The Sabbath was always a day of rest with us; the woodmen were required
to provide for the exigencies of that day on Saturday and the party were
dressed in their best attire. Divine service was regularly performed and
the Canadians attended and behaved with great decorum although they were
all Roman Catholics and but little acquainted with the language in which
the prayers were read. I regretted much that we had not a French
Prayer-Book but the Lord's Prayer and Creed were always read to them in
their own language.
Our diet consisted almost entirely of reindeer meat, varied twice a week
by fish and occasionally by a little flour, but we had no vegetables of
any description. On the Sunday mornings we drank a cup of chocolate but
our greatest luxury was tea (without sugar) of which we regularly partook
twice a day. With reindeer's fat and strips of cotton shirts we formed
candles; and Hepburn acquired considerable skill in the manufacture of
soap from the wood-ashes, fat and salt. The formation of soap was
considered as rather a mysterious operation by our Canadians and in their
hands was always supposed to fail if a woman approached the kettle in
which the ley was boiling. Such are our simple domestic details.
On the 30th two hunters came from the leader to convey ammunition to him
as soon as our men should bring it from Fort Providence.
The men at this time coated the walls of the house on the outside with a
thin mixture of clay and water which formed a crust of ice that for some
days proved impervious to the air; the dryness of the atmosphere however
was such that the ice in a short time evaporated and gave admission to
the wind as before. It is a general custom at the forts to give this sort
of coating to the walls at Christmas time. When it was gone we attempted
to remedy its defect by heaping up snow against the walls.
January 1, 1821.
This morning our men assembled and greeted us with the customary
salutation on the commencement of the new year. That they might enjoy a
holiday they had yesterday collected double the usual quantity of
firewood and we anxiously expected the return of the men from Fort
Providence with some additions to their comforts. We had stronger hope of
their arrival before the evening as we knew that every voyager uses his
utmost endeavour to reach a post upon or previous to the jour de l'an
that he may partake of the wonted festivities. It forms, as Christmas is
said to have done among our forefathers, the theme of their conversation
for months before and after the period of its arrival. On the present
occasion we could only treat them with a little flour and fat; these were
both considered as great luxuries but still the feast was defective from
the want of rum although we promised them a little when it should arrive.
The early part of January proved mild, the thermometer rose to 20 degrees
above zero, and we were surprised by the appearance of a kind of damp fog
approaching very nearly to rain. The Indians expressed their astonishment
at this circumstance and declared the present to be one of the warmest
winters they had ever experienced. Some of them reported that it had
actually rained in the woody parts of the country. In the latter part of
the month however the thermometer again descended to minus 49 degrees and
the mean temperature for the month proved to be minus 15.6 degrees. Owing
to the fogs that obscured the sky the Aurora Borealis was visible only
upon eighteen nights in the month.
On the 15th seven of our men arrived from Fort Providence with two kegs
of rum, one barrel of powder, sixty pounds of ball, two rolls of tobacco
and some clothing. They had been twenty-one days on their march from
Slave Lake and the labour they underwent was sufficiently evinced by
their sledge-collars having worn out the shoulders of their coats. Their
loads weighed from sixty to ninety pounds each, exclusive of their
bedding and provisions which at starting must have been at least as much
more. 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.
