Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819-20-21-22 Volume Ii Part 4

On the 23d 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.

On the following day two Indians came with a message from the Hook, the chief next to Akaitcho in authority amongst the Copper Indians. His band was between West Marten and Great Bear Lakes, and he offered to provide a quant.i.ty of dried meat for us on the banks of the Copper-Mine River in the beginning of summer, provided we sent him goods and ammunition. It was in his power to do this without inconvenience, as he generally spends the summer months on the banks of the river, near the Copper Mountain; but we had no goods to spare, and I could not venture to send any part of our small stock of ammunition until I saw what the necessities of our own party required. I told them, however, that I would gladly receive either provisions or leather when we met, and would pay for them by notes on the North-West Company's post; but to prevent any misunderstanding with Mr. Weeks, I requested them to take their winter's collection of furs to Fort Providence before they went to the Copper-Mine River. They a.s.sured me that the Hook would watch anxiously for our pa.s.sing, as he was unwell, and wished to consult the doctor.

Several circ.u.mstances having come lately to my knowledge that led me to suspect the fidelity of our interpreters, they were examined upon this subject. It appeared that in their intercourse with the Indians they had contracted very fearful ideas of the danger of our enterprise, which augmented as the time of our departure drew near, and had not hesitated to express their dislike to the journey in strong terms amongst the Canadians, who are accustomed to pay much deference to the opinions of an interpreter. But this was not all; I had reason to suspect they had endeavoured to damp the exertions of the Indians, with the hope that the want of provision in the spring would put an end to our progress at once. St. Germain, in particular, had behaved in a very equivocal way, since his journey to Slave Lake. He denied the princ.i.p.al parts of the charge in a very dogged manner, but acknowledged he had told the leader that we had not paid him the attention which a chief like him ought to have received; and that we had put a great affront on him in sending him only a small quant.i.ty of rum. An artful man like St. Germain, possessing a flow of language, and capable of saying even what he confessed, had the means of poisoning the minds of the Indians without committing himself by any direct a.s.sertion; and it is to be remarked, that unless Mr. Wentzel had possessed a knowledge of the Copper Indian language, we should not have learned what we did.

Although perfectly convinced of his baseness, I could not dispense with his services; and had no other resource but to give him a serious admonition, and desire him to return to his duty; after endeavouring to work upon his fears by an a.s.surance, that I would certainly convey him to England for trial, if the Expedition should be stopped through his fault. He replied, "It is immaterial to me where I lose my life, whether in England, or in accompanying you to the sea, for the whole party will perish." After this discussion, however, he was more circ.u.mspect in his conduct.

On the 28th we received a small supply of meat from the Indian lodges.

They had now moved into a lake, about twelve miles from us, in expectation of the deer coming soon to the northward.

On the 29th Akaitcho arrived at the house, having been sent for to make some arrangements respecting the procuring of provision, and that we might learn what his sentiments were with regard to accompanying us on our future journey. Next morning we had a conference, which I commenced by shewing him the charts and drawings that were prepared to be sent to England, and explaining fully our future intentions. He appeared much pleased at this mark of attention, and, when his curiosity was satisfied, began his speech by saying, that "although a vast number of idle rumours had been floating about the barren grounds during the winter," he was convinced that the representations made to him at Fort Providence regarding the purport of the Expedition were perfectly correct. I next pointed out to him the necessity of our proceeding with as little delay as possible during the short period of the year that was fit for our operations, and that to do so it was requisite we should have a large supply of provisions at starting. He instantly admitted the force of these observations, and promised that he and his young men should do their utmost to comply with our desires: and afterwards, in answer to my questions, informed us that he would accompany the Expedition to the mouth of the Copper-Mine River, or, if we did not meet with Esquimaux there, for some distance along the coast; he was anxious, he said, to have an amicable interview with that people; and he further requested, that, in the event of our meeting with Dog-ribs on the Copper-Mine River, we should use our influence to persuade them to live on friendly terms with his tribe. We were highly pleased to find his sentiments so favourable to our views, and, after making some minor arrangements, we parted, mutually content. He left us on the morning of the 31st, accompanied by Augustus, who, at his request, went to reside for a few days at his lodge.

On the 4th of April our men arrived with the last supply of goods from Fort Providence, the fruits of Mr. Back's arduous journey to the Athabasca Lake; and on the 17th Belanger _le gros_ and Belanger _le rouge_, for so our men discriminated them, set out for Slave Lake, with a box containing the journals of the officers, charts, drawings, observations, and letters addressed to the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. They also conveyed a letter for Governor Williams, in which I requested that he would, if possible, send a schooner to Wager Bay with provisions and clothing to meet the exigencies of the party, should they succeed in reaching that part of the coast.

Connoyer, who was much tormented with biliary calculi, and had done little or no duty all the winter, was discharged at the same time, and sent down in company with an Indian named the Belly.

The commencement of April was fine, and for several days a considerable thaw took place in the heat of the sun, which laying bare some of the lichens on the sides of the hills, produced a consequent movement of the rein-deer to the northward, and induced the Indians to believe that the spring was already commencing. Many of them, therefore, quitted the woods, and set their snares on the barren grounds near Fort Enterprise.

Two or three days of cold weather, however, towards the middle of the month, damped their hopes, and they began to say that another moon must elapse before the arrival of the wished-for season. In the mean time their premature departure from the woods, caused them to suffer from want of food, and we were in some degree involved in their distress. We received no supplies from the hunters, our nets produced but very few fish, and the pounded meat which we had intended to keep for summer use was nearly expended. Our meals at this period were always scanty, and we were occasionally restricted to one in the day.

The Indian families about the house, consisting princ.i.p.ally of women and children, suffered most. I had often requested them to move to Akaitcho's lodge, where they were more certain of receiving supplies; but as most of them were sick or infirm, they did not like to quit the house, where they daily received medicines from Dr. Richardson, to encounter the fatigue of following the movements of a hunting camp. They cleared away the snow on the site of the autumn encampments to look for bones, deer's feet, bits of hide, and other offal. When we beheld them gnawing the pieces of hide, and pounding the bones, for the purpose of extracting some nourishment from them by boiling, we regretted our inability to relieve them, but little thought that we should ourselves be afterwards driven to the necessity of eagerly collecting these same bones a second time from the dunghill.

At this time, to divert the attention of the men from their wants, we encouraged the practice of sliding down the steep bank of the river upon sledges. These vehicles descended the snowy bank with much velocity, and ran a great distance upon the ice. The officers joined in the sport, and the numerous overturns we experienced formed no small share of the amus.e.m.e.nt of the party; but on one occasion, when I had been thrown from my seat and almost buried in the snow, a fat Indian woman drove her sledge over me, and sprained my knee severely.

On the 18th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared round the sun when it was about 8 high. The colours were prismatic, and very bright, the red next the sun.

On the 21st the ice in the river was measured and found to be five feet thick, and in setting the nets in Round Rock Lake, it was there ascertained to be six feet and a half thick, the water being six fathoms deep. The stomachs of some fish were at this time opened by Dr.

Richardson, and found filled with insects which appear to exist in abundance under the ice during the winter.

On the 22nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles; St. Germain went for it with a dog-sledge, and returned with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day. This supply was soon exhausted, and we pa.s.sed the 27th without eating, with the prospect of fasting a day or two longer, when old Keskarrah entered with the unexpected intelligence of having killed a deer. It was divided betwixt our own family and the Indians, and during the night a seasonable supply arrived from Akaitcho. Augustus returned with the men who brought it, much pleased with the attention he had received from the Indians during his visit to Akaitcho.

Next day Mr. Wentzel set out with every man that we could spare from the fort, for the purpose of bringing meat from the Indians as fast as it could be procured. Dr. Richardson followed them two days afterwards, to collect specimens of the rocks in that part of the country. On the same day the two Belangers arrived from Fort Providence, having been only five days on the march from thence.

The highest temperature in April was +40, the lowest -32, the mean +4.6. The temperature of the rapid, examined on the 30th by Messrs.

Back and Hood, was 32 at the surface, 33 at the bottom.

On the 7th of May, Dr. Richardson returned. He informed me that the rein-deer were again advancing to the northward, but that the leader had been joined by several families of old people, and that the daily consumption of provision at the Indian tents was consequently great.

This information excited apprehensions of being very scantily provided when the period of our departure should arrive.

The weather in the beginning of May was fine and warm. On the 2nd some patches of sandy ground near the house were cleared of snow. On the 7th the sides of the hills began to appear bare, and on the 8th a large house-fly was seen. This interesting event spread cheerfulness through our residence and formed a topic of conversation for the rest of the day.

On the 9th the approach of spring was still more agreeably confirmed by the appearance of a merganser and two gulls, and some loons, or arctic divers, at the rapid. This day, to reduce the labour of dragging meat to the house, the women and children and all the men, except four, were sent to live at the Indian tents.

The blue-berries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and cran-berries, which had been covered, and protected by the snow during the winter, might at this time be gathered in abundance, and proved indeed a valuable resource.

The ground continued frozen, but the heat of the sun had a visible effect on vegetation; the sap thawed in the pine-trees, and Dr.

Richardson informed me that the mosses were beginning to shoot, and the calyptrae of some of the jungermanniae already visible.

On the 11th Mr. Wentzel returned from the Indian lodges, having made the necessary arrangements with Akaitcho for the drying of meat for summer use, the bringing fresh meat to the fort and the procuring a sufficient quant.i.ty of the resin of the spruce fir, or as it is termed by the voyagers _gum_, for repairing the canoes previous to starting, and during the voyage. By my desire, he had promised payment to the Indian women who should bring in any of the latter article, and had sent several of our own men to the woods to search for it. At this time I communicated to Mr. Wentzel the mode in which I meant to conduct the journey of the approaching summer. Upon our arrival at the sea, I proposed to reduce the party to what would be sufficient to man two canoes, in order to lessen the consumption of provisions during our voyage, or journey along the coast; and as Mr. Wentzel had expressed a desire of proceeding no farther than the mouth of the Copper-Mine River, which was seconded by the Indians, who wished him to return with them, I readily relieved his anxiety on this subject; the more so as I thought he might render greater service to us by making deposits of provision at certain points, than by accompanying us through a country which was unknown to him, and amongst a people with whom he was totally unacquainted. My intentions were explained to him in detail, but they were of course to be modified by circ.u.mstances.

On the 14th a robin (_t.u.r.dus migratorius_) appeared; this bird is hailed by the natives as the infallible precursor of warm weather. Ducks and geese were also seen in numbers, and the rein-deer advanced to the northward. The merganser, (_mergus serrator_,) which preys upon small fish, was the first of the duck tribe that appeared; next came the teal, (_anas crecca_,) which lives upon small insects that abound in the waters at this season; and lastly the goose, which feeds upon berries and herbage. Geese appear at c.u.mberland House, in lat.i.tude 54, usually about the 12th of April; at Fort Chipewyan, in lat.i.tude 59, on the 25th of April; at Slave Lake, in lat.i.tude 61, on the 1st of May; and at Fort Enterprise, in lat.i.tude 64 28', on the 12th or 14th of the same month.

On the 16th a minor chief amongst the Copper Indians, attended by his son, arrived from Fort Providence to consult Dr. Richardson. He was affected with snow-blindness, which was soon relieved by the dropping of a little laudanum into his eyes twice a day. Most of our own men had been lately troubled with this complaint, but it always yielded in twenty or thirty hours to the same remedy.

On the 21st all our men returned from the Indians, and Akaitcho was on his way to the fort. In the afternoon two of his young men arrived to announce his visit, and to request that he might be received with a salute and other marks of respect that he had been accustomed to on visiting Fort Providence in the spring. I complied with his desire although I regretted the expenditure of ammunition, and sent the young men away with the customary present of powder to enable him to return the salute, some tobacco, vermilion to paint their faces, a comb and a looking-gla.s.s.

At eleven Akaitcho arrived; at the first notice of his appearance the flag was hoisted at the fort, and upon his nearer approach, a number of muskets were fired by a party of our people, and returned by his young men. Akaitcho, preceded by his standard-bearer, led the party, and advanced with a slow and stately step to the door where Mr. Wentzel and I received him. The faces of the party were daubed with vermilion, the old men having a spot on the right cheek, the young ones on the left.

Akaitcho himself was not painted. On entering he sat down on a chest, the rest placed themselves in a circle on the floor. The pipe was pa.s.sed once or twice round, and in the mean time a bowl of spirits and water, and a present considerable for our circ.u.mstances of cloth, blankets, capots, s.h.i.+rts, _&c._, was placed on the floor for the chief's acceptance, and distribution amongst his people. Akaitcho then commenced his speech, but I regret to say, that it was very discouraging, and indicated that he had parted with his good humour, at least since his March visit. He first inquired, whether, in the event of a pa.s.sage by sea being discovered, we should come to his lands in any s.h.i.+p that might be sent? And being answered, that it was probable but not quite certain, that some one amongst us might come; he expressed a hope that some suitable present should be forwarded to himself and nation; "for,"

said he, "the great Chief who commands where all the goods come from, must see from the drawings and descriptions of us and our country that we are a miserable people." I a.s.sured him that he would be remembered, provided he faithfully fulfilled his engagement with us.

He next complained of the non-payment of my notes by Mr. Weeks, from which he apprehended that his own reward would be withheld. "If," said he, "your notes to such a trifling amount are not accepted, whilst you are within such a short distance, and can hold communication with the fort, it is not probable that the large reward which has been promised to myself and party, will be paid when you are far distant, on your way to your own country. It really appears to me," he continued, "as if both the Companies consider your party as a third company, hostile to their interests, and that neither of them will pay the notes you give to the Indians."

Afterwards, in the course of a long conference, he enumerated many other grounds of dissatisfaction; the princ.i.p.al of which were our want of attention to him as chief, the weakness of the rum formerly sent to him, the smallness of the present now offered, and the want of the chief's clothing, which he had been accustomed to receive at Fort Providence every spring. He concluded, by refusing to receive the goods now laid before him.

In reply to these complaints it was stated that Mr. Weeks's conduct could not be properly discussed at such a distance from his fort; that no dependence ought to be placed on the vague reports that floated through the Indian territory; that, for our part, although we had heard many stories to his (Akaitcho's) disadvantage, we discredited them all; that the rum we had sent him, being what the great men in England were accustomed to drink, was of a milder kind, but, in fact, stronger than what he had been accustomed to receive; and that the distance we had come, and the speed with which we travelled, precluded us from bringing large quant.i.ties of goods like the traders; that this had been fully explained to him when he agreed to accompany us; and that, in consideration of his not receiving his usual spring outfit, his debts to the Company had been cancelled, and a present, much greater than any he had ever received before, ordered to be got ready for his return. He was further informed, that we were much disappointed in not receiving any dried meat from him, an article indispensable for our summer voyage, and which, he had led us to believe there was no difficulty in procuring; and that, in fact, his complaints were so groundless, in comparison with the real injury we sustained from the want of supplies, that we were led to believe they were preferred solely for the purpose of cloaking his own want of attention to the terms of his engagement. He then s.h.i.+fted his ground, and stated, that if we endeavoured to make a voyage along the sea-coast we should inevitably perish; and he advised us strongly against persisting in the attempt. This part of his harangue being an exact transcript of the sentiments formerly expressed by our interpreters, induced us to conclude that they had prompted his present line of conduct, by telling him, that we had goods or rum concealed. He afterwards received a portion of our dinner, in the manner he had been accustomed to do, and seemed inclined to make up matters with us in the course of the evening, provided we added to the present offered to him.{14} Being told, however, that this was impossible,{15} since we had already offered him all the rum we had, and every article of goods we could spare from our own equipment, his obstinacy was a little shaken, and he made some concessions, but deferred giving a final answer, until the arrival of Humpy, his elder brother. The young men, however, did not choose to wait so long, and at night came for the rum, which we judged to be a great step towards a reconciliation.

St. Germain, the most intelligent of our two interpreters, and the one who had most influence with the Indians, being informed that their defection was, in a great measure, attributed to the unguarded conversations he had held with them, and which he had in part acknowledged, exerted himself much, on the following day, in bringing about a change in their sentiments, and with some success. The young men, though they declined hunting, conducted themselves with the same good humour and freedom as formerly. Akaitcho being, as he said, ashamed to shew himself, kept close in his tent all day.

On the 24th, one of the women who accompanied us from Athabasca, was sent down to Fort Providence, under charge of the old chief, who came some days before for medicine for his eyes. Angelique and Roulante, the other two women, having families, preferred accompanying the Indians during their summer hunt. On the 25th, clothing, and other necessary articles, were issued to the Canadians as their equipment for the ensuing voyage. Two or three blankets, some cloth, iron work, and trinkets were reserved for distribution amongst the Esquimaux on the sea-coast. Laced dresses were given to Augustus and Junius. It is impossible to describe the joy that took possession of the latter on the receipt of this present. The happy little fellow burst into extatic laughter, as he surveyed the different articles of his gay habiliments[5].

[5] These men kept their dresses, and delighted in them. An Indian Chief, on the other hand, only appears once before the donor in the dress of ceremony which he receives, and then transfers it to some favourite in the tribe whom he desires to reward by this "robe of honour."

In the afternoon Humpy, the leader's elder brother; Annoethai-yazzeh, another of his brothers; and one of our guides, arrived with the remainder of Akaitcho's band; as also Long-legs, brother to the Hook, with three of his band. There were now in the encampment, thirty hunters, thirty-one women, and sixty children, in all one hundred and twenty-one of the Copper-Indian or Red-Knife tribe. The rest of the nation were with the Hook on the lower part of the Copper-Mine River.

Annoethai-yazzeh is remarkable amongst the Indians for the number of his descendants; he has eighteen children living by two wives, of whom sixteen were at the fort at this time.

In the evening we had another formidable conference. The former complaints were reiterated, and we parted about midnight, without any satisfactory answer to my questions, as to when Akaitcho would proceed towards the River, and where he meant to make provision for our march. I was somewhat pleased, however, to find, that Humpy and Annoethai-yazzeh censured their brother's conduct, and accused him of avarice.

On the 26th the canoes were removed from the places where they had been deposited, as we judged that the heat of the atmosphere was now so great, as to admit of their being repaired, without risk of cracking the bark. We were rejoiced to find that two of them had suffered little injury from the frost during the winter. The bark of the third was considerably rent, but it was still capable of repair.

The Indians sat in conference in their tents all the morning; and in the afternoon, came into the house charged with fresh matter for discussion.

Soon after they had seated themselves, and the room was filled with the customary volume of smoke from their calumets, the goods which had been laid aside, were again presented to the leader; but he at once refused to distribute so small a quant.i.ty amongst his men, and complained that there were neither blankets, kettles, nor daggers, amongst them; and in the warmth of his anger, he charged Mr. Wentzel with having advised the distribution of all our goods to the Canadians, and thus defrauding the Indians of what was intended for them. Mr. Wentzel, of course, immediately repelled this injurious accusation, and reminded Akaitcho again, that he had been told, on engaging to accompany us, that he was not to expect any goods until his return. This he denied with an effrontery that surprised us all, when Humpy, who was present at our first interview at Fort Providence, declared that he heard us say, that no goods could be taken for the supply of the Indians on the voyage; and the first guide added, "I do not expect any thing here, I have promised to accompany the white people to the sea, and I will, therefore, go, confidently relying upon receiving the stipulated reward on my return."

Akaitcho did not seem prepared to hear such declarations from his brothers, and instantly changing the subject, began to descant upon the treatment he had received from the traders in his concerns with them, with an asperity of language that bore more the appearance of menace than complaint. I immediately refused to discuss this topic, as foreign to our present business, and desired Akaitcho to recall to memory, that he had told me on our first meeting, that he considered me the father of every person attached to the Expedition, in which character it was surely my duty to provide for the comfort and safety of the Canadians as well as the Indians. The voyagers, he knew, had a long journey to perform, and would in all probability, be exposed to much suffering from cold on a coast dest.i.tute of wood; and, therefore, required a greater provision of clothing than was necessary for the Indians, who, by returning immediately from the mouth of the river, would reach Fort Providence in August, and obtain their promised rewards. Most of the Indians appeared to a.s.sent to this argument, but Akaitcho said, "I perceive the traders have deceived you; you should have brought more goods, but I do not blame you." I then told him, that I had brought from England only ammunition, tobacco, and spirits; and that being ignorant what other articles the Indians required, we were dependent on the traders for supplies; but he must be aware, that every endeavour had been used on our parts to procure them, as was evinced by Mr. Back's journey to Fort Chipewyan. With respect to the ammunition and tobacco, we had been as much disappointed as themselves in not receiving them, but this was to be attributed to the neglect of those to whom they had been intrusted. This explanation seemed to satisfy him. After some minutes of reflection, his countenance became more cheerful, and he made inquiry, whether his party might go to either of the trading posts they chose on their return, and whether the Hudson's Bay Company were rich, for they had been represented to him as a poor people? I answered him, that we really knew nothing about the wealth of either Company, having never concerned ourselves with trade, but that all the traders appeared to us to be respectable. Our thoughts, I added, are fixed solely on the accomplishment of the objects for which we came to the country. Our success depends much on your furnis.h.i.+ng us with provision speedily, that we may have all the summer to work; and if we succeed a s.h.i.+p will soon bring goods in abundance to the mouth of the Copper-Mine River. The Indians talked together for a short time after this conversation, and then the leader made an application for two or three kettles and some blankets, to be added to the present to his young men; we were unable to spare him any kettles, but the officers promised to give a blanket each from their own beds.

Dinner was now brought in, and relieved us for a time from their importunity. The leading men, as usual, received each a portion from the table. When the conversation was resumed, the chief renewed his solicitations for goods, but it was now too palpable to be mistaken, that he aimed at getting every thing he possibly could, and leaving us without the means of making any presents to the Esquimaux, or other Indians we might meet. I resolved, therefore, on steadily refusing every request; and when he perceived that he could extort nothing more, he rose in an angry manner, and addressing his young men, said: "There are too few goods for me to distribute; those that mean to follow the white people to the sea may take them."

This was an incautious speech, as it rendered it necessary for his party to display their sentiments. The guides, and most of the hunters, declared their readiness to go, and came forward to receive a portion of the present, which was no inconsiderable a.s.sortment. This relieved a weight of anxiety from my mind, and I did not much regard the leader's retiring in a very dissatisfied mood.

The hunters then applied to Mr. Wentzel for ammunition, that they might hunt in the morning, and it was cheerfully given to them.

The officers and men amused themselves at prison-bars, and other Canadian games till two o'clock in the morning, and we were happy to observe the Indians sitting in groups enjoying the sport. We were desirous of filling up the leisure moments of the Canadians with amus.e.m.e.nts, not only for the purpose of enlivening their spirits, but also to prevent them from conversing upon our differences with the Indians, which they must have observed. The exercise was also in a peculiar manner serviceable to Mr. Hood. Ever ardent in his pursuits, he had, through close attention to his drawings and other avocations, confined himself too much to the house in winter, and his health was impaired by his sedentary habits. I could only take the part of a spectator in these amus.e.m.e.nts, being still lame from the hurt formerly alluded to.

The sun now sank for so short a time below the horizon, that there was more light at midnight, than we enjoyed on some days at noon in the winter-time.

On the 27th the hunters brought in two rein-deer. Many of the Indians attended divine service this day, and were attentive spectators of our addresses to the Almighty.

On the 28th I had a conversation with Long-legs, whose arrival two days before has been mentioned. I acquainted him with the objects of our expedition, and our desire of promoting peace between his nation and the Esquimaux, and learned from him, that his brother the Hook was by this time on the Copper-Mine River with his party; and that, although he had little ammunition, yet it was possible he might have some provision collected before our arrival at his tents. I then decorated him with a{16} medal similar to those given to the other chiefs. He was highly pleased with this mark of our regard, and promised to do every thing for us in his power. Akaitcho came in during the latter part of our conversation, with a very cheerful countenance. Jealousy of the Hook, and a knowledge that the sentiments of the young men differed from his own, with respect to the recent discussions, had combined to produce this change in his conduct, and next morning he took an opportunity of telling me that I must not think the worse of him for his importunities.

It was their custom, he said, to do so, however strange it might appear to us, and he, as the leader of his party, had to beg for them all; but as he saw we had not deceived him by concealing any of our goods, and that we really had nothing left, he should ask for no more. He then told me that he would set out for the river as soon as the state of the country admitted of travelling. The snow, he remarked, was still too deep for sledges to the northward, and the moss too wet to make fires.