A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean Part 28

[Sidenote: 16th.]

[Sidenote: 1772. March.]

The Indians were employed at all convenient times in procuring birch-rind and making wood-work ready for building canoes; also in preparing small staffs of birch-wood, to take with them on the barren ground, to serve as tent-poles all the Summer; and which, as hath been already observed, they convert into snow-shoe frames when the Winter sets in. Here it may be proper to observe, that none of those incidental avocations interfere with, or r.e.t.a.r.d the Indians in their journey; for they always take the advantage of every {281} opportunity which offers, as they pa.s.s along, and when they see a tree fit for their purpose, cut it down, and either strip off the bark, if that be what they want, or split the trunk in pieces; and after hewing it roughly with their hatchet, carry it to the tent, where in the evenings, or in the morning before they set out, they reduce it with their knives to the shape and size which is required.

[Sidenote: 19th.]

Provisions being plentiful, and the weather fine, we advanced a little each day; and on the nineteenth took up our lodgings by the side of Wholdyeah-chuck'd Whoie, or Large Pike Lake. In our way we crossed another small lake, where we caught some trout by angling, and killed a few deer and one moose.

[Sidenote: 20th.]

On the twentieth we crossed Large Pike Lake, which at that part was not more than seven miles wide; but from North North West to the South South East is much longer. The next day we arrived at Bedodid Lake,[111] which in general is not more than three miles wide, and in several places much less; but it is upward of forty miles long, which gives it the appearance of a river. It is said by the Indians to be shut up on all sides, and entirely surrounded with high land, which produces vast quant.i.ty of fir trees, but none of them grow to a great height in those parts: their branches, however, spread wider than those of firs of three times their height and thickness do in Europe; so that they resemble an apple-tree in shape, {282} more than any species of the pine. They seem rich in tar, as the wood of them will burn like a candle, and emit as strong a smell, and as much black smoke, as the staves of an old tar-barrel; for which reason no Indians chuse to burn it in their tents, or even out of doors, for the purpose of cooking their victuals.

[Sidenote: 1772. March.]

The thaws began now to be very considerable, and the under-woods were so thick in these parts as to render travelling through them very difficult; we therefore took the advantage of walking on the ice of the above-mentioned Lake, which lay nearly in the direction of our course; but after proceeding about twenty-two miles on it, the Lake turned more toward the North, on which account we were obliged to leave it, striking off to the Eastward; and after walking fourteen miles farther, we arrived at Noo-shetht Whoie,[112] or the Hill-Island Lake, so called from a very high island which stands in it.

[Sidenote: 31st.]

From the twenty-eighth to the thirty-first of March, we had so hard a gale of wind from the South, as to render walking on lakes or open plains quite impossible, and the violence with which the trees were blown down made walking in the woods somewhat dangerous; but though several had narrow escapes, no accident happened.

[Sidenote: April. 1st.]

[Sidenote: 1772. April.]

From the middle to the latter end of March, and in the beginning of April, though the thaw was not general, {283} yet in the middle of the day it was very considerable: it commonly froze hard in the nights; and the young men took the advantage of the mornings, when the snow was hard crusted over, and ran down many moose; for in those situations a man with a good pair of snow-shoes will scarcely make any impression on the snow, while the moose, and even the deer, will break through it at every step up to the belly. Notwithstanding this, however, it is very seldom that the Indians attempt to run deer down. The moose are so tender-footed, and so short-winded, that a good runner will generally tire them in less than a day, and very frequently in six or eight hours; though I have known some of the Indians continue the chace for two days, before they could come up with, and kill the game. On those occasions the Indians, in general, only take with them a knife or bayonet, and a little bag containing a set of fire-tackle, and are as lightly clothed as possible; some of them will carry a bow and two or three arrows, but I never knew any of them take a gun unless such as had been blown or bursted, and the barrels cut quite short, which, when reduced to the least possible size to be capable of doing any service, must be too great a weight for a man to run with in his hand for so many hours together.

When the poor moose are incapable of making farther speed, they stand and keep their pursuers at bay with {284} their head and fore-feet; in the use of which they are very dexterous, especially the latter; so that the Indians who have neither a bow nor arrows, nor a short gun, with them, are generally obliged to lash their knives or bayonets to the end of a long stick, and stab the moose at a distance. For want of this necessary precaution, some of the boys and fool-hardy young men, who have attempted to rush in upon them, have frequently received such unlucky blows from their fore-feet, as to render their recovery very doubtful.

The flesh of the moose, thus killed, is far from being well-tasted, and I should think must be very unwholesome, from being over-heated; as by running so many hours together, the animal must have been in a violent fever; the flesh being soft and clammy, must have a very disagreeable taste, neither resembling fish, flesh, nor fowl.[BK]

The Southern Indians use dogs for this kind of hunting, which makes it easier and more expeditious; but the Northern tribes having no dogs trained to that exercise, are under the necessity of doing it themselves.

[Sidenote: 1772. April. 7th.]

{285} On the seventh we crossed a part of Thee-lee-aza River: at which time the small Northern deer were remarkably plentiful, but the moose began to be very scarce, as none were killed after the third.

[Sidenote: 12th.]

On the twelfth, we saw several swans flying to the Northward; they were the first birds of pa.s.sage we had seen that Spring, except a few snow-birds, which always precede the migrating birds, and consequently are with much propriety called the harbingers of Spring. The swans also precede all the other species of water-fowl, and migrate so early in the season, that they find no open water but at the falls of rivers, where they are readily met, and sometimes shot, in considerable numbers.

[Sidenote: 14th.]

On the fourteenth, we arrived at another part of Thee-lee-aza River,[113] and pitched our tents not far from some families of strange Northern Indians, who had been there some time snaring deer, and who were all so poor as not to have one gun among them.

[Sidenote: 1772. April.]

The villains belonging to my crew were so far from administering to their relief, that they robbed them of almost every useful article in their possession; and to complete their cruelty, the men joined themselves in parties of six, eight, or ten in a gang, and dragged several of their young women to a little distance from their tents, {286} where they not only ravished them, but otherwise ill-treated them, and that in so barbarous a manner, as to endanger the lives of one or two of them. Humanity on this, as well as on several other similar occasions during my residence among those wretches, prompted me to upbraid them with their barbarity; but so far were my remonstrances from having the desired effect, that they afterwards made no scruple of telling me in the plainest terms, that if any female relation of mine had been there, she should have been served in the same manner.

Deer being plentiful, we remained at this place ten days, in order to dry and prepare a quant.i.ty of the flesh and fat to carry with us; as this was the last time the Indians expected to see such plenty until they met them again on the barren ground. During our stay here, the Indians completed the wood-work for their canoes, and procured all their Summer tent-poles, &c.; and while we were employed in this necessary business, the thaw was so great that the bare ground began to appear in many places, and the ice in the rivers, where the water was shallow and the current rapid, began to break up; so that we were in daily expectation of seeing geese, ducks, and other birds of pa.s.sage.

[Sidenote: 25th.]

On the twenty-fifth, the weather being cool and favourable for travelling, we once more set out, and that {287} day walked twenty miles to the Eastward; as some of the women had not joined us, we did not move on the two following days.

[Sidenote: 28th.]

On the twenty-eighth, having once more mustered all our forces, early in the morning we set out, and the next day pa.s.sed by Thleweyaza Yeth,[114]

the place at which we had prepared wood-work for canoes in the Spring one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.

[Sidenote: May. 1st.]

[Sidenote: 1772. May.]

As the morning of the first of May was exceedingly fine and pleasant, with a light air from the South, and a great thaw, we walked eight or nine miles to the East by North, when a heavy fall of snow came on, which was followed, or indeed more properly accompanied, by a hard gale of wind from the North West. At the time the bad weather began, we were on the top of a high barren hill, a considerable distance from any woods; judging it to be no more than a squall, we sat down, in expectation of its soon pa.s.sing by. As the night, however, advanced, the gale increased to such a degree, that it was impossible for a man to stand upright; so that we were obliged to lie down, without any other defence against the weather, than putting our sledges and other lumber to windward of us, which in reality was of no real service, as it only harboured a great drift of snow, with which in some places we were covered to the depth of two or three feet; and as the night was not very cold, I found myself, {288} and many others who were with me, long before morning in a puddle of water, occasioned by the heat of our bodies melting the snow.

[Sidenote: 2d.]

[Sidenote: 3d.]

The second proved fine pleasant weather, with warm suns.h.i.+ne. In the morning, having dried all our clothing, we proceeded on our journey. In the afternoon we arrived at the part at which my guide intended we should build our canoes; but having had some difference with his countrymen, he altered his mind, and determined to proceed to the Eastward, as long as the season would permit, before he attempted to perform that duty. Accordingly, on the third, we pursued our way, and as that and the following day were very cold, which made us walk briskly, we were enabled to make good days' journies; but the fifth was so hot and sultry, that we only walked about thirteen miles in our old course to the East by North, and then halted about three-quarters of a mile to the South of Black Bear Hill;[115] a place which I had seen in the Spring of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.

[Sidenote: 6th.]

On the sixth, the weather was equally hot with the preceding day; in the morning, however, we moved on eleven miles to the East, and then met several strange Indians, who informed us that a few others, who had a tolerable cargo of furrs, and were going to the Factory that Summer, were not far distant.

[Sidenote: 1772. May.]

{289} On receiving this intelligence, my guide, Matonabbee, sent a messenger to desire their company. This was soon complied with, as it is an universal practice with the Indian Leaders, both Northern and Southern, when going to the Company's Factory, to use their influence and interest in canva.s.sing for companions; as they find by experience that a large gang gains them much respect. Indeed, the generality of Europeans who reside in those parts, being utterly unacquainted with the manners and customs of the Indians, have conceived so high an opinion of those Leaders, and their authority, as to imagine that all who accompany them on those occasions are entirely devoted to their service and command all the year; but this is so far from being the case, that the authority of those great men, when absent from the Company's Factory, never extends beyond their own family; and the trifling respect which is shown them by their countrymen during their residence at the Factory, proceeds only from motives of interest.

[Sidenote: 1772. May.]

The Leaders have a very disagreeable task to perform on those occasions; for they are not only obliged to be the mouthpiece, but the beggars for all their friends and relations for whom they have a regard, as well as for those whom at other times they have reason to fear. Those unwelcome commissions, which are imposed on them by their followers, joined to their own desire of being thought men of great consequence and interest with the English, {290} make them very troublesome. And if a Governor deny them any thing which they ask, though it be only to give away to the most worthless of their gang, they immediately turn sulky and impertinent to the highest degree; and however rational they may be at other times, are immediately divested of every degree of reason, and raise their demands to so exorbitant a pitch, that after they have received to the amount of five times the value of all the furrs they themselves have brought, they never cease begging during their stay at the Factory; and, after all, few of them go away thoroughly satisfied.[BL]

[Sidenote: 1772. May. 11th.]

{291} After stopping four days at this place, Matonabbee, and all the Indians who were to accompany me to the Fort, agreed to leave the elderly people and young children here, in the care of some Indians who were capable of providing for them, and who had orders to proceed to a place called Cathawhachaga, on the barren grounds, and there wait the return of their relations from the Factory. Matters of this kind being settled, apparently to the entire satisfaction of all parties, we resumed our journey on the eleventh of May, and that at a much brisker pace than we could probably have done when all the old people and young children were with us. In the afternoon of the same day we met some other Northern Indians, who were also going to the Fort with furrs; those joined our party, and at night we all pitched our tents by the side of a river that empties itself into Doo-baunt Lake. This day all of us threw away our snow-shoes, as the ground was so bare in most places as not to require any such a.s.sistance; but sledges were occasionally serviceable for some time, particularly when we walked on the ice of rivers or lakes.

[Sidenote: 12th.]

[Sidenote: 18th.]

{292} The weather on the twelfth was so exceedingly hot and sultry, and the water so deep on the top of the ice of the above-mentioned river, as to render walking on it not only very troublesome, but dangerous; so after advancing about five miles we pitched our tents, and the warm weather being likely to continue, the Indians immediately began to build their canoes, which were completed with such expedition, that in the afternoon of the eighteenth we again set forward on our journey, but the day being pretty far spent, we only walked about four miles, and put up for the night.

[Sidenote: 19th.]

[Sidenote: 1772. May.]

The morning of the nineteenth was fine pleasant weather; and as all the water was drained off from the top of the ice, it rendered walking on it both safe and easy; accordingly we set out pretty early, and that day walked upwards of twenty miles to the East North East on the above-mentioned river.[116] The next day proved so cold, that after walking about fifteen miles, we were obliged to put up; for having left Doo-baunt River, we were frequently obliged to wade above the knees through swamps of mud, water, and wet snow; which froze to our stockings and shoes in such a thick crust, as not only rendered walking very laborious, but at the same time subjected us to the danger of having our legs and feet frozen.