306 MEET WITH ESQUIMAUX. JULY 1834. as usual on their first seeing Europeans, exhibited at once their consternation and astonishment, by shouts, yells, antics, and gesticulations of the most inhuman sort; labouring under the impression, apparently, that by so doing they would frighten their new visiters away. As is also usual on such occasions, of course they found themselves mistaken, for the boat continued to approach the shore despite the brandishing of spears and other belligerent demonstrations; whereupon the whole nation formed in a semicircle round the spot where the boat grounded, and stood on the defensive. Captain Back, however, soon established friendly relations with them, by walking boldly up, unarmed and alone, at the same time calling out Tima-peace-with great emphasis, tossing up his arms in true Esquimaux style, and, finally, shaking hands all round. This quieted them, and they soon mingled with the men, from whom they received a few buttons with great delight. They evidently had not souls above buttons; indeed, were one to judge from the joy occasioned on receipt of these ornaments, it might be doubted whether their souls had yet attained to such a height of savage felicity as ever to have come up to buttons before! A portage had to be made at this place; so, to divert the attention of the poor natives, and prevent their being tempted to steal, Captain Back went up to their tents and sketched them. He describes them as being neat and wellmade, not so cunning as those further to the west, and altogether a harmless, inoffensive race. The crew of the boats pronounced the girls to be "bonnie creatures;" but really, upon turning to an engraving from the captain's portrait of one of these ladies, one can only come to the conclusion that the crew's notion of bonnie creatures was, to say the least of it, peculiar! His description of the taking of this portrait is so humorous that we give it in his JULY 1834.. BACK TAKES A PORTRAIT. 307 own words: "The only lady," says he, "whose portrait was sketched, was so flattered at being selected for the distinction, that, in her fear lest I should not sufficiently see every grace of her good-tempered countenance, she intently watched my eye; and, according to her notion of the part I was pencilling, protruded it or turned it, so as to leave me no excuse for not delineating it in the full proportion of its beauty. Thus, seeing me look at her head, she immediately bent it down, stared portentously when I sketched her eyes; puffed out her cheeks when their turn arrived; and, finally, perceiving that I was touching in the mouth, opened it to the full extent of her jaws, and thrust out the whole length of her tongue!" From these friendly natives they received assistance in carrying the boat over a very bad portage-a task to which the men were quite unequal; so that to them Captain Back was indebted for aid, without which he would not have reached the sea at all. Leaving these interesting denizens of the north, the party pursued their way, and, on the 29th July, were gladdened with a sight of the first headland in the Polar Sea, which was named Victoria Headland. This, then, was the mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh, which, after a violent and tortuous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country, without a single tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, most embarrassing to the navigator, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids, to the number of no less than eighty-three in the whole, pours its waters into the Polar Sea in latitude 67° 11′ 00′′ N. and longitude 94° 30′ 0′′ W. The mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh opened into a broad firth, the western shore of which was so beset by ice, that they resolved on coasting to the eastward, which was more 308 THE MOUTH OF THE THLEW-EE-CHOH. AUG. 1834 open, till some favourable opportunity offered for crossing over. So stormy was the weather, however, that they succeeded in this at length with great difficulty, after having been detained several days on an island which they mistook for the main. This they called Montreal Island. By slow degrees they proceeded along the ice-girt shore, sometimes advancing a few miles, when a favouring breeze opened a lane in the ice, but more frequently detained in their dreary encampments, in which they suffered much from cold and rain. In reading the graphic account of the journey by Captain Back, one cannot fail to be struck by the constant repetition of such sentences as the following: "The morning set in with rain, for which, custom had now taught us to look as a thing of course; but a faint hope was excited by the view of a narrow lane of water, which had opened, how or from what cause we knew not, outside, between the grounded ice and the main body; and preparations were already making for a start at high water, when the wind suddenly chopped round from S.E. to N.W., and fixed us once more to the spot;" and, again: "A wet fog ushered in the morning of the 14th August, and left every object dark and indefinable at eighty or ninety paces distant. The breeze increased, and was fast packing the seaward body of ice, which now came with considerable velocity towards the shore, and threatened to lengthen our tedious and most annoying detention." To render their position even more deplorable, scarcely any fuel was to be found, and they experienced the greatest difficulty in procuring sufficient to cook their food, often being obliged to breakfast, dine, and sup on a morsel of dry pemmican and a cup of cold water. One day three deer came within shot, and were killed. No savoury steaks, however, tickled their olfactory nerves with pleasant fumes, or gratified their palates with an unaccustomed meal;-they could not AUG. 1834. FARTHER PROGRESS ARRESTED. 309 The low flat country, "It was one irregular be cooked for want of dry fuel!" too, was the picture of desolation. plain of sand and stones; and had it not been for a rill of water, the meandering of which relieved the monotony of the sterile scene, one might have fancied one's self in one of the parched plains of the East, rather than on the shores of the Arctic Sea." Nevertheless, with unflinching ardour did Captain Back and his gallant crew push forward, in the hope of reaching a more open sea, and connecting their discoveries with those of Captain Franklin at Point Turnagain. Indeed, a spirit of endurance and cheerfulness distinguished the whole party, which nothing seemed capable of damping. On the 7th of August they reached the extreme point of land, which terminates the wide mouth of the river, and whence the coast trends to the westward. This was named Point Ogle, and another cape, seen far to the west, was named Point Richardson. Several portions of the coast of Boothia Felix were also seen in the distance to the northward. Here they were completely baffled in every attempt made to advance. The ice became more firmly wedged every day; one of the men fell sick; the season was far advanced, and any further attempts to proceed would have been foolhardy; so, under these untoward circumstances, Captain Back resolved to retrace his steps. Before doing so, however, the British flag was unfurled, and the land taken possession of, with three enthusiastic cheers, in the name of His Most Gracious Majesty William IV. The latitude of the place was 68° 13′ 57′′ N., longitude 94° 58′ 1′′ W., and variation, as well as the sluggishness of the instruments would allow it to be determined, 1° 46′ W. Our limits do not permit us to follow the adventurous voyageurs as they retrace their route up the foaming cataracts of the Thlew-ee-choh. In the middle of August they 310 CONCLUSION OF THE EXPEDITION. MAY left the cold precincts of the Arctic Sea, and on the 17th September met Mr. M'Leod, according to appointment, at Sand-Hill Bay. He had long been expecting them, and had spent many an anxious hour in watching the distant objects in the direction of their route. With this gentleman they returned to Fort Reliance, “after an absence of nearly four months; tired, indeed, but well in health, and truly grateful for the manifold mercies we had experienced in the course of our long and perilous journey." Preparations were soon set on foot to spend another winter in the wilderness. Once more the woods resounded with the woodman's axe, and the little rooms glowed with the blazing fires of wood. Again the nets were set and the guns loaded, and the white man and the red ranged the woods in company; while Captain Back and Mr. King found ample and interesting occupation in mapping their discoveries and writing their journals. On the 28th of May 1835, Captain Back bade adieu to the polar regions, and returned to England, where he arrived on the 8th September, after an absence of two years and seven months. The remainder of the party returned by the Hudson's Bay Company's ship in October. CHAPTER VI. Recent Discoveries. Dease and Simpson's Overland Journey to the Polar Sea, 1837-38-39. THE joyous whoop and plaintive song of Captain Back's retreating party had hardly ceased to reverberate among the hills and valleys of the barren grounds-the echoes had scarce rolled their last faint murmur across the clear waters of the far north, and the startled deer had scarcely |