EXPLANATORY, BUT NOT DRY!--MURDEROUS DESIGNS THWARTED BY VIGOROUS
TREATMENT--THE CATTLE PAY FOR IT!--PREPARATIONS FOR A LONG, LONG VOYAGE.
In order to render our story intelligible, it is necessary here to say a
few words explanatory of the nature and object of the expedition
referred to in the foregoing chapters.
Many years previous to the opening of our tale, it was deemed expedient,
by the rulers of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, to effect, if possible, a
reconciliation or treaty of peace between the Muskigon Indians of
James's Bay and the Esquimaux of Hudson's Straits. The Muskigons are by
no means a warlike race; on the contrary, they are naturally timid, and
only plucked up courage to make war on their northern neighbours in
consequence of these poor people being destitute of firearms, while
themselves were supplied with guns and ammunition by the fur-traders.
The Esquimaux, however, are much superior to the Muskigon Indians
physically, and would have held their adversaries in light esteem had
they met on equal terms, or, indeed, on any terms at all; but the evil
was that they never met. The Indians always took them by surprise, and
from behind the rocks and bushes sent destruction into their camps with
the deadly bullet; while their helpless foes could only reply with the
comparatively harmless arrow and spear. Thus the war was in fact an
annual raid of murderers. The conceited Muskigons returned to their
wigwams in triumph, with bloody scalps hanging at their belts; while the
Esquimaux pushed farther into their ice-bound fastnesses, and told their
comrades, with lowering brows and heaving bosoms, of the sudden attack,
and of the wives and children who had been butchered in cold blood, or
led captive to the tents of the cowardly red men.
At such times those untutored inhabitants of the frozen regions vowed
vengeance on the Indians, and cursed in their hearts the white men who
supplied them with the deadly gun. But the curse was unmerited. In the
councils of the fur-traders the subject of Esquimau wrongs had been
mooted, and plans for the amelioration of their condition devised.
Trading posts were established on Richmond Gulf and Little Whale River;
but owing to circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail here, they
turned out failures, and were at length abandoned. Still, those in
charge of the districts around Hudson's Bay and Labrador continued to
use every argument to prevail on the Indians to cease their murderous
assaults on their unoffending neighbours, but without much effect. At
length the governor of East Main--a territory lying on the eastern
shores of James's Bay--adopted an argument which proved eminently
successful, at least for one season.
His fort was visited by a large band of Muskigons from Albany and Moose
districts, who brought a quantity of valuable furs, for which they
demanded guns and ammunition, making no secret of their intention to
proceed on an expedition against their enemies the Esquimaux. On
hearing of this, the governor went out to them, and, in a voice of
extreme indignation, assured them that they should not have an ounce of
supplies for such a purpose.
"But we will pay you for what we ask. We are not beggars!" exclaimed
the astonished Indians, into whose calculations it had never entered
that white traders would refuse good furs merely in order to prevent the
death of a few Esquimaux.
"See," cried the angry governor, snatching up the nearest bale of
furs--"see, that's all I care for you or your payment!" and hurling the
pack at its owner's head, he felled him therewith to the ground. "No,"
he continued, shaking his fist at them, "I'll not give you as much
powder or shot as would blow off the tail of a rabbit, if you were to
bring me all the skins in Labrador!"
The consequence of this vigorous conduct was that the Indians retired
crestfallen--utterly discomfited. But in the camp that night they
plotted revenge. In the darkness of the night they slaughtered all the
cattle around the establishment, and before daybreak were over the hills
and far away in the direction of their hunting-grounds, loaded with
fresh beef sufficient for the supply of themselves and their families
for the winter! It was a heavy price to pay; but the poor Esquimaux
remained unmolested that year, while the Indians received a salutary
lesson. But the compulsory peace was soon broken, and it became
apparent that the only effectual way to check the bloodthirsty
propensity of the Indians was to arm their enemies with the gun. The
destruction of the first expedition to the Esquimaux, and the bad
feeling that existed in the minds of the natives of Richmond Gulf
consequent thereon, induced the fur-traders to fix on another locality
for a new attempt. It was thought that the remote solitudes of Ungava
Bay, at the extreme north of Labrador,--where the white man's axe had
never yet felled the stunted pines of the north, nor the ring of his
rifle disturbed its echoes,--would be the spot best suited for the
erection of a wooden fort.
Accordingly, it was appointed that Mr George Stanley should select a
coadjutor, and proceed with a party of picked men to the scene of action
as early in the spring as the ice would permit, and there build a fort
as he best could, with the best materials he could find; live on
whatever the country afforded in the shape of food; establish a trade in
oil, whalebone, arctic foxes, etcetera, etcetera, if they were to be
got; and bring about a reconciliation between the Esquimaux and the
Indians of the interior, if that were possible. With the careful
minuteness peculiar to documents, Stanley's instructions went on to
point out that he was to start from Moose--with two half-sized canoes,
each capable of carrying ten _pieces_ or packages of 90 pounds weight
each, besides the crew--and _bore_ through the ice, if the ice would
allow him, till he should reach Richmond Gulf; cross this gulf, and
ascend, if practicable, some of the rivers which fall into it from the
height of land supposed, but not positively known, to exist somewhere in
the interior. Passing this height, he was to descend by the rivers and
lakes (if such existed) leading to the eastward, until he should fall
upon a river reported to exist in these lands, and called by the natives
_Caniapuscaw_, or South River, down which he was to proceed to the scene
of his labours, Ungava Bay; on reaching which he was considerately left
to the unaided guidance of his own discretion! Reduced to their lowest
term and widest signification, the instructions directed our friend to
start as early as he could, with whom he chose, and with what he liked;
travel as fast as possible over _terra incognita_ to a land of ice--
perhaps, also, of desolation--and locate himself among bloody savages.
It was hoped that there would be found a sufficiency of trees wherewith
to build him a shelter against a prolonged winter; in the meantime he
might enjoy a bright arctic summer sky for his canopy!
But it was known, or at least supposed, that the Esquimaux were fierce
and cruel savages, if not cannibals. Their very name implies something
of the sort. It signifies _eaters of raw flesh_, and was bestowed on
them by their enemies the Muskigons. They call themselves _Innuit_-men,
or warriors; and although they certainly do eat raw flesh when necessity
compels them--which it often does--they asserted that they never did so
from choice. However, be this as it may, the remembrance of their
misdeeds in the first expeditions was fresh in the minds of the men in
the service of the fur-traders, and they evinced a decided unwillingness
to venture into such a country and among such a people,--an
unwillingness which was only at length overcome when Mrs Stanley and
her little daughter heroically volunteered to share the dangers of the
expedition in the manner already narrated.
Stanley now made vigorous preparations for his departure. Some of the
men had already been enrolled, as we have seen, and there were more than
enough of able and active volunteers ready to complete the crews.
"Come hither, lads," he cried, beckoning to two men who were occupied on
the bank of the river, near the entrance to Moose Fort, in repairing the
side of a canoe.
The men left their work and approached. They were both Esquimaux, and
good stout, broad-shouldered, thick-set specimens of the race they were.
One was called Oolibuck, [_This name is spelt as it should be
pronounced. The correct spelling is Ouligbuck_], the other Augustus;
both of which names are now chronicled in the history of arctic
adventure as having belonged to the well-tried and faithful interpreters
to Franklin, Back, and Richardson, in their expeditions of north-west
discovery.
"I'm glad to see you busy at the canoe, boys," said Stanley, as they
came up. "Of course you are both willing to revisit your countrymen."
"Yes, sir, we is. Glad to go where you choose send us," answered
Oolibuck, whose broad, oily countenance lighted up with good-humour as
he spoke.
"It will remind you of your trip with Captain Franklin," continued
Stanley, addressing Augustus.
"Me no like to 'member dat," said the Esquimau, with a sorrowful shake
of the head. "Me love bourgeois Franklin, but tink me never see him
more."
"I don't know that, old fellow," returned Stanley, with a smile.
"Franklin is not done with his discoveries yet; there's a talk of
sending off another expedition some of these days, I hear, so you may
have a chance yet."
Augustus's black eyes sparkled with pleasure as he heard this. He was a
man of strong feeling, and during his journeyings with our great arctic
hero had become attached to him in consequence of the hearty and
unvarying kindness and consideration with which he treated all under his
command. But the spirit of enterprise had been long slumbering, and
poor Augustus, who was now past the prime of life, feared that he should
never see his kind master more.
"Now I want you, lads, to get everything in readiness for an immediate
start," continued Stanley, glancing upwards at the sky; "if the weather
holds, we shan't be long off paying your friends a visit. Are both
canoes repaired?"
"Yes, sir, they is," replied Oolibuck.
"And the baggage, is it laid out? And--"
"Pardon, monsieur," interrupted Massan, walking up, and touching his
cap. "I've jest been down at the point, and there's a rig'lar
nor'-wester a-comin' down. The ice is sweepin' into the river, an'
it'll be choked up by to-morrow, I'm afraid."
Stanley received this piece of intelligence with a slight frown, and
looked seaward, where a dark line on the horizon and large fields of ice
showed that the man's surmise was likely to prove correct.
"It matters not," said Stanley, hastily; "I've made arrangements to
start to-morrow, and start we shall, in spite of ice or wind, if the
canoes will float!"
Massan, who had been constituted principal steersman of the expedition,
in virtue of his well-tried skill and indomitable energy, felt that the
tone in which this was said implied a want of confidence in his
willingness to go under _any_ circumstances, so he said gravely--
"Pardon, monsieur; I did not say we could not start."
"True, true, Massan; don't be hurt. I was only grumbling at the
weather," answered Stanley, with a laugh.
Just then the first puff of the coming breeze swept up the river,
ruffling its hitherto glassy surface.
"There it comes," cried Stanley, as he quitted the spot. "Now, Massan,
see to it that the crews are assembled in good time on the beach
to-morrow. We start at daybreak."
"Oui, monsieur," replied Massan, as he turned on his heel and walked
away. "Parbleu! we shall indeed start to morrow, an it please you, if
all the ice and wind in the polar regions was blowed down the coast and
crammed into the river's mouth. C'est vrai!"