Notes on Samuel Hearne's Journey from a Bibliographical Perspective

24 Papersof the BibliographicalSocietyofCanada31/22SMacLaren:<strong>Notes</strong> on SamuelHearne'sJourneyto the text. Or, it may be that Glover decided, the Stowe MSnotbeing in Hearne's hand, that the published stage ofthe narrative wasthe authoritative one; however, because Glover's introductionleaves no doubt that he considered Hearne the author ofA Journey,it is unlikely that he would have regarded such a decision asnecessary. 17 Nor does a fellow historian disagreewith him. 18 Just ascertainly, however, researchers in each discipline that makes use ofthis purple patch and climax of Hearne's posthumously publishedbook need to assess all the sources for themselves, especiallybecause Glover's blunt editorial note for much of the massacrepassage is, to put it equally bluntly, opaque. In any case, right fromthe start of A Journey, the reader must regard with circumspectionthe author's hope that his 'humble Endeavours to relate, ~ a plain ,.:,and unadorned Style, the various Circumstances and Remarks ".which occurred during that Journey, will meet with' the approbationof the company's governor, deputy governor, and committee. 19At the close of the eighteenth century, the gothic novel enjoyedits apogee of popularity in Britain. Elsewhere and relying on onlyone version of the field notes, I have argued for the possibility thatcontemporary narratives of exploration took on some of the colouringof that fictional genre just as, under Gutteridge and Newman's .Stephen-King-like pens, the massacre's horror is heightened forpopular consumption today."o 'Without mentioning the mostfamous example, that of Christopher Columbus.V M.J. Brand ishelpful in noting that '[tjhe practice of adding material to journalsprior to publication was not uncommon'j-" nor, however, did thetraveller/explorer always do the adding, the taking away, or theediting. The metamorphosis ofexplorers and travellers into publishedauthors makes for intriguing study, and nowhere more than incases where the explorers died before their books appeared.Another case of posthumous publication, the famous one of CaptainCook's last voyage, is pertinent here because the John Douglaswhom Glover discounts as Hearne's editor"3 was known to haveprepared Cook's last journals for publication.w More than this,Douglas used the occasion of the introduction to those journals(preparedin the first-person singular, as if they were unchanged fromCook's wording) to call for the publication of Hearne's journal, aportion of which he quotes." From that portion, which ~?es notmatch the same passage in either the Stowe MS,the Grenville MS,or the published Journey, ,,6 one infers the possibility of there havingbeen several stages through which Hearne's narrative passed duringthe years between 1772, when he arrived safely back at Fort Prince?f ~ales, and the first day of 1795, just over two years after his death10 ovember 179 2 , when the narrative appeared as a book. Whatone must then Contend with is whether or not the alterations fromone stage to ,th~ n~xt are substantive from the perspective of one'sparticul~ disc~pllOe. That the published book alone presentsHearne 10 t~e literary fashion Ofthe day as a sentimental traveller- eve~ at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions ofthat horridda~ Wlt?O~t ~he~di~ tears' _"7 holds a certain interest; but for~~Ich dlsclphnes ISIt asubstantive interest? Moreover, what matterISIt that only the published Hearne, when he reached the mouth ofthe Coppermine River the next day, 'took possession of the coaston behalf of ~he Hudson's BayCompany,' or that only the publicatio~names the site of the massacre 'Bloody Fall'l2.8 New db b k' . groun cannote. ro ~n on t?IS topic without more' bibliographical attention?e1Ogpaid to this engro~sing omnibus narrative. FollOWingGloverIS.helpful only to a point, and one does not out-distance that pointwlth~ut extending one's search beyond Glover's thirty-five-year-oldexertions. Now that doubt, albeit circumstantial doubt has beethrown on Hearne's even being near the scene of the ~assacre ,,~o~e ,can heartily endorse in the case of Hearne what Glynd~WIlliams ~s s~ggested of other fur trade explorers' writings: 'It is?ne of the ironies of, the history of the Canadian West that theJournals of some of Its most significant explorers _ Radisson~elsey, La France, Pond - present ineluctable problems of reliabil~tty and even authenticity.'30I I~~ther concern relates to an unquestioned dependence on Glover'sedition, Even within the published account there is a difficultthat b th ' y, onee~s on ~ not 1Oconsiderableliterature in Canadian journalsconcermng the line of H~arne's route to and from the Arctic Ocean.As S~an Peake has noticed, in at least one important case thew~r~1Og 3~f the first edition does not match that of most othereditions, Further scrutiny yields the concern that someone otherthan Hearne, by then deceased of course, noted on the errata pageof the first edition that on 8 September 1771 during his return tripthe explorer walked, not 'North West, by the side of Point Lake '3~but 'South West, by the side ofPoint Lake.'33This change effectiv~lyt~kes Hearne home by a new route. Indeed, and to emphasize thisdiscrepancy, page 202 in all of the eighty-three copies examined of