326 CAPTAIN BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION— 183B-S5. 



On the 17th February 1833, Captain Back, accompanied by Mr King 

 and three men, two of whom had gained experience of Arctic exploration 

 under Sir John Frankhn, sailed from Liverpool for New York. On the 

 9th April the party reached Montreal, where they were joined' by four 

 volunteers from the 6th battalion of Eoyal Artillery, and by a corps of 

 Canadian "voyageurs." The route followed was the usual one by Lakes 

 Huron, Superior, and Winnipeg. At Fort Alexander, on Lake Winnipeg, 

 Captain Back met Governor Simpson, of the Hudson's Bay Company, from 

 whom he learned that every aid was to be afforded to the exploring party, 

 stores were to be thrown open for their use at all the forts, and the services 

 of experienced guides, hunters, and interpreters were placed at their dis- 

 posal. Having been joined en route by Mr A. R. M'Leod, with his wife and 

 family. Back arrived with his party at Fort Resolution, on Great Slave 

 Lake — which was to be the basis of his operations — on the 8tli August. 



Starting on the 11th August in a small canoe, accompanied by his ser- 

 vant, William Malley, one of the volunteer artillerymen, and by one Canadian 

 voyageur, two half-breeds, and two Indians, Back paddled away from Fort 

 Resolution across the waters of Slave Lake, in search of the source of Great 

 Fish River — the stream that was to bear him in the following summer to the 

 shores of the Polar Sea, and to the unknown area in which his search for 

 the Rosses and the crew of the " Victory " was to be prosecuted. He had 

 not proceeded far, when, landing to commence the survey of the east shore 

 of the lake, he came upon an Indian encampment, which presented a picture 

 of luxurious ease and gay contentment rarely seen in this remote region in 

 the far north of British America. The occupants of the camp -were busily 

 and noisily employed in drying the meat of three recently killed moose-deer. 

 " The successful hunters, apparently not a little vain of their prowess, were 

 either lying at full length on the grass, whiffing the cherished pipe, or 

 lounging on their elbows, to watch the frizzling of a rich marrow-bone, the 

 customary perquisite of their, labours. Women were lighting or tending the 

 fires, over which were suspended rows of thinly-sliced meat — some scream- 

 ing to thievish dogs making free with the ' hunt,' and others with still louder 

 screams endeavouring to drown the shrill cries of their children, who, 

 swaddled, and unable to stir, were half suffocated with the smoke ; while to 

 complete the scene, eight or ten boys at play were twining their copper- 

 coloured bodies over and under some white bark canoes, like so many 

 dolphins. Poor creatures, their happiness was at its full : at that moment 

 they were without care, enjoying themselves according to their nature and 

 capacity." How different this summer picture of plenty from the dreadful 

 scenes of misery, starvation, and death which the explorer was fated to 

 witness in the same region during the two following winters. 



Continuing his voyage north-east. Captain Back discovered and named 



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