We Were Much Rejoiced At Their Arrival And Proceeded Forthwith To
Pierce The Spirit Cask And Issue To Each Of The Household The Portion Of
Rum Which Had Been Promised On The First Day Of The Year.
The spirits
which were proof were frozen but, after standing at the fire for some
time, they flowed out with the consistency of honey.
The temperature of
the liquid even in this state was so low as instantly to convert into ice
the moisture which condensed on the surface of the dram-glass. The
fingers also adhered to the glass and would doubtless have been speedily
frozen had they been kept in contact with it; yet each of the voyagers
swallowed his dram without experiencing the slightest inconvenience or
complaining of toothache.
After the men had retired an Indian who had accompanied them from Fort
Providence informed me that they had broached the cask on their way up
and spent two days in drinking. This instance of breach of trust was
excessively distressing to me; I felt for their privations and fatigues
and was disposed to seize every opportunity of alleviating them but this,
combined with many instances of petty dishonesty with regard to meat,
showed how little confidence could be put in a Canadian voyager when food
or spirits were in question. We had been indeed made acquainted with
their character on these points by the traders; but we thought that when
they saw their officers living under equal if not greater privations than
themselves they would have been prompted by some degree of generous
feeling to abstain from those depredations which under ordinary
circumstances they would scarcely have blushed to be detected in.
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