Samuel Hearne - Exploration

Exploration

The English on Hudson Bay had long known that the Indians to the northwest used native copper, as indicated by such words as Yellowknife. When, in 1768, a northern Indian (some say it was Matonabbee) brought lumps of copper to Churchill, the governor, Moses Norton, decided to send Hearne in search of a possible copper mine. The basic theme of Hearne's three journeys is the Englishmen's ignorance of the methods of travel through this very difficult country and their dependence on Indians who knew the land and how to live off of it.

First Journey: Since there was no canoe route to the northwest, the plan was to go on foot over the frozen winter ground. Without canoes, they would have to carry as much food as possible and then live off the land. Hearne planned to join a group of northern Indians that had come to trade at Churchill and somehow induce them to lead him to the copper mine. He left Churchill on 6 November 1769 along with two company employees, two Cree hunters and a band of Chipewyans and went north across the Seal River, an east-west river north of Churchill. By the 19th their European provisions gave out and their hunters had found little game (Hearne had left too late in the season and the Caribou had already left the Barren Grounds for the shelter of the forested country further south.) They headed west and north, finding only a few ptarmigan, fish and three stray Caribou. The Indians, who knew the country, had better sense than to risk starvation in this way and began deserting. When the last Indians left, Hearn and his European companions returned to the sheltered valley of the Seal River, where he was able to find venison, and reached Churchill on 11 December.

Second Journey: Since he could not control the northern Indians, Hearne proposed to try again using 'home guards', that is, Cree who lived around the post and hunted in exchange for European supplies. He left Churchill on 23 February. Reaching the Seal River, he found good hunting and followed it west until he reached a large lake, probably Sethnanei Lake. Here he decided to wait for better weather and live by fishing. In April the fish began to give out. On the 24th a large body of Indians, mostly women, arrived from the south for the annual goose hunt. On the 19th of May the geese arrived and there was now plenty to eat. They headed north and east past Baralzone Lake. By June the geese had flown further north and they were again threatened with famine. At one point they killed three Muskoxen and had to eat them raw because it was too wet to light a fire. They crossed the Kazan River above Yathkyed Lake where they found good hunting and fishing and then went west to Lake Dubawnt which is about 450 miles northwest of Churchill. On the 14th of August his quadrant was destroyed, which accounts for the inaccuracy of latitudes on the remainder to this and the next journey. At this point the sources become vague, but Hearne returned to Churchill in the autumn. On his return journey he met Matonabbee who was to be his guide on the next journey. Matonabbee may well have saved him from freezing or starving to death. Most of the land Hearne crossed on his second journey is very desolate and was not properly explored again until Joseph Tyrrell in 1893.

Third Journey: Hearne contrived to travel as the only European with a group of Chipewyan guides led by Matonabbee. The group also included eight of Matonabbee's wives to act as beasts of burden in the sledge traces, camp servants, and cooks. This third expedition set out in December 1770, to reach the Coppermine River in summer, by which he could descend to the Arctic in canoes.

Matonabbee kept a fast pace, so fast they reached the great caribou traverse before provisions dwindled and in time for the spring hunt. Here Northern Indian (Dene) hunters gathered to hunt the vast herds of caribou migrating north for the summer. A store of meat was laid up for Hearne's voyage and a band of "Yellowknife" Dene joined the expedition. Matonabbee ordered his women to wait for his return in the Athabasca country to the west.

The Dene were generally a mild and peaceful people, however, they were in a state of conflict with the Inuit. A great number of Yellowknife Indians joined Hearne's party to accompany them to the Coppermine River with intent to murder Inuit, who were understood to frequent that river in considerable numbers.

On 14 July 1771, they reached the Coppermine River, a small stream flowing over a rocky bed in the "Barren Lands of the Little Sticks". A few miles down the river, just above a cataract, were the domed wigwams of an Eskimo camp. At 1 am on 17 July 1771 Matonabbee and the other Indians fell upon the sleeping "Esquimaux" in a ruthless massacre. Approximately twenty men, women, and children were killed; this would be known as the Massacre at Bloody Falls.

... a young girl, seemingly about eighteen years of age, killed so near me, that when the first spear was stuck into her side she fell down at my feet, and twisted round my legs, so that it was with difficulty that I could disengage myself from her dying grasps. As two Indian men pursued this unfortunate victim, I solicited very hard for her life; but the murderers made no reply till they had stuck both their spears through her body ... even at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding tears.

A few days later Hearne was the first European to reach the shore of the Arctic Ocean by an overland route. By tracing the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean he had established there was no northwest passage through the continent at lower latitudes.

This expedition also proved successful in its primary goal by discovering copper in the Coppermine River basin; however, an intensive search of the area yielded only one four-pound lump of copper and commercial mining was not considered viable.

Matonabbee led Hearne back to Churchill by a wide westward circle past Bear Lake in Athabasca Country. In midwinter he became the first European to see and cross Great Slave Lake. Hearne returned to Fort Prince of Wales on 30 June 1772 having walked some 5,000 miles (8,000 km) and explored more than 250,000 square miles (650,000 km2).