I have seen several Indians who have been so far West as to cross the top of that immense chain of mountains which run from North to South of the continent of America. Beyond those mountains all rivers run to the Westward. I must here observe, that all the Indians I ever heard relate their excursions in that country, had invariably got so far to the South, that they did not experience any Winter, nor the least appearance of either frost or snow, though sometimes they have been absent eighteen months, or two years.[21]
[21] In the year 1745 Anthony Hendry, under instructions from the Hudson's Bay Company, had travelled inland from York Factory to the upper waters of the Saskatchewan River, where he met the E-arch-e-thinnews or Blackfeet Indians.
[P] As to a passage through the continent of America by the way of Hudson's Bay, it has so long been explored, notwithstanding what Mr. Ellis has urged in its favour, and the place it has found in the visionary Map of the American Traveller, that any comment on it would be quite unnecessary. My latitude only will be a sufficient proof that no such passage is in existence.
[Illustration: A NORTH-WEST VIEW OF PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY, NORTH AMERICA By Samuel Hearne, 1777]
Transactions from my leaving Prince of Wales's Fort on my first expedition, till our arrival there again.
_Set off from the Fort--Arrive at Po-co-ree-kis-co River--One of the Northern Indians desert--Cross Seal River, and walk on the barren grounds--Receive wrong information concerning the distance of the woods--Weather begins to be very cold, provisions all expended and nothing to be got--Strike to the Westward, arrive at the woods, and kill three deer--Set forward in the North West quarter, see the tracks of musk-oxen and deer, but killed none--Very short of provisions--Chawchinahaw wants us to return--Neither he nor his crew contribute to our maintenance--He influences several of the Indians to desert--Chawchinahaw and all his crew leave us--Begin our return to the factory; kill a few partridges, the first meal we had had for several days--Villany of one of the home Indians and his wife, who was a Northern Indian woman--Arrive at Seal River, kill two deer; partridges plenty--Meet a strange Northern Indian, accompany him to his tent, usage received there; my Indians assist in killing some beaver--Proceed toward home, and arrive at the Fort._