WELCOME TO SAGASTA-WEEKEE--MR. ROSS, THEIR HOST--THE THREE BOYS--FRANK,
ALEC, SAM--THE "PRINCE ARTHUR"--THE VOYAGE--THE ESQUIMAUX--ARRIVAL AT
YORK FACTORY.
"Welcome to this Wild North Land! welcome to our happy home in the Land
of the North Wind! Welcome, thrice welcome, all and each one of you!"
Thus excitedly and rapidly did Mr Ross address a trio of sunburnt,
happy boys, who, with all the assurance of a joyous welcome, had burst
in upon him in his comfortable, well-built home, or "hunting lodge," as
he preferred to call it, on the banks of the Nelson River. This cozy
but isolated home was situated some hundreds of miles up in the interior
of the country from York Factory, on the Hudson Bay.
Mr Ross had named his house "Sa-gas-ta-wee-kee," a beautiful Indian
word which literally means a house full of sunshine. Mr Ross had spent
many years as an official in the Hudson Bay Company's service, as had
his father before him. A few years before this, being possessed of
abundance of means, he had retired from active work in the great fur-
trading company. He had tried to settle down in an older, civilised
land, but had found it impossible to content himself away from those
regions where he had spent the best years of his life. His wife and
family were of the same mind, and so, after some years of travel in
various lands, they returned to this northern country where they had
spent so many happy years.
Every year or so Mr Ross with some members of his family was in the
habit of visiting what he loved to call the mother country. So full was
his life of varied and startling adventures, that he was often asked to
give addresses on some of the fascinating experiences, through which he
had passed.
Among the crowds who listened to him with intense interest, as he gave a
series of addresses in one of the great historic schools in the home
land, were the three boys who are to be the heroes of this book.
Although they were from different families and nationalities, yet they
were congenial spirits, and were equally filled with the love of sport
and spirit of exciting adventure.
For such boys Mr Ross's addresses about the Indians, the wild animals,
and the excitements of the hunt had the greatest fascination. With Mr
Ross they had become personally acquainted, and had induced him to visit
their different towns, where he lectured, and to be the guest at their
homes, where his delightful stories had charmed every member of their
households.
In some way or other they had persuaded their parents to consent to
their spending a year or so in the wilds of the northern part of the
great Dominion of Canada under the guidance of Mr Ross, who most
importunately pleaded for this arrangement on behalf of the boys. As it
was impossible for them to return with Mr Ross on account of their
studies, several months passed away ere it was possible for them to
begin their journey; so he had returned alone to his home, and had made
all preparations for entertaining them as members of his household for
an indefinite period.
Letters had been sent on in advance notifying Mr Ross of the probable
time of the arrival of the boys. But, as often happened in that wild
country, where there was no postal service, the letters never arrived,
and so the first intimation Mr Ross had of the coming of the boys was
their bursting in upon him. Abrupt as was their coming, of course they
were welcome. In all new lands there is an open-hearted hospitality
that is very delightful, and this was emphatically so in the vast lonely
region of the Hudson Bay Territory, where the white men in those days
were so few and so widely scattered apart from each other.
And now that they are snugly ensconced in the home of their good friend
Mr Ross and his hospitable family, ere we begin to describe their many
sports and adventures let us find out something about our heroes, and
have them describe some of the exciting incidents of the long trip which
they had already made on their journey to this Wild North Land.
Frank, the eldest of the three, was the son of a Liverpool banker. His
friends had vainly tried to divert his mind from wild adventure and
exciting sports, and persuade him to settle down to steady routine
office work. Failing in this, they had listened to Mr Ross's pleadings
on his behalf, and had commented to let him have the year in the Wild
North Land, hoping that its trials and hardships would effectually cure
him of his love of adventure and cause him to cheerfully settle down at
his father's business.
Alec was from Scotland, a genuine son of "the mountain and the flood."
While a good student when at school, yet, when at home on his holidays,
his highest joy had ever been under the guidance of the faithful old
gillie to follow on the trail of the mountain deer. For a wider field
than that offered by his native Highlands he had been so longing that
his friends yielded to his importunities, and so now here he is with his
comrades, full of eager anticipations.
Sam was from what his mother used to call "dear, dirty Dublin." He was
full of life and fun; a jolly Irish boy of the finest type. Storms and
privations might at times depress the spirits of the others; but Sam,
true to his nationality, never lost his spirits or his good nature. So
rapid had been his progress in his studies that he had pushed himself
beyond his years, and so even his tutors had joined in his request that
he should have the year off, which, spent in the invigorating air and
healthful adventures in the Wild North Land, would doubtless be a
blessing to both mind and body:
In the good ship _Prince Arthur_, of the Hudson Bay Company, our three
young adventurers set sail in the month of May from the London docks.
They met with no adventures worth recording until after they had left
the Orkney Islands, where they had called for their last consignment of
supplies and the latest mails. Here they also shipped some hardy Orkney
men and Highlanders, who were going out in the employment of the Hudson
Bay Company.
The _Prince Arthur_ was a stanch sailing vessel, built especially for
the Hudson Bay Company's trade. She was employed in carrying out to
that country the outfit of goods required in the great fur trade. Her
return cargoes were the valuable furs obtained in barter from the
Indians. Her port was York Factory, on the western side of the Hudson
Bay. Here her cargo was discharged and carried by scores of inland
boats and canoes to the various trading posts in the different parts of
that great country, which is larger than the whole continent of Europe.
So remote were some of those posts from the seaboard, and so difficult
and slow were the methods of transporting the goods, that several years
passed ere the fur secured from them reached the London markets, to
which they were all consigned and where they were carried each year in
the company's ships.
Although the _Prince Arthur_ was far from being a first-class passenger
ship, yet she was a good, seaworthy vessel, with plenty of room for the
few passengers who travelled by her each year. These were principally
gentlemen of the Hudson Bay Company's service and their friends, or
missionaries going out or returning home.
Letters from influential friends secured for our three boys the
considerate attention of the captain and the ship's officers, and their
own bright ways won the friendship of all the sailors on board. On the
whole they had a glorious passage. Some fogs at times perplexed them,
and a few enormous icebergs were so near that careful tacking was
required, to prevent accidents. The boys were filled with admiration at
these great mountains of ice; some of them seemed like great islands,
while others more closely resembled glorious cathedrals built in marble
and emerald. At times, as the western sun shone upon them, they seemed
to take on in parts every colour of the rainbow. With intense interest
were they watched as they slowly drifted beyond the southern horizon.
One of the most exciting incidents of the journey was a battle between a
great whale and a couple of swordfish. The unwieldy monster seemed to
be no match for his nimble antagonists. His sole weapon seemed to be
his enormous tail; but vain were his efforts to strike his quicker
enemies. As far as could be judged from the deck of the ship, the
swordfish were masters of the situation, and the blood-stained waters
seemed to indicate that the battle would soon be over.
In the southern part of Davis Strait they encountered great fields of
floating ice, on which were many herds of seals. The captain had the
ship hove to and three boats lowered. In each one he permitted one of
the boys to go with the sailors on this seal-hunting expedition. The
seals, which are so very active in water, where they can swim with such
grace and rapidity, are very helpless on land or ice, and so large
numbers were killed by the sailors. While the boys were excited with
the sport, they could not but feel sorry for the poor, helpless
creatures as they looked at them out of their great eyes that seemed
almost human. Some hundreds of skins were secured, much to the delight
of the captain and crew, as the profit coming to them from their sale
would be no inconsiderable item.
At the mouth of Hudson Strait the captain again had the ship hove to for
a day or so to trade with a number of Esquimaux, who had come in their
curious canoes, called kayaks, from along the coasts of Labrador. Their
insatiable curiosity and peculiar fur clothing very much interested the
boys. These Esquimaux were shrewd hands at a bargain, but their
principal desire seemed to be to obtain implements of iron in exchange
for their furs. They cared nothing for flour, rice, tea, coffee, or
sugar. They knew no other food than meat and oil, and so craved no
other things than those that could be utilised in improving their
weapons. Guns were unknown among them, but they were very skillful in
the use of the harpoon and the spear. When they are able to secure iron
from the white man they make their harpoon heads, spears, and knives out
of this metal, but when unable to secure it they manufacture their
weapons out of the horns of the reindeer or the tusks of the walrus or
narwhal.
They had among their other furs some splendid bear skins, and the boys
were very much interested in hearing them tell through an interpreter
how they, with their rude weapons, aided by their clever dogs, had been
able to kill these fierce animals. All were very much delighted when
told by these friendly Esquimaux how that with two well-trained dogs
nipping at the hind legs of a great bear they could keep him turning
round and round from one to the other and thus get him so wild and
excited that in his efforts to catch hold of the nimble animals, which
were able to keep out of his grasp, he did not notice the arrival of the
hunters, who were able to approach so closely that they could easily
kill him.
The ship crossed the great Hudson Bay, which is about six hundred miles
in width, without any mishap, and safely dropped anchor in what the
Hudson Bay officers call "the six fathom hole," some distance out from
the rude primitive wharf. The signal gun was fired, and soon a brigade
of boats came out, and the work of unloading the cargo began.
Our boys, eager as they were to land, were sorry after all to leave
their snug berths in the good ship, where they had had some very
delightful times during the thirty days that had elapsed since they had
left the docks in old England.
A few gifts were bestowed among their particular sailor friends, and
then, with the "God bless you" from all; they entered a small boat rowed
by Indians, and were soon on the land that skirts this great inland sea.
Great indeed was the change which they saw between the populous cities
of the home land and this quiet, lonely region upon whose shores they
had now landed.
Here the only inhabitants were the fur traders, with their employees,
and the dignified, stoical Indians. The only signs of habitations were
the few civilised dwellings, called in courtesy the fort, where dwelt
and traded the officers and their families and servants of the great
fur-trading company, and not very far off was the Indian village of the
natives, where the most conspicuous buildings were the church and
parsonage of the missionary, who had been marvellously successful in
planting the cross in these northern regions, and in winning from a
degrading superstition, to the blessings of Christianity, some hundreds
of these red men, whose consistent lives showed the genuineness of the
work wrought among them.
This great region, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, far
north of the fertile prairie region where millions will yet find happy
and prosperous homes, has well been called "The Wild North Land." The
Indians call it Keewatin, "The Land of the North Wind."
It has not many attractions for the farmer or merchantman, but it is the
congenial home of the red man. On its innumerable lakes and broad
rivers he glides along during the few bright summer months in his light
canoe. Every waterfall or cataract has associated with it some legend
or tradition. Its dense forests are the haunts of the bear and wolf, of
the moose and reindeer, and many other valuable animals, in the
excitement of hunting which he finds his chief delight.
To this land had come our three lads for sport and adventure, and we
shall see how fully all their expectations were realised.