9 Mr. Moses Norton
CHAPTER 7
1 The piece of iron above mentioned was the coulter of a new-fashioned plough, invented by Captain John Fowler, late Governor at Churchill River, with which he had a large piece of ground ploughed, and afterwards sowed with oats: but the part being nothing but a hot burning sand, like the Spanish lines at Gibraltar, the success may easily be guessed; which was, that it did not produce a single grain.
2 The course of this river is nearly South West.
3 His name was Cos-abyagh, the Northern Indian name for the Rock Partridge.
4 As a proof of this, Matonabbee, (who always thought me possessed of this art,) on his arrival at Prince of Wales;s Fort in the Winter of 1778, informed me, that a man whom I had never seen but once, had treated him in such a manner that he was afraid of his life; in consequence of which he pressed me very much to kill him, though I was then several hundreds of miles distant. On which, to please this great man to whom I owed so much, and not expecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling: in the hand of one of them, I drew the figure of a bayonet pointing to the breast of the other. This is me, said I to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was holding the bayonet; and the other, is your enemy. Opposite to those figures I drew a pine-tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and out of the tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as publicly known as possible. Sure enough, the following year, when he came in to trade, he informed me that the man was dead, though at that time he was not less than three hundred miles from Prince of Wales’s Fort. He assured me that the man was in perfect health when he heard of my design against him; but almost immediately afterwards became quite gloomy, and refusing all kind of sustenance, in a very few days died. After this I was frequently applied to on the same account, both by Matonabbee and other leading Indians, but never thought proper to comply with their request; by which means I not only preserved the credit I gained on the first attempt, but always kept them in awe, and in some degree of respect and obedience to me. In fact, strange as it may appear, it is almost absolutely necessary that the chiefs at this place should profess something a little supernatural, to be able to deal with those people. The circumstance here recorded is a fact well known to Mr. William Jefferson, who succeeded me at Churchill Factory, as well as to all the officers and many of the common men who were at Prince of Wales’s Fort at the time.
5 The difficulty here alluded to, was the numberless vaults the beaver had in the sides of the pond, and the immense thickness of the house in some parts.
6 The Northern Indians think that the sagacity of the beaver directs them to make that part of their house which fronts the North much thicker than any other part, with a view of defending themselves from the cold winds which generally blow from that quarter during the Winter; and for this reason the Northern Indians generally break open that side of the beaver-houses which exactly front the South.
7 This being the largest of the Orkney Islands, is called by the Inhabitants the Main Land.
CHAPTER 8
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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 in 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.
7 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, etc. 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 form 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 deerskin.
8 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 shamoy 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 skin-canoes. Probably deer-skins cannot be manufactured to withstand the water; 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.
9 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.
10 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, etc. besides numberless small articles, such as awls, needles, paint, steels, etc. 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, etc. 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.
11 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.
12 Mr. Jeremie 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. Jeremie 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. Jeremie 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.
CHAPTER 9
1 I have seen several of the Southern Indian men who wer
e near six feet high, preserve a single lock of their hair, that, when let down, would trail on the ground as they walked. This, however, is but seldom seen; and some have suspected it to be false: but I have examined the hair of several of them, and found it to be real.
2 The Indian method of preparing this unaccountable dish is by throwing the filthy bag across a pole directly over the fire, the smoke of which, they say, much improves it, by taking off the original flavour; and when any of it is to be cooked, a large flake, like as much tripe, is cut off and boiled for a few minutes; but the many large nodes with which the inside of the womb is studded, make it abominable. These nodes are as incapable of being divested of moisture as the skin of a live eel; but when boiled, much resemble, both in shape and colour, the yolk of an egg, and are so called by the natives, and as eagerly devoured by them.
The tripe of the buffalo is exceedingly good, and the Indian method of cooking it infinitely superior to that practiced in Europe. When opportunity will permit, they wash it tolerably clean in cold water, strip off all the honeycomb, and only boil it about half, or three-quarters of an hour: in that time it is sufficiently done for eating; and though rather tougher than what is prepared in England, yet is exceedingly pleasant to the taste, and must be much more nourishing than tripe that has been soaked and scrubbed in many hot waters, and then boiled for ten or twelve hours.
A Journey to the Northern Ocean Page 38
