"Derrière chez nous, il y a un étang(Behind the manor lies the mere),En roulant ma boule. (Chorus.)Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant.(Three ducks bathe in its waters clear.)En roulant ma boule.Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule."
"Derrière chez nous, il y a un étang(Behind the manor lies the mere),En roulant ma boule. (Chorus.)Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant.(Three ducks bathe in its waters clear.)En roulant ma boule.Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule."
"Derrière chez nous, il y a un étang
(Behind the manor lies the mere),
En roulant ma boule. (Chorus.)
Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant.
(Three ducks bathe in its waters clear.)
En roulant ma boule.
Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,
En roulant, ma boule roulant,
En roulant ma boule."
And now the paddles strike with accustomed dash. The voyageurs are excited with the prospect of the voyage, all scenes of home swim before their eyes, and the chorister leads off with his story of the prince (fils du roi) drawing near the lake, and with his magic gun cruelly sighting the black duck, but killing the white one. With falling voices the swinging men of the canoe relate how from the snow-white drake his
"Life blood falls in rubies bright,His diamond eyes have lost their light,His plumes go floating east and west,And form at last a soldier's bed.En roulant ma boule(Sweet refuge for the wanderer's head),En roulant ma boule,Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule."
"Life blood falls in rubies bright,His diamond eyes have lost their light,His plumes go floating east and west,And form at last a soldier's bed.En roulant ma boule(Sweet refuge for the wanderer's head),En roulant ma boule,Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule roulant,En roulant ma boule."
"Life blood falls in rubies bright,
His diamond eyes have lost their light,
His plumes go floating east and west,
And form at last a soldier's bed.
En roulant ma boule
(Sweet refuge for the wanderer's head),
En roulant ma boule,
Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,
En roulant ma boule roulant,
En roulant ma boule."
As the brigade hies on its way, to the right is the purplish brown water of the Ottawa, and on the left the green tinge of the St. Lawrence, till suddenly turning around the western extremity of the Island of Montreal, the boiling waters of the mouth of the Ottawa are before the voyageurs. Since 1816 there has been a canal by which the canoes avoid these rapids, but before that time all men and officers disembarked and the goods were taken by portage around the foaming waters.
And now the village of Ste. Anne's is reached, a sacred place to the departing voyageurs, and here at the old warehouse the canoes are moored. Among the group of pretty Canadian houses stands out the Gothic church with its spire so dear an object to the canoe men. The superstitious voyageurs relate that old Brébœuf, who had gone as priest with the early French explorers, had been badly injured on the portage by the fall of earth and stones upon him. The attendance possible for him was small, and he had laid himself down to die on the spot where stands the church. He prayed to Ste. Anne, the sailors' guardian, and on her appearing to him he promised to build a church if he survived. Of course, say the voyageurs, with a merry twinkle of the eye, he recovered and kept his word. At the shrine of "la bonne Ste. Anne" the voyageur made his vow of devotion, asked for protection on his voyage, and left such gift as he could to the patron saint.
Coming up and down the river at this point the voyageurs often sang the song:—
"Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontréDeux cavaliers très bien montés;"
"Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontréDeux cavaliers très bien montés;"
"Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré
Deux cavaliers très bien montés;"
with the refrain to every verse:—
"A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer,A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer."("Under the shady tree I go to play.")
"A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer,A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer."("Under the shady tree I go to play.")
"A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer,
A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer."
("Under the shady tree I go to play.")
It is said that it was when struck with the movement and rhythm of this French chanson that Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, on his visit to Canada, while on its inland waters, wrote the "Canadian Boat Song," and made celebrated the good Ste. Anne of the voyageurs. Whether in the first lines he succeeded in imitating the original or not, his musical notes are agreeable:—
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime,"Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time."
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime,"Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time."
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
"Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time."
Certainly the refrain has more of the spirit of the boatman's song:—
"Row, brothers, row; the stream runs fast,The rapids are near and the daylight's past."
"Row, brothers, row; the stream runs fast,The rapids are near and the daylight's past."
"Row, brothers, row; the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight's past."
The true colouring of the scene is reflected in
"We'll sing at Ste. Anne;"
"We'll sing at Ste. Anne;"
"We'll sing at Ste. Anne;"
and—
"Ottawa's tide, this trembling moon,Shall see us float over thy surges soon."
"Ottawa's tide, this trembling moon,Shall see us float over thy surges soon."
"Ottawa's tide, this trembling moon,
Shall see us float over thy surges soon."
Ste. Anne really had a high distinction among all the resting-places on the fur trader's route. It was the last point in the departure from Montreal Island. Religion and sentiment for a hundred years had consecrated it, and a short distance above it, on an eminence overlooking the narrows—the real mouth of the Ottawa—was a venerable ruin, now overgrown with ivy and young trees, "Château brillant," a castle speaking of border foray and Indian warfare generations ago.
If the party was a distinguished one there was often a priestincluded, and he, as soon as the brigade was fairly off and the party had settled down to the motion, reverently removing his hat, sounded forth a loud invocation to the Deity and to a long train of male and female saints, in a loud and full voice, while all the men at the end of each versicle made response, "Qu'il me bénisse." This done, he called for a song. None of the many songs of France would be more likely at this stage than the favourite and most beloved of all French Canadian songs, "A la Claire Fontaine."
The leader in solo would ring out the verse—
"A la claire fontaine,M'en allent promener,J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle,Que je m'y sois baigné.("Unto the crystal fountain,For pleasure did I stray;So fair I found the waters,My limbs in them I lay.")
"A la claire fontaine,M'en allent promener,J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle,Que je m'y sois baigné.("Unto the crystal fountain,For pleasure did I stray;So fair I found the waters,My limbs in them I lay.")
"A la claire fontaine,M'en allent promener,J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle,Que je m'y sois baigné.
"A la claire fontaine,
M'en allent promener,
J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle,
Que je m'y sois baigné.
("Unto the crystal fountain,For pleasure did I stray;So fair I found the waters,My limbs in them I lay.")
("Unto the crystal fountain,
For pleasure did I stray;
So fair I found the waters,
My limbs in them I lay.")
Then in full chorus all would unite, followed verse by verse. Most touching of all would be the address to the nightingale—
"Chantez, rossignol, chantez,Toi qui as le cœur gai;Tu as le cœur à rire,Moi, je l'ai à pleurer."("Sing, nightingale, keep singing,Thou hast a heart so gay;Thou hast a heart so merry,While mine is sorrow's prey.")
"Chantez, rossignol, chantez,Toi qui as le cœur gai;Tu as le cœur à rire,Moi, je l'ai à pleurer."("Sing, nightingale, keep singing,Thou hast a heart so gay;Thou hast a heart so merry,While mine is sorrow's prey.")
"Chantez, rossignol, chantez,Toi qui as le cœur gai;Tu as le cœur à rire,Moi, je l'ai à pleurer."
"Chantez, rossignol, chantez,
Toi qui as le cœur gai;
Tu as le cœur à rire,
Moi, je l'ai à pleurer."
("Sing, nightingale, keep singing,Thou hast a heart so gay;Thou hast a heart so merry,While mine is sorrow's prey.")
("Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
Thou hast a heart so gay;
Thou hast a heart so merry,
While mine is sorrow's prey.")
The most beautiful of all, the chorus, is again repeated, and is, as translated by Lighthall:—
"Long is it I have loved thee,Thee shall I love alway,My dearest;Long is it I have loved thee,Thee shall I love alway."
"Long is it I have loved thee,Thee shall I love alway,My dearest;Long is it I have loved thee,Thee shall I love alway."
"Long is it I have loved thee,
Thee shall I love alway,
My dearest;
Long is it I have loved thee,
Thee shall I love alway."
The brigade swept on up the Lake of Two Mountains, and though the work was hard, yet the spirit and exhilaration of the way kept up the hearts of the voyageurs and officers, and as one song was ended, another was begun and carried through.Now it was the rollicking chanson, "C'est la Belle Françoise," then the tender "La Violette Dandine," and when inspiration was needed, that song of perennial interest, "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre."
A distance up the Ottawa, however, the scenery changes, and the river is interrupted by three embarrassing rapids. At Carillon, opposite to which was Port Fortune, a great resort for retired fur traders, the labours began, and so these rapids, Carillon, Long Sault, and Chute au Blondeau, now avoided by canals, were in the old days passed by portage with infinite toil. Up the river to the great Chaudière, where the City of Ottawa now stands, they cheerfully rowed, and after another great portage the Upper Ottawa was faced.
The most dangerous and exacting part of the great river was the well-known section where two long islands, the lower the Calumet, and the Allumette block the stream, and fierce rapids are to be encountered. This was thepièce de résistanceof the canoe-men's experience. Around it their superstitions clustered. On the shores were many crosses erected to mark the death, in the boiling surges beside the portage, of many comrades who had perished here. Between the two islands on the north side of the river, the Hudson's Bay Company had founded Fort Coulonge, used as a depôt or refuge in case of accident. No wonder the region, with "Deep River" above, leading on to the sombre narrows of "Hell Gate" further up the stream, appealed to the fear and imagination of the voyageurs.
Ballad and story had grown round the boiling flood of the Calumet. As early as the time of Champlain, the story goes that an educated and daring Frenchman named Cadieux had settled here, and taken as his wife one of the dusky Ottawas. The prowling Iroquois attacked his dwelling. Cadieux and one Indian held the enemy at bay, and firing from different points led them to believe that the stronghold was well manned. In the meantime, the spouse of Cadieux and a few Indians launched their canoes into the boiling waters and escaped. From pool to pool the canoe was whirled, but in its course the Indians saw before them a female figure, in misty robes, leading them as protectress. The Christian spouse saidit was the "bonne Ste. Anne," who led them out of danger and saved them. The Iroquois gave up the siege. Cadieux's companion had been killed, and the surviving settler himself perished from exhaustion in the forest. Beside him, tradition says, was found his death-song, and this "Lament de Cadieux," with its touching and attractive strain, the voyageurs sang when they faced the dangers of the foaming currents of the Upper Ottawa.
The whole route, with its rapids, whirlpools, and deceptive currents, came to be surrounded, especially in superstitious minds, with an air of dangerous mystery. A traveller tells us that a prominent fur trader pointed out to him the very spot where his father had been swept under the eddy and drowned. The camp-fire stories were largely the accounts of disasters and accidents on the long and dangerous way. As such a story was told on the edge of a shadowy forest the voyageurs were filled with dread. The story of the Wendigo was an alarming one. No crew would push on after the sun was set, lest they should see this apparition.
Some said he was a spirit condemned to wander to and fro in the earth on account of crimes committed, others believed the Wendigo was a desperate outcast, who had tasted human flesh, and prowled about at night, seeking in camping-places of the traders a victim. Tales were told of unlucky trappers who had disappeared in the woods and had never been heard of again. The story of the Wendigo made the camping-place to be surrounded with a sombre interest to the traders.
Unbelievers in this mysterious ogre freely declared that it was but a partner's story told to prevent the voyageurs delaying on their journey, and to hinder them from wandering to lonely spots by the rapids to fish or hunt. One of the old writers spoke of the enemy of the voyageurs—
"Il se nourrit des corps des pauvres voyageurs,Des malheureux passants et des navigateurs.""He feeds on the bodies of unfortunate men of the river, of unlucky travellers, and of the mariners.")
"Il se nourrit des corps des pauvres voyageurs,Des malheureux passants et des navigateurs.""He feeds on the bodies of unfortunate men of the river, of unlucky travellers, and of the mariners.")
"Il se nourrit des corps des pauvres voyageurs,
Des malheureux passants et des navigateurs."
"He feeds on the bodies of unfortunate men of the river, of unlucky travellers, and of the mariners.")
Impressed by the sombre memories of this fur traders' route, a traveller in the light canoes in fur-trading days, Dr. Bigsby, relates that he had a great surprise when, picking hisway along a rocky portage, he "suddenly stumbled upon a young lady sitting alone under a bush in a green riding habit and white beaver bonnet." The impressionable doctor looked upon this forest sylph and doubted whether she was
"One of those fairy shepherds and shepherdessesWho hereabouts live on simplicity and watercresses."
"One of those fairy shepherds and shepherdessesWho hereabouts live on simplicity and watercresses."
"One of those fairy shepherds and shepherdesses
Who hereabouts live on simplicity and watercresses."
After confused explanations on the part of both, the lady was found to be an Ermatinger, daughter of the well-known trader of Sault Ste. Marie, who with his party was then at the other end of the portage.
We may now, with the privilege accorded the writer, omit the hardships of hundreds of miles of painful journeying, and waft the party of the voyageurs, whose fortunes we have been following, up to the head of the west branch of the Ottawa, across the Vaz portages, and down a little stream into Lake Nipissing, where there was an old-time fort of the Nor'-Westers, named La Ronde. Across Lake Nipissing, down the French River, and over the Georgian Bay with its beautiful scenery, the voyageurs' brigade at length reached the River St. Mary, soon to rest at the famous old fort of Sault Ste. Marie. Sault Ste. Marie was the home of the Ermatingers, to which the fairy shepherdess belonged.
Block house of old H. B. Company postBLOCK HOUSE OF OLD H. B. COMPANY POST.Sault Ste. Marie.
BLOCK HOUSE OF OLD H. B. COMPANY POST.Sault Ste. Marie.
The Ermatinger family, whose name so continually associates itself with Sault Ste. Marie, affords a fine example of energy and influence. Shortly after the conquest of Canada by Wolfe, a Swiss merchant came from the United States and made Canada his home. One of his sons, George Ermatinger, journeyed westward to the territory now making up Michigan, and, finding his way to Sault Ste. Marie, married, engaged in the fur trade, and died there.
Still more noted than his brother, Charles Oaks Ermatinger, going westward from Montreal, also made Sault Ste. Marie his home. A man of great courage and local influence in the war of 1812, the younger brother commanded a company of volunteers in the expedition from Fort St. Joseph, which succeeded that summer in capturing Michilimackinac. His fur-trading establishment at Sault Ste. Marie was situated on the south side of the river, opposite the rapids. When this territory wastaken possession of by the troops of the United States in 1822, the fur trader's premises at Sault Ste. Marie were seized and became the American fort. For some years after this seizure trader Ermatinger had a serious dispute with the United States Government about his property, but finally received compensation. True to the Ermatinger disposition, the trader then withdrew to the Canadian side, retained his British connection, and carried on trade at Sault Ste. Marie, Drummond Island, and elsewhere.
A resident of Sault Ste. Marie informs the writer that the family of Ermatinger about that place is now a very numerous one, "related to almost all the families, both white and red." Very early in the century (1814), a passing trader named Franchère arrived from the west country at the time that the American troops devastated Sault Ste. Marie. Charles Ermatinger then had his buildings on the Canadian side of the river, not far from the houses and stores of the North-West Company, which had been burnt down by the American troops. Ermatinger at the time was living on the south side of the river temporarily in a house of old trader Nolin, whose family, the traveller tells us, consisted of "three half-breed boys and as many girls, one of whom was passably pretty." Ermatinger had just erected a grist mill, and was then building a stone house "very elegant." To this home the young lady overtaken by Dr. Bigsby on the canoe route belonged. Of the two nephews of the doughty old trader of Sault Ste. Marie, Charles and Francis Ermatinger, who were prominent in the fur trade, more anon.
The dashing rapids of the St. Mary River are the natural feature which has made the place celebrated. The exciting feat of "running the rapids" is accomplished by all distinguished visitors to the place. John Busheau, or some other dusky canoe-man, with unerring paddle, conducts the shrinking tourist to within a yard of the boiling cauldron, and sweeps down through the spray and splash, as his passenger heaves a sigh of relief.
The obstruction made by the rapids to the navigation of the river, which is the artery connecting the trade of Lakes Huron and Superior, early occupied the thought of the fur traders. Acentury ago, during the conflict of the North-West Company and the X Y, the portage past the rapids was a subject of grave dispute. Ardent appeals were made to the Government to settle the matter. The X Y Company forced a road through the disputed river frontage, while the North-West Company used a canal half a mile long, on which was built a lock; and at the foot of the canal a good wharf and store-house had been constructed. This waterway, built at the beginning of the century and capable of carrying loaded canoes and considerable boats, was a remarkable proof of the energy and skill of the fur traders.
The river and rapids of St. Mary past, the joyful voyageurs hastened to skirt the great lake of Superior, on whose shores their destination lay. Deep and cold, Lake Superior, when stirred by angry winds, became the grave of many a voyageur. Few that fell into its icy embrace escaped. Its rocky shores were the death of many a swift canoe, and its weird legends were those of the Inini-Wudjoo, the great giant, or of the hungry heron that devoured the unwary. Cautiously along its shores Jean Baptiste crept to Michipicoten, then to the Pic, and on to Nepigon, places where trading posts marked the nerve centres of the fur trade.
At length, rounding Thunder Cape, Fort William was reached, the goal of the "mangeur de lard" or Montreal voyageur. Around the walls of the fort the great encampment was made. The River Kaministiquia was gay with canoes; the East and West met in rivalry—the wild couriers of the West and the patient boatmen of the East. In sight of the fort stood, up the river, McKay Mountain, around which tradition had woven fancies and tales. Its terraced heights suggest man's work, but it is to this day in a state of nature. Here in the days of conflict, when the opposing trappers and hunters went on their expeditions, old Trader McKay ascended, followed them with his keen eye in their meanderings, and circumvented them in their plans.
The days of waiting, unloading, loading, feasting, and contending being over, the Montreal voyageurs turned their faces homeward, and with flags afloat, paddled away, now cheerfully singing sweet "Alouette."
"Ma mignonette, embrassez-moi.Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais,Car si mon papa le savait."(My darling, smile on me.No! No! good sir, I do not dare,My dear papa would know! would know!)"But who would tell papa?""The birds on the forest tree.""Ils parlent français, latin aussi,Hélas! que le monde est malinD'apprendre aux oiseaux le latin."("They speak French and Latin too,Alas! the world is very badTo tell its tales to the naughty birds.")
"Ma mignonette, embrassez-moi.Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais,Car si mon papa le savait."(My darling, smile on me.No! No! good sir, I do not dare,My dear papa would know! would know!)"But who would tell papa?""The birds on the forest tree.""Ils parlent français, latin aussi,Hélas! que le monde est malinD'apprendre aux oiseaux le latin."("They speak French and Latin too,Alas! the world is very badTo tell its tales to the naughty birds.")
"Ma mignonette, embrassez-moi.Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais,Car si mon papa le savait."
"Ma mignonette, embrassez-moi.
Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais,
Car si mon papa le savait."
(My darling, smile on me.No! No! good sir, I do not dare,My dear papa would know! would know!)"But who would tell papa?""The birds on the forest tree."
(My darling, smile on me.
No! No! good sir, I do not dare,
My dear papa would know! would know!)
"But who would tell papa?"
"The birds on the forest tree."
"Ils parlent français, latin aussi,Hélas! que le monde est malinD'apprendre aux oiseaux le latin."
"Ils parlent français, latin aussi,
Hélas! que le monde est malin
D'apprendre aux oiseaux le latin."
("They speak French and Latin too,Alas! the world is very badTo tell its tales to the naughty birds.")
("They speak French and Latin too,
Alas! the world is very bad
To tell its tales to the naughty birds.")
Bon voyage! Bon voyage, mes voyageurs!
Map of the Far NorthMAP OF THE FAR NORTH.Click here for larger map
MAP OF THE FAR NORTH.Click here for larger map
EXPLORERS IN THE FAR NORTH.
The North-West Passage again—Lieut. John Franklin's land expedition—Two lonely winters—Hearne's mistake corrected—Franklin's second journey—Arctic sea coast explored—Franklin knighted—Captain John Ross by sea—Discovers magnetic pole—Magnetic needle nearly perpendicular—Back seeks for Ross—Dease and Simpson sent by Hudson's Bay Company to explore—Sir John inErebusandTerror—The Paleocrystic Sea—Franklin never returns—Lady Franklin's devotion—The historic search—Dr. Rae secures relics—Captain McClintock finds the cairn and written record—Advantages of the search.
TheBritish people were ever on the alert to have their famous sea captains explore new seas, especially in the line of the discovery of the North-West Passage. From the time of Dobbs, the discomfiture of that bitter enemy of the Hudson's Bay Company had checked the advance in following up the explorations of Davis and Baffin, whose names had become fixed on the icy sea channels of the North.
Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, had been the last of the great captains who had taken part in the spasm of north-west interest set agoing by Dobbs. Two generations of men had passed when, in 1817, the quest for the North-West Passage was taken up by Captain William Scoresby. Scoresby advanced a fresh argument in favour of a new effort to attain this long-harboured dream of the English captains. He maintained that a change had taken place in the seasons, and the position of the ice was such as probably to allow a successful voyage to be made from Baffin's Bay to Behring Strait.
Sir John Barrow with great energy advocated the project of a new expedition, and Captain John Ross and Edward Parry were despatched to the northern seas. Parry's second expedition enabled him to discover Fury and Hecla Strait,to pass through Lancaster Strait, and to name the continuation of it Barrow Strait, after the great patron of northern exploration.
FRANKLIN'S LAND EXPEDITION.
Meanwhile John Franklin was despatched to cross the plains of Rupert's Land to forward Arctic enterprise. This notable man has left us an heritage of undying interest in connection with this movement. A native of Lincolnshire, a capable and trusted naval officer, who had fought with Nelson at Copenhagen, who had gone on an Arctic voyage to Spitzbergen, and had seen much service elsewhere, he was appointed to command the overland expedition through Rupert's Land to the Arctic Sea, while Lieutenant Parry sought, as we have seen, the passage with two vessels by way of Lancaster Sound.
Accompanied by a surgeon—Dr. Richardson—two midshipmen, Back and Hood, and a few Orkneymen, Lieutenant Franklin embarked from England for Hudson Bay in June, 1819. Wintering for the first season on the Saskatchewan, the party were indebted to the Hudson's Bay Company for supplies, and reached Fort Chipewyan in about a year from the time of their departure from England. The second winter was spent by the expedition on the famous barren grounds of the Arctic slope. Their fort was called Fort Enterprise, and the party obtained a living chiefly from the game and fish of the region. In the following summer the Franklin party descended the Coppermine River to the Arctic Sea. Here Hearne's mistake of four degrees in the latitude was corrected and the latitude of the mouth of the Coppermine River fixed at 67° 48´ N. Having explored the coast of the Arctic Sea eastward for six degrees to Cape Turnagain and suffered great hardships, the survivors of the party made their return journey, and reached Britain after three years' absence. Franklin was given the rank of captain and covered with social and literary honours.
Three years after his return to England, Captain Franklin and his old companions went upon their second journey through Rupert's Land. Having reached Fort Chipewyan, they continued the journey northward, and the winter was spent at their erection known as Fort Franklin, on Great BearLake. Here the party divided, one portion under Franklin going down the Mackenzie to the sea, and coasting westward to Return Reef, hoping to reach Captain Cook's icy cape of 1778. In this they failed. Dr. Richardson led the other party down the Mackenzie River to its mouth, and then, going eastward, reached the mouth of the Coppermine, which he ascended. By September both parties had gained their rendezvous, Fort Franklin, and it was found that unitedly they had traced the coast line of the Arctic Sea through thirty-seven degrees of longitude. On the return of the successful adventurer, after an absence of two years, to England, he was knighted and received the highest scientific honours.
CAPTAIN JOHN ROSS BY SEA.
When the British people become roused upon a subject, failure seems but to whet the public mind for new enterprise and greater effort. The North-West Passage was now regarded as a possibility. After the coast of the Arctic Ocean had been traced by the Franklin-Richardson expedition, to reach this shore by a passage from Parry's Fury and Hecla Strait seemed feasible.
Two years after the return of Franklin from his second overland journey, an expedition was fitted out by a wealthy distiller, Sheriff Felix Booth, and the ship, theVictory, provided by him, was placed under the command of Captain John Ross, who had already gained reputation in exploring Baffin's Bay. Captain Ross was ably seconded in his expedition by his nephew, Captain James Ross. Going by Baffin's Bay and through Lancaster Sound, Prince Regent's Inlet led Ross southward between Cockburn Island and Somerset North, into an open sea called after his patron, Gulf of Boothia, on the west side of which he named the newly-discovered land Boothia Felix. He even discovered the land to the west of Boothia, calling it King William Land. His ship became embedded in the ice. After four winters in the Arctic regions he was rescued by a whaler in Barrow Strait.
One of the most notable events in this voyage of Ross's was his discovery of the North Magnetic Pole on the west side of Boothia Felix. During his second winter (1831) Captain Rossdetermined to gratify his ambition to be the discoverer of the point where the magnetic needle stands vertically, as showing the centre of terrestrial magnetism for the northern hemisphere.
After four or five days' overland journey, with a trying headwind from the north-west, he reached the sought-for point on June 1st. We deem it only just to state the discovery in the words of the veteran explorer himself:—
"The land at this place is very low near the coast, but it rises into ridges of fifty or sixty feet high about a mile inland. We could have wished that a place so important had possessed more of mark or note. It was scarcely censurable to regret that there was not a mountain to indicate a spot to which so much interest must ever be attached; and I could even have pardoned any one among us who had been so romantic or absurd as to expect that the magnetic pole was an object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad, that it was even a mountain of iron, or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc. But Nature had here erected no monument to denote the spot which she had chosen as the centre of one of her great and dark powers; and where we could do little ourselves towards this end, it was our business to submit, and to be content in noting in mathematical numbers and signs, as with things of far more importance in the terrestrial system, what we could ill distinguish in any other manner.
"The necessary observations were immediately commenced, and they were continued throughout this and the greater part of the following day.... The amount of the dip, as indicated by my dipping-needle, was 89° 59´, being thus within one minute of the vertical; while the proximity at least of this pole, if not its actual existence where we stood, was further confirmed by the action, or rather by the total inaction, of several horizontal needles then in my possession.... There was not one which showed the slightest effort to move from the position in which it was placed.
"As soon as I had satisfied my own mind on this subject, I made known to the party this gratifying result of all our joint labours; and it was then that, amidst mutual congratulations, we fixed the British flag on the spot, and took possession ofthe North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory, in the name of Great Britain and King William the Fourth. We had abundance of material for building in the fragments of limestone that covered the beach; and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude, under which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact, only regretting that we had not the means of constructing a pyramid of more importance and of strength sufficient to withstand the assaults of time and of the Esquimaux. Had it been a pyramid as large as that of Cheops I am not quite sure that it would have done more than satisfy our ambition under the feelings of that exciting day. The latitude of this spot is 70° 5´ 17´´ and its longitude 96° 46´ 45´´."
Thus much for the magnetic pole. This pole is almost directly north of the city of Winnipeg, and within less than twenty degrees of it. One of Lady Franklin's captains—Captain Kennedy, who resided at Red River—elaborated a great scheme for tapping the central supply of electricity of the magnetic pole, and developing it from Winnipeg as a source of power.
SIR GEORGE BACK, THE EXPLORER.
In the third year of Captain Ross's expedition his protracted absence became a matter of public discussion in Britain. Dr. Richardson, who had been one of Franklin's followers, offered to take charge of an overland expedition in search of Ross, but his proposition was not accepted. Mr. Ross, a brother of Sir John and father of Captain James Ross, was anxious to find an officer who would take charge of a relief expedition, and the British Government favoured the enterprise. Captain George Back, one of the midshipmen who had accompanied Franklin, was favourably regarded for the important position.
The Hudson's Bay Company was in sympathy with the exploration of its Arctic possessions and gave every assistance to the project. Nicholas Garry, the Deputy-Governor of the Company, ably supported it; and the British Government at last gave its consent to grant two thousand pounds, provided the Hudson's Bay Company would furnish, according to its promise, the supplies and canoes free of charge, and thatCaptain Ross's friends would contribute three thousand pounds.
Captain Back cordially accepted the offer to command the expedition, and his orders from the Government were to find Captain Ross, or any survivors or survivor of his party; and, "subordinate to this, to direct his attention to mapping what remains unknown of the coasts which he was to visit, and make such other scientific observations as his leisure would admit."
In 1833 Captain Back crossed the Atlantic, accompanied by a surgeon, Dr. Richard King, and at Montreal obtained a party of four regulars of the Royal Artillery. Pushing on by the usual route, he reached Lake Winnipeg, and thence by light canoe arrived at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake in August. He wintered at Fort Reliance, near the east end of Great Slave Lake, which was established by Roderick McLeod, a Hudson's Bay Company officer, who had received orders to assist the expedition. Before leaving this point a message arrived from England that Captain Ross was safe. Notwithstanding this news, in June of the following year Back and his party crossed the country to Artillery Lake, and drew their boats and baggage in a most toilsome manner over the ice of this and three other lakes, till the Great Fish River was reached and its difficult descent begun.
On July 30th the party encamped at Cape Beaufort, a prominent point of the inlet of the Arctic Ocean into which the Great Fish River empties. The expedition again descended the river and returned to England, where it was well received, and Captain Back was knighted for his pluck and perseverance. An expedition under Back in the next year, to go by ship to Wager Bay and then to cross by portage the narrow strip of land to the Gulf of Boothia, was a failure, and the party with difficulty reached Britain again.
Sir John FranklinSIR JOHN FRANKLIN.Lady FranklinLADY FRANKLIN.
Sir John FranklinSIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
Lady FranklinLADY FRANKLIN.
LADY FRANKLIN.
Sir George BackSIR GEORGE BACK.Sir John RichardsonSIR JOHN RICHARDSON.
Sir George BackSIR GEORGE BACK.
SIR GEORGE BACK.
Sir John RichardsonSIR JOHN RICHARDSON.
SIR JOHN RICHARDSON.
SEARCHERS IN THE NORTH.
A HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY EXPEDITION—DEASE AND SIMPSON.
Dr. Richard King, who had been Back's assistant and surgeon, now endeavoured to organize an expedition to the Arctic Ocean by way of Lake Athabasca and through a chainof lakes leading to the Great Fish River. This project received no backing from the British Government or from the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company now undertook to carry out an expedition of its own. The reasons of this are stated to have been—(1) The interest of the British public in the effort to connect the discoveries of Captains Back and Ross; (2) They are said to have desired a renewal of their expiring lease for twenty-one years of the trade of the Indian territories; (3) The fact was being pointed out, as in former years, that their charter required the Company to carry on exploration.
In 1836 the Hudson's Bay Company in London decided to carrying out the expedition, and gave instructions to Governor Simpson to organize and despatch it. At Norway House, at the meeting of the Governor and officers of that year, steps were taken to explore the Arctic Coast. An experienced Hudson's Bay Company officer, Peter Warren Dease, and with him an ardent young man, Thomas Simpson, a relation of the Governor, was placed in charge.
The party, after various preparations, including a course of mathematics and astronomy received by Thomas Simpson at Red River, made its departure, and Fort Chipewyan was reached in February, where the remainder of the winter was spent. As soon as navigation opened, the descent of the Mackenzie River was made to the mouth. The party then coasting westward on the Arctic Ocean, passed Franklin's "Return Reef," reached Boat Extreme, and Simpson made a foot journey thence to Cape Barrow.
Having returned to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, the Great Bear Lake, where Fort Confidence had been erected by the advance guard of the party, was reached.
The winter was passed at this point, and in the following spring the expedition descended the Copper-mine River, and coasting eastward along the Polar Sea, reached Cape Turnagain in August. Returning and ascending the Coppermine for a distance, the party halted, and Simpson made a land journey eastward to new territory which he called Victoria Land, and erected a pillar of stones, taking possession of the country, "in the name of the Honourable Company, and for the Queen ofGreat Britain." Their painful course was then retraced to Fort Confidence, where the second winter was spent.
On the opening of spring, the Company descended to the coast to carry on their work. Going eastward, they, after much difficulty, reached new ground, passed Dease's Strait, and discovered Cape Britannia.
Taking two years to return, Simpson arrived at Fort Garry, and disappointed at not receiving further instructions, he joined a freight party about to cross the plains to St. Paul, Minnesota. While on the way he was killed, either by his half-breed companions or by his own hand. His body was brought back to Fort Garry, and is buried at St. John's cemetery.
The Hudson's Bay Company thus made an earnest effort to explore the coast, and through its agents, Dease and Simpson, may be said to have been reasonably successful.
THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN.
After the return of Sir John Franklin from his second overland expedition in Rupert's Land, Sir John was given the honourable position of Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania, and on his coming again to England, was asked by the Admiralty to undertake a sea voyage for the purpose of finding his way from Lancaster Sound to Behring's Strait.
Sir John accepted the trust, and his popularity led to the offer of numerous volunteers, who were willing to undertake the hazards of the journey. Two excellent vessels, theErebusandTerror, well fitted out for the journey, were provided, and his expedition started with the most glowing hopes of success, on May 19th, 1845. Many people in Britain were quite convinced that the expectation of a north-west passage was now to be realized.
We know now only too well the barrier which lay in Franklin's way. Almost directly north-east of the mouth of Fish River, which Back and Simpson had both found, there lies a vast mass of ice, which can neither move toward Behring's Strait on account of the shallow opening there, or to Baffin's Bay on account of the narrow and tortuous winding of the channels. This, called by Sir George Nares the PaleocrysticSea, we are now aware bars the progress of any ship. Franklin had gone down on the west side of North Somerset and Boothia, and coming against the vast barrier of the Paleocrystic Sea, had been able to go no further.
Two years after the departure of the expedition from which so much was expected, there were still no tidings. Preparations were made for an expedition to rescue the adventurers, and in 1848 the first party of relief sailed.
For the next eleven years the energy and spirit and liberality of the British public were something unexampled in the annals of public sympathy. Regardless of cost or hazard, not less than fifteen expeditions were sent out by England and the United States on their sad quest. Lady Franklin, with a heroism and skill past all praise, kept the eye of the nation steadily on her loss, and sacrificed her private fortune in the work of rescue. We are not called upon to give the details of these expeditions, but may refer to a few notable points.
The Hudson's Bay Company at once undertook a journey by land in quest of the unfortunate navigator. Dr. Richardson, who had gone on Franklin's first expedition, along with a well-known Hudson's Bay Company officer, Dr. Rae, scoured the coast of the Arctic Sea, from the mouth of the Mackenzie to that of the Coppermine River. For two years more, Dr. Rae continued the search, and in the fourth year (1851) this facile traveller, by a long sledge journey in spring and boat voyage in summer, examined the shores of Wollaston and Victoria Land.
A notable expedition took place in the sending out by Lady Franklin herself of thePrince Albertschooner, under Captain Kennedy, who afterwards made his home in the Red River settlement. His second in command was Lieutenant Bellot, of the French Navy, who was a plucky and shrewd explorer, and who, on a long sledge journey, discovered the Strait which bears his name between North Somerset and Boothia.
The names of McClure, Austin, Collinson, Sir Edmund Belcher, and Kellett stand out in bold relief in the efforts—fruitless in this case—made to recover traces of the unfortunate expedition.
The first to come upon remains of the Franklin expedition was Dr. John Rae, who, we have seen, had thoroughly examined the coast along the Arctic Ocean. The writer well remembers meeting Dr. Rae many years after in the city of Winnipeg and hearing his story.
Rae was a lithe, active, enterprising man. In 1853, he announced that the drawback in former expeditions had been the custom of carrying a great stock of provisions and useless impedimenta, and so under Hudson's Bay Company auspices he undertook to go with gun and fishing tackle up the west coast of Hudson Bay. This he did, ascended Chesterfield Inlet, and wintered with eight men at Repulse Bay.
In the next season he made a remarkable journey of fifty-six days, and succeeded in connecting the discoveries of Captain James Ross with those of Dease and Simpson, proving King William Land to be an island. Rae discovered on this journey plate and silver decorations among the Eskimos, which they admitted had belonged to the Franklin party. Dr. Rae was awarded a part of the twenty thousand pounds reward offered by the Imperial Government.
The British people could not, however, be satisfied until something more was done, and Lady Franklin, with marvellous self-devotion, gave the last of her available means to add to the public subscription for the purchase and fitting out of the little yachtFox, which, under Captain Leopold McClintock, sailed from Aberdeen in 1857. Having in less than two years reached Bellot Strait, McClintock's party was divided into three sledging expeditions. One of them, under Captain McClintock, was very successful, obtaining relics of the lost Franklin and his party and finding a cairn which contained an authoritative record of the fortunes of the company for three years. Sir John had died a year before this record was written. Captain McClintock was knighted for his successful effort and the worst was now at last known.
The attempt of Sir John and the efforts to find him reflect the highest honour on the British people. And not only sentiment, but reason was satisfied. As had been said, "the catastrophe of Sir John Franklin's expedition led to seven thousand miles of coast line being discovered, and to a vastextent of unknown country being explored, securing very considerable additions to geographical knowledge. Much attention was also given to the collection of information, and the scientific results of the various search expeditions were considerable."
EXPEDITIONS TO THE FRONTIER OF THE FUR COUNTRY.
A disputed boundary—Sources of the Mississippi—The fur traders push southward—Expedition up the Missouri—Lewis and Clarke meet Nor'-Westers—Claim of United States made—Sad death of Lewis—Lieutenant Pike's journey—Pike meets fur traders—Cautions Dakotas—Treaty with Chippewas—Violent death—Long and Keating fix 49 deg. N.—Visit Fort Garry—Follow old fur traders' route—An erratic Italian—Strange adventures—Almost finds source—Beltrami County—Cass and Schoolcraft fail—Schoolcraft afterwards succeeds—Lake Itasca—Curious origin of name—The source determined.
TheTreaty of Paris was an example of magnanimity on the part of Great Britain to the United States, her wayward Transatlantic child, who refused to recognize her authority. It is now clearly shown that Lord Shelbourne, the English Premier, desired to promote good feeling between mother and daughter as nations. Accordingly the boundary line west of Lake Superior gave over a wide region where British traders had numerous establishments, and where their occupation should have counted for possession.
In the treaty of amity and commerce, eleven years afterward, it was agreed that a line drawn from Lake of the Woods overland to the source of Mississippi should be the boundary. But, alas! the sources of the Mississippi for fifty years afterward proved as difficult a problem as the source of the Nile. In the first decade of this century it was impossible to draw the southern line of Rupert's Land. The United States during this period evinced some anxiety in regard to this boundary, and, as we shall see, a number of expeditions were despatched to explore the country. The sources of the Mississippi naturally afforded much interest to the Governmentat Washington, even though the convention of London of 1818 had settled the 49 deg. N. as the boundary.
The region west of the Mississippi, which was known as Louisiana, extended northward to the British possessions, having been transferred by Spain to the United States in 1803. A number of expeditions to the marches or boundary land claim a short notice from us, as being bound up with the history and interests of the Hudson's Bay Company.
LEWIS AND CLARKE'S EXPEDITION.
Of these, a notable and interesting voyage was that of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke, of the United States army. This expedition consisted of nearly fifty men—soldiers, volunteers, adventurers, and servants. Being a Government expedition, it was well provided with stores, Indian presents, weapons, and other necessary articles of travel. Leaving Wood River, near St. Louis, the party started up the Missouri in three boats, and were accompanied by two horses along the bank of the River to bring them game or to hunt in case of scarcity. After many adventures the expedition, which began its journey on May 14th, 1804, reached the headquarters of the Mandan Indians on the Missouri on October 26th.
The Mandans, or, as they have been called, the White Bearded Sioux, were at this time a large and most interesting people. Less copper-coloured than the other Indians, agricultural in habit, pottery makers, and dwelling in houses partly sunk in the earth, their trade was sought from different directions. We have seen already that Verendrye first reached them; that David Thompson, the astronomer of the North-West Company, visited them; that Harmon and others, North-West traders, met them; that fur traders from the Assiniboine came to them; that even the Hudson's Bay Company had penetrated to their borders. The Mandans themselves journeyed north to the Assiniboine and carried Indian corn, which they grew, to Rupert's Land to exchange for merchandise. The Mandan trail can still be pointed out in Manitoba.
A fur trader, Hugh McCracken, met Lewis and Clarke atthis point, and we read, "That he set out on November 1st on his return to the British fort and factory on the Assiniboine River, about one hundred and fifty miles from this place. He took a letter from Captain Lewis to the North-West Company, enclosing a copy of the passport granted by the British Minister in the United States."
This shows the uncertainty as to the boundary line, the leaders of the expedition having provided themselves with this permission in case of need.
In dealing with the Mandans, Captain Lewis gave them presents, and "told them that they had heard of the British trader, Mr. Laroche, having attempted to distribute medals and flags among them; but that these emblems could not be received from any other than the American nation, without incurring the displeasure of their Great Father, 'the President. On December 1st the party was visited by a trader, Henderson, who came from the Hudson's Bay Company. He had been about eight days on his route in a direction nearly south, and brought with him tobacco, beads, and other merchandise to trade for furs, and a few guns which were to be exchanged for horses. On December 17th Hugh Harvey and two companions arrived at the camp, having come in six days from the British establishment on the Assiniboine, with a letter from Mr. Charles Chaboillez, one of the North-West Company, who, with much politeness, offered to render us any service in his power."
With the expedition of Lewis and Clarke we have little more to do. It successfully crossed from the sources of the Missouri, over the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia, descended it to the mouth, and returned by nearly the same route, reaching the mouth of the Missouri in 1806.
The expedition of Lewis and Clarke has become the most celebrated of the American transcontinental ventures. Its early presence at the mouth of the Columbia River gave strength to the claim of the United States for that region; it was virtually a taking possession of the whole country from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean; it had a picturesqueness and an interest that appealed to the national mind, and themelancholy death of Captain Lewis, who, in 1809, when the American Government refused to fulfil its engagements with him, blew out his brains, lends an impressiveness to what was really a great and successful undertaking.
PIKE'S EXPEDITION.
The source or sources of the Mississippi was, as we have seen, an important matter in settling the boundary line between the possessions of Great Britain and the United States. The matter having occupied the authorities at Washington, Zebulon M. Pike, a lieutenant of the United States army, was sent to examine the country upon the Upper Mississippi and to maintain the interests of the Government in that quarter. Leaving St. Louis on August 9th, 1805, he ascended the "Father of Waters," and reached Prairie du Chien in September. Here he was met by the well-known free-traders who carried on the fur trade in this region. Their names were Fisher, Frazer and Woods. These men were in the habit of working largely in harmony with the North-West Company traders, and, on account of their British origin, were objects of suspicion to the United States authorities. Pushing on among the Indians, by the help of French Canadian interpreters, he came to Lake Pepin. On the shores of this lake Pike met Murdoch Cameron, the principal British free-trader on the upper Minnesota River. Cameron was a shrewd and daring Scotchman, noted for his generosity and faithfulness. He was received with distinction by Pike, and the trader as shown by his grave, pointed out many years afterward on the banks of the Minnesota, was in every way worthy of the attention. Shortly after this, Pike passed near where the city of St. Paul, Minn., stands to-day, the encampment of J. B. Faribault, a French Canadian free-trader of note, whose name is now borne by an important town south of St. Paul. Pike held a council with the Dakota Indians, and purchased from them a considerable amount of land for military purposes, for which the Senate paid them the sum of two thousand dollars. Pike seems to have cautioned the Dakotas or Sioux to beware of the influence of the English, saying, "I think the traders who come from Canada are bad birds among theChippeways, and instigate them to make war upon their red brothers, the Sioux."
About the end of October, unable to proceed further up the Mississippi on account of ice, Pike built a blockhouse, which he enclosed with pickets, and there spent the most severe part of the winter.
At his post early in December he was visited by Robert Dickson, a British fur trader, described by Neill as "a red-haired Scotchman, of strong intellect, good family, and ardent attachment to the crown of England, who was at the head of the Indian trade in Minnesota." Pike himself speaks of Dickson as a "gentleman of general commercial knowledge and of open, frank manners." Explanations took place between the Government agent and the trader as to the excessive use of spirits by the Indians.
On December 10th Pike started on a journey northward in sleds, taking a canoe with him for use so soon as the river should open. When Pike arrived near Red Cedar Lake, he was met by four Chippewa Indians, a Frenchman, and one of the North-West traders, named Grant. Going with Grant to his establishment on the shores of the lake, Pike tells us, "When we came in sight of the house I observed the flag of Great Britain flying. I felt indignant, and cannot say what my feelings would have excited me to had Grant not told me that it belonged to the Indians."
On February 1st Pike reached Leech Lake, which he considered to be the main source of the Mississippi. He crossed the lake twelve miles to the establishment of the North-West Company, which was in charge of a well-known North-West trader, Hugh McGillies. While he was treated with civility, it is plain from his cautions to McGillies and his bearing to him, that he was jealous of the influence which British traders were then exercising in Minnesota.
Having made a treaty with the Chippewa Indians of Red Lake, Pike's work was largely accomplished, and in April he departed from this region, where he had shown great energy and tact, to give in his report after a voyage of some nine months.
A most melancholy interest attaches to this gentlemanlyand much-respected officer of the United States. In the war of 1812-15, Pike, then made a general, was killed at the taking of York (Toronto), in Upper Canada, by the explosion of the magazine of the fort evacuated by General Sheaffe. Pike, as leader on this Mississippi expedition, as commanding an expedition on the Rio Grande, where he was captured by the Spaniards, and as a brave soldier, has handed down an honourable name and fame.
LONG AND KEATING.
The successful journey of Lewis and Clarke, as well as the somewhat useful expedition of Lieutenant Pike, led the United States Government to send in 1823 an expedition to the northern boundary line 49 deg. N., which had been settled a few years before. In charge of this was Major Stephen H. Long. He was accompanied by a scientific corps consisting of Thomas Say, zoologist and antiquary; Samuel Seymour, landscape painter and designer; and William H. Keating, mineralogist and geologist, who also acted as historian of the expedition.
Leaving Philadelphia in April, the company passed overland to Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi, ascended this river, and going up its branch, the Minnesota, reached the town of Mendota in the month of July. A well-known French half-breed, Joseph Renville, acted as guide, and several others joined the party at this point. After journeying up the Minnesota River, partly by canoe, and partly by the use of horses, they reached in thirteen days Big Stone Lake, which is considered to be the source of the river. Following up the bed of a dried-up stream for three miles, they found Lake Traverse, the source of the Red River, and reached Pembina Village, a collection of fifty or sixty log huts inhabited by half-breeds, numbering about three hundred and fifty. We have already seen how the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies had posts at this place, and that it had been visited regularly by the Selkirk settlers as being in proximity to the open plains where buffalo could be obtained. On the day after Long's arrival he saw the return of the buffalo hunters from the chase. The procession consisted of one hundred and fifteen carts, each loaded with about eight hundred pounds of thepressed buffalo meat. There were three hundred persons, including the women. The number of horses was about two hundred. Twenty hunters, mounted on their best steeds, rode abreast, giving a salute as they passed the encampment of the expedition.
One of Major Long's objects in making his Journey was to ascertain the point where the parallel of 49 deg. N. crossed the Red River. For four days observations were taken and a flag-staff planted a short distance south of the 49th parallel. The space to the boundary line was measured off, and an oak post fixed on it, having on the north side the letters G. B., and on the south side U. S. This post was kept up and was seen by the writer in 1871. In 1872, a joint expedition of British and American engineers took observations and found Long's point virtually correct. They surveyed the line of 49 deg. eastward to Lake of the Woods and westward to the Rocky Mountains. Posts were erected at short distances along the boundary line, many of them of iron, with the words on them, "Convention of London, 1818."
His work at Pembina having been accomplished, Major Long gave up, on account of the low country to be passed, the thought of following the boundary line eastward to the Lake of the Woods. He sold his horses and took canoes down the river to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Garry, where he was much interested in the northern civilization as well as in the settlers who had Fort Douglas as their centre.
It was August 17th when Long's expedition left Fort Douglas and went down the Red River. It took but two days to reach the mouth of the river and cross Lake Winnipeg to Fort Alexander at the mouth of the Winnipeg River. Six days more brought the swift canoe-men up the river to Lake of the Woods. At the falls of Rainy River was the Hudson's Bay Company establishment, then under the charge of fur trader McGillivray. On the opposite side of the river was the fort of the American Fur Company. Following the old route, they reached Grand Portage, September 12th, and thence the expedition returned to the East. Major Long's expedition was a well-conducted and successful enterprise. Its members were of the highest respectability, and the two volumes writtenby Secretary Keating have the charm of real adventure about them.
BELTRAMI'S DASH.
When Major Long was leaving Fort Snelling, on the Mississippi, to go upon the expedition we have just described, an erratic but energetic and clever Italian, named J. C. Beltrami, asked to be allowed to accompany him. This aspiring but wayward man has left us a book, consisting of letters addressed to Madame la Comtesse Compagoni, a lady of rank in Florence, which is very interesting. On starting he wrote, "My first intention, that of going in search of the real source of the Mississippi, was always before my eyes."
Beltrami, while clever, seems to have been a man of insufferable conceit. On the journey to Big Stone Lake and thence along the river, in the buffalo hunts, in conferences with the Sioux, the Italian adventurer awakened the resentment of the commander of the expedition, who refused to allow him to accompany his party further. This proved rather favourable to the purpose of Beltrami, who, with a half-breed guide and Chippewa Indians, started to go eastward, having a mule and a dog train as means of transport. After a few days' journey the guide left him, returning with the mule and dog train to Pembina. Next his Indian guide deserted him, fearing the Sioux, and Beltrami was left to make his way in a canoe up the river to Red Lake. Inexperienced in the management of a birch bark canoe, Beltrami was upset, but he at length proceeded along the bank and shallows of the river, dragging the canoe with a tow line after him, and arrived in miserable plight at Red Lake.
Here he engaged a guide and interpreter, and writes that he went "where no white man had previously travelled." He was now on the highway to renown. He was taken from point to point on the many lakes of Northern Minnesota, and affixed names to them. On August 20th, 1823, he went over several portages, led by his guide to Turtle Lake, which was to him a source of wonder, as he saw it from the flow of waters south to the Gulf of Mexico, north to the Frozen Sea, east to the Atlantic, and west toward the Pacific Ocean.
His own words are: "A vast platform crosses this distinguished supreme elevation, and, what is more astonishing, in the midst of it rises a lake. How is this lake formed? Whence do its waters proceed? This lake has no issue! And my eyes, which are not deficient in sharpness, cannot discover in the whole extent of the clearest and widest horizon any land which rises above it. All places around it are, on the contrary, considerably lower."
Beltrami then went to examine the surrounding country, and found the lake, to which he gave the name of Lake Julia, to be bottomless. This lake he pronounces to be the source of the Mississippi River. This opinion was published abroad and accepted by some, but later explorations proved him to be wrong. A small lake to the south-west, afterwards found to be the true source, was described to him by his guide as Lac La Biche, and he placed this on his chart as "Doe Lake," the west source of the Mississippi. It is a curious fact that Lake Julia was the same lake surveyed twenty-five years before by astronomer Thompson.
After further explorations, Beltrami returned to Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, Minn., being clothed in Indian garments, with a piece of bark for a hat.
The intrepid explorer found his way to New Orleans, where he published "La Découverte des Sources du Mississippi." Though the work was criticized with some severity, yet Beltrami, on his arrival at London in 1827, published "A Pilgrimage in Europe and America" in two volumes, which are the source of our information. The county in Minnesota, which includes both Julia and Doe Lakes, is appropriately called Beltrami County.
CASS AND SCHOOLCRAFT.
Lewis Cass, of New Hampshire was appointed Governor of Michigan in 1813. Six years after this he addressed the Secretary of War in Washington, proposing an expedition to and through Lake Superior, and to the sources of the Mississippi. It was planned for an examination of the principal features of the North-West tributary to Lake Superior and the Mississippi River. This was sanctioned in 1820, and the expedition embarked in May of that year at Detroit, Michigan,Henry Schoolcraft being mineralogist, and Captain D. B. Douglas topographer and astronomer.
The expedition, after much contrary weather, reached Sault Ste. Marie, and the Governor, after much difficulty, here negotiated a treaty with the Indians. Going by way of the Fond du Lac, the party entered the St. Louis River, and made a tiresome portage to Sandy Lake station. This fur-trading post the party left in July, and ascended the Upper Mississippi to the Upper Cedar Lake, the name of which was changed to Lake Cassina, and afterwards Cass Lake. From the Indians Governor Cass learned that Lac La Biche—some fifty miles further on—was the true source of the river, but he was deterred by their accounts of the lowness of the water and the fierceness of the current from attempting the journey any further. The expedition ingloriously retired from the project, going down to St. Anthony Falls, ascending the Wisconsin River, and thence down Fox River. The Governor himself in September arrived in Detroit, having crossed the Southern Peninsula of Michigan on horseback.
Hon. J. W. Brown says: "When Governor Cass abandoned his purpose to ascend the Mississippi to its source, he was within an easy distance, comparatively speaking, of the goal sought for. Less timidity had often been displayed in canoe voyages, even in the face of low water, and an O-z-a-win-dib or a Keg-wed-zis-sag, Indian guides, would have easily won the battle of the day for Governor Cass."
SCHOOLCRAFT AT LENGTH SUCCEEDS.
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, of good family, was born in New York State, and was educated in that State and in Vermont. His first expedition was in company with De Witt Clinton in a journey to Missouri and Arkansas. On his return he published two treatises which gave him some reputation as an explorer and scientist. We have already spoken of the part taken by him in the expedition of Governor Cass. He received after this the appointment of "Superintendent of Indian Affairs" at Sault Ste. Marie, and to this we are indebted for the treasury of Indian lore published in four large quarto volumes, from which Longfellow obtained his tale of "Hiawatha."
In 1830 Schoolcraft received orders from Washington, ostensibly for conference with the Indians, but in reality to determine the source of the Mississippi. The Rev. W. T. Boutwell, representing a Board of Missions, accompanied the expedition.
Lac La Biche was already known to exist, and to this Schoolcraft pointed his expedition. On their journey outward Schoolcraft suddenly one day asked Boutwell the Greek and Latin names for the headwaters or true source of a river. Mr. Boutwell could not recall the Greek, but gave the two Latin words—veritas(truth) andcaput(head). These were written on a slip of paper, and Mr. Schoolcraft struck out the first and last three letters, and announced to Boutwell that "Itasca shall be the name." It is true that Schoolcraft wrote a stanza in which he says, "By fair Itasca shed," seemingly referring to an Indian maiden. Boutwell, however, always maintained his story of the name, and this is supported by the fact that the word was never heard in the Ojibway mythology.
The party followed the same route as that taken by Governor Cass on his journey, reaching Cass Lake on July 10th, 1832. Taking the advice of Ozawinder, a Chippewa Indian, they followed up their journey in birch bark canoes, went up the smaller fork of the Mississippi, and then by portage reached the eastern extremity of La Biche or Itasca Lake.
The party landed on the island in the lake which has since been known as Schoolcraft Island, and here raised their flag. After exploring the shores of the lake, he returned to Cass Lake, and, full of pride of his discovery, journeyed home to Sault Ste. Marie. On the map drawn to illustrate Schoolcraft's inland journey occurs, beside the lake of his discovery, the legend, "Itasca Lake, the source of the Mississippi River; length from Gulf of Mexico, 3,160 miles; elevation, 1,500 ft. Reached July 13th, 1832."