Chapter XIII: Part 13

From that time to the eighth we killed every day as many geese as were sufficient to preserve life; but on that day we perceived plenty of deer, five of which the Indians killed, which put us all into good spirits, and the {297} number of deer we then saw afforded great hopes of more plentiful times during the remainder of our journey. It is almost needless to add, that people in our distressed situation expended a little time in eating, and slicing some of the flesh ready for drying; but the drying it occasioned no delay, as we fastened it on the tops of the women's bundles, and dried it by the sun and wind while we were walking; and, strange as it may appear, meat thus prepared is not only very substantial food, but pleasant to the taste, and generally much esteemed by the natives. For my own part I must acknowledge, that it was not only agreeable to my palate, but after eating a meal of it, I have always found that I could travel longer without victuals, than after any other kind of food. All the dried meat prepared by the Southern Indians is performed by exposing it to the heat of a large fire, which soon exhausts all the fine juices from it, and when sufficiently dry to prevent putrefaction, is no more to be compared with that cured by the Northern Indians in the Sun, or by the heat of a very slow fire, than meat that has been boiled down for the sake of the soup, is to that which is only sufficiently boiled for eating: the latter has all the juices remaining, which, being easily dissolved by the heat and moisture of the stomach, proves a strong and nourishing food; whereas the former being entirely deprived of those qualities, can by no means have an equal claim to that character. Most of the Europeans, however, are fonder of it than they are of that cured by the {298} Northern Indians. The same may be said to the lean parts of the beast, which are first dried, and then reduced into a kind of powder. That done by the Northern Indians is entirely free from smoke, and quite soft and mellow in the mouth: whereas that which is prepared by the Southern tribes is generally as bitter as soot with smoke, and is as hard as the scraps of horn, &c. which are burnt to make hardening for the cutlers. I never knew, that any European was so fond of this as they are of that made by the Northern Indians.

[Sidenote: 9th.]

On the ninth, as we were continuing our course to the Factory, which then lay in the South East quarter, we saw several smokes to the North East, and the same day spoke with many Northern Indians, who were going to Knapp's Bay to meet the Churchill sloop. Several of those Indians had furrs with them, but having some time before taken up goods on trust at Prince of Wales's Fort, were taking that method to delay the payment of them. Defrauds of this kind have been practised by many of those people with great success, ever since the furr-trade has been established with the Northern Indians at Knapp's Bay; by which means debts to a considerable amount are annually lost to the Company, as well as their Governor in the Bay.

Being desirous of improving every opportunity that the fine weather afforded, we did not lose much time in conversation with those Indians, but proceeded on our course {299} to the South East, while they continued theirs to the North East.

[Sidenote: 1772. June.]

For many days after leaving those people, we had the good fortune to meet with plenty of provisions; and as the weather was for a long time remarkably fine and pleasant, our circumstances were altered so much for the better, that every thing seemed to contribute to our happiness, as if desirous to make some amends for the severe hunger, cold, and excessive hardships that we had suffered long before, and which had reduced us to the greatest misery and want.

Deer was so plentiful a great part of the way, that the Indians killed as many as were wanted, without going out of their road; and every lake and river to which we came seemed willing to give us a change of diet, by affording us plenty of the finest fish, which we caught either with hooks or nets. Geese, partridges, gulls, and many other fowls, which are excellent eating, were also in such plenty, that it only required ammunition, in skilful hands, to have procured as many of them as we could desire.

The only inconvenience we now felt was from frequent showers of heavy rain; but the intervals between these showers being very warm, and the Sun shining bright, that difficulty was easily overcome, especially as the belly was plentifully supplied with excellent victuals. Indeed the {300} very thoughts of being once more arrived so near home, made me capable of encountering every difficulty, even if it had been hunger itself in the most formidable shape.

[Sidenote: 18th.]

On the eighteenth, we arrived at Egg River, from which place, at the solicitation of my guide Matonabbee, I sent a letter post-haste to the Chief at Prince of Wales's Fort, advising him of my being so far advanced on my return. The weather at this time was very bad and rainy, which caused us to lose near a whole day; but upon the fine weather returning, we again proceeded at our usual rate of eighteen or twenty miles a day, sometimes more or less, according as the road, the weather, and other circumstances, would admit.[119]

[Sidenote: 1772. June.]

Deer now began to be not quite so plentiful as they had been, though we met with enough for present use, which was all we wanted, each person having as much dried meat as he could conveniently carry, besides his furrs and other necessary baggage.

[Sidenote: 26th.]

[Sidenote: 1772. June.]

[Sidenote: 29th.]

Early in the morning of the twenty-sixth we arrived at Seal River;[BN] but the wind blowing right up it, made {301} so great a sea, that we were obliged to wait near ten hours before we could venture to cross it in our little canoes. {302} In the afternoon the weather grew more moderate, so that we were enabled to ferry over the river; after which we resumed our journey, and at night pitched our tents in some tufts of willows in sight of the woods of Po-co-thee-kis-co River, at which we arrived early in the morning of the twenty-eighth; but the wind again blowing very hard in the North East quarter, it was the afternoon of the twenty-ninth before we could attempt to cross it.

[Sidenote: 1772. June.]

Just at the time we were crossing the South branch of Po-co-thee-kis-co River, the Indians that were sent from Egg River with a letter to the Chief at Churchill, joined us on their return, and brought a little tobacco and some other articles which I had desired. Though it was late in the afternoon before we had all crossed the river, yet we walked that evening till after ten o'clock, and then put up on one of the Goose-hunting Islands, as they are generally called, about ten miles from the Factory. The next morning I arrived in good health at Prince of Wales's Fort, after having been absent eighteen months and twenty-three {303} days on this last expedition; but from my first setting out with Captain Chawchinaha, it was two years seven months and twenty-four days.

Though my discoveries are not likely to prove of any material advantage to the Nation at large, or indeed to the Hudson's Bay Company, yet I have the pleasure to think that I have fully complied with the orders of my Masters, and that it has put a final end to all disputes concerning a North West Passage through Hudson's Bay. It will also wipe off, in some measure, the ill-grounded and unjust aspersions of Dobbs, Ellis, Robson, and the American Traveller; who have all taken much pains to condemn the conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, as being averse from discoveries, and from enlarging their trade.[121]

FOOTNOTES:

[101] Great Slave Lake is 288 miles long from east to west, very irregular in width, and its area is about 10,400 square miles, being the fifth in size among the great lakes of America. However, no reasonably complete survey has yet been made of it. The place where he crossed it from north to south is on the regular Indian route through the Simpson Islands. A fish peculiar to this lake is the inconnu (see p. 254, note 103), which does not ascend the McKenzie River above the rapids at Fort Smith, and is not found in Athabasca Lake, so that if any confirmation were needed of the identity of his lake with Great Slave Lake, Hearne's reference to this fish would in itself be quite convincing. Hearne was the first white man to visit this lake, for it was not till 1785, between thirteen and fourteen years after his visit, that the traders of the North-West Company from Montreal reached and built a trading-post on it, east of the mouth of the Slave River. On Peter Pond's map of 1785, republished by L. J. Burpee, in his "Search for the Western Sea," 1908, page 182, the following interesting note is written across the space N.E. of Great Slave Lake: "Orchipoins Country et Road to Churchill," showing clearly that Pond knew of the trade carried on by the northern Indians with the Hudson's Bay Company at Churchill.

[102] Pike=_Esox lucius_ Linn.; trout=_Cristivomer namaycush_ Walbaum; perch=_Stizostedion vitreum_ Mitchill; barble=_Catastomus_; tittameg=whitefish (_Coregonus_); methy=_Lota macuiosa_ (Le Sueur).--E. A. P.

[103] Shees. This is probably the earliest notice of the inconnu, _Stenodus Mackenzii_ (Richardson). This anadromous species inhabits in summer the principal rivers of Northern Alaska and Mackenzie, east to and including the Anderson. It is present in Great Slave Lake throughout the year, this being, as far as I know, the only inland lake thus distinguished.--E. A. P.

[104] Buffalo. This is the earliest notice of the northern race of the bison, the so-called Wood Bison, _Bison bison Athabasca_ Rhoads. It was formerly very numerous and inhabited an extensive region (see Preble's "North Am. Fauna," No. 27, p. 144, 1908), but is now reduced to a few small herds, aggregating a few hundred individuals, which roam over a limited area south of Great Slave Lake.--E. A. P.

[BC] It is remarked by Mr. Catesby, in his description of this animal, that no man can lift one of their heads. Those I saw in the Athapuscow country are such as I have described; and I am assured by the Company's servants, as well as the Indians who live near Hudson's House, that the buffalos there are much smaller; so that the species Mr. Catesby saw, or wrote of, must have been much larger, or have had very large heads; for it is well known that a man of any tolerable strength can lift two and a half, or three hundred pounds weight. I think that the heads of his buffalos are too heavy for the bodies, as the bodies of those I saw in the Athapuscow country appear to have been of equal weight with his.

[105] _Alces Americanus_ (Clinton), still common throughout the region.--E. A. P.

[BD] The moose formerly sent to his Majesty was from that place. A young male was also put on board the ship, but it died on the passage, otherwise it is probable they might have propagated in this country.

[BE] Since the above was written, the same Indian that brought all the above-mentioned young moose to the Factory had, in the year 1777, two others, so tame, that when on his passage to Prince of Wales's Fort in a canoe, the moose always followed him along the bank of the river; and at night, or on any other occasion when the Indians landed, the young moose generally came and fondled on them, in the same manner as the most domestic animal would have done, and never offered to stray from the tents. Unfortunately, in crossing a deep bay in one of the lakes (on a fine day), all the Indians that were not interested in the safe-landing of those engaging creatures, paddled from point to point; and the man that owned them, not caring to go so far about by himself, accompanied the others, in hopes they would follow him round as usual; but at night the young moose did not arrive; and as the howling of some wolves was heard in that quarter, it was supposed they had been devoured by them, as they were never afterward seen.

[BF] Mr. Du Pratz, in his description of this animal, says, it is never found farther North than Cape Breton and Nova Scotia; but I have seen them in great numbers in the Athapuscow Country, which cannot be much short of 60° North latitude.

[106] The deer here meant is the Wapati or Canadian Elk, the Cree name of which is Waskas[=u], or Wewaskas[=u].

[BG] The Northern Indians make their fishing-nets with small thongs cut from raw deer-skins; which when dry appear very good, but after being soaked in water some time, grow so soft and slippery, that when large fish strike the net, the hitches are very apt to slip and let them escape. Beside this inconvenience, they are very liable to rot, unless they be frequently taken out of the water and dried.

[BH] It is too common a case with most of the tribes of Southern Indians for the women to desire their husbands or friends, when going to war, to bring them a slave, that they may have the pleasure of killing it; and some of these inhuman women will accompany their husbands, and murder the women and children as fast as their husbands do the men.

When I was at Cumberland House, (an inland settlement that I established for the Hudson's Bay Company in the year 1774,) I was particularly acquainted with a very young lady of this extraordinary turn; who, when I desired some Indians that were going to war to bring me a young slave, which I intended to have brought up as a domestic, Miss was equally desirous that one might be brought to her, for the cruel purpose of murdering it. It is scarcely possible to express my astonishment, on hearing such an extraordinary request made by a young creature scarcely sixteen years old; however, as soon as I recovered from my surprise, I ordered her to leave the settlement, which she did, with those who were going to war; and it is therefore probable she might not be disappointed in her request. The next year I was ordered to the command of Prince of Wales's Fort, and therefore never saw her afterward.

[107] The map is very indefinite in this part of his course, and little dependence can be placed on his positions. The place where he came to the Slave (Athapuscow) River must have been some distance south of Great Slave Lake, and as he followed it upwards for forty miles to where it turned to the south, he probably reached some place not far from the rapids at Fort Smith, in latitude 60° north, which is 15' south of the point indicated on his map as the place where he left the river and struck into the country to the east.

[108] When the geography of the country between Athabasca and Great Slave Lakes becomes known, it may be possible to follow him here, but his map gives no indication of any stream in this vicinity flowing into Lake Clowey. He appears to have thought so little of the small river that he did not take the trouble to map it.

[109] The reference here and on the following pages is certainly to the belt of forest which occurs on the banks of Thelon River and its tributary above its junction with the Dubawnt River. J. W. Tyrrell, who explored and surveyed this river in 1900, refers to it as follows:--

"The investigations of the present expedition have, however, established both the existence and location of such an oasis; but, as predicted by Hearne, the primitive settlers have long since departed, although for some other reasons than lack of fuel.

"In support of Hearne's story, and my belief that his reference was to the valley of the Thelon, it may be noted that some very old choppings were observed, as well as the decayed, moss-grown remains of some very old camps, whilst scarcely any recent signs of habitation exist.

"The wooded, or partially-wooded, banks of the Thelon extend for a distance of about one hundred and seventy miles below the forks of the Hanbury. This distance is not to be understood as a continuous stretch of timber, but over that distance many fine spruce groves, as well as more or less continuous thinly-scattered trees are found. The largest trees measured from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, but the average diameter would be about six inches." (Append. 26, Pt. III. Annual Report, Department of the Interior, Canada, 1901, pp. 7, 27.)

[BI] To snare swans, geese, or ducks, in the water, it requires no other process than to make a number of hedges, or fences, project into the water, at right angles, from the banks of a river, lake, or pond; for it is observed that those birds generally swim near the margin, for the benefit of feeding on the grass, &c. Those fences are continued for some distance from the shore, and separated two or three yards from each other, so that openings are left sufficiently large to let the birds swim through. In each of those openings a snare is hung and fastened to a stake, which the bird, when intangled, cannot drag from the bottom; and to prevent the snare from being wafted out of its proper place by the wind, it is secured to the stakes which form the opening, with tender grass, which is easily broken.

This method, though it has the appearance of being very simple, is nevertheless attended with much trouble, particularly when we consider the smallness of their canoes, and the great inconveniency they labour under in performing works of this kind in the water. Many of the stakes used on those occasions are of a considerable length and size, and the small branches which form the principal part of the hedges, are not arranged without much caution, for fear of oversetting the canoes, particularly where the water is deep, as it is in some of the lakes; and in many of the rivers the current is very swift, which renders this business equally troublesome. When the lakes and rivers are shallow, the natives are frequently at the pains to make fences from shore to shore.

To snare those birds in their nests requires a considerable degree of art, and, as the natives say, a great deal of cleanliness; for they have observed, that when snares have been set by those whose hands were not clean, the birds would not go into the nest.

Even the goose, though so simple a bird, is notoriously known to forsake her eggs, if they are breathed on by the Indians.

The smaller species of birds which make their nest in the ground, are by no means so delicate, of course less care is necessary to snare them. It has been observed that all birds which build in the ground go into their nest at one particular side, and out of it on the opposite. The Indians, thoroughly convinced of this, always set the snares on the side on which the bird enters the nest; and if care be taken in setting them, seldom fail of seizing their object. For small birds, such as larks, and many others of equal size, the Indians only use two or three hairs out of their head; but for larger birds, particularly swans, geese, and ducks, they make snares of deer-sinews, twisted like packthread, and occasionally of a small thong cut from a parchment deer-skin.

[BJ] The Indians, both Northern and Southern, have found by experience, that by boiling the pesogan in water for a considerable time, the texture is so much improved, that when thoroughly dried, some parts of it will be nearly as soft as spunge.

Some of those funguses are as large as a man's head; the outside, which is very hard and black, and much indented with deep cracks, being of no use, is always chopped off with a hatchet. Besides the two sorts of touchwood already mentioned, there is another kind of it in those parts, that I think is infinitely preferable to either. This is found in old decayed poplars, and lies in flakes of various sizes and thickness; some is not thicker than shammoy leather, others are as thick as a shoe-sole. This, like the fungus of the birch-tree, is always moist when taken from the tree, but when dry, it is very soft and flexible, and takes fire readily from the spark of a steel; but it is much improved by being kept dry in a bag that has contained gunpowder. It is rather surprising that the Indians, whose mode of life I have just been describing, have never acquired the method of making fire by friction, like the Esquimaux. It is also equally surprising that they do not make use of the skin-canoes. Probably deer-skins cannot be manufactured to withstand the water;[110] for it is well known that the Esquimaux use always seal-skins for that purpose, though they are in the habit of killing great numbers of deer.

[110] The Eskimos met with on the banks of the Kasan River in 1894 make their canoes entirely of deer-skin parchment.

[111] The positions of these two lakes are not exactly known, but they doubtless lie near the regular Indian canoe route from the north Bay of Lake Athabasca to Great Slave Lake. The latter lake lies fourteen miles W. or S.W. of Noo-shetht Lake.

[112] On Hearne's map the position of Noo-shetht Whoie or Newstheth tooy Lake in relation to the streams in the country is very indefinite, but on the Pennant map it is shown on a stream which flows northward into Great Slave Lake. In King's "Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean," vol. ii. p. 289, a copy of an Indian map of a canoe route northward from Lake Athabasca is published. Most of this route is down the Copper Indian (Yellow Knife or Rock) River, which flows into Great Slave Lake a short distance east of the mouth of Slave River, and one of the lakes there shown is Tazennatooy or Muddy Water Lake, while another is Newstheth tooy, the lake here referred to.

[BK] Though I was a swift runner in those days, I never accompanied the Indians in one of those chaces, but have heard many of them say, that after a long one, the moose, when killed, did not produce more than a quart of blood, the remainder being all settled in the flesh; which, in that state, must be ten times worse tasted, than the spleen or milt of a bacon hog.

[113] Thee-lee-aza River is called Theetinah River (Blue Fish River?) on the Pennant map, and Petitot speaks of it as a tributary of T'ezus or Snowdrift River, which also empties into the south side of Great Slave Lake.

[114] The latitude of this lake had been determined by Hearne as 61° 30' north, as previously stated on p. 127, and he had placed it on his map in latitude 61° 15' north. In making the journey to the Coppermine River and back to the lake, he had occupied a little more than a year, having left it on April 18th, 1771, and returned to it on April 29th, 1772.

[115] On the 8th of March 1771 they "lay a little to the E.N.E. of Black Bear Hill" (see p. 125), while now they are three quarters of a mile south of it. As this hill is but a short distance (two days' journey) west of Wholdiah Lake, the two routes laid down on the map are evidently incorrect, for the map shows his route home at this place at least thirty-five miles north of the route out, instead of south of it as indicated by the text.

[BL] As a proof of this assertion I take the liberty, though a little foreign to the narrative of my journey, to insert one instance, out of many hundreds of the kind that happen at the different Factories in Hudson's Bay, but perhaps no where so frequently as at Churchill. In October 1776, my old guide, Matonabbee, came at the head of a large gang of Northern Indians, to trade at Prince of Wales's Fort; at which time I had the honour to command it. When the usual ceremonies had passed, I dressed him out as a Captain of the first rank, and also clothed his six wives from top to toe: after which, that is to say, during his stay at the Factory, which was ten days, he begged seven lieutenants' coats, fifteen common coats, eighteen hats, eighteen shirts, eight guns, one hundred and forty pounds weight of gunpowder, with shot, ball, and flints in proportion; together with many hatchets, ice chissels, files, bayonets, knives, and a great quantity of tobacco, cloth, blankets, combs, looking-glasses, stockings, handkerchiefs, &c. besides numberless small articles, such as awls, needles, paint, steels, &c. in all to the amount of upwards of seven hundred beaver in the way of trade, to give away among his followers. This was exclusive of his own present, which consisted of a variety of goods to the value of four hundred beaver more. But the most extraordinary of his demands was twelve pounds of powder, twenty-eight pounds of shot and ball, four pounds of tobacco, some articles of clothing, and several pieces of iron-work, &c. to give to two men who had hauled his tent and other lumber the preceding Winter. This demand was so very unreasonable, that I made some scruple, or at least hesitated to comply with it, hinting that he was the person who ought to satisfy those men for their services; but I was soon answered, that he did not expect to have been _denied such a trifle as that was_; and for the future he would carry his goods where he could get his own price for them. On my asking him where that was? he replied, in a very insolent tone, "To the Canadian Traders." I was glad to comply with his demands; and I here insert the anecdote, as a specimen of an Indian's conscience.

[116] The river down which the party was travelling at this time would appear to have been a tributary of the Dubawnt River from the west. Unfortunately when I descended the Dubawnt River there were no Chipewyan Indians in the party, so that I was not able to learn the local names of the various lakes and natural features encountered, nor anything of the geography of the country beyond the range of vision, so that doubtless many streams joined the main river without being noticed by me. This is probably one of them.

[117] The north end of Wholdiah Lake of the present maps is in latitude 60° 49' north, whereas the part crossed by Hearne, which he calls A Naw-nee-tha'd Whoie, is placed by him in latitude 61° 50' north. It remains for some future explorer to account for this discrepancy, and give the exact situation of this place. That Hearne's position is much too far north is clear, for they were then in the woods, and the northern limit of the woods crosses the Dubawnt River about latitude 61° 30' N., twenty-three miles south of Hearne's course as indicated on his map.

[BM] All the furrs thus left were properly secured in caves and crevices of the rocks, so as to withstand any attempt that might be made on them by beasts of prey, and were well shielded from the weather; so that, in all probability, few of them were lost.

[118] As they were then on the barren lands, they probably crossed the Kazan River, somewhere about the north end of Ennadai Lake. There is a lake marked on the Mackenzie map as Nipach Lake which may possibly be intended to represent this latter lake. Although there are a few groves of spruce along the banks of this stream, north of the limit of the forest, no attempts seem to have been made by Hearne or his party to camp at them. The date here given is interesting as naming a time when one, at least, of the streams through the barren lands breaks up in spring.

[119] In the text no indication is given of the course which he followed after crossing Kazan River, but his map shows that he followed the route of his journey outwards, crossing Fat, Island, Whiskey Jack, and Baralzoa Lakes. The Cook map, however, shows that he went round to the north of Island Lake, and doubtless he also went round the largest of the other lakes, for he would hardly dare to cross them in the little canoes which he and the Indians were using for crossing the streams.

[BN] Mr. Jérémie is very incorrect in his account of the situation of this River, and its course. It is not easy to guess, whether the Copper or Dog-ribbed Indians be the nation he calls _Platscotez de Chiens_: if it be the former, he is much mistaken; for they have abundance of beaver, and other animals of the furr kind, in their country: and if the latter, he is equally wrong to assert that they have copper-mines in their country; for neither copper nor any other kind of metal is in use among them.

Mr. Jérémie was not too modest when he said, (see Dobb's Account of Hudson's Bay, p. 19,) "he could not say any thing positively in going farther North;" for in my opinion he never was so far North or West as he pretends, otherwise he would have been more correct in his description of those parts.

The Strait he mentions is undoubtedly no other than what is now called Chesterfield's Inlet, which, in some late and cold seasons, is not clear of ice the whole Summer: for I will affirm, that no Indian, either Northern or Southern, ever saw either Wager Water or Repulse Bay, except the two men who accompanied Captain Middleton; and though those men were selected from some hundreds for their universal knowledge of those parts, yet they knew nothing of the coast so far North as Marble Island.

As a farther proof, that no Indians, except the Esquimaux, ever frequent such high latitudes, unless at a great distance from the sea, I must here mention, that so late as the year 1763, when Captain Christopher went to survey Chesterfield's Inlet, though he was furnished with the most intelligent and experienced Northern Indians that could be found, they did not know an inch of the land to the North of Whale Cove.

Mr. Jérémie is also as much mistaken in what he says concerning Churchill River, as he was in the direction of Seal River; for he says that no woods were found but in some islands which lie about ten or twelve miles up the river. At the time he wrote, which was long before a settlement was made there, wood was in great plenty on both sides the river; and that within five miles of where Prince of Wales's Fort now stands. But as to the islands of which he speaks, if they ever existed, they have of late years most assuredly disappeared; for since the Company have had a settlement on that river, no one ever saw an island in it that produced timber, or wood of any description, within forty miles of the Fort. But the great number of stumps now remaining, from which, in all probability, the trees have been cut for firing, are sufficient to prove that when Churchill River was first settled, wood was then in great plenty; but in the course of seventy-six years residence in one place, it is natural to suppose it was much thinned near the Settlement. Indeed for some years past common fewel is so scarce near that Factory, that it is the chief employment of most of the servants for upward of seven months in the year, to procure as much wood as will supply the fires for a Winter, and a little timber for necessary repairs.[120]

[120] Mr. Jérémie was in charge of York Factory for six years, from 1708 to 1714, while it was in the hands of the French. His reference to the presence of native copper among the _Plascôtez de Chiens_, or Dog Rib Indians, who inhabit the country between the mouth of the Mackenzie and the Coppermine River, is particularly interesting:--

"Ils ont dans leur Pays une _Mine de Cuivre rouge_, si abondante & si pure, que, sans le passer par la forge, tel qu'ils le ramassent à la Mine, ils ne font que le frapper entre deux pièrres, & en font tout ce qu'ils veulent. J'en ai vû fort souvent, parce que nos Sauvages en apportoient toutes les fois qu'ils alloient en guerre de ces côtez là." (_Jérémie._ "Relation du Detroit et de la Baie de Hudson," in "Recueil de Voyages au Nord." Par J. F. Bernard. 10 vols. 12mo. Amsterdam. 1724. Tom. v. p. 404.)

[121] Of the life at Fort Prince of Wales under Moses Norton in 1771, during the year of Hearne's absence on the Coppermine River, we have the following interesting account by Andrew Graham, one of the factors of the Hudson's Bay Company:--

"Prince of Wales Fort. On a peninsula at the entrance of the Churchill River. Most northern settlement of the Company. A stone fort, mounting forty-two cannon [an error, as there are embrasures for only forty cannon in the parapet of the fort], from six to twenty-four pounders. Opposite, on the south side of the river, Cape Merry Battery, mounting six twenty-four pounders, with lodge-house and powder magazine. The river 1006 yards wide. A ship can anchor six miles above the fort. Tides carry salt water twelve miles up the river. No springs near; drink snow water nine months of the year. In summer keep three draught horses to haul water and draw stones to finish building the forts.

"Staff:--A chief factor and officers, with sixty servants and tradesmen. The council, with discretionary power, consists of chief factor, second factor, surgeon, sloop and brig masters, and captain of Company's ship when in port. These answer and sign the general letter, sent yearly to directors. The others are accountant, trader, steward, armourer, ship-wright, carpenter, cooper, blacksmith, mason, tailor, and labourers. These must not trade with natives, under penalties for so doing. Council mess together, also servants. Called by bell to duty, work from six to six in summer, eight to four in winter. Two watch in winter, three in summer. In emergencies, tradesmen must work at anything. Killing of partridges the most pleasant duty.

"Company signs contract with servants for three or five years, with the remarkable clause: 'Company may recall them home at any time without satisfaction for the remaining time. Contract may be renewed, if servants or labourers wish, at expiry of term. Salary advanced forty shillings, if men have behaved well in first term. The land and sea officers' and tradesmen's salaries do not vary, but seamen's are raised in time of war.'

"A ship of 200 tons burden, bearing provisions, arrives yearly in August or early September. Sails again in ten days, wind permitting, with cargo and those returning. Sailors alone get pay when at home.

"The annual trade sent home from this fort is from ten to four thousand made beaver, in furs, pelts, castorum, goose feathers, and quills, and a small quantity of train oil and whale bone, part of which they receive from the Eskimos, and the rest from the white whale fishery. A black whale fishery is in hand, but it shows no progress." ("The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company." By George Bryce, 1900, pp. 108-9.)

{304} CHAP. IX.

A short Description of the Northern Indians, also a farther
Account of their Country, Manufactures, Customs, &c.

_An account of the persons and tempers of the Northern
Indians--They possess a great deal of art and cunning--Are very
guilty of fraud when in their power, and generally exact more
for their furrs than any other tribe of Indians,--Always
dissatisfied, yet have their good qualities--The men in general
jealous of their wives--Their marriages--Girls always betrothed
when children, and their reasons for it--Great care and
confinement of young girls from the age of eight or nine years
old--Divorces common among those people--The women are less
prolific than in warmer countries--Remarkable piece of
superstition observed by the women at particular periods--Their
art in making it an excuse for a temporary separation from their
husbands on any little quarrel--Reckoned very unclean on those
occasions--The Northern Indians frequently, for the want of
firing, are obliged to eat their meat raw--Some through
necessity obliged to boil it in vessels made of the rind of the
birch-tree--A remarkable dish among those people--The young
animals always cut out of their dams eaten, and accounted a
great delicacy--The parts of generation of all animals eat by
the men and boys--Manner of passing their time, and method of
killing deer in Summer with bows and arrows--Their tents, dogs,
sledges, &c.--Snow-shoes--Their partiality to domestic
vermin--Utmost extent of the Northern Indian country--Face of
the country--Species of fish--A peculiar kind of moss useful for
the support of man--Northern Indian method of catching fish,
either with hooks or nets--Ceremony observed when two parties of
those people meet--Diversions in common use--A singular disorder
which attacks some of those people--Their {305} superstition
with respect to the death of their friends--Ceremony observed on
those occasions--Their ideas of the first inhabitants of the
world--No form of religion among them--Remarks on that
circumstance--The extreme misery to which old age is
exposed--Their opinion of the Aurora Borealis, &c.--Some Account
of Matonabbee, and his services to his country, as well as to
the Hudson's Bay Company._

As to the persons of the Northern Indians, they are in general above the middle size; well-proportioned, strong, and robust, but not corpulent. They do not possess that activity of body, and liveliness of disposition, which are so commonly met with among the other tribes of Indians who inhabit the West coast of Hudson's Bay.

Their complexion is somewhat of the copper cast, inclining rather toward a dingy brown; and their hair, like all the other tribes in India, is black, strong, and straight.[BO] Few of the men have any beard; this seldom makes its appearance till they are arrived at middle-age, and then is by no means equal in quantity to what is observed on the faces of the generality of Europeans; the little they have, however, is exceedingly strong and bristly. Some of them take but little pains to eradicate their beards, though it is considered as very unbecoming; and those {306} who do, have no other method than that of pulling it out by the roots between their fingers and the edge of a blunt knife. Neither sex have any hair under their armpits, and very little on any other part of the body, particularly the women; but on the place where Nature plants the hair, I never knew them attempt to eradicate it.

Their features are peculiar, and different from any other tribe in those parts; for they have very low foreheads, small eyes, high cheek-bones, Roman noses, full cheeks, and in general long broad chins. Though few of either sex are exempt from this national set of features, yet Nature seems to be more strict in her observance of it among the females, as they seldom vary so much as the men. Their skins are soft, smooth, and polished; and when they are dressed in clean clothing, they are as free from an offensive smell as any of the human race.

Every tribe of Northern Indians, as well as the Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians, have three or four parallel black strokes marked on each cheek; which is performed by entering an awl or needle under the skin, and, on drawing it out again, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wound.

Their dispositions are in general morose and covetous, and they seem to be entirely unacquainted even with the name of gratitude. They are for ever pleading poverty, {307} even among themselves; and when they visit the Factory, there is not one of them who has not a thousand wants.

When any real distressed objects present themselves at the Company's Factory, they are always relieved with victuals, clothes, medicines, and every other necessary, _gratis_; and in return, they instruct every one of their countrymen how to behave, in order to obtain the same charity. Thus it is very common to see both men and women come to the Fort half-naked, when either the severe cold in Winter, or the extreme troublesomeness of the flies in Summer, make it necessary for every part to be covered. On those occasions they are seldom at a loss for a plausible story, which they relate as the occasion of their distress (whether real or pretended), and never fail to interlard their history with plenty of sighs, groans, and tears, sometimes affecting to be lame, and even blind, in order to excite pity. Indeed, I know of no people that have more command of their passions on such occasions; and in this respect the women exceed the men, as I can affirm with truth I have seen some of them with one side of the face bathed in tears, while the other has exhibited a significant smile. False pretences for obtaining charity are so common among those people, and so often detected, that the Governor is frequently obliged to turn a deaf ear to many who apply for relief; for if he did not, he might give away the whole of the Company's goods, and by degrees all the Northern {308} tribe would make a trade of begging, instead of bringing furrs, to purchase what they want. It may truly be said, that they possess a considerable degree of deceit, and are very complete adepts in the art of flattery, which they never spare as long as they find that it conduces to their interest, but not a moment longer. They take care always to seem attached to a new Governor, and flatter his pride, by telling him that they look up to him as the father of their tribe, on whom they can safely place their dependance; and they never fail to depreciate the generosity of his predecessor, however extensive that might have been, however humane or disinterested his conduct; and if aspersing the old, and flattering the new Governor, has not the desired effect in a reasonable time, they represent him as the worst of characters, and tell him to his face that he is one of the most cruel of men; that he has no feeling for the distresses of their tribe, and that many have perished for want of proper assistance, (which, if it be true, is only owing to want of humanity among themselves,) and then they boast of having received ten times the favours and presents from his predecessor. It is remarkable that those are most lavish in their praises, who have never either deserved or received any favours from him. In time, however, this language also ceases, and they are perfectly reconciled to the man whom they would willingly have made a fool, and say, "he is no child, and not to be deceived by them."

{309} They differ so much from the rest of mankind, that harsh uncourteous usage seems to agree better with the generality of them, particularly the lower class, than mild treatment; for if the least respect be shown them, it makes them intolerably insolent; and though some of their leaders may be exempt from this imputation, yet there are but few even of them who have sense enough to set a proper value on the favours and indulgences which are granted to them while they remain at the Company's Factories, or elsewhere within their territories. Experience has convinced me, that by keeping a Northern Indian at a distance, he may be made serviceable both to himself and the Company; but by giving him the least indulgence at the Factory, he will grow indolent, inactive, and troublesome, and only contrive methods to tax the generosity of an European.

The greatest part of these people never fail to defraud Europeans whenever it is in their power, and take every method to over-reach them in the way of trade. They will disguise their persons and change their names, in order to defraud them of their lawful debts, which they are sometimes permitted to contract at the Company's Factory; and all debts that are outstanding at the succession of a new Governor are entirely lost, as they always declare, and bring plenty of witnesses to prove, that they were paid long before, but that their names had been forgotten to be struck out of the book.

{310} Notwithstanding all those bad qualities, they are the mildest tribe of Indians that trade at any of the Company's settlements; and as the greatest part of them are never heated with liquor, are always in their senses, and never proceed to riot, or any violence beyond bad language.

The men are in general very jealous of their wives, and I make no doubt but the same spirit reigns among the women; but they are kept so much in awe of their husbands, that the liberty of thinking is the greatest privilege they enjoy. The presence of a Northern Indian man strikes a peculiar awe into his wives, as he always assumes the same authority over them that the master of a family in Europe usually does over his domestic servants.

Their marriages are not attended with any ceremony; all matches are made by the parents, or next of kin. On those occasions the women seem to have no choice, but implicitly obey the will of their parents, who always endeavour to marry their daughters to those that seem most likely to be capable of maintaining them, let their age, person, or disposition be ever so despicable.

The girls are always betrothed when children, but never to those of equal age, which is doubtless sound policy with people in their situation, where the existence of a family {311} depends entirely on the abilities and industry of a single man. Children, as they justly observe, are so liable to alter in their manners and disposition, that it is impossible to judge from the actions of early youth what abilities they may possess when they arrive at puberty. For this reason the girls are often so disproportionably matched for age, that it is very common to see men of thirty-five or forty years old have young girls of no more than ten or twelve, and sometimes much younger. From the early age of eight or nine years, they are prohibited by custom from joining in the most innocent amusements with children of the opposite sex; so that when sitting in their tents, or even when travelling, they are watched and guarded with such an unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline of an English boarding-school. Custom, however, and constant example, make such uncommon restraint and confinement sit light and easy even on children, whose tender ages seem better adapted to innocent and cheerful amusements, than to be cooped up by the side of old women, and constantly employed in scraping skins, mending shoes, and learning other domestic duties necessary in the care of a family.

Notwithstanding those uncommon restraints on the young girls, the conduct of their parents is by no means uniform or consistent with this plan; as they set no bounds to their conversation, but talk before them, and even to them, on the most indelicate subjects. As their ears are accustomed {312} to such language from their earliest youth, this has by no means the same effect on them, it would have on girls born and educated in a civilized country, where every care is taken to prevent their morals from being contaminated by obscene conversation. The Southern Indians are still less delicate in conversation, in the presence of their children.

The women among the Northern Indians are in general more backward than the Southern Indian women; and though it is well known that neither tribe lose any time, those early connections are seldom productive of children for some years.

Divorces are pretty common among the Northern Indians; sometimes for incontinency, but more frequently for want of what they deem necessary accomplishments or for bad behaviour. This ceremony, in either case, consists of neither more nor less than a good drubbing, and turning the woman out of doors; telling her to go to her paramour, or relations, according to the nature of her crime.

Providence is very kind in causing these people to be less prolific than the inhabitants of civilized nations; it is very uncommon to see one woman have more than five or six children; and these are always born at such a distance from one another, that the youngest is generally two or {313} three years old before another is brought into the world. Their easy births, and the ceremonies which take place on those occasions, have already been mentioned; I shall therefore only observe here, that they make no use of cradles, like the Southern Indians, but only tie a lump of moss between their legs, and always carry their children at their backs, next the skin, till they are able to walk. Though their method of treating young children is in this respect the most uncouth and awkward I ever saw, there are few among them that can be called deformed, and not one in fifty who is not bow-legged.

There are certain periods at which they never permit the women to abide in the same tent with their husbands. At such times they are obliged to make a small hovel for themselves at some distance from the other tents. As this is an universal custom among all the tribes, it is also a piece of policy with the women, upon any difference with their husbands, to make that an excuse for a temporary separation, when, without any ceremony, they creep out (as is their usual custom on those occasions) under the eves of that side of the tent at which they happen to be sitting; for at those times they are not permitted to go in or out through the door. This custom is so generally prevalent among the women, that I have frequently known some of the sulky dames leave their husbands and tent for four or five days at a time, and repeat the farce twice or thrice in a month, while the poor men have never suspected the deceit, or if they {314} have, delicacy on their part has not permitted them to enquire into the matter. I have known Matonabbee's handsome wife, who eloped from him in May one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one, live thun-nardy, as they call it, (that is, alone,) for several weeks together, under this pretence; but as a proof he had some suspicion, she was always carefully watched, to prevent her from giving her company to any other man. The Southern Indians are also very delicate in this point; for though they do not force their wives to build a separate tent, they never lie under the same clothes during this period. It is, however, equally true, that the young girls, when those symptoms make their first appearance, generally go a little distance from the other tents for four or five days, and at their return wear a kind of veil or curtain, made of beads, for some time after, as a mark of modesty; as they are then considered marriageable, and of course are called women, though some at those periods are not more than thirteen, while others at the age of fifteen or sixteen have been reckoned as children, though apparently arrived at nearly their full growth.

On those occasions a remarkable piece of superstition prevails among them; women in this situation are never permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where a fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are also prohibited at those times from partaking of the {315} head of any animal, and even from walking in, or crossing the track where the head of a deer, moose, beaver, and many other animals, have lately been carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom is considered as of the greatest importance; because they firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal success in his future excursions.