Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1

by Sir William Edward Parry

CHAPTER I.

Passage across the Atlantic.—Removal of Stores from the Nautilus
Transport, at the Margin of the Ice.—Departure of the Nautilus
for England.—Enter the Ice in Hudson's Strait.—Perilous
Situation of the Hecla, and Loss of her Anchor.—Meet with the
Hudson's Bay Ships.—Passage up the Strait, and Communication with
the Natives inhabiting the Northern Shores.—Pass the Trinity
Islands of Fox.—Arrival off Southampton Island, where the
Researches of the Expedition commence.

The FURY, HECLA, and NAUTILUS transport were completed for sea towards the latter part of the month of April, and on the 29th, at ten A.M., the Fury was taken in tow by the Eclipse steamboat, which vessel had before taken us down the river on a similar occasion. The Hecla reached the moorings on the following day, and the Nautilus on the first of May.

Nothing of consequence happened during our passage across the Atlantic; but, after entering Davis's Straits, we had for several days variable and unsettled weather, the wind blowing principally from the southward, with a heavy swell from the same quarter. On the 14th we met with the first iceberg, being in lat. 60° 48', long. 53° 13'.

Having now reached the situation in which I was directed, by my instructions, to clear the Nautilus of our stores, I gave Lieutenant Scrymgour his instructions to return to England; and at one A.M. on the 1st of July he parted company, while the Fury and Hecla stood in towards the ice. A whaler, deeply laden, and apparently homeward bound, was at this time in sight to the eastward.

At seven P.M., Tuesday, 3d July, the ice opposed our farther progress to the westward, covering the whole sea as far as the eye could reach in that direction; the ships were therefore, of necessity, hove to, in order to await some change in our favour. The ice here consisted principally of large though loose masses of broken floes, none covering more than a quarter of an acre, and few so much, but having many high hummocks, and drawing a great deal of water. We counted also above thirty bergs in sight at one time, and observed that many of them were carried about by the tides with great rapidity.

The wind shifted to the southeastward in the night of the 5th, with a strong breeze and heavy rain; and, on the following morning, when the ebb-tide opened the ice a little, a considerable swell was admitted from the sea, causing the ships to strike violently and almost constantly on the masses of ice alongside of them. In this situation they continued for several hours so completely beset as to render it impossible to extricate them, and drifting about at random with the tides. The Hecla was, by a different set of the stream, separated five or six miles from the Fury, while both ships were equally hampered.

On the 13th, both ships' companies were exercised in firing at a target on the ice, as well for the purpose of giving them occupation as of finding out who were the best shots. On the same afternoon we saw two ships beset to the northward, which we supposed to be those bound to the Hudson's Bay factories. They were joined the next day by a third ship, which afterward proved to be, as we conjectured, the Lord Wellington, having on board settlers for the Red River.

The ice being rather less close on the morning of the 16th, we made sail to the westward at 7.45 A.M., and continued "boring" in that situation the whole day, which enabled us to join the three strange ships. They proved to be, as we had supposed, the Prince of Wales, Eddystone, and Lord Wellington, bound to Hudson's Bay. I sent a boat to the former to request Mr. Davidson, the master, to come on board, which he immediately did. From him we learned that the Lord Wellington having on board one hundred and sixty settlers for the Red River, principally foreigners, of both sexes and every age, had now been twenty days among the ice, and had been drifted about in various directions at no small risk to the ship. By the Prince of Wales we sent our last letters for our friends in England.

Proceeding slowly to the westward, we had reached at noon on the 21st the lat. of 61° 50' 13", long., by chronometers, 67° 07' 35". In this situation several islands were in sight to the northward and westward, and, among the rest, a remarkable one called Saddle-back on account of its shape. The wind backing to the westward in the afternoon, we anchored the ships to the largest floe-piece we could find, there not being room to beat to the windward. While thus employed we heard voices in-shore, which we soon knew to be those of some Esquimaux coming off to us. Shortly after, several canoes made their appearance, and seventeen of these people came alongside the Fury. Having hauled their kayaks (canoes) upon the floe, they began to barter their commodities, consisting of seal and whale blubber, whalebone, spears, lines, and the skins of the seal, bear, fox, deer, and dog. Our first endeavour was to procure as much oil as possible, of which, as we had been informed by the Hudson's Bay ships, several tons are thus almost annually obtained from these people. We soon found that they had been well accustomed to bargain-making, for it was with some difficulty that we could prevail on them to sell the oil for anything of reasonable value. They frequently gave us to understand that they wanted saws and harpoons in exchange for it, and as these were articles which we could not spare, it was not without trouble that we obtained, in the course of the evening, two barrels of blubber in exchange for several knives, large nails, and pieces of iron hoop, which was certainly a dear bargain on our side. If they saw more than one of these at a time, they would try hard to get the whole for the commodity they were offering, though, when we had for some time persisted in refusing, they would not only accept what was offered, but jump for joy at having obtained it. They always licked the articles given them, and in one instance only did we notice any inclination to break the contract after this process had been gone through.

Shortly after these men had arrived, a large oomiak, or woman's boat, made its appearance, containing six or seven females and four men, the oldest of the latter, as is usual among them, steering the boat with a rude oar of wood. The women could not be induced to land upon the floe, but held up skins and small narrow strips of well-tanned leather to exchange, loudly vociferating pilletay (give me) the whole time. There were in this boat several skins of oil and blubber, which I tried hard to purchase, but nothing could induce the old man to part with more than one skin of it; for what reason I could not tell, except that he hoped, by perseverance, to obtain a higher price. On my desiring our men to hand out a second skin of oil, as an equivalent for which I put into the old man's hand a second knife, he resisted most vehemently, pushing our men aside in the boat with a violence I have never seen the Esquimaux use on any other occasion. One of the younger men then came forward, and was lifting up the stretcher of their boat to strike our people, who were good-humouredly laughing at the old man's violence, when I thought it high time to interpose, and, raising a boat-hook over the head of the Esquimaux, as if about to strike them, soon brought them into a cooler mood; after which, to prevent farther altercation, I ordered our people out of the boat. We had by this time succeeded in purchasing all the oil brought by the first canoes; and as the old fellow, who was commanding officer of the oomiak, obstinately persisted in his refusal to sell his, I ordered him away, when he immediately rowed to the Hecla, and, as I was afterward informed by Captain Lyon, sold his oil for less than he might have obtained at first. Four other oomiaks afterward came from the shore, from which we were distant five or six miles. Each of these contained from fourteen to twenty-six persons, the majority being females and young children. Upon the whole, not less than one hundred of the natives visited the ships in the course of the evening.

These people possessed in an eminent degree the disposition to steal all they could lay their hands on, which has almost universally been imputed to every tribe of Esquimaux hitherto visited by Europeans. They tried more than once the art of picking our pockets, and were as bold and unembarrassed as ever immediately after detection. It is impossible to describe the horribly disgusting manner in which they sat down, as soon as they felt hungry, to eat their raw blubber, and to suck the oil remaining on the skins we had just emptied, the very smell of which, as well as the appearance, was to us almost insufferable. The disgust which our seaman could not help expressing at this sight seemed to create in the Esquimaux the most malicious amusement; and when our people turned away, literally unable to bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke among themselves, run after them, holding out a piece of blubber or raw seal's flesh dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting them to partake of it. Both the men and women were guilty of still more disgusting indecencies, which seemed to afford them amazing diversion. A worse trait even than all these was displayed by two women alongside the Hecla, who, in a manner too unequivocal to be misunderstood, offered to barter their children for some article of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included in the intended bargain.

Upon the whole, it was impossible for us not to receive a very unfavourable impression of the general behaviour and moral character of the natives of this part of Hudson's Strait, who seem to have acquired, by an annual intercourse with our ships for nearly a hundred years, many of the vices which unhappily attend a first intercourse with the civilized world, without having imbibed any of the virtues or refinements which adorn and render it happy.

Early on the morning of the 22d a number of canoes repeated their visit to us, the Esquimaux having hauled them upon a piece of ice to lodge for the night. In the forenoon an oomiak also came from the shore, and as no intercourse with them was permitted till after divine service, they became very impatient to barter their commodities, and walked on the ice alongside the ships, with a number of trifling things in their hands, vociferating "pilletay" to such a degree that we could hardly hear ourselves speak. Some more oil was obtained in exchange for pieces of iron hoop, and, at a quarter before noon, the wind coming more to the southward, and the ice being somewhat less close than before, we cast off and made sail up the strait.

The wind and ice combined to favour us more and more as we proceeded, the former both in strength and direction, and the latter by opening into loose streams, so that, for the first time since we entered Hudson's Strait, we were now enabled to set all the studding-sails, with some prospect of deriving advantage from them. The Hudson's Bay ships remained at anchor some time after we made sail, and in the course of the evening we finally lost sight of them. From this circumstance, as well as from the unimpeded progress we had just begun to make to the westward, it was now only that we considered our voyage as having fairly commenced.

We continued, on the first of August, to beat to the westward, between Nottingham Island and the North Shore, the distance between which is about four leagues, and the latter fringed with numerous islands. In the course of the morning, several canoes and one oomiak came off from the mainland, containing about twenty persons, more than half of whom were women and children. They brought a little oil, some skin dresses, and tusks of the walrus, which they were willing to exchange for any trifle we chose to give them. They had also a number of toys of various kinds, such as canoes with their paddles, spears, and bows and arrows, all on a very large scale. Many of the jackets of these people, and particularly those of the females, were lined with the skins of birds, having the feathers inside; and they had also in the boat several other skins in a prepared state, taken from the throat of the colymbus glacialis, which splendid bird, though we had twice found its skin in possession of the Esquimaux, we had yet not met with ourselves.

The expedition being now about to enter upon ground not hitherto explored, it became necessary for me to decide upon the route it would be most advantageous to pursue for the accomplishment of the principal objects pointed out in my instructions.