white man among
hundreds of savages. Nightly his ammunition was plundered. One of his
survey instruments was broken in a wind storm. Others were stolen. It
was useless to go on without instruments to take observations of the
Arctic Circle; so for a second time Hearne was compelled to turn back
to Fort Prince of Wales. Terrible storms impeded the return march.
His dog was frozen in the traces. Tent poles were used for fire-wood;
and the northern lights served as the only compass. On midday of
November 25, 1770, after eight months' absence, in which he had not
found the "Far-Off-Metal River," Hearne reached shelter inside the fort
walls.

Beating through the gales of sleet and snow on the homeward march,
Hearne had careened into a majestic figure half shrouded by the storm.
The explorer halted before a fur-muffled form, six feet in its
moccasins, erect as a mast pole, haughty as a king; and the gauntleted
hand of the Indian chief went up to his forehead in sign of peace. It
was Matonabbee, the ambassador of the Hudson's Bay Company to the
Athabascans, now returning to Fort Prince of Wales, followed by a long
line of slave women driving their dog sleighs. The two travellers
hailed each other through the storm like ships at sea. That night they
camped together on the lee side of the dog sleighs, piled high as a
wind-break; and Matonabbee, the famous courser of the Northern wastes,
gave Hearne wise advice. Women should be taken on a long journey, the
Indian chief said; for travel must be swift through the deadly cold of
the barrens. Men must travel light of hand, trusting to chance game
for food. Women were needed to snare rabbits, catch partridges, bring
in game shot by the braves, and attend to the camping. And then in a
burst of enthusiasm, perhaps warmed by Hearne's fine tobacco,
Matonabbee, who had found the way to the Athabasca, offered to conduct
the white man to the "Far-Off-Metal River" of the Arctic Circle. The
chief was the greatest pathfinder of the Northern tribes. His offer
was the chance of a lifetime. Hearne could hardly restrain his
eagerness till he reached the fort. Leaving Matonabbee to follow with
the slave women, the explorer hurried to Fort Prince of Wales, laid the
plan before Governor Norton, and in less than two weeks from the day of
his return was ready to depart for the unknown river that was to lead
to the Northwest Passage.

The weather was dazzlingly clear, with that burnis