Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827

by John Franklin; Sir John Richardson

Feeling a deep interest in the welfare of this country, in which I have spent a large portion of the last seven years, I have much pleasure in recording these improvements; and in stating my conviction, that the benevolent wishes of the Directors, respecting the inhabitants of their territories, will be followed up with corresponding energy by the resident Governor, the chief factors, and the traders of the Company.

I mentioned in my former Narrative, that the Northern Indians had cherished a belief for some years, that a great change was about to take place in the natural order of things, and that among other advantages arising from it, their own condition of life was to be materially bettered. This story, I was now informed by Mr. Stewart, originated with a woman, whose history appears to me deserving of a short notice. While living at the N.W. Company's Post, on the Columbia River, as the wife of one of the Canadian servants, she formed a sudden resolution of becoming a warrior; and throwing aside her female dress, she clothed herself in a suitable manner. Having procured a gun, a bow and arrows, and a horse, she sallied forth to join a party of her countrymen then going to war; and, in her first essay, displayed so much courage as to attract general regard, which was so much heightened by her subsequent feats of bravery, that many young men put themselves under her command. Their example was soon generally followed, and, at length she became the principal leader of the tribe, under the designation of the "Manlike Woman." Being young, and of a delicate frame, her followers attributed her exploits to the possession of supernatural power, and, therefore, received whatever she said with implicit faith. To maintain her influence during peace, the lady thought proper to invent the above-mentioned prediction, which was quickly spread through the whole northern district. At a later period of her life, our heroine undertook to convey a packet of importance from the Company's Post on the Columbia to that in New Caledonia, through a tract of country which had not, at that time, been passed by the traders, and which was known to be infested by several hostile tribes. She chose for her companion another woman, whom she passed off as her wife. They were attacked by a party of Indians, and though the Manlike Woman received a wound in the breast, she accomplished her object, and returned to the Columbia with answers to the letters. When last seen by the traders, she had collected volunteers for another war excursion, in which she received a mortal wound. The faith of the Indians was shaken by her death, and soon afterwards the whole of the story she had invented fell into discredit.

In the Athabasca department, which includes Slave Lake and Peace River, as well as in the more southern districts, the autumn of 1826, and the following winter, were unusually mild. Near the Saskatchawan River, there was so little snow before the middle of January, that the sledges could not be used; but at Bear Lake, and throughout the Mackenzie, the weather was severe during the same periods, and the snow came early; hence it would appear, that even in this climate the meteorological register kept at any one place, affords no index from whence we can judge of the season at another. In my journey from Slave Lake to the Athabasca we had a snow-storm for three days, which we found did not extend beyond sixty miles; and on our arrival at Fort Chipewyan, we learned there had not been a single shower during these days. The only coinciding circumstance, at the different stations this year, was the prevalence of north-east winds.

Sunday, 15th.We welcomed the appearance of two of the large-sized swans on the 15th April, as the harbingers of spring; the geese followed on the 20th; the robins came on the 7th May; the house martins appeared on the 12th, and in the course of a week were busily employed repairing their nests; and the barn or forked-tail swallows arrived on the 20th; and on the same day, the small-sized swans were seen, which the traders consider the latest of the migratory birds.

May, 20th.The only symptoms of reviving vegetation at this period, were a few anemones in flower, and the bursting of some catkins of willows; but we learned by an arrival of a boat from the Peace River that, even so early as the 14th, the trees were in full foliage at not more than a day's journey from the lake. The barley was sown at Fort Chipewyan on the 15th May, potatoes on the 21st, and the garden seeds on the 22d, which were expected to be ready for use by the close of the following September. As an experiment, whether the barley would yield a better crop by remaining in the ground through the winter, some had been sown in the preceding autumn, but only a few of the plants appeared at the close of this month, and the crop did not promise favourably.

Some canoes having arrived on the 26th of May with the furs from Slave Lake, the last of the Company's brigade of boats was despatched to York Factory. Augustus, who was desirous of seeing Dr. Richardson again before his departure from the country, and two other men of the Expedition, embarked in them. I embarked on the 31st May in the Company's light canoe with Mr. Stewart and Mr. M'Vicar, having previously made the necessary arrangements for the passage of Captain Back and his party. We reached Cumberland House on the 18th June, where I had the happiness of meeting Dr. Richardson after a separation of eleven months. I learned from him that during our absence in the north, Mr. Drummond the Assistant Botanist had been indefatigable in collecting specimens of Natural History, having been sent for that purpose to the Rocky Mountains at the head of the Athabasca River; in the course of which service, he had been exposed to very great privations. To his perseverance and industry, science is indebted for the knowledge of several new and many rare quadrupeds, birds, and plants. That the reader may form some notion of the labour he sustained, and the zeal he displayed in making his very valuable and highly interesting collections, and to point out to the naturalist, the districts from whence they were brought, I subjoin his brief account of his journey in his own words.

1825, June."I remained at Cumberland House about six weeks after the departure of Captain Back and Mr. Kendall, in June, 1825, when the Company's boats with the brigade of traders for the Columbia, arriving from York Factory, I accompanied them up the Saskatchawan River two hundred and sixty miles to Carlton House. The unsettled state of the Indians in that neighbourhood rendering excursions over the plains very unsafe, I determined on proceeding with the brigade as far as the Rocky Mountains. We left Carlton House on the 1st of September, and reached Edmonton, which is about four hundred miles distant on the 20th of the same month. Sandy plains extend without material alteration the whole way, and there is, consequently, little variety in the vegetation; indeed, I did not find a single plant that I had not seen within ten miles of Carlton House, although I had an opportunity of examining the country carefully, having performed the greater part of the journey on foot. After a halt of two days at Edmonton, we continued our route one hundred miles farther to Fort Assinaboyn on the Red Deer River, one of the branches of the Athapescow. This part of the journey was performed with horses through a swampy and thickly wooded country, and the path was so bad, that it was necessary to reduce the luggage as much as possible. I therefore took with me only one bale of paper for drying plants, a few shirts, and a blanket; Mr. M'Millan, one of the Company's chief traders, who had charge of the brigade, kindly undertaking to forward the rest of my baggage in the ensuing spring. October, 2d.We left Fort Assinaboyn to proceed up the Red Deer River to the Mountains, on the 2d of October; but the Canoe appointed for this service being very much lumbered, it was necessary that some of the party should travel by land, and of that number, I volunteered to be one. A heavy fall of snow, on the third day after setting out, rendered the march very fatiguing, and the country being thickly wooded and very swampy, our horses were rendered useless before we had travelled half the distance."

"We reached the mountains on the 14th, and I continued to accompany the brigade, for fifty miles of the Portage-road, to the Columbia, when we met a hunter whom Mr. M'Millan hired to supply me with food during the winter. The same gentleman having furnished me with horses and a man to take care of them, I set out with the hunter and his family towards the Smoking River, one of the eastern branches of the Peace River, on which we intended to winter. My guide, however, loitered so much on the way, that the snow became too deep to admit of our proceeding to our destination, and we were under the necessity of leaving the Mountains altogether, and taking up our winter-quarters about the end of December.December, on the Baptiste, a stream which falls into the Red Deer River. During the journey, I collected a few specimens of the birds that pass the winter in the country, and which belong principally to the genera tetrao and strix. I also obtained a few mosses, and on Christmas day, I had the pleasure of finding a very minute gymnostomum, hitherto undescribed."

"In the winter, I felt the inconvenience of the want of my tent, the only shelter I had from the inclemency of the weather being a hut built of the branches of trees. Soon after reaching our wintering ground, provisions became very scarce, and the hunter and his family went off in quest of animals, taking with them the man who had charge of my horses to bring me a supply as soon as they could procure it. I remained alone for the rest of the winter, except when my man occasionally visited me with meat; and I found the time hang very heavy, as I had no books, and nothing could be done in the way of collecting specimens of Natural History. I took however, a walk every day in the woods to give me some practice in the use of snow shoes. The winter was very severe, and much snow fell until the end of March, when it averaged six feet in depth; in consequence of this, I lost one of my horses, and the two remaining ones became exceedingly poor. The hunter was still more unfortunate, ten of his young colts having died."

April 1826."In the beginning of April, 1826, setting out for the Columbia Portage road, I reached it after a fatiguing march on the sixth day, and two days afterwards, had the pleasure of meeting Mr. M'Millan, who brought me letters from Dr. Richardson, informing me of the welfare of the Expedition; and he also placed me in comparatively comfortable circumstances by bringing my tent, a little tea and sugar, and some more paper. I remained on the Portage May, 6th.preparing specimens of birds until the 6th of May, when the brigade from the Columbia arrived. On that day the Anemone cuneifolia, and Ludoviciana and Saxifraga oppositifolia, began to flower in favourable situations. My hunter, who had, in the mean time, returned to our late wintering ground, now sent me word that he had changed his mind, and would not accompany me into the Mountains, as he had engaged to do. His fickleness deranged my plans, and I had no alternative but to remain with the man who had charge of the horses used on the Columbia Portage, and botanize in that neighbourhood."