A Journey to the Northern Ocean

by Samuel Hearne

  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 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 not 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 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 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 form the perusal of Mr. Pennant’s Arctic Zoology; which has enabled me to give several of the birds their proper 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.

  INTRODUCTION

  by Samuel Hearne, 1795

  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, 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, Ellis,Robson, Dragge, and the American Traveller, 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.(1)

  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 around 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 a greater tax on our credulity. His saying that he discovered several large lumps of the finest virgin copper,(2) 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, 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 track 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 ma
nner of life might be, could ever traverse so large a track of country as to pass the Northern boundary of that Bay, and particularly without the assistance of water-carriage. The following Journal, however, will shew how much those people have been mistaken, and prove also the improbability of putting their favourite scheme of mining into practice.

  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,(3) and a sloop called the Discovery, Captain David Vaughn. 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.

  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 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, etc. etc.”

  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 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 have 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 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 the 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 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, etc. 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 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,(4) and 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 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.