to disturb our
repose till the first of April, when to our great surprise the fishing
nets did not afford us a single fish. Though some of the preceding days
had been pretty successful, yet my companions, like true Indians, seldom
went to sleep till they had cleared the tent of every article of
provision. As nothing was to be caught in the nets, we all went out to
angle; but in this we were equally unsuccessful, as we could not procure
one fish the whole day. This sudden change of circumstances alarmed one
of my companions so much, that he began to think of resuming the use of
his gun, after having laid it by for near a month.
{23} Early in the morning we arose; when my guide Conne-e-quese went a
hunting, and the rest attended the nets and hooks near home; but all
with such bad success, that we could not procure enough in one day to
serve two men for a supper. This, instead of awakening the rest of my
companions, sent them to sleep; and scarcely any of them had the
prudence to look at the fishing nets, though they were not more than two
or three hundred yards from the tent door.
[Sidenote: 1770. April.]
My guide, who was a steady man, and an excellent hunter, having for many
years been accustomed to provide for a large family, seemed by far the
most industrious of all my crew; he closely pursued his hunting for
several days, and seldom returned to the tent till after dark, while
those at the tent passed most of their time in smoking and sleeping.
[Sidenote: 10th.]
Several days passed without any signs of relief, till the 10th, when my
guide continued out longer than ordinary, which made us conjecture that
he had met with strangers, or seen some deer, or other game, which
occasioned his delay. We all therefore lay down to sleep, having had but
little refreshment for the three preceding days, except a pipe of
tobacco and a draught of water; even partridges had become so scarce
that not one was to be got; the heavy thaws had driven them all out
towards the barren grounds. About midnight, to our {24} great joy, our
hunter arrived, and brought with him the blood and fragments of two deer
that he had killed. This unexpected success soon roused the sleepers,
who, in an instant, were busily employed in cooking a large kettle of
broth, made with the blood, and some fat and scraps of meat shred small,
boiled in it. This might be reckoned a dainty dish at any time, but was
more particularly so in our present almost famished condition.
[Sidenote: 11th.]
After partaking of this refreshment, we resumed our rest, and early in
the morning set out in a body for the place where the deer were lying.
As we intended to make our stay but short, we left our tent standing,
containing all our baggage. On our arrival at the place of destination,
some were immediately employed in making a hut or barrocado with young
pine trees; while one man skinned the deer, the remainder went a
hunting, and in the afternoon returned to the hut, after having killed
two deer.
Several days were now spent in feasting and gluttony; during which the
Indians killed five more deer and three fine beavers; finding at last,
however, that there was little prospect of procuring either more deer or
beavers, we determined to return to our tent, with the remains of what
we had already obtained.
[Sidenote: 1770. April. 22d.]
The flesh of these deer, though none of the largest, might with
frugality have served our small number, (being {25} only six) for some
time; but my companions, like other Indians, feasted day and night while
it lasted; and were so indolent and unthinking, as not to attend
properly to the fishing nets; so that many fine fish, which had been
entangled in the nets, were entirely spoiled, and in about twelve or
fourteen days we were nearly in as great distress for provisions as
ever.
During the course of our long inactivity, Saw-sop-o-kishac, commonly
called Sossop, my principal Southern Indian, as he was cutting some
birch for spoons, dishes, and other necessary household furniture, had
the misfortune to cut his leg in such a manner as to be incapable of
walking; and the other Southern Indian, though a much younger man, was
so indolent as not to be of any service to me, except hauling part of
our luggage, and eating up part of the provisions which had been
provided by the more industrious part of my companions.
[Sidenote: 24th.]
On the twenty-fourth, early in the day, a great body of Indians was seen
in the South West, on the large lake by the side of which our tent
stood. On their arrival at our tent we discovered them to be the wives
and families of the Northern Indian goose-hunters, who were gone to
Prince of Wales's Fort to attend the season. They were bound toward the
barren ground, there to wait the return of their husbands and relations
from the Fort, after the termination of the goose-season.
[Sidenote: 27th.]
{26} My guide having for some days past determined to move toward the
barren ground, this morning we took down our tent, packed up our
luggage, and proceeded to the Eastward in the same track we came; but
Sossop being so lame as to be obliged to be hauled on a sledge, I easily
prevailed on two of the Indians who had joined us on the 24th, and who
were pursuing the same road, to perform this service for him.
[Sidenote: 1770. April. 29th.]
[Sidenote: May. 13th.]
After two days good walking in our old track, we arrived at a part of
Seal River called She-than-nee,[33] where we pitched our tent and set
both our fishing-nets, intending to stay there till the geese began to
fly. Though we had seen several swans and some geese flying to the
Northward, it was the thirteenth of May before we could procure any. On
that day the Indians killed two swans and three geese. This in some
measure alleviated our distress, which at that time was very great;
having had no other subsistence for five or six days, than a few
cranberries, that we gathered from the dry ridges where the snow was
thawed away in spots; for though we set our fishing-nets in the best
judged places, and angled at every part that was likely to afford
success, we only caught three small fish during the whole time. Many of
the Northern Indians, who had joined us on the 24th of April, remained
in our company for some time; and though I well knew they had had a
plentiful winter, and had then good stocks of dried meat by them, and
{27} were also acquainted with our distress, they never gave me or my
Southern companions the least supply, although they had in secret amply
provided for our Northern guides.
[Sidenote: 19th.]
[Sidenote: 23d.]
[Sidenote: 1770. May.]
By the nineteenth, the geese, swans, ducks, gulls, and other birds of
passage, were so plentiful, that we killed every day as many as were
sufficient for our support; and having stopped a few days to recruit our
spirits after so long a fast, on the twenty-third we began once more to
proceed toward the barren ground. Sossop having now perfectly recovered
from his late misfortune, everything seemed to have a favourable
appearance; especially as my crew had been augmented to twelve persons,
by the addition of one of my guide's wives, and five others, whom I had
engaged to assist in carrying our luggage; and I well knew, from the
season of the year, that hauling would soon be at an end for the summer.
The thaws having been by this time so great as to render travelling in
the woods almost impracticable, we continued our course to the East on
Seal River, about sixteen miles farther, when we came to a small river,
and a string of lakes connected with it, that tended to the North.
[Sidenote: June. 1st.]
The weather for some time was remarkably fine and pleasant. Game of all
kinds was exceedingly plentiful, {28} and we continued our course to the
Northward on the above river and lakes till the first of June, when we
arrived at a place called Beralzone.[34] In our way thither, beside
killing more geese than was necessary, we shot two deer. One of my
companions had now the misfortune to shatter his hand very much by the
bursting of a gun; but as no bones were broken, I bound up the wound,
and with the assistance of some of Turlington's drops, yellow basilicon,
&c., which I had with me, soon restored the use of his hand; so that in
a very short time he seemed to be out of all danger.
[Sidenote: 4th.]
After stopping a few days at Beralzone, to dry a little venison and a
few geese, we again proceeded to the Northward on the barren ground; for
on our leaving this place we soon got clear of all the woods.
[Sidenote: 5th.]
[Sidenote: 6th.]
[Sidenote: 10th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. June.]
The snow was by this time so soft as to render walking in snow-shoes
very laborious; and though the ground was bare in many places, yet at
times, and in particular places, the snow-drifts were so deep, that we
could not possibly do without them. By the sixth, however, the thaws
were so general, and the snows so much melted, that as our snow-shoes
were attended with more trouble than service, we all consented to throw
them away. Till the tenth, our sledges proved serviceable, particularly
in crossing lakes and ponds on the ice; but that mode of travelling now
growing dangerous on account of the great thaws, we {29} determined to
throw away our sledges, and every one to take a load on his back.
This I found to be much harder work than the winter carriage, as my part
of the luggage consisted of the following articles, viz. the quadrant
and its stand, a trunk containing books, papers, &c., a land-compass,
and a large bag containing all my wearing apparel; also a hatchet,
knives, files, &c., beside several small articles, intended for presents
to the natives. The awkwardness of my load, added to its great weight,
which was upward of sixty pounds, and the excessive heat of the weather,
rendered walking the most laborious task I had ever encountered; and
what considerably increased the hardship, was the badness of the road,
and the coarseness of our lodging, being, on account of the want of
proper tents, exposed to the utmost severity of the weather. The tent we
had with us was not only too large, and unfit for barren ground service,
where no poles were to be got, but we had been obliged to cut it up for
shoes, and each person carried his own share. Indeed my guide behaved
both negligently and ungenerously on this occasion; as he never made me,
or my Southern Indians, acquainted with the nature of pitching tents on
the barren ground; which had he done, we could easily have procured a
set of poles before we left the woods. He took care, however, to procure
a set for himself and his wife; and when the tent was divided, though he
made shift to get a piece large enough to serve him for {30} a complete
little tent, he never asked me or my Southern Indians to put our heads
into it.
Beside the inconvenience of being exposed to the open air, night and
day, in all weathers, we experienced real distress from the want of
victuals. When provisions were procured, it often happened that we could
not make a fire, so that we were obliged to eat the meat quite raw;
which at first, in the article of fish particularly, was as little
relished by my Southern companions as myself.
[Sidenote: 1770. June.]
Notwithstanding these accumulated and complicated hardships, we
continued in perfect health and good spirits; and my guide, though a
perfect niggard of his provisions, especially in times of scarcity, gave
us the strongest assurance of soon arriving at a plentiful country,
which would not only afford us a certain supply of provisions, but where
we should meet with other Indians, who probably would be willing to
carry part of our luggage. This news naturally gave us great
consolation; for at that time the weight of our constant loads was so
great, that when Providence threw any thing in our way, we could not
carry above two days provisions with us, which indeed was the chief
reason of our being so frequently in want.
[Sidenote: 23d.]
From the twentieth to the twenty-third we walked every day near twenty
miles, without any other subsistence {31} than a pipe of tobacco, and a
drink of water when we pleased: even partridges and gulls, which some
time before were in great plenty, and easily procured, were now so
scarce and shy, that we could rarely get one; and as to geese, ducks,
&c., they had all flown to the Northward to breed and molt.
[Sidenote: 1770. June.]
Early in the morning of the twenty-third, we set out as usual, but had
not walked above seven or eight miles before we saw three musk-oxen
grazing by the side of a small lake. The Indians immediately went in
pursuit of them; and as some of them were expert hunters, they soon
killed the whole of them. This was no doubt very fortunate; but, to our
great mortification, before we could get one of them skinned, such a
fall of rain came on, as to put it quite out of our power to make a
fire; which, even in the finest weather, could only be made of moss, as
we were near an hundred miles from any woods. This was poor comfort for
people who had not broke their fast for four or five days. Necessity,
however, has no law; and having been before initiated into the method of
eating raw meat, we were the better prepared for this repast: but this
was by no means so well relished, either by me or the Southern Indians,
as either raw venison or raw fish had been: for the flesh of the musk-ox
is not only coarse and tough, but smells and tastes so strong of musk as
to make it very disagreeable when raw, though it is tolerable eating
when properly cooked. The weather continued so {32} remarkably bad,
accompanied with constant heavy rain, snow, and sleet, and our
necessities were so great by the time the weather permitted us to make a
fire, that we had nearly eat to the amount of one buffalo quite raw.
Notwithstanding I mustered up all my philosophy on this occasion, yet I
must confess that my spirits began to fail me. Indeed our other
misfortunes were greatly aggravated by the inclemency of the weather,
which was not only cold, but so very wet that for near three days and
nights, I had not one dry thread about me. When the fine weather
returned, we made a fire, though it was only of moss, as I have already
observed; and having got my cloaths dry, all things seemed likely to go
on in the old channel, though that was indifferent enough; but I
endeavoured, like a sailor after a storm, to forget past misfortunes.
[Sidenote: 1770. June.]
None of our natural wants, if we except thirst, are so distressing, or
hard to endure, as hunger; and in wandering situations, like that which
I now experienced, the hardship is greatly aggravated by the uncertainty
with respect to its duration, and the means most proper to be used to
remove it, as well as by the labour and fatigue we must necessarily
undergo for that purpose, and the disappointments which too frequently
frustrate our best concerted plans and most strenuous exertions: it not
only enfeebles the body, but depresses the spirits, in spite of {33}
every effort to prevent it. Besides, for want of action, the stomach so
far loses its digestive powers, that after long fasting it resumes its
office with pain and reluctance. During this journey I have too
frequently experienced the dreadful effects of this calamity, and more
than once been reduced to so low a state by hunger and fatigue, that
when Providence threw any thing in my way, my stomach has scarcely been
able to retain more than two or three ounces, without producing the most
oppressive pain. Another disagreeable circumstance of long fasting is,
the extreme difficulty and pain attending the natural evacuations for
the first time; and which is so dreadful, that of it none but those who
have experienced can have an adequate idea.
To record in detail each day's fare since the commencement of this
journey, would be little more than a dull repetition of the same
occurrences. A sufficient idea of it may be given in a few words, by
observing that it may justly be said to have been either all feasting,
or all famine; sometimes we had too much, seldom just enough, frequently
too little, and often none at all. It will be only necessary to say that
we have fasted many times two whole days and nights; twice upwards of
three days; and once, while at She-than-nee, near seven days, during
which we tasted not a mouthful of anything, except a few cranberries,
water, scraps of old leather, and burnt bones. On those pressing
occasions I have frequently seen the Indians examine their wardrobe,
{34} which consisted chiefly of skin-clothing, and consider what part
could best be spared; sometimes a piece of an old, half-rotten deer
skin, and at others a pair of old shoes, were sacrificed to alleviate
extreme hunger. The relation of such uncommon hardships may perhaps gain
little credit in Europe; while those who are conversant with the history
of Hudson's Bay, and who are thoroughly acquainted with the distress
which the natives of the country about it frequently endure, may
consider them as no more than the common occurrences of an Indian life,
in which they are frequently driven to the necessity of eating one
another.[T]
[Sidenote: 1770. June.]
[Sidenote: 26th.]
[Sidenote: 30th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. July.]
{35} Knowing that our constant loads would not permit us to carry much
provisions with us, we agreed to continue a day or two to refresh
ourselves, and to dry a little meat in the sun, as it thereby not only
becomes more portable, but is always ready for use. On the twenty-sixth,
all that remained of the musk-ox flesh being properly dried and fit for
carriage, we began to proceed on our journey Northward, and on the
thirtieth of June arrived at a small river, called Cathawhachaga,[35]
which empties itself into a large lake called Yath-kyed-whoie,[36] or
White Snow Lake. Here we found several tents of Northern Indians, who
had been some time employed spearing deer in their canoes, as they
crossed the above mentioned little river. Here also we met a Northern
Indian Leader, or Captain, called Keelshies, and a small party of his
crew, who were bound to Prince of Wales's Fort, with furs {36} and other
commodities for trade. When Keelshies was made acquainted with the
intent of my journey, he readily offered his service to bring me
anything from the Factory that we were likely to stand in need of; and
though we were then in latitude 63° 4' North, and longitude 7° 12' West
from Churchill, yet he promised to join us again, at a place appointed
by my guide, by the setting in of the Winter. In consequence of this
offer, I looked over our ammunition and other articles; and finding that
a little powder, shot, tobacco, and a few knives were likely to be of
service before the journey could be completed, I determined to send a
letter to the governor of Prince of Wales's Fort, to advise him of my
situation, and to desire him to send by the bearer a certain quantity of
the above articles; on which Keelshies and his crew proceeded on their
journey for the Factory the same day.
[Illustration: MAP OF YATH-KYED LAKE AND PART OF KAZAN RIVER
By J. B. Tyrrell, 1894]
[Sidenote: 1770. July.]
Cathawhachaga was the only river we had seen since the breaking up of
the ice that we could not ford; and as we had not any canoes with us, we
were obliged to get ferried across by the strange Indians. When we
arrived on the North side of this river, where the Indians resided, my
guide proposed to stop some time, to dry and pound some meat to take
with us; to which I readily consented. We also set our fishing-nets, and
caught a considerable quantity of very fine fish; such as tittemeg,
barble,[37] &c.
[Sidenote: 6th.]
{37} The number of deer which crossed Cathawhachaga, during our stay
there, was by no means equal to our expectations, and no more than just
sufficient to supply our present wants; so that after waiting several
days in fruitless expectation, we began to prepare for moving; and
accordingly, on the sixth of July, we set out, though we had not at that
time as much victuals belonging to our company as would furnish us a
supper. During our stay here, we had each day got as much fish or flesh
as was sufficient for present expenditure; but, being in hopes of better
times, saved none.
Before we left Cathawhachaga, I made several observations for the
latitude, and found it to be 63° 4' North.[38] I also brought up my
journal, and filled up my chart to that time. Everything being now ready
for our departure, my guide informed me that in a few days a canoe would
be absolutely necessary, to enable us to cross some unfordable rivers
which we should meet, and could not avoid. This induced me to purchase
one at the easy rate of a single knife, the full value of which did not
exceed one penny. It must be observed, that the man who sold the canoe
had no farther occasion for it, and was glad to take what he could get;
but had he been thoroughly acquainted with our necessities, he most
assuredly would have had the conscience to have asked goods to the
amount of ten beaver skins at least.
[Sidenote: 1770. July.]
[Sidenote: 9th.]
{38} This additional piece of luggage obliged me to engage another
Indian; and we were lucky enough at that time to meet with a poor
forlorn fellow, who was fond of the office, having never been in a much
better state than that of a beast of burthen. Thus, provided with a
canoe, and a man to carry it, we left Cathawhachaga, as has been
observed, on the sixth of July, and continued our course to the North by
West, and North North West; and that night put up by the side of a small
bay of White Snow Lake,[39] where we angled, and caught several fine
trout, some of which weighed not less than fourteen or sixteen pounds.
In the night heavy rain came on, which continued three days; but the
ninth proving fine weather, and the sun displaying his beams very
powerfully, we dried our clothes, and proceeded to the Northward. Toward
the evening, however, it began again to rain so excessively, that it was
with much difficulty we kept our powder and books dry.
[Sidenote: 17th.]
On the seventeenth, we saw many musk-oxen, several of which the Indians
killed; when we agreed to stay here a day or two, to dry and pound[U]
some of the carcases to take with us. The flesh of any animal, when it
is thus prepared, is not only hearty food, but is always ready for {39}
use, and at the same time very portable. In most parts of Hudson's Bay
it is known by the name of Thew-hagon,[40] but amongst the Northern
Indians it is called Achees.
[Sidenote: 1770. July. 22d.]
Having prepared as much dried flesh as we could transport, we proceeded
to the Northward; and at our departure left a great quantity of meat
behind us, which we could neither eat nor carry away. This was not the
first time we had so done; and however wasteful it may appear, it is a
practice so common among all the Indian tribes, as to be thought nothing
of. On the twenty-second, we met several strangers, whom we joined in
pursuit of the deer, &c. which were at this time so plentiful, that we
got every day a sufficient number for our support, and indeed too
frequently killed several merely for the tongues, marrow, and fat.
[Sidenote: 30th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. August.]
After we had been some time in company with those Indians, I found that
my guide seemed to hesitate about proceeding any farther; and that he
kept pitching his tent backward and forward, from place to place, after
the deer, and the rest of the Indians. On my asking him his reason for
so doing; he answered, that as the year was too far advanced to admit of
our arrival at the Coppermine River that Summer, he thought it more
advisable to pass the Winter with some of the Indians then in company,
and alleged that there could be no fear of our arriving at that river
early in the Summer of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one. As I
could not {40} pretend to contradict him, I was entirely reconciled to
his proposal; and accordingly we kept moving to the Westward with the
other Indians. In a few days, many others joined us from different
quarters; so that by the thirtieth of July we had in all above seventy
tents, which did not contain less than six hundred persons. Indeed our
encampment at night had the appearance of a small town; and in the
morning, when we began to move, the whole ground (at least for a large
space all round) seemed to be alive, with men, women, children, and
dogs. Though the land was entirely barren, and destitute of every kind
of herbage, except wish-a-capucca[V] and moss, yet the deer were so
numerous that the Indians not only killed as many as were sufficient for
our large number, but often several merely for the skins, marrow, &c.
and left the carcases to rot, or to be devoured by the wolves, foxes,
and other beasts of prey.
[Illustration: MAP OF DUBAWNT LAKE AND PART OF DUBAWNT RIVER
By J. B. and J. W. Tyrrell, 1893]
In our way to the Westward we came to several rivers, which, though
small and of no note, were so deep as not to be fordable, particularly
Doobaunt River.[W] On those occasions only, we had recourse to our
canoe, which, though of the common size, was too small to carry more
{41} than two persons; one of whom always lies down at full length for
fear of making the canoe top-heavy, and the other sits on his heels and
paddles. This method of ferrying over rivers, though tedious, is the
most expeditious way these poor people can contrive; for they are
sometimes obliged to carry their canoes one hundred and fifty, or two
hundred miles, without having occasion to make use of them; yet at times
they cannot do without them; and were they not very small and portable,
it would be impossible for one man to carry them, which they are often
obliged to do, not only the distance above mentioned, but even the whole
Summer.
[Sidenote: 1770. August. 6th.]
[Sidenote: 8th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. August.]
The person I engaged at Cathawhachaga to carry my canoe proving too weak
for the task, another of my crew was obliged to exchange loads with him,
which seemed perfectly agreeable to all parties; and as we walked but
short days' journies, and deer were very plentiful, all things went on
very smoothly. Nothing material happened till the eighth, when we were
near losing the quadrant and all our powder from the following
circumstance: the fellow who had been released from carrying the canoe
proving too weak, as hath been already observed, had, after the
exchange, nothing to carry but my powder and his own trifles; the latter
were indeed very inconsiderable, not equal in size and weight to a
soldier's knapsack. As I intended to have a little sport with the deer,
and knowing his load to be much lighter than mine, I gave him the
quadrant {42} and stand to carry, which he took without the least
hesitation, or seeming ill-will. Having thus eased myself for the
present of a heavy and cumbersome part of my load, I set out early in
the morning with some of the Indian men; and after walking about eight
or nine miles, saw, from the top of a high hill, a great number of deer
feeding in a neighbouring valley; on which we laid down our loads and
erected a flag, as a signal for the others to pitch their tents there
for the night. We then pursued our hunting, which proved very
successful. At night, however, when we came to the hill where we had
left our baggage, I found that only part of the Indians had arrived, and
that the man who had been entrusted with my powder and quadrant, had set
off another way, with a small party of Indians that had been in our
company that morning. The evening being far advanced, we were obliged to
defer going in search of him till the morning, and as his track could
not be easily discovered in the Summer, the Southern Indians, as well as
myself, were very uneasy, fearing we had lost the powder, which was to
provide us with food and raiment the remainder of our journey. The very
uncourteous behaviour of the Northern Indians then in company, gave me
little hopes of receiving assistance from them, any longer than I had
wherewithal to reward them for their trouble and expense; for during the
whole time I had been with them, not one of them had offered to give me
the least morsel of victuals, without asking something in exchange,
which, in general, was three times the value of {43} what they could
have got for the same articles, had they carried them to the Factory,
though several hundred miles distant.
So inconsiderate were those people, that wherever they met me, they
always expected that I had a great assortment of goods to relieve their
necessities; as if I had brought the Company's warehouse with me. Some
of them wanted guns; all wanted ammunition, iron-work, and tobacco; many
were solicitous for medicine; and others pressed me for different
articles of clothing; but when they found I had nothing to spare, except
a few nick-nacks and gewgaws, they made no scruple of pronouncing me a
"poor servant, noways like the Governor at the Factory, who, they said,
they never saw, but he gave them something useful." It is scarcely
possible to conceive any people so void of common understanding, as to
think that the sole intent of my undertaking this fatiguing journey, was
to carry a large assortment of useful and heavy implements, to give to
all that stood in need of them; but many of them would ask me for what
they wanted with the same freedom, and apparently with the same hopes of
success, as if they had been at one of the Company's Factories. Others,
with an air of more generosity, offered me furs to trade with at the
same standard as at the Factory; without considering how unlikely it was
that I should increase the enormous weight of my load with articles
which could be of no more use to me in my present situation than they
were to themselves.
[Sidenote: 1770. August.]
{44} This unaccountable behaviour of the Indians occasioned much serious
reflection on my part; as it showed plainly how little I had to expect
if I should, by any accident, be reduced to the necessity of depending
upon them for support; so that, though I laid me down to rest, sleep was
a stranger to me that night. The following beautiful lines of Dr. Young
I repeated above an hundred times:
"Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep;
He, like the world, his ready visit pays
Where fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes:
Swift on his downy pinions flies from woe,
And lights on lids unsully'd with a tear."
--NIGHT THOUGHTS.
[Sidenote: 9th.]
[Sidenote: 1770. August.]
After passing the night in this melancholy manner, I got up at daybreak,
and, with the two Southern Indians, set out in quest of our deserter.
Many hours elapsed in fruitless search after him, as we could not
discover a single track in the direction which we were informed he had
taken. The day being almost spent without the least appearance of
success, I proposed repairing to the place where I had delivered the
quadrant to him, in hopes of seeing some track in the moss that might
lead to the way the Indians were gone whom our deserter had accompanied.
On our arrival at that place, we found they had struck down toward a
little river which they had crossed the morning before; and there, to
our great joy, we found the quadrant and the bag of powder lying on the
top of a high stone, but not a human being was to be seen. On {45}
examining the powder, we found that the bag had been opened, and part of
it taken out; but, notwithstanding our loss was very considerable, we
returned with light hearts to the place at which we had been the night
before, where we found our baggage safe, but all the Indians gone; they
had, however, been so considerate as to set up marks to direct us what
course to steer. By the time we had adjusted our bundles, the day was
quite spent; seeing, however, a smoke, or rather a fire, in the
direction we were ordered to steer, we bent our way towards it; and a
little after ten o'clock at night came up with the main body of the
Indians; when, after refreshing ourselves with a plentiful supper, the
first morsel we had tasted that day, we retired to rest, which I at
least enjoyed with better success than the preceding night.
[Sidenote: 11th.]
In the morning of the eleventh we proceeded on to the West, and West by
South; but on the twelfth did not move. This gave us an opportunity of
endeavouring to ascertain the latitude by a meridian altitude, when we
found the place to be in 63° 10' North nearly. It proving rather cloudy
about noon, though exceeding fine weather, I let the quadrant stand, in
order to obtain the latitude more exactly by two altitudes; but, to my
great mortification, while I was eating my dinner, a sudden gust of wind
blew it down; and as the ground where it stood was {46} very stoney, the
bubble, the sight-vane, and vernier, were entirely broke to pieces,
which rendered the instrument useless. In consequence of this misfortune
I resolved to return again to the Fort, though we were then in the
latitude of 63° 10' North, and about 10° 40' West longitude from
Churchill River.[43]
FOOTNOTES:
[R] This was a proposal of the Governor's, though he well knew we could
not do without their assistance, both for hauling our baggage, as well
as dressing skins for clothing, pitching our tent, getting firing, &c.
[28] _Erethizon dorsatum_ (Linn.). Near the extreme northern limit in
this quarter.--E. A. P.
[29] _Esox lucius_ Linn.--E. A. P.
[30] _Cristivomer namaycush_ Walbaum.--E. A. P.
[31] _Lota maculosa_ (Le Sueur).--E. A. P.
[S] The Methy are generally caught with a hook; and the best time for
that sport is in the night; and if the night be dark, the better.
[32] He appears to have been camped at the rapid at the head or western
end of Shethnanei Lake, which, according to the best information at
present available, is about latitude 58° 37' and longitude 4° west from
Prince of Wales Fort.
[33] She-than-nee is clearly the same word as _Shethnanei_, a Chipewyan
word meaning "high hill," and applied to a point on the north shore of
Shethnanei Lake. In February 1891, the Rev. J. (Bishop) Lofthouse
visited some Indians living at this place, accomplishing the journey out
from Churchill in seven days, and the return journey in six days.
[34] _Beralzoa_ means Shoal Lake.
[T] It is the general opinion of the Southern Indians, that when any of
their tribe has been driven to the necessity of eating human flesh, they
become so fond of it, that no person is safe in their company. And
though it is well known they are never guilty of making this horrid
repast but when driven to it by necessity, yet those who have made it
are not only shunned, but so universally detested by all who know them,
that no Indians will tent with them, and they are frequently murdered
slyly. I have seen several of those poor wretches who, unfortunately for
them, have come under the above description, and though they were
persons much esteemed before hunger had driven them to this act, were
afterward so universally despised and neglected, that a smile never
graced their countenances: deep melancholy has been seated on their
brows, while the eye most expressively spoke the dictates of the heart,
and seemed to say, "Why do you despise me for my misfortunes? the period
is probably not far distant, when you may be driven to the like
necessity!"
In the Spring of the year 1775, when I was building Cumberland House, an
Indian, whose name was Wapoos, came to the settlement, at a time when
fifteen tents of Indians were on the plantations: they examined him very
minutely, and found he had come a considerable way by himself, without a
gun, or ammunition. This made many of them conjecture he had met with,
and killed, some person by the way; and this was the more easily
credited, from the care he took to conceal a bag of provisions, which he
had brought with him, in a lofty pine-tree near the house.
Being a stranger, I invited him in, though I saw he had nothing for
trade; and during that interview, some of the Indian women examined his
bag, and gave it as their opinion that the meat it contained was human
flesh: in consequence, it was not without the interference of some
principal Indians, whose liberality of sentiment was more extensive than
that in the others, the poor creature saved his life. Many of the men
cleaned and loaded their guns; others had their bows and arrows ready;
and even the women took possession of the hatchets, to kill this poor
inoffensive wretch, for no crime but that of travelling about two
hundred miles by himself, unassisted by fire-arms for support in his
journey.
[35] After leaving Lake Beralzoa, and before reaching Cathawhachaga
River, he had crossed Thlewiaza or Little Fish River, Magnus Lake, and
several other lakes and streams which are probably tributaries of the
Tha-anne or Rocky-Bank River. Cathawhachaga is evidently the Kazan River
which I descended in 1894, and it is interesting to note that while, in
Hearne's time, it was within the hunting grounds of the Chipewyan
Indians, at the time of my visit, one hundred and twenty-four years
later, these Indians had left it, and its banks were inhabited entirely
by Eskimos. Hearne doubtless crossed the river four miles above its
discharge into Yath-kyed Lake, at a place call
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