The life and travels of Thomas Simpson, the Arctic discoverer

II I r

I

I

THE

LIFE AND TRAVELS

OF

THE ARCTIC DISCOVERER.

BY HIS BROTHER,

ALEXANDER SIMPSON.

" Though the sound of fame May for a moment soothe, it cannot slake The fever of vain longing, and the name So honour'd, but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim.'

Childe Harold.

LONDON :

LONDON :

Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

Preface

The brief sketch of my brother's life which circumstances, explained in subsequent pages, enabled me to publish along with his own narrative of Arctic Discoveries, was generally considered as but a meagre development of the history of one, " in whom the world lost no common man/'

A naturally strong desire to present a more extended view of his character, his virtues, and his services, has led me to become I may more properly say the compiler than the Author of the following volume, which I submit to the public with a trembling anxiety, lest the intrinsic worth of my subject and materials should suffer depreciation from my inadequacy to the duty which I have undertaken.

A. S.

Ross-shire, Ap7'il 1845.

Chapter I

Birth and Parentage — Descent from Lord President Forbes. — The Laird of Gruinard and his Lady — Early Character, Habits, and Training.

CHAPTER H.

Studies for Four Winters at King's College, Aberdeen.— Description of the Mode of Living there : its advantages. — Advice to other Students. — Carries off the first Prize at Conclusion of his Studies. — Youthful Habits, Tastes, and Opinions. . . . .

CHAPTER HI.

r Addresses to his Fellow- Students. " On the Breaking up of his first Session at the University." — " On the Advantages to be derived from the Study of Metaphysics." .....

CHAPTER IV.

Connexion with the Governor of Hudson's Bay. — His Career. — Refuses in 1825, and consents in 1828 to go to Hudson's Bay. — Reasons for abandoning Study for the Church, and for going to America, detailed in a Letter to his eldest Brother. — Occupations, Summer 1828. — Letter to the Author. — Sails for America, vi

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

PAGE

Arrival in America. — Travels during Summer 1829. — Light Canoes.— Canadian Voyageurs : their Habits and Songs. — A Winter in Canada. — L'Ame de Glace. — Journey to the North-west. — A troublesome Charge. — Extracts from Letters to the Author. — A pleasant Residence. . . . . . 57

CHAPTER VL

A Winter Journey of seven hundred Miles. — Life in the Woods. — Red River Colony. — Letter to the Author on the Death of our eldest Brother. — Sketches of Character. . . . . . 71

CHAPTER Vn.

Description of Red River Colony. — Letters to the Author. ..... 85

CHAPTER Vin.

Extracts from Letters to the Author. — Difficulties with Half-breed Natives. — Intercourse with the Author. — Captain Back's Arctic Expedition. . . 95

CHAPTER IX.

Progress of Exploration of the Northern Parts of America. — Summary of Journeys to the Arctic Coast of America, viz., Hearne's to the Mouth of the Coppermine River. — Mackenzie's Descent to the Arctic Ocean. — Franklin's First Expedition. — Franklin's Second Expedition.— Ross's Expedition to Prince Regent's Inlet — Back's Expedition in Search of Ross. — Back's intended Survey from Wager River — King's contemplated Expedition.— What had been done, and what remained to be done. . . . . . . 109

CONTENTS.

vii

CHAPTER X.

PAGE

Organization of an Expedition for Arctic Discovery by the Hudson's Bay Company. — Their Reasons for this Step.— My Brother called upon to plan the Expedition.— Plans for Arctic Discovery which he drew up. — " Instructions " founded thereon. — Teaching in Astronomy. — Deficiency of Instruments, and Comments thereon. . . . . , . 176

CHAPTER XI.

A Winter Journey of One Thousand Two Hundred and Seventy-seven Miles from Red River to Athabasca. — Northern Squatters. — A Frontier Fortalice. — Pemican. — An Octogenarian. — The Secret of Travelling in the Far North. . . . . . 1 94

CHAPTER XII.

Reasons for the Author's Preference of his Brother's Correspondence to his Narrative. — Preliminary Arrangements of the Expedition. — Feelings on entering on Arctic Discovery. . . . . . 215

CHAPTER XIII.

Expedition from Mackenzie's River to Point Barrow. — Summer 1837. — Letters to the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, Governor Simpson, and the Author. — Opinions of the Press in regard to the Expedition's first Operations. . . . . 229

CHAPTER XIV.

Transactions, Autumn 1837 to Spring 1838, detailed in Letters. — Climate of Fort Confidence. — Housekeeping there. ...... 263 viii

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

PAGE

Expedition of 1838 to the Eastward of the Coppermine River. — Its Comparative Failure. — My Brother's Opinions thereon, detailed in his Letters. — Opinions of the English Press, and the Public. . . 287

CHAPTER XVI. .

Winter 1838-39. — Preparations for a renewed Arctic Voyage. — Instructions to the Reserve. — Last Will. — Completely Successful Expedition of Summer 1839. — Return to Red River Colony. . . 307

CHAPTER XVIL

Schemes for a renewed Expedition. — Their Reception by Governor Simpson ; by the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company. . . . . . 331

CHAPTER XVIIl.

Letters written to the Author from Red River Colony. — Departs for England, via the Prairies. — " Last scene of all." — Depositions of the Survivors, and Observations thereon. — Appearance. — Character. . . 345

CHAPTER XIX.

The Rewards of Service. — The Author's Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel, Bart. — Sir John Barrow, Bart. — The Hudson's Bay Company. — Sir George Simpson. . . . . . . 374

Postscript on Arctic Discovery. . . 397

The Indians of Northern America, — An Inquiry into their Character. — Their Condition. . . 403

Fationers of The Kirk of ^ScotlanJ, at King's College, Aberdeen — the same venerable and use-

B

THE

LIFE AND TRAVELS

OF

THOMAS SIMPSON.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and Parentage Descent from Lord President Forbes.

— The Laird of Gruinard and his Lady. — Early Character, Habits, and Training.

Alexander Simpson — the father of him whose Life and Travels it will be to me " a labour of love " to narrate in the following pages — was the second son of a tenant farmer in Aberdeenshire ; and was born at New Craig, in that county, in the year 1751. Having acquired a fair share of the education which the parochial schools of Scotland so cheaply afford, he entered, in the year 1768, on the usual course of study for probationers of the Kirk of Scotland, at King's College, Aberdeen — the same venerable and use-

B fill institution at which his son prosecuted his studies nearly sixty years afterwards.

Having passed the allotted term of four years in those studies, he was obliged to provide for his support by the labours of tuition : and these became his permanent occupation ; for, although he meditated, long after he commenced them, an entrance into the ministry, he never accomplished his purpose ; and finally settled down as master of the parochial school of the little burgh of Dingwall, in Ross-shire.

In 1784 he married the daughter of a respectable farmer in Inverness-shire, where he had for some time resided. By her he had several children ; none of whom survived through childhood, except two sons; John, who died in 1813, a lieutenant in the 78th regiment, and j$lmilius, a lieutenant in the royal navy, — to whom I shall hereafter advert, — who died in 1831.

His first wife dying in 1792, he remained a widower for upwards of fifteen years; during fourteen of which, he often afterwards avowed, that he daily prayed to God to give him Mary Simpson (our mother) for his wife. At length his prayer was granted ; his suit successful.

She still lives ; and has attained the age of seventy-six, with unimpaired faculties. A sound constitution, and good spirits, but, above all,

THOMAS SIMPSON.

a profound reliance on the unerring wisdom of the decrees of Providence, have carried her through an affliction, the extent and severity of which can only be known to one " who has been in bitterness for her first-born."

Her father was the Reverend Thomas Simpson, for many years clergyman of the parish of Avoch, in Ross-shire. The stipend of Avoch was then a poor one ; the manse ruinous ; and the means of local education for his children very defective. He had opportunities of bettering his position by a translation to another parish ; but he declined leaving his old and attached flock. "They had accepted him (he said) as their pastor : he had promised to be their spiritual shepherd ; and no worldly motives would induce him to break this sacred tie." With — as we may judge from this sacrifice — much of the singlemindedness of the worthy " Vicar of Wakefield," he did not accord with his views of the duty of monogamy for the clergy.

His second wife (our grandmother) was a descendant of Duncan Forbes, the celebrated Lord President of the Court of Session, — in this wise : —

The astute lawyer and sagacious statesman, — to whom Protestantism and the House of Brunswick owed so much, — was, " in his days of youth-

B % fill prime," to the full as reckless and dissipated as young lawyers were [are ?] prone to be. There was

" A maid, whose folly did confide In him who made her not his bride."

A daughter was the result of this illicit connexion. The mother was of good family : the (iffair was kept secret, and she afterwards married a North Country Laird. The daughter grew up a very beautiful woman ; and her father bestowed on her every advantage of education, training and introduction into society, that his wealth and high position could command. Before she had completed her eighteenth year, she singled out, from among her numerous suitors, the Laird of Gruinard, a scion of the noble house of Seaforth. The laird was, " by 'r lady, inclining to threescore," a widower, and the father of twenty children by his first wife ; but he was still a hale, handsome, gay and gallant highlander, and Miss Forbes overlooked or forgot the disparity of years. She accompanied him to his estate, in the wildest and most remote district of Ross-shire ; was the happy mother of twelve children,*

* Our grandmother was one of these. Of the thirty-two children who blessed the household of the Laird of Gruinard, twenty-nine or thirty grew up to maturity. I was present, in 1822, at the interment of the last of them, Mrs. Mackenzie and accommodated herself admirably to the position in which she was placed. Forgetting the gaieties of Edinburgh, she devoted herself heart and soul to the duties of her new and embarrassing situation ; was a kind and dutiful stepmother to her husband's first numerous family ; acquired in a short time the language, and became acquainted with the character, habits, and feelings of his tenantry, and was one of the first to expound to them the Scriptures in their native language : Gaelic Bibles were unknown in these days in the wilds of Lochbroom. I love to dwell on the character of the " Lady of Gruinard;" I see in it many points of resemblance, in its energy, its enthusiasm, and self-devotion, to that of him whose labours I am to chronicle.

The marriage of our parents took place in 1807. On the 2nd July 1808, Thomas, the subject of this Memoir, was born ; followed, nearly three years after by the writer, the youngest and now the only survivor of his father's family.

of Hilton, who died at the good ripe age of ninety-six. The descendants of this patriarchal family are, it will easily be believed, very numerous ; and they were long tacitly permitted a singular immunity, now happily falling into desuetude and oblivion. If any of them committed a breach of the seventh commandment, people shrugged their shoulders and said, " 'Tis no wonder — he 's one of the Gruinards."

Our father's position, as schoolmaster of the little Burgh, did not prevent his taking an active share in its local government ; for upwards of thirty years he was a member of its corporation, and was frequently its principal resident magistrate (Bailie). The prevailing politics of the county and burgh were strongly tory; yet he was ever a staunch whig of the old school, i. e., he considered that the powers of government (national and local) should be exercised for the benefit of the many, but vested in the hands of iliQfew.

His income, from his school and other employments, was very limited; yet he was ever kind and hospitable, particularly to young men who were struggling, as he himself had struggled, not only for the means of support, but also of preparation for the office of the ministry ; an office which is filled in Scotland, perhaps, oftener than in any other country in the world, by persons born among the class of handicraftsmen and peasants. He was, indeed, a very Nathaniel, a man without guile.

" He had a tear for pity, and a hand Open as day for melting charity."

A true and sincere Christian, he was utterly devoid of sourness and illiberality ; he blamed

THOMAS SIMPSON.

no man for his creed ; but inculcated in the minds of his children the belief, that the allseeing God is also just and beneficent, and that he will judge his creatures solely by the use which they have made of the faculties, talents, and opportunities, given to them.

With his children his intercourse was most endearing. Harshness or severity he never showed ; but instilled his precepts by mild admonitions and by entertaining illustrations. I yet remember many incidents connected with this delightful and most profitable intercouse. On my brother's mind, from his more advanced years, it must have made a deeper impression, and, doubtless, had much influence in the formation of his character.

Our father died in 1821. His income was too small to have allowed his laying up any store ; and the only provision for his family was an annuity to our mother of twenty-five pounds, in that excellent institution " The Schoolmasters' Widows Fund," which he secured by annual life payments. Our brother jEmilius generously joined his lieutenant's half- pay to his stepmother's slender provision ; and cheerfully took a share of the little cottage which she occupied.

He was, as this noble action shows, a man of warm affections ; but the exclusion, caused by the want of interest, from active employment in the service (the naval) which he idolized, and other disappointments, had soured his temper ; he was naturally irascible, and a strong admirer of what is known by men-of-wars-men as " tight discipline ; " the exercise of which had long a depressing effect on my brother's mind.

The child is not always father to the man.

The enthusiastic and energetic traveller, whose physical conformation set fatigue and privation at defiance, whose courage and enthusiasm enabled him to bring to a successful completion the arduous expedition which he himself had planned — a success which made him only desirous of entering on renewed labours — was, in childhood and early youth, weak and sickly in physical, and timid in mental constitution.

He had early shown a strong tendency to consumption, to guard against which required, for several years, much care and assiduous attention to his clothing and diet : and, instead of his character being marked by the youthful recklessness which might naturally be supposed to have been the foreshadowing of his subsequent well-regulated daring, he was singular for a want of interest in the games common among boys — for an unwillingness to join in their rougher sports, and for a hesitation in enter-

THOMAS SIMPSON.

ing upon any exercise or amusement that could in the least expose him to personal danger. For instance, although most of his school-fellows were bold and expert swimmers, he had not sufficient self-confidence, while a boy, to acquire any proficiency in that useful art ; and, even in manhood, when fearlessly exposing himself to the hazards of the impetuous rapids of the Coppermine, and the imminent dangers of Arctic navigation, he had acquired but little skill in it.

During childhood and boyhood he was distinguished by a quiet docile temper, habits of strict order and method, and by a steady constant attention to his studies, rather than by any remarkable quickness in mastering them. The better part of these characteristics remained with him during his too short career ; but his intellect was rapidly strengthened and sharpened by emulation and contact with other minds ; while his spirit cast off the timidity which weighed it down, as his body cast off its youthful infirmities.

Even from childhood there was a strong feeling of enthusiasm, almost amounting to romance, governing him. His mind was not more bent in youth on the acquisition of university honours, than it was in childhood on the proper management of the little square of flower garden, which his father considerately apportioned as his own,

" whereof he might make a kirk or a mill."* He was not more earnest, in his early manhood, in his search after the north-west passage, than he was in boyhood in his endeavours to win the smiles of his dancing-school partner. Byron's passion, while yet in " shorts," for his Aberdeen playmate, has been thought to be, in some degriee, a creation of his imagination. I can still recollect the pains, the tribulations, and the anxieties caused to my brother, by his love for a little missie not yet in her teens.

An aspiration after the noble and the generous also arose early in his mind, and it grew with his growth and strengthened with his strength. A favourite and often repeated quotation from Horace was " Odi profanum vulgus et arceor In repeating this to me, who then, as now, " knew small Latin and no Greek," he always explained that the poet's meaning and his own implied only a . contempt for the low pursuits, sordid desires, and grovelling habits of the vulgar herd, not a hatred of his fellow-men of any class or degree.

* The Scottish phrase for the Duke of Newcastle's aphorism— " I can do what I like with my own."

Chapter II

Studies for Four Winters at King's College, Aberdeen. — - Description of the Mode of Living there : its advantages. — Advice to other Students. — Carries off the first Prize at conclusion of his Studies. — Youthful Habits, Tastes, and Opinions.

With such youthful characteristics as those which I have described (characteristics coinciding in a remarkable degree with those which belonged to the boyhood of Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller), it will appear natural that my brother should have excited much interest, and raised sanguine expectations of his future success, in every one connected or acquainted with him.

The sphere chosen as that for which he should be educated and trained was the Kirk of Scotland. We shall in the sequel find his own feelings and opinions in regard to this choice candidly explained.

In pursuance of this scheme of education, he was sent in the autumn of 1824 to King's College, Aberdeen.

Before describing his progress at this northern institution, it will be interesting, as aifording an insight into the system of education and course of life of students there, to peruse a Memorandum on the subject, which he himself drew up in 1829, for the information of a friend who was anxious to select a fit place for the education of younger brothers.

" Of the various Scotch universities, that which I consider the most eligible for completing a young man^s education is the ' King's College ' of Aberdeen. This opinion is not the effect of prejudice, but is founded upon various considerations, the most important of which are the following : —

"1st. The strict surveillance which the Professors have over both the public and private conduct of the young men under their charge. In point of numbers, indeed, this university ranks second only to that of Edinburgh ; but the college being situated in what is called the ' Old Town,' a small place at the distance of a mile from the city, the lodgings of the students are necessarily condensed within a very small compass, affording the Professors an opportunity of knowing the young men individually, and of observing their behaviour and character. No impropriety or irregularity can, therefore, escape

THOMAS SIMPSON.

observation ; whereas, the other universities (with the exception of St. Andrew's, which is a great resort for young men of rank and fortune) being situated amid large and populous cities, the young men are scattered in every direction, unknown to their teachers save by name, under little controul, and exposed to many temptations.

" 2nd. The admirable method now pursued at this university, where, besides a variety of examinations which ensure application and afford ample room for the display of merit, there are a great number of prizes given annually in every class ; and at a public competition which takes place a week before the meeting of college, there are a number of bursaries from twenty pounds per annum, {i. e, for the four years,) downwards, awarded to the best writers of the Latin language ; and I have known many young men support themselves in this way without costing their friends a shilling.

" 3rd. The economy in the mode of living at this university. Aberdeen, from local causes, is generally allowed to be one of the cheapest places in Scotland. The usual, and unquestionably the best, way for going to work is this : — Two young men club together to take, say a \^ small sitting-room and bed closet, or more frequently only a good bedroom, at a certain set rent ; the landlady procures all kinds of stores, provisions, &zc., for which they reimburse her weekly ; while for cooking, washing, &c., there are regular charges ; so that, after the first week, the whole is plain sailing. By this means the whole average expense for the winter does not exceed from twenty to twenty-five pounds ; and I should consider thirty pounds per session as a very handsome allowance.

"See the following abstract, the charges in which are stated at considerably beyond the average.

I.

s.

d.

" Lodgings per Session, divided between two, 4 ]

guineas ...... J

Cooking, brushing shoes^, and washing for 21 \ weeks, at 2s. per week . . . i

Expense of board per week each, 7s. .

. 7

College fees at an average ....

Books and stationery ....

A suit of Clothes .....

Pocket money .....

' 4

£30

0*

* While recommending this limit, he

" Did not, as some ungracious pastors do. Show us the steep and thorny way to heaven. Whilst, like a pufF'd and reckless libertine. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. And recks not his own read."

for I have before me a record of his own sessional expenses,

THOMAS SIMPSON.

" The course of study is as follows : — First year. — 1, Greek; 2, Latin.

" Second year. — 1, Mathematics ; 2, Natural History and Chemistry ; 3, Greek ; 4, Latin.

" Third year. — 1, Natural Philosophy and higher Mathematics ; 2, Greek ; 3, Latin.

''Fourth year. — 1, Moral Philosophy and Logic ; 2, Greek ; 3, Latin.

"If these observations from one who speaks from experience be sufficient to induce you to send your brothers to this university, I have only two advices to give them, viz., to keep clear of bad company ; and to make a point of performing every exercise themselves, without trusting, in any shape, to the assistance of others."

Different, indeed, the life and habits of the

and I find them respectively to amount to 23/. 155. 2d., 28L 9.9. 4^d., 251. Is. 6d., 28l. 2s. 3d. " 'Tis sixty years since," explains many things ; his father's expenses at the same university, of which I have no less correct a record, never exceeded the sum of ten pound per annum.

The following is an abstract of my brother's expenses from

1st November, 1824, to 1st April, 1825. I. s. d.

Travelling expenses to and from Aberdeen . 3 7 4

Board, lodging, coal, and candle . . .811

Clothing, including college gown . . . 8 3 G

College fees, books and stationery . . . 2 17 3

Washing, postages, and amusements . . 16 7

£23 15 9 self-denying Aberdeen student, into which this paper gives no little insight, from those of the gay under-graduates of the lordly universities of Cambridge and Oxford, of whose studies a recent grave Mentor,* describes the geological riding lectures of Buckland and Sedgwick to be a strictly regular portion ; while he rates the concert, the ball, the cricket-match, the boat-race, the flower-show, the private luncheon party, and the public dinner, as agreeable interruptions to the routine of academic studies ; nay, from whom the ''pink''' hunting-coat peeping out from under the college-gown, horn-blowing, and tandem-driving draw forth no very stern rebuke !

Many a parent's aching heart would be comforted ! many a family's ruin averted ! many a young man, whose energies have been prostrated, and joys embittered by the incubus of debts incurred while keeping up to the usual mark of college life, would have ran a course of prosperous and happy exertion, (! — ) were the ordinary expenses at Oxford and Cambridge but tenfold the amount which my brother points out as the maojimum necessary at the northern alma mater, to which he owed his own education and training.

* See an elaborate article in The Quarterly Review for December, 1843, which attracted much attention, and excited much discussion.

THOMAS SIMPSON.

My brother, on joining the university, was a competitor for the bursaries, to which he alludes in the foregoing paper : he obtained one, though of the lowest class ; yet even this was of advantage to him, as it diminished the amount of his college fees — bursars having a right to certain deductions from the usual scale.

He was, from his first entrance, extremely attentive to all his studies : and the exertion necessary to enable him to keep pace with his fellow-students in classical acquirements, for which he had no strong natural bent, had a most beneficial effect in calling forth his latent energies of mind. This, again, reacted on his bodily frame. He returned from his winter studies quite a new being ; his mind aroused to a consciousness of its strength, his spirits exuberant, and his bodily frame already showing indications of the muscular symmetry which marked his manhood. A summer ramble among the wild hills of Lochbroom clenched this auspicious change.

His next session at the university tended still more to expand his character. The main branch of this winter's study was mathematics, for which his mind had a particular bias : and in it he out-stripped all his fellow-students. His earnest application to this study may be judged from a

c fact communicated to me by his chum, that each morning, ere he retired to rest, his room was thronged by his class-fellows, who, after a night of slumber, came to him to beg or borrow his solution of the Professor's puzzling problems, which (as we have seen he recommended to others) he, himself, never omitted working out.

He also took a prominent part in the debating society, established by the students among themselves, and was the recognized leader of the higJiland party of his class — between which, and the lowland section, the " Saxons," there existed no little jealousy. His own descent was, undoubtedly, almost exclusively from those Saxons ; and, although born within sight of Ben Nevis, the hugest of Scottish mountains, he spoke but little, and that very imperfect, Gaelic ; yet he had a keen feeling for the scenery of his native district ; and, in his addresses before the society, he frequently made triumphant comparisons between the proud feelings instilled into the mind of a highlander by a constant contemplation of the grand and romantic scenery of the mountains, and the plodding stolidity of the inhabitants of the lowlands.

Several of these addresses, carefully written out, now lie before me. That I should consider them marked by high merit may be the result of

THOMAS SIMPSON.

natural partiality. In the next chapter, I give entire and unaltered, one delivered to his fellow-students on the breaking up of his first session at the university, and another " On the advantages to be derived from the study of Metaphysics," which was delivered, in November 1827, on the opening of the session, during which that science was the particular branch of study. The first is a juvenile performance, but marked by strong characteristic traits ; in the last will be found indications of the concision and simplicity of style, joined to earnest truthfulness, which so strongly mark his letters and narratives, quoted in the following pages.

During the sessions of 1826-27 and 1827-28, he pursued his studies with even increased ardour. In physical sciences he was the facile princeps of his fellow-students ; but in classical acquirements he had one or two equals, if not superiors ; and on their comparative progress in Metaphysical studies (those belonging to the last session) depended the decision of the learned Professors as to the fit recipient of the " Huttonian " prize, the highest reward of literary merit given in the university, being that bestowed on him who has made the greatest proficiency in all the branches of study forming its Curriculum.