The Journey to the Polar Sea Part 20

December 28 and 29.

We had much difficulty in proceeding owing to the poor dogs being quite worn out and their feet perfectly raw. We endeavoured to tie shoes on them to afford them some little relief but they continually came off when amongst deep snow so that it occupied one person entirely to look after them. In this state they were hardly of any use among the steep ascents of the portages, when we were obliged to drag the sledges ourselves. We found a few of the rapids entirely frozen. Those that were not had holes and large s.p.a.ces about them from whence issued a thick vapour, and in pa.s.sing this we found it particularly cold; but what appeared most curious was the number of small fountains which rose through the ice and often rendered it doubtful which way we should take. I was much disappointed at finding several falls (which I had intended to sketch) frozen almost even with the upper and lower parts of the stream; the ice was connected by a thin arch and the rus.h.i.+ng of the water underneath might be heard at a considerable distance. On the banks of these rapids there was a constant overflowing of the water but in such small quant.i.ties as to freeze before it had reached the surface of the central ice so that we pa.s.sed between two ridges of icicles, the transparency of which was beautifully contrasted by the flakes of snow and the dark green branches of the overhanging pine.

Beauparlant complained bitterly of the cold whilst among the rapids but no sooner had he reached the upper part of the river than he found the change of the temperature so great that he vented his indignation against the heat. "Mais c'est terrible," said he, to be frozen and sunburnt in the same day. The poor fellow, who had been a long time in the country, regarded it as the most severe punishment that could have been inflicted on him and would willingly have given a part of his wages rather than this disgrace had happened; for there is a pride amongst old Voyagers which makes them consider the state of being frost-bitten as effeminate and only excusable in a Pork-eater or one newly come into the country. I was greatly fatigued and suffered acute pains in the knees and legs, both of which were much swollen when we halted a little above the Dog River.

December 30 and 31.

Our journey these days was by far the most annoying we had yet experienced but, independent of the vast ma.s.ses of ice that were piled on one another, as well as the numerous open places about the rapids (and they did not a little impede us) there was a strong gale from the north-west and so dreadfully keen that our time was occupied in rubbing the frozen parts of the face and in attempting to warm the hands in order to be prepared for the next operation. Scarcely was one place cured by constant friction than another was frozen; and though there was nothing pleasant about it yet it was laughable enough to observe the dexterity which was used in changing the position of the hand from the face to the mitten and vice versa. One of the men was severely affected, the whole side of his face being nearly raw. Towards sunset I suffered so much in my knee and ankle from a recent sprain that it was with difficulty I could proceed with snowshoes to the encampment on the Stony Islands. But in this point I was not singular for Beauparlant was almost as bad and without the same cause.

January 1, 1821.

We set out with a quick step, the wind still blowing fresh from the north-west, which seemed in some measure to invigorate the dogs; for towards sunset they left me considerably behind. Indeed my legs and ankles were now so swelled that it was excessive pain to drag the snowshoes after me. At night we halted on the banks of Stony River, when I gave the men a gla.s.s of grog to commemorate the new year, and the next day, January 2, we arrived at Fort Chipewyan, after a journey of ten days and four hours--the shortest time in which the distance had been performed at the same season. I found Messrs. G. Keith and S. McGillivray in charge of the fort, who were not a little surprised to see me. The commencement of the New Year is the rejoicing season of the Canadians when they are generally intoxicated for some days. I postponed making any demand till this time of festivity should cease; but on the same day I went over to the Hudson's Bay fort and delivered Lieutenant Franklin's letters to Mr. Simpson. If they were astonished on one side to see me, the amazement was still greater on the other for reports were so far in advance that we were said to have already fallen by the spears of the Esquimaux.

January 3.

I made a demand from both parties for supplies such as ammunition, gun-flints, axes, files, clothing, tobacco and spirits. I stated to them our extreme necessity and that without their a.s.sistance the Expedition must be arrested in its progress. The answer from the North-West gentlemen was satisfactory enough; but on the Hudson's Bay side I was told that any further a.s.sistance this season entirely depended on the arrival of supplies expected in a few weeks from a distant establishment.

I remained at Fort Chipewyan five weeks during which time some laden sledges did arrive, but I could not obtain any addition to the few articles I had procured at first. A packet of letters for us from England having arrived I made preparations for my return, but not before I had requested both Companies to send next year from the depots a quant.i.ty of goods for our use specified in lists furnished to them.

The weather during my abode at Chipewyan was generally mild with occasional heavy storms, most of which were antic.i.p.ated by the activity of the Aurora Borealis; and this I observed had been the case between Fort Providence and the Athabasca in December and January, though not invariably so in other parts of the country. One of the partners of the North-West Company related to me the following singular story: He was travelling in a canoe in the English River and had landed near the Kettle Fall when the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis were so vivid and low that the Canadians fell on their faces and began praying and crying, fearing they should be killed; he himself threw away his gun and knife that they might not attract the flashes for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness and moving parallel to its surface. They continued for upwards of five minutes as near as he could judge and made a loud rustling noise like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. After they had ceased the sky became clear with little wind.

February 9.

Having got everything arranged and had a hearty breakfast with a coupe de l'eau de vie (a custom amongst the traders) I took my departure or rather attempted to do so for, on going to the gate, there was a long range of women who came to bid me farewell. They were all dressed (after the manner of the country) in blue or green cloth, with their hair fresh greased, separated before, and falling down behind, not in careless tresses but in a good sound tail, fastened with black tape or riband.

This was considered a great compliment and the ceremony consisted in embracing the whole party.

I had with me four sledges laden with goods for the Expedition and a fifth belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. We returned exactly by the same route, suffering no other inconvenience but that arising from the chafing of the snowshoe and bad weather. Some Indians whom we met on the banks of the Little Buffalo River were rather surprised at seeing us, for they had heard that we were on an island which was surrounded by Esquimaux. The dogs were almost worn out and their feet raw when on February the 20th we arrived at Moose-Deer Island with our goods all in good order. Towards the end of the month two of our men arrived with letters from Lieutenant Franklin containing some fresh demands, the major part of which I was fortunate enough to procure without the least trouble. Having arranged the accounts and receipts between the Companies and the Expedition, and sent everything before me to Fort Providence, I prepared for my departure; and it is but justice to the gentlemen of both parties at Moose-Deer Island to remark that they afforded the means of forwarding our stores in the most cheerful and pleasant manner.

March 5.

I took leave of the gentlemen at the forts and in the afternoon got to the fisheries near Stony Island where I found Mr. McVicar who was kind enough to have a house ready for my reception; and I was not a little gratified at perceiving a pleasant-looking girl employed in roasting a fine joint and afterwards arranging the table with all the dexterity of an accomplished servant.

March 6.

We set out at daylight and breakfasted at the Reindeer Islands. As the day advanced the heat became so oppressive that each pulled off his coat and ran till sunset when we halted with two men who were on their return to Moose-Deer Island. There was a beautiful Aurora Borealis in the night; it rose about North by West and divided into three bars, diverging at equal distances as far as the zenith and then converging until they met in the opposite horizon; there were some flashes at rightangles to the bars.

March 7.

We arrived at Fort Providence and found our stores safe and in good order. There being no certainty when the Indian who was to accompany me to our house would arrive, and my impatience to join my companions increasing as I approached it, after making the necessary arrangements with Mr. Weeks respecting our stores, on March the 10th I quitted the fort with two of our men who had each a couple of dogs and a sledge laden with provision. On the 13th we met the Indian near Icy Portage who was sent to guide me back. On the 14th we killed a deer and gave the dogs a good feed; and on the 17th at an early hour we arrived at Fort Enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. I had the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health after an absence of nearly five months, during which time I had travelled one thousand one hundred and four miles on snowshoes, and had no other covering at night in the woods than a blanket and deer-skin with the thermometer frequently at minus 40 degrees and once at minus 57 degrees, and sometimes pa.s.sing two or three days without tasting food.

CHAPTER 9.

CONTINUATION OF PROCEEDINGS AT FORT ENTERPRISE.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COPPER INDIANS.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY TO THE NORTHWARD.

CONTINUATION OF PROCEEDINGS AT FORT ENTERPRISE. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COPPER INDIANS.

March 18, 1821.

I shall now give a brief account of the Copper Indians termed by the Chipewyans Tantsawhotdinneh, or Birch-rind Indians. They were originally a tribe of the Chipewyans and, according to their own account, inhabited the south side of Great Slave Lake at no very distant period. Their language, traditions, and customs, are essentially the same with those of the Chipewyans but in personal character they have greatly the advantage of that people, owing probably to local causes or perhaps to their procuring their food more easily and in greater abundance. They hold women in the same low estimation as the Chipewyans do, looking upon them as a kind of property which the stronger may take from the weaker whenever there is just reason for quarrelling, if the parties are of their own nation, or whenever they meet if the weaker party are Dog-Ribs or other strangers. They suffer however the kinder affections to show themselves occasionally; they in general live happily with their wives, the women are contented with their lot, and we witnessed several instances of strong attachment. Of their kindness to strangers we are fully qualified to speak; their love of property, attention to their interests, and fears for the future made them occasionally clamorous and unsteady; but their delicate and humane attention to us in a season of great distress at a future period are indelibly engraven on our memories.

Of their notions of a Deity or future state we never could obtain any satisfactory account; they were unwilling perhaps to expose their opinions to the chance of ridicule. Akaitcho generally evaded our questions on these points but expressed a desire to learn from us and regularly attended Divine Service during his residence at the fort, behaving with the utmost decorum.

This leader indeed and many others of his tribe possess a laudable curiosity which might easily be directed to the most important ends; and I believe that a well-conducted Christian mission to this quarter would not fail of producing the happiest effect. Old Keskarrah alone used boldly to express his disbelief of a Supreme Deity and state that he could not credit the existence of a Being whose power was said to extend everywhere but whom he had not yet seen, although he was now an old man.

The aged sceptic is not a little conceited as the following exordium to one of his speeches evinces: "It is very strange that I never meet with anyone who is equal in sense to myself." The same old man in one of his communicative moods related to us the following tradition: The earth had been formed but continued enveloped in total darkness, when a bear and a squirrel met on the sh.o.r.es of a lake; a dispute arose as to their respective powers, which they agreed to settle by running in opposite directions round the lake, and whichever arrived first at the starting point was to evince his superiority by some signal act of power. The squirrel beat, ran up a tree, and loudly demanded light which, instantly beaming forth, discovered a bird dispelling the gloom with its wings; the bird was afterwards recognised to be a crow. The squirrel next broke a piece of bark from the tree, endowed it with the power of floating, and said, "Behold the material which shall afford the future inhabitants of the earth the means of traversing the waters."

The Indians are not the first people who have ascribed the origin of nautics to the ingenuity of the squirrel. The Copper Indians consider the bear, otter, and other animals of prey, or rather some kind of spirits which a.s.sume the forms of these creatures, as their constant enemies and the cause of every misfortune they endure; and in seasons of difficulty or sickness they alternately deprecate and abuse them.

Few of this nation have more than one wife at a time and none but the leaders have more than two. Akaitcho has three and the mother of his only son is the favourite. They frequently marry two sisters and there is no prohibition to the intermarriage of cousins but a man is restricted from marrying his niece.

The last war excursion they made against the Esquimaux was ten years ago when they destroyed about thirty persons at the mouth of what they term Stony-Point River, not far from the mouth of the Copper-Mine River. They now seem desirous of being on friendly terms with that persecuted nation and hope through our means to establish a lucrative commerce with them.

Indeed the Copper Indians are sensible of the advantages that would accrue to them were they made the carriers of goods between the traders and Esquimaux.

At the time of Hearne's visit the Copper Indians, being unsupplied with firearms, were oppressed by the Chipewyans; but even that traveller had occasion to praise their kindness of heart. Since they have received arms from the traders the Chipewyans are fearful of venturing upon their lands; and all of that nation who frequent the sh.o.r.es of Great Slave Lake hold the name of Akaitcho in great respect. The Chipewyans have no leader of equal authority among themselves.

The number of the Copper Indians may be one hundred and ninety souls namely eighty men and boys and one hundred and ten women and young children. There are forty-five hunters in the tribe. The adherents of Akaitcho amount to about forty men and boys; the rest follow a number of minor chiefs.

For the following notices of the nations on Mackenzie's River we are princ.i.p.ally indebted to Mr. Wentzel who resided for many years in that quarter.

The Thlingchadinneh or Dog-Ribs or as they are sometimes termed after the Crees, who formerly warred against them, Slaves, inhabit the country to the westward of the Copper Indians as far as Mackenzie's River. They are of a mild, hospitable, but rather indolent disposition; spend much of their time in amus.e.m.e.nts and are fond of singing and dancing. In this respect and in another they differ very widely from most of the other aborigines of North America. I allude to their kind treatment of the women. The men do the laborious work whilst their wives employ themselves in ornamenting their dresses with quill-work and in other occupations suited to their s.e.x. Mr. Wentzel has often known the young married men to bring specimens of their wives' needlework to the forts and exhibit them with much pride. Kind treatment of the fair s.e.x being usually considered as an indication of considerable progress in civilisation it might be worthwhile to inquire how it happens that this tribe has stepped so far beyond its neighbours. It has had undoubtedly the same common origin with the Chipewyans, for their languages differ only in accent, and their mode of life is essentially the same. We have not sufficient data to prosecute the inquiry with any hope of success but we may recall to the reader's memory what was formerly mentioned, that the Dog-Ribs say they came from the westward, whilst the Chipewyans say that they migrated from the eastward.

When bands of Dog-Ribs meet each other after a long absence they perform a kind of dance. A piece of ground is cleared for the purpose, if in winter of the snow, or if in summer of the bushes; and the dance frequently lasts for two or three days, the parties relieving each other as they get tired. The two bands commence the dance with their backs turned to each other, the individuals following one another in Indian file and holding the bow in the left hand and an arrow in the right. They approach obliquely after many turns and, when the two lines are closely back to back, they feign to see each other for the first time and the bow is instantly transferred to the right hand and the arrow to the left, signifying that it is not their intention to employ them against their friends. At a fort they use feathers instead of bows. The dance is accompanied with a song. These people are the dancing-masters of the country. The Copper Indians have neither dance nor music but what they borrow from them. On our first interview with Akaitcho at Fort Providence he treated us as has already been mentioned with a representation of the Dog-Rib Dance; and Mr. Back during his winter journey had an opportunity of observing it performed by the Dog-Ribs themselves.

The chief tribe of the Dog-Rib nation, termed Horn Mountain Indians, inhabit the country betwixt Great Bear Lake and the west end of Great Slave Lake. They muster about two hundred men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. Small detachments of the nation frequent Marten Lake and hunt during the summer in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise.

Indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon them. As the Copper Indians generally pillage them of their women and furs when they meet they endeavour to avoid them and visit their ancient quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth.

Immediately to the northward of the Dog-Ribs, on the north side of Bear Lake River, are the Kawchodinneh or Hare Indians who also speak a dialect of the Chipewyan language and have much of the same manners with the Dog-Ribs, but are considered both by them and by the Copper Indians to be great conjurors. These people report that in their hunting excursions to the northward of Great Bear Lake they meet small parties of Esquimaux.

Immediately to the northward of the Hare Indians on both banks of Mackenzie's River are the Tykotheedinneh, Loucheux, Squint-Eyes, or Quarrellers. They speak a language distinct from the Chipewyan. They war often with the Esquimaux at the mouth of Mackenzie's River but have occasionally some peaceable intercourse with them, and it would appear that they find no difficulty in understanding each other, there being considerable similarity in their languages. Their dress also resembles the Esquimaux and differs from that of the other inhabitants of Mackenzie's River. The Tykotheedinneh trade with Fort Good-Hope, situated a considerable distance below the confluence of Bear Lake River with Mackenzie's River and, as the traders suppose, within three days' march of the Arctic Sea. It is the most northern establishment of the North-West Company, and some small pieces of Russian copper coin once made their way thither across the continent from the westward. Blue or white beads are almost the only articles of European manufacture coveted by the Loucheux. They perforate the septum of the nose and insert in the opening three small sh.e.l.ls which they procure at a high price from the Esquimaux.

On the west bank of Mackenzie's River there are several tribes who speak dialects of the Chipewyan language that have not hitherto been mentioned.

The first met with on tracing the river to the southward from Fort Good-Hope are the Ambawtawhootdinneh, or Sheep Indians. They inhabit the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the Dawhootdinneh River which flows into Mackenzie's and are but little known to the traders. Some of them have visited Fort Good-Hope. A report of their being cannibals may have originated in an imperfect knowledge of them.

Some distance to the southward of this people are the Rocky Mountain Indians, a small tribe which musters about forty men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. They differ but little from the next we are about to mention, the Edchawtawhootdinneh, Strong-bow, Beaver, or Thickwood Indians who frequent the Riviere aux Liards or south branch of Mackenzie's River. The Strong-bows resemble the Dog-Ribs somewhat in their disposition; but when they meet they a.s.sume a considerable degree of superiority over the latter who meekly submit to the haughtiness of their neighbours. Until the year 1813 when a small party of them, from some unfortunate provocation, destroyed Fort Nelson on the Riviere aux Liards and murdered its inmates, the Strong-bows were considered to be a friendly and quiet tribe and esteemed as excellent hunters. They take their names in the first instance from their dogs. A young man is the father of a certain dog but when he is married and has a son he styles himself the father of the boy. The women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting: "Are you not ashamed," say they, "are you not ashamed to quarrel with your little brother?" The dogs appear to understand the reproof and sneak off.

The Strong-bows and Rocky Mountain Indians have a tradition in common with the Dog-Ribs that they came originally from the westward, from a level country where there was no winter, which produced trees and large fruits now unknown to them. It was inhabited also by many strange animals, amongst which there was a small one whose visage bore a striking resemblance to the human countenance. During their residence in this land their ancestors were visited by a man who healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed many other miracles, enjoining them at the same time to lead good lives and not to eat of the entrails of animals, nor to use the brains for dressing skins until after the third day; and never to leave the skulls of deer upon the ground within the reach of dogs and wolves but to hang them carefully upon trees. No one knew from whence this good man came or whither he went. They were driven from that land by the rising of the waters and, following the tracks of animals on the seash.o.r.e, they directed their course to the northward. At length they came to a strait which they crossed upon a raft but the sea has since frozen and they have never been able to return. These traditions are unknown to the Chipewyans.

The number of men and boys of the Strong-bow nation who are capable of hunting may amount to seventy.

There are some other tribes who also speak dialects of the Chipewyan upon the upper branches of the Riviere aux Liards such as the Nohhannies and the Tsillawdawhootdinneh or Brushwood Indians. They are but little known but the latter are supposed occasionally to visit some of the establishments on Peace River.

Having now communicated as briefly as I could the princ.i.p.al facts that came to our knowledge regarding the Indians in this quarter I shall resume the narrative of events at Fort Enterprise. The month of March proved fine. The thermometer rose once to 24 degrees above zero and fell upon another day 49 degrees below zero but the mean was minus 11 1/2 degrees.

On the 23rd the last of our winter's stock of deer's meat was expended and we were compelled to issue a little pounded meat which we had reserved for making pemmican for summer use. Our nets which were set under the ice on the 15th produced only two or three small fish daily.

Amongst these was the round-fish, a species of Coregonus which we had not previously seen.