Part 6

[D] Captain Barlow was Governor at Albany Fort when the French went over land from Canada to besiege it in 1704. The Canadians and their Indian guides lurked in the neighbourhood of Albany for several days before they made the attack, and killed many of the cattle that were grazing in the marshes. A faithful Home-Indian, who was on a hunting excursion, discovering those strangers, and supposing them to be enemies, immediately returned to the Fort, and informed the Governor of the circumstance, who gave little credit to it. However, every measure was taken for the defence of the Fort, and orders were given to the Master of a sloop that lay at some distance, to come to the Fort with all possible expedition on hearing a gun fired.

Accordingly, in the middle of the night, or rather in the morning, the French came before the Fort, marched up to the gate, and demanded entrance. Mr. Barlow, who was then on the watch, told them that the Governor was asleep, but he would get the keys immediately. The French, hearing this, expected no opposition, and flocked up to the gate as close as they could stand. Barlow took the advantage of this opportunity, and instead of opening the gate, only opened two port holes, where two six-pounders stood loaded with grape shot, which were instantly fired. This discharge killed great numbers of the French, and among them the Commander, who was an Irishman.

Such an unexpected reception made the remainder retire with great precipitation; and the Master of the sloop hearing the guns, made the best of his way up to the Fort; but some of the French who lay concealed under the banks of the river killed him, and all the boat's crew.

The French retired from this place with reluctance; for some of them were heard shooting in the neighbourhood of the Fort ten days after they were repulsed; and one man in particular walked up and down the platform leading from the gate of the Fort to the Launch for a whole day. Mr. Fullarton, who was then Governor at Albany, spoke to him in French, and offered him kind quarters if he chose to accept them; but to those proposals he made no reply, and only shook his head. Mr. Fullarton then told him, that unless he would resign himself up as a prisoner, he would most assuredly shoot him; on which the man advanced nearer the Fort, and Mr. Fullarton shot him out of his chamber window. Perhaps the hardships this poor man expected to encounter in his return to Canada, made him prefer death; but his refusing to receive quarter from so humane and generous an enemy as the English, is astonishing.

[E] I have seen the remains of those houses several times; they are on the West side of the harbour, and in all probability will be discernible for many years to come.

It is rather surprising, that neither Middleton, Ellis, Christopher, Johnston, nor Garbet, who have all of them been at Marble Island, and some of them often, ever discovered this harbour; particularly the last-mentioned gentleman, who actually sailed quite round the island in a very fine pleasant day in the Summer of 1766. But this discovery was reserved for a Mr. Joseph Stephens! a man of the least merit I ever knew, though he then had the command of a vessel called the _Success_, employed in the whale-fishery; and in the year 1769, had the command of the _Charlotte_ given to him, a fine brig of one hundred tons; when I was his mate.

[F] The conditions offered me on this occasion cannot be better expressed than in the Company's own words, which I have transcribed from their private letter to me, dated 25th May 1769:

"From the good opinion we entertain of you, and Mr. Norton's recommendation, we have agreed to raise your wages to £----[18] _per annum_ for two years, and have placed you in our Council at Prince of Wales's Fort; and we should have been ready to advance you to the command of the _Charlotte_, according to your request, if a matter of more immediate consequence had not intervened.

"Mr. Norton has proposed an inland Journey, far to the North of Churchill, to promote an extension of our trade, as well as for the discovery of a North West Passage, Copper Mines, &c.; and as an undertaking of this nature requires the attention of a person capable of taking an observation for determining the longitude and latitude, and also distances, and the course of rivers and their depths, we have fixed upon you (especially as it is represented to us to be your own inclination) to conduct this Journey, with proper assistants.

"We therefore hope you will second our expectations in readily performing this service, and upon your return we shall willingly make you any acknowledgment suitable to your trouble therein.

"We highly approve of your going in the _Speedwell_, to assist on the whale-fishery last year, and heartily wish you health and success in the present expedition.

"We remain your loving Friends,

"BIBYE LAKE, Dep. Gov. "JOHN ANTHONY MERLE. "ROBERT MERRY. "SAMUEL WEGG. "JAMES WINTER LAKE. "HERMAN BERENS. "JOSEPH SPURREL. "JAMES FITZ GERALD."

The Company had no sooner perused my Journals and Charts, than they ordered a handsome sum to be placed to the credit of my account; and in the two first paragraphs of their letter to me, dated 12th May 1773, they express themselves in the following words:

"Mr. SAMUEL HEARNE,

"SIR,--Your letter of the 28th August last gave us the agreeable pleasure to hear of your safe return to our Factory. Your Journal, and the two charts you sent, sufficiently convince us of your very judicious remarks.

"We have maturely considered your great assiduity in the various accidents which occurred in your several Journies. We hereby return you our grateful thanks; and to manifest our obligation we have consented to allow you a gratuity of £----[19] for those services."

As a farther proof of the Company's being perfectly satisfied with my conduct while on that Journey, the Committee unanimously appointed me Chief of Prince of Wales's Fort in the Summer of 1775; and Mr. Bibye Lake, who was then Governor, and several others of the Committee, honoured me with a regular correspondence as long as they lived.

[18] Stated by Beckles Willson to be £130.

[19] Stated by Beckles Willson to be £200.

[G] By the Home-guard Indians we are to understand certain of the natives who are immediately employed under the protection of the Company's servants, reside on the plantation, and are employed in hunting for the Factory.[20]

[20] The Southern or Homeguard Indians here referred to were Crees, one of the most numerous tribes of the Algonquian family. The Northern Indians were Chipewyans, a tribe of the Tinné family.

[H] The Calimut is a long ornamented stem of a pipe, much in use among all the tribes of Indians who know the use of tobacco. It is particularly used in all cases of ceremony, either in making war or peace; at all public entertainments, orations, &c.

[I] No convenient opportunity offered during my last Journey, except one, on the 22d March 1771; and as nothing material had happened during that part of my Journey, I thought there was not any necessity for sending an extract of my Journal; I therefore only sent a Letter to the Governor, informing him of my situation with respect to latitude and longitude, and some account of the usage which I received from the natives, &c.

[J] By mistake in my former Journal and Draft called Arathapefcow.

[K] This was barely probable, as Matonabbee at that time had not any information of this Journey being set on foot, much less had he received orders to join me at the place and time here appointed; and had we accidentally met, he would by no means have undertaken the Journey without first going to the Factory, and there making his agreement with the Governor; for no Indian is fond of performing any particular service for the English, without first knowing what is to be his reward. At the same time, had I taken that rout on my out-set, it would have carried me some hundreds of miles out of my road. See my Track on the Map in the Winter 1770, and the Spring 1771.

[L] I was not provided with instruments for cutting on stone; but for form-sake, I cut my name, date of the year, &c., on a piece of board that had been one of the Indian's targets, and placed it in a heap of stones on a small eminence near the entrance of the river, on the South side.

[M] There is certainly no harm in making out all Instructions in the fullest manner, yet it must be allowed that those two parts might have been omitted with great propriety; for as neither Middleton, Ellis, nor Christopher were able to penetrate far enough up those inlets to discover any kind of herbage except moss and grass, much less woods, it was not likely those parts were so materially altered for the better since their times, as to make it worth my while to attempt a farther discovery of them; and especially as I had an opportunity, during my second Journey, of proving that the woods do not reach the sea-coast by some hundreds of miles in the parallel of Chesterfield's Inlet. And as the edge of the woods to the Northward always tends to the Westward, the distance must be greatly increased in the latitude of Wager Strait. Those parts have long since been visited by the Company's servants, and are within the known limits of their Charter; consequently require no other form of possession.

[N] See the preceding Note.

[O] The Continent of America is much wider than many people imagine, particularly Robson, who thought that the Pacific Ocean was but a few days journey from the West coast of Hudson's Bay. This, however, is so far from being the case, that when I was at my greatest Western distance, upward of five hundred miles from Prince of Wales's Fort, the natives, my guides, well knew that many tribes of Indians lay to the West of us, and they knew no end to the land in that direction; nor have I met with any Indians, either Northern or Southern, that ever had seen the sea to the Westward. It is, indeed, well known to the intelligent and well-informed part of the Company's servants, that an extensive and numerous tribe of Indians, called E-arch-e-thinnews, whose country lies far West of any of the Company's or Canadian settlements, must have traffic with the Spaniards on the West side of the Continent; because some of the Indians who formerly traded to York Fort, when at war with those people, frequently found saddles, bridles, muskets, and many other articles, in their possession, which were undoubtedly of Spanish manufactory.

I have seen several Indians who have been so far West as to cross the top of that immense chain of mountains which run from North to South of the continent of America. Beyond those mountains all rivers run to the Westward. I must here observe, that all the Indians I ever heard relate their excursions in that country, had invariably got so far to the South, that they did not experience any Winter, nor the least appearance of either frost or snow, though sometimes they have been absent eighteen months, or two years.[21]

[21] In the year 1745 Anthony Hendry, under instructions from the Hudson's Bay Company, had travelled inland from York Factory to the upper waters of the Saskatchewan River, where he met the E-arch-e-thinnews or Blackfeet Indians.

[P] As to a passage through the continent of America by the way of Hudson's Bay, it has so long been explored, notwithstanding what Mr. Ellis has urged in its favour, and the place it has found in the visionary Map of the American Traveller, that any comment on it would be quite unnecessary. My latitude only will be a sufficient proof that no such passage is in existence.

A JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN.

CHAP. I.

Transactions from my leaving Prince of Wales's Fort on my first expedition, till our arrival there again.

_Set off from the Fort--Arrive at Po-co-ree-kis-co River--One of the Northern Indians desert--Cross Seal River, and walk on the barren grounds--Receive wrong information concerning the distance of the woods--Weather begins to be very cold, provisions all expended and nothing to be got--Strike to the Westward, arrive at the woods, and kill three deer--Set forward in the North West quarter, see the tracks of musk-oxen and deer, but killed none--Very short of provisions--Chawchinahaw wants us to return--Neither he nor his crew contribute to our maintenance--He influences several of the Indians to desert--Chawchinahaw and all his crew leave us--Begin our return to the factory; kill a few partridges, the first meal we had had for several days--Villany of one of the home Indians and his wife, who was a Northern Indian woman--Arrive at Seal River, kill two deer; partridges plenty--Meet a strange Northern Indian, accompany him to his tent, usage received there; my Indians assist in killing some beaver--Proceed toward home, and arrive at the Fort._

[Sidenote: 1769. November 6th.]

[Sidenote: 1769. November.]

Having made every necessary arrangement for my departure on the sixth of November, I took leave of the Governor, and my other friends, at Prince of Wales's Fort, and began my journey, under the salute of seven cannon.

[Sidenote: 8th.]

{2} The weather at that time being very mild, made it but indifferent hauling,[Q] and all my crew being heavy laden, occasioned us to make but short journeys; however, on the eighth, we crossed the North branch of Po-co-ree-kis-co River,[22] and that night put up in a small tuft of woods, which is between it and Seal River. In the night, one of the Northern Indians deserted; and as all the rest of my crew were heavy laden, I was under the necessity of hauling the sledge he had left, which however was not very heavy, as it scarcely exceeded sixty pounds.

[Sidenote: 9th.]

The weather still continued very fine and pleasant; we directed our course to the West North West, and early in the day crossed Seal River. In the course of this day's journey we met several Northern Indians, who were going to the factory with furs and venison; and as we had not killed any deer from our leaving the Fort, I got several joints of venison from those strangers, and gave them a note on the Governor for payment, which seemed perfectly agreeable to all parties.

[Sidenote: 1769. November.]

When on the North West side of Seal River, I asked Captain Chawchinahaw the distance, and probable time it would take, before we could reach the main woods; which he assured me would not exceed four or five days journey. This put both me and my companions in good {3} spirits, and we continued our course between the West by North and North West, in daily expectation of arriving at those woods, which we were told would furnish us with every thing the country affords. These accounts were so far from being true, that after we had walked double the time here mentioned, no signs of woods were to be seen in the direction we were then steering; but we had frequently seen the looming of woods to the South West.

[Sidenote: 19th.]

The cold being now very intense, our small stock of English provisions all expended, and not the least thing to be got on the bleak hills we had for some time been walking on, it became necessary to strike more to the Westward, which we accordingly did, and the next evening arrived at some small patches of low scrubby woods, where we saw the tracks of several deer,[23] and killed a few partridges. The road we had traversed for many days before, was in general so rough and stony, that our sledges were daily breaking; and to add to the inconveniency, the land was so barren, as not to afford us materials for repairing them: but the few woods we now fell in with, amply supplied us with necessaries for those repairs; and as we were then enabled each night to pitch proper tents, our lodging was much more comfortable than it had been for many nights before, while we were on the barren grounds, where, in general, we thought ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs as would make a fire; but it {4} was scarcely ever in our power to make any other defence against the weather, than by digging a hole in the snow down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.

[Sidenote: 21st.]

[Sidenote: 1769. November.]

On the twenty-first, we did not move; so the Indian men went a hunting, and the women cut holes in the ice and caught a few fish in a small lake, by the side of which we had pitched our tents. At night the men returned with some venison, having killed three deer, which was without doubt very acceptable; but our number being great, and the Indians having such enormous stomachs, very little was left but fragments after the two or three first good meals. Having devoured the three deer, and given some necessary repairs to our sledges and snow shoes, which only took one day, we again proceeded on toward the North West by West and West North West, through low scrubby pines,[24] intermixed with some dwarf larch,[25] which is commonly called juniper in Hudson's Bay. In our road we frequently saw the tracks of deer, and many musk-oxen,[26] as they are called there; but none of my companions were so fortunate as to kill any of them: so that a few partridges were all we could get to live on, and those were so scarce, that we seldom could kill as many as would amount to half a bird a day for each man; which, considering we had nothing else for the twenty-four hours, was in reality next to nothing.

[Sidenote: 26th.]

{5} By this time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had not the prosperity of the undertaking at heart; he often painted the difficulties in the worst colours, took every method to dishearten me and my European companions, and several times hinted his desire of our returning back to the factory: but finding I was determined to proceed, he took such methods as he thought would be most likely to answer his end; one of which was, that of not administering toward our support; so that we were a considerable time without any other subsistence, but what our two home-guard (Southern) Indians procured, and the little that I and the two European men could kill; which was very disproportionate to our wants, as we had to provide for several women and children who were with us.

[Sidenote: 29th.]

Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not likely to complete his design, and that we were not to be starved into compliance, at length influenced several of the best Northern Indians to desert in the night, who took with them several bags of my ammunition, some pieces of iron work, such as hatchets, ice chissels, files, &c., as well as several other useful articles.

[Sidenote: 30th.]

[Sidenote: 1769. November.]

When I became acquainted with this piece of villany, I asked Chawchinahaw the reason of such behaviour. To which he answered, that he knew nothing of the affair: but as that was the case, it would not be {6} prudent, he said, for us to proceed any farther; adding, that he and all the rest of his countrymen were going to strike off another way, in order to join the remainder of their wives and families: and after giving us a short account which way to steer our course for the nearest part of Seal River, which he said would be our best way homeward, he and his crew delivered me most of the things which they had in charge, packed up their awls, and set out toward the South West, making the woods ring with their laughter, and left us to consider of our unhappy situation, near two hundred miles from Prince of Wales's Fort, all heavily laden, and our strength and spirits greatly reduced by hunger and fatigue.

Our situation at that time, though very alarming, would not permit us to spend much time in reflection; so we loaded our sledges to the best advantage (but were obliged to throw away some bags of shot and ball), and immediately set out on our return. In the course of the day's walk we were fortunate enough to kill several partridges, for which we were all very thankful, as it was the first meal we had had for several days: indeed, for the five preceding days we had not killed as much as amounted to half a partridge for each man; and some days had not a single mouthful. While we were in this distress, the Northern Indians were by no means in want; for as they always walked foremost, they {7} had ten times the chance to kill partridges, rabbits, or any other thing which was to be met with, than we had. Beside this advantage, they had great stocks of flour, oatmeal, and other English provisions, which they had embezzled out of my stock during the early part of the journey; and as one of my home Indians, called Mackachy, and his wife, who is a Northern Indian woman, always resorted to the Northern Indians tents, where they got amply supplied with provisions when neither I nor my men had a single mouthful, I have great reason to suspect they had a principal hand in the embezzlement: indeed, both the man and his wife were capable of committing any crime, however diabolical.

[Sidenote: 1769. December. 1st.]

This day we had fine pleasant weather for the season of the year: we set out early in the morning, and arrived the same day at Seal River, along which we continued our course for several days. In our way we killed plenty of partridges, and saw many deer; but the weather was so remarkably serene that the Indians only killed two of the latter. By this time game was become so plentiful, that all apprehensions of starving were laid aside; and though we were heavily laden, and travelled pretty good days' journeys, yet as our spirits were good, our strength gradually returned.

[Sidenote: 5th.]

In our course down Seal River we met a stranger, a Northern Indian, on a hunting excursion; and though {8} he had not met with any success that day, yet he kindly invited us to his tent, saying he had plenty of venison at my service; and told the Southern Indians, that as there were two or three beaver houses near his tent, he should be glad of their assistance in taking them, for there was only one man and three women at the tent.

[Sidenote: 1769. December.]

Though we were at that time far from being in want of provisions, yet we accepted his offer, and set off with our new guide for his tent, which, by a comparative distance, he told us, was not above five miles from the place where we met him, but we found it to be nearer fifteen; so that it was the middle of the night before we arrived at it. When we drew near the tent, the usual signal for the approach of strangers was given, by firing a gun or two, which was immediately answered by the man at the tent. On our arrival at the door, the good man of the house came out, shook me by the hand, and welcomed us to his tent; but as it was too small to contain us all, he ordered his women to assist us in pitching our tent; and in the mean time invited me and as many of my crew as his little habitation could contain, and regaled us with the best in the house. The pipe went round pretty briskly, and the conversation naturally turned on the treatment we had received from Chawchinahaw and his gang; which was always answered by our host with, "Ah! if I had been there, it should not have been so!" when, notwithstanding his hospitality on the present occasion, he {9} would most assuredly have acted the same part as the others had done, if he had been of the party.

Having refreshed ourselves with a plentiful supper, we took leave of our host for a while, and retired to our tent; but not without being made thoroughly sensible that many things would be expected from me before I finally left them.

[Sidenote: 6th.]