94 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



British navigators, for a passage into the South Sea by way of 

 Hudson Bay. The company pondered over its bargain for a 

 hundred years, and then sent Samuel Hearne, inland from Fort 

 Prince of Wales, to hunt for the passage, and incidentally look 

 for copper mines, and drum up trade. Nothing in the history 

 of exploration is more fascinating than Hearne's account of his 

 journey to the Coppermine river. It left the North West Passage 

 still more or less of an open question; it brought no copper, and 

 not much in the way of trade, to the company; but it stands out 

 as one of the most splendid achievements in the whole history of 

 inland exploration. By sheer, dogged pluck this young English- 

 man ma '^, his way, over an immense and very difficult country, 

 and thro i obstacles of every kind, to the shores of the Arctic 

 sea. Hi£ scription of the massacre of the Eskimos by the 

 Chipewya near the mouth of the Coppermine, is as vividly 

 realistic as, ything in fiction. 



The Chipewyans made their preparations with the utmost 

 deliberation. When their scouts came in with news that they 

 had discovered an Eskimo village, they stripped, put on war-paint, 

 armed themselves with spears and shields, and before daylight 

 were within reach of the village. Everything favoured the 

 Indians. The unfortunate Eskimos were surprised in their sleep. 

 Men, women and children, in all upwards of twenty, they ran out of 

 their tents stark naked, and rushed wildly about, only to find 

 every avenue of escape cut off. With cold-blooded deliberation 

 they massacred them. Hearne had been forced to accompany 

 the war party. To his horror he saw a young girl murdered 

 at his very feet; so close that when the first spear was thrust 

 into her side she fell down at his feet, writhing round his legs, 

 piteously begging his protection. He pleaded with the Chipe- 

 wyans to spare her, but they laughed at his horror-stricken 

 face, asking him contemptuously, as they transfixed the girFs 

 body to the ground with their spears, if he wanted an Eskimo 

 wife. Hearne says that he could hardly restrain his tears at 

 the hideous cruelty of the scene, and his utter inability to pre- 

 vent it. The place has ever since been known as Bloody Fall. 



Throughout the narrative we hear a good deal of Hearne's 

 Chipewyan guide, Matonabbee, who seems to have been a man of 

 somewhat remarkable character. One cannot readily forget his 

 advice to Hearne not to dream of attempting such a long and 

 difficult journey without women. Women, said this graceless 



