FRANKLIN’S FIRST OVERLAND JOURNEY
It is now necessary to return to Parry’s friend and fellow explorer,
John Franklin, who, it will be remembered, was summoned into Lord
Melville’s presence with Parry on November 18, 1818. The results of
this interview were that while Parry was appointed to the command
of the _Hecla_ and _Griper_, Franklin was commissioned to undertake
the no less important overland expedition to explore the shores of
the North American continent from the mouth of the Coppermine River
eastward.
The members of this expedition were five in number, and consisted of
Franklin himself, Dr John Richardson, a surgeon in the navy, George
Back, who had sailed as mate in the _Trent_ with Franklin in 1818,
Robert Hood, a midshipman, and John Hepburn, a sailor who was to act
as servant. The object was to survey the coast carefully, to place
conspicuous marks at the points at which ships might enter, and to
deposit such information as to the nature of the coast as might
be of service to Parry if he should actually succeed in finding
a north-west passage. Franklin was also to conduct a series of
scientific observations, making careful notes of the changes in the
temperature, the state of the wind and weather, the dip and variation
of the magnetic needle, and the intensity of the magnetic force.
In order that his chance of success might be as great as possible,
he was provided with letters of recommendation from the Governors
of the two great fur-trading companies of British North America—the
Hudson’s Bay Company and the North-West Company—in which the agents
were ordered to do their utmost, by every means and in every way, to
forward the interests of the expedition.
Franklin’s first care on reaching Hudson’s Bay was to proceed to
York Factory, where he consulted a number of officials, among them
being Mr Williams, the Governor of the Factory, as to the best way
of reaching the mouth of the Coppermine, where, of course, the
serious work of his expedition was to begin. They were decidedly of
opinion that he should proceed to Cumberland House, and thence travel
northwards along the chain of the Company’s posts to the Great Slave
Lake.
This route is practically a water-way, though the portages separating
the various streams and lakes of which it is composed are almost
numberless. Mr Williams, therefore, offered to provide the expedition
with one of the Company’s best boats, together with a large store
of provisions and the other things necessary for the journey, an
offer which, needless to say, was promptly accepted. Unfortunately,
when these stores were brought down to the beach they were found
to be of too great a bulk to be accommodated in the boat, so that
a large portion of them, including the bacon and part of the rice,
flour, ammunition, and tobacco, had to be left behind, the Governor
promising to send them on during the next season.
They set out on September 9, and they found that, though their
journey took them through very beautiful scenery, it was of the most
arduous description. The rivers were narrow, winding, and full of
rapids, while the current was frequently so swift that the use of
sails or oars was out of the question, and the boat had to be towed,
a method of progression which would have been pleasant enough had
not the shores been lofty and rocky and intersected by ravines and
tributary streams. In addition to this, there were the innumerable
portages to be reckoned with, and their progress was in consequence
slow in the extreme.
At last they reached Rock House, one of the posts of the Hudson’s
Bay Company, and there they were informed that still worse rapids
lay before them, and that the boat must be lightened if they were
to reach Cumberland House before the winter set in. Franklin was
therefore obliged to leave still more of his cargo there, with orders
for it to be forwarded by the Athabasca canoes as early in the
following season as possible.
Proceeding on their way, they reached Cumberland House on October
23, and here they found the ice already forming on the lake, and
learnt that it would be impossible for them to travel any further
that season. Accordingly, when Governor Williams arrived a few
days later and suggested that they should all winter at Cumberland
House, they gladly fell in with the idea. On talking matters over,
however, with the officers of the two great Companies, both of which
had posts on the lake, Franklin came to the conclusion that by
far his best plan would be to push on overland during the winter
into the Athabasca Department, where alone he could obtain the
guides, hunters, and interpreters necessary for the success of his
expedition. Accordingly, he requested Mr Williams to provide him
with dogs, sledges, and drivers for the conveyance of himself and
his two companions, Back and Hepburn. They started on January 18,
1820, and after a most unpleasant journey of 857 miles, in cold so
intense that newly-made tea used to freeze in the tin pots before
they had time to drink it, they reached Fort Chepewyan, on Athabasca
Lake, on March 26. There Franklin spent several months, picking up
such information as he could concerning the course of the Coppermine
River and the coast about its mouth from the Indians and interpreters
of the two Companies. The results of his investigations were fairly
satisfactory, and he decided to send messages to the Companies’
representatives on the Great Slave Lake, asking them to provide him
with any knowledge that they could collect, and to engage a number of
Copper Indians as guides and hunters.
On May 10 mosquitoes, these early harbingers of spring, put in an
appearance, and Franklin realised that the time was approaching for
him to make a move onwards. It was no easy matter, however, to obtain
the stores and men that he needed. The provisions collected at the
Fort were not much in excess of the actual needs of the inhabitants,
while the employées of the Company were very unwilling to engage with
his expedition except at an extortionate remuneration.
On July 13 Richardson and Hood arrived upon the scene, bringing
with them all the provisions that they had been able to collect
at Cumberland House and Isle à la Crosse. These, however, did not
amount to much as the Canadian voyagers belonging to the Hudson’s Bay
post had eaten all the pemmican intended for the explorers, while
ten of the bags of provisions which they had secured at the latter
post proved so mouldy that they had to be thrown away. Consequently
the travellers were obliged to start out very badly equipped in the
matter of supplies. There was, however, no possibility of delaying
their departure, as Fort Chipewyan did not at the time afford
sufficient means of subsistence for so large a party. Accordingly,
the stores were distributed among the three canoes with which
Franklin had been furnished, and on July 18 he set forth on his
way with his party, which now consisted of four officers, sixteen
Canadian voyagers, two interpreters, and the redoubtable Hepburn.
At the end of the month they reached Fort Providence, where they were
met by Mr Wentzel, an agent of the North-West Company, who proposed
to engage hunters for them, and who was himself to accompany them
to the Coppermine River. Negotiations with a party of hunters under
one Akaitcho, or Big Foot, were soon satisfactorily completed, and
though the Indians were a little disappointed at learning that the
great English medicine men were unable to bring certain dead members
of their tribe to life again, a rumoured accomplishment of their new
friends on which they had founded great hopes, they were soon won
over by sundry cheap medals and other small presents, and promised
to work heart and soul for the good of the expedition. On August 2
the party set forth, now slightly augmented by an extra interpreter,
Michel, an Iroquois, Mr Wentzel and the womankind of three of the
voyagers who were to make shoes and clothes for the men while they
were in winter quarters. On August 19 they reached the spot on which
the Indians had settled as most suitable for the winter establishment.
There was now every sign that winter would be on them before long,
so Franklin set his men to work on the building of the store house,
and sent out his Indian hunters to obtain all the fresh meat that
they could. The hunters, however, proved but broken reeds. During the
expedition Akaitcho heard of the death of his brother-in-law, and
his whole party was, apparently, so overcome by the sad news that
they spent several days in wailing and lamentations, with the result
they only succeeded in killing fifteen deer. Moreover, this family
bereavement necessitated the removal of another portion of Akaitcho’s
tribe, which was to have stored up provisions on the bank of the
Coppermine, to a place miles away from the proposed route.
To complete Franklin’s discomfiture, Akaitcho absolutely refused to
accompany him on a preliminary excursion to the Coppermine, saying
that at that time of the year such a journey would be hazardous
in the extreme. After painting its horrors and dangers in highly
picturesque language, he further fulfilled his _rôle_ of Job’s
comforter by saying that if Franklin were really bent upon the
trip it was, of course, the duty of the Indians to render him all
the help that they could. He would, therefore, allow some of the
younger members of his tribe to accompany him, adding that from the
moment that they set forth he and his relatives would mourn them
as dead. In spite of Akaitcho’s pessimism, however, the expedition
returned without losing a single one of its members, and the Indian’s
lamentations were entirely wasted.
By October 20 the house was completed and the party moved in. It
was a log building, 50 feet long and 24 feet wide, consisting of a
hall, three bedrooms, and a kitchen. It was not exactly impervious
to the cold winds, for the clay with which the walls were daubed
cracked as it was put on and admitted the air freely; compared with
the tents, however, it was luxurious. The weather was now bitter,
and hunting was over for the season. The store-house was fairly
well stocked, while the carcases of eighty deer were stowed away at
various distances from the house _en cache_, that is to say, covered
with heavy loads of wood and stones so that the wolves and wolverines
could not get at them. Franklin, however, was growing very uneasy at
the shortage of ammunition and tobacco. The former was, of course,
absolutely necessary for the bare existence of the party, while the
Canadians, who were great smokers, had stipulated for a liberal
supply of the latter. The officials of the two companies, however,
had not fufilled their promises, and had failed to forward the stores
with which they had pledged themselves to provide him. The only
possible solution to the difficulty was to send some members of the
party back for the supplies, and accordingly, on October 18, Back
and Wentzel, with two Indians and two Canadians, set out on the long
journey to Fort Providence.
The first detachment of this party returned on December 23, but the
last did not put in an appearance till the middle of March, after
travelling over 1000 miles on foot. Some idea of the difficulties
which Back encountered may be gathered from the facts that he
frequently passed two or three days without taking food, and that
he was obliged to sleep in the woods with no other covering than
a blanket and a deerskin, while the thermometer stood at 40° and
once at 57° below zero. He had found that the supplies had not been
forwarded simply through the gross neglect of some of the officials
of the two trading companies. One of the Hudson’s Bay officers, for
example, being indisposed to burden his canoe with the stores which
had been entrusted to his care, had incontinently heaped them up on
the shore and left them there, quite regardless of the sufferings
that this action was likely to bring upon the expedition. Eventually,
however, sufficient supplies reached the party to place them beyond
the danger of immediate want.
The chief work of the expedition was to begin in June, and on the
4th the first party, under Dr Richardson, sallied forth from Fort
Enterprise, taking the land route northward. Ten days later a second
party started with two canoes laid on trains, intending to strike the
water at Winter Lake, which was not far distant. They were followed
almost immediately by the third party, under Franklin, which brought
with it the instruments, the remainder of the stores, and a small
stock of dried meat. The fates seemed to be against the expedition
from the very start, for when Franklin came up with the canoe party
at Martin Lake, he found that the hunters had only killed two deer,
and that though these had been placed _en cache_, they had both been
consumed by wolverines. Worse still, when he joined Richardson on
the 21st he learned that Akaitcho and his son had expended all their
ammunition and had nothing whatever to show for it. The doctor,
assisted by his two hunters, had fortunately been able to secure and
prepare 200 lbs. of dried meat, but this constituted practically all
the stores they had for their long journey.
By July 12 they had reached the boundaries of the Eskimo territory,
and the Indians, who were at constant war with these natives, refused
point blank to go any further; so all that Franklin could do was to
dismiss them, after extracting from them a solemn promise to lay in
a good stock of provisions at Fort Enterprise against their return.
A few hours later the sea was reached, and here Franklin parted with
Wentzel and two of the Canadians, thus reducing his party to twenty
men. His plan was to explore the coast as far east of the Coppermine
as possible. If the conditions allowed he would return to the river;
if not, he intended to strike north across a rocky desert known as
the Barren Grounds, and to make for Fort Enterprise. Wentzel was
requested to see that an ample supply of meat was provided at the
fort for the party on its return.
The band of twenty now found themselves at the mouth of the
Coppermine, 334 miles from their headquarters, with only sufficient
provisions for fifteen days. On July 21 they launched their two
frail canoes and set out upon the eastward voyage. It is scarcely
necessary for us to concern ourselves with the details of this trip.
That it was dangerous goes without saying, for the thin sides of
their vessels afforded but the most inadequate protection against
the masses of ice which they were constantly encountering. For five
weeks, however, they pressed onwards, taking observations and naming
all the principal capes, islands, and bays for 650 miles along the
coast. It was on August 16 when they had reached Point Turnagain,
lat. 68° 18′ N. long. 109° 25′ W., that Franklin determined that
it was time to put about. The open season was wearing on, the
canoes were in a terrible state of disrepair, and the shortage of
provisions was such as to cause serious anxiety. During the earlier
part of the voyage the interpreters, St Germain and Adam, had been
very successful with the gun, but their bags were growing smaller
by degrees and beautifully less, the fact of the matter being, of
course, that they had always regarded the expedition with strong
disapproval and were anxious to compel it to return.
Consequently the canoes put about, and, after a most perilous
journey, they entered Hood’s River on August 25. The river,
unfortunately, was too shallow and swift to allow them to proceed
further by water, so Franklin took his canoes to pieces and
constructed out of the materials two smaller canoes, each of them
easily portable. By the last day of the month these preparations were
completed, and the impedimenta, which consisted of ammunition, nets,
hatchets, ice-chisels, astronomical instruments, three kettles, two
canoes, and a tent, were divided up among the members of the party,
each of whom had to carry a burden of about ninety pounds.
For the first few days of their journey they followed the course
of the Hood, but soon the river curved westward and it was found
necessary to strike inland across the desolate Barren Grounds, whose
only recommendation was that they were comparatively flat, and that
the heavily burdened party was spared the necessity of stumbling
up hills and down valleys such as lined the course of the stream.
Apart from this, the land over which they had to journey was as
unattractive as could well be imagined. For miles and miles ahead and
on either side of them stretched a vast, stony waste, on which not a
trace of a living creature was to be seen. Of vegetation there was
little or none, wood was conspicuous by its absence, and it was only
on the rarest occasions that they were able to indulge in the luxury
of a fire. The prospect was truly most uninviting.
They had only been a single day on their journey across this
forbidding country when the terrible truth dawned upon them that
the winter had set in unusually early, and that their dangers and
sufferings were, in consequence, to be increased a hundredfold. The
first news of this was brought to them by a terrible gale which
arose in the night, and continued to blow with such violence that it
was useless for them to attempt to fight against it, and they had
no choice but to remain in their tents. For two days they lay in
their blankets, shivering with the cold and with the pangs of hunger
gnawing at them, for their provisions were now well nigh exhausted,
and they had little left but some portable soup and arrowroot, which
they were obliged to husband with the utmost care. By the morning
of the 7th the gale had abated but little, and the cold was still
intense. However, they had to choose between two alternatives.
Either they must push on in the teeth of the hurricane, or they must
be frozen to death where they lay, and the former naturally seemed
preferable. Heavily laden as they were, in the most favourable
circumstances they could only march at the rate of a mile an hour,
but now their progress was infinitely slower, for the ground was
covered a foot deep with snow, and the marshes and swamps were
crusted with a thin coating of ice which frequently gave way beneath
them.
The storm was still raging so violently that the Canadians, who took
it in turn to carry the boats, were often blown down, and the larger
of the two boats was soon smashed to pieces. From what Franklin knew
of the character of the voyagers he was inclined to believe that the
accident was by no means a mere misadventure, but that the canoe had
been broken purposely to save the labour of further transportation.
However, he could only make the best of a bad business, so he built
a fire of the fragments, and over it he cooked the last of his
arrowroot and soup.
So for many tedious days they plodded wearily on, subsisting as best
they could upon an occasional partridge and a species of edible
lichen called _tripe de roche_, which grew upon the boulders—a poor
sustenance for twenty starving men. The lichen, moreover, though it
allayed the pangs of hunger for a while, was exceedingly bitter to
the palate and positively noxious to several members of the hapless
party.
[Illustration: CROSSING THE BARREN GROUNDS
FROM A DRAWING BY CAPT. BACK]
Their physical sufferings grew more and more terrible every day.
Hunger was not the only hardship with which they had to contend, for
their course was constantly intersected by swamps through which they
had to wade, and, as the thermometer was always below freezing point,
their wet clothes were instantly frozen as stiff as boards, making
walking more painful than ever. Once or twice they were fortunate
enough to fall in with a herd of musk-oxen or a stray deer, but the
supply was totally inadequate to the demand, and for the most part
they were obliged to subsist on _tripe de roche_, which hardly a
single member of the little band could now eat without becoming ill.
On September 10 they came upon a large lake, and Franklin’s drooping
hopes were revived by the prospect of being able to supplement his
provisions with a supply of fish. To his dismay, however, he now
learnt that the Canadians, with criminal selfishness, had thrown away
the nets and burnt the floats in order to decrease the burdens which
they had to carry, an action which was all the more amazing seeing
that, in their capacity of voyagers to the trading companies, they
frequently found themselves in situations where they were obliged to
depend on fishing for their means of subsistence.
These Canadians, however, with the exception of a man named Perrault,
proved a terrible thorn in Franklin’s side from the beginning to the
end of the journey. They committed their crowning act of folly when
they destroyed the second canoe, which, though very crazy, was the
sole means of transport across the rivers and lakes. This loss was
most seriously felt when, a little later, the party came to the bank
of the Coppermine and found themselves unable to reach the other
side. Precious days were wasted in attempting to construct a raft
or to find a ford, during which time they were obliged to live on
the putrid carcase of a deer that had fallen into a cleft in a rock
in the previous spring. Rafts and fords failing, Richardson made a
gallant effort to swim the river with a line round his waist, and,
in spite of the numbing cold of the water, he almost reached the
other side. Then his strength failed him and he came within an ace of
being drowned. He was dragged ashore just in time to save his life,
but he felt the effects of his adventure till late in the following
spring. At last, after repeated attempts, the whole party succeeded
in crossing in a canoe made of the painted canvas in which they had
wrapped their bedding, but the vessel was so frail that it could only
carry one person at a time.
Back and three of the Canadians now went on ahead to search for the
Indians and to see that everything was in readiness at the Fort.
For another day the rest of the party struggled on, gaining what
sustenance they could from the lichen and their old shoes. It soon
became evident, however, that Hood and two of the Canadians, Credit
and Vaillant, were growing so weak that they could march no further,
and it was decided that the party must split up once more, and that
the weaker members must remain behind with Richardson and Hepburn to
attend to them, while Franklin and a few companions pushed on to the
Fort. In the course of the following day a small thicket of willows
was reached, and here it was decided to form the encampment. The
Canadians, however, had not been able to struggle even that far, and
had been left behind in the snow. “Some faint hopes were entertained
of Credit’s surviving the storm,” says Franklin, “as he was provided
with a good blanket and had some leather to eat.”
Hardly had Franklin started on his way when three of his voyagers,
Belanger, Perrault, and Fontano, and Michel, the Iroquois, broke
down, and had to return to the encampment in the willows. With his
four remaining comrades he marched doggedly on, and at last, to his
inexpressible relief, his destination came in sight. But any hopes
that he entertained of finding release from the sufferings of himself
and his men, were destined to be dashed to the ground, for they
stumbled into the Fort, only to find it cheerless and desolate, with
no store of provisions and no indications as to the whereabouts of
the Indians. Back had reached the Fort two days earlier, and had left
a note to say that he had gone in search of Akaitcho and his dilatory
hunters, but apart from this, there was no sign that the house had
been entered since Franklin was last there.
Words cannot describe the bitter disappointment of these brave men,
who, after their long and dogged fight against adversity, found
themselves face to face with a death no less fearful than that which
had threatened them on the Barren Grounds. With the exception of a
few deerskins which had been thrown away as offal during their former
residence at the Fort, there was nothing wherewith they could sustain
life, while the winter storms had played such havoc with the walls
and windows of the house that they let in the bitter air freely, and
the temperature of the living room ranged from 15° to 20° below zero.
There was nothing for them to do but to bear their sufferings as
best as they could, and to await relief from the faithless Akaitcho
and his hunters. That relief, however, was not destined to come yet,
for two days later, they received a note from Back, telling them
that he had been unable to find the Indians, and asking for further
instructions. Weak though he was, Franklin now felt that the time had
come for action, and he accordingly decided to set out himself for
Fort Confidence, accompanied by two of his men, Augustus, an Eskimo
interpreter, and Benoit, one of the voyagers. He had only been two
days on his journey, however, when he had the misfortune to break
one of his shoes, and was obliged to turn back to his comfortless
hut, leaving his two companions to push on as best they could. It
was, perhaps, as well that he did so, for, on reaching the Fort, he
found that the two Canadians whom he had left behind were growing so
weak that they had resigned themselves to what seemed to them the
inevitable, and had lain down to die. Franklin’s splendid example,
however, infused fresh courage into them, and by dint of the utmost
exertions they succeeded in keeping the life in their bodies,
although they were now so feeble that when a herd of deer appeared
within half a mile of them, they were quite unable to shoot them.
On the 29th, as they were crouching round a miserable fire, they were
surprised to hear voices in the next room. Their first thought was
that the Indians had at last come to their rescue. A moment later
Richardson and Hepburn entered.
The arrival of these friends brought some fresh hope to the starving
men at Fort Enterprise, for Hepburn was stronger than the rest, and
there was every prospect that he would be able to find them some
means of subsistence. But the sight of those two men standing there
alone sent a chill to Franklin’s heart. What, he asked, had become of
Hood and Credit and Michel and Vaillant? The answer which he received
on the following day was more terrible than his worst fears had led
him to anticipate. Briefly put, Richardson’s story ran thus.
On the morning of October 9, that is to say, two days after Franklin
had started off for Fort Enterprise, Michel, the Iroquois, returned
to the encampment alone, with the news that Belanger, with whom he
had started, had left him on the way. There was every reason to
suspect, however, both from the story that he told them, and from
his subsequent behaviour, that he had made away with the Canadian,
and that he had invented this tale to conceal the horrible sequel to
his crime. From this time onward his conduct became more and more
suspicious. He grew sullen and morose, he refused to go hunting, or,
if he went, he would only go by himself, taking his hatchet with him,
unlike a hunter, who only makes use of his knife when he kills deer.
“This fact,” says Richardson, “seems to indicate that he took it for
the purpose of cutting up something that he knew to be frozen.” At
last, by a culminating act, he confirmed the suspicions which had
already come to birth in the minds of Richardson and Hepburn, for, on
Sunday, October 20, when left alone with Hood, he deliberately shot
his companion through the head.
In their weak condition it was, of course, impossible for either the
doctor or the sailor to wreak summary vengeance upon the murderer,
although self-preservation demanded it. Accordingly, they buried
Michel’s victim, and on the 23rd this party of three—for none of
the others had succeeded in reaching the camp—decided to set out
for the Fort. It now became so painfully evident that the Iroquois
intended his two companions to share the fate of his former victims,
that there was only one course open to them. Accordingly, Richardson
seized on an opportunity when Michel was not expecting an attack, to
shoot him through the head with a pistol.
After six more days of indescribable sufferings they reached the
fort, only, as we have seen, to find Franklin and the Canadians
in no better a case than themselves. During the next few days the
Canadians, Peltier and Samandré, succumbed, and their friends would
inevitably have followed them before long had not help arrived on
November 7. On that day three Indians, who had been found by Back,
put in an appearance, and, though it was, of course, long before the
sufferers recovered their health and strength, their troubles were
practically at an end. They left Fort Enterprise on November 16, and,
travelling by easy stages, they reached Moose Deer Island on December
18, where they were joined by Back, who had himself gone through
a period of fearful hardship and privation during his search for
succour.
In the summer of the following year Franklin returned to England,
having accomplished a terrible journey of some 5500 miles. The result
of his observations, of course, added greatly to the world’s store
of knowledge of the then unknown regions of North America; but he
would have had a different tale to tell had not the rivalry between
the two trading companies handicapped him from start to finish.