Produced by Owen O'Donovan
VOYAGES from MONTREAL
THROUGH THE CONTINENT of NORTH AMERICA
TO THE
FROZEN and PACIFIC OCEANS
IN 1789 and 1793
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RISE
AND STATE OF THE FUR TRADE
By
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
WITH MAP
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.
NEW YORK
A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY
1903
Registered at the
Library of Congress, August, 1902
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER I.
Removed from the tent to the house. Build habitations
for the people. The hardships they suffer. Violent
hurricane. Singular circumstances attending
it. The commencement of the new year. An
Indian cured of a dangerous wound. State of
the weather. Curious customs among the Indians,
on the death of a relation. Account of a
quarrel. An Indian's reasoning on it. Murder
of one of the Indians. The cause of it. Some
account of the Rocky Mountain Indians. Curious
circumstance respecting a woman in labour, etc. A
dispute between two Indians, which arose from
gaming. An account of one of their games. Indian
superstition. Mildness of the season. The Indians
prepare snow shoes. Singular customs. Further
account of their manners. The slavish state of the
women. Appearance of spring. Dispatch canoes
with the trade to Fort Chepewyan. Make preparations
for the voyage of discovery.
CHAPTER II.
Proceed on the voyage of discovery. Beautiful
scenery. The canoe too heavily laden. The
country in a state of combustion. Meet with a
hunting party. State of the river, etc. Meet
with Indians. See the tracks of bears, and one of
their dens. Sentiment of an Indian. Junction of
the Bear River. Appearance of the country. State
of the river. Observe a fall of timber. Abundance
of animals. See some bears. Come in sight of the
rocky mountains. The canoe receives an injury and
is repaired. Navigation dangerous. Rapids and
falls. Succession of difficulties and dangers.
CHAPTER III.
Continuation of difficulties and dangers. Discontents
among the people. State of the river and
its banks. Volcanic chasms in the earth. Dispatch
various persons to discover ways across the
mountain. Obstacles present themselves on all
sides. Preparations made to attempt the mountain.
Account of the ascent with the canoe and baggage.
The trees that are found there. Arrive at the
river. Extraordinary circumstances of it. Curious
hollows in the rocks. Prepare the canoe. Renew
our progress up the river. The state of it. Leave
some tokens of amity for the natives. The weather
very cold. Lost a book of my observations for
several days. Continue to proceed up the river.
Send a letter down the current in a rum-keg.
Came to the forks, and proceed up the Eastern
branch. Circumstances of it.
CHAPTER IV.
Continue our voyage. Heavy fog. The water
rises. Succession of courses. Progressive account
of this branch. Leave the canoe to proceed,
and ascend a hill to reconnoitre. Climb a tree to
extend my view of the country. Return to the
River. The canoe not arrived. Go in search of
it. Extreme heat, musquitoes, etc. Increasing anxiety,
respecting the canoe. It at length appears. Violent
storm. Circumstances of our progress. Forced
to haul the canoe up the stream by the branches
of trees. Succession of courses. Wild parsnips
along the river. Expect to meet with natives. Courses
continued. Fall in with some natives. Our
intercourse with them. Account of their dress, arms,
utensils, and manners, etc. New discouragements
and difficulties present themselves.
CHAPTER V.
Continue the voyage. State of the river. Succession
of courses. Sentiment of the guide. Conical
mountain. Continuation of courses. Leave the main
branch. Enter another. Description of it. Saw
beaver. Enter a lake. Arrive at the upper source
of the Unjigah, or Peace River. Land, and cross
to a second lake. Local circumstances. Proceed
to a third lake. Enter a river. Encounter
various difficulties. In danger of being lost. The
circumstances of that situation described. Alarm
and dissatisfaction among the people. They
are at length composed. The canoe repaired. Roads
cut through woods. Pass morasses. The guide
deserts. After a succession of difficulties, dangers,
and toilsome marches, we arrive at the great river.
CHAPTER VI.
Rainy night. Proceed on the great river. Circumstances
of it. Account of courses. Come to rapids. Observe
several smokes. See a flight of white ducks. Pass
over a carrying-place with the canoe, etc. The
difficulties of that passage. Abundance
of wild onions. Re-embark on the river. See some
of the natives. They desert their camp and fly into
the woods. Courses continued. Kill a red deer,
etc. Circumstances of the river. Arrive at an Indian
habitation. Description of it. Account of a curious
machine to catch fish. Land to procure bark for the
purpose of constructing a new canoe. Conceal a
quantity of pemmican for provision on our
return. Succession of courses. Meet with some
of the natives. Our intercourse with them. Their
information respecting the river, and the country.
Description of those people.
CHAPTER VII.
Renew our voyage, accompanied by two of the natives.
Account of courses. State of the river. Arrive at a
subterranean house. See several natives. Brief
description of them. Account of our conference with
them. Saw other natives. Description of them. Their
conduct, etc. The account which they gave of the
country. The narrative of a female prisoner. The
perplexities of my situation. Specimen of the
language of two tribes. Change the plan of my
journey. Return up the river. Succession of dangers
and difficulties. Land on an island to build
another canoe.
CHAPTER VIII.
Make preparations to build a canoe. Engage in that
important work. It proceeds with great expedition.
The guide who had deserted arrives with another
Indian. He communicates agreeable intelligence. They
take an opportunity to quit the island. Complete
the canoe. Leave the island, which was now named the
Canoe Island. Obliged to put the people on short
allowance. Account of the navigation. Difficult
ascent of a rapid. Fresh perplexities. Continue our
voyage up the river. Meet the guide and some of his
friends. Conceal some pemmican and other
articles. Make preparations for proceeding over
land. Endeavour to secure the canoe till our
return. Proceed on our journey. Various circumstances
of it.
CHAPTER IX.
Continue our journey. Embark on a river. Come to a
weir. Dexterity of the natives in passing it. Arrive
at a village. Alarm occasioned among the natives. The
subsequent favourable reception, accompanied with a
banquet of ceremony. Circumstances of it. Description
of a village, its houses, and places of
devotion. Account of the customs, mode of living, and
superstition of the inhabitants. Description of the
chief's canoe. Leave the place, and proceed on
our voyage.
CHAPTER X.
Renew our voyage. Circumstances of the river.
Land at the house of a chief. Entertained by
him. Carried down the river with great rapidity
to another house. Received with kindness. Occupations
of the inhabitants on its banks. Leave the canoe
at a fall. Pass over land to another village.
Some account of it. Obtain a view of an arm of
the sea. Lose our dog. Procure another canoe.
Arrive at the arm of the sea. Circumstances of
it. One of our guides returns home.
Coast along a bay. Some description of it. Meet
with Indians. Our communication with them.
Their suspicious conduct towards us. Pass onwards.
Determine the latitude and longitude.
Return to the river. Dangerous encounter with
the Indians. Proceed on our journey.
CHAPTER XI.
Return up the river. Slow progress of the canoe,
from the strength of the current. The hostile
party of the natives precedes us. Impetuous conduct
of my people. Continue our very tedious
voyage. Come to some houses; received with
great kindness. Arrive at the principal, or Salmon
Village. Our present reception very different from
that we experienced on our former visit.
Continue our journey. Circumstances of it.
Find our dog. Arrive at the Upper, or Friendly
Village. Meet with a very kind reception. Some
further account of the manners and customs of
its inhabitants. Brief vocabulary of their language.
CHAPTER XII.
Leave the Friendly Village. Attentions of the natives
at our departure. Stop to divide our provisions.
Begin to ascend the mountains. Circumstances of the
ascent. Journey continued. Arrive at the place from
whence we set out by land. Meet with Indians there.
Find the canoe, and all the other articles in a state
of perfect security and preservation. Means employed
to compel the restoration of articles which were
afterwards stolen. Proceed on our homeward bound
voyage. Some account of the natives on the river.
The canoe is run on a rock, etc. Circumstances
of the voyage. Enter the Peace River. Statement of
courses. Continue our route. Circumstances of it.
Proceed onwards in a small canoe, with an Indian,
to the lower fort, leaving the rest of the people
to follow me. Arrive at Fort Chepewyan. The voyage
concluded.
CHAPTER I.
DECEMBER 23, 1792.
I this day removed from the tent into the house which had been erected
for me, and set all the men to begin the buildings intended for their
own habitation. Materials sufficient to erect a range of five houses
for them, of about seventeen by twelve feet, were already collected. It
would be considered by the inhabitants of a milder climate, as a great
evil, to be exposed to the weather at this rigorous season of the year,
but these people are inured to it, and it is necessary to describe in
some measure the hardships which they undergo without a murmur, in order
to convey a general notion of them.
The men who were new with me, left this place in the beginning of last
May, and went to the Rainy Lake in canoes, laden with packs of fur,
which, from the immense length of the voyage, and other concurring
circumstances, is a most severe trial of patience and perseverance:
there they do not remain a sufficient time for ordinary repose, when
they take a load of goods in exchange, and proceed on their return, in a
great measure, day and night. They had been arrived near two months,
and, all that time, had been continually engaged in very toilsome
labour, with nothing more than a common shed to protect them from the
frost and snow. Such is the life which these people lead; and is
continued with unremitting exertion, till their strength is lost in
premature old age.
The Canadians remarked, that the weather we had on the 25th, 26th, and
27th of this month, denoted such as we might expect in the three
succeeding months. On the 29th, the wind being at North-East, and the
weather calm and cloudy, a rumbling noise was heard in the air like
distant thunder, when the sky cleared away in the South-West; from
whence there blew a perfect hurricane, which lasted till eight. Soon
after it commenced, the atmosphere became so warm that it dissolved all
the snow on the ground; even the ice was covered with water, and had the
same appearance as when it is breaking up in the spring. From eight to
nine the weather became calm, but immediately after a wind arose from
the North-East with equal violence, with clouds, rain, and hail, which
continued throughout the night till the evening of the next day, when it
turned to snow. One of the people who wintered at Fort Dauphin in the
year 1780, when the small pox first appeared there, informed me, that
the weather there was of a similar description.
_January 1, 1793._--On the first day of January, my people, in
conformity to the usual custom, awoke me at the break of day with the
discharge of fire-arms, with which they congratulated the appearance of
the new year. In return, they were treated with plenty of spirits, and
when there is any flour, cakes are always added to their regales, which
was the case, on the present occasion.
On my arrival here last fall, I found that one of the young Indians had
lost the use of his right hand by the bursting of a gun, and that his
thumb had been maimed in such a manner as to hang only by a small strip
of flesh. Indeed, when he was brought to me, his wound was in such an
offensive state, and emitted such a putrid smell, that it required all
the resolution I possessed to examine it. His friends had done every
thing in their power to relieve him; but as it consisted only in singing
about him, and blowing upon his hand, the wound, as may be well
imagined, had got into the deplorable state in which I found it. I was
rather alarmed at the difficulty of the case, but as the young man's
life was in a state of hazard, I was determined to risk my surgical
reputation, and accordingly took him under my care. I immediately
formed a poultice of bark, stripped from the roots of the spruce-fir,
which I applied to the wound, having first washed it with the juice of
the bark: this proved a very painful dressing: in a few days, however,
the wound was clean, and the proud flesh around it destroyed. I wished
very much in this state of the business to have separated the thumb from
the hand, which I well knew must be effected before the cure could be
performed; but he would not consent to that operation, till, by the
application of vitriol, the flesh by which the thumb was suspended, was
shrivelled almost to a thread. When I had succeeded in this object, I
perceived that the wound was closing rather faster than I desired. The
salve I applied on the occasion was made of the Canadian balsam, wax and
tallow dropped from a burning candle into water. In short, I was so
successful, that about Christmas my patient engaged in a hunting party,
and brought me the tongue of an elk: nor was he finally ungrateful.
When he left me I received the warmest acknowledgments, both from
himself and his relations with whom he departed, for my care of him. I
certainly did not spare my time or attention on the occasion, as I
regularly dressed his wound three times a day, during the course of a
month.
On the 5th in the morning the weather was calm, clear, and very cold;
the wind blew from the South-West, and in the course of the afternoon it
began to thaw. I had already observed at Athabasca, that this wind
never failed to bring us clear mild weather, whereas, when it blew from
the opposite quarter, it produced snow. Here it is much more
perceptible, for if it blows hard South-West for four hours, a thaw is
the consequence, and if the wind is at North-East it brings sleet and
snow. To this cause it may be attributed, that there is now so little
snow in this part of the world. These warm winds come off the Pacific
Ocean, which cannot, in a direct line, be very far from us; the distance
being so short, that though they pass over mountains covered with snow,
there is not time for them to cool.
There being several of the natives at the house at this time, one of
them, who had received an account of the death of his father, proceeded
in silence to his lodge, and began to fire off his gun. As it was
night, and such a noise being so uncommon at such an hour, especially
when it was so often repeated, I sent my interpreter to inquire into the
cause of it, when he was informed by the man himself, that this was a
common custom with them on the death of a near relation, and was a
warning to their friends not to approach, or intrude upon them, as they
were, in consequence of their loss, become careless of life. The chief,
to whom the deceased person was also related, appeared with his war-cap
on his head, which is only worn on these solemn occasions, or when
preparing for battle, and confirmed to me this singular custom of firing
guns, in order to express their grief for the death of relations and
friends.[1] The women alone indulge in tears on such occasions; the men
considering it as a mark of pusillanimity and a want of fortitude to
betray any personal tokens of sensibility or sorrow.
The Indians informed me, that they had been to hunt at a large lake,
called by the Knisteneaux, the Slave Lake, which derived its name from
that of its original inhabitants, who were called Slaves. They
represented it as a large body of water, and that it lies about one
hundred and twenty miles due East from this place. It is well known to
the Knisteneaux, who are among the inhabitants of the plains on the
banks of the Saskatchiwine river; for formerly, when they used to come
to make war in this country, they came in their canoes to that lake, and
left them there; from thence, there is a beaten path all the way to the
Fork, or East branch of this river, which was their war-road.
_January 10._--Among the people who were now here, there were two
Rocky Mountain Indians, who declared, that the people to whom we had
given that denomination, are by no means entitled to it, and that their
country has ever been in the vicinity of our present situation. They
said, in support of their assertion, that these people were entirely
ignorant of those parts which are adjacent to the mountain, as well as
the navigation of the river; that the Beaver Indians had greatly
encroached upon them, and would soon force them to retire to the foot of
these mountains. They represented themselves as the only real natives
of that country then with me; and added, that the country, and that part
of the river that intervenes between this place and the mountains, bear
much the same appearance as that around us; that the former abounds with
animals, but that the course of the latter is interrupted, near, and in
the mountains, by successive rapids and considerable falls. These men
also informed me, that there is another great river towards the midday
sun, whose current runs in that direction, and that the distance from it
is not great across the mountains.
The natives brought me plenty of furs. The small quantity of snow, at
this time, was particularly favourable for hunting the beaver, as from
this circumstance, those animals could, with greater facility, be traced
from their lodges to their lurking-places.
On the 12th our hunter arrived, having left his mother-in-law, who was
lately become a widow with three small children, and in actual labour of
a fourth. Her daughter related this circumstance to the women here
without the least appearance of concern, though she represented her as
in a state of great danger, which probably might proceed from her being
abandoned in this unnatural manner. At the same time without any
apparent consciousness of her own barbarous negligence, if the poor
abandoned woman should die, she would most probably lament her with
great outcries, and, perhaps cut off one or two joints of her fingers as
tokens of her grief. The Indians, indeed, consider the state of a woman
in labour as among the most trifling occurrences of corporal pain to
which human nature is subject, and they may be, in some measure
justified in this apparent insensibility from the circumstances of that
situation among themselves. It is by no means uncommon in the hasty
removal of their camps from one position to another, for a woman to be
taken in labour, to deliver herself in her way, without any assistance
or notice from her associates in her journey, and to overtake them
before they complete the arrangements of their evening station, with her
new-born babe on her back.
I was this morning threatened with a very unpleasant event, which,
however, I was fortunately able to control. Two young Indians being
engaged in one of their games, a dispute ensued, which rose to such a
height, that they drew their knives, and if I had not happened to have
appeared, they would I doubt not, have employed them to very bloody
purposes. So violent was their rage, that after I had turned them both
out of the house, and severely reprimanded them, they stood in the fort
for at least half an hour, looking at each other with a most vindictive
aspect, and in sullen silence.
The game which produced this state of bitter enmity, is called that of
the Platter, from a principal article of it. The Indians play at it in
the following manner.
The instruments of it consist of a platter, or dish, made of wood or
bark, and six round or square but flat pieces of metal, wood, or stone,
whose sides or surfaces are of different colours. These are put into
the dish, and after being for some time shaken together, are thrown into
the air, and received again into the dish with considerable dexterity;
when, by the number that are turned up of the same mark or colour, the
game is regulated. If there should be equal numbers, the throw is not
reckoned; if two or four, the platter changes hands.
On the 13th, one of these people came to me, and presented in himself a
curious example of Indian superstition. He requested me to furnish him
with a remedy that might be applied to the joints of his legs and
thighs, of which he had, in a great measure lost the use for five
winters. This affliction he attributed to his cruelty about that time,
when having found a wolf with two whelps in an old beaver lodge, he set
fire to it and consumed them.
The winter had been so mild, that the swans had but lately left us, and
at this advanced period there was very little snow on the ground: it
was, however, at this time a foot and a half in depth, in the environs
of the establishment below this, which is at the distance of about
seventy leagues.
On the 28th the Indians were now employed in making their snow-shoes, as
the snow had not hitherto fallen in sufficient quantity to render them
necessary.
_February 2._--The weather now became very cold, and it froze so hard
in the night that my watch stopped; a circumstance that had never
happened to this watch since my residence in the country.
There was a lodge of Indians here, who were absolutely starving with
cold and hunger. They had lately lost a near relation, and had
according to custom, thrown away every thing belonging to them, and even
exchanged the few articles of raiment which they possessed, in order, as
I presume, to get rid of every thing that may bring the deceased to
their remembrance. They also destroy every thing belonging to any
deceased person, except what they consign to the grave with the late
owner of them. We had some difficulty to make them comprehend that the
debts of a man who dies should be discharged, if he left any furs behind
him: but those who understand this principle of justice, and profess to
adhere it, never fail to prevent the appearance of any skins beyond such
as may be necessary to satisfy the debts of their dead relation.
On the 8th I had an observation for the longitude. In the course of
this day one of my men, who had been some time with the Indians, came to
inform me that one of them had threatened to stab him; and on his
preferring a complaint to the man with whom he now lived, and to whom I
had given him in charge, he replied, that he had been very imprudent to
play and quarrel with the young Indians out of his lodge, where no one
would dare to come and quarrel with him; but that if he had lost his
life where he had been, it would have been the consequence of his own
folly. Thus, even among these children of nature, it appears that a
man's house is his castle, where the protection of hospitality is
rigidly maintained.
The hard frost which had prevailed from the beginning of February
continued to the 16th of March, when the wind blowing from the
South-West, the weather became mild.
On the 22d a wolf was so bold as to venture among the Indian lodges, and
was very near carrying off a child.
I had another observation of Jupiter and his satellites for the
longitude. On the 13th some geese were seen, and these birds are always
considered as the harbingers of spring. On the first of April my
hunters shot five of them. This was a much earlier period than I ever
remember to have observed the visits of wild fowl in this part of the
world. The weather had been mild for the last fortnight, and there was
a promise of its continuance. On the 5th the snow had entirely
disappeared.
At half past four this morning I was awakened to be informed that an
Indian had been killed. I accordingly hastened to the camp, where I
found two women employed in rolling up the dead body of a man, called
the White Partridge, in a beaver robe, which I had lent him. He had
received four mortal wounds from a dagger, two within the collar bone,
one in the left breast, and another in the small of the back, with two
cuts across his head. The murderer, who had been my hunter throughout
the winter, had fled; and it was pretended that several relations of the
deceased were gone in pursuit of him. The history of this unfortunate
event is as follows:--
These two men had been comrades for four years; the murderer had three
wives; and the young man who was killed, becoming enamoured of one of
them, the husband consented to yield her to him, with the reserved power
of claiming her as his property, when it should be his pleasure.
This connection was uninterrupted for near three years, when, whimsical
as it may appear, the husband became jealous, and the public amour was
suspended. The parties, how ever, made their private assignations,
which caused the woman to be so ill treated by her husband, that the
paramour was determined to take her away by force; and this project
ended in his death. This is a very common practice among the Indians,
and generally terminates in very serious and fatal quarrels.
In consequence of this event all the Indians went away in great apparent
hurry and confusion, and in the evening not one of them was to be seen
about the fort.
The Beaver and Rocky Mountain Indians, who traded with us in this river,
did not exceed an hundred and fifty men, capable of bearing arms; two
thirds of whom call themselves Beaver Indians. The latter differ only
from the former, as they have, more or less, imbibed the customs and
manners of the Knisteneaux. As I have already observed, they are
passionately fond of liquor, and in the moments of their festivity will
barter any thing they have in their possession for it.
Though the Beaver Indians made their peace with the Knisteneaux, at
Peace Point, as already mentioned, yet they did not secure a state of
amity from others of the same nation, who had driven away the natives of
the Saskatchiwine and Missinipy Rivers, and joined at the head water of
the latter, called the Beaver River: from thence they proceeded West by
the Slave Lake just described, on their war excursions, which they often
repeated, even till the Beaver Indians had procured arms, which was in
the year 1782. If it so happened that they missed them, they proceeded
Westward till they were certain of wreaking their vengeance on those of
the Rocky Mountain, who being without arms, became an easy prey to their
blind and savage fury. All the European articles they possessed,
previous to the year 1780, were obtained from the Knisteneaux and
Chepewyans, who brought them from Fort Churchill, and for which they
were made to pay an extravagant price.
As late as the year 1786, when the first traders from Canada arrived on
the banks of this river, the natives employed bows and snares, but at
present very little use is made of the former, and the latter are no
longer known. They still entertain a great dread of their natural
enemies, but they are since become so well armed, that the others now
call them their allies. The men are in general of a comely appearance,
and fond of personal decoration. The women are of a contrary
disposition, and the slaves of the men: in common with all the Indian
tribes polygamy is allowed among them. They are very subject to
jealousy, and fatal consequences frequently result from the indulgence
of that passion. But notwithstanding the vigilance and severity which
is exercised by the husband, it seldom happens that a woman is without
her favourite, who, in the absence of the husband, exacts the same
submission, and practises the same tyranny. And so premature is the
tender passion, that it is sometimes known to invigorate so early a
period of life as the age of eleven or twelve years. The women are not
very prolific: a circumstance which may be attributed in a great
measure, to the hardships that they suffer for except a few small dogs,
they alone perform that labour which is allotted to beasts of burthen in
other countries. It is not uncommon, while the men carry nothing but a
gun, that their wives and daughters follow with such weighty burdens,
that if they lay them down they cannot replace them, and that is a
kindness which the men will not deign to perform; so that during their
journeys they are frequently obliged to lean against a tree for a small
portion of temporary relief. When they arrive at the place which their
tyrants have chosen for their encampment, they arrange the whole in a
few minutes, by forming a curve of poles, meeting at the top, and
expanding into circles of twelve or fifteen feet diameter at the bottom,
covered with dressed skins of the moose sewed together. During these
preparations, the men sit down quietly to the enjoyment of their pipes,
if they happen to have any tobacco. But notwithstanding this abject
state of slavery and submission, the women have a considerable influence
on the opinion of the men in every thing except their own domestic
situation.
These Indians are excellent hunters, and their exercise in that capacity
is so violent as to reduce them in general to a very meagre appearance.
Their religion is of a very contracted nature, and I never witnessed any
ceremony of devotion which they had not borrowed from the Knisteneaux,
their feasts and fasts being in imitation of that people. They are more
vicious and warlike than the Chepewyans, from whence they sprang, though
they do not possess their selfishness, for while they have the means of
purchasing their necessaries, they are liberal and generous, but when
those are exhausted they become errant beggars: they are, however,
remarkable for their honesty, for in the whole tribe there were only two
women and a man who had been known to have swerved from that virtue, and
they were considered as objects of disregard and reprobation. They are
afflicted with but few diseases, and their only remedies consist in
binding the temples, procuring perspiration, singing, and blowing on the
sick person, or affected part. When death overtakes any of them, their
property, as I have before observed, is sacrificed and destroyed; nor is
there any failure of lamentation or mourning on such occasion: they who
are more nearly related to the departed person, black their faces, and
sometimes cut off their hair; they also pierce their arms with knives
and arrows. The grief of the females is carried to a still greater
excess; they not only cut their hair, and cry and howl, but they will
sometimes, with the utmost deliberation, employ some sharp instrument to
separate the nail from the finger, and then force back the flesh beyond
the first joint, which they immediately amputate. But this
extraordinary mark of affliction is only displayed on the death of a
favourite son, a husband, or a father. Many of the old women have so
often repeated this ceremony, that they have not a complete finger
remaining on either hand. The women renew their lamentations at the
graves of their departed relatives, for a long succession of years.
They appear, in common with all the Indian tribes, to be very fond of
their children, but they are as careless in their mode of swadling them
in their infant state, as they are of their own dress: the child is laid
down on aboard, of about two feet long, covered with a bed of moss, to
which it is fastened by bandages, the moss being changed as often as the
occasion requires. The chief of the nation had no less than nine wives,
and children in proportion.
When traders first appeared among these people, the Canadians were
treated with the utmost hospitality and attention; but they have, by
their subsequent conduct, taught the natives to withdraw that respect
from them, and sometimes to treat them with indignity. They differ very
much from the Chepewyans and Knisteneaux, in the abhorrence they profess
of any carnal communication between their women and the white people.
They carry their love of gaming to excess; they will pursue it for a
succession of days and nights, and no apprehension of ruin, nor
influence of domestic affection, will restrain them from the indulgence
of it. They are a quick, lively, active people, with a keen,
penetrating, dark eye; and though they are very susceptible of anger,
are as easily appeased. The males eradicate their beards, and the
females their hair in every part, except their heads, where it is strong
and black, and without a curl. There are many old men among them, but
they are in general ignorant of the space in which they have been
inhabitants of the earth, though one of them told me that he recollected
sixty winters.
An Indian in some measure explained his age to me, by relating that he
remembered the opposite hills and plains, now interspersed with groves
of poplars, when they were covered with moss, and without any animal
inhabitant but the rein-deer. By degrees, he said, the face of the
country changed to its present appearance, when the elk came from the
East, and was followed by the buffalo; the rein-deer then retired to the
long range of high lands that, at a considerable distance, run parallel,
with this river.
On the 20th of April I had an observation of Jupiter and his satellites,
for the longitude, and we were now visited by our summer companions the
gnats and musquitoes. On the other side of the river, which was yet
covered with ice, the plains were delightful; the trees were budding,
and many plants in blossom. Mr. Mackay brought me a bunch of flowers of
a pink colour, and a yellow button, encircled with six leaves of a light
purple. The change in the appearance of nature was as sudden as it was
pleasing, for a few days only were passed away since the ground was
covered with snow. On the 25th the river was cleared of the ice.
I new found that the death of the man called the White Partridge, had
deranged all the plans which I had settled with the Indians for the
spring hunting. They had assembled at some distance from the fort, and
sent an embassy to me, to demand rum to drink, that they might have an
opportunity of crying for their deceased brother. It would be
considered as an extreme degradation in an Indian to weep when sober,
but a state of intoxication sanctions all irregularities. On my
refusal, they threatened to go to war, which, from motives of interest
as well as humanity, we did our utmost to discourage; and as a second
message was brought by persons of some weight among these people, and on
whom I could depend, I thought it prudent to comply with the demand, on
an express condition, that they would continue peaceably at home.
The month of April being now past, in the early part of which I was most
busily employed in trading with the Indians, I ordered our old canoes to
be repaired with bark, and added four new ones to them, when, with the
furs and provisions I had purchased, six canoes were loaded and
dispatched on the 8th of May, for Fort Chepewyan. I had, however,
retained six of the men, who agreed to accompany me on my projected
voyage of discovery. I also engaged my hunters, and closed the business
of the year for the company by writing my public and private dispatches.
Having ascertained, by various observations, the latitude of this place
to be 56. 9. North, and longitude 117. 35. 15. West: on the 9th day of
May, I found, that my achrometer was one hour forty-six minutes slow to
apparent time; the mean going of it I had found to be twenty-two seconds
slow in twenty-four hours. Having settled this point, the canoe was put
into the water; her dimensions were twenty-five feet long within,
exclusive of the curves of stem and stern, twenty-six inches hold, and
four feet nine inches beam. At the same time she was so light, that two
men could carry her on a good road three or four miles without resting.
In this slender vessel, we shipped provisions, goods for presents, arms,
ammunition, and baggage, to the weight of three thousand pounds, and an
equipage of ten people; viz. Alexander Mackay, Joseph Landry, Charles
Ducette,[2] Francois Beaulieux, Baptist Bisson, Francois Courtois, and
Jaques Beauchamp, with two Indians, as hunters and interpreters. One of
them, when a boy, used to be so idle, that he obtained the reputable
name of Cancre, which he still possesses. With these persons I embarked
at seven in the evening. My winter interpreter, with another person,
whom I left here to take care of the fort, and supply the natives with
ammunition during the summer, shed tears on the reflection of those
dangers which we might encounter in our expedition, while my own people
offered up their prayers that we might return in safety from it.
[1] When they are drinking together, they frequently present their guns
to each other, when any of the parties have not other means of procuring
rum. On such an occasion they always discharge their pieces, as a
proof, I imagine, of their being in good order, and to determine the
quantity of liquor they may propose to get in exchange for them.
[2]Joseph Landry and Charles Ducette were with me in my former voyage.