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 depressed the spirits, in spite of 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 necessary to say that we have fasted many times two whole days and nights; twice upwards of three days; and once, while at the 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, 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.(3)
June 26th — 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, which empties itself into a large lake called Yath-kyed-whoie, 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 and other commodities for trade. When Keelshies was made acquainted with the intent of my journey, he readily offered his service to bring me any thing 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.
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, etc.
1770 July — 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. I also brought up my journal, and filled up my chart to that time. Every thing 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.
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, 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.
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(4) 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 use, and at the same time very portable. In most parts of Hudson’s Bay it is known by the name of Thew-hagon, but amongst the Northern Indians it is called Achees.
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, etc. 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.
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 arriv
al 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 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(5) 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, etc. and left the carcases to rot, or to be devoured by the wolves, foxes, and other beasts of prey.
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 Doo-baunt River.(6) On those occasions only, we had recourse to our canoe, which, though of the common size, was too small to carry more 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.
August 6th — 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 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 the 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 expence; 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 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 gew-gaws, 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 articleswhich could be of no more use to me in my present situation than they were to themselves.
This unaccountable behaviour of the Indians occasioned much serious reflection on my part; as it shewed 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.
August 9th — After passing the night in this melancholy manner, I got up at day-break, 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 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.
August 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 al
titudes; 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 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.
CHAPTER 3
August 13th, 1770 to November 25th, 1770
Transactions from the Time the Quadrant was broken, till I arrived at the Factory;
Several strange Indians join us from the Northward.–They plundered 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 dressed.–Suffer much hardship from the want of tents and warm clothing.–Most of the Indians leave us.–Meet with Matonabee.–Some account of him, and his behaviour to me and the Southern Indians.–We remain in his company for 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.
1770 August 13th — The day after I had the misfortune to break the quadrant, several Indians joined me from the Northward, some of whom plundered me and my companions of almost every useful article we had, among which was my gun; and notwithstanding we were then on the point of returning to the Factory, yet, as one of my companions’ guns was a little out of order, the loss was likely to be severely felt; but it not being in my power to recover it again, we were obliged to rest contented.
A Journey to the Northern Ocean Page 7