York Factory, and would take
them there; where, on my return, I expected to meet my successor as a
Minister to the Settlement, on his arrival from England by the ship;
and who would take them under his care in continuing the voyage to the
school. "Religion, (says Hearne) has not as yet began to dawn among the
Northern Indians; for, though their conjurors do indeed sing songs and
make long speeches to some beasts and birds of prey, as also to
imaginary beings, which they say assist them in performing cures on the
sick, yet they, as well as their credulous neighbours, are utterly
destitute of every idea of practical religion."

The Company's present Establishment is about five miles up the river,
from the point of rock at its entrance where the ruins of the old
Factory are seen; which was the point Hearne started from on his
journey to the Coppermine River, in the year 1770; and which was blown
up by Perouse about the year 1784. It appears to have been strongly
fortified, and from its situation must have been capable of making a
formidable resistance to an enemy; and it can never cease to be a
matter of surprise that it should have been surrendered without firing
a shot. The walls and bastions are still remaining, which are strewed
with a considerable number of cannon, spiked, and of a large calibre.
Augustus used to visit this point every morning, in anxious expectation
that his countrymen would arrive by the way of the coast, in their seal
skin canoes. One day he returned to the Factory evidently much agitated;
and upon inquiry I found that there was an Esquimaux family in a tent
by the shore, under one of the rocks, one of whom had greatly alarmed
him with the information, that soon after he left his tribe with
Junius, (who is supposed to have perished as a guide in the Arctic
Expedition,) one of Junius's brothers took his wife, and thinking that
Augustus was displeased with him, and that he possessed the art of
conjuring, had determined upon his death, and that this superstitious
notion had so preyed upon his spirits as to terminate his existence.
This circumstance, he added, had led a surviving brother to threaten
revenge, and supposing that he might come to the Factory with the
Esquimaux who were expected, he advised him to be on his guard. The
next day, July the 29th, Augustus returned to the point of rock on the
look out, but not without having first requested a brace of pistols,
loaded his musket, and fixed his