The Northern Indians suppose that they originally sprang from a dog; and
about five years ago a superstitious fanatic so strongly impressed upon
their minds the impropriety of employing these animals, to which they
were related, for purposes of labour that they universally resolved
against using them any more and, strange as it may seem, destroyed them.
They now have to drag everything themselves on sledges. This laborious
task falls most heavily on the women; nothing can more shock the feelings
of a person accustomed to civilised life than to witness the state of
their degradation. When a party is on a march the women have to drag the
tent, the meat, and whatever the hunter possesses, whilst he only carries
his gun and medicine case. In the evening they form the encampment, cut
wood, fetch water, and prepare the supper; and then, perhaps, are not
permitted to partake of the fare until the men have finished. A
successful hunter sometimes has two or three wives; whoever happens to be
the favourite assumes authority over the others and has the management of
the tent. These men usually treat their wives unkindly and even with
harshness; except indeed when they are about to increase the family and
then they show them much indulgence.
Hearne charges the Chipewyans with the dreadful practice of abandoning,
in extremity, their aged and sick people. The only instance that came
under our personal notice was attended with some palliating
circumstances: An old woman arrived at Fort Chipewyan during our
residence with her son, a little boy about ten years old, both of whom
had been deserted by their relations and left in an encampment when much
reduced by sickness: two or three days after their departure the woman
gained a little strength and, with the assistance of the boy, was enabled
to paddle a canoe to the fishing station of this post where they were
supported for some days until they were enabled to proceed in search of
some other relations who they expected would treat them with more
kindness. I learned that the woman bore an extremely bad character,
having even been guilty of infanticide and that her companions considered
her offences merited the desertion.
This tribe since its present intimate connection with the traders has
discontinued its war excursions against the Esquimaux, but they still
speak of that nation in terms of the most inveterate hatred. We have only
conversed with four men who have been engaged in any of those
expeditions; all these confirm the statements of Black Meat respecting
the sea-coast. Our observations concerning the half-breed population in
this vicinity coincided so exactly with those which have been given of
similar persons in Dr. Richardson's account of the Crees that any
statement respecting them at this place is unnecessary. Both the
Companies have wisely prohibited their servants from intermarrying with
pure Indian women, which was formerly the cause of many quarrels with the
tribes.
The weather was extremely variable during the month of June; we scarcely
had two clear days in succession, and the showers of rain were frequent;
the winds were often strong and generally blowing from the north-east
quarter. On the evening of the 16th the Aurora Borealis was visible but
after that date the nights were too light for our discerning it.
The mosquitoes swarmed in great numbers about the house and tormented us
so incessantly by their irritating stings that we were compelled to keep
our rooms constantly filled with smoke which is the only means of driving
them away: the weather indeed was now warm. Having received one of
Dollond's eighteen-inch spirit thermometers from Mr. Stuart, which he had
the kindness to send us from his post at Pierre au Calumet after he had
learned that ours had been rendered useless, I observed the temperature
at noon on the 25th of June to be 63 degrees.
On the following morning we made an excursion accompanied by Mr. Smith
round the fishing stations on the south side of the lake for the purpose
of visiting our men; we passed several groups of women and children
belonging to both the forts, posted wherever they could find a
sufficiently dry spot for an encampment. At length we came to our men,
pitched upon a narrow strip of land situated between two rivers. Though
the portion of dry ground did not exceed fifty yards yet they appeared to
be living very comfortably, having formed huts with the canoe's sail and
covering, and were amply supported by the fish their nets daily
furnished. They sometimes had a change in their fare by procuring a few
ducks and other waterfowl which resort in great abundance to the marshes
by which they were surrounded.
July 2.
The canoe which was ordered to be built for our use was finished. As it
was constructed after the manner described by Hearne and several of the
American travellers a detail of the process will be unnecessary. Its
extreme length was thirty-two feet six inches, including the bow and
stern pieces, its greatest breadth was four feet ten inches, but it was
only two feet nine inches forward where the bowman sat, and two feet four
inches behind where the steersman was placed, and its depth was one foot
eleven and a quarter inches. There were seventy-three hoops of thin cedar
and a layer of slender laths of the same wood within the frame. These
feeble vessels of bark will carry twenty-five pieces of goods, each
weighing ninety pounds exclusive of the necessary provision and baggage
for the crew of five or six men, amounting in the whole to about three
thousand three hundred pounds' weight. This great lading they annually
carry between the depots and the posts in the interior; and it rarely
happens that any accidents occur if they be managed by experienced bowmen
and steersmen, on whose skill the safety of the canoe entirely depends in
the rapids and difficult places.
