{"AggregatedSourceRepository":[{"label":"AggregatedSourceRepository","value":"CONTENTdm","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/dataProvider","classmap":"ore:Aggregation","property":"edm:dataProvider"},"iri":"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/dataProvider","explain":"A Europeana Data Model Property; The name or identifier of the organization who contributes data indirectly to an aggregation service (e.g. Europeana)"}],"AlternateTitle":[{"label":"AlternateTitle","value":"Knights errant of the wilderness","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/alternative","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:alternative"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/alternative","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; An alternative name for the resource.; Note - the distinction between titles and alternative titles is resource-specific."}],"CatalogueRecord":[{"label":"CatalogueRecord","value":"http:\/\/resolve.library.ubc.ca\/cgi-bin\/catsearch?bid=1585083","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isReferencedBy","classmap":"edm:ProvidedCHO","property":"dcterms:isReferencedBy"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isReferencedBy","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; A related resource that references, cites, or otherwise points to the described resource."}],"Collection":[{"label":"Collection","value":"British Columbia Historical Books Collection","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isPartOf","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:isPartOf"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isPartOf","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included."}],"Creator":[{"label":"Creator","value":"Long, Morden H. [Heaton]","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/creator","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:creator"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/creator","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; An entity primarily responsible for making the resource.; Examples of a Contributor include a person, an organization, or a service."}],"DateAvailable":[{"label":"DateAvailable","value":"2016-01-27","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/issued","classmap":"edm:WebResource","property":"dcterms:issued"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/issued","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; Date of formal issuance (e.g., publication) of the resource."}],"DateIssued":[{"label":"DateIssued","value":"1920","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/issued","classmap":"oc:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:issued"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/issued","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; Date of formal issuance (e.g., publication) of the resource."}],"Description":[{"label":"Description","value":"\"'Makes no pretence whatever to research ... ': - p.v.
'An attempt to re-tell for the children of the upper public school grades some of those stories of the makers of the Canadian West ... ': - Pref.
Partial contents: ... PP.175-223. Sir Alexander Mackenzie.\"-- Strathern, G. M., & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 172","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/description","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:description"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/description","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; An account of the resource.; Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, a table of contents, a graphical representation, or a free-text account of the resource."}],"DigitalResourceOriginalRecord":[{"label":"DigitalResourceOriginalRecord","value":"https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/collections\/bcbooks\/items\/1.0223811\/source.json","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/aggregatedCHO","classmap":"ore:Aggregation","property":"edm:aggregatedCHO"},"iri":"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/aggregatedCHO","explain":"A Europeana Data Model Property; The identifier of the source object, e.g. the Mona Lisa itself. This could be a full linked open date URI or an internal identifier"}],"Extent":[{"label":"Extent","value":"[i]-xi, 223 pages : maps, illustrations, photographs ; 21 cm","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/extent","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:extent"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/extent","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; The size or duration of the resource."}],"FileFormat":[{"label":"FileFormat","value":"application\/pdf","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/elements\/1.1\/format","classmap":"edm:WebResource","property":"dc:format"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/elements\/1.1\/format","explain":"A Dublin Core Elements Property; The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource.; Examples of dimensions include size and duration. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the list of Internet Media Types [MIME]."}],"FullText":[{"label":"FullText","value":" \\K\/-4JLit **k^ (_\u00bb-**^K-Lc\u00ab^ia^*-^i\n\\\nAi\\\u00abrXJU^ H \nOF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST\nBY\nMORDEN H. LONG\nITHE MACMILlANSf\nM\u00bb IN CANADAB\nTORONTO:\nOF CANADA\nTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY\nLTD., AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE\nMCMXXV\n Copyright, Canada, 1919, by\nTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED\nPRINTED IN CANADA\nT H. BEST PRINTING CO. LIMITED. TORONTO\n PREFACE\nThis book requires a word of explanation with regard to\nits character and aim. It makes no pretence whatever to\nresearch, but is simply an attempt to re-tell for the children\nof the upper public school grades some of those stories of the\nmakers of the Canadian West which have already been told\nfor adults in the books of Lawrence Burpee, Agnes Laut,\nand others. Of the works of these writers very free use\nhas been made in the pages which follow, though where\noriginal documents were readily available, as in the cases\nof the Journals of Hearne and Mackenzie, recourse was had\nto them. If, then, the book presents in an attractive way\nfor Canadian boys and girls some of the heroic deeds which\nunderlie the growing greatness of their own North-West\nits object will have been attained. If it should happen\nthat in spite of its simplicity the book makes an appeal,\nalso, to some \" grown-ups,\" that will be a result undesigned\nby the writer, though no less welcome to him.\nThe writer wishes to acknowledge the very valuable\nassistance which he has received at every stage of the work\nfrom Miss L. F. Munro, Principal of the Bennett School,\nEdmonton, and also the kindly encouragement which was\nafforded him in the undertaking by Mr. John T. Ross,\nDeputy Minister of Education for the Province of Alberta,\n VI\nPreface\nand by Mr. W. G. Carpenter, Superintendent of the Edmonton Public Schools. Grateful acknowledgment is due, too,\nto Mr. John Wise, for the skill and faithfulness with which\nhe has drafted the maps illustrating the stories.\nJ\u00a7 M. H. L.\nEdmonton,\nJanuary, 1920.\n 1\nCONTENTS.\nCHAPTER I.\nPage\nHenry Hudson -\n- - 3\nCHAPTER II.\nRaDISSON AND GROSEILLIERS\n- - 23\nCHAPTER III.\nHenry Kelsey -\n\u25a0 - 79\n~ CHAPTER IV.\nLa Verendrye and His Sons\n- - 95\nCHAPTER V\nAnthony Hendry -\n- 119\nCHAPTER VI.\nSamuel Hearne - - - -\n- 141\nCHAPTER VII.\nSir Alexander Mackenzie\n- 175\n\u2022 \u2022\n LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\nPage\nBuffalo hunting in the Great Plains Frontispiece.\nThe last hours of Henry Hudson 18\nRadisson 23\nAn Iroquois Chief ------ 28\nMartello Tower - - - - - - 32\nQuebec - - - - - - - - 40\nThey embarked in their canoes - - opp. 48\nCree Indians -------50\nPrince Rupert ------ 54\nCoat of Arms, Hudson's Bay Company 74\nHudson's Bay Company Coins 75\nAssiniboine Indian ----- 87\nA monarch of the plains - - - 88\nSieur de la Verendrye - - - - opp. 96\nTheir friends wish them Godspeed - - opp. 98\nRunning the Rapids ----- 100\nMaking a Portage ------ 102\nA Cree Brave ------ 103\nix\n LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued)\nMandan Girls -\nAn Indian Encampment\nThe mighty mountain barrier\nTablet deposited by de la Verendrye\nSarcee Chiefs -\nFighting a Grizzly -\nAn Indian Camp -\nAn Indian of the Plains\nA Blackfoot Brave -\nSamuel Hearne - - -\nFort Prince of Wales -v\nA Chief of the Chippewayans\nAn Eskimo Family\nRuins of Fort Prince of Wales\nSir Alexander Mackenzie\nThe Midnight Sun -\nCarrying Supplies over a Portage -\nCoast Indians of British Columbia -\nMackenzie reaches the Pacific\nPage\nopp.\n108\nopp.\n110\n-\n113\nopp.\n114\n-\n127\nopp.\n128\n-\n130\n-\n132\n-\n133\n-\n141\n-\n142\n*\n143\nopp.\n162\n-\n170\n-\n175\n-\n193\n-\n204\n-\n219\nopp.\n220\n \u00b1r*a*\nLIST OF MAPS.\nPage\nHudson's Last Voyage ----- 2\nRoutes of Radisson and Groseilliers 22\nIroquois Country in the days of Radisson - 31\nRadisson's exploits on the Nelson and Hayes\nRivers ----- 0ppt 64\nJourneys of Kelsey and Hendry - - - 78\nThe explorations of la Verendrye and his sons 94\nJourneys of Hendry and Kelsey - 118\nJourneys of Samuel Hearne - 140\nExplorations of Sir Alexander Mackenzie - 174\np\nXI\n HENRY HUDSON\n \u25a0^i\nKNIGHTS ERRANT OF THE\nWILDERNESS\nEARLY EXPLORERS\nCHAPTER I\nHENRY HUDSONj|\nIn the heart of old London, wedged in among tall houses\nwhose quaint chimney pots look calmly down upon it, there\nstands the little old Church of St. Ethelburga in Bishops-\ngate Street. Square and squat and gray, for many a century it has sturdily braved the buffeting storms and has\nafforded a quiet haven in the city's busy streets, where\nmen may turn aside to think for a little while on the\ndeep things of life.\nThither many a Sabbath morning, to the clear summons\nof its tolling bell, peaceful citizens of London had gone to\nworship. On April 19th, 1607, however, there was added\nto the usual quiet congregation a new, strange element.\nJust as the service was about to begin twelve men came\ntrooping in. Their bronzed faces, their roughened hands,\ntheir free, rolling gait, their sailor clothes, all spoke of a\nlife on the sea far from the cramping bounds of London's\nshops and counting houses. A little awkward they seemed,\nas though unused to church and its quiet ways. Yet they\n3\n 4 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nwere not irreverent. Their deep voices joined in musically\nwith those of the congregation in the responses of the stately\nservice of the Church of England. Respectfully they\nlistened to the message of the clergyman, and, as they\ntook the holy sacrament, their faces bore the solemn\nseriousness of men who were about to face hardships and\nperils and death itself, in some high enterprise.\nLittle, indeed, did the congregation know that this was\nthe most glorious moment in the long history of the gray\nold church. Yet so it was, for the little group of twelve\nstrange mariners numbered among it some of the bravest\nhearts in all England, and their leader, he with the air of\ncommand and the steady, fearless eyes, was no other than\nHenry Hudson, one of the world's greatest navigators.\nSo, simply and with quiet earnestness, did the party prepare itself to carry on the famous search for a northern\nroute to the Indies in which already many skillful and\nresolute seamen had failed. Thus, too, did the little\nchurch witness the memorable beginning of a series of\nexplorations which were to lay for England claims to vast\nnew dominions overseas and bring to Henry Hudson an\nimperishable fame.\nFour days later, at Gravesend on the Thames, Hudson\nembarked on his first voyage to the icy Arctic seas. His\nlittle ship, the Hopewell, had been fitted out by the great\nMuscovy Company, which carried on an extensive trade\nwith Russia by way of Archangel on the White Sea. Along\nthe caravan routes of Central Asia there had come to Russia\nsome of the silks and spices and jewels of the East. Thus\n^\n \"^\nEarly Explorers 5\nEnglish merchants had been set dreaming of the wonderful\nwealth that would be theirs, if only a short sea route could\nbe found to India, Japan, and Cathay.\n\u2022Vasco da Gama, sent out by the king of Portugal, had\nreached those far distant lands by rounding the Cape of\nGood Hope and crossing the Indian Ocean. Magellan,\ndispatched by Spain, had found a way to them by sailing\naround the southern extremity of South America and\nboldly striking out across the vast uncharted expanse of\nthe Pacific. But both these routes were very long and\nbeset by many perils. Moreover, Portugal and Spain\nclaimed them as their own by right of discovery and attacked the ships of all other nations which attempted to\nsail those seas. If English seamen, however, could only\ndiscover another and a shorter path to the Far East, that\nnew route would be England's very own, and the merchants\nof London and Bristol would reap riches untold. So Hudson was now sent forth in his tiny vessel to make his way\nto those \" lands of spicery\" by sailing north across the\nPolar Sea.\nWith him, in addition to the crew of ten seamen, Hudson\ntook his little son John. Many a time had the lad sat\nwide-eyed in wonder at his father's stirring tales of distant\nlands and wild adventures on the seas. Often had he\nlonged for the time when he might throw lessons and school\nbooks to the winds and take his part in the brave doings\nof those days. And now, at last, that time had come, and\nthe little lad was all agog with excitement and eager to\nbe off with his father on his adventurous voyage.\n 6 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nNorth they sailed past John o' Groat's, the Orkneys, the\nShetlands, the Faroes, and Iceland until they were well\nwiliiin the Arctic Circle, where in the short summer reigns\nalmost perpetual day. Then suddenly a dense fog which\nhad beset them lifted. Though it was two o'clock in the\nmorning it was broad daylight, and the watchman's cry\nof \"Land to larboard!': brought the Captain and men\ntumbling quickly on deck. There, towering above the\nwestern horizon and gilded by the rays of the rising sun,\nwere the snowy peaks of the mountains of Greenland,\nwhile all about the little ship, to north, east, and south,\nlay an endless, floating world of ice.\nStill north they sailed with the bleak shores of Greenland to the west, until the ever thickening ice fields drove\nhome the fact that no passag&Tay this way across the Pole.\nThen, in July, they turned their prow north-east towards\nSpitzbergen, but here too they found that to north and\nsouth the endless ice-packs barred the way to their goal in\nthe East.\nSo September 15th found Hudson and his crew once\nmore on the Thames at Tilbury Dock. In the main object\nof their search they had failed, yet the voyage had not been\na complete failure. They had proved that no route lay\npast Greenland or Spitzbergen to the Orient. They\nbrought back definite knowledge of the wealth of the\nnorthern seas in whales, seals, and walrus. Hudson had\nreached the latitude of 82, just eight degrees from the\nPole. He had been the first to record the dip of the compass in high latitudes from the true north towards the\nSB|\n Early Explorers 7\nmagnetic pole. He had also been the first to discover\nthe great Arctic Current setting towards the Pole, which,\nlater, Nansen was to try to use in drifting towards that goal.\nBut to Hudson failure was only a challenge to the great\nfaith and purpose that inspired him. In the very next\nyear, 1608, he and his son were once more in the north,\nthis time trying to find a passage east through the strait\nbetween Nova Zembla and the mainland. But again the\ngreat ice barrier and a crew terrified-by the hardships and\ndangers of the quest compelled him to turn back. \" Being\nvoid of hope,\" Hudson writes in his log; \"the wind stormy\nand against us, much ice drawing, we weighed anchor and\nset sail westward.\" On August 20th they anchored in the\nThames.\nCast off now by the Muscovy Company, Hudson was\nnext employed by its great rival, the Dutch East India\nCompany, and the summer of 1609 found him once more\noff for Nova Zembla. This time he sailed from Amsterdam\nin a little, flat-bottomed cockleshell of a boat called the\nHalf Moon. Unfortunately, more than half of Hudson's\ncrew were cowardly lascars, native sailors from the Dutch\nEast Indies. These men, lightly clad, used only to the\nsunny southern waters and shivering with cold and terror,\ntook to the warm blankets in their berths when the North\nCape had been left behind. Thereupon, the English\nsailors promptly rebelled against the double work, and all\nhope of carrying on'Arctic exploration for that year at\nonce came to an end. Sadly the captain turned his ship\nback towards the west.\n I\n8 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nBut if Hudson returned, having once more failed in his\nsearch, he knew that his career as a navigator would be\nended in disgrace. What was he to do? Whither might\nhe turn? Long he pondered this question, and at last he\nstruck south-west with a fair wind across the Atlantic.\nBetween the French on the St. Lawrence and Virginia,\nwhere his friend, Captain Smith, had but lately founded\nthe first permanent English colony in America, old maps\nshowed an unexplored arm of the ocean. Perhaps this\nwas a passage through America to the Pacific or Western\nSea, the discovery of which would bring fame and wealth\ninstead of the impending disgrace.\nSo Hudson and his half mutinous crew coasted south\nalong the Atlantic shore to the Chesapeake, and then\nturning north again on September 2nd, 1609, their ship\nentered a spacious harbor at the mouth of a. great river.\nThis river we now call the Hudson, after its discoverer.\nOn the lonely wooded shores from which a solitary Indian\nsignal fire then sent its slender smoke column aloft into\nthe air, there towers now the mighty sky-line of New\nYork, the metropolis of America and one of the largest\ncities in the world.\nLittle dreaming of the great future of the land which\nthey saw, Hudson and his mariners ascended the river\nto the neighborhood where Albany now stands. There\nthe Captain was entertained by an old chief of the country.\n\"He was chief of a tribe of forty men and seventeen women,\"\nHudson says. \"These I saw there in a house well built of\noak bark, circular in shape with an arched roof. It con-\n Early Explorers 9\ntained a great quantity of Indian corn and beans of the\nlast year's growth, and there lay near the house for the\npurpose of drying enough to load three ships, besides what\nwas growing in the fields. On our coming into the house\ntwo mats were spread to sit upon and food was served in\nwell-made red wooden bowls. Two men were also dispatched at once with bows and arrows in search of game,\nwho soon after brought in a pair of pigeons which they had\nshot. They likewise killed a fat dog and skinned it in\ngreat haste with shells which they had got out of the water.\nThe land is the finest for cultivation that I ever set foot\nupon in my life. The natives are very good people, for\nwhen they saw that I would not remain they supposed\nthat I was afraid of their bows, and taking the arrows\nthey broke them in pieces and threw them in the fire.\"\nOn September 23rd the shallows of the upper Hudson\ncaused them to retrace their course to the mouth of the\nriver, and thence, putting forth to sea, they reached Dartmouth in England on November 7 th. Hudson had failed\nagain to find the North-West Passage which he sought, but\nhe had discovered a great river destined to be the main\ngateway to the trade of the New World. So jealous now\nof their Dutch rivals were the gentlemen of the Muscovy\nCompany that they secured an order from the government forbidding Hudson to return to Holland. Henceforth, they were resolved, his services must be given only\nto his native land.\nOn April 17th, 1610, Hudson embarked on his last and\ngreatest voyage. Three members of the Muscovy Compan)^,\n I\nio Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nSir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, and Master John\nWolstenholme. men who had faith in Hudson and his dream\nof a North-West Passage, joined in equipping the expedition.\nA little ship of 150 tons, happily named the Discovery, was\nfitted out and manned with a crew of twenty men. Among\nthese were several of Hudson's old seamen and his son John,\nthe constant companion of his father in his voyages.\nDropping down the peaceful Thames with the tide, the\nlittle company looked their last on the pleasant land of\nEngland, clad in the soft green of April and decked with\nthe flowers of spring. Far other indeed were the scenes\nfor which they were bound.\nBy mid-May they had reached the rocky coast of Iceland, where, according to Thomas Prickett, one of the\nmembers of the crew, who kept a diary of the voyage, \"We\nsaw that famous hill, Mount Hecla, which cast out much\nfire, and on the shore we found an hot spring and here all\nour Englishmen bathed themselves.\"\nFor a fortnight they sheltered in Icelandic coves against\nadverse winds and drifting ice. Then, sailing boldly to\nthe west, they rounded the southern point of Greenland,\ncrossed the entrance to Davis Strait, and about June 20th\nreached Resolution Island. This lay at the mouth, of the\ngreat strait, which both Frobisher and Davis had noticed\nin their expeditions and through which Hudson was now\nconvinced lay the way to the Western Sea. Here he stood\non the threshold of his work. They were upon the edge\nof the known world and were about to plunge into the\nvast unknown beyond.\n Early Explorers n\nTheir task was no child's play. The giant icebergs in the\nstraits of North America were as mountains to little hills\ncompared with the ice floes of the open sea that Hudson\nhad encountered on his previous Arctic voyages. In our\nown day huge islands of ice, nine miles in length by actual\nmeasurement, have been encountered in Ungava Bay.\nTo make matters worse, into the narrow straits and dead\nagainst the packed and jumbled ice drifting with the Polar\nCurrent south and east, there flings itself the westward sweeping inrush of the Atlantic tide. Thus is created what early\nnavigators called the \"furious overfall,\" a great seething\nwhirlpool of ice and water extremely dangerous to ships.\nAll through July, Hudson with dauntless courage stubbornly battled his way through the midst of the perils of\nthe strait that now bears his name. Sometimes they\nslipped down the long lanes or \"tickles\" of open water\nbetween the floes. Sometimes they sought shelter in the\ncalmer water in the lee of some great iceberg. Again, the\nmen had to work desperately in the boats to tow the ship\nout of some dangerous position, or else, armed with stout,\nsteel-tipped poles, they worked for dear life thrusting\naway masses of ice that threatened to crush in the sides\nof the ship. Sometimes, they could make progress only\nby \"worming a way through,\" that is, anchoring the ship\nto the floes ahead and then hauling it up to them by pulling on the connecting rope. Often, too, they were compelled to sail north or south, but always they edged ever\nfurther and further to the west, where they thought the\ngreat goal of the open sea must lie.\n 12\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nIn the midst of their toil came some diversions. Often\nthey beheld whales spouting in the distance, and on the\nfloes they sometimes saw great polar bears. Thus one\nday, Prickett writes: \"We raised land to the north and\ncoming nigh it there hung on the easternmost point many\nislands of floating ice, and a bear on one of them, which\nfrom one to another came towards us till she was ready\nto come aboard. But when she saw us look at her, she\ncast her head between her hind legs and then dived under\nthe ice, and so from one piece to another, till she was out\nof our reach.\"\nAt last they reached the western end of the strait where\ntwo great headlands were seen. The southern one Hudson\nnamed Cape Wolstenholme, the northern, Digges Island,\nand to the latter he sent a landing party. Gaining a footing with difficulty on the rugged coast, the seamen went\ninland. Deer were seen in abundance, and immense flocks\nof wild fowl rose in alarm at their approach and circled in\nthe air with loud-flapping wings. They came across little\nmounds of stone which, Prickett says, upon examination\nproved to be \"hollow within and full of fowls hanged by\ntheir necks.\" These were Eskimo caches containing food\nfor the winter. But best of all \u2014 a thing which made\nevery heart beat high with hope \u2014 from the hilltop they\nsaw a great sea free of ice spreading out before them to\nthe south-west, far as the eye could reach.\nWhen Hudson heard the good news, without delay he\nsteered the Discovery straight for this spacious open water.\n\"At last,\" he thought, \"I have reached the Western Sea.\nmm\n fc .em\nEarly Explorers 13\nNow I shall sail across it to Cathay and when my ship\nreturns to England laden with the riches of the East I\nshall receive a welcome like that of Drake when he came\nback from his great voyage around the world.\" Buoyed\nup by this triumphant hope, Hudson paced the deck,\nproud and erect, and eagerly scanned the great unknown\nwater that was opening up before him.\nBut as day after day they pressed onward to the south,\nmisgivings, which the great heart of Hudson would not\nheed, began to possess the minds of his less heroic crew.\nThe ship was provisioned for only a year. It was now\nSeptember, and six months had passed. Hudson Strait\nwould soon freeze up behind them. It would not be open\nagain before June of the next year. If this should not\nprove to be the Western Sea, then they would be winter-\nbound in an unknown land. Twin horrors, starvation\nand the rigors of an Arctic winter, loomed up before them,\nand the dread fires of mutiny started to smolder among\nthe crew.\nFor a time, Hudson checked this danger by deposing\nthe mate, Robert Juet, an old seaman who from the very\nbeginning of the voyage had been a grumbler and a mischief-maker and appointing Robert Billet in his place.\nBut when at last they reached James Bay and all further\nprogress south and west was barred by land, the full\ndanger of their situation dawned upon them. From that\nmoment Hudson went in ever-growing peril from his crew.\nUntil the first of November they sailed hither and\nthither, seeking a way out of James Bay, that \"labyrinth\n 14\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nwithout end,\" as they called it. Then they hauled their\nship aground, probably in what is now Rupert Bay, and\nprepared for the winter. By November ioth the new-\nforming ice had gripped the ship fast, and the hardships of\nwinter had begun.\nThe cold was intense, and the decks and port windows\nwere soon coated with frost. But fortunately there was\nplenty of firewood ashore for the cutting. Stone fireplaces\nwere built aboard, and pans of shot, heated red hot, were\ntaken to warm the berths at night. The ship's surgeon,\na Dutchman, made medicine from the leaves of some\nstrange evergreen shrubs which proved an excellent remedy\nfor the scurvy and other ills which assailed the crew.\nLuckily, too, the woods were alive with game, especially\npartridge and white ptarmigan, and so Hudson was able\nto put his men on short allowance of ship's provisions, thus\nsaving more of their stores for the spring.\nBut all the time trouble was brewing. Juet, the deposed\nmate, was cunningly plotting to get his revenge. The men\nbegan even openly to oppose the Captain, and Henry King,\nthe carpenter, when commanded to build a house on shore,\nbluntly refused, i Worst of all the mutineers was a young\nman, Henry Greene. He was a worthless fellow whom\nHudson in bigness of heart had picked from the London\nstreets. Treating him like a son, the Captain had taken\nhim into his own home. Now, when Hudson gave to\nanother the coat of a dead sailor, Greene, to whom it had\nbeen promised, turned against his master and foully\nplotted his overthrow.\n Early Explorers 15\nWith the early spring there came to the ship the first\nIndian whom they had seen. Hudson treated him in a\nfriendly fashion, presenting him, to his great delight, with\na knife, a looking glass, and some buttons. The next day\nthe Indian returned, dragging after him a toboggan on which\nwere two deer and two beaver skins. \"He had a scrip\nunder his arm,\" says Prickett, \"out of which he drew\nthose things which the master had given him. He took the \u2022\nknife and laid it upon one of the beaver skins, and his\nglass and buttons upon the other, and so gave them to\nthe master who received them. And the savage took\nthose things which the master had given him and put them\nup into his scrip again. Then the master showed him an\nhatchet for which he would have given the master one of\nhis deer skins, but our master would have them both.\nAnd so he had, although not willingly. After many signs\nof people to the north and south, and that after so many\nsleeps he would come again, he went away but never\ncame more.\" Thus, in the bargaining of Henry Hudson\nwith this lone Indian, began the long history of the fur\ntrade on Hudson Bay.\nAnd now in May, when the ice was breaking up, it was\ntime to prepare for the return voyage. Hudson commanded that birds and fish be taken and cured to refill\nthe depleted stores. Unfortunately, there were some of\nthe crew who neglected to do their share in this work, and\nthese were the very ones who were the first to cause trouble\nwhen later the stock of provisions ran low.\nEarly in June they were ready to set sail. But first\n i6\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nHudson, calling the men on deck, made an equal division\nof food among them. For each man there was just one\npound of bread. \"He wept,\" we are told, \"as he gave it\nto them.\" There were also some fish and nine cheeses\nto be divided among them. This must last till they\nreached Digges Island, at the mouth of the Strait, where\nthey had found such an abundance of wild fowl and the\n\u2022 well-filled Eskimo caches.\nAs they sailed slowly north, always impeded by the\nfloating ice, their situation steadily grew worse. Greene\nand some of the others devoured all their food in a few\nhours and soon became hungry and desperate. The Captain had once threatened to leave behind on the Bay\nany one found guilty of plotting against him. Now this\nturned into an evil thought in the mind of the traitor\nGreene. With Juet and Billet, whose place as mate had\nbeen given to King, he went cunningly around to those\nof the crew who they thought could be won over to\nmutiny.\n\"It is better,\" Greene said, \"to run the risk of hanging\nat home than to starve slowly to death here in the ice.\nLet us put the nine sick men, the Captain, and all those\nwho stand by him in the boat and set them adrift to shift\nfor themselves. Then there will be food enough for us\nwho are left and we shall get safely home.\"\nThus spake the base traitor, and, in the ears of the\nstarving crew, his counsel found favor. So all through\nthe short midsummer night of June 21st, 1611, the mutineers kept stealthy watch lest some one should warn the\n^\u00a3\n Early Explorers 17\nCaptain of his peril. Then with the dawn, when the\nfaithful mate King, who had slept on deck, went below,\nthe hatch was closed quickly upon him, and three others,\nThomas, Bennett, and Wilson, took station by the door\nof the Captain's cabin to await his coming on deck.\nSoon the door opened, and Hudson, all unsuspecting,\nstepped forth. As Thomas and Bennett advanced towards him with insolent boldness, Wilson crept up behind\nand suddenly seized his arms.\n\"What does this mean?\" cried Hudson, as he struggled\nto shake off his assailants.\n\"You will know fast enough when you are in the shallop,\"\nwas the threatening answer.\nQuickly the Captain was bound and stood helpless before\nthem. Then King, the mate, who had secured a sword in\nthe hold and was bravely defending himself against the^\nattacks of Juet, was saved from immediate death by some\nof the mutineers, who were not willing to do open murder,\nand was allowed to join his Captain. Under the direction of the treacherous Greene, who now took command, the sick and those lamed by frost bite during the\nwinter, were cruelly ordered on deck, and with Hudson,\nhis son, and the mate, were tumbled into the ship's boat.\nThen arose oaths and a scuffle, and there burst forth\nfrom among the mutineers a sailor named Philip Staffe.\n\"Ye villains!\" he cried, \"you will all hang for this when\nyou get back to England. Unless you force me, I will not\nstay on the ship. Give me my chest of tools and I will go\nin the boat with the Master.\"\n i8\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nSo they let him go, a true-hearted Englishman, resolved\nto follow his duty even to death. Into the boat, along\nwith the carpenter's box, was thrown a gun, some powder\nand shot, an iron pot, and a little meal.\nThroughout this shameful scene Hudson had borne\nhimself with courage and dignity. Seeing that the crew\nhad the upper hand and were resolved on their murderous\ncourse, he uttered neither angry protest nor\nweak plea for his life.\nHis arms being unbound\nby those in the boat, he\nnow took his place at\nthe tiller, calmly facing\nhis fate and upborne by\nthe duty of caring for\nthe helpless men whose\nsole hope lay in him.\nThen, when they had\ntowed them free of the\nice, the black and cowardly deed was finished by one of the mutineers cutting\nthe rope and setting the little boat adrift. More quickly\nnow the wind bore the ship onward until the lonely shallop\nwas but a speck in the distance. But even long after it\nhad been completely lost to view, the scowling, shamefaced\nmutineers gazed fearfully behind them, even their hardened\nconsciences stricken with the guilt of the deed which they\nhad done.\nThe Last Hours of Henry Hudson\n(From the Painting by Collier.)\n b~~3i\nEarly Explorers 19\nFrom such a foul crime good could not come. Quarreling continually among themselves and lacking the\nMaster's navigating skill, the crew sailed blindly on as\nbest they could. When they reached Digges Island,\nGreene and three others met the fate which they deserved\nat the hands of the Eskimos, who treacherously murdered\nthem when they landed. Without having obtained the provisions which they sought, the rest battled their way slowly\neastward through the Strait and out into the Atlantic.\nIn the long voyage to Ireland they suffered untold\nagonies of hunger. The cook had to make meals from\ntallow candles, frying the bones of the wild fowl in them\nand seasoning the dish with vinegar. So weak did they\nbecome that they could no longer stand at the helm, but\nsat and steered the ship. As she tossed upon the waves,\nthe sails flapped wildly loose with no man minding them.\nJuet, the guilty old mate, died of sheer starvation. The\nship seemed doomed, pursued and haunted by the dreadful\ncrime committed by the crew: But at last one day there\ncame the glad cry of \"Land! A sail!\" They had reached\nIreland. Thence they sailed to England, where they were\nplaced on trial for their mutiny.\nBut what of Hudson and his castaways? All England\nwas filled with sorrow at his sad fate. The very next year\nCaptain Thomas Button, with two ships, the Discovery\nand the Resolution, was sent to search for the lost mariner,\nand if he still lived to rescue him. They spent the winter\nof 1612-13 on Hudson Bay, but of the great discoverer\nthey found no trace.\n {#\u00bb*\n20\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nTwenty years after Captain James found on Danby\nIsland a number of stakes, hewn with a steel hatchet, and\ndriven into the ground. Fifty years later Radisson discovered an \"old house all marked and battered with\nbullets\" as though it had been attacked by Indians, armed\nperhaps with firelocks supplied by French traders at\nQuebec. Were these the relics of a brave struggle of\nHudson and his men against death at the hands of hostile\nnatives? Or did they die of starvation in thek little open\nboat, which then drifted aimless on until it stranded and\nrotted on the shore? Or did some great storm suddenly\nengulf them and thus mercifully end their sufferings ? No\nman knows. But we do know, whatever his end, Henry\nHudson would meet it with the same high courage with\nwhich he h|d sailed through perilous, unknown seas and\nfaced a mutinous crew. We know that, if need arose, he\nwould confront death bravely, trying to save the sick men\ncommitted to his keeping. But as to the actual way in\nwhich he perished \u2014 that is a secret which lies tight locked\nforever in the bosom of the broad bay that bears his name.\n\u25a0n\n RADISSON AND GROSEILLIERS\n I\nCHAPTER II\nRADISSON AND GROSEILLIERS\nI. Radisson among the Mohawks\nIt is a far call from the bleak shores of Hudson Bay to\nthe fertile, sunny valley of the St. Lawrence. Yet thither\ng we must go if we are to follow\nthe fortunes of that daring\nFrenchman who was to complete the work of Hudson\nby founding \"The Company\nof Adventurers of England\nTrading into Hudson's Bay.\"\nIt was in the spring of\n1652. The first golden rays\nof the rising sun were striking\naslant the palisades and roof\ntops of the little fort of Three\nRivers. Already from the chimneys the smoke of breakfast\npreparations rose up into the clear morning air, and life was\nbeginning once more to bestir itself for the day's work.\nSuddenly with harsh creak and jar the great gate of the\nfort swung slowly back and three youths stepped forth.\nWith a blithe \"Good morning\" and a gay wave of the\n23\nRadisson \u2014 After an old print.\n 24\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nhand to the yawning sentry they shouldered their muskets\nand trudged off towards the woods.\nIt was clear that they were bound hunting, and their\nquarry was the wild fowl which found one of their favorite\nfeeding-grounds in the reedy marshes of that expansion\nof the St. Lawrence called Lake St. Peter. As they went\nalong, the placid river on their left shone between the tree\ntrunks like a great sheet of burnished silver. The first\nspring flowers were beneath their feet. The robins chirped\ncheerfully as they hopped about the grass, and the squirrels\nscampered among the branches which already were beginning to bear a haze of tender green foliage.\nSo peaceful was the scene that it was difficult to realize\nthat all its quiet beauty only masked a deadly peril. For\nthe terr\u00a7)le Iroquois were on the warpath. Farmers on\nthe outskirts of the settlement, beginning their spring work,\nhad been found slain and scalped by this ruthless foe.\nAnd now the whole population of the district was huddled\ntogether in the fort for protection, and farmers could work\nonly under military, guard or in large parties with their\nrifles ever ready at hand.\nAbout a mile from the fort the boys met a herdsman.\n\"Keep out from the foot of the hills,\" he said. \"Things\nlike a forest of heads were seen to rise up suddenly from\nthe ground back there. Better return to the fort.\"\nTwo of the hunters, alarmed by this warning, soon\ndecided to turn back, but the third, with a toss of his head\nand a scornful laugh, resolved to go on. And so Pierre\nRadisson, as yet but a youth of sixteen, fared forth alone\n IS\nEarly Explorers 25\nto the hunt regardless of danger. It was that dauntless\ncourage of the youth that was to make of the man one of\nthe world's greatest explorers and pioneers.\nThe boy's bravery had its reward in excellent luck.\nHe wandered on about nine miles from the fort, shooting\ngeese and ducks to his heart's content and hiding the game\nwhich he could not carry in hollow tree trunks. As the\nsun declined towards the west, he retraced his steps and\nalready was within view of the fort, when suddenly a\nterrible sight rooted him to the ground. There, half\nconcealed by the long grass, lay the bodies \u2014 naked and\nscalped \u2014 of his two companions of the morning.\nChilled with horror Radisson stood for a moment stock\nstill. Then his keen mind began to work quickly. The\nIroquois must be there, near at hand. His best chance\nlay in gaining the rush-lined river bank, where he might\nhide in the reeds till night arrived and then make a safe\nreturn to the fort.\nImmediately stooping low he began to run towards the\nriver, but, as he did so, a hundred plumed heads craned\nup from grass and reeds and underbrush to see which way\nhe went. From all sicles muskets began to crash out.\nAs he ran, the fearless Radisson without hesitation fired\nback at his numerous foes. But it was in vain. He was\nsurrounded. A score of hands gripped him. His rifle was\nsnatched away. His arms were securely bound. And\nthen, flaunting the scalps of his companions before his sickened sight, they dragged him off through the woods to the\nspot on the shore where their canoes had been concealed.\n 26 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nIt was only Radisson's bravery that had spared him the\nimmediate fate of his comrades. The Iroquois had seen\nthem turn back while he had gone on with a laugh into\nthe mouth of danger. When attacked by overwhelming\nodds, he at once had fired back. ^Insensible to pity, the\nIndians, of all things, loved bravery, and their admiration\nfor the fearless French youth led them to make him a\nprisoner.\nThey now dressed his hair like an Indian brave's and\ndaubed his face with their war paint. That night he lay\ndown between two warriors under a common blanket.\n\"I slept a sound sleep,\" he says in his own story of .his\nadventures, \"for they wakened me upon the breaking of\nthe day.\" Then, embarking in their canoes, the Iroquois\nfired their muskets and shouted their shrill war cries in\ndefiance of the French at the fort.\nThey were Mohawk Indians, and their way home after\ntheir raids on the settlements lay up the Richelieu River\nto Lake Champlain and Lake George and thence west to\nthe land of the Iroquois south of Lake Ontario. There\nin their villages they would be welcomed by the old men,\nthe squaws, and the children, and their home coming would\nbe celebrated by feasting and the torture of captives.\nOn the journey Radisson found ever greater favor with\nhis captors. They taught him how to give the light,\nsilent, skillful Indian stroke to the paddle, and how to hurl\ndeftly the Indian spear. In the morning he was the first\nafoot to begin preparations for the day's journey and at\nnight was the first to unsling his pack and cut firewood\n*?\u00ab\n ^\nEarly Explorers 27\nfor the encampment. When a young brave struck him,\nhe thrashed him soundly with his fists. When an old\nman staggered beneath his burden, Pierre took it upon\nhis own shoulders. And so the Mohawks, thinking that\nhe had become one of themselves, gave him a hunting\nknife and shaved his head in front, leaving on top the warlock of the Indian brave. \"I, viewing myself all in a\npickle,\" says Radisson, to whom they brought a little\nmirror, \"smeared with red and black, covered with such a\ntop, could not but fall in love with myself, if I had not had\nbetter instruction to shun the sin of pride.\"\nAs they approached the Mohawk village a host of men,\nwomen, and children swarmed forth with shouts of joy\nat the return of the warriors and cries of exultation over\nthe poor captives. In their hands they brandished clubs\nand whips, and they quickly formed themselves into two\nlong lines between which the prisoners were compelled\nto run the gantlet of their blows. The rule was for the\nvictim to be led slowly, with arms bound, down the lane of\ntormentors, but when it came Radisson's turn he was left\nfree and told by his friends to.run. Bounding quickly\nforward, the nimble lad ran so swiftly along the lines that\nthe blows aimed at him as he passed fell on the empty\nair, and amid shouts and laughter he reached the other\nend unhurt.\nThere he was caught in the arms of a captive Huron\nwoman, who was the wife of a great Iroquois chief. They\nhad lost their son, and her heart had gone out to the handsome French boy. They now asked the Council of Chiefs\n 28\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nthat Radisson might be adopted into the tribe as their\nson. So he was led into the Council Lodge and placed\nby the fire around which the chiefs solemnly sat smoking\nthe great Council pipe and listening gravely to the passionate plea of the Indian woman for his life. At last with\nmany deep \"Ho Ho's,\" which\nmeant \"Yes, we are pleased,\"\nthey gave their consent.\nRadisson's Indian father and\nmother were very kind to him.\nTheir dead son's name was\nOrimha, meaning \"a stone,\" and\nwhen they learned that \" Pierre\"\nmeant the same thing in French,\nthey became still more fond of\nhim. His father gave a great\nbanquet in his honor to three\nhundred of the young braves\nof the Mohawks. To it, decked out in more finery of\nfeathers, colored blankets, and wampum belts than all the\nrest, Radisson was led, and as they partook of such forest\ndainties as moose nose, beavers' tails, and bears' paws, the\nair resounded with shouts of \"Chagon Orimha!\" \u2014 \"Be\nmerry, Pierre!\"\nPierre was now a Mohawk of the Mohawks. He quickly\npicked up the Indian language. He soon learned the lore\nof the woods from his companions and became skillful as\nthe Indians themselves in setting traps, tracking wild\nanimals, shaping the bark of the birch into graceful canoes,\nAn Iroquois Cheef.\nmw\"\n Early Explorers 29\nand finding his way through the pathless forests. But\nthough the life was wild and free and the Indians were\nkind, yet in his heart Pierre longed to return to his home at\nThree Rivers where his father and mother were mourning\nfor him as dead. And so in the autumn he planned to\nescape with a friendly Algonquin captive.\nThey were out on a hunting expedition, and in the night\nPierre and the Algonquin killed their three Iroquois companions. Concealing the bodies, they fled by stealthy\nnight journeys along the streams and through the forests\ntill they were within a day's journey of \"Three Rivers.\nBut just as they thought they were safe and were paddling\nboldly out across Lake St. Peter, they were spied by an\nIroquois band on their way back from raids on the settlements. Raising their terrible war cry, the Indians gave\nchase, while Radisson and the Algonquin raced back again\nfor the shore. But the Iroquois with their many paddles\nquickly overhauled them and fired a crashing volley,\nwhich killed the Algonquin and sank the canoe. Pierre\nhimself was dragged dripping but unharmed from the water\nby the mocking Indians, to be reserved for a punishment\nof torture that was like to be far worse than death itself.\nThen followed once again the long journey back to the\nMohawk villages. As they approached them, two long,\nslender saplings were felled and stripped of their branches\nand made into a yoke which, fastened to the necks of the\nprisoners, held them helpless in a long single file. As they\nthus advanced, the men, women, and children rushed to\nbelabor them with staves and leather bags filled with stones.\n 3\u00b0\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nFrom this plight Pierre was rescued for a while by his\nIndian mother who, rushing through the crowd of torturers with the anguished cry of \"Orimha! Orimha!'1\ncut him free from the yoke and took him to her lodge.\nBut soon there came a great angry throng which, with\nhideous cries and cruel mockery, dragged him forth again\nto the torture.\nThe prisoners were placed on scaffoldings, and for three\ndays the devilish work of torture was carried on. Had\nit not been for the protection of the friendly family Radisson\nundoubtedly would have perished. As it was his fingers\nwere cut and gnawed, the soles of his feet were burned in\nthe fire embers, and his thumb was thrust into a great\npipe filled with live coals.\nOn^he third day, more dead than alive, he was led\nbefore the Great Council of Sachems to hear his fate. As\nbefore, his Indian father appeared in all his regalia as a\ngreat war chief and pled with passionate eloquence for\nPierre's life, while his mother danced and sang of old time\ndeeds of Indian valor. Costly gifts were offered as compensation to the relatives of the three murdered Mohawks.\nThen they withdrew. Long and solemn was the deliberation, and at last Pierre's father entered again to speak and\nsing. As he finished, he cut the captive's bonds amid\nthunderous \"Ho Ho's': that marked the approval of the\ndeed.\nPierre was now once again free. For more than a month\nhe could not use his burned feet. But he was looked\nafter very tenderly by his Indian mother, and gradually\n^mrnr-\n *t\nEarly Explorers\n3i\nhis strength returned. All winter he lived in the Mohawk\nlodges, and in the spring of 1653 he went on the warpath\nwith the younger braves against the Eries, who lived to\nthe west around Niagara. Radisson gained great praise\nfor his skill in the chase and his bravery in battle.\nBut though the white man may easily don the red\nman's paint and feathers he cannot so easily assume the\nIndian nature, and, in spite of appearances, Pierre was not a savage Indian\nbrave but a civilized white boy. SSo\nwith the autumn of 1653 there came\nupon him once more an uncontrollable\nlonging to be with\nhis own folk again.\nThis time he\nplanned more carefully. Taking only\na hatchet, one\nmorning when the\ntingle of fall frost\nwas in the air, he\nsallied forth as though to spend a day in cutting firewood.\nBut no sooner was he out of sight of the village than\nhe broke into a steady loping run such as he could maintain for hours. All day through the tangled forest he\nkept resolutely on, following with keen eyes the faint\ntrail which he knew led to the Dutch settlement of Fort\nOrange, now Albany on the Hudson. Nor did he pause\nwhen the night shadows fell upon the forest. Dawn\nIroquois Country in the Days of Radisson.\u2014\nFrom the Jesuit Relations, the dotted lines indicating\nRadisson's travels while he was with the Mohawks.\n 32\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nfound him haggard and faint but still reeling on with\ndogged steps, and by nightfall he was safe in Fort Orange\nwith the Dutch.\nBut he had barely escaped capture. The Mohawks\nwere hard on his heels. For three days he had to lie in\nconcealment while his Indian friends roamed through the\nfort calling out to their \"Orimha\" to come back with\n~-SS^M&\u00a3%%&\nMartello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars\u2014: Three Rivers.\nthem to the forest. But at last they gave up in despair\nand returned to their villages.\nWashing the war paint from his face and the grease\nfrom his hair, Radisson now assumed once again the dress\nand manners of the white man. A kind Jesuit priest,\nFather Poncet, supplied him with money. Descending\nthe Hudson to New Amsterdam, now New York, Pierre\ntook ship for Amsterdam in Holland, where he arrived in\n fc liBl\nEarly Explorers 33\nJanuary, 1654. Thence he went to La Rochelle in France,\nwhere in the spring he embarked in a fishing vessel bound\nfor the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. At Isle Percee\nat the mouth of the St. Lawrence he met some Algonquins\non their way up the river to wage war on the Iroquois.\nHe joined them, and in May, 1654, after an absence of\ntwo years, he reached his home at Three Rivers. There\nhe was welcomed by father and mother as though he returned from the dead, while his friends listened in amazement to the thrilling story of his two years of adventures\namong the savage Iroquois.\nII. Radisson at Fort Onondaga\nBut Radisson was one of those stirring spirits who could\nnot long rust in idleness, and in the Canada of those days\nthere were always perilous enterprises ready to hand for\nthose brave enough to undertake them. A new situation had arisen with the Iroquois. These savages had\nembarked on a war with the Eries, and, in order to be free\nto wage it and to secure greater supplies of powder and\nmuskets, they had sought a peace with the French. So a\ntruce was arranged. But the cunning Onondagas went\nfurther. They professed a great love for the French and\nasked to have a settlement made in their country. Their\nreal object was that the settlers and priests might be\nhostages in their hands. Then they could prevent the\nGovernor of New France from taking measures to punish\nthem for their outrages by threatening to murder the\nFrench who had settled among them.\n 34\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nThe Governor fell into the trap. In the very year that\nPierre had escaped from the Iroquois, missionaries had gone\namong them. In 1656, Major Dupuis and sixty Frenchmen had founded a colony called Onondaga, and in the\nfollowing year a party of two Jesuits, twenty young Frenchmen, and one hundred Christian Hurons prepared to set\nout from Montreal to reenforce the little settlement. They\nhad eighty Iroquois as an escort. But the expedition was\nincomplete without an interpreter who could speak the\nIroquois language fluently. Here was the chance for\nPierre. The venture gave every promise of all the excitement which he loved. |g He volunteered for the post.\nAfter long preparations, on July 26th, 1657, the party\nset out. Early in the journey it became clear that beneath\nthe friendly behavior of the Iroquois lurked a savage\ntreachery. The Huron warriors were suddenly set upon\nand murdered, and their women and children, in spite of\nthe efforts of the Jesuits, were later put to the torture.\nBut the Frenchmen were not molested, probably because\nthey thought it would be safer to attack them later. Radisson, whom they soon recognized as the \"Orimha'' of the\nMohawks, was treated kindly, and he on his part sent\ngifts to his Indian father and mother.\nAfter a series of stiff portages past the rapids above\nMontreal, their way lay along the most beautiful part of\nthe St. Lawrence. Great forests on either hand swept\nmajestically down to the shores of the noble river, while\nits clear, sparkling waters were dotted with the fairyland\nof the Thousand Isles.| Few white men had yet gazed\n Early Explorers 35\nupon this lovely scene, and the eyes of the Frenchmen\nshone with pride in this glorious heritage of New France.\nWhen they emerged on the blue expanse of Lake Ontario,\nthey turned south and followed the shore to the mouth\nof the Oswego River. Ascending this stream, they finally\nreached Lake Onondaga, where they were warmly welcomed\nby the garrison of the fort which they had come to aid.\nFort Onondaga was in a small clearing on the crest of a\nlow hill overlooking the lake. In the centre was a substantial house with two high towers loopholed for musketry. For further protection a stout palisade and a\ndeep ditch ran round about it, inclosing a space large\nenough to enable the French to keep their cattle within it.\nIt was not long before alarming signs of the dangerous\nposition of the little French force began to appear. The\nattitude of the Indians became menacing. They no longer\npretended a desire to become Christians, but, ceasing to\nlisten to the Jesuits' Bible stories, Senecas, Cayugas, and\nOnondagas strutted about in their war paint, while from\nthe neighboring forest came the sounds of feasting and the\nsinging of wild war songs. - Four hundred Mohawks soon\ncame to join the swarm of foes, and these impudently\nbuilt their wigwams for the winter before the very gates\nof the fort itself.\nSo vastly outnumbered were the French that they\nwondered greatly why the redskins delayed their attack.\nThen one day, through a Huron slave, came the news\nthat the Governor had seized twelve of the Iroquois and\nwas holding them at Quebec as hostages for the safety of\nj\n 36\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nFort Onondaga. Taking fresh heart at this news, the\nFrenchmen settled down for the long siege that they now\nknew awaited them.\nWinter set in. The snow fell like a deep soft blanket\nover the earth, and the song of the streams was hushed\nby the thickening ice crust. It was an anxious and dreary\nChristmas the Frenchmen spent that year, far from their\nfriends and in the midst of treacherous foes. Their sentries were attacked at night, and by day they could\nventure abroad only at the risk of their lives. Fortunately\nthey had plenty of food, and the Indians, confident that\nthere could be no escape before spring, bided their time.\nBut in February a terrible plot was revealed. A dying\nMohawk confessed to one of the priests that the Indians\nwere bent on massacring half of the French and holding\nthe rest till the Iroquois hostages were freed from Quebec.\nRadisson, who alone of the company could move as with\na charmed life among the Mohawks, learned from his\nfather that this news was only too true. \"What could\nwe do?' he writes. \"We were in their hands. It was as\nhard for us to get away from them as for a ship in full\nsea without a pilot.\"\nThough they knew not how they could escape, yet the\nFrench began to make preparations for a flight should\na chance present itself. Their frail birch canoes could\nnot possibly five in the ice-jammed rivers of early spring,\nand so they secretly built two large flat-bottomed boats.\nWhen these by mischance were seen by a Huron slave\na great danger threatened. He had heard the Jesuits\n Early Explorers 37\ntell the story of Noah's ark and now he spread abroad a\nwonderful rumor of how the white men were building- great\narks of refuge against a coming flood that would overwhelm the land. The suspicious Iroquois sent spies to\ninvestigate, but before they arrived the French had built\na false floor over their boats and on it they piled high their\ncanoes. Thus the Iroquois were tricked and went away\nthinking that the Huron had lied.\nAnd now the spring had arrived. The ice was breaking\nand the heavy boats could force a way through. But\nhow to escape from the fort, and launch them, and get\nsafely away \u2014 that was the question. To this it was the\nresourceful Radisson who gave answer. He had not lived\namong the Mohawks for nothing. He knew that the\nIndians were both superstitious and gluttonous. So he\npersuaded a young man in the fort to feign illness and\ninvited the Indians to help in his cure by taking part\nin one of the feasts which they loved, \"where everything\nmust be eaten.\" The banquet would be spread generously\nby the French.\nFar and wide through the forest spread the news of the\ngreat feast of the white men, and the Indians flocked to\nthe gates of the fort to partake of it. But for two days\nRadisson kept them waiting outside, smelling the savory\nodors of preparation and entertained by the soldiers with\nmusic and songs and dancing. Then on the evening of\nthe second day, with a great blare of bugles, the gates\nwere swung back and out stepped the Frenchmen bearing\nthe feast. Round the great circle of squatting Indians\nJ\n 38 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthey went with huge iron pots filled with vension, bear\nsteaks, fowl, fish, and corn. The French had even slaughtered their hogs \u2014 all save one \u2014 for the banquet. As\nsoon as an Indian dish became empty it was heaped up\nagain from the pots, and when these began to run low\nthey were replenished from the abundance within the fort.\nNever had the Iroquois faced such a feast before, but\nwhenever an Indian flagged or drew back, the pretended\nsick man cried out with a doleful voice, \"Would you have\nme die?': and then the Indians would return to the attack.\nSome of the French who had fiddles played away with\nmight and main to keep up the excitement, while everywhere went Radisson urging the Indians on. At last,\none by one, overcome by their gluttony, they fell into a\nsodden sleep.\nNow the moment was come for escape. Others of the.\ngarrison had been busy making preparations for flight.\nThe two flat-bottomed boats and some stout dugout\nskiffs were quickly run down to the Lake shore. The\nbaggage was hurried aboard, and they were ready to start.\nBut first Radisson completed his plot. Some old uniforms had been stuffed with straw, and these effigies, with\nhats and boots all complete, were stood up like sentries\nat different points in the fort. The poultry also was\nleft behind, and the one lone pig. Through a loophole\nbeside the gate ran a rope attached to a bell which the\nIndians pulled when they wished to summon the guard.\nTo this rope the ingenious Radisson now tied the pig,\nso that when the Indians pulled they would hear a move-\n Early Explorers\n39\nment within as though people were moving about in the\nfort. Then, locking and barring the gate, Radisson and\nhis men climbed cautiously over the palisade and made\nfor the boats. Silently, at the word of command, they\npushed from the shore and melted into the blackness of the\nnight.\nThe Indians lay long in their gluttonous stupor, and when\nthey awoke their wits were benumbed. A storm of sleet\nin the night had washed away the traces of the French\ndeparture. When the Indians pulled the rope, the bell did\nnot ring, but movements were heard within, and when no\none came to the gates, they concluded that the \"black\nrobes,\" as they called the priests, were praying. They\nheard the fowls clucking and crowing, and, when they\npeered through the palisade, they saw sentries on duty.\nWhen at last, grown suspicious, they broke in and saw they\nwere tricked, their amazement and rage knew no bounds.\nBut pursuit was in vain. The French by now were on\nLake Ontario, battling their way through the ice jam at\nthe foot of the lake. Sometimes they could get through\nthe ice only by chopping a passage with their hatchets,\nbut slowly they forged ahead and at last got into the river.\nThere the swollen current carried them quickly along and\nfloated them safely over the rocks of the rapids, except\nfor the loss of one boat.\nIt was March 20th when they had stolen away from Fort\nOnondaga. On April 3rd they reached Montreal, and\non April 23rd the little flotilla came safely to anchor beneath the frowning heights of Quebec. Onondaga was\n 40\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nsaved.. Its settlers had escaped, as one of the Jesuits\nsaid, \"like the children of Israel by night from the land of\nEgypt.\" And the chief credit of the exploit belonged to\nQuebec. \u2014 From one of the oldest prints in existence.\nPierre Radisson. He had won his spurs as a knight of\nthe wilderness. He had become one of the heroes of\nNew France.\nIII. Radisson and Groseilliers Discover the Great\nNorth-West\nAnd now Radisson was to step from the role of a doughty\nIndian fighter to the still greater part of a far ranging\nexplorer. He had been home hardly a month before new\nplans of adventure began to possess him. Each summer\nthere came from the distant, mysterious West and North\nrich cargoes of beaver pelts. The Indians who brought\nthem down the Ottawa in their canoes told tales of vast\nmm*-\n Early Explorers\n4i\nregions that dwarfed New France to littleness, of mighty\nrivers which rivalled the St. Lawrence, and of distant,\nunknown seas. Frenchmen had gone as far as Sault Ste.\nMarie and Green Bay on Lake Michigan, but beyond that\nall was unexplored.\nTo Radisson this region was like the enchanted castle\nto the prince in the fairy tale. He must be the first to\nbreak the spell and tread the soil of that new land, for\njust as at the prince's kiss the beautiful sleeping princess\nwould wake to life, so would the coming of the first white\nman rouse the West from its sleep of centuries and give it\nto the world.\nIn his projects of exploration Radisson found a kindred\nspirit in his brother-in-law, Medard Chouart des Groseilliers. Indeed, it is quite probable that it was Groseilliers who first fired the imagination of the younger\nRadisson to penetrate into the Great West, for he was a\nveteran fur trader who had been as far afield as Lake\nNipissing and Green Bay, and he was full of the Indian\nstories about the country that lay beyond.\nSo, silently, one night in June, 1658, having fully resolved on the great adventure, Radisson and Groseilliers\nlaunched their canoe at Three Rivers. Travelling only\nby darkness to avoid the prowling Iroquois, they reached\nMontreal in three days. There they joined a party of\none hundred and fifty Algonquins who were about to start\nback for their homes on the Upper Lakes.\nTheir way up the Ottawa was beset by Iroquois war\nparties, and had it not been for the cool leadership of the\n 42\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\ntwo Frenchmen, it would have fared badly with the Al-\ngonquins. As it was, they managed to beat off their\nassailants, and then, reaching Georgian Bay by way of\nLake Nipissing and the French River, they crossed the\nupper stretches of Lakes Huron and Michigan and arrived at Green Bay.\nBut even there the terror of the Iroquois pursued them.\nScouts reported that a band of Mohawks were on their\ntrail, and panic seized the Algonquins. Radisson, however, headed a party of the more courageous, and, tracking\nthe intruders down with a cunning greater than their own,\nhe pounced suddenly upon them and killed them to a\nman. Great was the gratitude of the Algonquins for this\naid, and in their friendly wigwams the Frenchmen passed\nmost of the winter at Green Bay.\n\"But our mind was not to stay here,\" Radisson tells\nus, \"but to know the remotest peoples; and because we\nhad been willing to die in their defence these Indians consented to conduct us.\" So in the spring of 1659, they\npushed onward to the west till they stood on the banks of\n\"a mighty river, great, rushing, profound, and comparable\nto the St. Lawrence.\" This could be only the Mississippi.\nThus, ten years before Marquette and Joliet, and twenty\nyears before La Salle, Radisson and Groseilliers watched\nthe turbid spring flood of \"the father of Waters\" sweeping\nsouthward towards the Gulf of Mexico. As they raised\ntheir eyes from the swirling current to the distant shore,\nthey were the first of all white men to gaze upon the broad\nand bountiful land of the Great North-West.\n i\u2014m\nEarly Explorers\n43\nAll summer they ranged through this fairyland of\nnature. We cannot be sure just where they went, but\napparently they first travelled south-west, for Radisson\nsays: \"We desired not to go to the North until we had\nmade a discovery in the South. The Indians,\" he continues, \"were all amazed to see us and very civil. The\nfurther we sojourned the delightfuller the land became.\nI can say that in all my life time I have never seen a finer\ncountry. The people have long hair. They reap twice\na year. They war against the Sioux and the Crees. They\ntold us of men that built great cabins and have beards\nand knives like the French.\" These must have been the\nSpaniards far to the south in Mexico. Pumpkins and corn,\naccording to Radisson, grew luxuriantly in the Indian\ngardens. \"Their arrows,\" he tells us, \"were not of stone\nbut of fish bones. Their dishes were made of wood.\nThey had great calumets of red and green stone and great\nstore of tobacco. They had also a kind of drink that made\nthem mad for a whole day.\" These* Indians must have\nbeen the Mandans of the Missouri, which Radisson calls\nthe Forked River. They were, perhaps, the very tribes\nwhich La Verendrye was to visit nearly a century later.\nTurning north from this pleasant land, the two explorers visited among the Sioux, and then, veering to the\neast, in the fall they reached the Jesuit Mission at Sault\nSte. Marie, having passed through the territories of the\nCrees and the Sautaux, whom they found at bitter war.\nRadisson's own story speaks of mountains lying far inland to the west, while the Jesuits tell of the travellers\n 44\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nhaving been among Indians who used coal. Judging\nfrom these things, Radisson and Groseilliers were not\nonly the discoverers of the West, but they must also have\nexplored far into the very heart of it \u2014 perhaps as far as\nthe edge of the Bad Lands of Montana.\nHad the two Frenchmen any idea of that great movement to the West of which they were the first forerunners ?\nIt would seem that Radisson had some vision of what the\nfuture held in store. \"The country,\" he says, \"was so\npleasant, so beautiful, and so fruitful, that it grieved me\nto see that the world could not discover such enticing\ncountries to live in. What a conquest would this be at\nlittle or no cost! What pleasure should people have\ninstead of misery and poverty! Why should not men\nreap of the love of God here?\" Great, free, open, sunny\nspaces, fresh from the hand of God, where millions could\nmake new homes and live in peace \u2014 this was the treasure\nhouse that Radisson and Groseilliers in the summer of\n1059 unlocked and opened wide for all thejyorld.\nThe following winter was one of the coldest ever known\nin Canada. But the colder the weather the thicker the\ncoat of the beaver, and so, in the spring of 1660, the adventurers were able to set out on the long journey to\nMontreal with a rich cargo of furs. They were attended\nby an escort of five hundred Algonquin, Huron, and Sioux\nwarriors.\nIt was reported 'that a thousand Iroquois were on the\nwarpath against New France, so the utmost precautions\nwere taken. All went well until they reached the head\n Early Explorers 45\nof the Long Sault, the most perilous part of the Ottawa.\nHere they sighted sixteen Iroquois canoes whose occupants\nfled before them. Radisson at once guessed that they had\na stronghold at the foot of the rapids. Taking half of his\nmen, he advanced quickly across the portage, only to find\nthe Iroquois intrenched in a rough barricade near the river.\nBut very unwisely the Indians had left their canoes at the\nwater's edge. The quick-witted Radisson at once directed\nsome of his men to creep forward towards these, sheltering themselves behind great bundles of beaver pelts which\nthey pushed before them along the ground. The Iroquois, seeing that they must either abandon the fort or\nbe trapped in it by losing their boats, with a wild yell\nrushed to the bank and made their escape down the river\namid a pursuing spatter of bullets. The portage had been\nwon.\nBut within the fort and the glade which surrounded\nit a gruesome sight awaited them. The palisade pockmarked with bullets and breached in many places, the\noozing, muddy water of the well scraped in the clay soil\nwitliin, the scalps left dangling from the picket tops, and\nthe charred remains scattered around the place of torture\non the river bank \u2014 all spoke of a terrible tragedy but\nrecently enacted there.\n\"The worst of it was,\" says Radisson, \"the French\nhad no water, as we plainly saw, for they had made a hole\nin the ground out of which they could get but little because the fort was on a hill. It was pitiable. There was\nnot a tree but what was shot with bullets. The Iroquois\n 46 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nhad rushed to make a breach \u2014 the French set fire to a\nbarrel of powder to drive the Iroquois back \u2014 but it fell\ninside the fort. Upon this the Iroquois entered, so that\nnot one of the French escaped. It was terrible for we came\nthere eight days after the defeat.\"\nIt was not until Radisson reached Montreal that he\nlearned the full story of the famous stand of Daulac and\nhis sixteen comrades at the foot of the Long Sault. Had\nRadisson arrived but a few days earlier on the scene, the\nheroes who had saved New France might have been saved\nthemselves.\nAt Three Rivers the two explorers were greeted by their\nfriends and relatives for whom their two years' absence\nhad been a long and anxious time. At Quebec, the capital,\nthey were received like generals returning from a victory. Flags fluttered up to mastheads in salute, church\nbells pealed out, and cannon thundered forth a welcome.\nThe Governor gave them gifts and they were f&ted\neverywhere.\nIV. Radisson and Groseilliers in the North\nFor the rest of the year Radisson lived quietly with his\nparents at Three Rivers. Most men would have been\ncontent with achievements such as his. He had done\nvalorous deeds and had built up a lasting fame as an explorer. But Radisson was not yet twenty-six years of age.\nThe hot blood of youth still ran in his veins. He thirsted\nfor still more adventure. He was filled with the passion\nof penetrating yet further into the great unknown regions\n ^\nEarly Explorers\n47\nof the continent. He had been to the west \u2014 he must\nnow go to the north. And Groseilliers was equally ready\nand eager for the quest.\nFrom the Indians who came down the St. Maurice and\nthe Saguenay year after year with their precious burden\nof furs for trade, the French heard continually of a certain \"great Bay of the North.\" They guessed, of course,\nthat this was no other than the bay discovered by Henry\nHudson half a century before. But as yet the English\nhad-taken no advantage of their discovery. Clearly the\nregion about this northern sea was rich beyond all dreams\nin furs. The Frenchman first to find the route overland\nto it would reap the reward of both fame and wealth.\nNow from the Crees about the shores of Lake Superior\nRadisson and Groseilliers had heard the same tale, and\nthe Indians had claimed that every summer they went\nto hunt on this \"Bay of the North.\" The two adventurers,\ntherefore, determined to try to reach it overland by travelling with the Crees.\nBut when they asked the Governor, D'Avaugour, for\npermission to go on this voyage of discovery, they at once\nencountered difficulty. He would give the explorers a\nlicense to engage in the fur trade only on condition of their\nsharing half of their profits with him, and to trade without\na license might mean fine, imprisonment, or even death.\nRadisson and Groseilliers, however, were men who would\nnot hesitate to take a risk. They were resolved neither to\nsubmit to be thus plundered by the selfish Governor nor\nto give up their expedition. So, late one night in August,\n 48 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\n1661, they embarked in their canoes at Three Rivers and,\nin defiance of the Governor, set out again to try their\nfortunes in the wilderness.\nIt was October before they reached Lake Superior and\nbegan coasting westward along the south shore. They were\nnow in a region untraversed before by white men. Radisson\nheard from the Indians of the rich Superior copper mines\nand gazed upon the famous pictured rocks. Of the stone\narch he says : \"I gave it the name of St. Peter because that\nwas my name and I was the first Christian to see it.\"\nAt the western extremity of the Lake they struck inland, and, somewhere near where the boundary between\nMinnesota and Ontario now lies, they constructed the\nfirst fort and trading post in all the West. It was a rather\ncrude structure, hurriedly built in two days with logs\nhewn from the surrounding forest. It was triangular in\nshape with the base resting on the river, and it was roofed\nover with a thatch of interlaced branches.\nThe situation of the two traders thus isolated in the wilderness was not without its perils. They had stores of powder, shot, and goods for trade that might easily tempt the\nIndians to attack and murder them. To prevent a surprise, Radisson had recourse to that ingenuity which had\nso often saved him in difficult situations. He strung\ncunningly concealed cords through the grass and branches\nabout the fort, so that neither man nor beast could approach without blundering into them. To the strings\nhe then attached little bells which would ring out at the\nslightest disturbance More than once in the long winter\n Early Explorers\n49\nnights that followed, the little garrison stood to arms when\nthe tinkling bells warned them of the presence of prowling\nwild beast or of marauding Indian.\nAs the news of the presence of the white men spread\nthrough the northern woods more and more Indians came\nto visit- them. So Radisson thought it wise to take a\nfurther precaution. Constructing little tubes of dry\nbirch bark he filled them with gunpowder and arranged\nthem in a circle around the fort. Then one night, in the\npresence of the Indians, he suddenly seized a brand from\nthe fire and applied it to the fuse. To the amazement and\nterror of the onlookers, the fire ran sputtering and leaping\nalong the ground till the whole fort was inclosed with a\nprotecting ring of flame. That was enough. The white\nmen were the masters of magic arts. Thenceforth they\nand their goods were inviolate.\nAs the winter wore on, four hundred Crees arrived with\nan invitation to visit their encampment which lay still\nfarther north-west towards the land of the Assiniboines,\nnow Manitoba. The explorers accepted. \"We went\naway,\" says Radisson, \"free from any burden, while\nthose poor miserables thought themselves happy to carry\nour equipage in the hope of getting a brass ring, an awl,\nor a needle. They made a great noise calling us gods and\ndevils. We marched four days through the woods. The\ncountry was beautiful with clear parks.\" They were\nwelcomed by the Crees with feasts and dancing, and they\nsoon won their way to the hearts -of their Indian hosts\nby generous gifts of trinkets.\nj\n 5o\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nAnd now one of the most trying ordeals of forest life\ndescended on the travellers. Heavy rains were followed\nby an enduring frost that formed a hard ice crust over the\nsnow. This confined and killed the rabbits, grouse, and\nother small animals on which the larger game fed. The\nIndians are always improvident, and they had laid up no\nreserve store of food. Game had been scarce before and\nA Group of Cree Indians.\nnow it quite disappeared. Soon famine, the dread of\nwinter in the North, began to stalk through the camp of\nthe Crees and take its toll of life. The women and children suffered first, the selfish warriors snatching the food\nout of their hands to appease their own hunger. Then,\nas the scarcity increased, they had to dig down through\nthe snow to get roots from the frozen ground. They\nboiled the bark of trees and the bones from the waste heap\nto get a sort of soup. At last the only food left was the\nmm\n m*\nEarly Explorers 51\nbuckskin that had been tanned for clothing. \"We ate\nit so eagerly,\" writes Radisson, \"that our gums did bleed.\nWe became the image of death. Good God, have mercy\non these innocent people: have mercy on us who acknowledge Thee!' Five hundred Crees died of want in a\nfew weeks, and it was not till early spring came that game\nreappeared, and the frail, emaciated survivors, who could\nscarcely drag themselves from their tepees, began to recover their strength.\nFor six weeks in the spring Groseilliers and Radisson\nhunted buffalo and deer in the land of the Sioux. Then\nthey returned to accompany the Crees in their journey to\nthe \"great Bay of the North.\" For many days they travelled on rivers flowing northward. \"We were in danger\na thousand times from the ice jam,\" Radisson records.\n\"At last we came fullsail on a deep bay. We came to\nthe seaside where we found an old house all demolished\nand battered with bullets. We went from isle to isle\nall that summer. We went further to see the place that\nthe Indians were to pass the summer. The river came\nfrom the lake that empties itself in the Saguenay, a hundred leagues from the great river of Canada, to where\nwe were in the Bay of the North. We passed the summer\nquietly coasting the seaside. The people here burn not\ntheir prisoners, but knock them on the head. We went\nup another river to the Upper Lake.\"\nSuch is Radisson's account of his summer's journeyings\nin 1662. It is vague, and, consequently, many quarrels\nhave arisen as to where he actually went. Some claim\n 52 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthat he got only as far as Lake Winnipeg and that the\nUpper Lake to which he returned was the Lake of the\nWoods. Others contend that he actually reached Hudson\nBay overland and that the Upper Lake was Lake Superior.\nBut this we know, that in the spring of 1663 Radisson and\nGrosseilliers descended the Ottawa at the head of seven\nhundred warriors and with three hundred and sixty canoes\nloaded with one of the richest cargoes of furs ever brought\nto Quebec. We know, too, that the explorers were convinced that they had reached Hudson Bay, because it\nwas their proclaimed design to return to this El Dorado\nof the fur trade, not overland this time, but by Hudson\nStrait in large sea-going ships with which it would be\npossible to carry on a much greater trade than could be\ndone with mere flotillas of canoes.\nBut in this project they were destined to meet many\nchecks. They had left the colony against the Governor's\norders. They had traded without a license. Groseilliers was thrown for a time into prison. They were fined\n$50,000, and $70,000 worth of their furs was seized as a\ngovernment tax. Out of a cargo worth probably $300,000,\nthe explorers were left for themselves only a paltry $20,000.\nGroseilliers at once sailed for France to secure justice,\nbut the influence of the Governor with the court was too\nstrong for him, and he failed. Then the two explorers\n- secretly took passage to Anticosti and thence to Isle Per-\ncee in the Guff of St. Lawrence, where a French merchant\n1 had promised to send a vessel in which they could make the\nvoyage to Hudson Bay. But the ship failed to appear.\nI1\nmm\n Early Explorers\n53\nAfraid to return to Canada lest they should 'be punished\nfor their attempt to sail to the Bay without a license, they\nturned south to Acadia. There at Port Royal they met\nZachariah Gillam, a New England sea captain from Boston,\nwhom they persuaded to attempt the voyage to Hudson\nBay. But the season was late, and off the coast of Labrador the captain turned back, despairing of being able\nto make the passage of the Strait.\nIn Boston, however, they were persuaded to try to in-\nduce the English king to sanction their project and English merchants to back it with their money. So on August\nist, 1665, Radisson and Grosseilliers sailed from Nantucket for London with Sir George Carterett, who had\npromised to befriend them with the king. Unfortunately,\nat that time England was at war with Holland, and the\nDutch warship, Caper, after a desperate two hours' battle,\ncaptured the English vessel and her French passengers.\nThe prisoners were landed in Spain, and it was not until\nearly in 1666 that the two French adventurers set foot at\nlast on English soil.\nV. The Founding of the Great Company\nIt was the year of the Great Plague. Grass grew in\nthe deserted streets of London. Where once the roar of\ntraffic had resounded and traders hawked their wares,\nthere was now heard only the dread rumbling of the death\ncarts and the mournful, echoing cry, \"Bring out your\ndead!\" From the afflicted city the king and his court\nhad fled for safety to Oxford, and thither the Frenchmen\n 54\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nfollowed them, where they were formally presented to\nHis Majesty, King Charles II.\nGreat was the interest with which the king and his\nfriends heard Radisson tell the story of his boyhood\nadventures among the Iroquois and of the wanderings\nof Groseilliers and himself in the wonderland of the\nNorth-West. But when the\nexplorers told of the immense\ncargo of furs which they had\nbrought down to Quebec on\ntheir last voyage and unfolded their plan of an expedition by sea into Hudson\nBay, the interest of their\nlisteners grew even more intense. Here, if the adventurers' tale were true, was\nthe very seat and centre of\nthe fur trade. Here, lying\nunclaimed in the bleak, unpeopled North, was wealth\nthat rivalled the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru.\nTo the king and his friends the prospect of acquiring\nthese fabulous riches was enchanting. Radisson and\nGroseilliers at once found themselves in high favor.\nWhen the court moved back to Windsor, the king assigned them each \u00a32 a week for maintenance, and a little\nlater he ordered the Admiralty to place the ship Eaglet\nat their disposal for a voyage to Hudson Bay. His\nPrince Rupert, First Governor of\nthe Hudson's Bay Company.\n Early Explorers 55\nMajesty also presented each of them with a gold chain\nand a medal and commended them graciously to the\n\"gentleman adventurers of Hudson's Bay.\" Foremost\namong these, and one of their most enthusiastic friends,\nwas that gallant old soldier and sailor Prince Rupert,\nthe king's cousin, whose love of adventure and desire of\nrepairing his fortunes led him to lend his great influence\nto the undertaking. Other courtiers and some wealthy\nmerchants of London, who had now become interested\nin the venture, added to the Eaglet a second ship, the\nNonsuch, under Captain Gillam. During the winter of\n1667-68 the little knot of \"merchant adventurers\"\nheld many a close conference at the Goldsmiths' Hall or\nat Whitehall and put their heads together over many a\nmerry banquet at the Three Tunns Tavern and the Sun\nCoffee House. At last, after the consumption of \"divers\npipes of canary\" and \"dinners with pullets,\" and after\nmuch making merry \"like right worthy gentlemen\" the\nexpedition stood ready at the Gravesend docks to set\nforth upon that enterprise which was to build for Britain\nin the New World an empire almost as large as Europe\nitself.\nTheir instructions are quaint and interesting. \"You\nare to saile,\" they run, \"with the first wind that presents\nitself, keeping company with each other to your place of\nrendezvous. You are to saile to such place as Mr Gooseberry (the English name for Groseilliers) and Mr Radisson\nshall direct to trade with the Indians there. You are to\nhave in your thought the discovery of the passage into\n I\n56 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthe South Sea and to attempt it with the advice and direction of Mr Gooseberry and Mr Radisson. Lastly, we\nadvise and require you to use the said Mr Gooseberry\nand Mr Radisson with all manner of civility and courtesy and to take care that all your company doe bear a\nparticular respect unto them, they being the persons upon\nwhose credit wee have undertaken this expedition.\n\" Which we beseech Almighty God to prosper\n(C\nSigned \u2014 Rupert Albemarle\nCraven G. Carterett\nJ. Hayes P. Colleton |\nAnd now Groseilliers and Radisson had left behind\nkings and courts, cities and greedy, plotting merchants.\nThe fresh, salt air of the sea was in their nostrils, and their\nfaces were set towards that life of the wild, free woods\nwhich they loved. But disappointment was in store for\none of them. Fierce storms arose. The little Nonsuch,\nwith hatches battened down and head held firmly to the\nwind, rode fight as a cork over the great billows. Not so\nthe heavier and more unwieldy Eaglet. Wave after wave\ncaught her broadside on, and>, when the storm subsided,\nshe was left with her decks sprung, her masts by the board,\nand her consort lost. There was nothing for it but to\nturn back, and late in September, 1668, the Eaglet, with\nthe chafing Radisson aboard, limped lamely into dock in\nthe Thames.\nIn the meanwhile Groseilliers and Gillam on the Nonsuch made a quick and easy passage into the Bay, reaching\n^Psbbshp\nEK*\n Early Explorers 57\nDigges Island on August 19th. For seven weeks they\ncoasted due south and then came to anchor in a bay off a\nriver mouth. They called the river Rupert River in honor\nof their princely patron, and the rude, stockaded log fort\nwhich they hurriedly built on shore they named Fort\nCharles, after the king. They were the first to penetrate\nto this remote corner of the Great Bay since Hudson's\nfamous voyage of 1610\u2014n, and Fort Charles on the\neast shore of James Bay was the first permanent post to\nbe erected on Canada's great North Sea. Such was the\nhumble beginning of that Trading Company which was\nto fight out bloody feuds with French and Canadian\nrivals, whose imperial power was destined to expand until\nit embraced half the continent, and which to-day, after\nthe passage of two hundred and fifty years, is still active\nand prosperous.\nThat rigorous, biting winter that had been so terrible\nto Hudson and other early voyagers did not daunt in the\nleast Groseilliers, the forest ranger, and Gillam, the New\nEnglander. The ship was beached on a sand bar and\nprotected from ice jams by barriers of logs. They had an\nabundance of stores, firewood was at hand for the cutting,\nand through the long northern winter they lived snugly\nenough in their fort.\nFrom previous explorers the Indians had hung suspiciously aloof, but Groseilliers on his snowshoes visited\ntheir distant encampments. He found that they were\nCrees, like those Indians with whom he and Radisson had\ntraded on the shores of Lake Superior. Thus, knowing\nj\n f\n\\J\n58\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\ntheir ways and readily speaking their tongue, he soon won\ntheir friendship. A brisk trade in furs sprang up, and\nwhen, in the spring of 1669, the ice broke up and the little\nNonsuch spread her sails for England, she carried that\nwithin her hold which was calculated to make glad the\nhearts of her \"merchant adventurer\" masters.\nJust how rich the cargo of the Nonsuch was we do not\nknow, for there is no record left. But we do know that\nit was such as to cause the owners to apply to the king\nwith the utmost dispatch and secrecy for a royal charter\ngranting them the sole right to all trade and rule in the\nregions about Hudson Bay. The venture had been successful. The \"adventurers'1 must now be formally organized, and their position must be made secure. On\nMay 2nd, 1670, King Charles granted a charter incorporating \"The Governor and Company of Adventurers of\nEngland Trading into Hudson's Bay.\"\nAt the head of the charter stand the names of the applicants, among them Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, Lord Arlington, Lord Ashley,\nSir Philip Carterett, Sir Robert Viner, Lord Mayor of\nLondon, and other noblemen and merchants. \"Whereas,\"\nruns the famous document, \"these have at their own great\ncost and charges undertaken an expedition for Hudson's\nBay for the discovery of a passage to the South Sea and\nfor trade, and have humbly besought us to incorporate\nthem and to grant unto them and their successors the\nwhole trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays,\nrivers, creeks and sounds in whatsoever latitude that lie\n \u2022 uniM\nEarly Explorers 59\nwithin the entrance of the straits called Hudson's Straits\ntogether with all the lands, countries and territories upon\nthe coasts and confines of the seas, straits, bays, lakes,\nrivers, creeks and sounds not actually possessed by the\nsubjects of any other Christian State, know ye that we\nhave given, granted, ratified, and confirmed'1 the said\ngrant. \"And furthermore,' it continues, \"of our own\nample and abundant grace we have granted not only the\nwhole, entire and only liberty of trade to and from the\nterritories aforesaid, but also the whole and entire trade\nto and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes, and\nseas unto which they shall find entrance either by water\nor by land out of the territories aforesaid.\"\nThe shareholders of the mighty Company thus formed\nwere bound by a strict oath of faithfulness and secrecy.\n\"I doe sweare,\" so it ran, \"to be true and faithful to ye\nComp'y of Adventurers; ye secrets of ye said Comp'y\nI will not disclose, nor trade to ye limits [limitation] of\nye said Comp'y's charter. So help me God.\" Like\noaths of fidelity were exacted from the employees of the\nCompany. The shareholders elected to conduct the\nCompany's affairs a Governing Committee and a Governor. The first Governor was Prince Rupert; the second,\nJames, Duke of York, later James II; the third, Lord\nChurchill, afterwards the famous Duke of Marlborough.\nThus the Merry Monarch, with royal munificence,\ngranted to his friends a vaster domain than any one then\ndreamed of. Under the warrant of this royal charter the\ndominion of the Company was to spread north and west\n 6o\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\ni\n\u25a0\u2022\nand south from the shores of Hudson Bay, till it met the\npower of Russia in distant Alaska and at last reached the\nSouthern Sea in far off California. Over this vaguely\ndefined region which the Company might penetrate, it\nwas given wide powers of government. It could build\nforts, employ seamen, make laws and punish for the\nbreach of them. It could also expel and punish poachers\non its trading rights. It could even make war upon any\n\"Prince or People whatsoever that are not Christians\nfor the benefit of the said Company and its trade.\" Over\nall their territory the Governor and Company were to\nbe \"true and absolute lords,\" with the obligation of paying in sign of allegiance to the king of England whenever\nhe should visit their domains \"two elks and two black\nbeaver.\"\nAt the head of this royal charter of trade and government which for two hundred years was to mold the destiny\nof half of North America there stood the names of noble\nlords and London merchant princes. But though they\nhave the pride of place, it is not rightly theirs. It is true\nthe courtier lent his influence and the merchant risked his\ngold \u2014 and these were necessary things. But the greatness of the Great Company has other and deeper foundations than these. At the head of its charter should really\nstand the names of the men in whose minds the project\nhad its birth and by whose dauntless courage it was carried\nout in the wilds of the New World. Though history has\nlong slighted and neglected them, none the less the real\nfounders of the Hudson's Bay Company were the two\n M\nEarly Explorers 61\npenniless but resolute French adventurers, Chouart des\nGroseilliers and Pierre Radisson.\nVI. Radisson and Groseilliers Fight the Company\nThough dissatisfied with the slight recognition that had\nbeen given them, yet Groseilliers and Radisson continued\nin the Company's service and in June, 1670, they were\noff once more for the Bay, with three ships, the Waveno,\nthe Shaftesbury Pink, and the Prince Rupert. Radisson\nseems to have been the general superintendent of trade,\nof which Fort Charles was the chief centre. But in 1670,\ncoasting westward in the little Waveno, Radisson came to\nthat point where the two great rivers, the Nelson and the\nHayes, pour their waters side by side into the Bay. His\nquick eye at once saw that this was a stategic point. Down\nthese rivers came the Crees and the Assiniboines each\nspring from the region of Superior and the Lake of the\nWoods. Here too was a commodious double harbor,\nwhere whole fleets.of ships might ride at easy anchorage.\nThis was the best place on the entire Bay for the headquarters of the fur trade, and Radisson at once landed\non the tongue of land between the river mouths and there\nerected the arms of the English king. A little later a\nrude fort was constructed, and a prosperous trade began, j\nBut in 1672 and 1673 it was observed with alarm by\nthe English at Fort Charles that fewer and fewer Indians\nwere coming down the rivers to trade. What could be\nthe reason? It was soon discovered that the French were\npushing north from Canada, intercepting the Indians on\n t\n62 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\ntheir way to the Bay, and offering them better prices for\ntheir furs. Growing angry and suspicious, some of the\nEnglish traders began to charge Groseilliers and Radisson, who had received some letters from Canada,, with\nbeing in secret league with their rivals. The two Frenchmen, on their part, resolved to return to England and lay\nthe whole matter before the Company.\nIt is quite possible that the letters from Canada to\nRadisson and Groseilliers did hold out tempting offers for\ntheir services, for they pressed the Company of Adventurers firmly for better terms. At last, after long debate,\nthe Governing Committee voted that \"there be allowed to\nMr Radisson \u00a3100 per annum in consideration of services,\nout of which shall be deducted what hath already been\npaid him; and if it pleases God to bless the Company with\ngood success hereafter that they come to be in a prosperous condition, then they will reassume consideration.\"\nThus at the very time when the Company was making\nprofits of from fifty to one hundred per cent, it refused to\nthe men who had laid the foundation of its fortunes the\nposition of shareholders. It would treat them only as\nservants and pay them a mere pittance for a wage. Ingratitude could not go further. In the fall of 1674 Groseilliers and Radisson left England and returned to France.\nTill 1679 Radisson served as an officer in the French\nNavy, but his promotion to high command was barred\nby the fact that his loyalty was suspected because he had\nmarried an English lady, the daughter of Sir John Kirke,\na prominent shareholder in the Company of Adventurers.\n\u2022* l|i win e\n Early Explorers 63\nThen, too, the spell of the woods was ever strong upon\nhim, so when, in 1679, he met La Chesnaye, an old friend\nand fur trader, who proposed to equip a French expedition to compete with the English on Hudson Bay, Radisson at once fell in with the scheme.\nSoon we find him in Canada completing arrangements\nwith Groseilliers, who had been living quietly for some\ntime at Three Rivers. Jean Chouart, Groseilliers' son,\njoined his father and uncle in the adventure. The two\nexplorers spent the winter of 1681-82 in Acadia, and\nthen in the spring went with the fishing fleet to Isle Percee,\nwhither La Chesnaye had promised to send the ships for\nthe expedition. In July they arrived \u2014 but what ships!\nThe St. Pierre, named after Radisson, a sloop of fifty\ntons, and the Ste. Anne, an even smaller vessel, were both\npoorly built to buffet the northern ice, and were manned\nby only twenty-five seamen who were both mutinous and\ninexperienced. Men of less heroic temper would have\nturned back, but not so the two French voyageurs. At\nonce heading for the north, they passed through Belle\nIsle, coasted the treacherous Labrador, and entered the\nicy maelstrom of Hudson Strait. \"Wee had,\" writes\nRadisson, \"much adoe to recover out of the ice, and had\nlike divers times to have perished, but God was pleased\nto preserve us.\" Twice the crews mutinied, but each\ntime the courage and tact of Radisson met the crisis, and\nthey continued their course. By August 26th they had\ncleared the Strait, crossed the Bay, and had come to anchor\nat the mouth of a great river which the Indians called\n 64 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nKa-Kiwa-Kiouay, \"Who comes, who goes,\" referring to\nthe ebb and flow of the tide. This was no other than the\nHayes River. A few miles to the north lay the Nelson.\nIt was this ideal situation, which Radisson had before\nvisited and claimed for the English king, that he now\nclaimed for France and resolved to make the seat of the\nFrench fur trade on the Bay.\nThey sailed up the Hayes River about fifteen miles,\nand then in a creek on the north shore made their ships\nsnug for the winter. While Groseilliers took charge of\nthe erection of a fort, which in honor of the French king\nthey called Fort Bourbon, Radisson and Jean canoed\nup the river for about fifty miles to get into touch with\nthe Indians. After eight days they met a party under\nan old chief. His greeting was friendly. Armed with\nspear, club, and bow, he stood up in his canoe, drew an\narrow from his quiver, and, having aimed it to the east,\nwest, north, and south, he broke it in two in token of\npeace and cast it into the river. Then he burst out into\na chant of greeting \u2014\n\"Ho, young man, be not afraid!\nThe sun is favorable to us!\nOur enemies shall fear us!\nThis is the man we have wished\nSince the days of our fathers.\"\nRadisson with great readiness at once replied in Cree \u2014\n\"I know all the earth!\nYour friends shall be my friends!\n*IP\n if\nI\n 1 Agnes Laut has thus arranged these speeches in rhythmic form in\nimitation of the Indian manner of chanting a speech. For this story in\ngreater detail see her books, the \" Pathfinders of the West \" and the | Conquest of the Great North West.\"\nEarly Explorers 65\nI come to bring you arms to destroy your enemies!\nNor wife nor chijd shall die of hunger!\nFor I have brought you merchandisef\nBe of good cheer!\nI will be thy son 1\nI have brought thee a father!\nHe is yonder below building a fort\nWhere I have two great ships!\" 1\nGifts were exchanged, vows of eternal friendship were\npledged, and the Indians promised to bring all their furs\ndown to the fort. With this happy beginning made for\ntheir trade, Radisson and Jean rejoined their companions.\nOne day, however, when they were all busily at work,\nwhat was their surprise to hear the boom of cannon suddenly echoing through the wilderness. Who could it be?\nThey must find out quickly, for in the fur trade every\nstranger was a rival and probably a foe. Radisson took\ncanoe and glided cautiously down the Hayes to the Bay.\nNothing there. The ship, then, must have ascended the\nother river, the Nelson. Further firing of cannon, intended no doubt to attract the Indians for trade, confirmed this guess.\nReturning at once to the fort, Radisson selected three\nof his trustiest men. The creek, on which the St. Pierre\nand Ste. Anne lay, ran across the marshy neck of land\n 66\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nbetween the Hayes and the Nelson and joined the two\nrivers. Paddling and portaging along this stream the\nlittle party reached the Nelson and then stole silently\ndown towards its mouth. Halfway to the Bay they came\nupon the stranger anchored at Seal Island, on which a\nrough fort was already under construction. She was a\nstout ship called the Bachelor's Delight, well manned, and\narmed to the teeth with cannon which bristled through\nher portholes.\nRadisson saw in a flash that he could not openly fight\nthe newcomer. He. must have recourse to stratagem.\nA parley soon revealed the fact that the Bachelor's Delight\nwas not a ship of the English Company, but a New Eng-\nlander illegally poadiing in the Company's territories.\nShe was commanded by Ben Gillam, son of that Zachariah\nGillam who was one of the Company's most trusted Captains. Was it possible that they were conspiring together\nto cheat the Adventurers?\nBy instinct Radisson saw that the boldest course was\nthe safest. He introduced himself and fearlessly went\naboard. The two commanders drank each other's health.\nRadisson posed as the leader of a large expedition from\nCanada. He had a big party and a large fort inland and\nhad won the allegiance of the Indians. Gillam might\nremain safely under his protection, and neither soldiers\nnor Indians would molest him or his men so long as they\ndid not stray far from the ship. Thus condescendingly\nRadisson spoke. \"We parted after that,\" he says, \"well\nsatisfied with each other, he fully convinced that I had the\n Early Explorers\n67\nforce of which I had boasted, and I resolved to keep him\nin this good opinion, having the design to oblige him to\nretire, or if he persisted in annoying me in my trade, to\nawait a favorable opportunity of seizing his ship.\"\nBut troubles thickened. So that Gillam might not\nknow in what direction his camp lay, Radisson continued\nhis way down the Nelson, when, to his amazement, at its\nmouth he beheld a full-rigged ship flying the Company's\ncolors and commencing to ascend the river. At all costs\nthe two English parties must be kept apart, for if they\njoined together the French would be completely outnumbered and at their mercy. Landing unperceived on\nthe south shore, Radisson and his men built a great bonfire as though they were Indians signalling the ship to\nstop and trade. This trick succeeded. The vessel reefed\nsails and came to anchor.\nNext morning a boat was sent ashore. In it were Captain Zachariah Gillam and John Bridgar, the new Governor, sent out in the ship Prince Rupert to found a permanent\nHudson's Bay post on the Nelson River. When, instead\nof Indians, they found Radisson and his men on the beach\nwith loaded muskets levelled at their heads they were dumbfounded. Radisson played the same game as before. |f He\nintroduced his three men as the captains of large ambushed parties. He went aboard the English ship and\ndined as though the forces at his back were so strong that\nhe had nothing to fear. He parted from them in friendly\nfashion, advising them not to ascend the river farther for\nfear of conflict with the French and Indians. For his\n 68 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\npart he would do his best to hold his men in check and\nrestrain the natives. Again his boldness was rewarded.\nThe English prepared to construct a fort and winter where\nthey were. Thus for the time being the wily old Indian-\nfighter kept the two English forces apart. Only singly\ncould he hope to crush them.\nTo make doubly sure, however, Radisson told young\nGillam of the arrival of the Company's ship, and when he\nmade his next visit to the Prince Rupert, with the coolest\ndaring he took Ben along with him in disguise to see his\nfather. The son could now be trusted to prevent his\nmen from straying down the Nelson towards the Company's ship, while the father to prevent the detection and\npunishment of his son would see to it that the Company's men did not penetrate up the river to the poachers'\nfort.\nFor a time this worked well. Then a disaster occurred.\nThe Prince Rupert, caught in the drive of tidal ice at the\nriver mouth, was crushed like an eggshell and sunk. With\nher went down Captain Zachariah Gillam, fourteen men,\nand nearly all the provisions.\nYoung Gillam now no longer needed to fear the Company's force, while he was becoming extremely suspicious\nof the strength of the French. To spy out their numbers\nhe expressed a desire to pay them a friendly visit. Radisson craftily consented, and in person went to escort him.\nFor a month young Gillam enjoyed the hospitality of\nthe French. They treated him courteously, but he became more and more insolent as he discovered their weak-\n\u25a0UJU\n Early Explorers\n69\nness. Then he tried to depart \u2014 only to find himself a\nprisoner. The young spy himself had been trapped by an\nolder and slyer hand at the game of war.\nThe next step was to capture the poacher's ship and\nfort by surprise. As Gillam watched Radisson preparing\nto set out through the winter woods with his handful of\nmen, he sneered at their foolhardiness.\n\"Had you a hundred men instead of twenty,\" he said,\n\"you might have some chance.\"\n\"How many are in the fort?\" demanded the angered\nRadisson.\n\"Nine,\" he replied, \"and they could kill forty of you\nbefore you could reach the palisade.\"\n\"Choose you an equal number of my men, myself included,\" cried Radisson, \"and I promise to give a good\naccount both of you and your ship in two days.\"\nGillam at once complied, and Radisson with eight men\nat his back set out on his perilous undertaking. Half\na league from the fort two of the men were sent ahead.\nThey were to tell the sentries that Radisson and Gillam\nwere coming a little distance behind. Thus they would\ngain entrance to the fort, and with the French hostage,\nwho had been left there to guarantee Gillam's safety,\nthey were to watch the guardhouse and keep the gate\nopen for the entry of Radisson's party, which would be at\nhand to rush in by surprise. The plan was completely\nsuccessful. The fort was in French possession before the\ngarrison could even resist, and the ship was won by a\nlike bloodless victory.\n 7o\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nIn the meanwhile Bridgar had learned of the ship and\nthe fort above him on the Nelson River. At first he\nthought that they belonged to the French, but now he\nlearned that they were really those of an English poacher.\nBut they were at least English, and here was his chance\nto overpower the French. Gathering his ragged, half-\nstarved forces together, he made the march up the*river\nto join hands with his countrymen. At his summons the\nfort gates swung back and he and his men marched in\n\u2014 only to hear the doors clash to behind them and to\nfind themselves surrounded and overpowered by the\nFrench.\nRadisson was now complete master of the situation.\nBut he was as humane and honorable in his hour of triumph as he had been cunning and bold in the hour of\ndanger. He fed Bridgar's famishing men from his own\nstores. When the Crees and Assiniboines came down to\nthe Bay in the spring and found sixty Englishmen in the\nhands of a score of Frenchmen, they offered Radisson two\nhundred beaver skins to be allowed to massacre the\nprisoners. But he stood the savages off. Some of\nthe prisoners were sent in the Ste. Anne to the Company's posts in the south on James Bay. The St. Pierre\nhad been wrecked in the spring ice, so the remaining\nprisoners were placed in Gillam's ship, the Bachelor's\nDelight, in which the voyage back to Quebec was to be\nmade.\nAll winter Groseilliers and his son had been driving a\nprofitable trade, and in the spring the Indians from the\n Early Explorers 71\nsouth came in with a great wealth of furs. These were\nsafely stowed in the hold, and then, leaving Jean with a\nsmall party to hold the fort and continue the trade, Groseilliers and Radisson set sail for New France. Once\nagain they had performed prodigies of valor and endurance\nin the wilderness. Once more they came to anchor beneath the citadel of Quebec with a vast fortune in furs\nas their reward.\nVII. Radisson Returns to England\nAlways success and prosperity seemed to wait upon the\nexplorers in the wilds, only to forsake them when they\nreturned to civilization and began to deal with merchants,\ngovernments, and kings. Though the king himself had\ngiven verbal sanction to their expedition, yet it had been\nundertaken without formal license from the government\nof New France. Therefore the grasping Governor, De\nla Barre, urged on by jealous fur-trading rivals, confiscated their furs and restored the Bachelor's Delight to\nGillam. Moreover, while France and England were at\npeace they had attacked the English on the Bay. Therefore, they were summoned to give an account of themselves\nin Paris.\nWhen they landed in France, the great statesman Colbert had died, and affairs had passed into the hands of\nlesser men. The influence of the Governor and of the\nrival merchants prevailed in the court, and all their petitions for justice were in vain. At last, wearied by the\nstruggle, the older Groseilliers gave it up and retired\n 72\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nJvv\nto spend the rest of his days at his home in Three Rivers.\nBut Radisson kept on. The French king had a secret\ntreaty with England which he feared would be broken\noff if he backed up what the explorers had done. On the\nother hand, if he openly confessed that they had been wrong\nand punished them, it would mean the abandonment of\nall claims by France to trade in the Bay. So Radisson\nwas ordered to return, as though by his own free will,\nand informally deliver up to the English the posts on the\nHayes and the Nelson from which he had driven them.\nThus Louis hoped at the same time to be able to preserve\nhis secret treaty with England and maintain France's\nclaim to share in the trade of the Bay.\nBut for Radisson, robbed time and again of his hardly\nwon profits, to be asked in addition to undo that which\nhe had done for the honor and glory of France was too bitter\na task. The ingratitude of his king and his country made\nhim heartsick. Then, too, in England were his wife and\nfour children whom he loved dearly, while the Hudson's\nBay Company, through the English ambassador, was\nmaking constant efforts to recover him for its service.\nLord Preston sent one of his officers, Captain Godey,\nto call upon Radisson. He found the adventurer on the\nthird floor of a house in the Faubourg St. Antoine. His\nlodgings were decked with numerous trophies and relics\nof his American voyages, while a group of boon companions were busy drinking his health and listening to\nthe story of his adventures. \"Radisson himself,\" Godey\nsays, \"was apparelled more like a savage than a Chris-\n tian.\nEarly Explorers 73\nHis black hair, just touched with gray, hung in a\nwild profusion about his bare neck and shoulders. | He\nshowed a swart complexion, scarred and pitted by frost\nand exposure in a rigorous climate. A huge scar, wrought\nby the tomahawk of a drunken Indian, disfigured his left\ncheek. His whole costume was surmounted by a wide\ncollar of marten's skin; his feet were adorned.by buckskin moccasins. In his leather belt was sheathed a long\nknife.\" Such was the picture of Radisson the ranger in\n1684 \u2014 a strange, rugged, Western figure upon whom the\npeople of that day must have gazed with surprise and\ncuriosity, as he stalked through the streets of London\nand Paris and waited upon the courts of Windsor and\nVersailles.\nStung by the trickery and ingratitude of the French\nand won back by the liberal promises of the English Company, Radisson now resolved to leave France. On May\n10th, 1684, he landed in London. His first act was to take\nthe oath of allegiance to the English king \u2014 an oath which\nto the day of his death he kept unbroken.\nWell might the Merchant Adventurers rejoice that\nRadisson had returned to their service. He had shown\nthat the two Frenchmen who had founded their Company\ncould as easily undermine its position. Now with Radisson once more on their side, they felt the future assured.\nThe Governing Committee met and voted him \u00a3100 per\nannum and the dividends on \u00a3200 of stock which often\nran as high as fifty per cent. He was presented with a\npurse for \"his extraordinary services to their great liking\n n\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nand satisfaction.\" A dealer was commanded to \"keep\nMr Radisson in stock of fresh provisions.\" A gift of a\n\"hogshead of claret\" was sent him, while in token of the\nhigh esteem of the Adventurers he was begged to accept\na silver tankard of the value of more than \u00a310. He was\nreceived in audience by the king himself, and was taken\nby the Duke of York into the royal box at the theatre.\nFor a while Radisson was one of the\nmost noted men in all London.\nRadisson's response to fair and\ngenerous treatment was immediate.\nIn a short time he was ready to start\nfor the Bay with a fleet of three\nships. There he induced young Jean\nGroseilliers to abandon his fort, and\neverywhere on the Bay the power of\nthe English Company was reestablished. On Radisson's return in November he was publicly\nthanked and given a purse of one hundred guineas.\nFor ten years Radisson stood high in favor and continued\nto make trips for the Adventurers to Hudson Bay. Then\ncame a change. War broke out with France after the fall\nof the Stuarts, and Radisson the Frenchman was held in\ndistrust. The daring Canadian, D 'Iberville, raided the\nBay, and the Company's dividends ceased. New shareholders now controlled the Company's stock, few of whom\nknew the name and the deeds of Radisson. His pension\nwas cut in half. He was an old man now, but he remained\nto the end a fighter. He sued the Company in the courts\nSkin for Son,\" Coat of\nArms and Motto, Hudson's Bay Company.\n Early Explorers\n75\nand won. His salary and all the arrears were paid in full,\nbut that was reward meagre enough for all his services.\nTill 1710 the books of the Company show that Radisson's\npension was regularly paid. Then in the minute book of\nthe Governing Committee we find the entry, \" Att a Comitte\nthe 12 th July, 1710 \u2014 The Secretary is ordered to pay\nMr Radisson's widow as charity the sum of \u00a36.\" The\ntireless old rover of the woods and sea had gone forth on\nhis last long journey.\nNo soaring monument marks the last resting place of\nRadisson or of Groseilliers \u2014 though lesser men have\nsuch. But that is just as well, for a wise old Greek states-1\nman, Pericles, has truly said that \"the whole earth is\nthe sepulcher of famous men,\" and that the memorials of v\nthem are \"graven not on stone but in the hearts of mankind.\" The mighty regions which they pioneered, the\\\nimperial Company which they really founded \u2014 these\nform their most fitting monument.\nfi i\nHudson's Bay Company Coins, Made of Lead Melted from Tea Chests\nat York Factory, Each Coin Representing so Many Beaver Skins.\nW \u25a0\u2022-'\nyr-\n(\\\n HENRY KELSEY\n 1\nCHAPTER III\nHENRY KELSEY\nOn May 17th, 1684, Radisson, as we have seen, sailed in\nthe Happy Return to reestablish the English Company in\ntheir fort on the Nelson River which he and Groseilliers\nhad seized. In the selfsame ship was a little lad, Henry\nKelsey, who was destined to be the pioneer explorer Jn^\nland from Hudson Bay. Henry was a poor boy who had\ngrown up in the streets of London. TheF Company, in\nsearch offilprentice lads for service at their posts in the Bay,\nhad picked him oil the streets and taken him into their\nemploy ataTsalafy of \u00a38 a year and his keep. -~3f\nMany an idle day m London Henry had haunted the\nwharves and dockyards of the Thames, watching with\nwistful eyes the ships as they set out on their long voyages\nto strange, foreign lands. From the old salts who gathered\non the water-side, he had heard many a tale of pirates on\nthe Spanish Main, of adventures in the far-off Indies, of\nslave-raiding on the coast of Africa, and of whale and seal\nfishing in the Polar Seas. What would he not have given\nto bear^arpart in such stirring deeds? And now he was\nactually off on a voyage of thousands of miles and in the\nsame ship with the famous Frenchman, who had been received by the king and whose exploits had been the talk\n79\n\u25a0\n 8o\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nof all London. Radisson had roamed and fought to his\nheart's content over half a continent. And now he, too,\nHenry Kelsey, London street arab, was bound for the\ngreat Bay which was the gateway to the land of the savage,\npainted redskin, the land of forest and stream, of hairbreadth adventure and of wonderful wealth from the fur\ntrade.\nTo a rousing cheer the Company's flag, with its white-\nlettered \"H. B. C,\" flutters up to the masthead, f An\nextra ration of grog is served around to put all in a good\nhumor at the starting. The sailors chant their sea song\nas they run briskly round the capstan. The anchor thus\nhoisted aboard is made snug for the voyage. The sails are\nspread. The water begins to ripple gently backwards\nfrom the prow. Slowly the Gravesend docks begin to\nrecede. Godspeeds are called out and farewells are waved,\nand the little .denizen of the London streets is off into\na new and wonderful world.\nLittle Henry had not lived by his wits in London for\nnothing. He was yet but a half-grown lad, and his face had\nnot acquired the healthy bronze of the life of the sea and\nthe woods, but he was irrepressibly active in body and\nmind. Soon he had searched out every nook and cranny\nin the entire vessel. He seemed to be everywhere about\nthe ship, and nothing escaped his sharp eyes. Now he\nwas aloft in the rigging, peering around the horizon for\nthe sails of strange ships. Now he was down in the galley,\ncoaxing the cook for dainties. He listened with eager ears\nto the tales of the seamen in the forecastle, and, sometimes,\n \\amWUJUP &uuUU, c^ fijJA\nEarly Explorers 81\nas Radisson paced the deck, he caught fragments of his adventures as they fell from his lips in his queer-spoken\nEnglish.\nEverything in the voyage delighted him. After his first\nspell of seasickness was over, he loved to watch the little\nship make her way over the shouldering billows \u2014 now\nengulfed in the trough between foam-capped summits,\nand, next moment, with the spray dashing over the bow\nand the scuppers awash, borne aloft like a cork towards\nthe crest of an on-coming wave. The lengthening days,\nas the ship bore ever more to the north, filled him with\nwonder. He was the first to observe the marvellous sight\nof whales spouting in the distance, and the gambols of a\nschool of porpoises that followed the ship caused him infinite merriment. When they entered the Strait, he was\nstruck with amazement at the mountains of ice they encountered, drifting slowly out towards the ocean and\nflashing back the sun's rays from a thousand dazzling\ncrystal points and surfaces. Past great ice floes on which\nan occasional polar bear was espied, past Digges Island\nwith its myriad nesting wild fowl they went, and then\nsouth-west across the Bay, until they cast anchor in the\nmouth of the Nelson River. - t^v\\^p \u2014a_sW,\nIt was a scene strangely different from that which the\nlittle lad had left behind him. Instead of the quiet estuary\nof the Thames, the swirling, muddy current of the rapid\nNelson; instead of the peaceful, thatch-roofed villages, the\ngreen hedges and the cultivated fields of Kent and Essex,\nnothing but dreary swamp and sombre forest from the\n 82\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nwater's edge far as the eye could see. Instead of London\nwith its church spires, palaces, and theatres, its marts and\nwarehouses, its maze of streets and busy thronging citizens\n\u2014 instead of these, a ruined fort in a little clearing on the\nshore, and all around a howling wilderness, the home of\nwild beasts and scattered, wandering savages.\nBut the prospect did not appall the little apprentice lad\nin the least. He was one of those happy spirits that make\nthemselves at home everywhere. He was all excited to\nland and begin work, and he took his full boy's share in\nthe erection of the new fort and the preparations for trade\nwith the natives.\nThen came the Indians \u2014 the Assiniboines from the\ngreat Saskatchewan Valley \u2014 sweeping down the swift\ncurrent of the Nelson with their canoes loaded deep with\nfurs. Trade, in those days, was no simple matter. First\nthe Governor would adorn himself in all the finery of scarlet\ncoat and gold lace, and gird on his sword at his side. Then\nall the musicians that the fort could muster were marshalled in front of the Governor, whose approach was thus\nheralded by the blaring of bugles, the screaming of fifes,\nand the thunderous roll of kettledrums. Behind, drawn\nup fully armed in martial array, came all the Company's\nmen. Proceeding thus with full pomp to the Indian encampment, the Governor gave greeting to the chief and\nhis tribesmen, and the conference began. The chief, with\ngreat professions of friendship, would present all his furs,\nbeaver and marten and fox, to the Governor as a gift,\nwhile the latter responded with an equivalent gift of guns,\n Early Explorers 8$\npowder, shot, blankets, hatchets, beads,. and other such\ntrinkets drawn from the Company's stores. Both then\npuffed clouds of smoke from the peace pipe, and the two\nparties went their ways satisfied.\nBut the rules of the Company's trade and the discipline\nof its forts were exceedingly strict; none but the Governor\nor chief trader could thus conduct trade. All others of\nthe Company's men were absolutely forbidden to hold any\nconverse with the Indians or to leave the fort to hunt with\nthem except by special permission. Only thus, the Adventurers thought, could they control all the trade and\nkeep their employees from getting fiirs for themselves,\nthus cutting into their business.\nBut Kelsey was used to having his own way in the life of\nthe London streets, and all these rules irked him sorely \u2014\nnot that he wished to cheat the Company and trade for\nhimself, but because, boy-like, he was full of curiosity\nabout this new land and its people. flfHffr lost no oppor-^\ntunity to slip away from the fort and mix with the Indians,\nwhose friendship he soon won. They\/were delighted with\nthe audacious white boy, who did not stand aloof from\nthem like the others, but visited them in their_ tepees,\nwent for hunts with tEem in the forest, and was quickly\nlearning to speak their tongue.\nFor some time this went on, either because Kelsey was\nclever enough to conceal his pranks or because Governor\nGeyer overlooked them on account of his youth. At last,\nhowever, the Governor grew angry and sternly forbade\nKelsey to have anything more to do with the Indians. But\n^caaMaa^s^^^^^^^w^-s\n 84 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nHenry again broke the rules, and, when the gates were\nlocked, he even climbed over the fort palisades to visit\nhis friends. For this the Governor, now in a rage, gave\nhim a thorough thrashing.\nBut this proved too much. Henry liked his Assiniboine\nfriends and_their wild, free life better than Governor Geyefp\nhis rules and his beatings. So, when the next day dawned,\nno Kelsey appeared for his duties. High and low they\nlooked for him through the fort, and they sought in the\nneighboring forest, but nowhere was he to be found. He\nhad vanished! The untracked wilderness had swallowed\nhim into its depths, and his friends at the fort gave him\nup for lost.\nMonths passed and there came not a word of the ad^\nventurous lad. The French king and his Governor at\nQuebec had now fully realized that if the English retained\ntheir hold on the Bay, New France would be hemmed in\nboth north and south by their power. So, though England and France were as yet at peace, in the summer of\n1686 a party of daring coureurs de bois, under the Chevalier\nde Troyes and the dashing young French-Canadian, Pierre\nLe Moyne D'Iberville, made the long journey across the\nHeight of Land and swooped suddenly down on the Bay.\nThe English were completely surprised. Fort Moose,\nFort Rupert, and Fort Albany all fell into the hands of the\nFrench, and Nelson alone was left to the English Company.\nLong ago Radisson and Groseilliers had urged the\nAdventurers not to remain content with posts on the shores\nof the Bay, but to penetrate far afield to the very heart\n Early Explorers\n85\nof the surrounding regions. Forts planted there would\nboth increase the Company's trade and make firm its grip\non the vast empire which King Charles had granted them.\nBut their plea had fallen on deaf ears. Now, however,\nwith three of their four forts in the hands of the French,\nthe Company, in order still to get furs, must either build\nnew posts inland or send far into the interior and persuade\nmore and more Indian tribes to come down with their pelts\nto Fort Nelson. But who, of all the Company's servants,\nhad the knowledge and daring to accomplish successfully\nthis task?\nSueh was the situation wheft an Indian runner arrived\nfrom inland at the fort. He bore a piece of birch bark on\nwhich were \"some weatherworn characters roughly written\nwith charcoal. The words were English. It was a message\nfrom Henry Kelsey. He was alive and well and had\nwandered far with the Indians. If the Governor would\nonly pardon him and let him come back, he would conduct\nan exploring party for the Company and would bring down\nto its fort many new tribes.\nThe Governor was overjoyed. Kelsey's pardon was\ninstantly dispatched. A little later he himself arrived at\nthe fort. Tall as a man he now was, and keen-eyed, hardy,\nand bronzed from his life in the woods. Decked out in all\nthe trappings of an Indian brave, he stepped from his canoe\namid the warm greetings of his old friends at the fort.\nBut he was not alone. Close behind came a dusky Assini-\nboine maiden, whom he had married by Indian rites. At\nfirst trie Governor would not let her enter the gates, but\n 86 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nKelsey stood by his wife and refused to enter alone. He\nwas too valuable a man for the Company to lose. Governor Geyer relented, and so Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey, as\nthey were laughingly styled, were received together into\nthe fort.\nHenry Kelsey was now the hero of the hour at Fort\nNelson. Word of his exploits was sent back to England,\nand in 1688 we find the Adventurers sending out orders to\nGovernor Geyer to dispatch \"the boy, Henry Kelsey'1 to\nChurchill River, \"because we are informed he is a very\nactive lad, delighting much in Indians' company, being\nnever better pleased than when he is travelling amongst\nthem.\" There is no further record of what Kelsey did at\nChurchill, b\u00aefcprobably~he was sent to that river, where as\nyet there was no fort, to bring the northern Chipewyan\nIndians down to Fort Nelson for trade.\nIn 1691, however, Governor Geyer writes, \"This summer I sent up Henry Kelsey, who cheerfully undertook the\njourney, into the country of the Assinae Poets (the Assini-\nboines) with the Captain of that nation (that is, its Chief),\nto call, encourage, and invite the remoter Indians to a\ntrade with us.\" Of this journey, the most important\nachievement of his career, Kelsey has left us his own\nrecord, which still may be seen at Hudson's Bay House\nin London.\nOn July 15 th, 1691, a fleet of canoes shot out from behind Deering's Point and began to stem the rapid current\nof the Nelson River. They were Stone or Assiniboine\nIndians, starting back on the long trip from Fort Nelson\n fl\u00a5f\nEarly Explorers\ntmi*\n87\nto their home in the Saskatchewan Valley. They bore\nwith them muskets and kettles and trinkets which they\nhad obtained by trade at the white man's fort on the Bay.\nAnd with them, taking his turn with the rest at paddle\nand portage, was a solitary white man. It was Henry\nKelsey, adventuring himself for a sec-\nond time into the wilds to the west of\nHudson Bay.\nFor three days they persevered against\nthe strong current and then, impatient\nat their slow progress, Kelsey cached\nhis canoe and went on alone overland\nahead of his Indians. The weather was\nvery dry, and game was exceedingly\nscarce. As he had to rely for food on\nwhat he could shoot, Kelsey was soon\nin a serious position. After thirty hot\nmiles of tramping through the thick\nbrush he stumbled at last on three\nIndian wigwams, but no one, man,\nwoman, or child, was at home. The\nfamishing hunter ransacked the encamp- ** AssiNIBOINE lN\u00bbIAN-\nment, but not a scrap of food could he find. A few berries\ngathered in the bush stayed his hunger a little, but it was\nwith very great joy and relief that presently he heard\nnoises in the distance. It was the owners of the tepees\nreturning from hunting. They had shot ten swans and a\nmoose and were ready to share with the tired traveller.\nThey also were Assiniboine Indians, and in their company\nJ\n 88\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nKelsey journeyed on for eleven more days, until he rejoined\nhis own party. With them now were some Crees, and these\ntold him that the Naywatamee Poet Indians, whom Kelsey\nespecially wished to meet and bring down to Fort Nelson\nfor trade, had killed three Cree squaws in the spring, and\nthe two nations were now at war with each other.\nFor more than three hundred miles Kelsey's path had\nlain through a forest country of spruce and pine. Now the\ntrees changed to poplar and\nbirch, gradually growing thinner, until the party reached\nthe edge of the open plain.\nIt was August 19th when they*\\\nthus got clear of the woods j\nand found, stretching south- \/\nward and westward before V\nthem, the endless, rolling ex- \\\npanse of the prairie. Buffalo\nhad been sighted on the preceding day, and now they\nwere found roaming in such\ngreat herds that all fear of.\nfamine was over. During the day the men hunted, and at\nevening the women went out to bring in and prepare the\nmeat for the feast.\nOnce, while out hunting, Kelsey fell asleep, exhausted\nby the chase afoot through the long grass of the plain.\nFor hours he slumbered on, and when he awoke he was lost.\nNot a companion was in sight. The dust cloud, even,\nA Monarch of the Plains.\n Early Explorers 89\nraised by the hunters and buffalo, had settled again to the\nplain. Around him, waist high and as far as he could see,\nwas nothing but the prairie grass, stirred into restless\nbillows by the summer wind. He wandered hopelessly\ntill dusk. Then the glare of the Indian camp fires in the\nsky gave him his direction, and, late at night, he struggled\nwearily into camp.\nOn another occasion, when the camp fire had been made\nof dry moss, Kelsey suddenly awoke to find the grass all\naround him alight and blazing furiously. Calling for help,\nhe managed by desperate efforts to smother and beat out\nthe flames, but the stock of his musket was badly burned.\nKelsey, however, was not at a loss. With his knife he soon\nfashioned another, which did good service for the rest of\nthe trip.\nAfter travelling for seven days across the prairie they\nagain came to a wooded land. It was here that Kelsey\nhad his dangerous encounter with the grizzlies, the most\nformidable of all the beasts of the Great West. Se was\nout hunting with an Indian when, ajl of a sudden, they\nwere cor!tronted\"i3y two immensef bears. The bears were\nas much surprised as the men by the meeting. ^Thev- ad-^\nvanced boldly, however, the fear of the rifle being unknown\nto them, ^he terrified Indian at once bolted for a tree,\nwhile Kelsey himself dashed into a clump of willows. The\nbears pursued the Indian to his tree, and it would have\ngone hard with him, had notTKelsey, by a lucky shot, killed\none of them. The other now made in the direction of the\nwhite hunter, but unable to find him in the thick brush,\n go\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nturned back again to attack the Indian, when, with a\nsecond shot, Kelsey stretched him beside his mate. Two\ngrizzly bears were no small bag for a few minutes' hunting.\nKelsey's credit now stood higher than ever with the Indians,\nwho, filled with admiration for his prowess with, the rifle,\nnamed him Miss-top-ashish, which means, \"the Little\nGiant. J'\nOn August 24th they were joined by Wassha, a great\nchief of the Assiniboines, and_the party now numbered\nupwards of eighty tepees. On September nth they\nreached the camp of the long-sought Naywatamee Poets.\nKelsey pitched his tent, filled his great peace pipe with\nhis best tobacco, and, with great ceremony, invited the\nNaywatamee chieftain to pay him a visit. The chief came\nin full state with his mightiest warriors at his back. On\nbehalf of the Great White .Chief of the Bay Kelsey pre-\nsentedJiim 'Vith gifts \u2014 a laced coat, a cap, a gay sash, a\nmusket with powder and shot, knives, awls, and tobacco.\nWith these the chief was hugely delighted and readily\njjrnmjspd to meet his White Brother at Deering's Point\nin the spring, and go down to Fort Nelson for trade.\nKelsey had now travelled from five to six hundred miles\ninland from the Bay, and, as far as we can tell, was somewhere in what is now the Province of Saskatchewan, somewhat to the north of the great river. There, apparently,\nhe passed the winter among the Indians, inviting all whom\nhe met to trade with the Company and striving to make\npeace among the warring tribes. For the Adventurers\nwished the Indians to spend their powder and shot, not\n Early Explorers 91\ndn each other, but in the hunt for the furs from which the\ntraders drew their wealth. Thus, in the spring of 1692,\nGovernor Geyer wrote home to the Governing Committee\nin London: \"Henry Kelsey came down with a good fleet\nof Indians and hath travelled and endeavored to keep the\npeace among them, according to my orders.\"\nThis successful exploit of the one-time,street ragamuffin\nof London now won him rapid promotion. Of all the\nCompany's men on the Bay he had the best knowledge of\nthe land and the.strongest control over the Indians. By\n1697 ne ha\no\nIX\nCO\no\nz\nto\n\u25a0\n<\nX\nQ\n\u00abo\nLU\n_i\nZ\n<\nLU\nO\n>>tl\/, SMt J%\nJ\n CHAPTER IV\nLA VERENDRYE AND HIS SONS\nMore than two hundred years ago, in the little town of\nThree Rivers on the banks of the great St. Lawrence,\nPierre de la Verendrye was born. He was a little French-\nCanadian lad, and his father was Governor of the French\nking's fort at Three Rivers. Pierre himself was but one\nof ten children, and among so many brothers and sisters\nhe early learned to look out for himself and grew up a\nsturdy, self-reliant little fellow.\nThose were the days when Canada was still only a thinly\nsettled colony of France, and the dreaded Iroquois Indians\nmight swoop down at any time on the settlements, burning\nand slaying as they went. To protect the people from\nthese savage foes, Three Rivers had a strong wall, defended\nby cannon and a garrison of regular soldiers. It was no\nwonder, then, that little Pierre, as he played about the fort,\nshould long to be a soldier too, when he grew up, and serve\nthe king of France.\nHis wish soon came true. In 1697, when he was only\ntwelve years old, he entered the French army as a cadet.\nAt the age of nineteen he took part in a wild raid of French\nand Indians against the English colonies. Two years later\nhe went to France, where he fought against the English\n95\n 96\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nand Dutch in Flanders. In one terrible battle he received\nno less than nine wounds and was left for dead on the field.\nBut happily he escaped with his life, and, for his bravery,\nhe was raised to the rank of lieutenant.\nAfter the war La Verendrye returned to Canada. A\nlong peace followed, and, as there was little chance of advance in the army, he took up the life of a fur trader. He\nmarried Mademoiselle Dandonneau, the daughter of a\nFrench gentleman, and they made their home on an island\nin the St. Lawrence, near Three Rivers. There four sons\nwere born, who were to be the companions and helpers of\ntheir father in his great work of exploring the mysterious\ncountry of the Far West.\nEven as a boy La Verendrye had been filled with wonder\nat the tales of the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi\ncountry, which were told by the explorers and hunters\nwho came to his father's house. As he sat and listened\nby the great hearth fire of blazing logs, he had often dreamed\nthat some day he would go himself to these lands. Perhaps he might even visit the country beyond Lake Superior,\nwhere white men had never yet been.\nNow, in later life, with sons growing up around him, this\nold desire once more took possession of him. With it came\nthe ambition, also, to travel right across the unknown land\nand thus to win a way to that Western Sea which Carrier,\nChamplain, La Salle, and many another brave Frenchman\nhad sought \u2014 and sought in vain. Could he succeed\nwhere they had failed ? If he could, rich would be his own\nreward, but above all great would be the honor for France.\n SlETJR DE LA VERENDRYE.\nFrom the statue in the Parliament Buildings, Winnipeg\n 98 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthat he might discover. From the profits of the fur trade,\nhe must meet the expenses of his search for the Western\nSea as best he could.\nThis was a sorry arrangement for one whose sole thought\nwas to bring advantage and glory to his king and country.\nBut with great courage and patriotism, La Verendrye at\nonce spent all his own little fortune in fitting out his expedition. What more money he needed he obtained from\nthe selfish merchants of Montreal. Though they were\nwilling to spend notlung on finding the Western Sea, yet\nthey were very eager to share in the rich profits expected\nfrom the fur trade. So at last, with their help, La Verendrye was ready to start.\nPicture the scene on the river front of Montreal that\nhot June day in 1731 when the little band of adventurers\nsaid farewell. Their friends had flocked out through the\ncity gates to wish them Godspeed. There stood La Verendrye in the midst of the throng, his face flushed with\npride in the little expedition which he commanded. Now\nat last he was to have the chance of doing the great things\nof which he had dreamed in his boyhood. Beside him were\nthree of his sons, Jean, Pierre, and Francois. To their\nboundless delight, their father had decided that they were\nnow old enough to go with him. There too was La Jeme-\nraye, his nephew, a brave young officer who knew the\nIndians and their ways, and already had been as far west\nas the Mississippi.\nFifty experienced voyageurs formed the body of the\nexpedition. Hardy men they were, clad in moccasins and\n Their Friends Wish Them Godspeed\n Early Explorers 99\nfringed buckskins, their long hair bound back by gaily\ncolored handkerchiefs. Strong of arm and quick of eye,\nthey were accustomed with light hearts to face the ever\npresent hardships and perils of stream, forest, and lurking\nIndian. Now they stood ready beside the little fleet of\ngraceful birch canoes, which were deep laden with guns,\npowder and balls, bright colored blankets and cotton cloth,\nflints and steel, axes, tobacco, red war-paint, and beads of\nevery kind and hue. Such things as these the Indians\ncoveted, and for them would give the rich furs which were\nto reward the merchants who had given money to La\nVerendrye for his voyage.\nAnd now the sharp word of command is given. The\nmen quickly take their places and seize their paddles.\nLast to enter the canoes are La Verendrye and his lieutenants. Bon Voyage! call the people. Handkerchiefs\nflutter farewell. Cheer answers cheer. Chanting one of\ntheir quaint boat-songs the voyageurs bend to their work\nwith a will. At last they are off on their search for the\nfabled Western Sea. Will they discover it and return\ncrowned with honor and laden with the riches of China\nand Japan ? Or will they, too, like brave men before them,\nfind that the tale of a Sea of the West is but a will-of-the-\nwisp, luring them on and on and deluding them with hopes\never awakened but never satisfied ?\nTheir way lay up the broad and beautiful Ottawa, which\nChamplain had traversed more than a century before.\nThey passed the Long Sault, where Daulac and his heroes\nhad made their brave fight against the Iroquois. They\n IOO\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nlooked upon the lofty river cliffs, in future days to be\ncrowned with the stately Parliament Buildings of Canada.\nAt the Chaudiere Falls, like the Indians, they cast in an\noffering of tobacco to win for the voyage good luck from\nWindigo, the dread spirit who dwelt in the boiling waters.\nAt night they pitched their tents on the forest-edged river\nshore, enjoyed an evening meal of venison or wild fowl,\nsmoked, laughed, sang, and rested for the morrow. At\ndaybreak they would be up and away once more, paddling\nslowly upstream or toiling over rough and slippery portages\nwith heavy packs upon their shoulders.\nWhen they had crossed the height of land between the\nupper Ottawa and Lake Nipissing, it became easier work.\nSometimes they would rest from paddling and let the canoes\nRunning the Rapids.\ndrift idly with the current. Again, when the distant roar\ntold them that they were nearing rapids, instead of landing to portage they would shoot madly through the foaming waters, warded off from certain destruction on the rocks\n Early Explorers 101\nby the keen-eyed bowmen with their steel-shod poles.\nThen came the pleasant trip among the islands of northern\nLake Huron to the old fort of Michillimackinac. There,\nthey were rejoiced to see once more the golden fleur-de-lis ma\nof France, floating bravely above its walls.\nAfter a short rest they launched out on the next stage of\ntheir journey. This was along the north shore of Lake\nSuperior. Though it was August, the waters were icy\ncold. Bitter winds whipped across the deep, sullen waters\nand lashed them into foam-capped waves, that ever threatened to wreck the frail canoes. At night when they landed,\nthe shore was barren and desolate. Sturdy though they\nwere, the men began to murmur at the length and hardships of the journey. But the dauntless spirit of La Verendrye would brook no flinching, and, after a month of\nconstant peril from buffeting storms, they at last reached\nthe Grand Portage. This was about forty miles southwest of Fort Kaministikwia, where the city of Fort William\nnow stands. It had taken them seventy-eight days of toil\nto make the journey from Montreal, which we now accomplish with ease in less than two.\nThe party were now faced by the very difficult series of\nportages between Lake Superior and Rainy Lake, where\nLa Verendrye planned to build his first fort. But when\nthe command to advance was given, the murmuring of the\nmen broke out into open mutiny. Some thought with\nlonging of their far-off homes on the banks of the St. Lawrence and demanded to be led back again along the way\nby which they had come. Others feared that the unknown\n 102\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nregions to the west were infested with evil spirits and,\nstricken with terror, refused to advance. But there were\nsome who had been with La Jemeraye west to the Mississippi, and these, undismayed, laughed at the fears of their\nMaking a Portage.\nfellows. So at last it was arranged that La Jemeraye with\nhalf the force was to push on to Rainy Lake, while La\nVerendrye with the remainder should winter at Kaminis-\ntikwia.\nSo La Jemeraye pressed forward to the west, and before\nwinter set in he had built a fort at the point where Rainy\nLake flows into Rainy River. In honor of La Verendrye\nthis fort was called Fort St. Pierre. It was prettily situated in a meadow among groves of oak trees. In the\nlake there was an abundance of fish, and the forests were\nalive with game of all kinds. So a profitable trade with\n Early Explorers\n103\nthe Indian at once sprang up, and this enabled La Jemeraye next summer to send rich boatloads of furs to\nMontreal. Thus the merchants were satisfied, and their\nfurther support for the expedition was won.\nOn June 8th, 1732, exactly\none year after their departure from Montreal, La\nVerendrye resumed his journey towards the west. ' It\ntook a month of toilsome\ntravel to reach Fort St.\nPierre. There he won the\nloyalty of the Crees by\ngifts of powder and shot.\nSo when, after a little rest,\nin mid-July he set out for\nthe Lake of the Woods, the\ndelighted Indians honored\nhim by an escort of fifty of\ntheir gayest canoes.\nEarly in August this little\nfleet glided out upon the\nsmooth waters of the Lake\nof the Woods. Threading his way among hundreds of\nbeautiful islands, La Verendrye chose a peninsula running\nfar out into the lake as a place suitable both for trade and\ndefence. On it he built a fort, which he named Fort St.\nCharles in honor of the Governor, Charles, Marquis de\nA Cree Brave.\n 104\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nBeauharnois. By this time the flight of the wild fowl overhead, and the shell of ice forming on the lake, gave warning\nof approaching winter. The Indians began to scatter for\nthe season's trapping. La Verendrye himself remained at\nthe fort to look after the fur trade.\nIn the meanwhile, Jean, full of the love of adventure,\nwent on still farther to the north and west. His way lay\nthrough a land entirely new to the white man. It was in\nthe very heart of winter, and snow lay waist deep in the\nwoods. But the brave lad and his little band of twenty\npicked men tramped for one hundred and sixty miles\nthrough the forest and along the frozen Winnipeg River.\nAt last, where the river enters Lake Winnipeg, they found\na fine site for a fort. Immediately they set to work felling\ntrees, and by spring they had added another to La Veren-\ndrye's string of forts, leading as they hoped towards the\nWestern Sea. In honor of the French king's minister,\nthey called it Fort Maurepas.\nThus by the spring of 1733 La Verendrye and his sons\nhad carried out a great work. They had won their way\nthrough a most difficult country. They had established a\nchain of forts linking Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg\nand the vast western plains. They had added a great,\nrich land to the realm of France. For this, however, they\nreceived little honor or thanks Instead, there began\ndisappointments and misfortunes which were to try them\nmost keenly.\nThe merchants of Montreal refused to send further\nsupplies. The king would give no money. The explorer's\n Early Explorers\n105\nmen, unpaid, short of food, and wearied by their long\njourneys, were eager to turn back. La Verendrye alone\nremained firmly resolved never to abandon the search for\nthe Western Sea. Sick at heart, but determined while\nhealth and strength lasted to persevere in his quest, he\nmade the long, weary journey to Montreal. There he met\nthe merchants and by his eloquent tales of the wealth of\nthe West persuaded them at length to furnish the supplies\nwhich he so much needed.\nThen, hurrying back with all speed to Fort St. Charles,\nhe was met by the news that La Jemeraye, the ablest of\nhis lieutenants, was dead. His patience, his courage, his\nknowledge of the Indians, and above all his love for the\ngreat work, had made him invaluable to his leader. Without complaint he had borne every toil and hardship until\nworn out at last he had died at Fort Maurepas. And now\nthe expedition must go on without him.\nEven heavier, if possible, was the next blow that La\nVerendrye was called upon to bear. The Chippewas, who\nhad bought guns from the French, had fired on a party of\nSioux Indians, killing some of their number. \"Who fire\non us?\" the startled Sioux had called out, arid the Chippewas replied, \"The French !' The savage Sioux, who were\ncalled \"the tigers of the plains,\" now vowed to have vengeance on the French. Soon, by an evil chance, they came\nupon a small party under Jean, travelling east across the\nlake from Fort St. Charles.\nIt was a misty morning, and though the quick-sighted\nIndians had discovered the French, the latter were una-\n 106 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nware of the presence of their dangerous foes. While the\nlittle party landed to prepare their breakfast on the shore\nof an island, the Sioux stole quietly around to the other side.\nThere they beached their canoes and crept noiselessly\nthrough the woods. The French had laid aside their arms\nand were lying about, chatting and smoking, while the\nkettles boiled. Suddenly, with a terrible war cry, the\nSioux broke from the woods and rushed on their prey.\nCompletely surprised, the French were killed to a man.\nEven Father Aulneau, the gentle Jesuit priest who was\nwith them, was put to death with the rest.\nGrief-stricken at this great calamity, La Verendrye\nwrote to Maurepas, the king's minister in Paris: \"I have\nlost my son, the reverend Father, and my Frenchmen,\nmisfortunes which I shall lament all my life.\" But disasters served only to strengthen the explorer's resolve to\ngo on with his work. In the summer Louis, his youngest\nson, joined him. With three brave sons still left to help\nhim, he continued his search for the Western Sea.\nLa Verendrye now knew that the great lake of which\nOchagach, the old Indian, had told him was only the Lake\nof the Woods. The river flowing from it was the Winnipeg,\nand what he had called the Western Sea was notliing but\nLake Winnipeg. Though disappointed, the explorer was\nencouraged to continue his search by the oft repeated tales\ntold by the'Indians of a wonderful tribe called the Mandans.\nSome said they were white and dressed like himself. All\nagreed that they had horses and cattle, and tilled the land,\nand lived in fortified towns. But the thing that caught\n Early Explorers\nLa Verendrye's ear was that they lived far in the western\nland of the setting sun on the banks of a river that flowed\ninto the ocean. Here must lie the way to the Western Sea,\nand he determined to visit them.\nSo in 1738, leaving Pierre in charge of Fort St. Charles,\nand accompanied by Francois and Louis, he set out from\nFort Maurepas. Crossing Lake Winnipeg, they stemmed\nthe muddy current of the Red River till they came to the\nmouth of the Assiniboine. There, a little later, the French\nerected Fort Rouge, little thinking that the rude building on\nwhich they labored stood on ground where was to grow up\nthe city of Winnipeg, the gateway to the great North-West.\nFrom this point they ascended the Assiniboine to the\nspot where now stands Portage la Prairie. There La\nVerendrye constructed the strong Fort La Reine, named\nin honor of the queen of France. Here the Assiniboines\nsoon came to trade. Hitherto they had had only rough\nimplements of stone and bone, so their friendship was\nquickly won by gifts of awls, chisels, and knives of steel.\nWith this little prairie fortress completed, La Verendrye\nwas ready to push forward once more. On the morning\nof October 16th, 1738, the garrison of fifty-two soldiers\nand voyageurs was summoned to arms by the beat of the\ndrum. From them twenty were chosen to go with the\nexplorer on his journey to the land of the Mandans. To\neach was given powder and shot, an axe, a kettle, and a\nsupply of tobacco. Then, greeting the command to start\nwith a rousing cheer, the party stepped out on the long and\nperilous march.across the unknown waste of western plains.\nj\n 108 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nThe nip of autumn frost in the air grew keener as they\nascended the Souris River. J|\\In the hollows the stunted\ntrees were already bare of leaves. The ice film on the\nsloughs glittered like silver in the sun. Gophers, coyotes,\nbadgers, and countless herds of buffalo were the chief signs\nof life, with now and then a roving band of Indians.\nPresently, they were joined on their march by an entire\nvillage of six hundred Assiniboines. The Indians declared\ntheir intention of escorting their white friends to the forts\nof the Mandans. Though in later years horses were\nabundant on the plains, yet at this time neither the French\nnor the northern Indians possessed them. So the journey\nhad to be made on foot. La Verendrye was quite surprised to find that the Indians travelled in as good order\nas a band of trained soldiers. \"They march,\" he wrote,\n\"in three columns with skirmishers in front and a good\nrearguard, the old and the lame marching in the centre\nand forming the central column. If the skirmishers discover herds of buffalo they raise a cry. This is answered\nby the rearguard, and all the most active men join the vanguard to hem in the buffalo. Of these they secure a number and each takes what flesh he wants. The women and\ndogs carried all the baggage, the men being burdened only\nwith their arms.\"\nOn November 28th, after six weeks of travel, La Verendrye met the first party of Mandans. Their chief presented him with corn in the ear and a roll of Indian tobacco\nin token of friendship. Later, native dishes were brought\nfor him and his men. One resembled a pumpkin pie with\n hip^\nGO\nM\n\u00ab\nH\no\nto\n<\na\nto\n<\n left\nshm\nM$P^\n Early Explorers\n109\nno crust, and another was corn pounded to a paste and\ncooked in the camp-fire embers. After the banquet they\nsmoked the peace pipe and continued their journey.\nAt last the Mandan village came in sight. The French\nat once formed themselves in military array. Francois\nled them, bearing aloft the flag of France. As they drew\nnear they fired a crashing volley. This salute much impressed both the warriors, who flocked around the white\nmen, and the women and children, who clustered thick\non the walls to gain a sight of the strangers.\nIn many ways La Verendrye found the Mandans a\nwonderful tribe. They lived in six scattered villages.\nEach village was surrounded by a strong wooden wall\nwhich only cannon could batter down. At each corner\nwas a stout bastion, and, surrounding the entire fort, was\na great ditch fifteen feet deep and eighteen feet wide.\nWithin the walls the cabins were arranged in neat streets\nand squares, which were kept very clean. The houses were\nlarge and comfortable and were divided into several rooms,\nwith bunks around the walls for beds. Below were big\ncellars, useful for storing furs for trade and keeping dried\nmeat and grain for the winter. They had many sports,\nLa Verendrye tells us, among them one played with a ball\nwhich was probably the game of lacrosse.\nBut though the Mandans were an interesting folk, La\nVerendrye was keenly disappointed. They were not white,\nas the Indian tales had said. The river on which they lived\nflowed, not west, but south and east towards the Mississippi. In fact, it was the great Missouri, and they were\n no Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthe first white men to reach its upper waters. But for\nthis honor they cared little. They sought the Western\nSea, and of this the Mandans knew no more than other\nIndian tribes.\nSo in mid-December La Verendrye determined to return\nto Fort La Reine. Long before this, the friendly Assini-\nboines had gone back to their homes. The bitter winter\ncold of the western plains had now set in. The explorer\nhimself was ill, but he bravely set out at the head of his\nlittle force. As there was no fuel for a fire they had to\nspend the nights half frozen on the open prairie. Day by\nday, however, they struggled on to the north over the endless wilderness of snow. At last smoke, curling upwards\non the horizon, told them that they were nearing the\nAssiniboine country. Very welcome, indeed, was the\nshelter of the Indian tepees, and the warm greeting later\nof comrades at Fort La Reine. \"Never in my life,\" writes\nLa Verendrye, \"did I endure so much misery, pain, and\nfatigue as on that journey.\"\nTwo men had been left behind among the Mandans to\nlearn the language, and La Verendrye still had some hope\nthat they would bring back tidings of the Western Sea.\nEagerly, therefore, he listened, on their return to the story\nof how there had come to the Mandans from the even more\ndistant West a band of strange Indians on horseback. The\nchief of these Horse Indians had boasted that in his land\nthere were white men who wore beards. They prayed in\ngreat buildings to the Master of Life, holding in their hands\nbooks with leaves like the \"husks of Indian corn.\" They\nI'm;\n 0)\nc\nM\nI-H\ne$\n\u00bbP\n&D\nC\n\u25a0s\n\u25a0a\n1\niz;\nw\nft\n.w*tf\n138 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nfrom the Spaniards far to the south in Mexico, but the\nGovernors on Hudson Bay preferred to believe simply that\nHendry was lying. Then, too, perhaps, they feared that,\nif the Adventurers took for truth Hendry's tales of the great\nwealth inland and acted on his urgent advice, forts would\nbe built in the interior, and they would be sent to meet the\ndangers and hardships that he had braved, a possibility\nfrom which they shrank timidly back. So, when the\nfactors wrote home, for jealous and cowardly reasons they\ndiscredited Hendry's exploits and urged against his plans\nfor planting trading posts inland. And they were successful. The great Company gave him only the paltry\ngratuity of \u00a320 for his toil and his courage, and all permission to go again inland was firmly refused.\nAnthony Hendry was not the man to bear without protest\nsuch ingratitude and stupidity. He resigned from the Company's service and returned to England, where we lose sight\nof him. But the scoffing of that age has given place to the\nadmiration of this. Those who laughed at him then have\nthemselves become a laughing-stock for all time, while\nAnthony Hendry has taken his rightful place as the sturdy\nand fearless pioneer explorer of the vast inland empire of\nthe Upper Saskatchewan Valley.\n1\n SAMUEL HEARNE\n m\n CHAPTER VI\nSAMUEL HEARNE\nI. Hearne's First Journey\nBoom! Boom! Boom! Seven times the great guns of\nPrince of Wales Fort spoke out in thunderous salute. As\nthe smoke-clouds floated slowly\nupward, a little party emerged\nfrom the massive gateway of the\nfortress and set out north and west\nover the white waste of new-fallen\nsnow. Cheer after cheer followed\nthem from their friends, clustered\nthick on the ramparts, and anxious eyes watched until they became mere black specks in the\ndistance and finally were lost in\nthe immensity of the wilderness. Samuel Hearne.^\nTo-day you may still see the ruins of Fort .Prince of\nWales. In 1782 the French Admiral La Perouse captured\nit. Before he left he tried to blow it up, but failed. In\nplaces his mines shattered the upper walls, but, for the\nmost part, the huge, squared blocks of granite still stand\nsolidly in place, though the mortar is crumbling between.\nThe charred ends of rafters that once echoed to the wild\n141\n 142\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nsong and merry laughter of the fur traders still cling to\nthe walls of bastion and dwelling house, and the cannon\nthat once pealed forth a welcome to the incoming Company's ships lie dismantled, spiked, and silent. Thus\nLa Perouse left the fort, and thus it stands to-day \u2014 a\ndismal ruin on a desolate coast.\nBut it was not so on that sixth of November, 1769, when\nSamuel Hearne was sent forth with pomp of cannon to\nFort Prince of Wales (Churchill),\u2014 From Hearne's Account, 1799 Edition.\nwander on the Barren Lands in search of a fabled mountain of copper. Commenced in 1743, when war with\nFrance once again endangered the possessions of the\nEnglish Company on Hudson Bay, Fort Prince of Wales\nwas designed to be a veritable northern Gibraltar. It\nwas in the shape of a square, the sides of which were three\nhundred and sixteen feet long. The walls were of hammer-\n Early Explorers\n143\ndressed stone, thirty feet thick at the base and twenty\nfeet high. At each corner stood a stout bastion, so that\nattackers could be taken by flank fire, while over the walls\nfrowned forty-two guns which the Adventurers commanded\nthe Governor to \"keep\nconstantly loaded with\npowder and ball ready\nfor service during the\ntime the rivers are open.\"\nOver this stronghold,\nin strength second only\nto Quebec in all North\nAmerica, ruled the Governor, Moses Norton,\nlording it like a king over\nthe Company's men and\nover the Indians who\ncame to the fort for trade.\nThese were mostly Chipe-\nwyans who hailed from\nthe distant North-West.\nIn the summer they wandered out on the Barren\nLands \u2014 the tundra or Arctic prairies \u2014 living on the\ninnumerable herds of musk-ox and caribou that found\npasture there. The winter they spent in the wooded\ncountry to the south-west around Great Slave Lake, which\nthey called Athapuscow, which means \"the lake with the\nbeds of reeds.\"\nA Chdsf of the Chipewyans with Wampum Necklace.\n r\n144 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nMany a cargo of the richest pelts had these Chipewyans\nbrought down the Seal River to Churchill, for the farther\nnorth the thicker and finer the fur coat of the animals.\nBut even in the early days the traders had noted that\nthese Northern Indians, as they called them, also brought\ndown with them curious copper Weapons and tools. This\nmetal they seemed able to secure in abundance. Whence\ncould it come? The Indians, when questioned, pointed\nvaguely to the north-west and answered, \"There where\nthe sun sets in summer, many days' journey across the\ngreat northern plain, lies the Neetha-san-san-dazey \u2014\nthe Far-Off-Metal River. Near it is a whole mountain\nof copper. If the white men build a fort there and send\ntheir great winged canoes through the icy sea to the mouth\nof the river, they can fill them full with both the furs and\nthe metal which they covet.\"\nBut who would attempt the difficult and dangerous task\nof crossing the Barren Lands to find this Coppermine\nRiver? He must needs be both a bold and a resolute\nman who would face such an undertaking. The Governor's\nchoice fell on Samuel Hearne. Hearne was as yet only a\nyouth of twenty-four years, but his life had been crammed\nfull of rugged experience. At eleven he had gone to sea,\nand the sea was no tender school for boys of that age.\nAlmost immediately he had taken part in a stubborn\nsea fight. During the Seven Years' War he had served as a\nmidshipman in the Royal Navy. Then, when quiet peace\ntimes returned, still in search of adventure, he took service\nin a Hudson's Bay Company's ship. For two or three\n Early Explorers\n145\nyears he traded with the Indians and Eskimos along\nthe west coast of the Bay and thus acquired some valuable\nknowledge of the natives. Moreover, as a seaman, he was\ntrained to take the ship's reckonings, and thus could be\ntrusted to determine by accurate observations, the position\nof any lakes, rivers, or mines which he might discover.\nSpecial orders had been issued by the Governing Committee in London to send out the expedition, and so when\nthe party set forth on November 6th, 1769, Hearne was\namply equipped with everything he had deemed necessary\nfor the success of his journey. Powder and shot for\nhunting, tents and blankets for shelter, tobacco, hatchets,\nbeads, and other trinkets as presents for the Indians, were\npiled high on the sledges. Supplies enough for a trip of\ntwo years were taken along. Two other white men, one\na seaman and the other a landsman, went with the young\nofficer, while Chief Chawchinahaw and a small band of\nNorthern Indians acted as guides.\nIn the highest of spirits at the magnificent farewell\ngiven him at the fort, Hearne, under the guidance of\nhis Indians, struck off north-west, crossed the Seal River,\nand entered the Barren Grounds. Here hardships began.\nThe sledges on which they hauled their supplies were\nknocked to pieces on the bowlder-strewn ground, and wood\nwith which to repair them was scarce. Indeed, they were\nlucky if in that \"land of little sticks,\" as the Indians\ncalled it, they found a few stunted bushes from which\nthey could chop a little brush to boil their kettles with.\nEverywhere stretched the level, monotonous plain, dead\n f~\n146 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nand shrouded in an endless mantle of snow. Over it\nswept unhindered the winds from the north that made\nthe bitter winter cold pierce to the bone. Owing to the\nlack of wood for tentpoles and camp fires, Hearne says\nin the record he kept of his journey, \"It was scarcely\never in our power to make any other defence against the\nweather than by digging a hole in the snow down to the\nmoss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying\ndown in it with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.\"\nBut hardships Hearne had both the strength and the\ncourage to endure. It was the treachery of his Indian\nguides that proved his undoing. Early in the journey,\nhe became aware that Chawchinahaw was playing a\ndouble game. He did not really have the success of the\nundertaking at heart. He tried to discourage the explorer\nby telling him the most alarming tales of the difficulties\nthat lay in his path. When that did not deter Hearne in\nthe slightest, he had recourse to the weapon of hunger.\nThey had now entered a more wooded country to the\nwest where food was more plentiful, but the Northern\nIndians, leading the way, deliberately killed only sufficient game for themselves, while Hearne and his men,\ncoming after, could find scarcely enough to support them.\n\"A few partridges were all we could get to live on,\" said\nHearne, \"and these were so scarce that we seldom could\nkill as many as would amount to half a bird a day for\neach man, which, considering that we had nothing else\nfor the twenty-four hours was in reality next to nothing.\"\nThen the Northern Indians began to desert, always\n carrying off with them some of Hearne's powder and shot,\nand whatever else took their fancy. When he taxed Chaw-\nchinahaw openly with his treachery, the chief brazenly\nannounced his intention of going off too. Accordingly,\nHearne tells us: \"He and his crew set off towards the\nsouth-west, making the woods ring with their laughter,\nand left us to consider our unhappy situation, near two\nhundred miles from Prince of Wales Fort, all heavily\nladen and our strength and spirits greatly reduced by\nhunger and fatigue.\"\nThere was nothing to do but turn back. Full of disappointment, Hearne dejectedly faced about for the fort.\nFor mile after mile of the weary march they kept on,\ntugging stubbornly at the heavily laden sledges. They\nwere now favored by a spell of fine weather, and, partridge\nproving plentiful, the danger of hunger came to an end.\n\"On December nth,\" Hearne writes, \"we arrived safe at\nPrince of Wales Fort, to my own great mortification and\nto the no small surprise of the Governor, who had\nplaced great confidence in the abilities and conduct of\nChawchinahaw.''\nII. Hearne''s Second Journey\nBut Hearne was not the man to fold his hands in defeat.\nPreparations for a second attempt were at once begun,\nand by February 23rd, 1770, he was ready to start again.\nThis time he went without any white companions and\ntook only three Chipewyans and two Southern Indians\nor Crees. No cannon now roared out a salute in honor\n 148\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nof his departure, for they were buried deep in the midwinter snows that crowned the battlements; but three\nhearty British cheers from the garrison gave Godspeed\nto the adventurer.\nInstead of crossing the Seal River, Hearne this time\nascended it to the west until he came to Lake Shee-than-nee,\nor High Hill Lake. Here, where there was an abundance\nof fish, they resolved to camp until the wild geese came\nnorth in the spring. They pitched their moose-leather\nIndian tent, with the door to the south, far out on a point\nthat commanded a beautiful view of the wooded shores\nof the lake. Then, with the snow and moss cleared away\ndown to the rock and the floor strewn with odorous pine\nbranches, they made themselves snug round their camp\nfire, and cutting holes in the ice of the lake so that they\ncould spread a net by passing it with a pole from hole to\nhole, they secured plenty of fine pike and trout to support\nthem.\nBut suddenly, on April ist, greatly to their surprise,\nthe nets yielded no fish. Angling through the ice proved\nequally unsuccessful. A trying time followed. Once for\nthree days they had \"no refreshments except a pipe of\ntobacco and a draft of water.\" Then they had luck and\nshot two deer. Whenever they thus obtained food the\nIndians gorged themselves, feasting with no thought of\nthe future. \"Indeed,\" Hearne says, \"it was either all\nfeasting or all famine. Once for near seven days we\ntasted not a mouthful of anything except a few cranberries, water, scraps, of old leather, and burnt bones. I\n Early Explorers\n149\nhave frequently seen the Indians examine their wardrobe,\nwhich consisted chiefly of skin clothing, and consider\nwhat part could be best spared; sometimes a piece of an\nold, half-rotten deer skin and at others a pair of old shoes\nwere sacrificed to alleviate extreme hunger.\"\nAt the end of April they moved north towards the Barren\nLands, and by the middle of May geese, swans, ducks, gulls,\nand other birds of passage were flocking northward in\ninfinite numbers, filling the air with their cries. There\nwas now an abundance of food, but often no fuel with\nwhich to cook it, wood being lacking and the moss being\ntoo wet to burn. Thus they were frequently reduced to\neating in its raw state fish, fowl, venison, and even the\nevil-smelling flesh of the musk-ox.\nThey had neglected to bring poles for their tents from\nthe wooded country and now were compelled to spend\nday and night in the open under the most trying conditions\nof alternate rain and snow, and thawing and freezing.\n\"But notwithstanding these hardships,\" writes the indomitable Hearne, \"we continued in perfect health and\ngood spirits.\"\nEarly in June, with the melting of the snow, they threw\naway both their snowshoes and sledges and took all their\ngoods on their backs.. This was hard work. Hearne\ndescribes his own burden. It consisted of the quadrant\nand its stand, a trunk containing books, papers, and a\ncompass, a large bag filled with his wearing apparel, a\nhatchet, knives, files, and other such things intended for\npresents for the natives. His awkward load weighed\nj\n 150 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nmore than sixty pounds, but he staggered sturdily on\nwith it day after day, often for twenty miles over the\nrough ground of the plains.\nOn June 20th they reached the Kazan River, flowing\nnorth into Yath-kyed or White Snow Lake. Here they\nfound a band of Northern Indians in canoes, busily spearing the caribou as they swam across the river, the animals\nbeing easily overtaken while in the water. The Indians\nferried Hearne's party across the river and informed him\nthat there were other rivers ahead that could not be forded.\n\"This induced me,\" he says, \"to purchase a canoe at the\neasy rate of a single knife, the full value of which did not\nexceed one penny.\"\nThey were now travelling north-west towards Lake Du-\nbawnt and were in the heart of the Barren Lands. Barren\nindeed they were of trees, but not barren of beauty or of\nlife. Everywhere plant life was struggling for victory\nover the rugged rocks. The surfaces of granite boulders\nand the more exposed tops of the low rises and hills were\nstained by lichens black and gray, lilac and olive green,\nbrown and scarlet and white, till they flamed and glittered\nin the sun. Everywhere in the less exposed places were\nthe mosses, a deep, rich, living carpet of a thousand tints\nand hues and wayward patterns. The powdered rocks,\nwashed down by rain into the ponds and lakes, had formed\nmud flats where a lush growth of grass made fair green\nmeadows. Everywhere, too, was a fairy growth of flowers.\nTiny cranberry and crowberry and cloudberry shrubs\nwere there, struggling to bear aloft a burden of fruit heavier\n Early Explorers 151\noften than the plants themselves. Scarlet arctous, white\nledums, purple vaccinium, and mairanias were scattered\nand massed far as the eye could see. Nor was the higher\nanimal life absent from the scene. The echoing calls of\ngulls and loons fell upon Hearne's ear. On the slopes\nground squirrels sunned themselves, and through the land\nwhite wolf and wolverine prowled seeking their prey.\nHuge herds of clumsy musk-ox lumbered across the plain,\nand the restless caribou or reindeer pastured as in a vast\npark, travelling always in the face of the wind and changing their course with the shifting breeze. Sometimes\nthey were in groups of scores or hundreds; sometimes in\nmighty herds that presented a forest of tossing antlers\nthat reached to the far horizon. And Hearne, of all\nwhite men, was the first to gaze on this magnificent panorama of the Barren Lands \u2014 barren of man and of his\nhandiwork, but full of nature's beauty and of nature's life.\nOn through this wild scene, strange to his eyes after the\ncultivated landscape of England, wandered Hearne with\nhis Indians, carrying their packs and their little canoe.\nAt the end of August they reached and crossed the Du-\nbawnt River north of the Lake. As the rivers all ran\nnorthward and the Indians wished to travel from east to\nwest in a land that supplied no wood for rafts or canoes,\nthey had always to carry these vessels with them. \"They\nare sometimes obliged,\" Hearne says, \"to carry them one\nhundred and fifty or two hundred miles without having\noccasion to make use of them, yet at times they cannot\ndo without them.\"\n m\n152 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nThe explorer now became aware that his Northern\nIndians were no longer making steadily for the north-west,\nbut were simply drifting about from place to place after\nthe caribou herds with the rest of the Indians. When\nquestioned they sullenly answered: \"The summer is far\nspent. We cannot this year reach the Coppermine. It\nis best to pass the winter in the great woods to the southwest. Then next year we can march north to the mountain of copper.\"\nOf necessity Hearne had to consent. As they travelled\nslowly south-west other bands of Indians joined them,\nuntil a village of seventy tepees and upwards of six hundred\npeople was formed. \"Our encampment,\" Hearne narrates,\n\"had the appearance of a small town, and in the morning,\nwhen we began to move, the whole ground seemed to be\nalive with men, women, children, and dogs. Yet the deer\nwere so numerous that the Indians not only killed as many\nas were sufficient for our large number, but often several\nonly for the skins, marrow, and tongues, and left the\ncarcasses to rot or to be devoured by the wolves, foxes,\nand other beasts of prey.\"\nThen, on August 12th, a great calamity befell the explorer. He was making an observation of the sun to\ndetermine his latitude. Leaving the quadrant standing,\nhe sat down to eat dinner, when a sudden gust of wind\ntoppled the precious instrument over. The ground was\nstony, and the quadrant was shattered into fragments.\nHearne stood in deep dismay. He could now no longer\ntrace his journey with accuracy nor surely locate the\n Early Explorers\n153\nCoppermine, even if he should reach it. He must go\nback to the fort.\nIt was a bitter disappointment to swallow. Reluctantly\nHearne turned once again towards Fort Prince of Wales,\nbut all the stubborn pluck of his race was aroused. He\nwould try again and again. Even if it cost him his life he\nwould reach the Far-Off-Metal River for which he had\ntwice set out.\nThe very next day Hearne was plundered of most of\nhis goods by a party of Northern Indians. The white\nman, having no longer the wherewithal to reward his\nfollowers, they now became insolent and did but very\npoor service. Travelling down the west side of Dubawnt\nLake, they then turned south-east towards the Churchill\nRiver. In September cold weather set in. The Northern\nIndians had been joined by their wives, who prepared\nwarm winter suits of skins for them, but they selfishly\nrefused to allow the squaws to perform this service for\nHearne and his Crees, who consequently suffered miserably\nfrom the cold.\n\"In this forlorn state we continued our course to the\nsouth-east,\" Hearne tells us. Then suddenly their fortunes\nchanged. On the evening of September 20th, there loomed\nthrough the dusk a party of strange Indians, quickly advancing. At their head stalked a giant, Matonabbee.\nSix feet tall and straight as an arrow, he was a prince\namong Red Men, and he was the friend of the white fur\ntraders. He was the son of a Northern Indian and a\nSouthern slave woman, but when his father died the\n 154\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nGovernor had adopted him as his son, and thus for several\nyears he had lived at the fort with the English, whose\nlanguage he partly knew. He had travelled far to the\nsouth with the Crees, far to the west into the land of the\nAthabaska Indians, and far to the north into the Barren\nLands with his own folk. He had acted as the Company's\nmessenger and ambassador to these peoples. All their\nlanguages he spoke with ease, and among all the tribes\nhe was a man of power.\nMatonabbee quickly learned the forlorn adventurer's\nstory. He at once clothed him in a warm suit of\notter skins and prepared a great banquet in his honor.\nLong into the night the feasting and singing and dancing\ncontinued, while Hearne and Matonabbee conversed with\neach other.\n\"White man,\" inquired the Indian, \"will you search\nyet again for the Mountain of Copper ?\"\n\"Surely I will, if I can only find better guides,\" Hearne\nreplied.\nThen rising to his full height the chief said: \"I, Matonabbee, have journeyed to the Far-Off-Metal River, and\nif the Great Chief at the fort will consent, I myself will\nguide thee thither.\"\nHearne was delighted. With a splendid guide like\nMatonabbee he felt sure of success. He assured the\nIndian that Governor Norton would accept his offer and\nprovide all supplies for the journey.\nAs they travelled on towards the fort, they discussed\nplans for the expedition. Matonabbee, strangely enough,\n Early Explorers\ni55\nattributed most of Hearne's hardships to the absence of\nwomen. \"When all the men are heavy laden,\" he said,\n\"they can neither hunt nor travel to any considerable\ndistance, and in case they meet with success in hunting\nwho is to carry the produce of their labor? Women were\nmade for labor,\" he added. \"One of them can carry or\nhaul as much as two men can do. They also pitch our\ntents, make and mend our clothing and, in fact, there is\nno such thing as travelling any considerable distance or\nfor any length of time in this country without their assistance. Women,\" said he again, \"though they do\neverything, are maintained at trifling expense, for, as\nthey always stand cook, the very licking of their fingers\nin scarce times is sufficient for their existence.\" Such,\nindeed, was the wretched condition of women among the\nIndians. They were the burdenbearers and slaves of the\nmen.\nOn November 25 th, Hearne reached Prince of Wales\nFort, full of his project for a new expedition. Three\ndays later Matonabbee also arrived. As Hearne had expected, the Governor fell in with their plans, and the stores\nof the fort were thrown wide open for equipping the party.\nIII. Hearne's Third Journey\nIn spite of the hardships he had suffered, Hearne did\nnot linger to enjoy the ease of fife at the fort, even though\nit was in the heart of the winter. In less than two weeks,\nsuch was his pluck and determination, all was in readiness\nfor a start, and on December 7th, 1770,- Hearne, with\n 156 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nMatonabbee as his guide, set forth for the third time for\nthe distant Coppermine River.\nThis time, on the advice of Matonabbee, they took a\nmore southerly course to avoid the Barren Lands where\ngame and shelter at that season were difficult to secure.\nAt the outset privation was again encountered. One of\nMatonabbee's caches, on which they had depended for\nfood, was found rifled by another band of Indians. So\nthey had to tighten their belts and press onward. For\nthree days they subsisted on tobacco and snow water.\nThe cold was intense. From morning till night they\nmarched on doggedly, hauling the heavy sledges. The\nIndians, in spite of all, maintained their cheerfulness, but\nit was Christmas time and Hearne, in his bleak surroundings, could not but think fondly of home. \"I could not\nrefrain,\" he says, \"from wishing myself again in Europe,\nif it had been only to have had an opportunity of alleviating\nthe extreme hunger that I suffered with the refuse of the\ntable of one of my acquaintances.\"\nOn the last day of the year they reached Nueltin Lake.\nHere there was plenty of fish, and here, too, they found\nthe wives and children of many of the Indians of the party,\ntarrying till the men returned from the fort. There was\nnow no lack of women to do the drudgery, to which Matonabbee had attributed the failure of previous attempts.\nThe great Chief himself had no fewer than eight wives,\nwhich was quite in accord with his power and dignity.\nEarly in February they crossed the Kazan River and\ntraversed the northern end of Lake Kasba on the ice,\n*mm 1\n Early Explorers\nand, by the 2nd of March, they were on the shores of Whol-\ndaia or Pike Lake, the source of the Dubawnt River. Here\nthey encountered a band of Northern Indians, who had\nlived all winter in ease and plenty by catching deer in a\npound. Hearne gives an interesting account of this method\nof hunting. \"When the Indians design to impound deer,\"\nhe says, \"they look out for one of the paths in which a\nnumber of them have trod, and which is observed to be\nstill frequented by them. When these paths cross a lake,\na wide river, or a barren plain, they are found to be much\nthe best. The pound is built by making a strong fence\nwith brushy trees. I have seen some that were not less\nthan a mile round and am informed that there are others\nstill more extensive. The entrance of the pound is not\nlarger than a common gate, and the inside is so crowded\nwith small counter-hedges as very much to resemble a\nmaze, in every opening of which they set a snare made\nwith thongs of deerskin, well twisted together, which\nare amazingly strong. A row of small brushwood is then\nstuck up in the snow on each side of the entrance. These\npoles or brushwood are generally placed at the distance\nof fifteen or twenty yards from each other and ranged in\nsuch a manner as to form two sides of a long, acute angle,\ngrowing gradually wider in proportion to the distance\nthey extend from the entrance of the pound, which sometimes is not less than two or three miles, while the deer's\npath is exactly along the middle between the two rows\nof brushwood. When the Indians see any deer going\nthat way men, women, and children walk along under\n 158 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\ncover of the woods till they get behind them, then step\nforth to open view and proceed towards the pound in the\nshape of a crescent. The poor, timorous deer, finding\nthemselves pursued and at the same time taking the two\nrows of brushy poles to be two ranks of people stationed\nto prevent their passing on either side, run straight forward in the path till they get into the pound. The Indians\nthen close in and block up the entrance. The deer being\nthus enclosed, the women and children walk round the\npound to prevent them from breaking or jumping over the\nfence, while the men are employed in spearing such as are\nentangled in the snares, and shooting with bows and\narrows those which remain loose in the pound.\" Hearne\nthought this method of hunting, rather unsportsmanlike, and he greatly deplored the wastefulness of the\nIndians, who often killed far more than they could possibly\nconsume.\nThroughout March they wandered westward from Lake\nWholdaia, and by April 8th, 1771, they had reached what\nthe Indians called Little Fish Hill Lake. At this point\nMatonabbee resolved to turn northward. For ten days,\nhowever, they lingered to prepare a good supply of dried\nmeat, for with the spring the deer were beginning to travel\nnorth-east from the woods to the Barren Lands. They\nalso took care to secure a good supply of staves of birch\nwood, seven or eight feet long, for tent poles for use on\nthe northern plains in summer and for snowshoe frames\nthe next winter. At the same time they laid in a supply\nof other timber and of birch bark for building canoes.\n^ \u2022\n Early Explorers\nTurning north, by May 2nd they reached Lake Clowey,\nwhose waters apparently ran westward into Great Slave\nLake. This seemed to be a well-known meeting place for\nthe Indians, for other parties continually joined them, all\nsupplied with materials for building canoes and journeying through the Barren Lands. Indeed, Lake Clowey,\nbeing on the edge of the Barrens, was an excellent rendezvous for this purpose.\nFor more than a fortnight they lingered here, and Hearne\nhad a splendid chance of observing some of the Indian\ncustoms. One struck him as very amusing. If any\nwarrior coveted any piece of property or even the wife\nof another, he would offer to wrestle him for them. Hearne\nwas the witness of many a bloodless but spirited contest.\n\"I never knew any of them receive the least hurt in\nany of these encounters,\" he tells us. \"The whole business consists in hauling each other about by the hair of\nthe head. They are seldom known either to strike or\nkick one another. It is not uncommon for one of them\nto cut off his hair and to grease his ears immediately before\nthe contest begins. This, however, is done privately, and\nit is sometimes truly laughable to see one of the parties\nstrutting about with a great air of importance and calling\nout 'Where is he? Why does he not come out?' when\nthe other will bolt out with a clean-shorn head and greased\nears, rush on his antagonist, seize him by the hair and,\nthough perhaps a much weaker man, soon drag him tot\nthe ground, while the stronger is not able to lay hold on\nhis opponent.\"\n 160 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nThe names of the children were also curious. The boys\nwere usually called by their parents by the name of some\nplace, season, or animal. \"The names of the girls,\"\nHearne says, \"are usually taken from some part or property of a marten, such as the White Marten, the Black\nMarten, the Summer Marten, the Marten's Head, the\nMarten's Foot, the Marten's Heart, and the Marten's\nTail. Matonabbee's eight wives were all called Martens.\"\nMany of the savages at Lake Clowey, when they learned\n I that Hearne and Matonabbee were bound for the Coppermine River, joined them in order to strike a blow at their\nhereditary enemy the Eskimos. Hearne did not like this\ntransformation of his peaceful exploring expedition into\na bloodthirsty war party, but Matonabbee was as relentless as the rest in his determination to attack the hated\nfoe, and so Hearne could do nothing. They simply laughed\nhim to scorn as a coward when he remonstrated with them,\nand set about preparing wooden shields. These were\nabout three-quarters of an inch thick, two feet broad,\nand three feet long, and were intended for protection\nagainst the Eskimo arrows.\nThe ardor of war now spurred on the party. At Lake\nPeshew they left most of the women and all the children\nbehind, so that they could push more rapidly northward.\n\"We no sooner began our march,\" Hearne narrates, \"than\nthe squaws and children set up a most woeful cry and continued to yell piteously as long as we were within hearing.\nThis mournful scene had so little effect on my party that\nthey walked away laughing and as merry as ever.\"\n Early Explorers\nTheir progress now was rapid. They crossed two large\nlakes on the ice \u2014 Artillery and Clinton-Golden Lakes,\nin all probability \u2014 and on June 21st Hearne noticed\nthat the sun did not set. They were at last within the\nArctic Circle. Next day they came to a river bearing the\nponderous name of Conge-ca-tha-wha-chaga, where they\nmet a new tribe, the Copper Indians, assembled as usual\nto kill the deer as they swam across the river.\nThe Copper Indians proved very hospitable. They\nprepared a great feast for the strangers, and Hearne smoked\nthe peace calumet with them and gave them such gifts as\nhe could spare from his scanty store. They expressed\nunbounded delight at the prospect of having the white\nmen build a fort in their country. Hearne, indeed, was\nthe first European they had ever seen. \"It was curious\nto see,\" he says, \"how they flocked about me and expressed\nas much desire to examine me from top to toe as a naturalist\nwould a strange animal. They, however, found me to be\na perfect human being except in the color of my hair and\neyes; the former, they said, was like the stained hair of .a\nbuffalo's tail and the latter, being light, were like those of\na guii.\" IlifBR Jr f $:\nOn July 2nd, their numbers swelled by many of the Copper\nIndians, they set off north-west overland through the Stony\nMountains, for their goal, the Coppermine River. The\nway was*rugged, and on the 6th a great fall of snow nearly\nburied them in the cave where they had sought shelter.\nBut a thaw took away the snow as quickly as it had come,\nand in a day or two they were tormented by myriads of\n fi\u00a3dt\u00a3*.\n162 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nmosquitoes as they went on again. At a place called\nGrizzled Bear Hill the traveller was astounded to find\ngreat boulders rolled from their beds and the earth plowed\nup in every direction by the huge bears in their search\nfor ground squirrels. Evidently the grizzlies came from\nthe woods to the westward to live on this prey in the\nsummer.\nAt last, on July 13th, 1771, Hearne stood on the bank\nof the Far-Off-Metal River. As he gazed on its waters\nhe was profoundly disappointed. The Indians had told\nof a mighty river up which ships might sail for many miles\nfrom its mouth. Instead it was only a stream one hundred\nand eighty yards wide, full of shoals and rapids, and scarcely\nnavigable even for canoes.\nBut the Indians had forgotten all about Hearne and\nhis mountain of copper. They were now within striking\ndistance of the Eskimos, and the lust for blood was upon\nthem. Sending their spies down towards the mouth of\nthe river, they hunted the deer and cooked enough venison\nto do for some days, so that when they neared the Eskimos\nthey would need to light no telltale fires. When the spies\nreturned with the news that near the mouth of the river\non the west side there were five tents of the enemy, the\nIndians were highly elated. They at once formed their\nplan of attack. Though they outnumbered the Eskimos\ntwo to one, they designed to steal up cautiously on them\nnext night and slaughter them while they slept.\nCrossing the river, they busied themselves with warlike preparations. Guns, spears, and shields were over-\n An Eskimo Family\n L\n Early Explorers\nhauled and put in good order. Each Indian painted his\nbuckler with some figure, the sun or the moon, a bird\nor a beast of prey, or the pictures of imaginary beings\nwhom they thought to dwell in the different elements of\nearth, sea, and air. On these beings the warriors relied\nfor success in the battle.\nWinding their stealthy way northward, always seeking\nthe cover of the rocks and the hills, the Indians reached a\npoint within two hundred yards of the Eskimo tents.\nHere they lay quiet in ambush while the last preparations\nwere made. \"These chiefly consisted,\" Hearne tells us,\n\"in painting their faces, some all black, some all red, and\nothers with a mixture of the two.\"\nThus rendered hideous, the Indians stole forward. It\nwas one o'clock in the morning, but the Arctic sun hung\nred in the heavens and there was plenty of light for the\nfrightful deed. The Eskimos were sound asleep, and the\nIndians crept up to the very eaves of the tents without\nbeing discovered. Then the air was rent by a chorus of\nterrible yells that told the poor Eskimos their dreaded\nfoe was upon them.\nTo the rear stood Hearne, a helpless and horrified spectator of the awful scene. \"It was shocking beyond description,\" he tells us. \"The poor, unhappy victims were\nsurprised in the midst of their sleep and had neither time\nnor power to make any resistance. Men, women, and\nchildren ran out of their tents and endeavored to make\ntheir escape, but thev Indians having possession of all the\nland side, to no place could they fly for shelter. One\n 164 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nalternative only remained, that of jumping into the river;\nbut as none of them attempted it, they all fell a sacrifice\nto Indian barbarity. The shrieks and groans of the poor,\nexpiring wretches were truly dreadful.\" With tears in\nhis eyes and a sob in his throat, Hearne turned away.\nFifty years later Sir John Franklin visited the scene of\nthis massacre and found the bleaching bones of the Eskimos still strewing the ground. Long did the natives\nof the district remember this incident in the immemorial\nfeud between Indians and Eskimos, and, in remembrance\nof it, the spot where the rushing and foaming current of\nthe Coppermine takes its last leap before reaching the\nsea is suitably called to the present day Bloody Falls.\nAfter the massacre followed plunder and wanton destruction. The Indians seized all the copper utensils for\ntheir own use, but the tents and tent poles were cast into\nthe river, all the stores of dried salmon and musk-ox were\ndestroyed, and the stone kettles were broken to pieces.\nAfar off, on the opposite bank of the river, another band\nof Eskimos, who had not been discovered by the spies,\nhad been roused by the screams of their fellows to be the\nwoeful spectators of the scene of death and ruin. The\nbreadth and swiftness of the river protected these survivors from attack, but the Indians, in derision, climbed\na hill and forming in a circle clashed their spears and shields\ntogether, uttered war-cries of victory, and continually\ncalled out, \"Tima! Tima!\" the Eskimo words for\n\"What cheer!\" Then they sat down, and, in full sight\nof their enemies, made a meal of the Arctic salmon that\n\u2014\n abound in those waters. So numerous were these fish\nbelow the falls that, with a light pole armed with a few\nspikes, they could bring up at a jerk from the water from\ntwo to four fish.\nFrom the high ground where he stood Hearne could see\nthe ocean a few miles to the northward. He descended\nthe stream to its mouth and, on July 17th, 1771, stood on\nthe shore of the Arctic Sea. Along the coast there was a\nthread of open water upon which the sun's rays shimmered\nand danced, but beyond it to the horizon, north, east, and\nwest, gleamed the unbroken white of the ice pack.\nThis was a second keen disappointment. Not only was\nthe Coppermine River unnavigable, but the way to its\nmouth was blocked by the Arctic ice. Would the mountain of copper prove just as delusive as the other tales\nof the Indians? Hearne soon got his answer. Having\nerected a landmark and taken formal possession of the\nlonely land for the Hudson's Bay Company, he turned\nagain inland to search for the copper deposits. Led by\nhis Indians he reached one of the mines after a walk of\nabout thirty miles south-east from the river's mouth. It\nwas a desolate scene \u2014 nothing but a vast jumble of rocks,\nrent this way and that as though by a mighty earthquake.\nThe Indians had said that the hills were entirely composed\nof the metal, all in lumps like pebbles and easy to carry\naway, but a search of four hours brought to light only\none piece of any considerable size. This weighed four\npounds. Hearne took it back to the fort, and the Hudson's Bay Company still have it in their possession. But\nmm*\nBSWHS**\n 166 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nit was clear that no great mine of wealth lay here for the\nMerchant Adventurers. The mountain of copper was\nonly an Indian myth.\nThe Indians themselves were not at all at a loss to explain the disappearance of the copper. They said that\nmany, many years ago their ancestors had been led to\nthe mountain of copper by a very old woman, and they\ncould then get as much of the metal as they wished. But\nthe old woman became greatly displeased with them and\nsat down on the ground, saying: \"I shall sink into the\nearth and take all the copper with me.\" The Indians\nmocked her and went away. Next summer when they\nreturned she was still there, but she had sunk into the\nground up to her waist. The next year when they came\nback she had entirely disappeared, and with her had gone\nall the copper except the scattered fragments found still\namong the broken rocks. Such was their superstitious tale in\nexplanation of the disappearance of the mountain of copper.\nHearne's mission was now accomplished. On this third\ntrip he had travelled more than a thousand miles. It\nremained to make the long journey back to Fort Prince\nof Wales. On July 25th, wearied and footsore from\nforced marching, the party rejoined the squaws and the\nchildren. Game was plentiful, and they moved slowly\nsouthward. At this time occurred one of the saddest\nincidents of Indian life. One of the Indian's wives had\nbeen sick for a long time and was no longer able to keep\nup with the party. So she was left behind to perish.\nThis was in accordance with the Indian custom, though\n it was not always followed. The friends and relations,\nleaving some victuals and water and, if possible, a little\nfirewood, would tell the sick one the path they were going\nto follow and then, covering him or her up with deerskins,\nwould say farewell and walk away crying. Sometimes\nthose so abandoned recovered and rejoined the tribe, but\nmore often they met a lingering death by starvation. This\npoor woman caught up with the party three different\ntimes, but then, completely worn out, she dropped behind, and no one went back to help her.\nBy October, winter was closing in with gales of snow\nand hard frosts. For this season, the Indians announced\ntheir intention of going to the country of the Athapuscow\nIndians to hunt for moose, beaver, and marten, and, on\nDecember 24th, Hearne stood on the northern shore of\nAthapuscow or Great Slave Lake. From the Indian\naccounts he judged it correctly to be about three hundred\nmiles in length. Here he spent his second Christmas in\nthe wilds, alone with the savages, seven hundred miles\nfrom the nearest outpost of civilization at Churchill River.\nOf food there was this time a rude abundance, and though\nthe days were short, with the sun in its circuit above the\nsouthern horizon scarcely rising at highest halfway up\nthe trees, yet the Aurora Borealis flaming and rustling\noverhead, together with the moon and the stars, made\nnight almost like day. \"It was frequently so light all\nnight,\" Hearne says, \"that I could see to read a very\nsmall print. The Indians make no difference between\nnight and day when they are hunting the beaver, but\nm^UMJBM\n 168 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nthose nocturnal fights are always found insufficient for\nthe purpose of hunting deer or moose.\"\nEarly in January they crossed Great Slave Lake on the\nice to its southern shore. \"The scene was agreeably\nchanged,\" Hearne records, \"from an entire jumble of\nrocks and hills to a fine level country in which there was\nnot a hill to be seen or a stone to be found. Buffalo,\nmoose, and beaver were very plentiful, and we could discover the tracks of martens, foxes, and other animals of\nthe fur kind.\" Hearne gives an accurate description of\nthe great American bison, which thus is proved to have\nranged as far north of the prairies as Great Slave Lake.\nOf the amazing strength and activity of these ponderous\nbeasts he says, \"When they fly through the woods from\na pursuer they frequently brush down trees as thick as a\nman's arm and, be the snow ever so deep, such is their\nstrength and agility that they are enabled to plunge through\nit faster than the swiftest Indian can run on snowshoes.\"\nOn January 16th they reached the \"Grand Athapuscow'1\nor Slave River. \"The woods about this river,\" Hearne\nnarrates, \"particularly the pines and the poplars, are the\ntallest and stoutest I have seen in any part of North\nAmerica. Some of this wood is large enough to make\nmasts for the largest ships that are built.\"\nWandering in this level woodland realm throughout the\nwinter, they turned east in the spring. March found them\nonce again in a country of hills and rocks. April saw\nsigns of spring with the waterfowl streaming northward\noverhead. In May the snow and ice went with a rush,\n Early Explorers\nand canoes were built for fording the streams of the Barren\nLands. On the last day of May they crossed the Kazan\nRiver, and on June 30th, 1772, Hearne was welcomed\nback like a conqueror at Fort Prince of Wales. \"I arrived\nhi good health,\" he says, \"having been absent eighteen\nmonths and twenty-three days on this last expedition;\nbut from my first setting out with Chawchinahaw it was\ntwo years, seven months, and twenty-four days.\"\nThe Company of Adventurers were not unmindful of\nthe services Hearne had performed. Two years later\nthey chose him, as the most enterprising of their traders,\nto found the Company's first inland post at Cumberland\nHouse on the Lower Saskatchewan, and, in 1775, he was made\nGovernor of Fort Prince of Wales on the Churchill River.\nHearne's fame, however, is that, not of the fur trader,\nbut of the explorer. He had discovered many new rivers\nand lakes; he had pierced to the very heart of the Barren\nLands, and many of the regions he then traversed have\nnever since been pressed by the feet of civilized man. ft He\nhad won his way to his goal, the Coppermine River, and\nof all white men was the first to reach the Arctic Ocean\nfrom the interior of America. His was the honor of finding Great Slave Lake and Slave River, and being the first\nto reach the basin of that mighty river system that Mackenzie was later to trace to its mouth. His journeys had\nproved at least two things. A North-West Passage through\nNorth America to the Western Sea did not exist. There\nmight be a channel to the north of the solid continent,\nbut if so it was so long and so ice-blocked as to be of no\n 170\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\"\nuse as a trade route. The Western Sea itself, if it were\nnot an idle fancy, must lie, as La Verendrye had found,\nmany hundreds of miles farther to the westward than he\nhad been, and not but a few days' journey, as many had\nclaimed, because no Indians were met with who ever had\nbeen to that ,sea. On the contrary, all said that still\nother tribes lived towards the sunset, where there was\na high Mountain chain beyond which \"all rivers run to\nthe westward.\" Hearne himself rightly claims that his\njourneys had \"put a final end to all disputes concerning\na North-West Passage through Hudson Bay,\" while the\njournal which he wrote of his travels remains to the present\nday in many respects the most authoritative work on the\nFar North of Canada.\nRuins of Fort Prince of Wales.\n Early Explorers\n171\nA short walk from the ruins of Fort Prince of Wales\nbrings one to a little rocky inlet called Sloop Cove. There,\ncarved by his own hand in the face of the cliff, may still\nbe traced the words, \"SI Hearne, July ye 1, 1767.\" This\nsimple legend preserves in the rock of that rugged land\nthrough which he wandered the name of one of the most\nhardy and intrepid explorers of the Great North-West.\n\u25a0\u00ab*\n mm\nEXPLORATIONS\nOF\nSIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE\n CHAPTER VII\nSIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE\nI. Mackenzie, the Young Nor'wester\nThe Western Sea! What magic for great souls had those\nwords held! They had lured Hudson on to his sad destiny.\nWith those words ringing ever in their ears, La Verendrye\nand his sons had pressed onward\ntowards the west, till the great\nmountain barrier reared itself\nabove the plain and barred their\nfurther progress. To west and\nnorth Hearne had travelled inland from Hudson Bay a thousand miles and more, and yet no\nWestern Ocean had met his gaze,\nbut only mighty inland lakes\nand rivers and the frozen Arctic\nSea.\nBut men now knew beyond a doubt that there was a\nWestern Sea. Long before Hearne's journey Vitus Bering,\na Danish seaman sent out. by Peter the Great, czar of all\nthe Russias, had discovered the Strait that bears his name\nand that separates Asia from North America. In 1776\nthe famous Captain Cook had sailed along the coast of\n175\nSir Alexander Mackenzie.\nmBRBSKsn\nJ\n 176 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nwhat is now British Columbia and Alaska and had passed\nthrough Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. There was a\nWestern Sea, then. Mariners had now sailed it from east\nto west and south to north, a But who was to be the first\nto reach it overland and thus fulfill the dream that for three\ncenturies had inspired heroic men to deeds of exploration?\nWho would first pierce through the mountains and possess\nthemselves of the great Empire of the Pacific Coast with its\nwealth untold of furs and timber and gold?\nThere were keen rivals in the field to win this costly\nprize. To the south American traders were pressing up\nthe Missouri to the foothills. To the north the ancient\nCompany of Merchant Adventurers was awakening from\nits century of slumber on the shores of Hudson Bay and\nbeginning to stretch its mighty arms south and west and\nnorth for trade. Far to the west Russian traders from\nSiberia were beginning to cross the sea to win fortunes in\nAmerica. But most vigorous and aggressive of all was the\nfamous North West Company of Canada. Trading up the\nRed, the Assiniboine, and the Saskatchewan Rivers, it\nsoon began to reach out on either hand into the territories\nof its rivals and sent its traders south to the Missouri and\nnorth to the Churchill and the Athabaska.\nThe story of the Nor'westers is a wonderful romance.\nThe victory of Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham had ended\nthe long struggle between Britain and France for supremacy\nin North America. When New France fell, the French fur\ntraders, who had followed in La Verendrye's footsteps,\npacked their last load of peltries in their canoes and with-\n^ft\n\u25a0&B\n Early Explorers 177\ndrew from the Great West. For a little while the English\nCompany had no competitor. Then came a change.\nScottish and English traders hired French-Canadian canoe-\nmen, pushed through from Superior to Lake Winnipeg,\nand once again the merry chansons of the voyageurs were\nheard on the lakes and rivers of the West.\nThese new traders the old Hudson's Bay Company contemptuously termed \"the peddlers,\" but they were too\nshrewd and energetic to be safely treated with contempt.\nBy 1767 \"the peddlers'' were trading with the Crees and\nthe Assiniboines near Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine\nRiver, and in the same year James Finlay, from Montreal,\npenetrated as far as the Saskatchewan. Peter Pond, Joseph\nand Thomas Frobisher, Thomas Currie, and other daring\ntraders followed Finlay. These men, like the French before them, intercepted the Indians on their way to the forts\non Hudson Bay and thus secured the choicest of the furs.\nNor were the newcomers content to operate in the Saskatchewan Valley alone. They soon appeared in that\nnorth country where the Merchant Adventurers had never\nbefore had any rivals. By 1774 Joseph Frobisher had\nmade his way northward from the Saskatchewan to the\nChurchill by way of Sturgeon or Cumberland Lake, the\nSturgeon-Weir River, and Frog Portage, and two years\nlater Thomas Frobisher erected a permanent fort on the\nChurchill for trade with the Indians of the Athabaska\ncountry on their way to Fort Prince of Wales.\nBut to sit like the Old Company on the edge of a great\nland and wait for trade was not the sort of life that ap-\nmsf.\n 178\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\npealed to these bustling traders. They must be ever pushing farther afield. So, in 1778, Peter Pond blazed the path\nstill farther into the wilderness where yet no white man\nhad been. He went up the Churchill to He a la Crosse\nLake and then, paddling through Lake Clear and Buffalo\nLake, he ascended the shallow River La Loche to the lake\nof the same name. Here, following the old Indian trail now\nknown as Portage La Loche or Methye Portage, Pond\nand his party with infinite labor climbed the high, rocky\nridge that divides the waters flowing into Hudson Bay from\nthose emptying into the Arctic Ocean.\nAs they surmounted the last rise a marvellous scene\nburst on their view. A thousand feet below lay a beautiful\nvalley, walled in by two lofty, forest-clad heights. Through\nthe midst of it wound a stream of crystal pure water, shining in the afternoon sun like a thread of silver, while to\nthe blue mist that hung on the far horizon stretched a\nland of lawn and wood on which vast herds of buffalo and\nelk wandered at will to pasture. This was the valley of\nthe Clearwater, a fitting gateway to the great countries of\nthe Athabaska, the Peace, and the Mackenzie which lay\nbeyond.\nQuickly descending amid the grateful shade of the pines,\nPond launched his canoes on the little stream and drifted\ndown to the Athabaska. At this point the river is three-\nquarters of a mile wide, and his heart must have given a\ngreat leap as he swept out on its broad waters. Such a\nstream could flow only through a mighty land. On the\nAthabaska, about thirty miles from its mouth, he built a\n^Hi ;\n Early Explorers\nfort called Old Pond Fort, and a little later he descended\nthe river to Lake Athabaska itself. He was the first white\nman to stand on the shores of this \"Lake of the Hills.\"\nThe trader was now established in the very heart of the\ngreat Empire of the North. Though Pond knew it not, he\nstood also at the beginning of a path that led to another\nEmpire of the Pacific and to the long sought Western Sea,\nfor from the westward rolled the flood of the Peace River,\nand through the passes of the Upper Peace lay the road to\nthe Pacific Ocean. But Pond had done his work in pene^\ntrating to the Athabaska. It remained for a greater than\nhe, Alexander Mackenzie, to finish the quest on which so\nmany brave hearts had joyously set forth and from which\nas yet not one had returned with victory.\nThirty miles off the west coast of Scotland lie the Outer\nHebrides Islands like a long breakwater, thrown out to\nprotect the mainland from the boisterous gales that sweep\nacross the Atlantic. The largest of them is the Island of\nLewis, and here, in 1763, in the little town of Stornoway,\nAlexander Mackenzie was born. The people of the Hebrides were a hardy fisher folk, born and bred to the life\nof the sea, and, as Alexander grew up, his bold spirit found\npleasure in sharing the perils and hardships of the deep-sea\nfishermen. But he had received a good education; he\nwas strong, intelligent, and ambitious. The little island\ndid not give room for his restless energies, and so, in 1779,\nwhen only sixteen years of age, he took ship for Canada.\nHere, indeed, was a land big enough even for him. For*\na thousand miles the mcoming ship sailed up the mag-\n 180 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nnificent Guff and River St. Lawrence before it reached\nMontreal. But this, as Alexander well knew, was only\nthe entrance to Canada. Beyond Montreal lay the Great\nLakes, and beyond them the Great Plains, and beyond\nthem the Great Rocky Mountains, and beyond them again,\nsomewhere, by a path no one yet had travelled, lay the\nPacific, the Western Sea. Perhaps even then in his soul\nthe resolve was made that he would find that way and\nsolve that mystery. And in the sturdy frame of the\nScottish lad, the level-poised head, the alert eye, the firm,\nclean-cut mouth, and the broad brow, crowned with its\ncurly thatch of hair, there was abundant promise that from\nany task to which he had once set his hand he would not\nturn lightly back.\nIn those days the fur trade was the lodestone that attracted all adventurous spirits, and Mackenzie was soon\nin the midst of the great game. He was not long in learning how to play it. By this time most of the Montreal\nmerchants, seeing that they must be united to compete\nwith the Hudson's Bay Company with any success, had\njoined to form the North West Company. But some of\nthem held aloof and established a rival firm which later\ncame to be called the XY Co. It was to this smaller, opposition party that Mackenzie attached himself.\nFor five years he worked in the counting offices at Montreal, and then his keen business ability and complete\nmastery of all the points of the trade led his employers to\nplace him in command of an expedition to Detroit.\nMackenzie was yet only twenty-one years of age, but he led\n Early Explorers 181\nhis party successfully up the rapids of the St. Lawrence\nand through the wilds of Upper Canada, in which the\nUnited Empire Loyalists were then just beginning to settle.\nSo successful was Mackenzie at Detroit that the very next\nyear, 1785, he was made a \"bourgeois\" or partner in the\nCompany and sent far into the western land, of which he\nhad dreamed, to trade on the Churchill River.\nAlexander Mackenzie and his cousin, Roderick, who was\nin the same Churchill district, got along in a friendly way\nwith their rivals. Not so their partner, Peter Pond, the\npioneer of the Athabaska. Hot-headed and quarrelsome,\nhe got into a broil with Ross, the Nor'wester, and the\nlatter was shot. The news of this bloodshed caused long\ndebate when the partners of the two Companies met that\nsummer, as was their custom, at Grand Portage at the head\nof Lake Superior. At last it was decided to club their\ninterests together under the name of the North West Company, and the man who was sent to take charge of the\ndifficult situation that had arisen on the Athabaska was\nAlexander Mackenzie.\nAnd now behold the young adventurer, in the summer of\n1787, making his way from Grand Portage back to the\nChurchill and thence by Peter Pond's route to the still more\ndistant Athabaska. Seldom was it that a man of less than\nforty years was given a command under the Company.\nMackenzie was only twenty-four, yet his indomitable\nindustry and courage had made him, at that age, a Nor'west\npartner and had placed him in charge of the most coveted\nof all the fur districts. As Mackenzie reached the summit\nIBPJ...-U\t\n 182 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nof La Loche Portage and gazed down the valley of the\nClearwater, and still more as he floated out upon the full\ncurrent of the Athabaska and later stood on the shores of\nthe great lake into which it poured its waters, his spirit\nmust have expanded within him. Here, indeed, was a\nrealm worthy of conquest and he, Alexander Mackenzie,\nmust be the man to wrest from it the secrets that lay\nhidden within its borders.\nMackenzie was soon at work. His keen mind at once\ngrasped the fact that Lake Athabaska was the hub of the\nwhole region. It tapped the Peace from the west, the\nAthabaska from the south, the Slave from the north, and\nthe Barren Lands from the east. Accordingly, he had\nconstructed on its shores Fort Chipewyan, which from that\ntime to the present has been the great emporium of the\nnorthern fur trade. From this as a centre, the French-\nCanadian Leroux was dispatched to develop trade on that\nGreat Slave Lake which Hearne had visited sixteen years\nbefore. Other traders were sent up the Peace and the\nAthabaska, and from this far distant north-west great\ncargoes of furs were sent down to Grand Portage the next\nsummer.\nBut Mackenzie was no mere fur trader, seeking to pile\nup gold. In him burned the quenchless spirit of the explorer. The unknown was a challenge which he could not\nresist. Whence came the mighty Peace River? Whither\nflowed the still mightier stream formed by its junction with\nthe Athabaska? Hearne had reached the Arctic along\nthe Coppermine, but that puny river could not be the\n Early Explorers 183\noutlet for these vast waters. Indians spoke of a river\nflowing out of Great Slave Lake far to the west and the\nnorth. Did it find its outlet in the Arctic or in the long\nsought Sea of the West? He must solve these questions.\nEven though his journeys might lead only to the frozen\nArctic, they would add to the sum of men's knowledge and\nopen up new regions for trade.\nSo Mackenzie made his resolve. By the beginning of\nJune, 1789, the canoes, filled with the season's pelts for the\ndistant Grand Portage and Montreal, were dispatched on\ntheir long voyage. For the summer months Mackenzie\nwas free. He could now take in hand the project he had\nlong had at heart. He would travel down the north-flowing\nriver to its mouth, wherever it might be.\nII. Mackenzie's First Journey\nMackenzie knew that the short northern summer would\nbarely suffice for the trip downstream and the toilsome\nreturn against the current, and so he hurried his preparations. By June 3rd all was in readiness for the race to\nthe sea. \"We embarked at nine o'clock in the morning\nat Fort Chipewyan on the south shore of the Lake of the\nHills in a birchbark canoe.\" Thus unassumingly commences the record of one of the most remarkable journeys\nof exploration in the history of North America.\nMackenzie took his place in the largest canoe manned\nby four cheerful and sturdy French-Canadian voyageurs\nand a young German named Steinbruck. In a smaller\ncanoe with his two wives travelled the guide, a Chipewyan\n 184\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nIndian, called the English Chief because of the many\njourneys he had made across the Barrens to the Hudson's\nBay Company's posts. He had been one of Matonabbee's\nbraves on Hearne's famous tltird journey and was well\nand favorably known throughout the North Land. Two\nother Indians, engaged as interpreters and hunters, followed in a third canoe, while in a fourth, loaded high with\ngoods, were Leroux and his men, who were to remain on\nGreat Slave Lake for trade. Already this hardy Canadian\nhad spent two winters on the lake, and two trading posts\nhad been built there. So the first part of the journey was\nover known ground. jp|\nAmid cheers and a salvo of musket shots, the party\npushed gaily out from the wooded point of land on which\nold Fort Chipewyan stood. A paddle of twenty miles\nwestward along the south shore of the lake, and then seven\nmiles north across its glassy surface, brought them to the\nentrance to the Slave River, which they commenced to\ndescend. Mackenzie notes the remarkable fact that\nusually this river flows out of Lake Athabaska to the north,\nbut when the Peace is in flood the current of the Slave is\nreversed and it pours its waters backward into the lake.\nThe Kitche Okema, as Mackenzie was called by his\nIndians, was strict with his men. The first day they had\nmade but thirty-seven miles. That was not enough to\nsuit him. Next morning he roused his party at four, and\nby half-past seven at night they had traversed sixty-two\nmiles. The next day they were off at three, and so day by\nday, from morning till night, they pressed on \u2014 or rather\n Early Explorers 185\nfrom twilight to twilight, for all the night through the red\nand gold of the sunken sun colored the northern sky and\nas they progressed ever northward increasingly changed\nnight into day. But, though Mackenzie was exacting, he\nwas just, and his very strictness won the confidence and\nrespect of his men and was one of the secrets of his success.\nOn the second day they passed the mouth of the Peace\nsweeping majestically down through a channel more than\na mile broad into the Slave. On June 5th a dull roar ahead\nwarned them that they were approaching a rapid. In\nfact, it proved to be a series of rapids, and all day long they\nlabored loading and unloading the canoes and transporting them and the baggage across the portages. One of the\nwomen tried to save herself trouble by running her canoe\nthrough a rapid, but the swirling water gripped it and dashed\nit to destruction at the foot of the falls. All her goods were\nlost, though she herself, almost by a miracle, reached\nshallow water and dragged herself exhausted to land.\nWorn out with their labor the party camped at five in the\nafternoon, and a joyous shout from the voyageurs hailed\nthe arrival of the hunters with seven geese, a beaver, and\nfour ducks for dinner.\nBut tired though they were, rest was difficult. All day\nthe mosquitoes hung about them in clouds, and all night\nthe shrill war-cry of these pests filled the air and their stings\ntormented the travellers. So, at half-past two, they were\noff again, and by six in the evening they had covered\nseventy-two miles. Then came a change in the weather.\nA hurricane of wind lashed the water and compelled them\niwmuia\n 186 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nto land. A torrent of rain descended which drove through\nthe tents and drenched them to the skin, while it grew so\ncold that the Indians put on their mittens. The men\nhuddled together for warmth and smoked in stolid discomfort. A night and a day passed thus, and then on\nthe morning of June 9th the weather cleared, and a few\nmiles' travel brought them to Great Slave Lake. In less\nthan a week, in spite of all difficulties, they had covered\ntwo hundred and seventy-two miles.\ntit was a dreary prospect that now met their gaze. Except for a strip of open water along the shore, ice still\ncovered the great lake \u2014 ice that stretched unbroken to\nthe horizon and looked like the packs of the Arctic Sea.\nYet, wonderful to relate, though the ground had thawed\nonly to a depth of fourteen inches, the trees on the shores\nof river and lake were in full leaf. There were myriads of\nwild fowl on the mud banks and in the reedy marshes.\nThe Indians said that both to east and west of the Slave\nthere were great plains on which buffalo roamed and that\nmoose and reindeer and beaver were plentiful in the neighboring woods. The lake swarmed with fish. It was\nevident that if they had to wait for the moving of the ice\nthere would at least be no lack of provisions.\nGreat Slave Lake was the centre of the land of the\nChipewyan Indians, and Mackenzie, like Hearne, records\nmany odd things about them. Their ideas of the creation\nof the world and of heaven and hell were very curious.\n\"They believe,\" he says, \"that at first the globe was one\nvast and entire ocean, inhabited by no living creature\n Early Explorers 187\nexcept a mighty bird whose eyes were fire, whose glances\nwere Hghtning, and the clappings of whose wings were\nthunder. On his descent to the ocean and touching it, the\nearth instantly arose and remained on the surface of the\nwaters. This bird then called forth all the varieties of\nanimals from the earth except the Chipewyans, who were\nproduced from a dog. This causes their aversion to the\nflesh of that animal as well as to those who eat it. They\nbelieve also that in ancient times their ancestors lived till\ntheir feet were worn out with walking and their throats\nwith eating. They describe a deluge when the waters\nspread over the whole earth except the highest mountains,\non the tops of which they preserved themselves. They\nbelieve that immediately after their death they pass into\nanother world, where they arrive at a large river, on which\nthey embark in a stone canoe, and that a gentle current\nbears them on to an extensive lake, in the centre of which\nis a most beautiful island. In view of this they receive\njudgment for their conduct during life. If their good\nactions are declared to predominate they are landed upon\nthe island, where there is to be no end to their happiness.\nBut if their bad actions weigh down the balance, the stone\ncanoe sinks at once and leaves them up to their chins in\nthe water to behold and regret the reward enjoyed by the\ngood, and eternally struggling, but without avail, to reach\nthe blissful island from which they are excluded forever.\"\nFor five days the restless Mackenzie chafed at delay, and\nthen a westerly wind opened up a lane in the ice, and they\nstarted northward. Time and again the ice closed, com-\n 188 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\npelling them to seek shelter on the little islands that dot\nthe surface of the lake. On one of these islands they found\na small herd of reindeer, marooned like themselves by the\ndrifting ice, and so they had plenty of fresh meat. The\nmosquitoes no longer annoyed them, but the cold at night\nwas a hardship. Though it was June 21st, it froze so hard\nthat the open water was covered with a film of ice an eighth\nof an inch thick.\nAt last they reached the north side of the lake, and there\nthey encountered three lodges of Red Knife or Copper\nIndians, so called because of their copper weapons and\nutensils. They knew notihing, they said, of the great river\nwhich Mackenzie sought, except that it flowed out of the\nwest end of the lake. So he procured a guide from them,\nand, leaving Leroux to conduct the trade on the lake, he\ncontinued his search for the western outlet. It proved\na baffling quest. Day after day they poked in and out\namong the islands and marshes trying to find an exit, but\nin vain. The Red Knife guide, it was clear, knew no more\nabout the way than they did themselves, and the English\nChief was so enraged that he threatened to murder him.\nFinally, however, on June 29th, on rounding a long island,\nthey found themselves carried along by a current, and\nsoon the lake shores narrowed into the banks of a great\nriver flowing to the west.\nTwenty precious days had been spent on Great Slave\nLake. But a steady breeze now blew from the east and,\nhoisting sails on their canoes, they scudded lightly before\nit. They met many bands of Indians, Beavers, Slaves,\n Early Explorers\n189\nDog-ribs, Hares, and others, for the river was the great\nhighway of the country. But they were all very shy and\nfled at the approach of the strangers. This was because\nof the raids of the Crees. From the Saskatchewan, war\nparties of these doughty braves penetrated far into the\nnorth, and Mackenzie found traces of their ravages even\nbeyond the Liard River. As the Iroquois laid the fear of\ndeath on the St. Lawrence valley, and the Sioux were the\ndread of the plains, so the Crees seem to have been the\nterror of all the north country. Once, when Mackenzie\nencamped at the foot of a high hill, he took the fancy to\nclimb it and view the land from its summit. After a hard\nclimb of an hour and a half he reached the top, only to find\nit occupied by an Indian encampment. Often the less\nwarlike tribes dwelt in such inaccessible places as these, to\nbe safe from the terrible Crees.\nAnd indeed the Indians of the Mackenzie valley were\nvery primitive and ill-equipped for war. Their only axes\nwere of stone, attached by a deerskin thong to a wooden\nhandle about two feet long. They had bows and arrows,\nthe latter pointed with bone, horn, flint, copper, and sometimes iron. Their spears were six feet in length and\npointed with bones. Their daggers were of horn or bone,\nflat and sharp-pointed, and they also carried a sort of club\nmade from the antlers of the reindeer. But these things\nwere of little avail against the superior weapons that the\nCrees were now getting in trade from the white men.\nPresents of beads, looking-glasses, knives, and other\ntrifles soon overcame the first shyness of the Indians\n r\n190 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\ntowards Mackenzie, and they approached to marvel at\nthe strange white men and their wonderful possessions.\nThe firearms that were endowed with the power of sudden\nand magic death filled them with awe, and more than once\nMackenzie was asked by the Indians not to let them off in\ntheir presence. They were unacquainted both with tobacco and firewater, and when these were offered to them\nthey accepted them more to oblige their visitors than because they enjoyed them.\nMackenzie always inquired of the Indians he met what\nwas the character of the river that lay below them. The\nanswers he got were wonderful but very unsatisfactory.\nThey told him that the river was full of impassable falls\nand rapids, that it would require several winters to get to\nthe sea, that old age would come upon them before their\nreturn, and that the path was beset with monsters of horrid\nshapes and evil powers. One party even went so far as\nto point out a distant island and declare that beltind it\nthere was a Manitou in the river which swallowed every\nperson who approached it. \"As it would have required\nhalf a day to have indulged our curiosity,\" Mackenzie\ndryly remarks, \"we proceeded on our voyage.\"\nThese foolish tales had no effect on the white men, but\nMackenzie's superstitious Indians were panic-stricken.\nThey were tired of the journey. They were afraid of the\nEskimos. Never had they travelled so incessantly before.\nThey would have deserted, but they were now far from\ntheir own country among strange tribes whom they feared.\nAfraid to go on and yet more afraid to desert, their state\n Early Explorers\nwas a wretched one. But all their complaints and forebodings fell unheeded on their imperious master. All his\nrestless energy was centered in pushing on to his goal, the\nmouth of the river, and whither he led they found that\nthey must follow.\nOn July ist they passed the mouth of the River of the\nMountain \u2014 now the Liard. The next day far ahead to\nthe west they sighted the Rockies. \"We perceived,\"\nMackenzie says, \"a high mountain which appeared on\nour nearer approach to be rather a cluster of mountains,\nstretching as far as our view could reach to the southward\nand whose tops were lost in the clouds.\" Was this the\nsame mountain range that far to the south had barred\nLa Verendrye's way to the Western Sea? Mackenzie\nbelieved that it was, and the conviction began to be borne\nin upon him more and more strongly that he who would\nreach that Sea must first find a path through the silent\npeaks to the westward.\nSome distance below, a spur of the mountains crossed\nthe river, the course of which for several hundred miles\nnow lay between two parallel ranges. The peaks were\nalways in sight, sinning marble-white in the sunny distance.\nThe weather was warm, as they were nearing the region\nof perpetual day. But, in spite of the sun and the force\nof the current, masses of ice still clung to the river bank in\nmany places, and the ground was thawed only to a depth\nof a few inches.\nOn July 5th they passed the mouth of the Great Bear\nRiver. Through this the waters of the lake of the same\n m\n192 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nname, the largest lake in the Northland, pour into the\nMackenzie in a peculiar greenish current, like the waters\nof the sea. One hundred and fifty miles farther downstream they came to the most striking part of the entire\ncourse of the great river. Here suddenly it narrows from\na breadth of several miles to five hundred yards, and flows\non, deep, calm, and majestic, between tree-crowned banks,\nrising sheer and rugged from the water's edge to a height\nof one hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty\nfeet. The great limestone cliffs which form this mighty\ngorge, fashioned by nature into the semblance of a giant\nbattlement, have been named the Ramparts of the\nMackenzie.\nOn July 9th they encountered a tribe of Indians much\nsuperior in intelligence to those of the upper river. They\ntold Mackenzie that he would sleep ten nights before he\nreached the sea. One of their number also was willing to\nact as his guide. Encouraged by this most welcome news,\nMackenzie pressed eagerly on.\nThe very next day the river began to be divided by many\nislands, and they were confronted with a maze of channels.\nThe guide, terrified at the prospect of meeting the dreaded\nEskimos, wished to keep to the east, but Mackenzie chose\nthe large middle channel. The guide then rebelled, and\nthe Chipewyans, alarmed at their distance from home and\nthe unknown dangers before them, demanded that the\nparty turn back. But the French-Canadians were loyal\nto a man. \"For some time back,\" writes Mackenzie,\n\"their spirits were animated by the expectation that\n Early Explorers\n193\nanother day would bring them to the Mer d'Ouest and\neven in our present situation they declared their readiness\nto follow me wherever I should be pleased to lead -them.\"\nThe old adventurous spirit of La Salle and La Verendrye\nburned in the breasts of these humble but heroic voyageurs\nand helped their leader in the crisis. The Indians were\nsoothed by the promise that if they did not reach the sea\nwithin seven days he would turn back, and they then resumed the journey.\nThat night they pitched their tents near an abandoned\nEskimo camp. Mackenzie sat up to observe the sun and\nwas gratified to find that k did not sink below the horizon.\nThey were in the land of the Eskimos and within the Arctic\nThe Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight Sun.\nCircle. They must be near the sea. At half-past twelve\nhe roused one of his tired men to behold the spectacle of\nthe midnight sun. Rubbing his eyes the man sat up, and\nwhen he saw the sun so high he thought it time to start,\nwm\n 194 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nand began calling his comrades. Great was their astonishment when they were told that it was just past midnight,\nand that the sun had never set.\nNext day, July 12th, they paddled on down the middle\nchannel, finding more traces of the Eskimos. The soil on\nthe banks was not thawed more than four inches deep, and\nyet it was carpeted with the bright green grass, the mosses,\nand the beautiful flowers which Hearne had seen in the\nBarren Lands. It was strange to behold this verdure growing on a film of earth, while ice still caked the river bank\nand snowdrifts filled the hollows. Such trees as there were\nwere spruce, larch, and birch. They were gnarled and\nknotted dwarfs, only a few feet high, but often two or three\nhundred years old. The wonder was, however, that trees\nwould grow at all in such a soil.\nThe river now broadened out into what appeared to be a\ngreat lake. In reality it was the wide river mouth of the\ncentral channel of the Mackenzie delta. Though the ex-\nplorer did not know it he had reached his goal, the sea.\nThey camped on a high island, and Mackenzie and the\nEnglish Chief climbed to its loftiest point to survey the\nscene. To the west lay open water, but from the southwest far around to the eastward extended a solid sweep of\nice. South-west on the distant horizon and running far to\nthe north could still be seen the white, phantom outline\nof the mountains. No land appeared ahead, but to the\neast lay many islands. \"My men,\" says Mackenzie,\n\"could not at this time refrain from expressions of real\nconcern that they were obliged to return without reaching\n^^f\u2014^^n\u2014\u25a0\u2014\u25a0\u2014\u2014 - \u25a0\n Early Explorers 195\nthe sea.\" But both leader and men were soon to be undeceived. Early that night they were compelled to get\nup hastily to rescue the baggage from the rising flood.\nWas it the tide, or simply the wind heaping the water up\nagainst the shore? Next morning they knew. Mackenzie\nwas roused by the shouts of his men. Far out on the open\nwater objects, which they had at first taken to be cakes of\nice, had suddenly come to life and were actively disporting\nthemselves. What were these strange animals? The\ninland voyageurs did not know, but Mackenzie, bred to\nthe life of the sea, knew that they were whales. They had\nreached the Arctic Ocean. Their quest was at an end.\nThe men went wild with excitement. In a trice the\ncanoe was ready, and, with flashing paddles, they were off\nin mad pursuit. But at their approach the great fish dived,\nand soon a fog settled down over the water, which brought\nan end to the chase. \"It was indeed a very fortunate\ncircumstance that we failed to overtake them,\" writes\nMackenzie, \"as a stroke from the tail of one of these enormous fish would have dashed the canoe to pieces.\" In\nhonor of the event Mackenzie called the island Whale\nIsland, and near their camp he put up a memorial of their\nvisit. On July 14th, 1789, he records: \"This morning\nI ordered a post to be erected close to our tents, on which\nI engraved the latitude of the place, my own name, the\nnumber of persons which I had with me, and the time I\nremained here.\"\nFor two days longer they remained at the mouth of the\ngreat river, coasting among its islands and trying to get\ni\nJUJUUMUIUU\n 196 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\ninto touch with the Eskimos. But the Eskimos were far\nafield fishing for whales and hunting the reindeer, and the\nsearch for them proved fruitless. So, on July 16th, they\nturned southward. \"We made for the river,\" Mackenzie\nsays, \"and stemmed the current.\"\nIt was easy travelling in the delta, but when they reached\nthe main stream the strong current, which before had borne\nthem so swiftly northward, was now against them. Frequently it was necessary to land and tow the canoe with a\nline. This was the hardest of work. The narrow shore\nwas strewn with rough fragments from the rocky banks.\nMoccasins wore out and the men became weary and footsore. So arduous was it that those in the canoes had to\nrelieve those on shore every two hours. But they were now\nfacing homeward, and were inspired by the consciousness of\nhaving performed a great deed. Success, too, had given\nMackenzie a greater ascendancy than ever over his men,\nand under his tireless leadership they made good progress.\nOn their way up the great river they met many tribes\nof Indians whom they had missed on their way down, and\nthe explorer constantly questioned them about their\ncountry, particularly about the region to the westward.\nOf this he was told marvellous tales. From the Eskimos\nthe Indians said they had heard of white men far towards\nthe setting sun in the land across' the great mountains.\nThey came in canoes big as islands to a great lake called\nBelhoullay Toe, or the White Man's Lake. Beyond the\nmountains was a great river, mightier they said than even\nthe Mackenzie, which flowed westward to the lake.\n Early Explorers\nThis river, of which the Indians had heard rumors, was\ndoubtless the Yukon, and the White Man's Lake was the\nPacific. Mackenzie, even at that late season, would have\nstruck out overland to reach this westward-flowing river,\nbut all his attempts to secure a guide failed. All the\nnatives were too terrified to venture into the strange land\nbeyond the mountains, and it was no wonder, if they\nreally believed the stories which they told about it. The\ninhabitants of that country, they said, were of gigantic\nstature and adorned with wings. They possessed canoes\nlarger than Mackenzie's. They fed on large birds and\ncould devour a beaver at a single meal. They could slay\ncommon men with their eyes, and it would be sure death\nfor any one to venture thither.\nImpatient with these fables, Mackenzie pushed forward.\nOn August 2nd they passed the mouth of the Great Bear\nRiver. A few miles above this point they were astounded\nto find the bank of the river on fire. A closer examination\nshowed that it was a seam of coal burning slowly. From\nMackenzie's day to our own this fire has smoldered on,\nand for two miles along the river at this point smoke may\nbe observed pouring upward from the fire, now far down\nunder the earth. At the same spot they found a sort of\nwhite, sticky mud which the Indians sometimes ate, and\nwhich they used as a gum for chewing. The explorers\ntasted it, and found that it had a pleasing, milky flavor.\nOn August 14th they reached the Liard, and two days\nlater they paddled out through reedy shallows on to the\nbroad expanse of Great Slave Lake. There they were re-\nj\n 198\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\njoined by Leroux, who had had a profitable summer's\ntrade. On August 30th, the explorer paid off his Indians,\nand continued his way southward up the Slave River. He\nreached Fort Chipewyan on September 12th, 1789. He\nhad been absent exactly one hundred and two days, during\nwhich he had traversed nearly three thousand miles and\nhad explored to its mouth a hitherto unknown river that\nwas no unworthy rival to the Mississippi and the St.\nLawrence.\nIII. Mackenzie's Second Journey\nThough his exploit had been one of the most notable in\nall the brilliant annals of North American exploration, yet\nMackenzie himself was dissatisfied with his achievement.\nHe called the great stream that now bears his name the\n\"River Disappointment,\" for he had hoped to reach the\nopen Western Sea and instead had found only the ice-\nchoked Arctic. Even there he had still seen the mountains\nstretching ever farther northward. Like La Verendrye, he\nnow concluded that these mountains could not be outflanked. They must be pierced. But where? The\nFrenchman, when death overtook him, was about to ascend\nthe Saskatchewan to its sources. At Mackenzie's door\nflowed another river, the Peace, which from its very greatness must take its rise far in the heart of the western mountains. Could he but reach those upper waters and set foot\nupon the height of land, he would soon portage across to\nwestward-flowing streams and float down them to the sea.\nMore and more irresistible became his desire to perform\nthis deed. He could not rest with this great mystery\n Early Explorers\nunsolved. He could not let the Spaniard from Mexico and\nthe Russian from Siberia win the Pacific slope when, by a\nbold effort, it was possible to press through from the plains\nand gain for Britain her share in the wealth of\"that new land.\nWhat mattered it that his partners in the North West\nCompany treated his first voyage with jealous silence and\nwould not take up a vigorous policy of exploration? He\nwould put his own courage and resources into the task, and\nif determination could win then he would not fail.\nWith Mackenzie to resolve was to act. In the autumn\nof 1791, at his own expense he took the long journey to\nLondon, there to acquire that knowledge of astronomy,\nthe lack of which had greatly hampered him in accurately\ntracing his first voyage. Having spent the winter in study,\nhe purchased the best instruments that money could buy\nand then took ship for Canada. October, 1792, found him\nonce more on Lake Athabaska and ready for the great\nenterprise.\nMackenzie's plan was to winter on the Peace River and,\nwith the spring, make a dash westward for the Sea. On\nOctober 10th the party started from Fort Chipewyan, and\nby the 12th were paddling up the main stream of the Peace.\nThey passed Peace Point, the spot on which long ago Cree\nand Beaver Indians had composed their strife and thus\ngiven a name to both the point and the river. Portaging\naround the twenty-foot fall that breaks the lower course\nof the Peace, they reached the Old Establishment, the\nCompany's first fort on the river. It had already been\nabandoned, but it is interesting as having been the scene\nHS^BHI\n 2cx> Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nof the first agricultural experiment in that country. \"In\nthe summer of 1788,\" Mackenzie says, \"a small spot was\ncleared at the Old Establishment and sown with turnips,\ncarrots, and parsnips. The first grew to a large size and\nthe others thrived very well, and experiment was also made\nwith potatoes and cabbages, the former of which were\nsuccessful, but, for lack of care, the latter failed. There is\nnot the least doubt but the soil would be very productive\nif a proper attention was given to its preparation.\" Such\nwas the first small beginning of agriculture in that great\nnorthern granary of Canada.\nSix miles beyond the point where the Smoky River joins\nthe Peace, Mackenzie halted and set his men to the task of\nbuilding winter quarters. The cold days were now upon\nthem, and they worked as busily as beavers to erect shelter.\nBy the New Year they were all safely housed in a stout,\npalisaded fort, and able to defy the coldest weather. At\ntimes the thermometer did fall many degrees below zero,\nbut the winter was broken by the most remarkable mild\nspells, caused by the warm south-west chinook winds blowing across the mountains from the Pacific. \"On December 29th,\" wrote Mackenzie, \"a rumbling noise was heard\nin the air like distant thunder, when the sky cleared away\nin the south-west, from whence there blew a perfect hurricane which lasted till eight. Soon after it commenced, the\natmosphere became so warm that it dissolved all the snow\non the ground; even the ice was covered with water and\nhad the same appearance as when it is breaking up in the\nspring.\"\n Early Explorers\n201\nFrom the Indians Mackenzie heard of a great river on the\nother side of the mountains flowing towards the sunset.\nThese tidings only whetted his impatience to be off. In\nApril, spring came with all its Northern suddenness. In a\nfew days the snow vanished, the grass was green, and\nflowers blossomed everywhere. On the 25th the ice on the\nriver went out with a rush, and by the end of the month the\nfurs were packed and shipped off by canoes for Grand\nPortage. Then on May 9th, 1793, they stood ready to\ntake the plunge into the unknown land that lay to westward.\nThe party consisted of Mackenzie, Alexander Mackay,\na trusted veteran of the fur trade, six French-Canadian\nvoyageurs, two of whom had been with Mackenzie on his\nfirst voyage, and two Indians to serve as guides, hunters,\nand interpreters. Their canoe was a beauty, thirty feet\nlong, twenty-six inches deep, and four feet nine, inches\nbroad. So light was it that on a good road two men could\ncarry it three or four miles without resting, yet it could hold\nwith ease the ten men and their three thousand pounds of\nbaggage. As they pushed off from midstream some of the\nIndians left behind, Mackenzie tells us, \"shed tears on the\nreflection of those dangers which we might encounter in our\nexpedition, while my own people offered up their prayers\nthat we might return in safety.\"\nHad the explorers known the hardships and perils that\nwere before them they might well have been daunted. But\nfor a time all went well. Their way lay through what\nMackenzie called \"the most beautiful scenery I have ever\n 202 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nbeheld.\" The country was like a great park, groves of\ntrees alternating with open, rolling prairie, and everywhere\nit was alive with game. They saw vast herds of elk and\nbuffalo, the latter with their young frisking gaily about\nthem. They came upon bear tracks too, measuring nine\ninches wide, and on May 16th Mackenzie writes, \"We this\nday saw two grizzly and hideous bears.\" The Indians were\nin great terror of these animals and never ventured to attack\nthem except in parties of three or four strong.\nOn the afternoon of May 17th they caught a glimpse of\nthe snowclad peaks of the Rockies, and a mountain keenness began to pervade the air. Then the river banks grew\nhigher, until they were two rocky precipices that excluded\nall view of the surrounding country. The current became\nswifter,, so that they had to pole instead of paddle. Soon\nthe river narrowed till in places it was but fifty yards across,\nwhile all ahead the canyon roared and echoed with the\nrushing waters. Mackenzie climbed a hill, only to find that\nas far as he could see the river was a series of foaming rapids\nand leaping cataracts. There was no tiling for it but to\nkeep on. When poling was impossible, they tracked the\ncanoe with their sixty fathom line. Once, in the midst of\na dangerous rapid, a wave struck the canoe head on, and\nthe towing rope parted. For one tense moment there\nflashed across Mackenzie's mind the vision of his canoe\nwrecked, his supplies lost, his expedition ruined \u2014 but\nalmost by a miracle the next wave cast the canoe ashore,\nwhere it was made fast by the men. On another occasion\nthose on the towline came to a sheer face of solid rock where\n Early Explorers\n203\nthere was no room for them to pass. It looked as though\nthe obstacle were insurmountable, but Mackenzie was as\nready as any of his men to imperil his life for the success of\nthe undertaking. Seizing an axe, he began to cut footholds in the rock. One false move and he would have been\nhurled to destruction in the torrent below, but, step by\nstep, he got across. Then, leaping down to a small rock\nahead, he caught the others on his shoulders as they followed him, and thus they were able to go on.\nDay after day they persevered. Foot by foot they\nfought their way up the gorge of the Peace. At last flesh\nand blood could do no more. The voyageurs, hardy and\ncheerful though they were, began to mutter threateningly.\nFar as the eye could reach was notfiing but foaming waters\nand precipitous banks, ever seeming to grow more impassable. It was madness, the men said, to further attempt\nthe passage of such a river. They must turn back.\nBut to turn back was the last thing Mackenzie would\nconsent to. If they could not ascend the gorge, then they\nmust portage around it, even though the portage should be\nover a mountain top. The explorer called a halt. Next\nday Mackay was sent in advance to seek a path along the\nriver's edge to a point where it again became navigable.\nHe returned with the news that it would be nine miles overland through thick woods, high hills, and deep valleys\nbefore they could again launch their canoe. Mackenzie\nwas resolute to make the attempt, but to inspire his men\nhe used a little cunning. He prepared a special feast,\n\"A kettle of wild rice,\" he says, \"sweetened with sugar,\nBR\n 204\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nwith their usual regale of rum, soon renewed that courage\nwhich disdained all obstacles that threatened our progress,\nand they went to rest with a full determination to surmount\nthem on the morrow.\"\nNext day they began the portage. It was stubborn\nwork. First the baggage had to be carried two hundred\nfeet or more up the pre- **\u00ab*CSPP$! H\ncipitous bank, where a\nfalse step would have\nhurled the voyageur to\ninstant death. Then,\nwith infinite labor, the\ncanoe was warped to the\ntop by passing the line\naround tree trunks. On\nthey went in the same\nfashion up the mountain\nside. Four of the party\nnow had to be detached\nto clear a way through\nthe woods, while the\nothers strained at the heavy packs and toiled onward with\nthe canoe. It was uphill work till noon of the second\nday, when the ground began to slope gently downward\nagain. They had crossed the summit of the Rockies, but\nhigh though they were they could see little, for still higher\npeaks soared white above them on all sides. On the evening of the second day they camped, dead tired, near the\ntongue of a glacier, from which flowed an ice-cold rivulet\nCarrying Supplies Over a Portage.\n Early Explorers\nof purest water. At four o'clock on May 24th the gleaming\nwater of the Peace, to their inexpressible joy, was again\nbeheld through the trees, and the exhausted explorers\nlaunched their canoe once more upon its current. They\nhad crossed what is now called Rocky Mountain Portage.\nThe Rockies, through which the Peace thus cuts its furious\nway, were now behind them, but far ahead they were\ndismayed to see still another range towering aloft to bar\ntheir westward way.\nOn May 31st they stood at the forks of the Peace.\nWere they to ascend the Finlay coming from the northwest or the Parsnip flowing from the south-east ? The voyageurs wished to go up the former, which was the broader\nand gentler stream, but Mackenzie, much to their disgust,\nchose the latter, for an old Indian had told him that it was\nfrom the headwaters of this that a portage led to a great\nriver where the Indians built houses and lived upon islands.\nThis river must flow to the Pacific, and could he but launch\nhis canoe upon it, he felt that success would be within his\ngrasp.\nThe snows were melting in the mountains, and the Finlay\nwas a raging torrent, difficult to stem. In the first afternoon they covered only two or three miles, but they kept\non. Often they had to land to repair their canoe. Often\nthe water was so high that they got in among the trees of\nthe forest that bordered the stream and pulled themselves\nalong by the branches. Everywhere, however, as they*\nadvanced there was abundant evidence that even if their\ntoil should not open up a way to the Western Sea, yet they\nK'\n 206 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nwere penetrating a country of great value to the fur trader.\n\"In no part of the North-West,\" says Mackenzie, \"did I\nsee so much beaver work. In some places they had cut\ndown several acres of large poplars, and we saw also a great\nnumber of these active and sagacious animals. The time\nwhich these wonderful creatures allot for their labors is the\nwhole of the interval between the setting and the rising sun.\"\nOften the men grew sullen and discontented and wished\nto turn back, but Mackenzie's ardor rose superior to every\ntrial, and by the example which he set and the continual\nwords of hope and inspiration which he addressed to them\nhe kept them at their task. Nor was their progress without\nsome little encouragement. One day they spied a party\nof Rocky Mountain Indians. At first the savages were\ngreatly alarmed at the apparition of these strange white\nmen, but after a little while, won over by trifling gifts, they\nwere induced to approach. They had heard of white men\nbefore, they said, but never till now had they seen them.\nThey knew of a large river flowing towards the midday sun\nwhich the White Chief would reach by continuing his\ncourse and crossing the portage. To the west of them,\nalso, they said, lived the Carrier Indians, who traded\nbetween the Mountain Indians and those of the coast.\nThe latter lived in houses on the shores of the \"Stinking\nLake,\" as they called the ocean, and thither white men had\ncome in great ships with sails like clouds. Were these the\nSpaniards, or the Russians, or the British under Captain\nCook, who just a little while before had sailed along the\ncoast of what is now British Columbia? Mackenzie did\n Early Explorers\nnot know, but the tidings of these white men and of the\ngreat river to the southward buoyed him up in his hope of\nreaching the sea.\nMackenzie had missed the mouth of the Pack or Mc-\nLeod's Lake River, because it was concealed behind a\nwooded island. Had he found and followed it he could\nhave reached the Fraser by a much easier route. As it\nwas, he kept on up the Parsnip until at last on Tuesday,\nJune nth, 1793, they reached the shore of a little lake,\nblue as the sky that topped the encircling mountain peaks.\nMackenzie was now at one of the sources of the mighty\nriver that takes its name from him. Four years ago he\nhad stood two thousand four hundred and twenty miles\ndownstream at the point where the waters of the lake at\nhis feet were destined to find their ultimate home in the\nArctic Ocean. Over every mile of that vast distance the\nintrepid explorer had now travelled. His was the honor\nof being first at the mouth and first at the source of one of\nthe world's greatest rivers.\nThey stood upon the Great Divide. Eight hundred and\nseventeen paces across a low, rocky ridge brought them to\nanother little lake, from which ran a brawling mountain\nstream. On this they launched their canoe. They were\nnow on waters tributary to the Fraser, the third largest\nriver of the Pacific coast, and of all white men they were the\nfirst to float down a stream which flowed, though far to\nsouthward, into the Western Sea.\nMackenzie called the little river they were now descending the Bad River, and good reason they had so to remember\n\u00bb\u25a0 \u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u00bb\"\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0!\u25a0 \u25a0\u25a0\u25a0!!\u25a0 I\u00bb I mi|illHUUnBWBBBB\u2014iWBBBBB\u2014\u2014BBpW\u2014ttWj\n &-* _ ^x\n208 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nit. They had not gone far when the violence of the current\ndashed the stern of the canoe upon a rock. The steersman\nlost control, and next instant the boat swung round and\nthe bow was shattered upon the other bank. One man,\nthrown out by the shock, luckily found refuge on a sand\nbank. Another, as the canoe dashed madly on, tried to\nstop it by seizing an over-hanging branch, only to be\nwhipped like a shot out of the canoe and hurled ashore.\nOn, on the vessel went, tumbling over a cascade and now,\na mere wreck, with the remaining men clinging to it for dear\nlife, it drifted swiftly downstream for several hundred\nyards until at last the struggling men managed to get it\ninto shallow water. The Indians, completely unmanned,\nsat on the bank and wept at this calamity. But the heroic\nMackenzie remained to his waist in the ice-cold water,\nholding the canoe until the voyageurs had got the baggage\nashore. Then, half dead, he staggered to the bank.\nSeldom has a leader's courage and resolution so been\ntried. The canoe was broken. Some of the baggage and\nall the musket balls had been lost. The voyageurs were\nwearied, discouraged, and mutinous. The Indians were\ncompletely terrified, and clamored to turn back. But\nMackenzie's iron will never wavered for a moment. Wisely,\nhe waited till the men had had a warm meal and their usual\ndram of rum, and then he addressed them. The greater\nthe dangers and difficulties, he said, the greater would be\nthe honor of reaching the Western Sea. He appealed to\nthe pride of the French-Canadians, praising the hardihood\nof the men of the north. To turn back would be eternal\n Early Explorers\n209\ndisgrace; to press onward would be to win undying glory.\nAt last his words had their effect on the generous French\ntemper of the boatmen, and, fired by his own indomitable\nspirit, with a shout they pledged themselves to follow\nwherever he might lead them. \"Fortitude in Distress'1\nwas the famous motto of the North West Company.\nNever was.it put more staunchly into practice than on this\noccasion. The canoe was repaired, and, surmounting\nobstacle after obstacle, they traversed the course of the\nBad River, and on June 17th Mackenzie writes: \"At\nlength we enjoyed, after all our toil and anxiety, the inexpressible satisfaction of finding ourselves on the bank\nof a navigable river on the west side of the first great range\nof mountains.\"\nDown this river they floated to the Fraser, reaching the\nmain stream at the great fork where it is half a mile wide.\nHere the river takes a magnificent sweep to the west before\nit turns southwards on its course to the Sea. As they\nadvanced, they saw many signs of the presence of natives.\nThey found a deserted Indian house and observed smoke\nrising above the trees in the distance. But, though\nMackenzie was very anxious to meet the Indians in order\nto secure guides and gain information regarding the country,\nit was not until June 21st that he succeeded in getting in\ntouch with any of them. Then the reception that he was\naccorded was scarcely of the kind that he wished.\nThey were Carrier Indians. The first of the party who\nspied the white men set up a loud whoop to alarm his\nfellows, and soon the savages swarmed out of the woods,\n 210 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\narmed with their bows and arrows and spears. Wild with\nexcitement they danced and gesticulated on the shore, all\nthe time brandishing their weapons and shouting out\nmenacing cries. When the voyageurs ventured to approach\nthey were received with a shower of arrows, none of which,\nby great good luck, did any damage. The friendly speeches\nof the interpreter were completely disregarded, so Mackenzie ordered his men to land on the opposite bank.\nThus the two parties faced each other with the river rolling\nbetween.\nIt was of the utmost importance that these Indians should\nbe won over. If they remained hostile they would send\nword of the approach of enemies down the river. Every\nstep forward would be opposed, and the little party would\nbe overwhelmed by the numbers of its foes. But how to\nwin their friendship \u2014 that was the question. At last\nMackenzie hit on a scheme which only a daring mind like\nhis would have conceived.\nHe proposed to walk alone along the margin of the river.\nHe took the precaution, however, of having one of his\nIndians slip into the woods behind him armed with two\nmuskets. There he was to lie concealed, and, if the\nCarriers attacked Mackenzie, he was to fire upon them, and\nthe others were to rush at once to their leader's assistance.\nThe plan worked to perfection. Mackenzie walked\nalong the bank and openly laying aside his weapons made\nfriendly signals to the Indians. Seeing him alone, two\nof them at last pushed timidly off from the other shore,\nbut they halted a hundred yards away. The explorer\n Early Explorers\nthen displayed looking-glasses, beads, and other alluring\ntrinkets as gifts, which enticed them to approach the shore,\nbut they came with their canoe stern foremost, ready to\ndart away at an instant's warning. Finally Mackenzie's\nfriendliness induced them to land. Then the interpreter\ncame up, and soon they were all sitting side by side in\nfriendly talk. Presently the adventurous pair returned\nto their companions, delighted with the gifts they had\nreceived, and it was not long before the white men were\ninvited to cross the river, where they and their belongings\nwere received with mingled admiration and astonishment.\nAs the explorer distributed little gifts liberally and treated\nthe children to the wonderful unknown luxury of lumps\nof sugar, he soon became very popular and his questions\nabout the way to the sea were readily answered. The\nplace where the great river entered \" the Stinking Waters,\"\nthey said, was many, many days' journey towards the midday sun. The current was strong and broken by innumerable falls and rapids, while towering, perpendicular\nbanks, much higher and more rugged than any they had\nyet encountered, made portaging impossible. Added to\nthese perils were those from the natives who, the Carriers\nsaid, were very fierce and hostile.\nIt was hardly an encouraging picture, but Mackenzie\nwas not easily daunted. Persuading two of the Carriers\nto act as guides, he went stubbornly on. But the Indians,\nof whom he now met numerous parties, all told the same\nstory, the truth of which was more and more confirmed by\nthe fierce rush of the river current and the mountains,\n 212\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nwhich reared themselves ever more tlrreateningly to southward. Why, if he wished to reach the sea, the Indians\nasked, did he not follow their route straight to the westward instead of descending this south-flowing river? It\nwas not a long journey, for the sea was not far towards\nthe setting sun. First, they ascended a stream, now called\nthe Blackwater, which flowed from the west into the\nFraser. From thence they travelled along a well-beaten\npath, and slept but two nights before they came to a river\nthat flowed down to the sea. On this river were many\nvillages, and the inhabitants had great canoes, larger\neven than Mackenzie's, in which they could quickly make\nthe voyage to the coast. Always the natives told this same\nstory of the difficulties of the river ahead and the ease with\nwhich he could travel overland to the Western Sea. What\nshould he do ?\nMackenzie pondered long over this problem. After\nall, his goal was the Sea, and not the exploration of this\nriver. The river must, of course, lead to the Sea, but\nhis own common sense told him that any stream that cut\nits way through such a mass of mountains as lay before\nhim must be very difficult to navigate. Then, too, time\nwas precious. The summer was wearing on. They had\nonly thirty days' provisions left, and their ammunition\nwas becoming exhausted. His one chance, he concluded,\nof completing the expedition that year lay in making the\ndash overland to the sea. So he resolved to turn north\nand retrace his course to the Blackwater, or West Road\nRiver, as he called it. But this was not turning back.\n Early Explorers\n213\nIf the overland route should fail, he was unalterably determined to return to the Fraser and try to descend it to\nits mouth. This he would do, even if he had to attempt\nit alone, and if it cost him his life.\nHaving thus resolved, Mackenzie stated the situation to\nhis men, not hiding its difficulties and perils. At the\nsame time he told them the decision to which he had come.\nThe response of the noble fellows was magnificent. It\nwas worthy of such a leader. \"They unanimously assured me,\" Mackenzie proudly records, \"that they were\nas willing now as they had ever been to abide by my resolutions, whatever they might be, and to follow me wherever\nI should go.\"\nIt was Sunday, June 23rd, when this momentous decision was made. A guide was at once procured who\npreceded them overland to an appointed place on the\nBlackwater, and the canoe then faced about for the ascent\nof the Fraser to that point. Before turning back, however,\nMackay carved the name of Alexander Mackenzie, with\nthe date, on a tree by the river bank. On this spot, the\nfurthest point to which Mackenzie descended the Fraser\nRiver, the North West Company later erected a fort, and\nin honor of the explorer called it Alexandria.\nTheir way back was beset with danger at every step.\nWhen the Indians saw them retracing their course up\nthe river thus unexpectedly, they at once feared treachery\nand became extremely hostile. During the day the explorers had to be perpetually on their guard, and at night\neach stationed himself with his back to a tree and his\n 214 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nmusket within easy reach. The voyageurs in this threatening situation again became panic stricken, and it was\nonly Mackenzie's steady head that averted disaster. The\nold canoe was now quite useless, and two days had to be\nspent in building a new one. Then on they went again\nand on July 3rd reached the Blackwater. Here, to their\n. great relief, their guide met them. He had kept his word,\nand he proudly boasted of his faithfulness as he strutted\nabout in a fine new painted beaver robe. So pleased was\nMackenzie that he gave him a jacket, a pair of trousers, and\na handkerchief, with which reward the Indian was immensely delighted.\nNext day they prepared for the overland journey.\nThe canoe was placed bottom up on a stage made of poles,\nand was shaded from the sun by a covering of tree branches.\nSuch provisions as they could not carry they cached.\nThis was cleverly done. Two deep holes were dug, the soil\nand the sod being carefully placed on a large sheet spread\nnear by. Then an oilcloth was laid in the bottom of each\nhole, and the articles were placed upon it. Another\ntarpaulin was drawn over the top, and some of the earth\nwas thrown in and tramped down. Over this the sod\nwas carefully replaced and on top of it a camp fire was\nkindled, the ashes of which completed the work of concealment. The unused earth was then cast into the river,\nand the men took up their packs. Each of the voyageurs\ntook on his shoulders a burden of nearly ninety pounds\nin addition to his musket and ammunition, while the\nloads of Mackenzie and Mackay were not much lighter.\n Early Explorers\n215\nThus encumbered, at noon on July 4th they set out on their\ntramp to the Sea.\nTheir way lay roughly along the Blackwater River.\nUp hill and down dale they went, through somber forest,\nsunny glade, and steaming marsh. Heavy laden as they\nwere, their feet sank deep in the forest mold. When it\nrained, they had no shelter but an oilcloth spread above\nthem with sticks. The moisture made the out-croppings\nof the rocks slippery as ice and left the underbrush so\ndripping wet that, even though Mackenzie went ahead\nto dash the drops from the branches, yet his men were\nall drenched to the skin. In this rough work their moccasins were soon worn out, and their clothes were torn to\ntatters. Footsore and exhausted utterly, when nightfall came they dropped their packs and fell asleep beside\nthem, too tired to keep a watch.\nBut in the midst of all their trials, they were upborne\nby a growing consciousness that they were on the right\npath at last. The very first night they encountered an\nelderly Indian, who said that for men not heavily burdened it was but an eight days' journey to the sea. He\nhad just returned thence, he said, and he displayed a\nlance of European manufacture which he had \"obtained\nin trade with the Coast Indians. At the first Indian camp\nto which they came, Mackenzie found two halfpence\nhung as earrings in children's ears. j\u00a7 One was an English\nhalfpenny of the reign of George III and the other a coin\nof Massachusetts bearing the date of 1787. Another\nparty told them that that very year, at the time when the\n\u25a0n\ntiuumjuw\n 216 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nleaves began to grow, a great wooden canoe sailed by white\npeople had appeared at the coast. Thus, as they advanced,\nthe evidence that they were nearing the Western Sea\ngrew ever more convincing.\nEverywhere, too, the natives received them in a friendly\nfashion, and thus their progress was speeded. On the\n6th they came to the great main road leading to the sea,\nand, as it ran through a fairly level country, they made\nmore rapid headway. Then, striking south-west from\nthe upper branches of the Blackwater, the road led them\nacross the Dean River and through the snowcapped\npasses of the Tsi-tsutl Mountains to the headwaters of\nthe Bella Coola. It was on the banks of this stream,\nlate at night on July 17th, that the fires of an Indian village gleaming through the dusk told the weary travellers\nthey had reached the last stage of their journey, for here,\nthey had been informed, they could obtain canoes in which\nthey would be able to paddle quickly down the river to\nthe Sea.\nSome of their Indian companions had gone ahead to\nannounce their corning, and Mackenzie was received most\ngraciously. \u00a7 He was directed to the house of the Chief.\nIt was a large dwelling, he tells us, erected on upright\npoles, at some distance from the ground. A broad piece\nof timber with steps cut in it was the stairway that led\nup to the entrance. ^Mounting this, Mackenzie entered\na large apartment in which three fires blazed. At the far\nend several men were seated on a wide board ready to\nreceive him, and behind them was a plank about four feet\nL\n Early Explorers 217\nwide which marked off the sleeping from the living room.\nThe squaws and children had retired to bed and were now\npeering forth from this recess in wide-eyed wonder at their\nstrange guests.\nShaking hands with his hosts, Mackenzie seated himself\nbeside the Chief. The latter, as soon as all of the party\nhad arrived, rose gravely, and, ordering mats to be placed\nbefore his guests, served them with delicious roasted\nsalmon and other native dishes of herbs and berries. jj I Having been regaled with these delicacies,\" the explorer writes,\n\"we laid ourselves down to rest, with no other canopy\nthan the sky; but I never enjoyed a more sound and refreshing sleep, though I had a board for my bed and a billet\nfor my pillow.\"\nNext morning when they awoke at five o'clock, these\nkindly Indians already had a fire lit and at once served\nthem with a delicious breakfast of salmon and fresh-\npicked berries. Mackenzie gives a very interesting description of these friendly Coast Indians. Their houses\nwere mostly, like that of the Chief, constructed ten or\ntwelve feet above the ground on stout upright posts. In\none of the villages which he visited, he saw one of these\nhouses that was one hundred and twenty feet long and\nforty feet wide. This was a sort of Indian apartment\nhouse, in which many families lived. Along the centre\nwas a row of fireplaces, and along each side the house was\ndivided by cedar planks into little rooms about seven\nfeet square, across the entrance to which was a movable\nboard about three feet high. These were the bedrooms\n 218 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nto which they retired for rest. Above, on the great beams\nthat stretched from side to side of the house, rested strongly\nmade wooden chests in which the natives kept provisions,\nutensils, and other valuables. From beam to beam were\nplaced poles, on which roasted fish were hanging ready\nfor use, while above all was the roof, composed of boards\nand bark, resting on a central ridge pole. At the top\nwere left numerous openings for the entry of light and air\nand the escape of the smoke.\nThe chief food of the Indians was salmon, of which there\nwere incredible numbers. With great ingenuity and labor\nthe natives constructed embankments or weirs across\nthe river, thus damming back the current. In these\nthey left passages for the salmon leading directly to their\nfishing machines. These were great basket-like traps,\nfifteen feet long and four or five feet wide, made of long\nthin strips of wood fastened on hoops so as to let the water\nrun through, but keep all but the smallest fish entrapped.\nAt the foot of the fall they also fished with dipping nets.\nThe natives were very superstitious regarding the salmon,\nlest anything might frighten them away. All other animal\nfood they believed unclean. Thus, when one of the voyageurs threw a deer bone into the river, instantly a native\ndived, brought it up, and, having cast it into the fire,\nwashed his hands, which he deemed to have been soiled.\nWhen Mackenzie asked for a canoe to carry his party\ndown the river, they would provide it only on condition\nthat no venison should be taken aboard, as they thought\nthat might scare away the salmon from the stream.\n Early Explorers\n219\nLeaving this, the Friendly Village, as he called it, Mackenzie now embarked, with seven natives manning the\ncanoes. \"I had imagined,\" he says, \"that the Canadians\nwho accompanied me were the most expert canoemen in\nthe world, but they were very inferior to these people,\nas they themselves acknowledged.\" So skillful were these Indians\nthat they could take a\ncanoe leaping over the\nweirs without shipping\na drop of water. Proceeding downstream at\na great pace, in two\nand a half hours they\ncame to another settlement.\nIt was a larger village\nof more than two hundred people. Immediately the strangers appeared all was in an\nuproar of fear and excitement, but Mackenzie walked calmly\ninto the midst of them, and soon they laid aside their\nweapons and crowded around to examine him with the\ngreatest curiosity. At last he became so tightly wedged\nin the crowd that he could scarcely stir hand or foot.\nThen an elderly chief made his way with dignity through\nthe throng and embraced the explorer, while his son, who\nTwo Chiefs of the Coast Indians of\nBritish Columbia.\n\u25a0Ml'Ji Willi W1MBHB\n 220 Knights Errant of the Wilderness\nfollowed him, placed on Mackenzie's shoulders a magnificent cloak of otter skin. The latter responded with the\ngift of a blanket to the young chief and of a pair of scissors\nto his father. He explained to him how these might be\nused for trimming his beard, which was of great length,\nand to this purpose the Indian at once applied them.\nIn the great lodge of the chief a banquet was now spread\nwith all due ceremony. It consisted largely of roast\nsalmon and sweet cakes made from the inner rind of the\nhemlock tree. These were dipped in salmon oil and found\nto be very delicious. For three hours the feast lasted,\nand then Mackenzie made a tour of the village. The\ngreat totem poles of these people showed considerable\nskill in sculpture, as did also the carved posts and rafter\nends of some of the houses. With great pride the Chief\nshowed Mackenzie his big cedar canoe, which was forty-\nfive feet long. It was painted black with white figures of\ndifferent kinds of fish on it, and the gunwale fore and aft\nwas inlaid with the teeth of the sea otter. In this canoe,\nhe said, ten years before he had been kindly received by\nwhite men sailing along the coast in two large vessels.\nThese were probably the ships of Captain Cook.\nMackenzie was now impatient to be again on his way,\nbut his new friends were very reluctant to part with him\nuntil they saw him set up his instruments to observe the\nsun. This was magic. At once they fell into a great panic\nand begged him to desist lest he should frighten the salmon\nfrom their river. Immediately now the canoe for which he\nhad asked was provided, and they were speeded on their way.\n B5H\n Early Explorers\n221\nThey were now nearing the end of their long quest.\nThe river soon began to divide into many channels and\nthe salty tang of the sea was in the air. When they\ncamped that night they saw in the distance that inlet of\nthe Pacific now called North Bentinck Arm, and next\nmorning at eight o'clock, July 20th, 1793, the prow of\ntheir canoe began to glide through the salt water of the\nSea. It was ebb tide and the seaweed lay bare along the\nshore. Seals aired themselves on the rocks and dived\ninto the deep cool waters, while porpoises bobbed up and\ndown at play, and overhead white eagles screamed and\nflew low in a cloudy sky.\nCrossing the entrance to South Bentinck Arm, Mackenzie landed on Point Menzies. A little later he proceeded further westward along Burke Channel, and there\nwaited for the sky to clear so that he could observe the\nsun and fix his position on the coast. In this he at last\nsucceeded. \"I now mixed up some vermilion in melted\ngrease,\" he says, | and inscribed in large characters on the\nsouth-east face of the rock this brief memorial\u2014'Alexander\nMackenzie, from Canada, by land, the 22nd of July, one\nthousand seven hundred and ninety-three.'\" Such was\nthe finding of the far-famed Western Sea.\nBut even in the very hour of triumph danger and disaster\nthreatened. For two days they had been followed about\nby an ever increasing throng of natives, whose attitude\ngrew more and more menacing. They were led by a\nswaggering fellow who said that white men in a great\ncanoe who had recently been in the bay had fired on his\n 222\nKnights Errant of the Wilderness\nfriends and beaten him with a sword, and he seemed bent\non revenge. Mackenzie's Indians and even the voyageurs\nhad grown terror-stricken at this situation and had implored him to turn back now that he had reached the Sea.\nBut all the savages in the world would not have turned\nMackenzie back until he had made the observations\nnecessary to establish his position on the coast. Now,\nhowever, he could face about with honor and, retracing\nhis way to the mouth of the Bella Coola, he landed and\napproached a village. But the hostile natives had preceded them, and suddenly a horde of Indians sprang out\nupon him, brandishing knives and with murder in their\neyes. For the moment Mackenzie was alone and in\ndeadly peril. He levelled his musket, which halted them,\nfor they knew the power of firearms. One, however,\ncreeping up silently, seized him from behind. With a\nstruggle Mackenzie disengaged himself, but in so doing\nlost his cloak and his hat. Then the arrival of his own\npeople sent his assailants scattering into the woods. But\nMackenzie's blood was now up and he was resolved to\nteach them a lesson. Marching on boldly, he took possession of the village and refused to give it up, until the\ncowed Indians had restored toiiim his hat and cloak and\nall other goods which they had stolen, and had given his\nparty a supply of fish.\nHaving thus resolutely dealt with his enemies, the victorious explorer named the place Rascals' Village and went\non his way without further molestation. He rested again\nat Friendly Village, and then crossing the mountains,\nreached the Fraser on August 4th, exactly one month after\n Early Explorers 223\nhis departure overland for the sea. August 15th found\nthem again on the waters of the Bad River. Two days\nlater they launched their canoes on the Parsnip, and on\nAugust 24th Mackenzie was hailed with rejoicing at the\nfort on the Peace River from which he had started early\nin May. \"Here,\" says Mackenzie, \"my voyages of discovery terminate. Their toils and their dangers, their\nsolicitudes and their sufferings have not been exaggerated\nin my description. I received, however, the reward of\nmy labors for they were crowned with success.\"\nSuccess! Though the modest explorer might thus\nsimply put it, that is far too mild a word with which to\npicture the worth of his achievements. He had traced a\nmighty unknown river, whose basin was an empire, from\nits source in the heart of the Rocky Mountains to its far-\noff delta in the Arctic Ocean. Through countless perils\nand hardships he had won his way to that Western Sea\nwhich for three hundred years had been the goal sought\nby the most daring spirits of two great races \u2014 and sought\ntill then in vain. Where Carrier, Hudson, La Salle, La\nVerendrye, and others had failed, he had won victory. It\nwas no wonder, then, that when the ragged explorer emerged\nfrom the untracked wilderness which he had conquered,\nhe leaped quickly into a foremost place among the fur\ntraders of Canada, while the king, with justice, accorded\nhim that honor of knighthood which in olden days was\nthe guerdon of brave deeds. But greatest of all his rewards was that for all time he will be remembered as the\none whose valor and endurance opened up the first pathway\nacross North America from sea to sea.\n \u25a0^SSSSSi^^^S\n wmmm\n University of British Columbia Library\nDATE DUE\n\u25a0AM Li K \/\nJ$\u00a316\nWSmi\nAPR 3\n#$pr\n'OfflW\nimr\ncuujm\nDtGl\nAPR 2\nAPR 231W\n\u2014\t\njUfH 1367\nJAN 21) 1991\nm\nnm\nOR0TP\ntf\n9 1991 ROD\nOCT 2,5 REC'b\nDEC! 01970\nFORM No. 310\n ","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2009\/08\/skos-reference\/skos.html#note","classmap":"oc:AnnotationContainer"},"iri":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2009\/08\/skos-reference\/skos.html#note","explain":"Simple Knowledge Organisation System; Notes are used to provide information relating to SKOS concepts. 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For permission to publish, copy, or otherwise distribute these images please contact\u00a0digital.initiatives@ubc.ca.","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/rights","classmap":"edm:WebResource","property":"dcterms:rights"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/rights","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; Information about rights held in and over the resource.; Typically, rights information includes a statement about various property rights associated with the resource, including intellectual property rights."}],"Series":[{"label":"Series","value":"MacMillan's Canadian School Series","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isPartOf","classmap":"oc:PublicationDescription","property":"dcterms:isPartOf"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isPartOf","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included."}],"SortDate":[{"label":"SortDate","value":"1920-12-31 AD","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/elements\/1.1\/date","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/elements\/1.1\/date","explain":"A Dublin Core Elements Property; A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource.; Date may be used to express temporal information at any level of granularity. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as the W3CDTF profile of ISO 8601 [W3CDTF]."},{"label":"Sort Date","value":"1920-12-31 AD","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/date","classmap":"oc:InternalResource","property":"dcterms:date"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/date","explain":"A Dublin Core Elements Property; A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource.; Date may be used to express temporal information at any level of granularity. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as the W3CDTF profile of ISO 8601 [W3CDTF].; A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource.; Date may be used to express temporal information at any level of granularity. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as the W3CDTF profile of ISO 8601 [W3CDTF]."}],"Source":[{"label":"Source","value":"University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. F5513.1 .L6","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/source","classmap":"oc:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:source"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/source","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; A related resource from which the described resource is derived.; The described resource may be derived from the related resource in whole or in part. Recommended best practice is to identify the related resource by means of a string conforming to a formal identification system."}],"Subject":[{"label":"Subject","value":"Northwest, Canadian--Discovery and exploration","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/subject","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:subject"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/subject","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; The topic of the resource.; Typically, the subject will be represented using keywords, key phrases, or classification codes. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary."}],"Title":[{"label":"Title","value":"Knights errant of the wilderness : tales of the explorers of the great North-west","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/title","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:title"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/title","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; The name given to the resource."}],"Type":[{"label":"Type","value":"Text","attrs":{"lang":"en","ns":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/type","classmap":"dpla:SourceResource","property":"dcterms:type"},"iri":"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/type","explain":"A Dublin Core Terms Property; The nature or genre of the resource.; Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the DCMI Type Vocabulary [DCMITYPE]. To describe the file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource, use the Format element."}],"Translation":[{"property":"Translation","language":"en","label":"Translation","value":""}]}