Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.)
THE PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY
VI
THE
PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY
HEARNE:
A JOURNEY FROM PRINCE OF
WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY
TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN
[Illustration]
TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY
_Five Hundred and Twenty Copies of
this Volume have been printed. Twenty
are reserved for Editorial purposes.
The remaining Five Hundred are
supplied only to Members of the
Society and to Subscribing Libraries.
This copy is No. 229_
A JOURNEY
FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S
FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY TO
THE NORTHERN OCEAN
In the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772
BY
SAMUEL HEARNE
NEW EDITION
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY
J. B. TYRRELL, M.A.
TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY
1911
_All rights reserved._
PREFACE
BY SIR EDMUND WALKER
_President of the Champlain Society_
When the Champlain Society was first organised in 1905 one of the works
on its list of proposed publications was the _Journal_ of Samuel Hearne.
This book, written with great literary charm, is the first account
preserved to us of an attempt to explore the interior of far-northern
Canada from a base on Hudson Bay. The natives had brought to Fort Prince
of Wales glowing reports of a vast store of copper at the mouth of a
river which flowed into the Arctic Ocean. An attempt to find it was
inevitable. Twice Hearne failed, but his third effort succeeded and,
after a laborious journey, he reached the mouth of the Coppermine River.
Soon after he was promoted to command at Fort Prince of Wales, now
Churchill, on Hudson Bay. France had joined Britain's revolted colonies
in their war on the mother land, and one day, in 1782, a French
squadron, under the well-known seaman, La Pérouse, dropped anchor before
Fort Prince of Wales. Hearne, mightier with the pen than with the sword,
surrendered meekly enough in spite of his massive walls from thirty to
forty feet thick. Thus ingloriously he dies out of history.
Hearne's _Journal_, published after his early death, has become a rather
rare book. Besides the narrative of what he did, it contains copious
notes on the natural history of the region which he was the first white
man to make known. A new edition has long been needed. Yet to secure
competent editing was a difficult task, since few knew the remote
country which Hearne explored. It may be regarded as fortunate that the
new edition has been delayed, for only now are we able to present
Hearne's story with the annotations necessary to give it the last
possible elucidation. The needed knowledge is supplied by Mr. J. B.
Tyrrell and Mr. E. A. Preble, two writers pre-eminently suited for their
task by journeys in the regions described by Hearne, on parts of which
so few white men have set eyes.
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell began his work of exploring in North Western Canada in
1883, and during the ensuing fifteen years he made many important
additions to our knowledge of the geology and geography of what is still
the least known part of Canada. In 1893, accompanied by his brother, Mr.
J. W. Tyrrell, as his assistant, he traversed the so-called Barren
Grounds from Lake Athabasca eastward to Chesterfield Inlet, and from
there his party paddled in canoes down the west shore of Hudson Bay to
Fort Churchill. Of the 3200 miles thus traversed, 1650 were previously
unsurveyed and unmapped. From Fort Churchill Mr. Tyrrell walked eight or
nine hundred miles on snowshoes to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg. In
1894 he again crossed the Barren Grounds, this time travelling from the
north end of Reindeer Lake to a point on Hudson Bay, about 200 miles
south-west of Chesterfield Inlet. Thence he went to Churchill as before
in canoes along the open coast. From Churchill Mr. Tyrrell again, but by
another route, walked on showshoes to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg.
On this journey he travelled about 2900 miles, of which 1750 were by
canoe and 750 on snowshoes. Almost the whole journey was through
previously unexplored country. For the geographical work done in these
two years he was awarded the Back Premium by the Royal Geographical
Society of London.
In response to an enquiry whether any other white man has visited the
regions described by Hearne, Mr. Tyrrell writes:--
"I happen to be the only one since Hearne who has conducted
explorations in the country lying between Fort Churchill and the
eastern end of Great Slave Lake and south of latitude 63° N.
Except Hearne, I and those who accompanied and assisted me are
the only white men who have crossed that great stretch of
country, north of a line between the mouth of the Churchill
River and Lake Athabasca and a line between the east end of
Great Slave Lake and Chesterfield Inlet. Absolutely the only
information that I had about the region when I visited it, other
than what I had secured in conversation with Indians, was
contained in Hearne's book. My last journey was made sixteen
years ago, and no white man has since travelled across that
country. With the building of the railroad to Fort Churchill, it
will doubtless soon be visited. Since I made a survey of
Chesterfield Inlet and its vicinity, my brother, Mr. J. W.
Tyrrell, has crossed from the east end of Great Slave Lake by
the Hanbury River to Chesterfield Inlet, making a survey as he
went, and the Royal North West Mounted Police have sent parties
from the Mackenzie River to Hudson Bay along this route, using
my brother's maps as their guide. It is hardly necessary to say
that a magnificent field for exploration is still left in that
far northern country."
So much as to Mr. Tyrrell's work. For the notes explaining Hearne's many
observations on natural history we are indebted to Mr. E. A. Preble of
Washington. Mr. Preble spent a summer on the west shore of Hudson Bay
north of Fort Churchill. He also spent the summers of 1901 and 1903, the
winter of 1903-4, and the summers of 1904 and 1907 on the Athabasca and
Mackenzie Rivers and on the Barren Grounds north of Great Slave Lake.
This most important study of the fauna of Northern Canada was undertaken
by Mr. Preble on behalf of the Biological Survey of the United States
Department of Agriculture. The various reports and other publications
arising from the journeys of Mr. Tyrrell and the investigations of Mr.
Preble are mentioned in a bibliographical note at the end of this
volume.
This is the first work relating to the West to be published by the
Champlain Society. It has already begun an extensive list of the works
of early writers on Eastern Canada. The year 1911 will, it is hoped, see
the completion of the three volumes of Lescarbot's _History of New
France_, now for the first time entirely translated into English. In
this as in all other publications of the Society the original text is
given with the translation. Nicolas Denys was the first writer to
describe in detail the coasts of eastern Canada, and the Society has
republished his great book, adequately translated and with copious
notes. It has done the same with Le Clercq's account of Gaspé and its
interesting natives. The writings of Champlain, entirely translated into
English for the first time, will soon appear in six volumes. The regions
lying west of Lake Superior have a history as interesting, but the
material is scattered. Hearne's _Journal_ makes a good beginning. In
preparation are the _Journals_ of La Vérendrye, the first white man to
come in sight of the Rocky Mountains by an overland route. His writings
will now for the first time be translated into English. The Society is
sparing no pains to provide volumes bearing on the Hudson's Bay Company.
Much further work on examining and classifying the papers of the Company
will, however, be necessary before anything final can be done. Meanwhile
members will enjoy the pleasant narrative of Hearne edited by the
competent observers whose services the Society has had the good fortune
to secure.
TORONTO, _January 1911_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 1
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 29
AUTHOR'S CONTENTS 33
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 41
A JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN 61
BIBLIOGRAPHY 419
INDEX 427
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN ORIGINAL VOLUME
A NORTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S
FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY, NORTH AMERICA _To face p._ 61
INDIAN IMPLEMENTS " 134
A WINTER VIEW IN ATHAPUSCOW LAKE " 232
INDIAN IMPLEMENTS " 310
A MAP EXHIBITING MR. HEARNE'S TRACKS
IN HIS TWO JOURNIES FOR THE DISCOVERY
OF THE COPPER MINE RIVER
IN THE YEARS 1770, 1771, AND 1772, UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY
COMPANY _At end_
PLAN OF THE COPPER MINE RIVER "
PLAN OF ALBANY RIVER IN HUDSON'S BAY "
PLAN OF MOOS RIVER IN HUDSON'S BAY "
PLAN OF SLUDE RIVER "
ADDITIONS IN PRESENT VOLUME
MAP OF PART OF NORTHERN CANADA AS
AT PRESENT KNOWN _At end_
Drawn on the same projection and scale as
Hearne's general Map
MAP OF COPPERMINE RIVER _At end_
As surveyed by Sir John Franklin in 1821.
From "Franklin's First Journey,"
London, 1823.
MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA _To face p._ 18
Showing Hearne's course as first
published. From "Cook's Third
Voyage," 1784.
MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA, 1787 " 18
From Supplement to "Pennant's
Arctic Zoology."
PLAN OF FORT PRINCE OF WALES AS IT
APPEARED IN 1894. By J. B. TYRRELL _page_ 22
MAP OF YATH-KYED LAKE AND PART OF
KAZAN (CATHAWHACHAGA) RIVER. By
J. B. TYRRELL _To face p._ 86
MAP OF DUBAWNT LAKE AND PART OF
DUBAWNT RIVER. By J. B. AND J. W. TYRRELL " 90
HEARNE'S NAME ON ROCK AT CHURCHILL " 4
SAMUEL HEARNE " 25
DUBAWNT LAKE " 96
DUBAWNT RIVER WHERE HEARNE CROSSED IT " 96
A SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT " 106
WHOLDIAH LAKE " 120
GROVE OF SPRUCE WITHIN BARREN LANDS " 120
ARTILLERY LAKE, LAST WOODS " 138
ARTILLERY LAKE " 138
BLOODY FALLS, COPPERMINE RIVER " 178
From "Franklin's First Journey," p. 360.
COPPER IMPLEMENTS FROM COPPERMINE RIVER " 178
HERD OF CARIBOU ON BARREN LANDS NEAR
DUBAWNT RIVER _To face p._ 234
DRYING CARIBOU MEAT " 234
WOODS OF SPRUCE AND LARCH, SOUTH-WEST
OF CHURCHILL, IN WINTER " 288
STONY BARREN LANDS IN SUMMER " 288
CHIPEWYAN INDIANS FROM KAZAN RIVER " 296
VALLEY OF THLEWIAZA RIVER " 296
FORT PRINCE OF WALES, GATE " 328
FORT PRINCE OF WALES, INTERIOR " 328
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Samuel Hearne, the author of the book here republished, is one of the
most interesting characters to be met with in the annals of exploration
in North America. When a young man, only twenty-four years old, he was
sent on foot to explore the interior of a great continent. Though he
knew nothing of mines or minerals, he, like many a man similarly
equipped since his day, was to report on a great mining property.
Naturally his report on the "mine" of copper is of little value, but his
account of Northern Canada and of the life of the natives who inhabited
it is the first published detailed description of any portion of the
interior of Western Canada. Very few men of his age accomplished so
much, and fewer still have published such admirable narratives of their
enterprises.
All that we know of Hearne's early life is contained in an obituary
notice which appeared in the _European Magazine and London Review_ for
June 1797, entitled "Some Account of the late Mr. Samuel Hearne, Author
of 'A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort, in Hudson's Bay, to the
Northern Ocean, undertaken by order of the Hudson's Bay Company for the
discovery of Copper Mines, a North-West Passage, &c., in the years 1769,
1770, 1771, and 1772.'"
"Mr. Samuel Hearne was born in the year 1745. He was the son of
Mr. Hearne, Secretary to the Waterworks, London Bridge, a very
sensible man, and of a respectable family in Somersetshire; he
died of fever in his 40th year, and left Mrs. Hearne with this
son, then but three years of age, and a daughter two years
older. Mrs. Hearne, finding her income too small to admit her
living in town as she had been accustomed to, retired to
Bimmester, in Dorsetshire (her native place), where she lived as
a gentlewoman, and was much respected. It was her wish to give
her children as good an education as the place afforded, and
accordingly [she] sent her son to school at a very early period,
but his dislike to reading and writing was so great that he made
very little progress in either. His masters, indeed, spared
neither threats nor persuasion to induce him to learn, but their
arguments were thrown away on one who seemed predetermined never
to become a learned man; he had, however, a very quick
apprehension, and, in his childish sports, showed unusual
activity and ingenuity; he was particularly fond of drawing, and
though he never had the least instruction in the art, copied
with great delicacy and correctness even from nature. Mrs.
Hearne's friends, finding her son had no taste for study,
advised her fixing on some business, and proposed such as they
judged most suitable for him; but he declared himself utterly
averse to trade, and begged he might be sent to sea. His mother
very reluctantly complied with his request, took him to
Portsmouth, and remained with him till he sailed. His captain
(now Lord Hood) promised to take care of him, and he kept his
word; for he gave him every indulgence his youth required. He
was then but eleven years of age. They had a warm engagement
soon after he entered, and took several prizes. The captain told
him he should have his share, but he begged, in a very
affectionate manner, it should be given to his mother, and she
should know best what to do with it. He was a midshipman several
years under the same commander; but, either on the conclusion of
the war, or having no hopes of preferment, he left the navy, and
entered into the service of the Hudson's Bay Company as mate of
one of their sloops. He was, however, soon distinguished from
his associates by his ingenuity, industry, and a wish to
undertake some hazardous enterprise by which mankind might be
benefited. This was represented to the Company, and they
immediately applied to him as a proper person to be sent on an
expedition they had long had in view, viz. to find out the
North-West Passage. He gladly accepted the proposal, and how far
he succeeded is shown to the public in his Journal. On his
return he was advanced to a more lucrative post at Prince of
Wales Fort, on Hudson Bay, and in a few years was made
Commander-in-Chief, in which position he remained till 1782,
when the French unexpectedly landed at Prince of Wales Fort,
took possession of it, and after having given the governor leave
to secure his own property, seized the stock of furs, &c. &c.,
and blew up the fort. At the Company's request Mr. H. went out
the year following, saw it rebuilt,[1] and the new Governor
settled in his habitation (which they took care to fortify a
little better than formerly), and returned to England in 1787.
He had saved a few thousands, the fruits of many years'
industry, and might, had he been blessed with prudence, have
enjoyed many years of ease and plenty; but he had lived so long
where money was of no use that he seemed insensible of its value
here, and lent it with little or no security to those he was
scarcely acquainted with by name. Sincere and undesigning
himself, he was by no means a match for the duplicity of others.
His disposition, as may be judged by his writing, was naturally
humane; what he wanted in learning and polite accomplishments he
made up in native simplicity and innate goodness; and he was so
strictly scrupulous with regard to the property of others that
he was heard to say a few days before his death, 'He could lay
his hand on his heart and say he had never wronged any man of
sixpence.'
"Such are the outlines of Mr. Hearne's character, who, if he had
some failings, had many virtues to counterbalance them, of which
charity was not the least. He died of the dropsy, November 1792,
aged 47."
He seems to have entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and to
have been sent to Fort Prince of Wales, the great stone fortification on
the low bare rocky point at the mouth of the Churchill River on Hudson
Bay, when he was about twenty years old. For several years he was
engaged in the fur trade with the Eskimos, up and down the coast of
Hudson Bay, north of Churchill River. One little glimpse is caught of
him, on July 1, 1767, for on that day he chiselled his name on the
smooth hard rock of Sloops Cove, on the west side of Churchill harbour.
When I visited the place, in 1894, the name was as fresh and plain as if
his hammer and chisel had just been laid aside.
Being possessed of much more than the average amount of ability and
enthusiasm, he was chosen by Moses Norton, the energetic Governor of
Fort Prince of Wales, to go out with the Indians into the vast, and as
far as that was then known, limitless, territory west of Hudson Bay, in
order to find and prospect the place where the native copper had been
found which the Indians often brought with them to the fort.
During the year preceding his departure on his first expedition, he had
had an excellent opportunity to perfect himself in a knowledge of
astronomical and geodetic work, for in the summer of 1768 the annual
ship had brought William Wales, F.R.S., and Joseph Dymond from London,
commissioned by the Royal Society to remain at Fort Prince of Wales
throughout the ensuing year in order to observe the transit of Venus
over the sun on the 3rd of June 1769.[2] They remained at the fort until
the ship left again for London in August of the following year (1769).
Mr. Wales was one of the foremost astronomers, mathematicians, and
litterateurs of his age. Shortly after his return to England he was
appointed to accompany Captain Cook on his voyage around the world in
the _Resolution_ in 1772-74, and again on his last voyage in 1776-79.
His presence for more than a year among the little band of white men
assembled at this remote fur-trading post on Hudson Bay must have had a
helpful influence in preparing Hearne for his great explorations
overland to the Arctic Ocean. This book is an account of three journeys
which he undertook in rapid succession into the country west of Hudson
Bay and north-west of Fort Prince of Wales in search of the fabled bed
of copper ore, from which pure copper could be loaded directly into
ships at trifling expense. In the first and second journeys he was
obliged to turn back before reaching his destination, but in the third
journey all difficulties were finally overcome, and he was taken to and
shown the "mine" of copper.
It has been my good fortune to travel over parts of the same country
through which Hearne had journeyed one hundred and twenty-three years
before me, and into which no white man had ventured during the
intervening time. The conditions which I found were just such as he
describes, except that the inhabitants had changed. The Chipewyan
Indians, whom he found occupying advantageous positions everywhere as
far as the north end of Dubawnt Lake, had disappeared, and in their
places the country had been occupied by scattered bands and families of
Eskimos, who had almost forgotten the ocean shores of the north, from
which they had come. They were depending entirely, for food and
clothing, on the caribou, which they killed on the banks of the inland
streams and lakes. Traces of old Indian encampments were seen in a few
of the scattered groves that are growing along the banks of Dubawnt and
Kazan Rivers, but these camps had evidently not been occupied for many
years.[3]
[Illustration: _Photo. J. B. Tyrrell, Oakley, 1894._
S. HEARNE'S NAME ON THE SMOOTH GLACIATED ROCK AT SLOOP'S COVE, NEAR
CHURCHILL]
Whether Hearne remained at Fort Prince of Wales after his return is not
certain, but it is possible that he may have gone to some of the other
factories near the southern shore of Hudson Bay, and the plans of
Albany, Moos, and Slude (East Main) Rivers, at the end of this book, the
first two of which are dated 1774, may have been made by him at this
time. In the latter year, however, he was at York Factory, and from
there, in May or June, he was sent inland to the Saskatchewan River,
where he established Cumberland House on Pine Island Lake, close to a
trading-post which had been previously built by Joseph Frobisher, an
enterprising merchant from Montreal. The following year he was recalled
to Hudson Bay to take charge of his old home, Fort Prince of Wales, in
the place of Governor Norton, who had died, and there he remained
quietly trading with the Indians till August 1782, when the fort was
taken and burnt by the French under Admiral La Pérouse.
As soon as the French with three vessels of war appeared before the
fort and demanded its capitulation, Hearne surrendered at discretion,
without firing a shot. He was at once taken on board the French ships,
and allowed to retain all his private papers and effects, while the furs
and other property of the Hudson's Bay Company were either confiscated
or burnt. After pillaging and destroying the fort, La Pérouse sailed
southward to York Factory, which also surrendered to him as soon as he
appeared before it, and then, with all his prisoners on board, including
the Governors of Fort Prince of Wales, York, and Severn, he sailed for
France.
Hearne does not appear to have been treated by La Pérouse as an enemy
who had been taken prisoner at the capture of a hostile fort, but rather
as a literary man whom he was anxious to encourage and patronise. While
a prisoner on board the French ships he was treated with every
consideration, and his generous captor, who was one of the foremost
geographers of his time, read his manuscript journal with evident
interest, and returned it to him on the express condition that he would
print and publish it immediately on his arrival in England.
On the signing of peace with the French in the following year, Hearne
was sent back by the Hudson's Bay Company to Churchill. He made no
attempt to live again in the fort, which was very unfavourably situated
for obtaining both wood and water, but took up his residence on the site
of the original trading-post of the Hudson's Bay Company, five miles
south of Fort Prince of Wales, where the buildings of the Company stand
at the present day.
In 1784, while Hearne was at Churchill, there arrived from England a
boy, fourteen years old, named David Thompson, who afterwards became the
great geographer of North-Western America. Thompson remained at
Churchill for only one year, during which time he copied some of
Hearne's Journal, and though he did not carry away any very friendly
feelings towards his superior officer, the knowledge which he gained of
the interior country, and of the possibilities of travel through it,
must have had a stimulating effect on him in after life. His note-books,
which are now in possession of the Government of the Province of
Ontario, are filled with detailed information about North-Western
America, so much of which he subsequently explored. In 1787 Hearne left
Churchill and returned to England, and from that date until his death,
in 1792, he probably spent most of his time in revising and preparing
his Journal for publication.
Before discussing Hearne's character and the extent and value of his
work, it will be interesting to recount briefly the circumstances which
led up to the expedition to the Coppermine River. In the seventeenth
century the search for gold and silver monopolised the thoughts of many
of the adventurers in the Southern Seas, but those adventurers who
turned their attention to the more northern countries recognised that
there were other sources of wealth beside the precious metals. They saw
that the furs of many of the wild animals which roamed through the
forests might easily be obtained from the natives in exchange for
articles of European manufacture of but trifling value, and that these
furs might be sold in the markets of Europe and Asia at an enormous
profit. In this way what is known as the fur trade had its beginning on
the American continent.
The Dutch, French, and English strove for shares in this lucrative
trade, and many of the wars and massacres of that time had their origin
in the strenuous endeavours of one or other of these nations to outwit
its rivals. The Dutch had headquarters on the Hudson River, in what is
now the State of New York, the French on the St. Lawrence River, in the
present Provinces of Quebec and Ontario, while the English established
themselves on the shores of Hudson Bay, founding a fur-trading company,
which was destined to survive till the present time, and to be one of
the greatest commercial corporations that the world has ever known.
This Company was called "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of
England, trading into Hudson's Bay," or in brief, "The Hudson's Bay
Company." At first it occupied a few small buildings, called factories
or forts, situated at advantageous places near the mouths of rivers on
the shore of Hudson Bay, where the Indians, who were accustomed to roam
through the great unknown inland country, could come down in canoes to
trade their furs for guns, knives, and other commodities brought from
England by the white people.
About the beginning of the eighteenth century, some of the Indians who
came to the more northern factories or trading-posts, and especially to
those situated at the mouths of the Churchill and Nelson Rivers, brought
with them rough pieces of native copper, and ornaments and weapons
fashioned from this metal. On being asked where the copper came from,
they said that they found it on the banks of a river, far away to the
north, and that it could be collected from the surface in great
abundance, but that the distance through which it was necessary for them
to carry it prevented them from bringing much of it to the factories.
These stories, along with the specimens which the Indians had in their
possession, gradually aroused more and more interest in the minds of the
fur-traders. At last they determined that there were far greater riches
within their reach than could be obtained by trading with the Indians
for furs, and decided to go in search of the copper mines whatever the
cost of such a search might be. Among the first to take up this quest
was Captain James Knight, a man of about eighty years of age, who had
spent most of his life in trading for furs with the Indians, and who for
several years had been in charge of York Factory for the Hudson's Bay
Company. With him were Captain Barlow, another fur-trader from Fort
Albany, and Captain Vaughan.
When the Committee, appointed in 1748 by the British House of Commons to
inquire into the state and conditions of the countries adjoining Hudson
Bay, was taking evidence, one of the chief witnesses was a Captain
Carruthers, who in his evidence stated "that he had heard a good deal of
a Copper Mine to the northward of the Churchill River--that the Governor
(Knight) was mighty fond of the Discovery, and made great inquiries
about it,--that the witness had seen copper which was said to be brought
from thence,--that the Governor (Knight) was very earnest in this
Discovery, which was always his topic."
Joseph Robson states that "Governor Knight and Captain Barlow being well
assured that there were rich mines to the northward, from the accounts
of the Indians of those parts who had brought some of the ore to the
factory, they were bent upon making the discovery; and the Governor said
he knew the way to the place as well as to his bedside."[4] In the year
1719, Captain Knight and his associates sailed from England in two
ships, the _Albany_ and the _Discovery_, well provided with stores and
provisions, and even with strong iron-bound boxes in which to bring back
the copper and other precious metals. Unfortunately the expedition was
wrecked on Marble Island, and all the officers and crew were lost,
although their fate was not definitely known until nearly half a century
later.
Three years later, when the two ships had not returned, and no word had
been received from them, Captain Scroggs was sent by the Hudson's Bay
Company from Churchill to look for them, and at the same time to
continue the search for copper. The story of his journey, as given by
Dobbs in his "Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay"
(London, 1744), says nothing about the explorers who had been lost, but
comments on the copper deposits as follows:--
"He [Scroggs] had two Northern [Chipewyan] Indians with him, who
had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a copper mine
somewhere in that country upon the shore near the surface of the
earth, and they could direct the sloop so near it, as to lay her
side to it, and be soon laden with it; and they brought some
pieces of copper from it to Churchill that made it evident there
was a mine thereabouts. They had sketched out the country with
charcoal upon a skin of parchment before they left Churchill,
and so far as they went it agreed very well. One of the Indians
desired to leave him, saying he was within three or four days'
journey of his own country, but he would not let him go. Captain
Norton, late Governor of Churchill, was then with him."
The Captain Norton here mentioned was the father of Governor Moses
Norton who afterwards despatched Hearne to look for the Coppermine
River. Captain Carruthers, who is mentioned above, and who, according to
his own statement, had "quitted" the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
thirty-five years before 1748, said that he "himself carried Mr. Norton,
who was afterwards Governor, and two Northern Indians to Churchill where
he put them in a canoe, and the purpose of their voyage was to make
discoveries and encourage the Indians to come down to trade and bring
copper ore."[5]
The journey of Mr. Norton referred to by Captain Carruthers was probably
undertaken about 1714, in which year York Factory was restored to the
English, after having been occupied by the French for seventeen years.
Probably it was on account of this and similar journeys that, in 1719, a
gratuity of £15 was voted to Mr. Norton by the Hudson's Bay Company, on
account of having endured "great hardships in travelling among the
Indians." In 1733 the same Mr. Norton wrote to the directors of the
Hudson's Bay Company in London that he had "served your Honors many
years and gone through many difficulties and hardships in taking long
journeys with the natives to promote your trade with them, even many
times to the hazard of my own life."[6]
In the same Parliamentary Report Alexander Browne, a surgeon who had
been for six years in the Company's service, testified "that the Indians
brought down the ore at the request of Governor Norton," and also "that
he had heard the late Mr. Norton say that he had been at this mine and
that a considerable quantity of copper might be brought down."[7] It is
not probable that Browne's statement with reference to Norton having
visited the Coppermine River is correct, but it would be rash to deny
that such a journey had been accomplished until the letters and records
of the Hudson's Bay Company are finally made public.
After the unsuccessful voyages of Captains Knight and Scroggs, several
other expeditions were sent from Churchill northward along the shore of
Hudson Bay. Most of these doubtless more than paid their way by trading
for furs with the Eskimos, but to the outside public they were
ostensibly to find the North-West Passage to China and the "mine" of
copper ore. The most important of these expeditions were those of the
_Furnace_ and _Discovery_ under Captains Middleton and Moor, in 1741-2,
and of the _Dobbs_ and _California_ under Captains Moor and Smith in
1746-7. After these expeditions, interest in the copper may have
languished for a while, but the numerous references to it in the
Hudson's Bay Report of 1749 show that it was not by any means forgotten.
Meanwhile, Richard Norton of Churchill had died, and his half-breed son
Moses Norton had been appointed Governor in his stead. In the year 1767
the remains of Knight's ill-fated expedition were found on Marble
Island, and the thoughts of the people on Hudson Bay were undoubtedly
again turned to the object for which his voyage had been undertaken. To
add to the interest in the copper, the Northern Indians, who came to
Churchill in the year 1768, brought with them some fine specimens of ore
which they said came from Coppermine River. By this time Governor Moses
Norton's interest was thoroughly aroused in the possible value of the
copper "mines," and as they were said to be only four hundred miles from
Churchill, he determined that, if possible, something definite should be
learned about them. Accordingly, that very summer, when the ship came
from England, he took passage back in it to London, and laid a plan for
the discovery of this supposed great body of copper ore before the
directors of the Company and received their approval for its execution.
The plan was not to entail any very great expense to the Company. A man
was to be sent out with the Indians, who should be supported by them and
live as they lived.
Before that time other men had been sent into the wilderness, in the
same way, from factories, especially from York, where, in 1690, Henry
Kelsey had travelled southward until he met the so-called "Naywatamee
poets" or Mandan Indians, somewhere near the banks of the Assiniboine or
South Saskatchewan Rivers,[8] and in 1754 Anthony Hendry had made a
notable journey up the North Saskatchewan River to the great plains,
where he had endeavoured to establish friendly relations with the
Blackfeet Indians and their allies, and to prevent them from selling
their furs to Luc la Corne and the French merchants from Montreal, who
had penetrated into the same country several years before. Both these
men had been treated with the greatest kindness by the natives and had
brought back intelligent accounts of the countries visited by them,
though neither of them had the ability of Samuel Hearne to enable them
to prepare a report such as the one here published.
Governor Norton was a man of much more than the ordinary intelligence
and strength of character, and he saw that if the expedition was to be a
success it must be conducted by some one who would be able to make full
and accurate surveys of the route followed, and who could intelligently
describe the character and value of the "mine" and determine its
latitude and longitude by astronomical observations. For this purpose he
chose Samuel Hearne, now a young man twenty-four years of age, who,
after his service as a midshipman in the British Navy, was at the time
employed as a mate on the _Charlotte_, one of the Company's sloops
trading from Churchill with the Eskimos. The story of his journey, the
hardships which he endured, and the success which he achieved, form the
subject of this book and need not be discussed here.[9]
Hearne's character, which had been moulded to a large extent by his
surroundings, can be fairly well understood from a careful reading of
his book. He was diligent and reasonably accurate but not strong or
forceful. In this latter particular he differed from his great
successor, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who descended the Mackenzie River
eighteen years after Hearne had reached its waters at Great Slave Lake.
Alexander Mackenzie was a man of masterful temperament, and those who
accompanied him, whether white men or natives, were merely so many
instruments to be used in the accomplishment of any purpose which he had
in hand. Their likes and dislikes, and their habits of life, were merely
interesting to him in so far as they affected the results that he wished
to attain. His book is a detailed description of the directions and
distances which he travelled each day, and of the incidents of travel as
they occurred. To Samuel Hearne the natives with whom he travelled were
beings whose thoughts and habits of life he found supremely interesting.
Their intentions and desires largely controlled the expeditions on which
he had embarked. With the exception of the accomplishment of the main
object in view, of reaching the Coppermine River, their wishes were
everything, his nothing.
His first expedition was a complete failure, as the Indians simply took
him off with them for a couple of hundred miles into the wilderness
until they became tired of his company and then robbed him of everything
he had and left him to find his own way back to Churchill as best he
could. His second expedition was more successful, as the Indians
tolerated his company for eight months and supported him as long as food
was plentiful, but their enthusiasm, or duty to the Master at Churchill,
did not last long enough to carry them to the Coppermine River.
Of his third and successful expedition Hearne was the historian and
surveyor, while Matonabbee, a bold and forceful Chipewyan Indian about
ten years his senior, was its leader. If at any time Hearne tried to
interfere with the arrangements made by the leader he was promptly told
to follow instructions if he wished to reach the copper mine. While
Matonabbee probably reciprocated, to some extent at least, Hearne's
affection for him, he was evidently thinking of and working for Moses
Norton, the rough but powerful governor of Fort Prince of Wales, rather
than for the quiet and observant young man who was accompanying him.
Hearne's sketch of the life of Matonabbee is one of the most
appreciative and sympathetic accounts of a North American Indian that
has come to my notice.
Hearne was evidently gifted with a very retentive memory, and had the
artist's faculty of seeing the interesting features of his surroundings
in their true perspective. Though, like Robert Louis Stevenson and many
others, he had not been a brilliant student at school, he possessed the
literary ability to present what he saw or knew in an interesting and
attractive form. In the ordinary quietude of his tent or office, when
thinking of nothing but the subject which he was describing, he
undoubtedly recorded his observations with accuracy. But in the warmth
of dispute, when endeavouring to overcome the criticisms or objections
of others, he was liable to be carried beyond the points of strict
accuracy and, in order to strengthen his argument, to fill in blanks in
his record from his imagination. He says, for example, that the sun was
above the horizon at midnight at the mouth of the Coppermine River. But
it is certain either that, on the night which he spent there, the
weather was too cloudy to permit of seeing the sun, if it had been above
the horizon, or that, even if the weather was clear, the sun must
necessarily have been below the horizon at the time. His sketch of Moses
Norton also has the appearance of being highly coloured by his evident
personal dislike of the man. No one can justly accuse Hearne of lack of
personal courage, for the annoyances, hardships, and sufferings, which
he endured without complaining, put the thought of personal cowardice
entirely out of the question. He had acquired the stoicism of the Indian
and he suffered quietly, just as an Indian is prepared to suffer. During
the years which Hearne spent among the Indians, living on what they were
able to obtain from day to day, as well as in his general intercourse
with them as a trader bartering for the furs which they were able to
collect and bring to him, he had learned to endure privations, to
compromise rather than to fight, and to accomplish his purpose by
politic and peaceful, rather than by warlike, methods. Naturally of a
complaisant disposition, he had learned to give whatever was demanded of
him, no matter who made the demand. Nothing could be more typical of the
habits which he had thus acquired than the little experiences in
trading, recounted on page 285, where, after an Indian had received full
payment for the furs which he had brought in, he was given in addition
the long list of articles there enumerated. Apparently, the Indian was
not refused anything if he persisted in asking.
This habit of acceding to requests to avoid dispute and difficulty,
rather than any real fear of personal danger, accounts for Hearne's
surrender of Fort Prince of Wales to the French without a struggle. In
this case it is quite possible that, in spite of the great strength of
the fort which he occupied, he was really not able to make effective
resistance against his powerful and determined enemy, who outnumbered
him more than ten to one. Although the fort mounted forty heavy guns,
and was provided with plenty of ammunition and small arms, it had only
thirty-nine men within its walls at the time. But even if Hearne had had
a stronger garrison, it is doubtful whether he would have attempted
resistance, for his training in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company
had taught him to preserve the peace at any price, and it was impossible
for him to set aside at a moment's notice what had become second nature
to him.
We have seen that Hearne had not the forceful character possessed by
Alexander Mackenzie; yet, as a man must be judged by the results which
he achieves, it is perhaps all the more creditable to him to have done
what he did with his more complaisant and observant disposition. Though
he could not control the Indians with whom he travelled, he nevertheless
accomplished his purpose of making the journey, and has left a splendid
record of it to enrich posterity. He was hardly a great geographer,
though he added largely to the geographical knowledge of Northern Canada
west of Hudson Bay. It was he who finally set at rest the question of a
north-west passage by sea to China and the Orient, south of the mouth of
the Coppermine River. He knew nothing of mines or ores, and the
information he brought back about the "mine" of copper which he was
sent to explore was exceedingly meagre. He verified the report of the
existence of native copper on the surface in uncertain quantity.
Incidentally he showed that the place where it occurred was too remote
and difficult of access to permit of a copper mine being worked at a
profit, even if the copper should be found in great abundance. But that
was all. In fact, even to the present time, we have very little accurate
knowledge of the character and extent of this copper deposit near the
Coppermine River, as may be seen by referring to the notes on pages 194
_et seq._
On Hearne's first and second journeys he had quite adequate scientific
apparatus, and so could take astronomical observations to determine his
true position. So we find that he occasionally made use of his quadrant
and took such observations; consequently the positions given on the map
for the principal points in these two journeys are approximately
correct. But he started on his third journey with very faulty
instruments, and he would appear to have made very little use even of
them. The map of the course followed by him on this journey strongly
suggests a rough sketch made by his Indian guide, rather than a careful
plan worked out by himself, from day to day, or week to week. For
example, between Island and Kasba Lakes, near the beginning of his
journey, and shortly after he had diverged from his course of the
previous year, he began to go wrong. If he was using his compass at all,
it is possible that some source of local magnetic attraction was
influencing it, for the position of the last-named lake (on his map) is
some sixty or seventy miles too far north. It is inconceivable that he
could have made any serious effort to correct this faulty course by
astronomical observations with his quadrant. His book is chiefly
valuable therefore not so much because of its geographical information,
but because it is an accurate, sympathetic, and patently truthful record
of life among the Chipewyan Indians at that time. Their habits, customs,
and general mode of life, however disagreeable or repulsive, are
recorded in detail, and the book will consequently always remain a
classic in American ethnology.
The manuscript report on Hearne's exploration was submitted to the
directors of the Hudson's Bay Company immediately after his return, and
they highly commended him for the work he had done, and gave him a
handsome bonus.[10] The first account of his journey which seems to have
been published was given to the world in 1784 in the "Introduction to
Cook's Third Voyage," pp. xlvi-l, written by Dr. John Douglas, Bishop of
Salisbury, who later also edited Hearne's own book. The route followed
by Hearne on his successful third journey is incorporated in the general
map of the world accompanying this book. A Mr. Roberts, who prepared
this map, makes the following note with regard to it:--
"The whole of Hudson's Bay I took from a chart compiled by Mr.
Marley, from all the most authentic maps he could procure of
those parts, with which I was favoured by Samuel Wegg, Esq.,
F.R.S., and Governor of that Company, who also politely
furnished me with Mr. Hearne's Journals and the map of his route
to the Coppermine River, which is faithfully inserted in the
chart.
"(Sgd.) HENRY ROBERTS.
"SHOREHAM, SUSSEX, _May 18, 1784_."[11]
Another brief account of Hearne's trip is given in "Pennant's Arctic
Zoology," also published in 1784, while his map is incorporated in one
of the maps published in "Pennant's Supplement to Arctic Zoology," 1787.
Some of the names used on these two maps were continued on the map
accompanying Alexander Mackenzie's "Voyages," and also on Arrowsmith's
maps up to comparatively recent dates.
[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA
Being a portion of the Map of the World in "Cook's Third Voyage,"
published in 1784 Hearne's route was first published on this map]
[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF NORTH AMERICA
Showing General Course of Hearne's Third Journey _From the Second Map of
Mr. Pennant's "Arctic Zoology," 1787_]
The book here republished appeared first in 1795, three years after
Hearne's death, as a large quarto volume of xliv + 458 pages, with five
maps, and four full-page illustrations. It was edited by the above-named
Dr. John Douglas, who is said to have drawn up the narrative, and to
have finished the Introduction, though just how much Hearne's diction
was altered by the editor is not known. It is probable, however, that
the MS. was published almost exactly as Hearne had written it. An octavo
edition, similar in letterpress to the original quarto one, but with
some slight omissions or differences in the text and in the general map,
was published in Dublin in 1796.
A French translation of the 1795 edition, by Lallemant, one of the
secretaries in the French Department of the Marine, was published at
Paris in 1799. Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, the Archivist of the Dominion of
Canada, has very kindly compared this edition with the English one of
1795, and makes the following remarks with regard to it:--
"The dedication of the English version is omitted in the French.
In the Introduction, page 27, there is a note in the English
edition which is not translated. Pages 441 to 445 of the English
edition are omitted in the French. At the beginning of the
French version there is a note on Hearne from the 'Voyage of La
Pérouse,' and some remarks by Lallemant. The translation of the
whole volume appears to be good."
The note from the "Voyage of La Pérouse" and the remarks of Lallemant
are as follows:--
"A LA PÉROUSE.--C'est à vous que l'Europe est redevable de la
publication de cet ouvrage, dont le manuscrit fut trouvé parmi
les papiers du Gouverneur du fort du Prince de Galles, lorsque
vous vous rendîtes maître des établissements anglais dans la
Baie de Hudson. En le remettant à son auteur, à la condition
expresse de le faire imprimer et publier, jamais vainqueur
n'exerça plus utilement son droit de conquête et n'imposa au
vaincu une condition plus honorable.[12] Elle était digne du
marin aussi généreux qu'éclairé qui devait, quelques années
après, entreprendre un voyage non moins important, et dont
aujourd'hui nous déplorons la perte.