CHAPTER 12. (continued 3)
Reading edition
The 12th was exceedingly cold with fresh breezes. Our meal at night consisted of scraps of old deer-skins and swamp tea and the men complained greatly of their increasing debility. The following morning I sent St. Germain to hunt, intending to go some distance down the lake, but the weather becoming exceedingly thick with snow-storms we were prevented from moving. He returned without success, not having seen any animals. We had nothing to eat.
In the morning of the 14th the part of the lake before us was quite frozen. There was so much uncertainty in St. Germain’s answers as to the chance of any Indians being in the direction we were then going (although he had previously said that the leader had told him he should be there) and he gave so much dissatisfaction in his hunting excursions that I was induced to send a note to the Commander, whom I supposed to be by this time at Fort Enterprise, to inform him of our situation; not that I imagined for a moment he could amend it, but that by all returning to the fort we might perhaps have better success in hunting; with this view I despatched Belanger, much against his inclination, and told him to return as quickly as possible to a place about four miles farther on where we intended to fish and to await his arrival. The men were so weak this day that I could get neither of them to move from the encampment, and it was only necessity that compelled them to cut wood for fuel, in performing which operation Beauparlant’s face became so dreadfully swelled that he could scarcely see; I myself lost my temper on the most trivial circumstances and was become very peevish; the day was fine but cold with a freezing north-east wind. We had nothing to eat.
October 15.
The night was calm and clear but it was not before two in the afternoon that we set out, and the one was so weak and the other so full of complaints that we did not get more than three-quarters of a mile from our last encampment before we were obliged to put up, but in this distance we were fortunate enough to kill a partridge, the bones of which were eaten and the remainder reserved for baits to fish with. We however collected sufficient tripe de roche to make a meal and I anxiously awaited Belanger’s return to know what course to take. I was now so much reduced that my shoulders were as if they would fall from my body, my legs seemed unable to support me and, in the disposition in which I then found myself, had it not been for the remembrance of my friends behind who relied on me for relief as well as the persons of whom I had charge, I certainly should have preferred remaining where I was to the miserable pain of attempting to move.
October 16.
We waited until two in the afternoon for Belanger but, not seeing anything of him on the lake, we set out, purposing to encamp at the Narrows, the place which was said to be so good for fishing and where, according to St. Germain’s account, the Indians never failed to catch plenty; its distance at most could not be more than two miles. We had not proceeded far before Beauparlant began to complain of increasing weakness, but this was so usual with us that no particular notice was taken of it, for in fact there was little difference, all being alike feeble: among other things he said whilst we were resting that he should never get beyond the next encampment for his strength had quite failed him. I endeavoured to encourage him by explaining the mercy of the Supreme Being who ever beholds with an eye of pity those that seek His aid. This passed as common discourse. When he inquired where we were to put up St. Germain pointed to a small clump of pines near us, the only place indeed that offered for fuel. “Well,” replied the poor man, “take your axe, Mr. Back, and I will follow at my leisure, I shall join you by the time the encampment is made.” This is a usual practice of the country and St. Germain and myself went on towards the spot; it was five o’clock and not very cold but rather milder than we had experienced it for some time when, on leaving the ice, we saw a number of crows perched on the top of some high pines near us. St. Germain immediately said there must be some dead animal thereabouts and proceeded to search, when we saw several heads of deer half buried in the snow and ice without eyes or tongues, the previous severity of the weather having obliged the wolves and other animals to abandon them. An expression of “Oh merciful God! we are saved,” broke from us both, and with feelings more easily imagined than described we shook hands, not knowing what to say for joy. It was twilight and a fog was rapidly darkening the surface of the lake when St. Germain commenced making the encampment; the task was too laborious for me to render him any assistance and, had we not thus providentially found provision, I feel convinced that the next twenty-four hours would have terminated my existence. But this good fortune in some measure renovated me for the moment and, putting out my whole strength, I contrived to collect a few heads and with incredible difficulty carried them singly about thirty paces to the fire.
Darkness stole on us apace and I became extremely anxious about Beauparlant; several guns were fired to each of which he answered. We then called out and again heard his responses though faintly, when I told St. Germain to go and look for him as I had not strength myself, being quite exhausted. He said that he had already placed a pine branch on the ice and he could then scarcely find his way back, but if he went now he should certainly be lost. In this situation I could only hope that, as Beauparlant had my blanket and everything requisite to light a fire, he might have encamped at a little distance from us.
October 17.
The night was cold and clear but we could not sleep at all from the pains of having eaten. We suffered the most excruciating torments though I in particular did not eat a quarter of what would have satisfied me; it might have been from using a quantity of raw or frozen sinews of the legs of deer, which neither of us could avoid doing, so great was our hunger. In the morning, being much agitated for the safety of Beauparlant, I desired St. Germain to go in search of him and to return with him as quick as possible, when I would have something prepared for them to eat.
It was however late when he arrived, with a small bundle which Beauparlant was accustomed to carry and, with tears in his eyes, told me that he had found our poor companion dead. Dead! I could not believe him. “It is so sir,” said St. Germain, “after hallooing and calling his name to no purpose I went towards our last encampment about three-quarters of a mile and found him stretched upon his back on a sandbank frozen to death, his limbs all extended and swelled enormously and as hard as the ice that was near him; his bundle was behind him as if it had rolled away when he fell, and the blanket which he wore around his neck and shoulders thrown on one side. Seeing that there was no longer life in him I threw your covering over him and placed his snowshoes on the top of it.”
I had not even thought of so serious an occurrence in our little party and for a short time was obliged to give vent to my grief. Left with one person and both of us weak, no appearance of Belanger, a likelihood that great calamity had taken place amongst our other companions, still upwards of seventeen days’ march from the nearest establishment, and myself unable to carry a burden; all these things pressed heavy on me, and how to get to the Indians or to the fort I did not know but, that I might not depress St. Germain’s spirits, I suppressed the feelings to which these thoughts gave rise and made some arrangements for the journey to Fort Providence.
October 18.
While we were this day occupied in scraping together the remains of some deer’s meat we observed Belanger coming round a point apparently scarcely moving. I went to meet him and made immediate inquiries about my friends. Five, with the Captain, he said, were at the house, the rest were left near the river unable to proceed, but he was too weak to relate the whole. He was conducted to the encampment and paid every attention to, and by degrees we heard the remainder of his tragic tale, at which the interpreter could not avoid crying. He then gave me a letter from my friend the Commander which indeed was truly afflicting. The simple story of Belanger I could hear, but when I read it in another language, mingled with the pious resignation of a good man, I could not sustain it any longer. The poor man was much affected at the death of our lamented companion but his appetite prevailed over every other feeling and, had I permitted it, he would have done himself an injury; for after two hours’ eating, principally skin and sinews, he complained of hunger. The day was cloudy with snow and fresh breezes from the north-east by east.
The last evening as well as this morning the 19th I mentioned my wishes to the men that we should proceed towards Reindeer Lake, but this proposal met with a direct refusal. Belanger stated his inability to move and St. Germain used similar language, adding for the first time that he did not know the route, and that it was of no use to go in the direction I mentioned, which was the one agreed upon between the Commander and myself. I then insisted that we should go by the known route and join the Commander, but they would not hear of it; they would remain where they were until they had regained their strength; they said I wanted to expose them again to death (faire perir). In vain did I use every argument to the contrary for they were equally heedless to all. Thus situated I was compelled to remain, and from this time to the 25th we employed ourselves in looking about for the remnants of the deer and pieces of skin which even the wolves had left and, by pounding the bones, we were enabled to make a sort of soup which strengthened us greatly, though each still complained of weakness. It was not without the greatest difficulty that I could restrain the men from eating every scrap they found, though they were well aware of the necessity there was of being economical in our present situation and to save whatever they could for our journey; yet they could not resist the temptation and whenever my back was turned they seldom failed to snatch at the nearest piece to them, whether cooked or raw.
We had set fishing-lines but without any success, and we often saw large herds of deer crossing the lake at full speed and wolves pursuing them.
The night of the 25th was cold with hard frost. Early the next morning I sent the men to cover the body of our departed companion Beauparlant with the trunks and branches of trees which they did and, shortly after their return, I opened his bundle and found it contained two papers of vermilion, several strings of beads, some fire-steels, flints, awls, fish-hooks, rings, linen, and the glass of an artificial horizon. My two men began to recover a little as well as myself, though I was by far the weakest of the three; the soles of my feet were cracked all over and the other parts were as hard as horn from constant walking. I again urged the necessity of advancing to join the Commander’s party but they said they were not sufficiently strong.
On the 27th we discovered the remains of a deer on which we feasted. The night was unusually cold and ice formed in a pint-pot within two feet of the fire. The coruscations of the Aurora Borealis were beautifully brilliant; they served to show us eight wolves which we had some trouble to frighten away from our collection of deer’s bones and, between their howling and the constant cracking of the ice, we did not get much rest.
Having collected with great care and by self-denial two small packets of dried meat or sinews sufficient (for men who knew what it was to fast) to last for eight days at the rate of one indifferent meal per day, we prepared to set out on the 30th. I calculated that we should be about fourteen days in reaching Fort Providence and, allowing that we neither killed deer nor found Indians, we could but be unprovided with food six days and this we heeded not whilst the prospect of obtaining full relief was before us. Accordingly we set out against a keen north-east wind in order to gain the known route to Fort Providence. We saw a number of wolves and some crows on the middle of the lake and, supposing such an assemblage was not met idly, we made for them and came in for a share of a deer which they had killed a short time before, and thus added a couple of meals to our stock. By four P.M. we gained the head of the lake or the direct road to Fort Providence and, some dry wood being at hand, we encamped; by accident it was the same place where the Commander’s party had slept on the 19th, the day on which I supposed they had left Fort Enterprise, but the encampment was so small that we feared great mortality had taken place amongst them, and I am sorry to say the stubborn resolution of my men not to go to the house prevented me from determining this most anxious point, so that I now almost dreaded passing their encampments lest I should see some of our unfortunate friends dead at each spot. Our fire was hardly kindled when a fine herd of deer passed close to us. St. Germain pursued them a short distance but with his usual want of success so that we made a meal off the muscles and sinews we had dried, though they were so tough that we could scarcely cut them. My hands were benumbed throughout the march and we were all stiff and fatigued. The marching of two days weakened us all very much and the more so on account of our exertion to follow the tracks of our Commander’s party, but we lost them and concluded that they were not before us. Though the weather was not cold I was frozen in the face and was so reduced and affected by these constant calamities, as well in mind as in body, that I found much difficulty in proceeding even with the advantages I had enjoyed.
November 3.
We set out before day, though in fact we were all much fitter to remain from the excessive pain which we suffered in our joints, and proceeded till one P.M. without halting, when Belanger who was before stopped and cried out “Footsteps of Indians.” It is needless to mention the joy that brightened the countenances of each at this unlooked-for sight; we knew relief must be at hand and considered our sufferings at an end. St. Germain inspected the tracks and said that three persons had passed the day before, and that he knew the remainder must be advancing to the southward as was customary with these Indians when they sent to the trading establishment on the first ice. On this information we encamped and, being too weak to walk myself, I sent St. Germain to follow the tracks, with instructions to the chief of the Indians to provide immediate assistance for such of our friends as might be at Fort Enterprise, as well as for ourselves, and to lose no time in returning to me. I was now so exhausted that, had we not seen the tracks this day, I must have remained at the next encampment until the men could have sent aid from Fort Providence. We had finished our small portion of sinews and were preparing for rest when an Indian boy made his appearance with meat. St. Germain had arrived before sunset at the tents of Akaitcho whom he found at the spot where he had wintered last year, but imagine my surprise when he gave me a note from the Commander and said that Benoit and Augustus, two of the men, had just joined them. The note was so confused by the pencil marks being partly rubbed out that I could not decipher it clearly, but it informed me that he had attempted to come with the two men but, finding his strength inadequate to the task, he relinquished his design and returned to Fort Enterprise to await relief with the others. There was another note for the gentleman in charge of Fort Providence desiring him to send meat, blankets, shoes, and tobacco. Akaitcho wished me to join him on the ensuing day at a place which the boy knew where they were going to fish, and I was the more anxious to do so on account of my companions, but particularly that I might hear a full relation of what had happened and of the Commander’s true situation, which I suspected to be much worse than he had described.
In the afternoon I joined the Indians and repeated to Akaitcho what St. Germain had told him; he seemed much affected and said he would have sent relief directly though I had not been there; indeed his conduct was generous and humane. The next morning at an early hour three Indians with loaded sledges of meat, skins, shoes, and a blanket, set out for Fort Enterprise; one of them was to return directly with an answer from Captain Franklin to whom I wrote but, in the event of his death, he was to bring away all the papers he could find, and he promised to travel with such haste as to be able to return to us on the fourth day. I was now somewhat more at ease, having done all in my power to succour my unfortunate companions, but was very anxious for the return of the messenger. The Indians brought me meat in small quantities though sufficient for our daily consumption and, as we had a little ammunition, many were paid on the spot for what they gave.
On the 9th I had the satisfaction of seeing the Indian arrive from Fort Enterprise. At first he said they were all dead but shortly after he gave me a note which was from the Commander and then I learned all the fatal particulars which had befallen them. I now proposed that the chief should immediately send three sledges loaded with meat to Fort Enterprise, should make a cache of provision at our present encampment, and also that he should here await the arrival of the Commander. By noon two large trains laden with meat were sent off for Fort Enterprise. The next day we proceeded on our journey and arrived at Fort Providence on the 21st of November.
CONCLUSION OF MR. BACK’S NARRATIVE.
CONCLUSION.
I have little now to add to the melancholy detail into which I felt it proper to enter, but I cannot omit to state that the unremitting care and attentions of our kind friends Mr. McVicar and Mr. McAuley, united with our improved diet to promote to the restoration of our health, so that by the end of February the swellings of our limbs which had returned upon us entirely subsided, and we were able to walk to any part of the island. Our appetites gradually moderated and we nearly regained our ordinary state of body before the spring. Hepburn alone suffered from a severe attack of rheumatism which confined him to his bed for some weeks. The usual symptoms of spring having appeared, on the 25th of May we prepared to embark for Fort Chipewyan. Fortunately on the following morning a canoe arrived from that place with the whole of the stores which we required for the payment of Akaitcho and the hunters. It was extremely gratifying to us to be thus enabled, previous to our departure, to make arrangements respecting the requital of our late Indian companions, and the more so as we had recently discovered that Akaitcho and the whole of his tribe, in consequence of the death of the leader’s mother and the wife of our old guide Keskarrah, had broken and destroyed every useful article belonging to them and were in the greatest distress. It was an additional pleasure to find our stock of ammunition more than sufficient to pay them what was due, and that we could make a considerable present of this most essential article to every individual that had been attached to the Expedition.
We quitted Moose-Deer Island at five P.M. on the 26th, accompanied by Mr. McVicar and Mr. McAuley and nearly all the voyagers at the establishment, having resided there about five months, not a day of which had passed without our having cause of gratitude for the kind and unvaried attentions of Mr. McVicar and Mr. McAuley. These gentlemen accompanied us as far as Fort Chipewyan where we arrived on the 2nd of June, here we met Mr. Wentzel and the four men who had been sent with him from the mouth of the Copper-Mine River, and I think it due to that gentleman to give his own explanation of the unfortunate circumstances which prevented him from fulfilling my instructions respecting the provisions to have been left for us at Fort Enterprise.[35]
In a subsequent conversation he stated to me that the two Indians who were actually with him at Fort Enterprise whilst he remained there altering his canoe were prevented from hunting, one by an accidental lameness, the other by the fear of meeting alone some of the Dog-Rib Indians.
We were here furnished with a canoe by Mr. Smith and a bowman to act as our guide and, having left Fort Chipewyan on the 5th, we arrived on the 4th of July at Norway House. Finding at this place that canoes were about to go down to Montreal I gave all our Canadian voyagers their discharges and sent them by those vessels, furnishing them with orders on the Agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company for the amount of their wages. We carried Augustus down to York Factory where we arrived on the 14th of July, and were received with every mark of attention and kindness by Mr. Simpson the Governor, Mr. McTavish, and indeed by all the officers of the United Companies. And thus terminated our long, fatiguing, and disastrous travels in North America, having journeyed by water and by land (including our navigation of the Polar Sea) five thousand five hundred and fifty miles.