The position of Cumberland House by our observations is latitude 53
degrees 56 minutes 40 seconds North; longitude 102 degrees 16 minutes 41
seconds West by the chronometers; variations 17 degrees 17 minutes 29
seconds East; dip of the needle 83 degrees 12 minutes 50 seconds. The
whole of the travelling distance between York Factory and Cumberland
House is about six hundred and ninety miles.
CHAPTER 3.
DR. RICHARDSON'S RESIDENCE AT CUMBERLAND HOUSE.
HIS ACCOUNT OF THE CREE INDIANS.
DR. RICHARDSON'S RESIDENCE AT CUMBERLAND HOUSE.
January 19, 1820.
From the departure of Messrs. Franklin and Back on the 19th of January
for Chipewyan until the opening of the navigation in the spring the
occurrences connected with the Expedition were so much in the ordinary
routine of a winter's residence at Fort Cumberland that they may be
perhaps appropriately blended with the following general but brief
account of that district and its inhabitants.
Cumberland House was originally built by Hearne, a year or two after his
return from the Copper-Mine River, and has ever since been considered by
the Hudson's Bay Company as a post of considerable importance. Previous
to that time the natives carried their furs down to the shores of
Hudson's Bay or disposed of them nearer home to the French Canadian
traders who visited this part of the country as early as the year 1697.
The Cumberland House district, extending about one hundred and fifty
miles from east to west along the banks of the Saskatchewan, and about as
far from north to south, comprehends, on a rough calculation, upwards of
twenty thousand square miles, and is frequented at present by about one
hundred and twenty Indian hunters. Of these a few have several wives but
the majority only one; and as some are unmarried we shall not err greatly
in considering the number of married women as only slightly exceeding
that of the hunters. The women marry very young, have a custom of
suckling their children for several years, and are besides exposed
constantly to fatigue and often to famine; hence they are not prolific,
bearing upon an average not more than four children, of whom two may
attain the age of puberty. Upon these data the amount of each family may
be stated at five, and the whole Indian population in the district at
five hundred.
This is but a small population for such an extent of country, yet their
mode of life occasionally subjects them to great privations. The winter
of our residence at Cumberland House proved extremely severe to the
Indians. The whooping-cough made its appearance amongst them in the
autumn, and was followed by the measles which, in the course of the
winter, spread through the tribe.
