Buffalo Hunting on the Great Plains. V KNIGHTS ERRANT OF THE WILDERNESS TALES OF THE EXPLORERS OF THE GREAT NOR TH-IVEST BY MORDEN H. LONG THE MACMILLANS IN CANADA TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LTD., AT ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE MCMXX Copyright, Canada, 1919 , by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED PRINTED IN CANADA T H. BEST PRINTING CG. LIMITED, TORONTO UNIVERSITY library UNIVERSITY HP ai Dcnr* PREFACE This book requires a word of explanation with regard to its character and aim. It makes no pretence whatever to research, but is simply an attempt to re-tell for the children of the upper public school grades some of those stories of the makers of the Canadian West which have already been told for adults in the books of Lawrence Burpee, Agnes Laut, and others. Of the works of these writers very free use has been made in the pages which follow, though where original documents were readily available, as in the cases of the Journals of Hearne and Mackenzie, recourse was had to them. If, then, the book presents in an attractive way for Canadian boys and girls some of the heroic deeds which underlie the growing greatness of their own North-West its object will have been attained. If it should happen that in spite of its simplicity the book makes an appeal, also, to some “ grown-ups,” that will be a result undesigned by the writer, though no less welcome to him. The writer wishes to acknowledge the very valuable assistance which he has received at every stage of the work from Miss L. F. Munro, Principal of the Bennett School, Edmonton, and also the kindly encouragement which was afforded him in the undertaking by Mr. John T. Ross, Deputy Minister of Education for the Province of Alberta, v I VI Preface and by Mr. W. G. Carpenter, Superintendent of the Edmon- ton Public Schools. Grateful acknowledgment is due, too, to Mr. John Wise, for the skill and faithfulness with which he has drafted the maps illustrating the stories. M. H. L. Edmonton, January, 1920. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page Henry Hudson - - 3 CHAPTER II. Radisson AND GtROSEILLIERS - - 23 CHAPTER III. Henry Kelsey - _ - 79 CHAPTER IV. La Verendrye and His Sons - - 95 CHAPTER V Anthony Hendry - - 119 CHAPTER VI, Samuel Hearne - . - 141 CHAPTER VII. Sir Alexander Mackenzie - 175 vii 104401 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Buffalo hunting in the Great Plains Frontispiece. The last hours of Henry Hudson 18 Radisson ------- 23 An Iroquois Chief ------ 28 Martello Tower ------ 32 Quebec - -- -- -- -40 They embarked in their canoes - - opp. 48 Cree Indians ------- 50 Prince Rupert ------ 54 Coat of Arms, Hudson’s Bay Company 74 Hudson’s Bay Company Coins - - 75 Assiniboine Indian ----- 87 A monarch of the plains 88 Sieur de la Verendrye - opp. 96 Their friends wish them Godspeed - - opp. 98 Running the Rapids ----- 100 Making a Portage ------ 102 A Cree Brave ------ 103 ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued) Page Mandan Girls - opp. 108 An Indian Encampment - opp. 110 The mighty mountain barrier - 113 Tablet deposited by de la Verendrye opp. 114 Sarcee Chiefs - - 127 Fighting a Grizzly - opp. 128 An Indian Camp - - 130 An Indian of the Plains r 1 132 A Blackfoot Brave - 133 Samuel Hearne - - 141 Fort Prince of Wales - - 142 A Chief of the Chippewayans - 143 An Eskimo Family - opp. 162 Ruins of Fort Prince of Wales - 170 Sir Alexander Mackenzie - 175 The Midnight Sun - - 193 Carrying Supplies over a Portage - - 204 Coast Indians of British Columbia - - 219 Mackenzie reaches the Pacific opp. 220 LIST OF MAPS. Page Hudson’s Last Voyage 2 Routes of Radisson and G-roseilliers 22 Iroquois Country in the days of Radisson - 31 Radisson’s exploits on the Nelson and Hayes Rivers ----- 0pp. 64 Journeys of Kelsey and Hendry 78 The explorations of la Verendrye and his sons 94 Journeys of Hendry and Kelsey - - - 118 Journeys of Samuel Hearne - 140 Explorations of Sir Alexander Mackenzie - 174 xi' HENRY HUDSON KNIGHTS ERRANT OF THE WILDERNESS EARLY EXPLORERS CHAPTER I HENRY HUDSON In the heart of old London, wedged in among tall houses whose quaint chimney pots look calmly down upon it, there stands the little old Church of St. Ethelburga in Bishops- gate Street. Square and squat and gray, for many a cen- tury it has sturdily braved the buffeting storms and has afforded a quiet haven in the city’s busy streets, where men may turn aside to think for a little while on the deep things of life. Thither many a Sabbath morning, to the clear summons of its tolling bell, peaceful citizens of London had gone to worship. On April 19th, 1607, however, there was added to the usual quiet congregation a new, strange element. Just as the service was about to begin twelve men came trooping in. Their bronzed faces, their roughened hands, their free, rolling gait, their sailor clothes, all spoke of a life on the sea far from the cramping bounds of London’s shops and counting houses. A little awkward they seemed, as though unused to church and its quiet ways. Yet they 3 4 Knights Errant of the Wilderness were not irreverent. Their deep voices joined in musically with those of the congregation in the responses of the stately service of the Church of England. Respectfully they listened to the message of the clergyman, and, as they took the holy sacrament, their faces bore the solemn seriousness of men who were about to face hardships and perils and death itself, in some high enterprise. Little, indeed, did the congregation know that this was the most glorious moment in the long history of the gray old church. Yet so it was, for the little group of twelve strange mariners numbered among it some of the bravest hearts in all England, and their leader, he with the air of command and the steady, fearless eyes, was no other than Henry Hudson, one of the world’s greatest navigators. So, simply and with quiet earnestness, did the party pre- pare itself to carry on the famous search for a northern route to. the Indies in which already many skillful and resolute seamen had failed. Thus, too, did the little church witness the memorable beginning of a series of explorations which were to lay for England claims to vast new dominions overseas and bring to Henry Hudson an imperishable fame. Four days later, at Gravesend on the Thames, Hudson embarked on his first voyage to the icy Arctic seas. His little ship, the Hopewell had been fitted out by the great , Muscovy Company, which carried on an extensive trade with Russia by way of Archangel on the White Sea. Along the caravan routes of Central Asia there had come to Russia some of the silks and spices and jewels of the East. Thus Early Explorers 5 English merchants had been set dreaming of the wonderful wealth that would be theirs, if only a short sea route could be found to India, Japan, and Cathay. Vasco da Gama, sent out by the king of Portugal, had reached those far distant lands by rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Indian Ocean. Magellan, dispatched by Spain, had found a way to them by sailing around the southern extremity of South America and boldly striking out across the vast uncharted expanse of the Pacific. But both these routes were very long and beset by many perils. Moreover, Portugal and Spain claimed them as their own by right of discovery and at- tacked the ships of all other nations which attempted to sail those seas. If English seamen, however, could only discover another and a shorter path to the Far East, that new route would be England’s very own, and the merchants of London and Bristol would reap riches untold. So Hud- son was now sent forth in his tiny vessel to make his way to those “lands of spicery” by sailing north across the Polar Sea. With him, in addition to the crew of ten seamen, Hudson took his little son John. Many a time had the lad sat wide-eyed in wonder at his father’s stirring tales of distant lands and wild adventures on the seas. Often had he longed for the time when he might throw lessons and school books to the winds and take his part in the brave doings of those days. And now, at last, that time had come, and the little lad was all agog with excitement and eager to be off with his father on his adventurous voyage. 6 Knights Errant of the Wilderness North they sailed past John o’ Groat’s, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, the Faroes, and Iceland until they were well within the Arctic Circle, where in the short summer reigns almost perpetual day. Then suddenly a dense fog which had beset them lifted. Though it was two o’clock in the morning it was broad daylight, and the watchman’s cry of “Land to larboard!” brought the Captain and men tumbling quickly on deck. There, towering above the western horizon and gilded by the rays of the rising sun, were the snowy peaks of the mountains of Greenland, while all about the little ship, to north, east, and south, lay an endless, floating world of ice. Still north they sailed with the bleak shores of Green- land to the west, until the ever thickening ice fields drove home the fact that no passage lay this way across the Pole. Then, in July, they turned their prow north-east towards Spitzbergen, but here too they found that to north and south the endless ice-packs barred the way to their goal in the East.