At last they reached Rock House, one of the posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and there they were informed that still worse rapids lay before them, and that the boat must be lightened if they were to reach Cumberland House before the winter set in. Franklin was therefore obliged to leave still more of his cargo there, with orders for it to be forwarded by the Athabasca canoes as early in the following season as possible.
Proceeding on their way, they reached Cumberland House on October 23, and here they found the ice already forming on the lake, and learnt that it would be impossible for them to travel any further that season. Accordingly, when Governor Williams arrived a few days later and suggested that they should all winter at Cumberland House, they gladly fell in with the idea. On talking matters over, however, with the officers of the two great Companies, both of which had posts on the lake, Franklin came to the conclusion that by far his best plan would be to push on overland during the winter into the Athabasca Department, where alone he could obtain the guides, hunters, and interpreters necessary for the success of his expedition. Accordingly, he requested Mr Williams to provide him with dogs, sledges, and drivers for the conveyance of himself and his two companions, Back and Hepburn. They started on January 18, 1820, and after a most unpleasant journey of 857 miles, in cold so intense that newly-made tea used to freeze in the tin pots before they had time to drink it, they reached Fort Chepewyan, on Athabasca Lake, on March 26. There Franklin spent several months, picking up such information as he could concerning the course of the Coppermine River and the coast about its mouth from the Indians and interpreters of the two Companies. The results of his investigations were fairly satisfactory, and he decided to send messages to the Companies’ representatives on the Great Slave Lake, asking them to provide him with any knowledge that they could collect, and to engage a number of Copper Indians as guides and hunters.
On May 10 mosquitoes, these early harbingers of spring, put in an appearance, and Franklin realised that the time was approaching for him to make a move onwards. It was no easy matter, however, to obtain the stores and men that he needed. The provisions collected at the Fort were not much in excess of the actual needs of the inhabitants, while the employées of the Company were very unwilling to engage with his expedition except at an extortionate remuneration.
On July 13 Richardson and Hood arrived upon the scene, bringing with them all the provisions that they had been able to collect at Cumberland House and Isle à la Crosse. These, however, did not amount to much as the Canadian voyagers belonging to the Hudson’s Bay post had eaten all the pemmican intended for the explorers, while ten of the bags of provisions which they had secured at the latter post proved so mouldy that they had to be thrown away. Consequently the travellers were obliged to start out very badly equipped in the matter of supplies. There was, however, no possibility of delaying their departure, as Fort Chipewyan did not at the time afford sufficient means of subsistence for so large a party. Accordingly, the stores were distributed among the three canoes with which Franklin had been furnished, and on July 18 he set forth on his way with his party, which now consisted of four officers, sixteen Canadian voyagers, two interpreters, and the redoubtable Hepburn.
At the end of the month they reached Fort Providence, where they were met by Mr Wentzel, an agent of the North-West Company, who proposed to engage hunters for them, and who was himself to accompany them to the Coppermine River. Negotiations with a party of hunters under one Akaitcho, or Big Foot, were soon satisfactorily completed, and though the Indians were a little disappointed at learning that the great English medicine men were unable to bring certain dead members of their tribe to life again, a rumoured accomplishment of their new friends on which they had founded great hopes, they were soon won over by sundry cheap medals and other small presents, and promised to work heart and soul for the good of the expedition. On August 2 the party set forth, now slightly augmented by an extra interpreter, Michel, an Iroquois, Mr Wentzel and the womankind of three of the voyagers who were to make shoes and clothes for the men while they were in winter quarters. On August 19 they reached the spot on which the Indians had settled as most suitable for the winter establishment.
There was now every sign that winter would be on them before long, so Franklin set his men to work on the building of the store house, and sent out his Indian hunters to obtain all the fresh meat that they could. The hunters, however, proved but broken reeds. During the expedition Akaitcho heard of the death of his brother-in-law, and his whole party was, apparently, so overcome by the sad news that they spent several days in wailing and lamentations, with the result they only succeeded in killing fifteen deer. Moreover, this family bereavement necessitated the removal of another portion of Akaitcho’s tribe, which was to have stored up provisions on the bank of the Coppermine, to a place miles away from the proposed route.
To complete Franklin’s discomfiture, Akaitcho absolutely refused to accompany him on a preliminary excursion to the Coppermine, saying that at that time of the year such a journey would be hazardous in the extreme. After painting its horrors and dangers in highly picturesque language, he further fulfilled his rôle of Job’s comforter by saying that if Franklin were really bent upon the trip it was, of course, the duty of the Indians to render him all the help that they could. He would, therefore, allow some of the younger members of his tribe to accompany him, adding that from the moment that they set forth he and his relatives would mourn them as dead. In spite of Akaitcho’s pessimism, however, the expedition returned without losing a single one of its members, and the Indian’s lamentations were entirely wasted.
By October 20 the house was completed and the party moved in. It was a log building, 50 feet long and 24 feet wide, consisting of a hall, three bedrooms, and a kitchen. It was not exactly impervious to the cold winds, for the clay with which the walls were daubed cracked as it was put on and admitted the air freely; compared with the tents, however, it was luxurious. The weather was now bitter, and hunting was over for the season. The store-house was fairly well stocked, while the carcases of eighty deer were stowed away at various distances from the house en cache, that is to say, covered with heavy loads of wood and stones so that the wolves and wolverines could not get at them. Franklin, however, was growing very uneasy at the shortage of ammunition and tobacco. The former was, of course, absolutely necessary for the bare existence of the party, while the Canadians, who were great smokers, had stipulated for a liberal supply of the latter. The officials of the two companies, however, had not fufilled their promises, and had failed to forward the stores with which they had pledged themselves to provide him. The only possible solution to the difficulty was to send some members of the party back for the supplies, and accordingly, on October 18, Back and Wentzel, with two Indians and two Canadians, set out on the long journey to Fort Providence.
The first detachment of this party returned on December 23, but the last did not put in an appearance till the middle of March, after travelling over 1000 miles on foot. Some idea of the difficulties which Back encountered may be gathered from the facts that he frequently passed two or three days without taking food, and that he was obliged to sleep in the woods with no other covering than a blanket and a deerskin, while the thermometer stood at 40° and once at 57° below zero. He had found that the supplies had not been forwarded simply through the gross neglect of some of the officials of the two trading companies. One of the Hudson’s Bay officers, for example, being indisposed to burden his canoe with the stores which had been entrusted to his care, had incontinently heaped them up on the shore and left them there, quite regardless of the sufferings that this action was likely to bring upon the expedition. Eventually, however, sufficient supplies reached the party to place them beyond the danger of immediate want.
The chief work of the expedition was to begin in June, and on the 4th the first party, under Dr Richardson, sallied forth from Fort Enterprise, taking the land route northward. Ten days later a second party started with two canoes laid on trains, intending to strike the water at Winter Lake, which was not far distant. They were followed almost immediately by the third party, under Franklin, which brought with it the instruments, the remainder of the stores, and a small stock of dried meat. The fates seemed to be against the expedition from the very start, for when Franklin came up with the canoe party at Martin Lake, he found that the hunters had only killed two deer, and that though these had been placed en cache, they had both been consumed by wolverines. Worse still, when he joined Richardson on the 21st he learned that Akaitcho and his son had expended all their ammunition and had nothing whatever to show for it. The doctor, assisted by his two hunters, had fortunately been able to secure and prepare 200 lbs. of dried meat, but this constituted practically all the stores they had for their long journey.