The cold being now very intense, our small stock of English provisions all expended, and not the least thing to be got on the bleak hills we had for some time been walking on, it became necessary to strike more to the Westward, which we accordingly did, and the next evening arrived at some small patches of low scrubby woods, where we saw the tracks of several deer,[23] and killed a few partridges. The road we had traversed for many days before, was in general so rough and stony, that our sledges were daily breaking; and to add to the inconveniency, the land was so barren, as not to afford us materials for repairing them: but the few woods we now fell in with, amply supplied us with necessaries for those repairs; and as we were then enabled each night to pitch proper tents, our lodging was much more comfortable than it had been for many nights before, while we were on the barren grounds, where, in general, we thought ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs as would make a fire; but it {4} was scarcely ever in our power to make any other defence against the weather, than by digging a hole in the snow down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward.
21st.
1769. November.
On the twenty-first, we did not move; so the Indian men went a hunting, and the women cut holes in the ice and caught a few fish in a small lake, by the side of which we had pitched our tents. At night the men returned with some venison, having killed three deer, which was without doubt very acceptable; but our number being great, and the Indians having such enormous stomachs, very little was left but fragments after the two or three first good meals. Having devoured the three deer, and given some necessary repairs to our sledges and snow shoes, which only took one day, we again proceeded on toward the North West by West and West North West, through low scrubby pines,[24] intermixed with some dwarf larch,[25] which is commonly called juniper in Hudson's Bay. In our road we frequently saw the tracks of deer, and many musk-oxen,[26] as they are called there; but none of my companions were so fortunate as to kill any of them: so that a few partridges were all we could get to live on, and those were so scarce, that we seldom could kill as many as would amount to half a bird a day for each man; which, considering we had nothing else for the twenty-four hours, was in reality next to nothing.
26th.
{5} By this time I found that Captain Chawchinahaw had not the prosperity of the undertaking at heart; he often painted the difficulties in the worst colours, took every method to dishearten me and my European companions, and several times hinted his desire of our returning back to the factory: but finding I was determined to proceed, he took such methods as he thought would be most likely to answer his end; one of which was, that of not administering toward our support; so that we were a considerable time without any other subsistence, but what our two home-guard (Southern) Indians procured, and the little that I and the two European men could kill; which was very disproportionate to our wants, as we had to provide for several women and children who were with us.
29th.
Chawchinahaw finding that this kind of treatment was not likely to complete his design, and that we were not to be starved into compliance, at length influenced several of the best Northern Indians to desert in the night, who took with them several bags of my ammunition, some pieces of iron work, such as hatchets, ice chissels, files, &c., as well as several other useful articles.
30th.