Читать книгу Arctic Searching Expedition (Sir John Richardson) - comprehensive & illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition) онлайн

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The Company's ships sailed from the Thames on the 15th of June, 1847, and, being much delayed by ice in Hudson's Straits, had a long passage; so that the "Prince of Wales" did not cross the bar of Hayes River till the 25th of August, nor the "Westminster" until five days later; and the 8th of September arrived before the expedition stores were landed. Sir George Simpson, on his annual visit to the Company's depôt at Norway House, had engaged a guide or river pilot, with the requisite number of bowmen, steersmen, and fishermen, and placed the whole under the superintendence of Mr. John Bell, chief trader, who, having resided many years on the Mackenzie, was intimately acquainted with the natives inhabiting that part of the country. Notwithstanding the high wages offered, being much in advance of the rate ordinarily paid by the Company, and though none of these men were required to extend their services beyond the winter quarters of the party in 1848, there was a scarcity of volunteers; and several of the steersmen, that were, from the necessity of the case, engaged, were men of little experience. None of them were acquainted with the neighbourhood of Great Bear Lake, and they all anticipated with more or less apprehension a season of extreme hardship in that northern region. Mr. Bell's party consisted of twenty Europeans, a guide, and sixteen Company's voyagers, together with the wives of three of the latter, and two children; making in all, with himself and two of his own children, forty-five individuals, embarked in five boats. Had the ships arrived early, there was a possibility of the party reaching Isle à la Crosse before the navigation closed, which, in that district, may be expected to occur about the 20th of October. But the very late date at which the stores were disembarked precluded such a hope; and the extreme dryness of the season, and consequent lowness of the rivers between York Factory and Lake Winipeg, obliged Mr. Bell to leave a quantity of the pemican and some other packages at York Factory, that he might reduce the draught of his boats.