A Journey to the Northern Ocean

by Samuel Hearne

  MOSS of various sorts and colours is plentiful enough in most parts of this country, and is what the deer usually feed on.

  GRASS of several kinds is also found in those parts, and some of it amazingly rapid of growth, particularly that which is there called Rye-grass, and which, in our short Summer at Churchill, frequently grows to the height of three feet. Another species of Grass, which is produced in marshes, and on the margins of lakes, ponds, and rivers, is particularly adapted for the support of the multitudes of the feathered creation which resort to those parts in Summer. The Marsh Grass at Churchill is of that peculiar nature, that where it is mowed one year, no crop can be procured the next Summer; whereas at York Fort, though the climate is not very different, they can get two crops, or harvests, from the same spot in one Summer. Vetches are plentiful in some parts as far North as Churchill River; and Burrage, Sorrel, and Coltsfoot, may be ranked among the useful plants. Dandelion is also plentiful at Churchill, and makes an early salad, long before anything can be produced in the gardens.

  In fact, notwithstanding the length of the Winter, the severity of the cold, and the great scarcity of vegetables at this Northern settlement, by proper attention to cleanliness, and keeping the people at reasonable exercise, I never had one man under me who had the least symptoms of the scurvy; whereas at York Fort, Albany, and Moose River, there were almost annual complaints that one half of the people were rendered incapable of duty by that dreadful disorder.

  I do not wish to lay claim to any merit on this occasion, but I cannot help observing that, during ten years I had the command at Churchill River, only two men died of that distemper, though my complement at times amounted in number to fifty-three.

  The Forest TREES that grow on this inhospitable spot are very few indeed; Pine, Juniper, small scraggy Poplar, Creeping Birch, and Dwarf Willows, compose the whole catalogue. Farther Westward the Birch Tree is very plentiful; and in the Athapuscow country, the Pines, Larch, Poplar, and Birch, grow to a great size; the Alder is also found there.

  ENDNOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  1 Since the above was written, a Mr. Umfreville has published an account of Hudson’s Bay, with the same ill-nature as the former Authors; and for no other reason than that of being disappointed in succeeding to a command in the Bay, though there was no vacancy for him.

  2 American Traveller, page 23

  3 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.

  4 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.

  5 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 £ per annum for two yearas, 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, etc.; 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. James Winter Lake

  John Anthony Merle Herman Berens

  Robert Merry Joseph Spurrel

  Samuel Wegg 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 convinces 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 £— 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 F
ort 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.

  6 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.

  7 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 marking war or peace; at all public entertainments, orations, etc.

  8 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, etc.

  9 By mistake in my former Journal and Draft called Arathapescow.

  10 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 outset, it would have carried me some hundreds of miles out of my road. See my Track on the Map in the Winter 1770, and Spring 1771.

  11 I was not provided with instruments for cutting on stone; but for form-sake, I cut my name, date of the year, etc. on a piece of board that had been on 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.

  12 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.

  13 See the preceding Note.

  14 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, thought sometimes they have been absent eighteen months, or two years.

  15 As to a passage through the continent of America by the way of Hudson’s Bay, it has so long been exploded, 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.

  CHAPTER 1

  1 The colder the weather is, the easier the sledges slide over the snow.

  CHAPTER 2

  1 This was a proposal of the Governor’s, though he well knew we could not do without their assistance, both for hauling our baggage, as well as dressing skins for clothing, pitching our tent, getting firing, etc.

  2 The Methy are generally caught with a hook; and the best time for that sport is in the night; and if the night be dark, the better.

  3 It is the general opinion of the Southern Indians, that when any of their tribe have been driven to the necessity of eating human flesh, they become so fond of it, that no person is safe in their company. And though it is well known they are never guilty of making this horrid repast but when driven to it by necessity, yet those who have made it are not only shunned, but so universally detested by all who know them, that no Indians will tent with them, and they are frequently murdered slily. I have seen several of those poor wretches who, unfortunately for them, have come under the above description, and though they were persons much esteemed before hunger had driven them to this act, were afterward so universally despised and neglected, that a smile never graced their countenances: deep melancholy has been seated on their brows, while the eye most expressively spoke the dictates of the heart, and seemed to say, “Why do you despise me for my misfortunes? the period is probably not far distant, when you may be driven to the like necessity!”

  In the Spring of the year 1775, when I was building Cumberland House, an Indian, whose name was Wapoos, came to the settlement, at a time when fifteen tents of Indians were on the plantations: they examined him very minutely, and found he had come a considerable way by himself, without a gun, or ammunition. This made many of them conjecture he had met with, and killed, some person by the way; and this was the more easily credited, from the care he took to conceal a bag of provisions, which he had brought with him, in a lofty pine-tree near the house.

  Being a stranger, I invited him in, though I saw he had nothing for trade; and during that interview, some of the Indian women examined his bag, and gave it as their opinion that the meat it contained was human flesh: in consequence, it was not without the interference of some principal Indians, whose liberality of sentiment was more extensive than that in the others, the poor creature saved his life. Many of the men cleaned and loaded their guns; others had their bows and arrows ready; and even the women took possession of the hatchets, to kill this poor inoffensive wretch, for no crime but that of travelling about two hundred miles by himself, unassisted by fire-arms for support in his journey.

  4 To prepare meat in this manner, it requires no farther operation than cutting the lean parts of the animal into thin slices, and drying it in the sun, or by a slow fire, till, after beating it between two stones, it is reduced to a coarse powder.

  5 Wish-a-capucca is the name given by the natives to a plant which is found all over the country bordering on Hudson’s Bay; and an infusion of it is used as tea by all the Europeans settled in that country.

  6 This river, as well as all others deserving that appellation which I crossed during this part of my journey, ran to the East and North East; and both them and the lakes were perfectly fresh,
and inhabited by fish that are well known never to frequent salt water.

  CHAPTER 3

  1 This only consisted of three walking-sticks stuck into the ground, and a blanket thrown over them.

  2 Skipertogan is a small bag that contains a flint and steel, also a pipe and tobacco, as well as touchwood, etc. for making a fire. Some of these bags may be called truly elegant; being richly ornamented with beads, procupine-quills, morse-hair, etc. a work always performed by the women; and they are, with much propriety, greatly esteemed by most Europeans for the neatness of their workmanship.

  CHAPTER 4

  1 Mr. Norton was an Indian; he was born at Prince of Wales’s Fort, but had been in England nine years, and considering the small sum which was expended in his education, had made some progress in literature. At his return to Hudson’s Bay he entered into all the abominable vices of his countrymen. He kept for his own use five or six of the finest Indian girls which he could select; and notwithstanding his own uncommon propensity to the fair sex, took every means in his power to prevent any European form having intercourse with the women of the country; for which purpose he proceeded to the most ridiculous length. To his own friends and country he was so partial, that he set more value on, and shewed more respect to one of their favourite dogs, than he ever did to his first officer. Among his miserable and ignorant countrymen he passed for a proficient in physic, and always kept a box of poison, to administer to those who refused him their wives and daughters.

  With all these bad qualities, no man took more pains to inculcate virtue, morality, and continence on others; always painting, in the most odious colours, the jealous and revengeful disposition of the Indians, when any attempt was made to violate the chastity of their wives or daughters. Lectures of this kind from a man of established virtue might have had some effect; but when they came from one who was known to live in open defiance of every law, human and divine, they were always heard with indignation, and considered as the hypocritical cant of a selfish debauchee, who wished to engross every woman in the country to himself.