Hay algunas dudas sobre como sucedió el asesinato de Robert Hood y la posterior ejecución de Michel Terohaute durante la expedición de1819 a la desembocadura del rio Coppermine, algunos hechos y testimonios parecen indicar que lo ocurrido no sucedió en circunstancias tan claras como las que el Dr. Richardson reflejó en su diario. Hay una teoría que parece indicar que los hechos narrados en la versión oficial del viaje fueron pactados por el Dr. Richardson y por John Franklin y que esconden algunos hechos que por algún motivo no se quisieron relatar.
A mi particularmente siempre me ha extrañado que el Dr. Richardson pudiese matar a Michel Terhouate de un disparo en la cabeza cuando Michel se dirigía directamente a matar a ambos tras haber cargado su arma. En ese caso Michel debía de encontrarse en un alto estado de máxima alerta y desconfianza. Supongo que un tiro certero a distancia con las armas de la época y dado el estado de debilidad en el que se encontraban Richardson y Hepburn debió de resultar una tarea difícil.
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| John Richardson_from Wikipedia_By T. Philips |
Quizás la verdadera historia realmente no sucediese tal y como la versión oficial nos ha relatado y que en el momento de la verdad hubiese un forcejeo en el que Hepburn lograra acorralar a Michel o incluso dejarle inconsciente y que posteriormente hubiese una ejecución sumaria. Nada de que avergonzarse dadas las circunstancias, creo yo, aunque si para aquellos oficiales ingleses del S. XIX.
Quizás Richardson y Hepburn y también Hood descubrieran a que se podía haber estado dedicando Michel en sus ausencias, cuando supuestamente iba a cazar, curiosamente armado solo con un hacha y volvía al campamento con carne de un supuesto lobo, quizás la discusión de Hood fuese desencadenada por el descubrimiento de que Michel habría recurrido al "último recurso", los oficiales podrían haber tenido miedo que de contar aquella historia les hubiesen acusado también a ellos de haber recurrido a esta solución y esto si que hubiese resultado inaceptable en aquella época, como después se pondría de manifiesto con los primeros testimonios del Dr. Rae sobre el destino de la expedición perdida de Franklin de 1845.
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| Taking liquens in the Barren Lands_from Wilkipedia_By Edward Finding after the original of George Back. |
No obstante hay versiones un tanto más perversas. Dudo, tal como Fergus Flemming menciona en su fenomenal libro "Barrow Boys" (Pg. 152 de la versión inglesa) que Hepburn, y Richardson acabaran con la vida de los cuatro Canadienses y de Robert Hood para comérselos. En las Pgs 151 y 152 del libro Les Bourgeois de la Companie del Nord Ouest se levantan sospechas y se plantean preguntas como ¿porque sobrevivieron los Ingleses cuando los Canadienses se encontraban más preparados para aquel tipo de vida?.
Mi respuesta a esta pregunta es que porque los oficiales apenas llevaban cargas pesadas, los botes y las tiendas las transportaban los Voyageurs Canadienses durante todo el camino, botes y tiendas de tamaño considerable que debían de transportar a varias personas. Probablemente los Voyageurs se encontraran en un extremo estado de agotamiento y debilidad debido a la enorme escasez de calorías que deberían de haber ingerido para suplir el desgaste debido al esfuerzo y al frío extremo al que estaban sometidos en aquellos meses de septiembre y octubre.
Aunque no domino mucho el idioma Francés la traducción resumida de lo que se encuentra presente en este relato comienza reprochando que Franklin y los jefes de la expedición no rindieran los debidos honores al sacrificio de los Canadienses que perecieron en el desempeño del deber. El libro menciona que las circunstancias en las que aquellas muertes sucedieran nunca seían debidamente aclaradas.
Wentzell, el interprete de la compañía del noroeste que les acompañó hasta la desembocadura del rio Coppermine y cuyo testimonio podemos encontrar incriminó a Richardson por el asesinato de Michel e intentò llevarle a los tribunales, aunque Wenzell había sido acusado de falta grave por no haber provisto Fort Enterprise (el último puesto donde a duras penas llegó Franklin y algunos de sus hombres) de los viveres que acordaron antes de su separación. Wentzell que previamente había sido invitado a reunirse con los mandos de la expedición en Inglaterra fue posteriormente conminado a permanecer unos años más en los puestos avanzados del ártico. De nuevo, este hecho quizás se debiese a la falta de Wentzell al no aprovisionar debidamente Fort Enterprise.
Pero la más misteriosa referencia a este hecho y que aún hoy deja la puerta abierta a la especulación es que George Back en una carta a Wentzell dijo exactamente estas palabras " Para decir la verdad, Wentzell, los hechos han tenido lugar de una manera que no deberían de saberse", desde luego es una misteriosa manera de no zanjar los hechos.
There is some doubts about how happened the killing of Robert Hood and the posterior execution of Michel Terohaute during the overland expedition of 1819 to the mouth of the Coppermine River, some of the facts and testimones seems to show that what happened there didn´t occurs in so clear circunstances as that Dr. Richardson wrote in his Journal. There is a theory that seems to indicate that the facts narrated on the official version of the journey were accordated by Dr. Richardson and by John Franklin and that hide some things that by any reason they didn´t want to tell.
To me, particularly it allways have been strange that the Dr. Richardson could kill Michel Terohaute of a single shot in his head when Michel adressed rigth to them after having charged his gun.
In that case, Michel should have been in a high mood of alert and distrustness. I suppose that a perfect shot in the distance with that old guns and due to the debility state on which thy were Richardson and Hepburn should be a hard task.
Perhaps the true story didn´t happened really in the way that the official version has told us and that really in that moment a struggle happened in which Hepburn could take at Michel, even left him unconscious and that after that it was a summary execution. Nothing to blame however, given the circunstances, i think, although a blame thing to those English officers in the S. XIX.
Perhaps Richardson and Hepburn and also Hood discovered the things that had been doing Michel during his absences, when he allegedly gone to hunt, curiosly armed only with a hatchet and he returned to the camp with wolf meat, perhaps the discussion of Hood was caused by the discovering that Michel had resort to the "last resource". The officers could have been afraid to tell that story to avoid subsequents accusations and this thing would have been inaceptable in that time, as after it would emerge with the first testimonies of the Dr. Rae about the destiny of the Franklin lost Expedition in 1845.
However there are versions a little more perverse. I doubt that, as Fergus Flemming mention in his nice book Barrow Boys" (Pg. 152 of the english version) Hepburn and Richardson could finish with the life of the four Canadians and even with the life of Robert Hood to eat them.
In the Pages 151 and 152 of the book Les Bourgeois de la Companie del Nord Ouest emerge suspicions and questions are made about: Why the English people survive while the Canadians if they were more prepared to that kind of life? My answer to this question is because the officers hardly carried heavy loads, the boats and the tents were carried by the Canadian Voyageurs during the way. Boats and tents of considerably size because they were designed to carry and lodge several persons. Likely the Voyageurs were in a extrem state of exhaustion and debility due to the lack of calories that they should have eaten to supply the deteriore of their bodies due to the extrem effort and cold during that months of september and october.
Though I don´t dominate the French (nor also the English obviously) the summary of the translations present on this story begins reproaching that Franklin and the chiefs of the expedition wouldn´t pay the right tribute to the sacrifice of the Canadians who died on their call of duty. The book mention that the circunstances on which that deaths occurred would never be properly clarified.
Mi respuesta a esta pregunta es que porque los oficiales apenas llevaban cargas pesadas, los botes y las tiendas las transportaban los Voyageurs Canadienses durante todo el camino, botes y tiendas de tamaño considerable que debían de transportar a varias personas. Probablemente los Voyageurs se encontraran en un extremo estado de agotamiento y debilidad debido a la enorme escasez de calorías que deberían de haber ingerido para suplir el desgaste debido al esfuerzo y al frío extremo al que estaban sometidos en aquellos meses de septiembre y octubre.
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| Cazando y pescando en las cercanías de Fort Enterprise_From Wikipedia_ ByEdward Finding after the original of George Back. |
Wentzell, el interprete de la compañía del noroeste que les acompañó hasta la desembocadura del rio Coppermine y cuyo testimonio podemos encontrar incriminó a Richardson por el asesinato de Michel e intentò llevarle a los tribunales, aunque Wenzell había sido acusado de falta grave por no haber provisto Fort Enterprise (el último puesto donde a duras penas llegó Franklin y algunos de sus hombres) de los viveres que acordaron antes de su separación. Wentzell que previamente había sido invitado a reunirse con los mandos de la expedición en Inglaterra fue posteriormente conminado a permanecer unos años más en los puestos avanzados del ártico. De nuevo, este hecho quizás se debiese a la falta de Wentzell al no aprovisionar debidamente Fort Enterprise.
Pero la más misteriosa referencia a este hecho y que aún hoy deja la puerta abierta a la especulación es que George Back en una carta a Wentzell dijo exactamente estas palabras " Para decir la verdad, Wentzell, los hechos han tenido lugar de una manera que no deberían de saberse", desde luego es una misteriosa manera de no zanjar los hechos.
There is some doubts about how happened the killing of Robert Hood and the posterior execution of Michel Terohaute during the overland expedition of 1819 to the mouth of the Coppermine River, some of the facts and testimones seems to show that what happened there didn´t occurs in so clear circunstances as that Dr. Richardson wrote in his Journal. There is a theory that seems to indicate that the facts narrated on the official version of the journey were accordated by Dr. Richardson and by John Franklin and that hide some things that by any reason they didn´t want to tell.
To me, particularly it allways have been strange that the Dr. Richardson could kill Michel Terohaute of a single shot in his head when Michel adressed rigth to them after having charged his gun.
In that case, Michel should have been in a high mood of alert and distrustness. I suppose that a perfect shot in the distance with that old guns and due to the debility state on which thy were Richardson and Hepburn should be a hard task.
Perhaps the true story didn´t happened really in the way that the official version has told us and that really in that moment a struggle happened in which Hepburn could take at Michel, even left him unconscious and that after that it was a summary execution. Nothing to blame however, given the circunstances, i think, although a blame thing to those English officers in the S. XIX.
Perhaps Richardson and Hepburn and also Hood discovered the things that had been doing Michel during his absences, when he allegedly gone to hunt, curiosly armed only with a hatchet and he returned to the camp with wolf meat, perhaps the discussion of Hood was caused by the discovering that Michel had resort to the "last resource". The officers could have been afraid to tell that story to avoid subsequents accusations and this thing would have been inaceptable in that time, as after it would emerge with the first testimonies of the Dr. Rae about the destiny of the Franklin lost Expedition in 1845.
However there are versions a little more perverse. I doubt that, as Fergus Flemming mention in his nice book Barrow Boys" (Pg. 152 of the english version) Hepburn and Richardson could finish with the life of the four Canadians and even with the life of Robert Hood to eat them.
In the Pages 151 and 152 of the book Les Bourgeois de la Companie del Nord Ouest emerge suspicions and questions are made about: Why the English people survive while the Canadians if they were more prepared to that kind of life? My answer to this question is because the officers hardly carried heavy loads, the boats and the tents were carried by the Canadian Voyageurs during the way. Boats and tents of considerably size because they were designed to carry and lodge several persons. Likely the Voyageurs were in a extrem state of exhaustion and debility due to the lack of calories that they should have eaten to supply the deteriore of their bodies due to the extrem effort and cold during that months of september and october.
Though I don´t dominate the French (nor also the English obviously) the summary of the translations present on this story begins reproaching that Franklin and the chiefs of the expedition wouldn´t pay the right tribute to the sacrifice of the Canadians who died on their call of duty. The book mention that the circunstances on which that deaths occurred would never be properly clarified.
Wentzell, the interpret of the Northwest COmpany, who accompanied them to the mouth of the Coppermine River and whose testimonies we can find in the book, He incriminated Richardson by the killing of Michel and he tried to carry him to a trial, but Wentzell had been accusated of a big fault for not having supply Fort Enterprise properly ( The last post where Franklin and some of his men hardly arrived).
Wentzell who previously had been invited to have a meeting in England with the chiefs of the expedition at the end of the journey was later said to stay in the advanced forts of the arctic for some years more. Again i suppose that they took such measure because the mistakes of Wentzell for not supplying Fort Enterprise.
But the most misterious reference to this subject and that nowadays leave the door open to especulate is that George Back in a letter to Wentzell said exactly this words: "to tell the truth Wentzel, things have taken place which must not be known"., in fact it is a misteriously way to leave the things unclear. He had said previosly at him that the things weren´t gone fine between the english people since the mouth of the Coopermine river to Fort Enterprise.
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