A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean Part 11

His route is marked crossing the Dubawnt River in lat.i.tude 63 north, near where it flows into an arm or bay of Dubawnt Lake. The river actually flows into the lake from the south-west in lat.i.tude 62 55', and it is probable that he crossed it three miles above this in lat.i.tude 62 53' 30", where, in 1893, we found the most northerly grove of stunted spruce growing on the bank of the river, and where very old remains of Indian camps were plainly to be seen.

From here he turned south-eastward, and travelling around the south end of Dubawnt Lake reached Kazan River just above Angikuni Lake (called on Alexander Mackenzie's map t.i.tmeg Lake), probably just at its western end, where the caribou cross the river in large numbers in their migration southward. This point is in lat.i.tude 62 20' north, while Hearne places his crossing-place in lat.i.tude 62 12'. Thence, keeping south of Angikuni Lake, he turned more to the east, and pa.s.sing several lakes which cannot be definitely identified, but two of which are probably Magnus and Thaolintoa Lakes, he reached Thlewiaza River east of Island Lake, where he was joined by Matonabbee and a band of Indians, who had left their wives at Island Lake, and were on their way to Fort Prince of Wales to trade.

At the Thlewiaza River he turned eastward down the stream to a grove of timber to obtain wood for snow-shoes. After making snow-shoes he turned southward and rejoined Matonabbee and his band of Indians for a short time, and then pushed on across Egg and Seal Rivers and around the south end of b.u.t.ton's Bay to Fort Prince of Wales.

{60} 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 the 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 Indians' wives taken in labour--Remarks thereon--Customs observed by the Northern Indians on those occasions._

[Sidenote: 1770. November. 28th.]

On my arrival at the Fort, I informed the Governor, of Matonabbee's being so near. On the twenty-eighth of November he arrived.

Notwithstanding the many difficulties and hards.h.i.+ps which I had undergone during my two unsuccessful attempts, I was so far from being {61} solicited on this occasion to undertake a third excursion, that I willingly offered my service; which was readily accepted, as my abilities and approved courage, in persevering under difficulties, were thought noways inferior to the task.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT, HUDSON'S BAY _Published by J. Sewell, Cornhill, March 1st, 1797_ _From the "European Magazine", June, 1797_]

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

I then determined to engage Matonabbee to be my guide; to which he readily consented, and with a freedom of speech and correctness of language not commonly met with among Indians, not only pointed out the reasons which had occasioned all our misfortunes in my two former attempts, but described the plan he intended to pursue; which at the same time that it was highly satisfactory to me, did honour to his penetration and judgment; as it proved him to be a man of extensive observation with respect to times, seasons, and places; and well qualified to explain everything that could contribute either to facilitate or r.e.t.a.r.d the ease or progress of travelling in those dreary parts of the world.

[Sidenote: 7th.]

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

Having engaged Matonabbee, therefore, as my guide, I began to make preparations for our departure; but Mr. Norton, the Governor, having been very fully occupied in trading with a large body of Indians, it was the seventh of December before I could obtain from him my dispatches. It may not be improper to observe, that he again wanted to force some of the home-guard Indians (who were {62} his own relations[Z]) into our company, merely with a view that they might engross all the credit of taking care of{63} me during the journey; but I had round them of so little use in my two former attempts, that I absolutely refused them; and by so doing, offended Mr. Norton to such a degree, that neither time nor absence could ever afterwards eradicate his dislike of me; so that at my return he used every means in his power to treat me ill, and to render my life unhappy. However, to deal with candour on this occasion, it must be acknowledged to his honour, that whatever our private animosities might have been, he did not suffer them to interfere with public business; and I was fitted out with ammunition, and every other article which Matonabbee thought could be wanted. I was also furnished, as before, with a small a.s.sortment of light trading goods, as presents to the far distant Indians.

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

At last I succeeded in obtaining my instructions which were as follows:

{64} "ORDERS _and_ INSTRUCTIONS _for_ Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE, _going on his third Expedition to the North of Churchill River, in quest of a North West Pa.s.sage, Copper Mines, or any other thing that may be serviceable to the British Nation in general, or the Hudson's Bay Company in particular; in the year 1770._

"Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE.

"SIR,

"As you have offered your service a third time to go in search of the Copper Mine River, &c., and as Matonabbee, a leading Indian, who has been at those parts, is willing to be your guide, we have accordingly engaged him for that service; but having no other instrument on the same construction with the quadrant you had the misfortune to break, we have furnished you with an Elton's quadrant, being the most proper instrument we can now procure for making observations on the land.

"The above Leader, Matonabbee, and a few of his best men, which he has selected for that purpose, are to provide for you, a.s.sist you in all things, and conduct you to the Copper Mine River; where you must {65} be careful to observe the lat.i.tude and longitude, also the course of the river, the depth of the water, the situation of the Copper Mines, &c., but your first instructions, of November sixth, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine, being sufficiently full, we refer you to every part thereof for the better regulation of your conduct during this journey.

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

"As you and your Indian companions are fitted out with everything that we think is necessary, (or at least as many useful articles as the nature of travelling in those parts will admit of), you are hereby desired to proceed on your journey as soon as possible; and your present guide has promised to take great care of you, and conduct you out and home with all convenient speed.

"I conclude with my best wishes for your health and happiness, together with a successful journey, and a quick return in safety. Amen.

"(Signed) MOSES NORTON, Governor.

"Dated at Prince of Wales's Fort, 7th December 1770."

[Sidenote: 7th.]

On the seventh of December I set out on my third journey; and the weather, considering the season of the year, was for some days pretty mild. One of Matonabbee's wives being ill, occasioned us to walk so slow, that {66} it was the thirteenth before we arrived at Seal River; at which time two men and their wives left us, whose loads, when added to those of the remainder of my crew, made a very material difference, especially as Matonabbee's wife was so ill as to be obliged to be hauled on a sledge.

[Sidenote: 16th.]

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

Finding deer and all other game very scarce, and not knowing how long it might be before we could reach any place where they were in greater plenty, the Indians walked as far each day as their loads and other circ.u.mstances would conveniently permit. On the sixteenth, we arrived at Egg River, where Matonabbee and the rest of my crew had laid up some provisions and other necessaries, when on their journey to the Fort. On going to the place where they thought the provisions had been carefully secured from all kinds of wild beasts, they had the mortification to find that some of their countrymen, with whom the Governor had first traded and dispatched from the Fort, had robbed the store of every article, as well as of some of their most useful implements. This loss was more severely felt, as there was a total want of every kind of game; and the Indians, not expecting to meet with so great a disappointment, had not used that economy in the expenditure of the oatmeal and other provisions which they had received at the Fort, as they probably would have done, had they not relied firmly on finding a supply at this place.

This disappointment and loss was borne by the Indians with the greatest fort.i.tude; and I did not hear {67} one of them breathe the least hint of revenge in case they should ever discover the offenders; the only effect it had on them was, that of making them put the best foot foremost. This was thought so necessary, that for some time we walked every day from morning till night. The days, however, being short, our sledges heavy, and some of the road very bad, our progress seldom exceeded sixteen or eighteen miles a day, and some days we did not travel so much.

[Sidenote: 18th.]

On the eighteenth, as we were continuing our course to the North West, up a small creek that empties itself into Egg River, we saw the tracks of many deer which had crossed that part a few days before; at that time there was not a fresh track to be seen: some of the Indians, however, who had lately pa.s.sed that way, had killed more than they had occasion for, so that several joints of good meat were found in their old tent-places; which, though only sufficient for one good meal, were very acceptable, as we had been in exceeding straitened circ.u.mstances for many days.

[Sidenote: 19th.]

[Sidenote: 27th.]

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

On the nineteenth, we pursued our course in the North West quarter; and, after leaving the above-mentioned creek, traversed nothing but entire barren ground, with empty bellies, till the twenty-seventh; for though we arrived at some woods on the twenty-sixth, and saw a few deer, four of which the Indians killed, they were {68} at so great a distance from the place on which we lay, that it was the twenty-seventh before the meat was brought to the tents. Here the Indians proposed to continue one day, under pretence of repairing their sledges and snow shoes; but from the little attention they paid to those repairs, I was led to think that the want of food was the chief thing that detained them, as they never ceased eating the whole day. Indeed for many days before we had in great want, and for the last three days had not tasted a morsel of any thing, except a pipe of tobacco and a drink of snow water; and as we walked daily from morning till night, and were all heavy laden, our strength began to fail. I must confess that I never spent so dull a Christmas; and when I recollected the merry season which was then pa.s.sing, and reflected on the immense quant.i.ties, and great variety of delicacies which were then expending in every part of Christendom, and that with a profusion bordering on waste, I could not refrain from wis.h.i.+ng myself again in Europe, if it had been only to have had an opportunity of alleviating the extreme hunger which I suffered with the refuse of the table of any one of my acquaintance. My Indians, however, still kept in good spirits; and as we were then across all the barren ground, and saw a few fresh tracks of deer, they began to think that the worst of the road was over for that winter, and flattered me with the expectation of soon meeting with deer and other game in greater plenty than we had done since our departure from the Fort.

[Sidenote: 28th.]

{69} Early in the morning of the twenty-eighth, we again set out, and directed our course to the Westward, through thick shrubby woods, consisting chiefly of ill-shaped stunted pines, with small dwarf junipers, intermixed here and there, particularly round the margins of ponds and swamps, with dwarf willow bushes; and among the rocks and sides of the hills were also some small poplars.[46]

[Sidenote: 30th.]

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

On the thirtieth, we arrived at the East side of Island Lake,[47] where the Indians killed two large buck deer; but the rutting season was so lately over, that their flesh was only eatable by those who could not procure better food. In the evening, Matonabbee was taken very ill; and from the nature of his complaint, I judged his illness to have proceeded from the enormous quant.i.ty of meat that he had eat on the twenty-seventh, as he had been indisposed ever since that time. Nothing is more common with those Indians, after they have eat as much at a sitting as would serve six moderate men, than to find themselves out of order; but not one of them can bear to hear that it is the effect of eating too much: in defence of which they say, that the meanest of the animal creation knows when hunger is satisfied, and will leave off accordingly. This, however, is a false a.s.sertion, advanced knowingly in support of an absurd argument; for it is well known by them, as well as all the Southern Indians, that the black bear, who, for size and the delicacy of its flesh, may justly be called a respectable animal, is so far from knowing {70} when its hunger is satisfied, that, in the Summer, when the berries are ripe, it will gorge to such a degree, that it frequently, and even daily, vomits up great quant.i.ties of new-swallowed fruit, before it has undergone any change in the stomach, and immediately renews its repast with as much eagerness as before.

[Sidenote: 1770. December.]

Notwithstanding the Northern Indians are at times so voracious, yet they bear hunger with a degree of fort.i.tude which, as Mr. Ellis justly observes of the Southern Indians, "is much easier to admire than to imitate." I have more than once seen the Northern Indians, at the end of three or four days fasting, as merry and jocose on the subject, as if they had voluntarily imposed it on themselves; and would ask each other in the plainest terms, and in the merriest mood, if they had any inclination for an intrigue with a strange woman? I must acknowledge that examples of this kind were of infinite service to me, as they tended to keep up my spirits on those occasions with a degree of fort.i.tude that would have been impossible for me to have done had the Indians behaved in a contrary manner, and expressed any apprehension of starving.

[Sidenote: 31st.]

[Sidenote: 1771. January. 1st.]

[Sidenote: 1771. January.]

Early in the morning of the thirty-first, we continued our journey, and walked about fourteen miles to the Westward on Island Lake, where we fixed our residence; but Matonabbee was at this time so ill as to be obliged to be hauled on a sledge the whole day. The {71} next morning, however, he so far recovered as to be capable of walking; when we proceeded on to the West and West by North, about sixteen miles farther on the same Lake, till we arrived at two tents, which contained the remainder of the wives and families of my guides, who had been waiting there for the return of their husbands from the Fort. Here we found only two men, though there were upward of twenty women and children; and as those two men had no gun or ammunition, they had no other method of supporting themselves and the women, but by catching fish, and snaring a few rabbits:[48] the latter were scarce, but the former were easily caught in considerable numbers either with nets or hooks. The species of fish generally caught in the nets are t.i.ttemeg, pike, and barble; and the only sorts caught with hooks are trout, pike, burbut, and a small fish, erroneously called by the English tench: the Southern Indians call it the toothed t.i.ttemeg, and the Northern Indians call it _saint eah_.