^, i^'IrL.^., IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) "/ 1.0 I.I Ii£|2j8 |25 ut iU |Z2 Z us 12.0 U& 1 . ■ |l.25 ||U ||.6 \ « 6" ► Fhotograpdiic Sdences Carporation 23 Wnr MAIN STMIT WIISTM,N.Y. I4SM (7U)l7a-4S03 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHJVI/ICJVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Inatituta for Hiatorical Microraproductiona / Institut Canadian da microraproductiona hiatoriquaa Tttchnical and BibllosrapMc NotM/NotM tachniquM «t MMiographiiiuM ttw Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of ttiia copy which may ba blMiographicaUy uniqua, which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduction, or which may aignificantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. 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Maps, piatas, charts, ate., may ba fHmad at diffarant raduotlon ratios. TI«oaa too larga to ba antlraly includad in ona axpoaura ara flimad baginning in tlia uppar laft hand comar, laft to right and top to bottom, aa many framas aa raquirad. Tlia following diagrams lllustrsts tha mathod: Un das symboiss suhrsnts apparattra sur la dsrnlArs imsga da chaqua microficha, sslon is cas: la symbols -^ signifia "A 8UIVRE ", la symbols ▼ signifia "FIN". I.as cartas, pisnchss, tablaaux, ate. pauvant Atra fiimto i das tsux ds rMuctlon diff Arsnts. Lorsqus Is document sst trop grsnd pour Atrs rsproduit sn un soul ciichi, II ast film* i partir da I'angia supAriaur gaucha, da gaucha i droita, at da iMut wn bas, sn prsnant la nombra d'Imagas nicassalra. Las diagrammaa suivsnts lliustrant la mithoda. 1 2 3 <^-J 1 2 3 4 6 6 y y THE GEEAT COMPANY « f /■ ^ > I'RINCI-: RL'PKRI l-,vni tin- phturc at tlu Hudson Hay Coiii/>,iny's House ^ •" i ■i k\ I %. v Co. Edinbui^h /^e 3aoT \i\ TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR WILFRID LAURIER, G.C.M.G. PKEMIEH OF CANADA PEEFACE As a sovereign power in the Western Hemisphere, the remarkable body whose history I have sought to present, witnessed French and Spanish, Russian, Dutch, and Portuguese dominion in turn flourish there, de- cline and disappear. It saw from afar new colonies planted by European States ; it saw the beginning and the end of the bloody quarrels which transformed these colonies themsolves into states. It saw numerous wars, great and small, hotly waged and meanly wane ; and (contributing less than any to this end) the gradual extermination of the abojriginal masters of the Northern Continent. In the long era of its sovereignty, the remote forest fastnesses of the moose and beaver were transformed by loyal British subjects into opulent provinces. But that series of changes, so often pic- turesque and always significant, which has marked the history of the western world, left, seemingly, one institution untouched. Surviving all regimes and nearly all conditions, for a period of two full centuries the " Great Company " (thus it was dubbed by the aborigines) existed unshorn mi ,x I % I y Vlll PREFACE of any of its greatness, the one original pillar remaining in that New World mansion, which is at once the refuge of errant peoples and the theatre of discoveries, vicissitudes, and experiments. 'Ppon the Company was conferred the right of establishing castles and fortifications, garrisons and colonies, plan- tations, towns, and villages, in any parts or places within the limits of its own territory ; and to each of its outposts, forts, and stations it had the right of sending ships of war, men or ammunition, and of appointing governors, commanders, and^fficers to con- trol them and the surrounding districts. ) As a pioneering factor in a rude wilderness, the Hudson's Bay Company naturally occupied a very different position from such a body as the East India Company ; it is worth remembering besides that it began as a territorial sovereign of the very first magnitude. Differing as widely in root as in branch from the French associations in Canada for the traffic in furs, it did not go forth amongst the natives with the Bible in its hand. Evangelisation was not even one of its excuses. Yet it was truly a friend to the Red man ; and had its policy been the only one affect- ing that unhappy being in daily life, commerce, and morals, the result might have been vastly different, not only for himself but equally for the fur-trade. Nevertheless, if the Company had never suffered from competition, or had never even known a rival, the / PREFACE IX westward march of an inexorable civilisation must have brought its sway to a curtailment, if not to a close. It is easy to perceive that the day is not far distant when that map showing the area of the Com- pany's rule will be dotted with villages, towns, and cities ; the forests of Rupert's Land uprooted ; its plains tilled by the husbandman, flocks and herds roaming its valleys, miners in summer and winter vexing its pine-clad hills. Yet what few spots there are in this vast region which can cease to bear testimony for generations to come to the labours and heroisms of the servants of the Great Company ? (Here — there — wherever indeed we choose to cast our glance, traces confront us of the indomitable fur-hunter who, often frozen and hungry, always in remoteness and solitude, lived here his life, and lent his name to lake, mountain, and river, to settlement, creek, or hill. \ With regard to the official motto of the Company, concerning which there have arisen some amusing mis- conceptions, I should iuv6 tc hazard a word. Many who have not believed " Pro pelle cutem " a quotation from a classical Latin author, have fancied that it was adopted latterly in allusion to Sir J. H. Pelly, Bart., who was Governor of the Company for thirty years, from 1822 to 1852. The meaning of the motto is not, as commonly rendered, " A skin for a skin," but " We seek (or want) the skin for the sake of the fur," some verb being understood to govern the accusative case (MUm^ PREFACE While the phrase is not a quotation, its occurrence in a transposed form in the celebrated Tenth Satire of Juvenal is curious: "Deformem pro cute pellem . . . aspice," which may be rendered : " Instead of a skin behold a tangled hide !" There is likewise a singular phrase in the Vulgate (Job ii. 4) : '* Pellem pro pelle, et cuncta quae habet homo, dabit pro anima sua," which we thus translate : " (And Satan answered the Lord and said) Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life." I wish to record my gratitude to many for assistance and courtesies rendered to me during the writing of a narrative which has necessitated no little time and application. Amongst those besides the venerable Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal to whom I am especially indebted I ought to mention Mr. William Ware, the courteous secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company; Mr. Martin Griffin, the Parliamentary Librarian; Mr. Sylvain, the Assistant LJ^'*tirian, both of Ottawa; Mr. Douglas Bi^mner, the Dominion Archivist at Ottawa, Mr, Lionel Portman, and to M. Trarieux of Paris. I owe thanks to the Countess of Selkirk for a photograph of the bust of Lord Selkirk ; and also to Mr. Matthew Semple of Philadelphia for a miniature of his ancestor. Governor Semple. Of pretensions to being what is called exhaustive in these two volumes I make none; indeed there is PREFACE XI material left for an entertaining series. But there are, I am happy to learn, others labouring in the field whose pens, better practised in historical writing, may be left henceforth to traverse, more minutely and in far more picturesque fashion than my own, what I have found, for a space, a congenial and an attractive theme. Devonshire Club, London, . December 1899. \ I CONTENTS PAGES Pbbfacb vii GOVBBNOBS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY . . . . XXi Dbputy-Govebnobs of the Hudson's Bay Company . . xxiii INTBODUCTION XXV ,, CHAPTER I 1660-1667 Effbct of the Restobation on Tbade— Adventubebs AT Whitehall— The Bast India Company monopoly- English intebbst in'Nobth Amebica— Pbince Bupebt's CLAIMS— The Fub Tbade of Canada— Aim op the WOBK 1-1 1 1-8 CHAPTER II 1659-1666 Gboseilliebs and Badisson— Theib pebeobinations in the Noeth-West— They bbtubn to Quebec and lay theib scheme befobe the Oovebnob— Bepulsed by him they pboceed to New England— And thence sail fob Fbance, whebb they endeavoub to intebebt M, Oolbebt 9-24 xiii XIV CONTENTS CHAPTER III 1640-1667 PAOES Pbinob Bupbbt— His ohabaotbb— Sebvbs thbouoh thb Civil Wab— His Naval Expbdition in thb Wbst Indibs— Bbsidbncb in Fbanob— And ultimatblt in London— Hb bbobivbs Gbobbillibbs and intboduobs HIM TO THB King 25-36 CHAPTER IV 1668-1670 Thb Pbincb Visits thb " Nonsuch "—Abbival in thb Bay — Pbbvious voyages of bxplobation— a Foet com- MBNOBD AT BUPBBT'S BIVBB — OILLAH'S BBTUBN — Dbaling with thb Nodwaybs — Satisfaction of thb Company— A Boyal Ohabteb gbantbd .... 37-48 CHAPTER V 1668-1670 Dangbb appbbhbndbd to Fbbnoh dominion— Intbndant Talon— Fue-Tbadb bxtbnded westwabd— Nbws of THE English expedition reaches Quebec- Sovbbbign bights in question- English pbiobity established 49-58 CHAPTER VI 1671 First public sale at Garraway's—Contbmpobaby prices OF FUB— The Poet Dbyden— Meetings of the Com- pany—Curiosity OF the town— Aborigines on view 59-70 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER VII 1671-1673 PAon Mission op the FI;be Alban£l — Appbehension at Foet Chables — Bailey's distbust of Radisson — Expedi- tion TO Moose Riveb— Geoseilliebs and the savages —The Bushbangees leave the Company's sebvice— Aebival of Govebnob Lyddal 71-84 X CHAPTER VIII 1673-1682 Peogbess of the Company— Confusion as to the names AND NUMBEE of THE TBIBES— RADISSON GOES TO FABIS —His effoets to obtain suppoet thebe, and fbom Pbince Rupebt, in England, fail— Aebival op M. DB la Chesnaye— With his help Radisson secuees SUPPOET— And sails fob Quebec— Thence peocbeds with two ships to attack the English poets in Hudson's Bat— His encountees with Gillam's ex- pedition fbom London, and his son's fbom New England 85-105 \ ilii / CHAPTER IX 1682-1683 Death op Fbinoe Rupbet— The Company's difficulty in pbocubino peopbb sebvants— Radisson at Poet Nel- son—The TWO Gillams— Their meeting— Captube of the New England paety— The fiest Scotchman in the Bay— Govebnob Bbidgae cabbied off pbisoneb— Indian Visitoes to the Fort— Disastbes to the ships —The Febnch buen the Island Foet— Radisson's haeanoue to the Indians— Retuen to Feance . 106-132 XVI CONTENTS CHAPTER X 1683-1685 PAOKS Hays writes to Lord Preston— Godey sent to Radisson's LODGINGS— La BARRE'S STRENUOUS EFFORTS— RADISSON RETURNS TO THE ENGLISH — HE LEAVES FOR THE BAY— MbPTS HIS NEPHEW CHOUART — FORT BOURBON SUR- RENDERED TO THE Company— Radisson's dramatic re- turn TO London 133-161 Cob CHAPTER XI 1685-1686 Feigned anger of Lewis— He writes to La Barbe— Im- portance ATTACHED TO INDIAN TREATIES— DULUTH'S ZEAL— Gauthier de Comportier— Denonville made Governor — Capture of the " Merchant of Perpetu- ana "—Expedition of Troyes against the Company's Posts in the Bay— Moose Fort surrendered 152-161 IMPI CHAPTER XII 1686-1689 The French Attack upon Fort Rupert— Governor Sar- geant apprised— Intrepidity op Nixon— Capture op Fort Albany— Disaster to the " Churchill "—The Company hears the ill news— Negotiations for Colonial neutrality— Destruction op New Severn Fort— Loss of the " Hampshire " — The Revolu- tion 165-181 pBTr I c CONTENTS XVll CHAPTER XIII I 689- I 696 PAQES Company's Claims mentioned in Declaration of War —Parliament grants Company's application for confirmation of its Charter— Implacability of the Felt-makers — Fort Albany not a success in the HANDS OF THE FRENCH— DENONVILLE URGES AN ATTACK UPON Port Nelson— Lewis despatches Tast with a Fleet to Canada — Iberville's jealousy prevents its sailing to the Bay— Governor Phipps burns Fort Nelson— Further agitation on the part of THE French to possess the West Main — Company makes another attempt to regain fort albany —Fort Nelson surrendered to Iberville— Its re- conquest BY THE Company 182-197 CHAPTER XIV 1696-1697 Imprisoned French Fur-Traders reach Paris— A Fleet UNDER Iberville despatched by Lewis to the Bay —Company's four ships precede them through THE Straits — Beginning of a fierce battle — The "Hampshire" sinks— Escape of the "Bering" and capture of the " hudson's bay "—dreadful storm IN THE Bay— Losses op the victors— Landing of Iberville— Operations against Fort Nelson— Bailey YIELDS— Evacuation by the English . . 198-210 CHAPTER XV 1698-17 13 Petition presented to Parliament hostile to Com- pany—Seventeenth Century conditions of trade— "Coureubsdeb Bois"— Price op Peltries— Standard OP TRADE PRESCRIBED — Company's Conservatism— VOL. I. h XVUl CONTENTS VAdEB Lbttbbs to Factors — Chahacteb op the eablt GOVEBNOBS — HBNBY KBLSBY — YOBK FACTOBY UNDEB the Fbench— Massacbb of JI;b£hie's men— Stabva- , tion amongst the Ikdiaks 211-233 CHAPTER XVI 1697-1712 Compahy seriously damaged by loss op Port Nelson- Send AN ACCOUNT OF THEIB CLAIMS TO LORDS OP Trade— Definite boundaey pbopositions of trade — Lewis anxious to create boundaries— Company look TO OUTBBEAK OF WAB— WAB OF SPANISH SUCCESSION BBEAKS OUT— PeBIOD OF ADVEBSITY FOB THE COMPANY -Employment of Oekneymen — Attack on Fobt Albany— Despebate condition of the Fbench at YoBK Fobt— Petition to Anne 234-248 CHAPTER XVII 1712-1720 Queen Anne espouses the cause of the Company— Pbiob's view of its wants— Tbbaty of Utbecht —Joy of the Adventubebs — Petition fob Act op Cession— Not pbessed by the Bbitish Govebnment— GovEBNOB Knight authobisbd to take possession of PoBT Nelson — "Smug ancient gentlemen" — Com- missionebs to ascebtain bights— Theib meeting in Pabis— Matters move slowly— Bladen and Pultenby return to England 249-261 CHAPTER XVIII 1719-1727 The South Sea Bubble — Nation catches the pevbb of SPECULATION— STBONG TEMPTATION FOB THE COMPANY —Pricking of the Bubble— Nabbow escape of the ADA' entubbbs— Knight and his Expedition— Anxiety CONTENTS PAOM AS TO THEIR FATE — CEBTAINTY OF THEIR LOSS— Burnett's scheme in cripple the French— It forges THEM WESTWARD INTO HUPERl'S LAND . , . 262-273 CHAPTER XIX * 1687-1712 Hudson's Bay Tribes peaceful— Effect of the Traders' presence— Depletion of Population— The Crees and AssiNiBoiNES — Their Habits and Customs — Their numbers — No SUBORDINATION AMONGST THEM — SPIRI- TUOUS Liquors — Effect of Intemperance upon the Indian 274-289 /• • CHAPTER XX 1685-1742 Errant Tribes of the Bay— The Goose Hunt— Assem- blage AT Lake Winnipeg— Difficulties of the voy- age—Arrival AT THE Fort— Ceremony followed by DEBAUCH— Gifts to the Chief— He makes a speech to THE Governor— Ceremony of the Pipe— Trading BEGUN 290-300 CHAPTER XXI 1731-1742 System of licenses readopted by the French— Veran- drye sets out for the Pacific— His son slain— Dis- appointments — He reaches the Rockies — Death of Verandryb— Forts in Rupert's Land— Peter the Great and the Hudson's Bay Company— Expeditions OF Bering — A North- West Passage— Opposition op THE Company to its discovery— Dobbs and Middle- ton — Ludicrous distrust of the explorer — An anonymous letter . . • ' . . . . 301-322 XX CONTENTS CHAPTER XXII / 1 744-1 748 War again with France— Company takes measures to DEFEND its FORTS AND PROPERTY— " KEEP YOUR GUNS LOADED "—Prince "Charlie" — His Stock in the Company confiscated— Further Instructions to the Chief Factors — Another Expedition to search for A North-West Passage— Parliament offers Twenty Thousand Pounds Reward— Cavalier Treatment from Governor Norton— Expedition returns— Dobbs' ENMITY — Privy Council refuse to grant his Petition —Press-gang outrages — Voyage of the **Sea- PAOES HORSE 323-339 PAOBS GOVERNORS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY His Highness Prince Rupert .... H.R.H. James, Duke of York (afterwauds King James II.) John, Lord Churchill (afterwards Duke of Marl borough) Sir Stephen Evanck, Kt The Rt. Hon. Sir William Trumbull . Sir Stephen Evance, Kt Sir Bibye Lake, Bart Benjamin Pitt Thomas Knapp Sir Atwell Lake, Bart Sir William Baker, Kt Bibye Lake Samuel Weqg Sir James Winter Lake, Bart. William Mainwaring Joseph Berens, Junior Sir John Hknry Pelly, Bart Andrew Colville John Shepherd Hknry Hulsk Beuens Rt. Hon. Sir Edmund Walker Head, Bart., K.C.B Rt. Hon. The Earl op Kimberley . Rt. Hon. Sir Stafford H. Northcoti:, Bart., M.P. (Earl of Iddesleigh) .... Rt. Hon. George Joachim Goschen, M.P. Eden Colville Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G. 1670-1683 1683-1685 1685- 1691- 1696- 1700- 1712- 174:?- 1746- 1750- 1760- 1770- 1782- 1799- 1807- 1812- 1822- 1862- 1856- 1858- 1863- 1868- 1691 1696 1700 1712 1743 1746 1750 1760 1770 1782 1799 1807 1812 1822 1852 1856 1858 1863 ■1868 1869 1869-1874 1874-1880 1880-1889 1889- ili y y DEPUTY-GOVEKNORS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY Sir John Eobinson, Kt. . Sir James Hayes, Kt. The Hon. Sir Edward Bering Samuel Clarkr . John Nicholson . Thomas Lake Sir Bibye Lake, Bart. Captain John Merhy Samuel Jones Benjamin Pitt . Thomas Knapp ... Sir Atwell Lake, Bart. . Sir William Baker, Kt. . Captain John Merry Bibye Lake .... Robert Mkrry ... Samuel Wegg Sir James Winter Lake, Bart Richard Hulse . Nicholas Caesar Corse ijjs William Mainwarino Joseph Berens, Junior John Henry Pelly . Nicholas Garry Benjamin Harrison . xxiii Kt 1670-1675 1675-1685 1685-1691 1691-1701 1701-1710 1710-1711 1711-1712 1712-1729 1729-1735 1735-1743 1743-1746 1746-1750 1750-1760 1760-1765 1765-1770 1770-1774 1774-1782 1782-1799 1799-1805 1805-1806 1806-1807 1807-1812 1812-1822 1822-1835 1835-1839 XXIV DEPUTY-GOVERNORS OF THE COMPANY Andrew Colville John Shepherd .... Henry Hulse Berens Edward Ellice, M.P. Sir Curtis Miranda -Lampsox, Bart. Eden Colville .... Sir John Rose, Bart., G.C.M.G. Sir Donald A. Smith, G.C.M.G. The Eari, of Lichfield . 1839-1852 1852-1856 1856-1858 1858-1863 1863-1871 1871-1880 1880-1888 1888-1889 1889-1898 INTKODUCTION The history of the Hudson's Bay Company during two " centiories of its existence must bring out prominently several matters which are apt now to be lightly vmembered. I refer amongst other things to the immense area of country — more than half as large as Europe — over which its control eventually extended^ the explorations conducted under its auspices, the successful endeavours, in spite of a strenuous opposition, to retain its hold upon what it regarded as its territory, its friendly relations ivith the Indians; and, finally, the manner in which its work prepared the way for the incorporation of the illimitable wilderness within the Dominion of Canada. It is n>ot too much to say that the fur-traders were the pioneers of civilisation in the far West, They undertook the most fatiguing journeys with the greatest pluck and fortitude; they explored the country and kept it in trust for Ch'eat Britain. These fur-traders penetrated to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, into what is now known as British Columbia, and even to the far North and North- West, in connection with the extension of trade, and with the M XXV XXVI INTRODUCTION ,1 establishment of the famous Hudson's Bay Company posts and forts which were the leading features of the maps of the Coventry until within, comparatively recent times. The names of many of these early explorers are perpetuated in its rivers and lakes, and not a few important Arctic discoveries are connected with the names of officers of the Company, such as Hearne, Dease, and Simpson, and, in later times, Dr. John Bae. The American and Bussian Companies which were seek- ing trade on the Pacific Coast in the early days of the present century, were not able to withstand the activity and enterprise of their British rivals, but for whose discoveries and work, even British Columbia might not have remained British territory. For many years the only civilised occu- pants of both banks of the Columbia Biver were the fur- traders, and it is not their faidt that the region between it and the International Boundary does not now belong to Canada. Alaska ivas also leased by the Hudson's Bay Company from Bussia, and one cannot help thinking that if that country had been secured by Great Britain, we should probably never have heard of the boundary question, or of the disputes over the seal fisheries in the Behring Sea. However, these things must be accepted as Ihey are; but it will not in any case be questioned that the icork of the Company prepared the w „ 208 „ 243 „ 311 MAPS Map showing Hudson Bay Company's Posts To face page xxxii Plans op York and Prince op Wales' Forts . . page 331 Contemporary Map showing the Hays' River . . „ 334 xxxi too set ' , f- ■ ^'■' I 1 > THE GREAT COMPANY CHAPTER I 1660-67 EPPECT OP THE Restoration on Trade — Advbntubers at Whitehall— The Bast India Company monopoly— Eng- lish interest in North America— Prince Rupert's Claims —The Fur Trade op Canada— Aim op the Work. That page in the nation's history which records the years immediately following the Restoration of the Stewarts to the English throne, has often been re- garded as sinister and inauspicious. Crushed and broken by the long strain of civil war, apparently bankrupt in letters, commerce, and arms, above all sick of the restraints imposed upon them by the Roundheads, the nation has too often been represented as abandoning itself wholly to the pursuit of pleasure, while folly and license reigned supreme at court. The almost startling rapidity with which England recovered her pride of place in the commercial world has been too little dwelt upon. Hardly had Charles the Second settled down to enjoy his heritage when the spirit of VOL. I. A THE GREAT COMPANY / mercantile activity began to make itself felt once more The arts of trade and commerce, of discovery and colonisation, which had languished under the Puritan ascendency, revived ; the fever of " Imperial Expan- sion " burst out with an ardour which no probability of failure was able to cool; and the court of the " Merry Monarch " speedily swarmed with adventurers, eager to win his favour for the advancement of schemes to which the chiefs of the Commonwealth would have turned but a deaf ear. Of just claimants to the royal bounty, in the persons of ruined cavaliers and their children, there was no lack. With these there also mingled, in the throng which daily beset the throne with petitions for grants, charters, patents and monopolies — returned freebooters, buccaneers in embryo, upstarts and com- pany-promoters. Every London tavern and coffee- house resounded with projects for conquest, trade, or the exploitation of remote regions. From the news-letters and diaries of the period, and from the minutes of the Council of Trade and the Royal Society, one may form an excellent notion of the risks which zealous capital ran during this memor- able decade. For two centuries and more, mercantile speculation had been busy with the far East. There, it was believed, in the realms of Cathay and Hindustan, lay England's supreme market. A large number of the marine expeditions of the sixteenth century were } ENGLISH EIGHT TO HUDSON S BAY more f and uritan Ixpan- ability 3f the turers, ihemes i have in the , there in the Btitions jturned com- coffee- ade, or 3d, and nd the ion of nemor- tulation it was :an, lay of the were I associated with an enterprise in which the English nation, of all the nations in Europe, had long borne, and long continued to bear, the chief part. From the time of Cabot's discovery of the mainland in 1498, our mariners had dared more and ventured oftener in quest of that passage through the ice and barren lands of the New World which should conduct them to the sunny and opulent countries of the East. The mercantile revival came; it found the Orient robbed of none of its charm, but monopoly had laid its hand on East India. For over half a century the East India Company had enjoyed the exclusive right of trading in the Pacific between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and the merchants of London therefore were forced to cast about for other fields of possible wealth. As far as North America was con- cerned, the merest reference to a map of this period will reveal the very hazy conception which then English right prevailed as to this vast territory. Few courtiers, as yet, either at Whitehall or Versailles, had begun to concern themselves with nice questions of frontier, or the precise delimi- tation of boundaries in parts of the continent which were as yet unoccupied, still less in those hyper- borean regions described by the mariners Frobisher, Button, and Fox. To these voyagers, themselves, the northern half of the continent was merely a huge barrier to the accomplishment of their designs. Yet in spite of this destructive creed, it had long to Hudson's Bay hi' 4 THE GREAT COMPANY been a cardinal belief in the nation that the English crown had by virtue of Cabot's, and of subsequent discoveries, a right to such territories, even though such right had never been actively affirmed.^ In the year 1664 the King granted the territory now comprised in the States of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware to his brother, the Duke of York, and the courtiers became curious to know what similar mark of favour would be bestowed upon his Majesty's yet unrewarded cousin. Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland and Count Palatine of the Rhine.^ The Duke of York succeeded in wresting his new Transatlantic possession from the Dutch, and the fur- trade of New Amsterdam fell into English hands. Soon afterwards the first cargo of furs from that region arrived in the Thames. I * "The great maritime powers of Europe," said Chief Justice Marshall, "discovered and visited different parts of this Continent at nearly the same time. The object was too immense for any of them to grasp the whole ; and the claimants were too powerful to submit to the exclusive or unreasonable pretensions of any single potentate. To avoid bloody conflicts, which might terminate disastrously to all, it was necessary for the nations of Europe to establish some principle which all would acknowledge and which would decide their respec- tive rights as between themselves. This principle, suggested by the actual state of things, was, ' that discovery gave title to the Govern- ment by whose subjects or by whose authority it was made, against all other European governments, which title might be consummated by possession.' " " "Prince Rupert, we hear, is of no mind to press his Plantation claims until this Dutch warre is over. A Jamaica pattent is spoke of." — Pleasant Patiayes, 1665. LONDON MERCHANTS AND THE FUR TRADERS 5 Naturally, it was not long before some of the keener- sighted London merchants began to see behind this transaction vast possibilities of future wealth. The extent of the fur-trade driven in Canada by the French was no secret.^ Twice annually, for many years, had vessels anchored at Havre, laden with the skins of fox, marten, and beaver, collected and shipped by the Com- pany of the Hundred Associates or their successors in the Quebec monopoly. A feeling was current that England ought by right to have a larger share in this promising traffic, but, it was remarked, " it is not well seen by those cognizant of the extent of the new plan- tations how this is to be obtained, unless we dislodge the French as we have the Dutch, which his present Majesty would never countenance." Charles had little reason to be envious of the posses- 1 As early as 1605, Quebec had been established, and had become an important settlement ; before 1630, the Beaver and several other companies had been organised, at Quebec, for carrying on the fur- trade in the West, near and around the Great Lakes and in the North- West Territory ; that the enterprise and trading operations of these French Companies, and of the French colonists generally, extended over vast regions of the northern and the north-western portions of the continent ; that they entered into treaties with the Indian tribes and nations, and carried on a lucrative and extensive fur-trade with the natives. In the prosecution of their trade and other enterprises these adventurers evinced great energy, courage, and perseverance. They had, according to subsequent French writers, extended their hunting and trading operations to the Athabasca country. It was alleged that some portions of the Athabasca country had before 1640 been visited and traded in, and to some extent occupied by the French traders in Canada and their Beaver Company. This is, of course,, pure folly. From 1640 to 1670 these discoveries and trading settlements had nevertheless considerably increased in number and importance. THE GREAT COMPANY sion, by his neighbour Lewis, of the country known as New France. Those tragic, and melancholy narratives, the " Rela- tions des Jesuites," had found their way to the English French fur- Court. From these it would seem that trade. ^Y\q terrors of cold, hunger, hardships, and Indian hostility, added to the cost and difficulties of civil government, and the chronic prevalence of official intrigue, were hardly compensated for by the glories of French ascendency in Canada. The lead- ing spirits of the fur-trade then being prosecuted in the northern wilds, were well aware that they derived their profits from but an infinitesimal por- tion of the fur-trading territory; the advantages of extension and development were perfectly apparent to them ; but the difficulties involved in dealing with the savage tribes, and the dangers attending the establishment of further connections with the re- mote interior, conspired to make them content with the results attained by the methods then in vogue. The security from rivalry which was guaranteed to them by their monopoly did not fail to increase their aversion to a more active policy. Any efforts, therefore, which were made to extend the French Company's operations were made by Jesuit mis- sionaries, or by individual traders acting without authority. Such, in brief, was the state of affairs in the year 1666 when two intrepid bushrangers, employees of the COMPANY OF MERCHANTS-ADVENTURERS nown as old Company/ dissatisfied with their prospects under the new regime, sought their way out from the depths of the wilderness to Quebec, and there propounded to the Intendant, Jean Talon, a scheme for the extension of the fur- trade to the shores of Hudson's Bay. This enterprising pair saw their project rejected, and as a sequel to this rejection came the inception and establish- ment of an English association,^ which subsequently obtained a charter from the King, under the name and title of " The Governor and Company of Merchants- Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay." To narrate the causes which first led to the forma- tion of this Company, the contemporary interest it excited, the thrilling adventures of its early servants, of the wars it waged with the French and drove so valiantly to a victorious end; its vicissitudes and gradual growth ; the fierce and bloody rivalries it combated and eventually overbore ; its notable expe- ditions of research by land and sea; the character of ^ In 1663 the charter of the Compagnie des Cents Assocos, granted by Richelieu in 1627, was ceded to the Crown. In 1665 the new Association, '• La Compagnie des Indes Occidentals," received its charter. 2 Several noblemen and other public-spirited Englishmen, not un- mindful of the discovery and right of the Crown of England to those parts in America, designed at their own charge to adventure the establishing of a regular and constant trade in Hudson's Bay, and to settle forts and factories, whereby to invite the Indian nations (who live like savages, many hundred leagues up the country) down to their factories, for a constant and yearly intercourse of trade, which was never attempted by such settlements, and to reside in that in- hospitable country, before the aforesaid English adventurers undertook the same." — Company^a Memorial, 1699. ■i THE GREAT COMPANY the vast country it ruled and the Indians inhabiting it; and last but not least, the stirring and romantic experiences contained in the letters and journals of the Great Company's factors and traders for a period of above two centuries — such will be the aim and purpose of this work. ill CHAPTER II 1659-1666 Grosbillibrs and Radisson— Their peregrinations in the North-West— They return to Quebec and lay their Scheme before the Governor— Repulsed by him they PROCEED TO New England— And thence sail for France, where they endeavour to interest M. Colbert. The year 1659, notable in England as the last of the Puritan ascendency and the herald of a stirring era of activity, may be reckoned as the first with which the annals of the Great Company are concerned. It is in this year that we first catch a glimpse of two figures who played an important pan in shaping its destinies. Little as they suspected it, the two intrepid fur-traders, Groseilliers and Radisson who in the spring of that year pushed their way westward from Quebec to the unknown shores of Lake Superior, animated in this, as in all their subsequent exploits, by a spirit of adventure as well as a love of gain, were to prove the ancestors of the Great Company. Medard Chouart, the first of this dauntless pair, was born in France, near Meaux, and had emigrated to Quebec when he was a little over sixteen years old. His father had been a pilot, and it was designed that ¥ ■ ' 10 THE GREAT COMPANY the son should succeed him in the same calling. But long before this intention could be realised he fell in with a Jesuit, returned from Canada, who was full of thrilling tales about the New France beyond the seas ; and so strongly did these anecdotes, with their sug- gestion of a rough and joyous career in the wilderness, appeal to his nature, that he determined to take his own part in the glowing life which the priest depicted. In 1641 he was one of the fifty-two emigres who sailed with the heroic Maissoneuve from Rochelle. Five years later we find him trading amongst the Hurons, the tribe whose doom was already sealed by reason of the Groseiiiier ' ^^^^^i^J ^^^^ Superior might of the Iroquois ; first mar- and at the close of another year comes the "'^^®* record of his first marriage. The bride is Etienne, the daughter of a pilot, Abraham Martin of Quebec, the " eponymous hero " of that plateau adjoin- ing Quebec where, a century later, was to take place the mortal struggle between Wolfe and Montcalm. It was probably soon after this marriage that Chouart adopted the title "des Groseilliers," derived from a petty estate which his father had in part be- queathed to him. Not long did his wife survive the marriage ; and she died without leaving any legacy of children to alleviate his loss. But the young adventurer was not destined to remain for any length of time disconsolate. Within a year of his wife's death, there arrived in the colony a brother and sister named Pierre and I, I GROSEILLIERS AND RADISSON 11 Marguerite Radisson, Huguenots of good family, who had been so persistently hounded in France by the persecution which sought to exterminate their com- munity, that the one key to happiness had seemed to them to lie beyond the seas. No sooner had their father died than they bade farewell to France and sailed for Canada, there to start a new life amidst new and more tranquil surroundings. With this couple young Groseilliers soon struck up an acquaintance ; and so rapidly did the intimacy ripen that before long he was united to the sister in matrimony, and to the brother in a partnership for the pursuit of commercial adventure. The double union proved doubly fortunate ; for Marguerite seems to have made a well-suited wife, and Pierre, though in birth and education superior to Groseilliers, was no whit less hardy and adventurous, nor in any respect less fitted for the arduous tasks which their rough life imposed upon them. The two speedily became fast friends and associates in enterprise, and thus united they soon took their place as the leading spirits of the settlement at Three Rivers. Here, in 1656, Radisson married for the first time, his bride being a Mile. Elizabeth Herault, one of the few Protestant young women in the whole of Canada. Groseilliers, who had been long disgusted at the priestly tyranny of which he had seen so much in Canada, probably needed but little inducement to embrace the Protestant religion, if indeed this had not been stipulated upon at the time 12 THE GREAT COMPANY i ijll :*l Radisson weds Miss Kirko. of his marriage. At all events, we now find him reputed to be among the Protestants of the Colony; some of whom, were, in spite of the bitter prejudice against them, the boldest and most successful spirits the fur- trading community of that period had to show. Radisson, like Groseilliers,^ had the misfortune to lose his wife soon after their marriage ; but, like his comrade, he too sought consolation in a fresh marriage. This time he allied himself with the daughter of a zealous English Protestant, who afterwards became Sir John Kirke. It was to the brothers of this Kirke that the great Champlain, thirty years before, had surrendered Quebec. With this introduction to the characters of the two remarkable men whose fortunes were to become so \ closely entwined with that of the Hudson's Bay Qompany, we may pass to their early efforts to extend the fur-trade beyond those limits which the distracted and narrow-minded officers of the Compagnie des Cent Assoc^s thought it necessary to observe. Reaching the shore of Lake Superior in the early summer of 1659, Radisson and Groseilliers travelled ' Each scribe seemed to have followed his own fancy in spelling our hero's name. I find Groiseliez, Grozeliers, Groseliers, Groiziliers, Grosillers, Groiseleiz, and Groseillers. Charlevoix spells it Groseilliers, Dr. Dionne, following Radisson's Ohouard, writes Chouart. But, as Dr. Bryrr jer justly observes, "he is as little known by that name as Voltaire by his real name of Arouet, he being always spoken of by the name of des Groseilliers, changed in one affidavit into 'Goose- berry.'" The name literally translated is, of course. Gooseberry- bushes. .« ' A ROUTE TO THE BAY 13 for six days in a south-westerly direction, and then came upon a tribe of Indians incorporated with the Hurons, known as the Tionnontates, or the Tobacco Nation. These people dwelt in the territory between the sources of the Black and Chippeway Rivers, in what is now the State of Wisconsin, whence, in terror of the bloody enmity of the Iroquois, they afterwards migrated to the small islands in Lake Michigan at the entrance of Green Bay. During their temporary sojourn with this branch of the unhappy Hurons the two pioneering traders heard constant mention of a deep, wide, and beautiful river — comparable to the St. Lawrence — to the west- ward, and for a time they were half tempted* by their ever-present thirst for novelty to proceed in that direction. Other counsels, however, seem to have pre- vailed ; for instead of striking out for the unknown river of the west they journeyed northward, and wintered with the Nadouechiouecs or Sioux, who hunted and fished among the innumerable lakes of Minnesota. Soon afterwards they came upon a separate band of war-like Sioux, known as the Assiniboines, a prosper- ous and intelligent tribe, who lived in skin and clay lodges and were " familiar with the use of charcoal." From these Assiniboines, Radisson and Groseilliers A Route to first heard of the character and extent of the Bay. ^jj^^ great watery tract to the north, named by the English explorers " Hudson's Bay," which was to be the scene of their later labours; and 14 THE GREAT COMPANY not only did they glean news of its nature, but tliey also succeeded in obtaining information as to the means of reaching it. In August 1660, the two adventurers found their way back to Montreal, after over a year's absence. They were accompanied by three hundred Indians, and in possession of sixty canoes laden with furs, which they undertook to dispose of to the advantage of the savages and themselves. As they had anticipated, they found the little colony and its leaders deeply interested in their reports of the extent and richness of the fur-producing countries to the westward, as well as in their description of the unfamiliar tribes inhabit- ing that region. The sale of the furs having resulted in a handsome profit, Groseilliers announced to his brother-in-law his intention of making the journey on his own account. There was no dearth of volunteers eager to embark in the enterprise, and from those who offered their services he chose six Frenchmen — coureurs ties bois or bushrangers ; and having pro- vided himself with an ample outfit, turned his footsteps once more to the prairies of the west, leaving Radisson to rejoin his wife and sister at Three Rivers. On the eve of his departure the Jesuit Fathers, dis- trusting Groseilliers' religious proclivities and suspecting that he might attempt to influence the Assiniboines, insisted upon one of their number accompanying him. The priest chosen for this arduous mission was the aged missionary Ren(5 Menard, who, in spite of his LUCRATIVE RESULTS OF VOYAGE 15 physical frailty, was still undaunted by any prospect of peril ; though ho was, on this occasion, prevailed upon to allow his servant Guijrin to accompany him. It was the priest's last journey. When Groseilliers again reached Montreal, after a season in the wilder- ness as prosperous as its forerunner, he bore the mournful news that Menard had been massacred, and his body, beyond question, devoured by a fierce band of Indians. This voyage, besides showing lucrative results, also proved a memorable one for Groseilliers, inasmuch as it was during his winter's sojourn with the distant Assiniboines that he acquired information which affected his whole subsequent career. There can be no question that it was the knowledge he obtained from this tribe of a convenient route to Hudson's Bay, by way of Lake Superior, and of a system of trade with the tribes dwelling on or in proximity to that unknown sea, that caused him to set out once again in May 1662 for the west. He was accom- panied by ten men, all of whom were disaffected towards the powers which then controlled the fur- trade in New France. The combination of good fortune and espi^it de corps among his followers proved so successful that when, after a year's absence, he returned to the eastern cv>lonies, the number of furs he brought back was sutiiciently great to render a simultaneous disposal of all the packs inadvisable. He adopted the wise course of dividing them into Ill ■5' 16 THE GREAT COMPANY three consignments, and these were sold respectively at Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. Hencefor- ward but one idea possessed Groseilliers — a journey to the great fur-lands of the north. It should be his life's work to exploit the fur-trade of Hudson's Bay. Already he saw himself rich — richer even than the merchant-princes of old Rochelle. . But alas for his plans, the official laxity and dissen- sions which had made it possible for himself and A new fur othcrs thus to infringe with impunity, the Company. general monopoly granted by the King came to a sudden end. A fresh patent for a new Company was issued by the Crov/n ; a new Governor, M. d'Ava- gour, entered upon the scene, and the rigorous measures enacted against private traders drove many of these over to the English and the Dutch. A commission from M. d'Avagour, dated the 10th of May 1663, conveyed permission to one Couture to remove with five men to the bottom of the Great Bay to the North of Canada, consequent upon the requisition of some Indians, who had returned to Quebec to ask for aid to conduct and assist them in their affairs. This same Couture afterwards certified, or the French Government certified in his stead, that he really undertook this voyage, and "erected anew upon the lands at the bottom of the said Bay a cross and the arms of the King engraved on copper, and placed between two plates of lead at the foot of a large tree." Much justifiable doubt has been cast upon A NEW FUR-COMPANY 17 this story, and at a much later period, when French and English interests were contesting hotly for the sovereignty of the territory surrounding Hudson's Bay, an expedition was sent in search of the boasted memorials, but no traoe of the cross or the copper escutcheon could be found. There seems every pro- bability that the allegation, or the subsequent state- ment of an allegation of this description, was false. Groseilliers had thus to reckon with the new fur- trading proprietors of Quebec, who were to prove them- selves less complaisant than the old. While severely interdicting traders from going in search of peltries, they reasoned that the produce would ultimately find its way into their hands, without the need of any such solicitation. And though Groseilliers persistently explained to them that such policy of interdiction was really a short-sighted one ; that the Indians could not be always depended upon to bring their own furs to the Company's mart; and that no great time would elapse before the English or Dutch would push their way westward to Lake Superior, and so acquire an unequalled opportunity of developing the resources of the northern regions ; neither his criticism and advice (founded on personal knowledge of the unstable Indian character), nor the apprehensions of rivalry, which he showed good grounds for entertaining, had any power to move the officials of the Hundred Associates. Neither argument, entreaty, nor prognostications of danger VOL. I. B m THE GREAT COMPANY would induce them to look with any favour upon Groseilliers' project, or entertain his proposals. Groseilliers afterwards hinted that it was prejudice against his adopted religion which really lay at the bottom of this complete rejection of his scheme, and accounted also for the Company's refusal to avail themselves of his services otherwise than as a mere salaried servant. Such was the situation when he sought the advice of Radisson, and it is not unlikely that it was the counsels of his brother-in-law which induced him to resolve upon a bold step in the further- ance of his cherished project. It was well known that the English colonists settled in New England were putting forth the strongest efforts to secure a share of the fur-trade of the North. Their allies, the redoubt- able Iroquois, had upon several occasions waylaid and plundered the Huron tribes, who were conveying their cargoes to Quebec and Montreal, and had delivered these into the hands of the English. Farther west- ward, the Dutch were indefatigable in their endeavours to divert the fur-traffic of the North from the St. Lawrence to the Hudson. But the Dutch had been vanquished by the English; New Amsterdam was now New York; and it was English brains and English money which now controlled the little colony Groseilliers ^^^ *'^6 Untravellcd lands which lay be- in Boston, yoncl it. It was to the English, therefore, that the indomitable adventurer now determined to apply. Madame Radisson had relatives in Boston ; her GROSEILLIERS IN BOSTON 19 • upon ejudice at the le, and 9 avail a mere hen he inlikely r which further- wn that id were share of redoubt- aid and Qg their elivered er west- leavours the St. ad been am was ins and e colony lay be- herefore, lined to ton; her father was an intimate friend of the Governor. Be- lying on such influences as these, but still more on the soundness of his project, Groseilliers made his way to Boston by way of Acadia. Early in 1664 we find the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Nuns at Quebec remarking of Groseilliers that " as he had not been successful in making a fortune, he was seized with a fancy to go to New England to better his condition. He excited a hope among the English that he had found a passage to the Sea of the North." The good Mother Superior was deceived. It was no part of Groseilliers* plan to seek a passage to the Sea of the North; but one can hardly doubt ;,' at he found it highly politic that such a report snould obtain currency in Quebec. The fur-trade of the North, and the fur-trade alone, was Groseilliers lode-stone; but in spite of all it had cost him to acquire the knowledge he already possessed, he was ready to abandon the land and fresh-water route, and seek the shores of Hudson's Bay from the side of the Atlantic Ocean. Doubtless many causes operated to alter his original plan ; but there can be little question that the most potent was the opposition of the Quebec Company. Yet had the sea-route not existed, even the oppo- sition of that Company would not have sufficed to baulk him of a fulfilment of his designs. He would not have been the first French trader, even at that i 20 THE GREAT COMPANY early day in the history of the rival colonies, to circumvent his countrymen, and, taking advantage of their confined area of activity, to conduct negotia- tions with the Indians surrounding the most distant outposts of their territory. The proceeding would have been hazardous had the Company possessed the force necessary to assert its rights to the trade of the whole northern and north-western country; but the new company did not as yet possess the force. The most real danger Groseilliers had to fear was that, if he persisted in his endeavours to draw away the trade of the northern tribes, he might be outlawed, and his property, and that of his brother-in-law Radisson, confiscated. Groseilliers had left his wife and his son in Canada, and he went to work therefore with considerable caution. It has been asserted, and perhaps with excellent point, that Groseilliers may have been very powerfully influenced in the abandonment of his land and fresh- water route by obtaining an entirely new idea of the configuration of northern North America. In the maps which were likely at that time to have found their way to Quebec, the northern regions are but very dimly defined; and with the knowledge of geography gained only from these maps Groseilliers could hardly have realised the accessibility of the approach by sea. It seems likely, therefore, that the change of route was not even thought of until Groseilliers had had his interview with Radisson; it was probably I'' OROSEILLTERS IN BOSTON 21 Radisson — with his superior geographical knowledge and more thorough comprehension (through his kin- ship with the Kirkes, all famous mariners) of the discoveries made by the English in the northern parts — who advocated the sea-route. The idea must have grown upon him gradually. His countrymen took it for granted that the whole northern country was theu's, . apparently assuming the sole mode of access to be by land. The sea-route never seems to have occurred to them, or if they thought of it at all, it was dismissed as dangerous and impracticable for purposes of commerce. The configuration of the northern country, the form and extent of the seas, certainly the character of the straits and islands, were to them little known. Secure in what they regarded as nominal possession, forgetful that English mariners had penetrated and named these northern waters, the officials of the Canada Company were content to pur- sue a policy of laissez faire and to deprecate all appre- hensions of rivalry. Singular coincidence ! More than a century was to elapse aiid another Company with ten times the wealth, the power, the sovereignty wielded by this one : not French — for France had then been shorn of her dominion and authority — but EngliSli, scorning the all-conquering, all-pervading spirit of mercantile Eng- land, was to pursue the same policy, and to suffer the loss of much blood and treasure in consequence of such pursuit. Ili^ THE GREAT COMPANY In Boston, the main difficulty which Groseilliers had to face was a scarcity of wealth. His scheme was approved by many of the leading finds no Spirits there, and his assertions as to the patrons. wealth of the fur-bearing country were not doubted. But at that period the little Puritan colony was over-strained in carrying out projects for its own security and maintenance, not to mention plans for enrichment much nearer home.^ And it was pointed out to him that so long as schemes which were regarded as essential to safety could only with difficulty be supported, no pecuniary assistance could be rendered for an extraneous project, however promis- ing its nature. There were in Boston at this time, however, four personages whom the King had sent as envoys, in 1664, to force the Dutch to evacuate Manhattan, and who were also a kind of commission instructed to visit the English colonies, and to hear and rule their complaints. They were Richard NichoJs, Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick. One of these. Colonel Carr, it is said, strongly urged Groseil- ^ For example, the adjoining colony of Connecticut bad appealed to them for help in their laudable enterprise of despoiling the Dutch of their possessions. Raids upon the territory and trading-posts con- trolled by the Dutch were a constantly recurring feature in the history of those times, and nearly the whole of the zeal and substance remain- ing to the English colonists in Connecticut and Virginia, after their periodical strifes with the Indians, were devoted to forcing the un- happy Hollanders to acknowledge the sovereignty of King Charles of England. seilliers scbeme leading to the y were Puritan ects for mention d it was s which aly with 30 could promis- ver, four ivoys, in ban, and to visit lie their ert Carr, One of Groseil- ippealed to le Dutch of posts con- the history ice remain- after their ng the un- ; Charles of LE MOYNE D' IBERVILLE I'rovt an vtchin^ u tl h< b( z& Gil h€ CO in hii A an na ha aid exj of an< he wit Jui Noi pro 1 tior broi ZACHARY GILLAM 23 liers to proceed to England and offer his services to the King. Although unable to secure there the patronage he desired, Groseilliers' visit to Boston is seen to be not quite barren of profit. He fell in besides Zachary with an intelligent sea-faring man, Zachary Giiiam. Gillam, who was then captain and part- owner of a small vessel, the Nonsuch, with which he plied a trade between the colony and the mother- country. Gillam expressed himself eager to assist in the project as far as lay in his power, and offered his services in case an equipment could be found. .6 A long correspondence passed between Groseilliers ^^. and his brother-in-law in Canada, the latter very^ naturally urging that as the New England/ ^roifiQt .>, had failed, it would be advisable not to seeU Jffirtner -^^ aid from the English, but that, as nothing wa^sto (b$^ expected from the Quebec Company, or the merchants of Canada, it would be as well to journey to France, and put the matter before the French Court. Groseilliers allowed himself to be persuaded ; and he wrote back begging Radisson to join him in Boston with the object of accompanying him to France. In June 1665, both the adventurers set sail in the Nonsuch for Plymouth, whence in all likelihood they proceeded direct to Havre. It would be unprofitable, and at best but a repeti- tion, to describe the difficulties Groseilliers and his brother-in-law met with in Paris, the petitions they III !F 24 THE GREAT COMPANY ill i ■I j! presented and the many verbal representations they made. In the midst of their ill-success Colonel Carr came to Paris. There is extant a letter of his to Lord Arlington. " Having heard," says ho, " by the French in New England of a great traffic in beavers " to be got in the region of Hudson's Bay, and " having had proofs of the assertions" of the two adventurers, he thought "the finest present he could make to his Majesty" was to despatch these men to him. The ambassador pondered on this, and at last de- cided to entrust Groseilliers with a letter to a certain prince — a friend of his — and a patron of the Arts and Sciences. Leaving Radisson despondent in Paris, there- fore, the other adventurer crossed the Channel and found himself, with a beating heart, for the first time in the English capital. il CHAPTER III 1640-67 Prince Rupbbt— His Character—Serves through the Civil War— His Naval Expedition in the West Indies— Resi- dence IN France — And ultimately in London— He re- ceives Groseilliers and introduces him to the Kino. It was a fortunate chance for Medard Chouart des Groseilliers that threw him, as we shall see, into the hands of such a man as Rupert, a prince of England and Bohemia. A dashing soldier, a daring sailor, a keen and en- lightened student and a man of parts, at the age of forty-seven Rupert still worshipped adventure as a fetish. Irresistibly attracted by anything that savoured of novelty, there was perhaps no other noble in England more likely to listen to such a project as the Canadian was prepared to pour into his ear, no prince in the whole of Europe more likely to succumb to its charm. Rupert may, on good grounds, be considered one of the most remarkable men of that age. He was the third son of the King of Bohemia by the Princess Elizabeth Stuart, eldest daughter of James I. In common with most German princes he had been educated for the army; and, as he used to observe 25 •I '■'u li 26 THE GREAT COMPANY ' i hi I M himself in after years, there was no profession better fitted for a prince provided he could be allowed to fight battles. It was a maxim of his that the arts of patience, of strategy, and parleying with the enemy should be left to statesmen and — caitiffs; and it can be said with truth of Rupert that no one could possibly have acted more completely in accordance with his maxim than himself. " Than Prince Rupert," wrote one chronicler, " no man is more courageous or intrepid. He can storm a citadel, but, alas, he can never keep it. A lion in the fray, he is a very lamb, tho' a fuming one, if a siege is called for." Youthful, high-spirited and of comely appearance, Rupert found his way to England diu'ing his twentieth year to offer his services to his royal uncle. King Charles I. The country was then on the brink of a civil war; parliament had proved refractory; the Puritan forces had already assembled ; and in a few months the first blow was struck. The young Prince placed himself at the head of a troop of cavaliers, and soon all England was ringing with the fame of his ex- ploits. On more than one occasion did Cromwell have reason to remember the prowess of "fiery Prince Rupert." Such dashing tactics and spontaneous strategy, however, could not always prevail. He was X DO vjrirCdii/ Company's charged with the defence of Bristol, with Pounder. what rosult is a matter of common historical knowledge. His own observation on this episode in his career is an admirable epitome of his character, THE GREAT COMPANY'S FOUNDER 27 as comprehensive as it is brief, " I have no stomach for sieges." Charles wrote him a letter of somewhat imdue severity, in which he exhibited ail the asperity of his character as well as his ignorance of the situation. Perhaps if he had realised that the circumstances would have rendered the retention of Bristol impos- sible even to a Caesar or a Turenne, he might have written in a more tolerant jftrain ; but it is uot very probable. In any case tho letter ci.c iiTiper/. to the heart. Before his tinal overthrow Chariots, indviod, relented from his severity, and created bis nejjhew Earl of Holdernesse and Duke of Cumberland, granting him also a safe conduct to France, wlu'ch w< -j honoj.:c;d by the parliamentary leaders. Thenceforward for a few years Bapert's career is directly associated with the high seas. On the revolt of the fleet from the control of the Commonwealth he made his way on board of one of the King'.s vessels, and figured in several naval battles and skirmiihes. But even here the result was a foregone conclxifrioo. The bulk of the ships and crews still remaining loyal were rapidly captured or sunk, am! the remnant, of which Rupert assumed cr^rDmand, was exceedingly small. He began by saiUng to Ireland, whither he was pursued by Popham and Blake, who very quickly blocked him up in the harbour of Kinsale. But the Puritan captains were deceived, if, as it appears, they I' i I : ■ ! \i !l I \ \ 28 \ THE GREAT COMPANY fancied the Prince an easy prey. Rupert was no more the sailor than he had been the soldier to brook so facile a capture. He effected a bold escape, immedi- ately under their guns. But realising his helplessness to engage the Puritan fleet in open combat, he inaugu- rated a series of minor conflicts, a kind of guerilla warfare, which, to our modern notions, would best be classified imder the head of privateering, to use no harsher term. The Spanish Main was at that period an excellent ground for operations of this kind, and with very little delay Rupert was soon very busy with his small but gallant fleet in those waters. Here the commander of the little Reformation and his convoys spent three years with no little pecuniary profit to himself and crew. On more than one occasion his exploits in the neighbourhood of the West Indies bore no distant resemblance to piracy, as he boarded impartially not A resem- ^^y English, Dutch, and Spanish ships, but also those flying the French colours. How- beit on one occasion, being advised that the master of one craft was a Frenchman, he generously forebore to reap the profits of his valour out of respect to the monarch with whom both his cousins, Charles and James, had found a refuge. He insisted that the plunder should be restored. Albeit, on the whole, Rupert seems to have had little conscience in the matter. The mere excitement of such adventures alone delighted him, although it would scarce have blance to Piracy. (i i A RESEMBLANCE TO PIRACY 29 satisfied his crews. There is reason to suppose that he himself was not actuated primarily by the mere love of gain. It is known that several of his captains returned with large fortunes; Rupert's own profits were long a matter for conjecture. Even at his death they could not be approximately ascertained ; for while he left a goodly fortune, comprising jewels valued at twenty thousand pounds, much of this fortune was acquired legitimately since these stirring days of his youth ; and no small part was derived from his share in the Hudson's Bay Company. The exiled prince, in whose name Rupert was always extremely careful to conduct his depredations on the prosperous commerce of the West Indies, does not appear himself to have derived much material advantage therefrom. It was true the terror of that name was already industriously spread in those waters, and this perhaps was some consolation for the con- tempt with which it was regarded by the insolent and usurping Puritans. In a newspaper of the period, Pleasant Passages, I find under date of October 15, 1652, the following quaint comment: — "Prince Rupert hath lately seized on some good prizes and he keeps himself far remote; and makes his kinsman, Charles Stuart, make a leg for some cuUings of his windfalls." Rupert after a time transferred the scene of his operations to the Azores, where after some collisions with the Portuguese, he met with a catastrophe so !:i 'I 30 THE GREAT COMPANY severe as to compel him to permanently desist from his predatory operations. A violent storm came on, and the Beformation and his entire fleet per- Loss of the . V J. Refor- ished, no fewer than 360 souls being lost on vmtion. ^j^g flagship. It was with difficulty that the Prince and twelve of his companions, including his brother Maurice, escaped with a portion of the treasure. A contemporary newswriter records that Rupert had landed at Nantes with ten thousand pounds or so, " 'tis said by those best informed. The King hath sent his carriage to meet him at Orleans." Charles, who was of course the King mentioned, was then in high hopes of obtaining funds &om his cousin Rupert, which might enable him to make an effort for the recovery of his crown. But the King, minus a throne, was destined to be disappointed. Rupert did not yet seem prepared to disgorge, acting, it is easy to divine, upon advice.^ " No money for his Majesty out of all this," forms the burden of numerous letters written by the faith- ful Edward Hyde, afterwards to become the Lord Chancellor Clarendon. " The money the King should have received ! " he complains, in an epistle addressed to Sir Richard Browne. " Why, Rupert is so totally governed by the Lord Keeper, Sir Edward Herbert, that the King 1 "We have another great officer," records Pleasant Paaaaget in another budget of news from Paris, *' Prince Ruperte, Master of the Horse." RUPERTS SECRETARY 81 knows him not. The King hasn't had a penny, and Rupert pretends the King owes him more than ever I was worth." Hyde had no love for t^e Lord Keeper of the exiled court; but- according to ;:jveral contemporary writers, the buccaneering Prince looked upon Herbert as " an oracle " (to quote the diarist Evelyn), and chose, for a time at least, to spend most of his gains in his own way. But Rupert did not persist in the course suggested by his friend Herbert. Soon afterwards he is an- nounced to have made Charles a present of two thousand pounds, for which the King expressed his profound satisfaction by attaching him^ immediately to the royal household. A littlo later, in 1654, there is recorded the foUov/- ing, printed in the " Loyal Gentleman at Court." "Prince Rupert flourishes highly here, with his troop of blackamoors ; and so doth his cousin Charles, they having shared the money made of his prize goods at Nantz." It was in this year that Rupert seems to have engaged one William Strong, a cavalier who had lost Rupert's ^H he posscsscd, to replace John Holder as Secretary. j^jg pnyate secretary, a circumstance worthy of mention, inasmuch as it was Strong who was to figure later as the intermediary between his master and the adventurer Groseilliers in London. There is a passage of this period which describes Rupert as he appeared in Paris, "a straight and ii \i 32 THE GREAT COMPANY -I; :ij comely man, very dark-featured," probably owing to exposure in warm climates, "with jet-black hair and a great passion for dress." He is often referred to in news-letters and diaries of the time under the sobriquet of the " Black Prince." " Our Black Prince Ruperte," records one, " has had a narrow escape from drowning in the Seine ; but by the help of one of his blackamoors escaped." This was perhaps the period jf the closest friendship between Charles and his Bohemian cousin; inasmuch as a decided coolness had already arisen on the part of the exiled monarch and his brother, the Duke of York. This coolness at length terminated ii' a quarrel, and a separation in the ensuing year at Bruges. The Duke advised Rupert to have no further dealings with his royal brother, a piece of counsel which the Prince wisely, and fortunately for himself, neglected to enter- tain, for had he acted otherwise, it is extremely doubt- ful if at the Restoration he would have been in a position to demand any favours at the monarch's hands. James, probably on this score, never afterwards pro- fessed much cordiality towards his kinsman, Rupert. In the years between 1656 and 1665, Rupert spent much of his time in cultivating science and the arts. There are a hundred evidences of his extraordinary ingenuity. A mere list of his devices and inventions, as printed at his decease in 1682, almost entitles him to be considered the Edison of his day, a day in which inventors were rare. Yet in the period before the A PATRON OF COMMERCE 33 ng to ir and red to jr the as had but by mdship Eismuch part of ►f York, rel, and s. The igs with ) Prince enter- doubt- in in a s hands. ds pro- ipert. Irt spent the arts. [ordinary entions, ties him in which 'ore the outbreak of the Dutch war his activity was by no means limited to the laboratory which he had con- structed for himself in Kings' Bench Walk, Temple, or to his study at Windsor. None could have ex- hibited greater versatility. In April 1662 he was sworn a member of the Privy Council; he also be- came a member of the Tangier Commission ; and in December of the same year he was unanimously elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He already A patron of cut a prominent figure as a patron of com- commerce. mercc, being appointed a member of the Council of Trade, and taking an active part in the promotion of commerce with Africa as a member of the Royal African Company. With all his sympathies and activities, however, it is very clear that Rupert did not enjoy very great favour at Court. He was suspected of holding his royal cousin in not very high esteem, and of enter- taining pronounced opinions on the subject of the royal prerogative; whatever the cause, his influence at Whitehall was not always fortunate. Seeing his councils neglected on several occasions, he kept aloof, and the courtiers, taking as they supposed their cue from their master, made light of his past achievements, finding in his surrender of the city of Bristol a specially suitable subject for their derision. In 1664 we find in Pepys* Diary that Rupert had been "sent to command the Guinny Fleet. Few pleased, as he is accounted an unhappy [i.e. unlucky] VOL. I. I 'tun ■ . .1 >• I I 34 THE GREAT COMPANY man." As a consequence of these sentiments, which Itupert was soon destined by his valour to alter, one Captain Holmes was sent instead. Nevertheless it was known at Court that Rupert desired a naval employment, and as the authorities found that their estimate of his abilities was not mistaken, he was in 1666 selected to command the fleet against the Dutch, in conjunction with the Duke of Albemarle. His conduct was most exemplary. On one occasion he wrested a victory from the Dutch, and again in the month of June beat them soundly, pursuing them into their own harbour. Returning to England on the cessation of hostilities, he found himself in much higher favour at Court. But with a single exception, forthwith to be narrated, Rupert sought no favours ut the hands of his royal relations from this moment until the day of his death. He was content to pursue an even career in comparative solitude, a cir- cumstance for which a serious physical ailment, which soon overtook him and for a time threatened his life, was no doubt in some measure responsible. The fire which distinguished his youth was exchanged, we are told, for good temper and sedateness. He was credited with writing an autobiography; if the report be true, it is a pity there remains no tangible evidence of such a perfbrmance. It is certain that his correspondence was so large as to entail the con- tinuous employment of a secretary, William Strong; but prior to the inception of the Hudson's Bay project. A PATRON OF COMMERCE '2i^: which ber, one Bless it t naval it their was in Qst the beinarle. occasion [igain in Qg them land on in much xception, . favours moment ntent to le, a cir- it, which sned his ►le. The changed, ess. He ; if the tangible [tain that the con- Strong; ly project, it probably related almost entirely to his chemical and scientific researches and achievements. . In May 1667, the Prince's secretary opened a letter from. Lord Arlington, then English ambassador at Paris, intimating that one M. des Groseilliers, a Canadian fur-trader, would be the bearer of an intro- ductory letter from himself to his Highness. He was convinced that the French were managing the fur- trade of New France very clumsily, and he added that Monsieur des Groseilliers seemed as much dis- affected towards the new company lately chartered by the French king as towards the old. There is no reason, in the writer's opinion, why English men of commerce should not avail themselves of opportunities and instruments, such as the weak policy of their rivals now afforded, for obtaining a share in the northern fur-trade. Unfortunately Rupert was at first unable to see the adventurer who had travelled so far. The cause of the delay is not quite clear, but it appears plausible to suppose that it was due to the Prince's illness. He had already undergone the operation of trepanning, and it was found necessary to still continue treatment for the disease to which he had been subject. At any rate it was a fortnight or three weeks before the first interview took place, and the Prince and the French trader did not meet until the 4th of June. The result of this interview was that Prince Rupert promised his credit for the scheme. Three days later he sent "If ' i'l 36 THE GREAT COMPANY for Groseilliers, who found on his arrival in the Prince's apartments several gentlemen, among whom Rupert ^rd Craven, Sir John Kobinson, and Mr. sends for John Portman appear to have been num- Orosoilliors n ^ bered. In a week from this conference both Radisson, Groseilliers and Portman travelled to Windsor Castle at the request of the Prince. There is no record of what then passed, but there is mention of a further meeting in a letter written by Oldenburgh, the secretary of the Royal Society, to Robert Boyle in America. " Surely I need not tell you from hence," he wrote, " what is said here with great joy of the discovery of a north-west passage by two Englishmen and one Frenchman, lately represented by them to his Majesty at Oxford, and answered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hudson's Bay and channel into the South Sea." From this it would appear that Radisson was then popularly supposed to be an Englishman, probably on account of his being Su* John Kirke's son-in-law, and also that the matter was not settled at Windsor,but at Oxford. Then came a long delay — a whole year, during which there is nothing worthy of record. It was too late to attempt a voyage to the Bay in 1667, but during the winter Groseilliers and Radisson could console themselves with the assurance that their scheme had succeeded. At last the adventurers had met with a tapgible success. The ship engaged and fitted out for them was none other than that commanded by their Boston friend, Captain Zachary Gillam. V CHAPTER IV 1668-70 The Pmnck visits the *' Nonsuch "— Aeeival in the Bay— Pre- vious Voyages of Explobation— A Foet commenced at Rupert's Riveb — Gillam's Retuen — Dealing with the NODWAYES — Satisfaction op the Company — A Royal Chaeteb granted. Early in the morning of the 3rd of June 1668, without attracting undue attention from the riparian dwellers and loiterers, a small skiff shot out from Wapping Old Stairs. The boatman directed its prow towards the Nonsuch, a ketch of fifty tons, then lym'g at anchor in midstream, and soon had the satisfaction of conveying on board in safety his Highness Prince Rupert, Lord Craven, and Mr. Hayes, the distinguished patrons of an interesting expedition that day embarking for the New World. Radisson was to have accompanied the expedition, but he had met with an accident obliging him to forego the journey until the following year. All hands being piped on deck, a salute was fired in honour of the visitors. Captain Zachary Gillam and the Sieur des Groseilliers received the Prince, and undertook to exhibit, not without a proper pride, their craft and its cargo. Subsequently a descent 37 H '*:1 iv. • 38 THE GREAT COMPANY r ' 'II .''i I- \\'\\ was made to the captain's cabin, where a bottle of Madeira was broached, and the success of the voyage toasted by Rupert and his companions. The party then returned to Wapping, amidst a ringing cheer from captain and crew. By ten o'clock the Nonsuch had weighed anchor and her voyage had begun. The passage across the Atlantic was without any incident worthy of record. The vessel was fortunate in encountering no gales or rough seas. The leisure of Groseilliers and Captain Gillam was employed chiefly in discussing the most advantageous landfall, and in draw- ing up plans for a settlement for fort-building and for trade with the tribes. By the 4th of August they sighted Resolution Isle, at the entrance of Hudson's Straits. They continued fearlessly on their course. During their progress the shores on either hand were occasionally visible ; and once a squall compelled them to go so near land as to descry a band of natives, the like of whom for bulk and singularity of costume, Gro- seilliers and the captain had never clapped eyes upon. They were right in judging these to be Esquimaux. On the seventh day of their passage amongst those The Non- T^^T^ow channels and mountains of ice which such in had chilled the enthusiasm and impeded the the Bay. /. i j • • , •» p progress or several darmg navigators before them, the forty-two souls on board the Nonsuch were rewarded with a sight of Hudson's Bay.^ * The proportions of this inland sea are such as to give it a pro- minent place among the geographical features of the world. One THE "nonsuch" IN THE BAY 39 Already, and long before the advent of the Nonsuchy Hudson's Bay had a history and a thrillmg one. In 1576 Sir Martin Frobisher made his first voyage for the discovery of a passage to China and Cathay by the north-w6st, discovering and entering a strait to which he gave his name In the following year he made a second voyage, "using all possible means to bring the natives to trade, or give him some account of themselves, but they were so wild that they only studied to destroy the English." Frobisher remained until winter approached and then returned to England. A further voyage of his in 1578-79 made no addition to the knowledge already acquired. Six years later Captain John Davis sailed from Dartmouth, and in that and succeeding voyages reached the Arctic circle through the straits bearing his name. He related having found an open sea tending westward, which he hoped might be the passage so long sought for; but the weather proved thousand three hundred miles in length, by six hundred miles in breadth, it extends over twelve degrees of latitude, and covers an area not less than half a million square miles. Of the five basins into which Canada is divided, that of Hudson's Bay is immeasurably the largest, the extent of country draining into it being estimated at three million square miles. To swell the mighty volume of its waters there come rivers which take their rise in the Rocky Mountains on the west, and the Labrador wilderness on the east ; while southward its river roots stretch far down below the forty-ninth parellel, reaching even to the same lake source whence flows a stream into the Gulf of Mexico. A passing breath of wind may thus determine whether the ultimate destiny of the raindrop falling into some obscure little lake be the bosom of the Mexican Gulf or the chilly grasp of the Arctic ice-floe. ! 40 THE GREAT COMPANY iiuM 'i f.Hi illlif 111 too tempestuous, and the season being far advanced, he likewise returned to a more hospitable clime. After this there were no more adventures in this quarter of the world' until 1607, when Captain Hudson explored as far north as 80 degrees 23 minutes. On his third voyage, two years later, he proceeded a hundred leagues farther along the strait, and arriving at the Bay resolved to winter there. Hudson was preparing for. further exploration when Henry Green, a profligate youth, whom he had taken into his house and preserved from ruin by giving him a berth on board without the knowledge of the owners, conspired with one Robert Ivett, the mate, whom Captain Hudson had removed, to mutiny against Hudson's command. They turned the captain, with his young son John, a gentleman named Woodhouse, who had accompanied the expedition, together with the carpenter and five others, into a long-boat, with hardly any arms or provisions. The inhuman crew suffered all the hardships they deserved, for in a quarrel they had with the savages. Green and two of his companions were slain. Ivett, who had made several voyages with Hudson, and was the cause ot all the mischief, died on the passage home. Another of the crew, Habbakuk Prickett, who wrote all the account we have of the latter part of the voyage, was a servant of Sir Dudley Diggs. Probably his master's influence had something to do with Prickett's escape from punishment. HENRY HUDSON 8 FATE 41 Henry Hudson's fate. This was the last ever seen or heard, by white men, of Henry Hudson. There is every likelihood that they drifted to the bottom of the Bay and were massacred by the savages. In the year of Hudson's death Sir Thomas Button, at the instigation of that patron of geogra- phical science. Prince Henry, pursued the dead hero's discoveries. He passed Hudson's Straits and, travers- ing the Bay, settled above two hundred leagues to the south-west from the straits, bestowing upon the adjacent region the name of New Wales. Wintering at the spot afterwards called Port Nelson, Button made an investigation of the boundaries of this large inland sea, from him named Button's Bay. In 1611 came the expedition of Baffin; and in 1631 Captain James sailed westward to find the long- sought passage to China, spending the winter at Charlton Island, which afterwards became a depot of the Company. Captain Luke Fox went out in the same year, but his success was no greater than his predecessors in attain- ing the object of his search. He landed at Port Nelson and explored the country round about, but without much advantage either to himself or to his crew. When the Nonsuch arrived a quarter of a century had elapsed since an European had visited Hudson's Bay. Upon much consultation, the adventurers sailed southward from Cape Smith, and on September 29 de- cided to cast anchor at the entrance to a river situated in 51 degrees latitude. The journey was ended; the ll 42 THE GREAT COMPANY iipi! >• lillili barque's keel grated on the gravel, a boat was lowered, and Gillam and Groseilliers went promptly ashore. The river was christened Rupert's River,^ and it being arranged to winter here, all hands were ordered ashore to commence the construction of a fort and dwellings, upon which the name of King Charles was bestowed. Thus our little ship's-load of adventurers stood at last on the remotest shores of the New World ; all but two of them strangers in a strange land. For three days after their arrival Groseilliers and his party beheld no savages. The work of construct- ing the fort went on apace. It was, under Groseilliers* di jtion, made of logs, after the fashion of those built by the traders and Jesuits in Canada ; a stockade en- closing it, as some protection from sudden attack. The experienced bushranger deemed it best not to land the The first, cargo Until communication had been made Fort. ^ji^jj ^jjQ natives ; and their attitude, friendly or otherwise, towards the strangers ascertained. No great time was spent in waiting ; for on the fourth day a small band of the tribe called Nodwayes appeared, greatly astonished at the presence of white settlers in those parts. After a great deal of parleying, the Indians were propitiated by Groseilliers with some trifling gifts, and the object of their settlement made known. The Indians retired, promising to return before the winter set in with all the furs in their possession, and also to spread the tidings amongst the other tribes. ^ Known afterwards as Nemiscau by the French. 'II T:- THE FIRST FORT 43 The autumn supply proved scanty enough ; but the adventurers being well provisioned could afford to wait until the spring. An uneventful winter dragged its slow length along, and in due course the ground thawed and the snow disappeared. No sooner had the spring really arrived than squads of natives began to make their appear- ance, evincing a grotesque eagerness to strike bargains with the whites for the pelts which they brought from the bleak fastnesses. By June it was thought fit that Captain Gillam should return with the Nonsuch, leaving Groseilliers and others at the fort. Gillam accordingly sailed away with such cargo as they had been able to muster, to report to the Prince and his company of merchants the excellent prospects afforded by the post on Rupert's River, provided only the Indians could be made aware of its existence, and the French trade intercepted. Groseilliers* anticipations were realised ; but not without almost incredible activity on his part. He spent the summer and autumn, and part of the ensuing winter in making excursions into the interior. He made treaties with the Nodwayes, the Kilistineaux, the Ottawas, and other detachments of the Algonquin race. Solemn conclaves were held, in which the bushranger dwelt — W7th that rude eloquence of which he was master, and which both he and Radisson had borrowed from the Indians — on the superior advantages of trade with the English. Nor did his zeal here pause ; knowing : 44 THE GBEAT COMPANY Groseilliers' presence of mind. the Indian character as he did, he concocted stories about the English King and Prince Rupert ; many a confiding savage that year enriched his pale-face vocabulary by adding to it " Charles " and " Rupert," epithets which de- noted that superlative twain to whom the French bush- ranger had transferred his labours and his allegiance. Chouart des Groseilliers in all his transactions with the natives exhibited great hardihood of speech and action; and few indeed were the occasions which caught him unawares. It happened more than once, for instance, that some of the wandering Algonquins or Hurons recognised in this smooth-tongued leader at the English fort the same French trader they had known at Montreal, and the French posts on the western lakes, and marvelled much that ho who had then been loudly crying up " King Lewis and the Fleur-de-lis," should now be found surrounded by pale-faces of a different speech, known to be the allies of the terrible Iroquois. Groseilliers met their exclamations with a smile; he represented himself as profoundly dissatisfied with the manner in which the French traders treated his friends the Indians, causing them to travel so far and brave such perils to bring their furs, and giving them so little in return. "Tell all your friends to come hither," he cried, "and King Charles will give you double what King Lewis gives." In July 1669 a gun was heard by Groseilliers and his English and native companions. With great joy SATISFACTION OF THE ADVENTURERS 45 the bushranger ran from the fort to the point of land commanding the Bay, thinking to welcome back Gillam and the expected Nonsuch. But as the vessel came nearer he saw it was not the JVonsiich, and for a moment he was dismayed, uncertain whether or not to make himself known. But the colour of the flag she carried reassured him ; he caused a fire to be made, that the attention of those on board might be attracted by the smoke; and was soon made aware that his signal had been seen. The sloop headed up Rupert's River, and a boat containing three men was lowered from her side. Greater still was Groseilliers joy when he recognised amongst the approaching party in the boat his brother-in-law, Pierre Radisson. These two sturdy children of the wilderness embraced one another with great affection; Radisson related how the Nonsuch had arrived safely in the Thames the preceding August ; he told how delighted the jL atrons of the enterprise had been at the favourable report which Groseilliers had despatched to their Excellencies. To demonstrate this, they had now sent out another ship containing a larger cargo, and a more varied assortment of goods for trade than the Nonsuch had carried ; and not content with that, they were then purchasing a third and newer ship which would be sent out the succeeding spring. In the midst of his delivery of welcome tidings, Radisson introduced Captain Stannard of the Barjk, whose in- structions were that he should return as quickly as his c (1 46 THE GREAT COMPANY Satisfaction of the Ad- venturers. cargo was unshipped, leaving the brothers-in-l»w^ to winter in that region. This they were not loath to do. Radisson had not exaggerated the satisfaction of the company of London merchants at hear- ing the results of their first venture. They took counsel together, and considering the importance of securing a charter of monopoly from the King to be paramount. Prince Rupert was persuaded to use his good offices to this end. Charles was doubtless relieved to hear that his cousin Rupert desired no greater favour. He expressed himself ready to grant such a patent, provided the Lord Chancellor approved. A charter was accordingly drawn up forthwith at the instance of the Prince, in the usual form of such charters ; but the winter of 1669-70 elapsed without its having received the royal assent. ludeed it was not until the second day of May that Prince Rupert, presenting himself at Whitehall, received from the King's own hands one of the most celebrated instruments which ever passed from monarch to subject, and which, though almost incessantly in dispute, was perpetuated in full force throughout two centuries.^ This document was granted to Prince Rupert and seventeen nobles and gentlemen, comprising the Duke of Albemarle,^ Earls Craven and Arlington, Lord ' See Appendix. ^ The son of Charles's old friend, General George Monk, and known to history as the brave restorer of the King. Created Duke of Albe- marle ; the father died in the year the charter was granted. THE CHARTER 47 known )f Albe- Ashley/ Sir John Robinson, Sir Robert Vyner, Sir Peter Colleton, Sir Edward Hungerford, Sir Paul Neele, Sir John Griffith, Sir Philip Carteret, Knights and Baronets; James Kayes, John Kirke, Francis Wel- lington, William Prettyman, John Eenn, Esquires, and John Portman, " Citizen and Goldsmith," incorporated into a company, with the exclusive right to establish The settlements and carry on trade at Hudson's Charter. gg^y "phe charter recites that those adven- turers having, at their own great cost, undertaken an expedition to Hudson's Bay in order to discover a new passage into the South Sea, and to find a trade for furs, minerals, and other commodities, and having made such discoveries as encouraged them to proceed in their design, his Majesty granted to them and their heirs, under the name of " The Governor and Company of Merchants- Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay," the power of holding and alienating lands, and the sole right of trade in Hudson's Strait, and with the territories upon the coasts of the same. They were authorised to get out ships of war, to erect forts, make reprisals, and send home all English subjects entering the Bay without their license, and * Lord Ashley, the ancestor of the present Earl of Shaftesbury, and one of the ruling spirits of the reign of Charles II., will also be re- membered as the Achitophel of Dryden. *' A man so various that he seemed to be Not one ; but all mankind's epitome." Arlington, another of the Honourable Adventurers, was also a member of the celebrated Cabal. Portman was the founder of the present P. ?' 5*^^ 1.0 1.1 iU liO IL25 III 1.4 1.6 FholDgraphic Sciences Carporation ^"^ ^ ^^ ;\ - !] \t ■ : ■ m 68 THE GREAT COMPANY is a complete list of all the Jesuits, pioneers both of the faith and in the way of discovery, and there is only one Dablon mentioned. Another inaccuracy of this memoir is as to the trip of Duquet, under an order said to have been given by Sieur D'Argenson. There can be no doubt that at the time this pretended order was given, D'Argenson had left Canada. On the whole it may be as well for the reader to dismiss the French pretensions. They are no longer of interest, save to the hair-splitting student of the country's annals; but in their day they gave rise to a wilderness of controversy, through which we in the twentieth century may yet grope vainly for the light. For all practical purposes the question of priority was settled for ever by the Ontario Boundary Com- mission of 1884. Let us turn rather to behold to what account the Honourable Adventurers converted their new property. CHAPTER VI 1671 First Public Sale at Gabbaway's— Contemporary Prices of FuB— The Poet Dbyden — Meetinqs op the Company— GUBIOSITY OP THE ToWN— AbOBIGINES ON ViEW. On the seventeenth day of November 1671, the wits, beaux, and well-to-do merchants who were wont to assemble at Garraway's coffee-house, London, were surprised by a placard making the following announce- ment: — "On the fifth of December, ensuing, There Will Be Sold, in the Greate Hall of this Place, 3000 weight of Beaver Skins,^ comprised in thirty lotts, belonging to the Honourable, the Governour and Company of Merchants-Adventurers Trading into Hudson's Bay." Such was the notice of the first official sale of the Company. Up to this date, the peltries brought back ^ The beaver, amphibious and intelligent, had for centuries a con* siderable place in commerce : and also a celebrity of its own a* the familiar synonym for the common covering of a man's head, and here the animal becomes historic. By royal proclamation in 1638, Charles I. of Bngland prohibited the use of any material in the manufacture of hats "except beaver stuff or beaver wool." This proclamation was the death-warrant of beavers innumerable, sacrificed to the demands of the trade. 69 c 60 THE GREAT COMPANY HtW m- i m: ill 1^4,, 'iljl ■>■■■ ■■„ '"Mi l( .;!'■. -Jii^Vi I i«,:i B^h' in their ships had been disposed of by private treaty, an arrangement entrusted chiefly to Mr. John Portman and Mr. William Frettyman, both of whom appear to have had considerable familiarity with the European fur-trade. The immediate occasion of this sale is a trivial matter. The causes lying behind it are of interest. Among the numerous houses which cured and dealt m furs at this period, both m London and Bristol, there were none whose business seems to have been comparable, either in quantity or quality, to that of the great establishments which flourished in Leipsic and Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna. Indeed, it was a reproach continually levelled at the English fiir- dressers that such furs as passed through their hands were vastly inferior to the foreign product ; and it is certain that it was the practice of the nobles and wealthier classes, as well as the municipal and judicial dignitaries, for whose costume fur was prescribed by use and tradition, to resort not to any English establish- ment, but to one of the cities above-mentioned, when desirous of replenishing this department of their wardrobe. Hitherto, then, the Company had had but little opportunity of extending its trade, and but little ground to show why an intending purchaser should patronise its wares. But the superiority both in the number and quality of the skins which now began to arrive seems to have encouraged the directors to make a new bid for public custom ; and as the purchasing FIRST SALE WELL ATTENDED 61 First sale well attended. public showed no disposition to visit their warehouses they determined to take their goods to the public. Albeit this sale of the Company, the first, as it subsequently proved, of a series of great transactions which during the past two centuries have made London the centre of the world's fur-trade, did not take place until the twenty-fourth of January. It excited the greatest interest. Garraway's was crowded by distinguished men, and both the Prince Rupert and the Duke of York, be- sides Dryden, the poet, were among the spectators. There are some lines attributed to the latter under date of 1672, which may possibly have been im- provised on this occasion : " Friend, once 'twas Fame that led thee forth To brave the Tropick Heat, the Frozen North, Late it was Gold, then Beauty was the Spur ; But now our Gallants venture but for Fur." A number of purchases seem to have been made by private parties; but the bulk of the undressed beaver-skins probably went to fur merchants, and there is good reason to believe that the ii> >jority found their way into the hands of Portman and Prettyman. Beaver one finds on this occasion fetched from thirty-five to fifty-five shillings — a high figure, which for a long time was maintained. But the Company showed considerable sagacity by not parting with its entire stock of furs at once. Only the beaver-skins were disposed of at this sale; the C llf'i ' ' 62 THE GREAT COMPANY hk.L mm •13 m !■ .11 i;*:: 'I peltries of moose, marten, bear, and otter were reserved for a separate and subsequent auction. Prior to its incorporation, and for a year afterwards, the Company does not seem to have pursued any formal course with regard to its meetings. At first, they met at the Tower, at the Mint, or at Prince Rupert's house in Spring Garden. Once or twice they met at Gan*away's. But at a conclave held on November 7 th, 1671, it was resolved that a definite procedure should be established with regard both to the time and place of meeting, and to the keeping of the minutes and accounts. These latter, it was ordered, were forthwith to be rendered weekly to the General Court, so that the Adventurers might be conversant with all sales, orders, and commissions included in the Company's dealings. Employees' accounts were also to be posted up ; and the same regulation was applied to the lists of goods received for the two ships then lying in the Thames. It was further decreed that the weekly meetings should take place at Mr. John Horth's, " The Excise Office," m Broad Street.^ Soon afterwards, a " General Court " of the Adven- turers was held, at which the Prince, Lord Ashley, Sir John Robinson, Sir Peter Colleton, Sir Robert Viner, Mr. KirT^e, and Mr. Portman were in attendance. We catch a thoroughly typical glimpse of Prince Meeting at John Horth's, ' This building was afterwards occupied by the South Sea Company, and was long known asOld South SeaHouse. It was burned down in 1826. PRINCE RUPTHTS REWARD 63 Rupert at this meeting; sober business was not at all to his taste, and at a very early stage in the proceedings he feigned indisposition, and took his departure. A hint, however, may possibly have been given to him to do so, for no sooner was the door closed behind him, than his friend Lord Ashley in- troduced the very delicate topic which was entered into by all those present. It concerned nothing less than Prince Rupert's profits, which up to this time seem to have been very vaguely defined. Lord Ashley spoke for the Prince and demanded some definite payment besides a share in the enterprise; but there is no record of an agreement or of any exact sum, nor is there any basis for the contemporary conjecture that his share was ten thousand pounds. The charter of monopoly was an important one, and the King certainly not the man to fail in appreciating its value; but how much he did out of goodwill to his kinsman, and how much out of consideration for his own profit, will never be known. A perusal of the quantity of manuscript matter which exists relat- ing to this arrangement would lead to the conclusion that Charles sold the charter out of hand. And indeed one pamphleteer, intent on defaming the Com- pany in 1766, even goes so far as to profess actual knowledge of the sum paid to his Majesty by the Adventurers. But upon a consideration of all the speculations advanced, I have come to the conclusion that it is highly improbable that the King received any C ,:', ( m lit '•!' .:i.t' I 64 THE GREAT COMPANY immediate pecuniary advantage whatever on account of the charter. There is no shadow of evidence to support the charge; and there is at least some pre- sumptive evidence against it. Charters were both commonly and cheaply given in those days. Even where consideration was given, the amount was insig- nificant. In 1668, for example, Charles transferred the province of Bombay, which had come to the British Crown as portion of the dower of Catherine of Braganza, to the East India Company for an annual rent of no more than £10. In this case, then, the data, such as they are, strongly favour the belief that he granted the charter simply in quittance of a claim and at the urgent instance of his cousin; while, as an additional motive, it was probably also pressed upon him that a charter boasting the royal signature would be a virtual assertion of his dominion over territory which was always somewhat in dispute. Prince Rupert himself in any case was paid a lump sum by the Adventurers, but the amount will probably never be known. The early meetings of the Company seem to have been largely occupied in considering the question of cargoes. This was, no doubt, a very important business. The Company appear to have had two precedents which, in part, they naturally adopted, those of the Dutch (or West India Company) and the French Company. The East India Company's practice could have afforded them little assistance. They also struck SOLID CHARACTER OF THE MERCHANDISE 65 out a line for themselves, and in their selection of goods for the purposes of barter they were greatly guided by the advice of Radisson, who had a very soimd conception of the Indian character. From the first the Company rejected the practice of seeking to ex- change glass beads and gilded kickshaws for furs. Not that they found it inexpedient to include these trifles in their cargoes : for we read in one of the news-letters of 1671, speaking of the doings at Garraway's. — " Hither came Mr. Portman, to whom, report says, is entrusted the purchase of beads and ribbons for the American savages by the new Adventurers, and who is charged with being in readiness to bargain for sack- fills of child's trinkets as well as many outlandish things, which are proper for barter. He takes the rallying in great good-humour." Long before the Company was thought of, the manufacture of beads and wampum for the New England trade had been going on in London. But beads and jewellery, it was argued, were better suited for the African and East Indian trade. It was Radisson who pointed out with great propriety that Solid char- *^® northern tribes would become most useful acter of the to the Company if they were provided ^vith merobandise. <• i .11. • ,-, weapons for kiUmg or ensnarmg the game, as well as with the knives, hatchets, and kettles, which were indispensable for dressing it, and for preparing pemmican. And his advice was taken on this, as on most other points. Thus for the PriTice Rupert and C n VOL. I. E II,! I ■■!:»' '^'ll! M' I' ^! 1 01 i I;- I '(' I. f. l^^ t'jaui m 66 THE GREAT COMPANY the Imploy, which were to sail in the following spring, the following cargo was prescribed by Radisson and Captain Gillam : — 500 fowling-pieces and powder and shot in pro- portion. 500 brass kettles, 2 to 16 gallons apiece. 30 gross of knives. 2000 hatchets. But it is curious to note how this list of exports was continually added to. For instance, one of the Company on one occasion rose at the weekly meeting and stated that he had been told by an experienced Indian trader that scarlet cloth was very highly esteemed among the Indians. " I hear," said he, " that an Indian will barter any- thing he possesses for a couple of yards of scarlet cloth and a few dyed feathers." Whereupon, the chau*man turned to the original Adventurer in the region controlled by the Company. " What does Mr. Radisson say to this ? " . " I think," said Mr. Radisson, " that the Honourable Adventurer does not understand the Indian trade as well as I do. He forgets that Indians are of many races; and that what will suit the case and attract the cupidity of an Indian far to the south, will have little effect on the northern tribes. An Iroquois would think more of a brass nail than of twenty yards of scarlet cloth. In the north, where we have SHIPS BESIEGED BY PEDDLERS 67 sieged by peddlers. built a factory, the Indians are more peaceful; but they do not care much for kickshaws and coloured rags. They, too, esteem powder and shot and the means of discharging them. But they are just as fond, particularly Eskimaux, of knives and kettles ^ and hatchets." On a subsequent occasion, a third as many again of these implements were taken as cargo. In the meantime, it was not to be supposed that the rumours of the great value put upon petty merchandise by the hyperborean savages, could fail Ships be- ^^ oxcite the cupidity of London merchants and dealers in these things. The ships that sailed in the spring of 1671 were besieged by peddlers and small dealers, who were prepared to adventure their property in the wilds. Not only the ships, but the houses selected for the Company's meetings were beset with eager throngs, praying the adventurers, collectively and individually, to act as middlemen for their trumpery merchandise. Not only did the ships and the place of meeting suffer siege, but as many as thirty persons shipped out to Hudson's Bay in the first two voyages after the granting of the charter, while twenty-one of them returned in the next two vessels, fully determined, apparently, to repeat a journey which had proved so lucrative. To abate this nuisance, it was enacted that no persons would "hereafter be employed to stay in the C i(i !:l 'ty. '^ $:■:"' m r-l 68 THE GREAT COMPANY i::- K i ■ n ■ !■*'■' ■ '■ r ■r i , ' - ' ! '^ ■ , ^ « 1 1' country or otherwise but by consent of the Com- mittee, nor any goods be put aboard the ships but 'with their knowledge and consent, to the end that the ships be not hereafter pestered as they were the last voyage." This enactment may have had its rise in the dis- honesty of these self-appointed adventurers. On several occasions on unshipping the cargo, boxes and barrels containing valuable furs would be found miss- ing, or their loss would coincide with the disappear- ance of a reprobate who had joined the ship without a character. Thus we read in the minutes that at one meeting it was ordered that inquiry be made as to sixty beaver skins, "very good and large, packed up with the others, in one of the casks, which were not found." One Jeremiah Walker, a second mate and supercargo, was required to state which cask they were taken in, and his cross-examination reveals the loose and un- business-like methods then in vogue. Nothing could be more entertaining than the char- acter of these meetings, as compared with a modern board-meeting of a joint-stock enterprise. A great air of mystery was kept up. The novelty of the undertaking was so great as to imbue the committee with a high sense of the importance and interest of their weekly conclaves. The length of the speeches bears witness to this spirit. A member had been known to speak for a whole hour on the edifying I I I 'I c AMIRAL LA PEROUSE From nn engraving after a iiiiniature by Alkxandeu Tardieu k >3 ii r CURIOSITY OP THE TOWN theme as to whether the furs should be placed iu barrels or boxes. Vague rumours of these secret proceedings perme- ated the town. They became a standmg topic at the places where men foregathered. To the popular imagi- nation, the North was a land of fable. The denizens of those countries were invested with strange attri- butes and clothed in weird and wonderful garments. The Hudson's Bay Company dealt with picturesque monarchs and a fierce, proud, and noble people, whose ordinary attire was the furs of sable, of ermine, of fox, and of otter ; who made treaties and exacted tributes after the fashion of the ceremonial East. Petty chiefs and sachems were described as kings and emperors; the wretched squaws of a redskin leader as queens. It was, perhaps, only natural for a generation which banqueted its imagination on the seductive fable of a North-west Passage to confuse the Red Indians of North America with the inhabitants of the East; a very long period was to pass away before the masses were able to distinguish between the tawny-skinned Indian of the North American continent and the swarthy servants of the East India Company. Nor were the masses alone sinners in this respect. The Indians of Dryden, of Congreve, of Steele, and even of writers so late as Goldsmith no more resembled the real Red-men than the bison of the western prairies was akin to the buffalo of the Himalayas. For such reasons as these, the Adventurers kept » :lfl I 1 r ! Kii 'M ii It ■' it: ;i Ji in; :'■ if' '^ If- lit ■ ■ n ■•) i: hW \'.K- I; 72 THE GREAT COMPANY were the injunctions bestowed upon these hardy spirits on the eve of their errand. To recur to a theme akeady touched upon, if the French Government of the day had previously caused visits to be made to Hudson's Bay in the manner described several years later, all this knowledge would have been already acquired ; and there would have been no necessity to despatch either priest or layman thither to make that discovery anew. In the "Jesuit Relations" for 1672 is found Father Albanel's own narration of his journey : — "Hitherto this voyage had been considered im- Father possiblc for Frenchmen, who, after having Aibatiei's undertaken it three times and not having journey. }jqqj^ q}j\q ^q surmouut the obstacles, had seen themselves to abandon it in despair of success. What appears as impossible is found not to be so when it pleases God. The conduct of it was reserved to me after eighteen years' prosecution that I had made, and I have very excellent proofs that God reserved the execution of it for me, after the singular favour of a sudden and marvellous, not to say mira- culous, recovery that I received as soon as I devoted myself to this mission at the solicitation of my Superior; and in fact I have not been deceived in my expectation : I have opened the road, in company with two Frenchmen and six savages." Thus it is made apparent that so far as the Jesuits, pioneers of this country, were concerned, no knowledge of any RIVALS ON THE SCENE 73 of their compatriots having penetrated to Hudson's Bay had ever reached them. The letter that M. Talon was writing to his royal master is proof that he, too, was unaware of any prior discovery. No doubt re- mains that the worthy priest and the young chevalier, his servant, were the first party travelling overland from Quebec to penetrate into those regions and to behold that vast expanse of water. The little band of English at Fort Charles, under Charles Bailey, who had been sent out as Governor of Rupert's Land by the Company, were soon made aware of the proximity of the French, and no one seems to have been more affected by the news than Radisson and Groseilliers. The two brothers-in-law indulged in many anxious surmises. Radisson offered to go and find out who the intruders were, but the Governor by no means favoured the idea. In those days, when national rivalries and prejudices were so intense, and especially so among the English middle classes, Bailey seems to have felt a great deal of distrust with regard to the two Frenchmen; and he early made up his mind to let them know his opinion and feel his authority. The two parties were continu- ally at loggerheads; the Frenchmen naturally resent- ing the Governor's unjust suspicions, and the Governor retorting by a ponderous irony and a surly and per- sistent surveillance of their speech and movements. In the following year, 1673, the occupants of the Company's post, at Rupert's River, were made aware C 74 THE GREAT COMPANY li fi mk of the neighbourhood of their trade rivals in no pleasant manner. The Indians of the country round about began to show signs of disaifection. On being questioned, some of the more friendly ones were in- duced to betray the cause. They had been informed Rivals on by the Frenchmen, who, in that and the the scene. previous years had reached the shores of the Bay, distant some twenty or thirty leagues, that the English were not to be trusted, that their firearms were bewitched, that their religion was that of the evil one. Peaceably inclined, the Nodwayes, who were the principal inhabitants of that region, fell an easy prey to the proselytism of the indomitable Jesuits. Many of their younger braves had, before the arrival of Dablon in their midst, journeyed to Quebec and taken part in the mission services there, and at Montreal. They were, moreover, susceptible to the racial and commercial antagonisms of their teachers; and late in 1673 Governor Bailey was in- formed that they contemplated an attack on the fort. On this, the Company's servants began the task of strengthening their frail defences. The Governor alleged that he had received instructions from England to despatch Groseilliers to the other side of the Bay, called the "West Main." Radisson sought to accom- pany his kinsman, and was met with a peremptory refusal. This action by no means increased the amity between him and his rather stupid and choleric superior. Nevertheless the winter passed without any li<. GOVERNOR BAILEY S DISTRUST 76 open exhibition of hostility between the two men ; and it seemed likely that no difficulties would arise while the cold weather continued. The ground was, how- ever, still covered with snow when several Indians appeared and asked to be allowed to take up their abode at the east end of the fort, that they might be ready for trade in the spring. Bailey, with his customary sagacity in such matters, suspected some treachery in this; but on the active expostulations of Radisson the simple request was granted, and the Indians immediately proceeded to erect their wigwams. On the 25th of March, when the thaw commenced, six savages, annoimcing themselves as ambassadors from Kas-kidi-dah, the chief of the tribe (referred to by Bailey's secretary as "King Cusciddidah "), came to herald the approach of that potentate. It so chanced that both the Governor and Radisson were absent, having gone out to reconnoitre and to obtain an addition to their now slender stock of meat. In all these little expeditions the Governor and Radisson were inseparable. The former swore privately he GoTernor could never bring himself to trust the fort Bailey's in the hands of a Frenchman ; and, although tliere was no reason whatever to apprehend ill consequences, the Governor constantly acted as if any such show of confidence on his part would em- phatically jeopardise the interests of the Company. King Kas-kidi-dah arrived on the following day. "His Majestic brought a retinue with him," records C 1^ I <; I 'I 76 THE GREAT COMPANY l> ) >• r. Cole mien of lard was darkness rovernor ; lest than QS should indant of d on the bringing te of all planation ran that om words sson had ie several ry of the confirm roseilliers 3lf. Gro- lessened king, held larnt that ove eight days' journey from Rupert's River. Hither, in effect, Radisson had repaired; and afterwards from thence made his Tray back to Quebec. Of his subsequent ad-^ ventures mention will be made later in the narrative^ Kas-kidi-dah openly demanded tiie English protec- tion. He declared his apprehension of being attacked by other Indians, whom the French had animated against the English and all who dealt with them. He even gave a description of the fort the French had First French erected on the banks of Moose River, and rivalry. ^]^q contents of its storehouse. Already the French were resorting to many artifices to hinder the natives from trading with the heretic pale-faces ; they gave higher value for the furs brought them, and lost no opportunity of instilling into the minds of the Indians a far from flattering opinion of their trade rivals, the English. One hearer received these tidings with complete equanimity. That which surprised and confounded his companions, filled the bosom of Ghouart des Groseilliers with a secret joy. The Governor's high- handed deportment had oppressed, if it had not angered him; and he had, together with his brother-in-law, begun to suspect that this policy of enmity was dic- tated by a desire to rid himself and the Company of them both. But in the proximity of his compatriots, the French, he found a weapon of great utility in his relations with the Governor, his superior officer. On the third of April a council was held, to debate C Ifl * '■® ' i! ■■',> R. 78 THE GREAT COMPANY ]U: ! t; [■'■i : m upon the advisability of the Company's agents remov- ing from Rupert's to Moose River, thus to prevent their traffic being intercepted by the French. The Governor adopted a tone of great cordiality towards Groseilliers, and listened with deference to his advice. Groseilliers boldly counselled giving up the present fort and establishing themselves close to the French. Baile3% much to Captain Cole's astonishment, instantly approved of the plan. In vain did Cole protest against the course as dangerous; the Governor professed his confidence in Groseilliers' wisdom, and ordered the sloop to be got ready for the journey. In the meantime the Indians in the neighbourhood of Fort Charles continued building their wigwams. They raised their wauscohegein or fort so near the English that the palisades joined. As their numbers increased, Groseilliers advised putting off their own expedition until the savages were gone hunting, so that Fort Charles and those left in charge might not be surprised in their absence. On the 20 th of May, seven canoes containing more subjects of Kas-kidi-dah arrived, bringing the news to the English that few, if any, Upland Indians might be expected to visit them that season, the French having persuaded them to journey with their goods to Canada instead. Indeed, said they, the tribes had already left, so that even if the English expedition were made, it would be fruitless. At this depressing intelligence Bailey again sought Groseilliers' advice, and this being still in favour of / FIRST VISIT TO MOOSE RIVER 79 1 reinov- prevent ih. The towards s advice, present French, instantly it against essed his ered the bourhood wigwams, near the numbers ,heir own ig, so that it not be lay, seven ih arrived, wr, if any, bhem that o journey said they, He English bin sought favour of advancing to Moose River, it was adopted. Before the departure, on the 27th of May, a band of about fifty men, women, and children appeared, anxious to trade ; but instead of furs they offered wampum, feathers, and a few small canoes, for none of which merchandise the Company's agents had need. They were of the nation called Pishapocanoes, a tribe allied to the Esquimaux, and like them, a "poor, beggarly people; by which," adds one of the party, " we may perceive the French ran away with the best of the trade." Everything being now in readiness, the expedition started, but without Bailey. The Governor, at the last moment, decided to remain behind at Fort Charles and await their return. The voyage across the Bay was made in safety, and on the very day of landing at the mouth of Moose River, a band of Tahiti Indians were encoun- tered, from whom they obtained about two hundred pelts. The chief of this band denied that the French had bribed them or the other Indians not to trade with the English. They declared that as yet their intercourse had been almost entu'ely with the Jesuits, one of whom was Father Albanel, who had merely urged them to live on terms of friendship with the nations in league with the French. The chief blamed the English for trading with such pitiful tribes as Kas-kidi-dah's and the Pishapocanoes, advising them instead to settle at Moose River, where, he asserted, the Upland Indians would come and trade with them. First visit to Moose River. I. -i c 80 THE GREAT COMPANY m-n One curious incident occurred in the course of this parley. The Tahiti chief, who had been for some time eyeing GroseilUers rather sharply, suddenly broke off the negotiations.' When Captain Cole demanded tho reason, the chief declared that it was on GroseilUers* accoimt; him he had recognised as the Frenchman with whom he had had dealings many years before. GroseilUers stepped forward, and declared with a smile that the chief might possess himself in easiness on that score, as he was now to all intents and purposes an Englishman; and that as such he would always trade with the Tabitis. " But you drove hard bargains," returned the chief. " You took our silkiest, softest, and richest furs, and you gave us but beads and ribbons. You told us the skins of the sable, and marten, and beaver were of little account to you, whereas the English give us for them, and the French traders as well, guns and hatchets in exchange." This harangue does not seem to have particularly disconcerted GroseilUers ; he was an old Indian trader ; he returned a polite answer, renewing his expressions of amity. It made, nevertheless, a profound impression upon the other members of the party, who reported to Bailey on their return that the Indians thought GroseilUers too hard on them, and refused to deal with him. Indeed, they did not scruple to assert that the comparative failure of their expedition was owing to GroseUliers' presence; that both the Tabitis and the / BAILEY AT MOOSE RIVER 81 this time le off i tho Uiers' bman )efore. smile ss on rposes ilways I chief. •s, and Did us r were ;ive us IS and Bularly rader ; essions ression jported lought al with lat the ring to nd the Shechittiwans, hard hy, were really possessed of peltries which they chose to conceal. On hearing this intelligence, Bailey himself was induced to set out for Moose River. By rare good Bailey at fortune, he found the Tabitis reinforced by Moose River, j^ numerous band of Shechittiwans, who had journeyed thither some fifty leagues and were eager to trade. From this tribe, the Governor procured no fewer than fifteen hundred skins on very good terms. Charmed with his adventure, he decided to pursue his course, discover the Chechouan River, and thence coast along the west shore of the Bay, to Port Nelson, where there was constructed, as yet, no fort. On the 18 th of July he arrived at Chechouan River, "where no Englishman had been before," but secured little or no beaver. He treated with the chief of the tribe he found there and with his son, who exacted from Bailey a promise that he would come in a ship and trade the next year. In return, they assured him they would provide a quantity of beaver and induce the Upland tribes to travel thither. Hardly had the sloop departed than, on the 27th, it ran upon a mass of floating ice and narrowly escaped foundering. This catastrophe precipitated the Governor's return to Rupert's River. He arrived to find Groseilliers and his protdg^ Gorst at daggers drawn, and the factors, traders, and sailors almost at the point of mutiny, and all this because they objected to serve under a Frenchman. VOL. I. F C 11^ N w p;;!;;, '■; ■f' M ^*i: iS I' li *2 m if '-Miiilv ■ '1 ' ^'iiimin 82 THE GREAT COMPANY Bailey now seems to have made up his mind what course to pursue with regard to Groseilliers ; but if anything were lacking to complete his decision, he had not long to wait. On the next day but one, Jesuit priest ^^^^ is to say the 30th of August, a at Port messenger appeared announcing the arrival Charles. ^ t •. t '^ • • ot a canoe. In it was a Jesuit missionary, accompanied by one of Kas-kidi-dah's own sons. The worthy priest was in a sorry condition with regard to his apparel, most of which he had either been robbed of or been compelled to barter for food during his long sojourn in the wilderness. He had left Quebec during the preceding October, but had been detained for many months owing to the impassability of the route. He bore with him letters; one of them for Mr. Bailey from the Governor of Quebec. This epistle seems to have given Bailey a great deal of pleasure, and as a communication from one great man to another, he caused it to be publicly read out in the fort. The French Governor desired Bailey to treat the priest civilly, " on account of the amity between the two crowns ; " and the bearer of this letter had no reason to complain of a lack of hospitality. He was clothed and entertained with great kindness. Unhappily, on the very evening of his arrival, the Governor was made aware that the Jesuit had brought other letters, and that these had been delivered into the hands of Groseilliers. Always suspicious, he now became convinced of treachery. He saw in this harm- / !' GROSEILLIERS SUSPECTED 83 I what but if 3n, lie it one, ^st, a arrival iionary, . The gard to robbed ing his Quebec letained of the lem for This deal of 3at man b in the to treat between had no He was ival, the brought red into he now is harm- less visit of a pious missionary a deep-laid plot to capture the fort and allow it to be pillaged by the hostile Indians. He ordered Groseilliers to appear before him. But Groseilliers was not to be found, and Gorst returned to say that both the Frenchmen were out walking together. Bailey, taking several men with him, now went himself in search of the pair ; he confronted Groseilliers, and hurled a host of accusations at his head. To these accusations, all ill- founded and ill-advised, Groseilliers very promptly responded by knocking the Governor down. . le then returned calmly to the fort, demanded his wages and possessions, and calling three of the Indians to his side, including the young brave who had accompanied the priest, set off valiantly into the wilderness. In due time he reached Quebec, where he rendered a faithful account to the authorities of what had tran- spired. He also forwarded to England, by way of New England, a minute account of his experiences, which was duly read out at one of the meetings of the Company. The Jesuit, who had offered to proceed with Gro- seilliers, had been detained. He seems to have made himself very useful to the English in their dealings with the Indians, although he was thoroughly dis- trusted, as was to be expected, by the Governor. On the 24th of September, a sloop was described in the river, which, with joy, they soon made out to be the Pi'ince Rupert, just arrived from England. She c m i! f 84 THE GREAT COMPANY -J fif was commanded by Captain Gillam, and with her came the new Governor, William Lyddal, to supersede Arrival of Bailey. Captain Gillam reported that the the PHnce sister, ship, the Shaftesbury, commanded by "^*** Captain Shepherd, was likewise at the mouth of the river. The new Governor's commission and instructions being read, all hands were immedi- ately put to work, with the intention of unloading and reloading the ships for the return voyage immediately. Bailey seems to have expressed the greatest anxiety to proceed to London without delay ; but at length he was induced to listen to reason. It was pointed out to him that the season would be far spent before the work of equipment could be properly concluded. After several councils, it was resolved that they should winter at Rupert's River ; and no eifort was made to unload the vessels until the following spring. In the meantime, the crews were not idle. Under Lyddai's direction they found employment in cutting timber and building houses, more particularly a bake-house and a brew-house, "which latter," says the chronicler, " added greatly to the comfort of the fort." :1 '^4 m \j-W, CHAPTER VIII 1673-1682 Progeess op the Company— Confusion as to the Names and Number of the Tribes— Radisson goes to Paris— His efforts to obtain support there, and from prince Rupert, in England, fail— Arrival of M. de la Chesnaye —With his help R&.disson secures support — And sails for Quebec— Thence proceeds with two Ships to attack THE English Ports in Hudson's Bay — His encounters with Gillam's Expedition from London, and his Son's, from New England. ' Rapidly advancing in prosperity g,nd reputation, and possessed of a basis of credit which gave it a welcome sense of solidity, the Company now renewed its efforts to extend its trade and settlements. The weekly meetings at Mr. Alderman John Horth's, which were so full of mystery to the public, continued to bear fruit; and at length a regular system was determined for the organisation and government of its distant dependencies. All ships bound for Hudson's Bay were now ordered to visit Charlton Island, which lies about forty miles from the mouth of Rupert's River, in the extreme south of the Bay; and the island was also made a ,-'V: c .1 / '' ■*! 1. ' I-- I- «l I. ill '.'''ii!- i; >, ** '• i \V 86 THE GREAT COMPANY rendezvous whither all factors were to bring all their merchandise for the purpose of loading the Company's ships. The geography of the district had hitherto, in spite of the researches of a long series of explorers, beginning with Frobisher, and ending with Fox, re- mained obscure. But the Company's servants had Ignorance i^ot bccu idle, and the Adventurers were of the gQQjj ij^ possession of carefully drawn charts, geography of *• ^ "' Hudson's and maps of the straits, the Bay itself, and ^*^' the lands surrounding it. They kept them- selves also well-advised by lists, drawings, and detailed descriptions, of the tribes inhabiting the territories granted to them imder the charter; and the discus- sions which went on over this subject were not lacking in humour. It is worth observing that for a great many years during the early history of the Company, its Governors, captains, chief factors, chief traders, and the rank and file of its employees could never by any chance agree, either as to the number or the characteristics of the aborigines. In concocting their reports many were animated purely by love of romance; others relied too implicitly on the tales told by the Indians themselves ; others may be credited with being the victims of their own ima- ginations. Nor could the lists enumerating the tribes boast more consistency. Extracts from those of two Governors may be given here for purposes of comparison ; — / CONFUSION OF TRIBES 87 '! i;P : , Nations Visiting Hudson's Bay. Bailey, 1673 : Usquemos, Nodwayes, Twegwayes, Pankeshones, Noridgewelks, Abenekays, Micmacks, Kilistinons, Assinapoils, Cuchneways, Algonkins, Cutaways, Outaganiis. Lyddal, 1678 Askimows, Odwayea, Twagions, Paggai'shows, Narchuels, Penkayes, Micmackes, Crilistinons, Ossa-poets, Kitchenayes, Algonkings, Otawayes, Wattagamais. No wonder, therefore, that the Adventurers m England were puzzled, and that at one of their later meetings Prince Rupert was forced to exclaim — " Gentlemen, these Indians " (each member had been supplied with Governor Nixon's list) "are not our Indians. 'Fore God, out of the nineteen I see only five we have dealt with before." Another worthy member declared, on a similar occasion, that the tribes frequenting the Bay were more volatile than the Bedouins. " These are not men, but chameleons" — was the remark of another Adventurer. The chief cause of the confusion lay in the varia- tions of spelling. More than a century was to elapse before a common orthography was adopted, and in the 1 l"' '"'' ^ i'r .. r."*, if ■ ' >,*;>-; ■C'' 1; f. '1 f -( r ■'-* 1 '9 88 THE GREAT COMPANY interval it was impossible to fix the tribes by name with certainty. The name of no tribe perhaps under- Confusionof went such vicissitudes of spelling and pro- tribes. nunciation as that described by the earliest Jesuit pioneers -as the Ossa-poiles, which in our own day are known as the Assiniboines. They were in process of time the Poeles, Poets, the Pedlas, the Semplars, Oss-Semplars, EssapoUs, and the Simpoils.^ At a general court held to consider the action of Governor Bailey, the majority of the Adventurers pro- fessed themselves rejoiced at having been quit of the services of the Sieurs Groseilliers and Radisson; yet there were not wanting others to openly regret the treatment these two men had received. As may be supposed, the most fervent of their advocates and defenders was Sir John Kirke, whose daughter had married Radisson, and who himself had lately been knighted by the king. He predicted some disaster to the Company from having dismissed these two faithful servants, and he was loud and persistent in asserting the bad faith and unjust suspicions of Bailey. While the affairs of the Company were proceeding tranquilly at home, the conduct and employment of one of these two bushrangers was more enlivening. Chouart was passing his time in inactivity at Three Rivers. But his brother-in-law, after several ineffectual endeavours to establish a northern rivalry to the Com- ^ Generally known to-day as the Stone Indians. i; RADISSON IN FRANCE 8» pany, had offered his services to the French N^avy. This career, which at that period must have been, even for him, sufficiently eventful and exciting, was cut short by shipwreck in 1679. Losing all his property, even to his clothing, Radisson made his way first to Brest and then to Paris. The Vice-Admiral and Intendant of the Fleet having written in his favour, the Court was pleased to grant him a sum of one hundred crowns, and hope was also held out to him that he would be honoured by the command of a frigate. In the meantime he was accorded leave to go to England to fetch his wife. Madame Radisson, otherwise Mistress Mary Kirke, appears to have caused her husband a great deal of mortification and numerous disappointments. There Radisson in is uo doubt that her continued residence in France. England, in spite of her husband's return to the French service, made him an object of sus- picion to the French Court. Once when he en- deavoured, in a memorable interview with Colbert, to press upon that Minister his scheme for ousting the English from Hudson's Bay, the Minister re- sponded coldly : " M. Radisson, you are suspected of being in league with the English, your father-in-law is one of the members of the English Company, and your wife resides under his roof." "I made him understand," declared Radisson long afterwards, " that, though married, I was not master c (0 90 THE GREAT COMPANY f i of my wife. Her father would by no means consent to my bringing her to France with me." These rebuffs determined him to make an attempt to better his worldly condition elsewhere. A true soldier of fortune, patriotism appears to have had little weight with him ; he was as ready to serve under the English as the French. He returned to find his father-in-law more placable. Sir John had at this time certain claims against the French; and he doubtless fancied that Radisson might assist him in preferring these at the French Court. He took occasion to ask his father-in-law what chance there remained to him of again securing employment under the Company. *' None, sir," replied Kirke ; " both "V Bailey, Lyddal, and others are against you and have poisoned the minds of their employers. Prince Rupert is, however, your friend, and also Captain Gillam ; but one dislikes to speak openly, and the other dare not." Acting on this intelligence, Radisson resolved to see Rupert. The prince received him kindly enough; he took pains to show him his collection of mezzotints, and to explain some of his scientific curiosities. He even went so far as to condole with Radisson on the treatment he had received. But he had to point out that the temper of the Company was such that he feared it would be in vain for him to exercise his interest for his visitor's reinstatement. Radisson, disappointed of his hopes, and frustrated in his desire to return with his wife, did not meet PLAN TO DISLODGE THE COMPANY 91 with a warm wel 1 19 iL" ■ ;' I (: r'[ I':^ltt-- / 94 THE GREAT COMPANY to our fur-trade. The farmers [of the revenue] suffer in consequence by this diminution of the trade at Duchesneau Tadoussac, and throughout the entire country, protests because the EngHsh drive off the Outaoua against Eng- .• _ ^ lish encroach- natious. For the ouc and the other de- ments, g-g^ |.]jgy have two forts on the said Bay — the one towards Tadoussac and the other at Cape Henrietta Marie, on the side of the Assinibonetz. The sole means to prevent them succeeding in what is pre- judicial to us in this regard would be to drive them by main force from that Bay, which belongs to us. Or, if there would be an objection in coming to that extremity, to construct forts on the rivers falling into the lakes, in order to stop the Indians at these points." The zealous Intendant declared that should King Lewis adopt the resolution to arrange with the Duke of York for his possessions in that quarter, " in which case Boston could not resist," Canada would be ruined, " the French being naturally inconsistent and fond of novelty." Finding, however, that they could obtain no official recognition of the enterprise. La Chesnaye at length resorted to a transparent fiction in order to account for Radisson's departure — a subterfuge which Was the more necessary since many had begun to suspect his destination and urged the Governor to do nothing which would bring down on them the enmity of the English and their allies, the Iroquois. He requested W\ I ; t COMPANY S ENEMIES LEAVE QUEBEC 95 the Governor, if he would not countenance an expedi- tion with license to trade on the shores of the Bay, to grant Radisson formal permission to return to France by way of New England in a vessel belonging to the Government of Acadia, which at that moment lay in the St. Lawrence ready to sail. It was arranged privately that after his departure Radisson should proceed in this vessel only as far as Isle Perc^e in the Gulf, near the mouth of the river, and there await his kinsmen Groseilliers, his nephew Chouart, and the two ships which La Chesnaye was even then busily fitting out. Thus all oflficial cog- nisance of the expedition would be avoided. The terms agreed upon were, that in return for La Chesnaye's equipment, Radisson and Groseilliers were, provided certain conditions were carried out, to receive jointly half the profits of the venture, and La Chesnaye the other half. What these conditions were can only be guessed ; but beyond all question, they concerned the capture or spoliation of the English trading posts Company's °^ ^^® ^^y' R^disson took with him his enemies leave ncphcw, Jean Baptistc, who had passed nearly the whole of his life among the Indians p3 a coureur de hois ; the pilot, Pierre Allemand, and an old bushranger named Godefrey, who was well acquainted with the Indians of the northern regions. Groseilliers was to remain behind until the spring, when he was to have the command of the smaller of the two vessels. On the 4th of November the advance guard of the » iH !■ >1 ) li 96 THE GREAT COMPANY f expedition directed against the Company's establish- ment in Hudson's Bay left Quebec. In the following spring the rendezvous was kept at the island named. Radisson is found complaining bitterly of the character of the vessels St. Pierre and St Anne, The former he describes as an old craft of 50 tons only, "with twelve men of a crew, including those with me. There were goods enough for the trade aboard her," he adds, " but so scanty a supply of provisions that if I had not been so deeply engaged I should not venture on the enterprise." If his case was scarcely hopeful, that of his brother- in-law was far worse. The latter's vessel could boast but little more than half the tonnage, and while her crew was larger by three men, she carried even fewer supplies. But Radisson and Groseilliers were not men to shrink from any enterprise because it seemed hazardous. They had led bold, reckless lives, and their spirits rose at the prospect of danger. It was afterwards alleged of this pair that one great cause of their disagreement with the Company was their absolute inability to remain quiet and content in the enjoyment of a regular t' Ific. Such a career seemed to their bold, energetic dispositions worthier advice of of drapers' apprentices. It is said they Radisflonand counselled the Company not to think of establishing one or two trading posts and expect the Indians to come, to them for trade, but to push on in the wilderness to the north and west. 1; * REJECTED ADVICE OF THE BUSHRANGERS 97 building new depots and stirring up the hunters to greater activity and more profitable results. Had this advice been followed, the exploration of the great North- West would not only have been anticipated by almost a century ; but by the occupation of its terri- tory, the great evils of a later day would have been averted ; nor would any one in England have challenged the Company's right to an exclusive trade in the regions granted by its charter. But the Company was soon to learn that its earliest pioneers and forerunners were not to be cast off with impunity. The two bushrangers experienced consider- able difficulty at the outset in propitiating and calming the fears of their crews, who were terrified, and not without reason, at the prospect of a voyage of 900 leagues in such craft as the St. Pierre and the St. Anne, and amidst rough water and ice. But they at length succeeded and effected a start. After nineteen days the crew of Groseilliers' ship mutinied. Groseilliers' atteuipts to appease them seemed about to end in signal failure, when the man on watch cried out that a vessel was in sight to windward. Groseilliers seized his opportunity. " See ! " he cried, pointing to the distant barque, "yonder is one of the English Company, laden with the profits of their trade in the Bay. Every man has his pocket full of gold and his stomach full of rum ; and we shall have the same if we are not cowards enough to abandon our voyage." VOL. I. O c -h 98 THE GREAT COMPANY m ■ -1 After innumerable episodes, some of which almost ended in tragedy, Radisson, with his crew, on the 26 th of August, arrived on the west coast of Hudson's Bay. On the following day he was joined by his brother-in-law in the St. Anne at the mouth of a river named by the Indians Ka-kirka-kiouay, translated by Radisson as " who goes, who comes." Twelve days before their arrival another ship had entered this same river, commanded by their old friend Captain Gillam, and having on board John Bridgar, commissioned as Governor of the new settlement at Port Nelson. Wholly ignorant of this fact, they advanced fifteen miles up stream. Radisson then left Groseilliers to build a fort, while he himself departed in search of savages with whom to trade. With him he took his nephew and Godefrey, all three being well armed with muskets and pistols. In the course of eight days they accomplished forty leagues and attained the upper part of the river, though without meeting a single savage. On the eighth day, however, their eyes were rejoiced by the sight of a large encampment of Indians, who, while not especially rich in furs, were eager to con- clude a treaty with the French, and to encourage their settlement in the country. Radisson now decided to return, accompanied by some of the savages, and on the 12th day of September rejoined his brother-in-law, whose fort he found pretty well advanced. Hardly had he arrived when the sudden booming of a LQ THE YOUNGER GILLAM DISCOVERED 99 Gillam discovered. cannon startled the settlement. It was the first time the Indians had ever heard the sound, and they expressed much astonishment and apprehension. Although the two adventurers hastened to reassure their allies, they were themselves hardly less disturbed. Radisson made up his mind to ascertain immediately whence the The younger ^^^^g camc, and with this intention he em- barked in ti canoe and went to the mouth of the river. In passing to the opposite bank of the stream, and while in the vicinity of a small island, they perceived signs of European habitation A tent had been erected, and at that moment a log- house was being built. After a stealthy reconnoitre, lasting the whole night, Radisson and his companions in their canoe advanced boldly at daybreak from the opposite shore. The islanders were engaged in mak- ing a repast when Radisson attracted their attention Speaking to them first in French, and finding that none of them understood that tongue, he addressed them in English. He asked them what was their business in those parts. Their leader quickly responded : " We are English and come for the beaver trade." " By whose authority ? " asked Radisson ; " do you possess a commission ? " The other replied that he did not himself possess such a document, but that his father did, and that he and his companions hailed from New England. Whereupon Radisson, still seated in his canoe at some distance from the shore.informed > « i ^ a m, I '**'■ > c n IK r W 100 THE GREAT COMPANY them that they had not a shadow of right to be in those regions, which he himself had discovered and settled for the French some years before. He drew upon his imagini^tion so far as to intimate that he was at that moment in command of a large force of French- men in the neighbourhood, who would effectually main- tain the sovereignty of King Lewis and his exclusive trading right in this territory; and he concluded his harangue, which was delivered at the top of his voice, by advising the party of New Englanders to embark as soon as possible and to return from whence they came. Before any reply could be made, a cry broke from the lips of both the leaders. The canoe had touched the bank, and a recognition was mutual. The New Englander was Benjamin Gillam, old Zachary's son; and, as may be supposed, he possessed a very high admiration for a man of whom he had heard so much. They speedily embraced, but Radisson is careful to inform us that he did not entirely trust his young friend. When Benjamin's ship appeared at the mouth of the river, and Radisson was invited to go on board, he did so, but he took the precaution of insisting upon two Englishmen being left on shore as hostages. It was not without misgivings that, as he neared the vessel in their canoe, he observed the captain hoisting the English emblem and discharging, moreover, a number of cannon shots. " I told him," says Radisson, " that it was not I 'it / GILLAM S SHIP SEEN 101 ; II necessary to fire any more, for fear of causing jealousy amongst our people, who might show themselves hostile. He proposed that we should negotiate to- gether. I promised that I would persuade our other officers to consent that, since the season was already too far advanced for them to withdraw, he should pass the winter where he was without their doing him any mischief." In short, Radisson was resolved at all costs to keep up appearances. He even went so far as to grant Gillam formal permission to continue building his house, "barring fortifications," and to guarantee him against insults from the Indians, over whom he pro- fessed to have absolute power. The two men parted on good terms ; and perhaps Gillam's complaisance was well-advised. Radisson confesses that had the English shown themselves refractory or exhibited any disposition to assert rights over the country, it was his firm intention to concert a plan for seizing their ship, which, he observes, was an " excellent prize," inasmuch as it held no commission or warrant to trade from any power. It afterwards appeared that this enterprise of the New England ship was set on foot by Gillam senior, who, dissatisfied with his profits under the Company, sought to adventure an expedition on his own account from Boston. He was destined to pay the penalty for this indiscretion. Happy at having come out of this encounter so n p ' ifl 102 THE GREAT COMPANY easily, Radisson and his party re-embarked in their canoe and struck out northwards. Another surprise was in store for them. A ship under full sail was on the point of entering the river. More strategy was necessary. ' The party regained the shore and instantly kindled a huge bonfire, upon which they cast grass and leaves so as to produce a thick column of smoke. Their purpose was to attract the attention and arrest the progress of the vessel, and in this they succeeded. Believing they had come upon an Indian settlement, and anxious to reconnoitre before proceed- ing farther, the parties aboard the ship cast anchor immediately and so remained motionless in the channel all night. Early in the morning they saw that a boat was Arrival of being lowered from the ship, and while it Bridgar. ^j^g filling with occupants, Radisson made ready to receive them. Each of his party was posted, armed, at the entrance to the wood, while Radisson himself walked down to the shore to greet the strangers. They were soon within hail. Radisson set up a loud cry, Indian fashion, for the purpose of elicit- ing a response. He was disappointed in this; for the boat approached steadily and silently; there was a movement of the oars, but most of the figures appeared stern and motionless. The boat grounded ten yards from where Radisson stood with folded arms, and a general attitude of defiance. One of ARRIVAL OF BRIDGAR 103 the crew had got a leg over the side of the boat when our bushranger cried out in a loud voice : " Hold, in the King's name." And then presenting his carbine, he added, " I forbid you to land." The occupants of the boat were astonished. " Who are you ? " they asked, " and what is your business ? " "I am a Frenchman," was the answer, delivered in English; "and I hold this country for his Most Christian Majesty, King Lewis ! " Radisson signalled to his followers, who emerged from their retreat, making a brave show of their weapons. The coui) seemed destined to be successful. The leader of the boat party, visibly impressed, stand- ing erect in his craft without any attempt on the part of his followers to land, replied : " I beg to inform you, gentlemen, that we hail from London. Our ship yonder is the Prince Rupert^ belonging to the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company and commanded by Captain Zachary Gillam." "You arrive too late. This country is already in the possession of the King of France, and its trade belongs to the Northern Company of Canada." A short dispute succeeded. Suddenly changing his tactics. Governor Bridgar, for it was he, feigned acquiescence, admitted that after all Radisson might be right, and requested the privilege of landing and saluting hun. The two leaders now conversed amicably. Radisson : I' I c n »» nj 104 THE GREAT COMPANY !J4 1 1 'i i S'^. Atme had been hauled into a small stream as far as possible in the woods and there sheltered by a knoll. At ten DESTRUCTION OF LA CHESNAYE's VESSELS 125 o'clock on the night named all at Fort Bourbon were awakened by a frightful noise, caused by the breaking up of the ice. The occupants of the fort rushed outside to find the waters everywhere rising with almost incredible rapidity; and the masses of ice blocking up the mouth of the creek caused a complete general submersion. La Chesnaye's Destruction i /v» i • of La two vessels ottered no strong resistance to Chesnaye's ^j^^ flood, and presently besfan to crack and vessels. ^ ^ ^ >/ a splinter in all parts. In a few hours all that remained sound were the bottoms, clinging fast to the ice and mud. A similar fate was apprehended for the New England ship, and Radisson made all haste thither. She was saved only by his adopting the suggestion of Bridgar, that the ice be carefully cut all about the Susan, as he had heard of Governor Bailey's doing on a previous occasion. The ice once cut, the vessel was only pushed by the strength of the floes to one side, Avhere she remained aground with little damage. The chief concern of the leaders of the French now was to get the English safely out of the country as soon as possible, before the arrival of the Company's ships. To this end Radisson and Groseilliers offered them the hull of the St. Anne, which, they believed, could with industry be patched up with new timber sufficiently well to withstand a voyage. When the English saw that these were the best terms they could expect, and that if they were left at the mercy of the 'i 11 126 THE GREAT COMPANY Indians a much worse fate might be in store for them, they set to work with a will. The labour proved ardu- ous, and they had suffered terribly. Four had died from cold and hunger, and two had been poisoned from having ^ashly drunk of a liquor they had found in the medicine-room chest, without knowing its nature ; another had had his arm broken quite recently by a musket shot while out hunting. The Governor felt that his sole hope lay in the expected ships of the Company. He seems to have always adopted a high tone in dealing with the French, even to the last. He declared to Radisson that it was only one of three things that could oblige him to abandon the place, " the order of his masters, force, or famine." Groseil- liers now counselled burning the island fort, in order to do away with the necessity of keeping perpetual guard there, and of always taking precautions to protect them- selves against the Governor's intrigues. This advice was acted upon forthwith ; the fort was burned and a small lodge erected to accommodate such of the New Englanders as had not been carried to Fort Bourbon, or were not at work on the hull of the wrecked ship. Early in May the Indians began to appear in great numbers. Bridgar — who, divested of his command and robbed of his stores, was now allowed at large — heard of their arrival with joy. He seems to have believed that their chiefs would not repudiate their treaties with the Company. He hoped in any case to ARRIVAL OF THE INDIANS 127 be granted the privilege of a conference with them, but in this he was quickly undeceived. Radisson went Arrival of forward to meet the Indians, who had come the Indians, ^gjj loaded with peltries, and who were much perturbed at discovering the helpless state of the Governor and the ascendency of the French. But in spite of their solemn covenant, they showed no disin- clination to trade with the latter, provided Groseilliers and his brother-in-law would do so on the same terms as the English. Both the bushrangers, however, seem to have been determined to put an immediate stop to what they termed folly. Let the Company give six axes for a beaver if it chose; for themselves they would countenance no such wantonness; two would suffice. The tribe being assembled, and having spread out their customary gifts, consisting of beaver tails, smoked moose tongues, and pemraican, one of the leading braves arose and said : — " Men who pretend to give us life, do you wish us to die ? You know what beaver is worth, and the trouble we have to take it. You call yourselves our brothers, and yet will not give us what those give who make no such profession. Accept our gifts, and let us barter, or we will visit you no more. We have but to travel a hundred leagues and we will encounter the English, whose offers we have heard." On the conclusion of this harangue, silence reigned for some moments. All eyes were turned on the two I I |ij- j: I f !l ! 128 THE GREAT COMPANY Radisson overawes the Indians. French traders. Feeling that now or never was the time to exhibit firmness, Radisson, without rising to his feet, addressed the whole assemblage in haughty accents. " Whom dost thou wish I should answer ? I have heard a dog bark; when a man shall speak he will see I know how to defend my conduct and my terms ! We love our brothers and we deserve their love in return. For have we not saved them all from the treachery of the English ? " Uttering these words fearlessly, he leapt to his fc^t and drew a long hunting-knife from his belt. Seizing by the scalp-lock the chief of the tribe, who had already adopted him as his son, he asked, " Who art thou ? " To which the chief responded, as was customary, " Thy father." "Then," cried Radisson, "if that is so, and thou art my father, speak for me. Thou art the master of my goods ; but as for that dog who has spoken, what is he doing in this company ? Let him go to his brothers, the English, at the head of the Bay. Or he need not travel so far : he may, if he chooses, see them starving and helpless on yonder island : answering to my words of command. " 1 know how to speak to my Indian father," con- tinued Radisson, " of the perils of the woods, of the abandonment of his squaws and children, of the risks of hunger and the peril of death by foes. All these you avoid by trading with us here. But although I RADISSON OVERAWES THE INDIANS 129 am mightily angry, I will take pity on this wretch and let him still live. Go," addressing the brave with his weapon outstretched, " take this as my gift to you, and depart. When you meet your brothers, the English, tell them my name, and add that we are soon coming to treat them and their factory yonder as we have treated this one." The speaker knew enough of the Indian character, especially in affairs of trade, to be aware that a point once yielded to them is never recovered. And it is but just to say that the terms he then made of three axes for a beaver were thereafter adopted, and that his firmness saved the Company many a cargo of these implements. His harangue produced an immediate impression upon all save the humiliated brave, who declared that if the Assiniboines came hither to barter he would lie in ambush and kill them. The French trader's reply to this was to the Indian mind a terrible one. " I will myself travel into thy country," he said, ' and eat sagamite in thy grandmother's skull." While the brave and his small circle of friends were livid with fear and anger, Radisson ordered three fathoms of tobacco to be distributed ; observing con- temptuously to the hostile minority, that as for them they might go and " smoke women's tobacco in the country of the lynxes." The barter began, and when at nightfall the Indians departed, not a skin was left amongst them. VOL. I. I / m w 130 THE GREAT COMPANY It was now time to think of departure. As a pre- cautionary measure it was decided to despatch Bridgar and his companions first. But at the last moment Departure some trouble secms to have arisen as to of the which vessel the English should have to "^'^*' convey them to more hospitable shores. Bridgar himself would have preferred to go in the ship, and at first his passage in that craft had been arranged for; but it was at length settled that he should be carried with the brothers-in-law in their own small barque. After numerous vicissitudes, which would need a chapter to describe, the St. Anne arrived at the mouth of the St. Lawrence early in October. At Tadoussac was a trading post belonging to the French: and the sight of it seems to have inspired either one or both of these conscienceless adventurers with the idea of lightening their load of furs, which consisted of above two thousand skins, though this cargo only represented about one-third of the number they had actually secured by cheating, robbery, and intrigue in the country of the Bay. Having in this nefarious manner disposed of above one-half of La Chesnaye's and their own joint property, they again set sail and arrived at Quebec on the 26th of October. Immediately on their arrival they went to report themselves to M. de la Barre, the Governor, La Chesnaye being fortunately, or unfortunately, absent RADISSON AND GR08EILLIERS LEAVE QUEBEC 131 in Montreal. The Governor thought proper to return the Susan to the New England merchants, with a warning not to send her again to the region she had just quitted, and the Company's ill-starred Governor, Bridgar, together with young Gillam, sailed on board the Susan for New England. " We pai ted," says Radisson with that matchless audacity of statement for which his narrative deserves to be famous, "on friendly terms; and he (Bridgar) could testify that I let him know at the time my attachment; and yet, that I wished still to act as heartily in the service of the King and the nation as I wished to do for France." This hardly tallies with Bridgar's evidence before the Company, that Radisson was " a cheat, a swindler, and a black-hearted, infamous scoundrel," and that he was * a born intriguing traitor." As for the elder Gillam, he was heard to declare, when he had at length arrived on the frail and half-rotten craft which bore him and his unhappy comrades to New England, that he would not die happy until his " hangar had dipped into the blood of the French miscreant, Radisson." Quebec soon grew too hot for both the brothers- Radissonand ^^"l*^^* Between the unfortunate La Ches- Groseiiiiers nayc, who saw himself two thousand crowns out of pocket, and the Governor, who had received orders from France to despatch to the Court this pair of adventurers who seemed bent on making *• ' Ifl Ill' III 132 THE GREAT COMPANY international trouble, Radisson and Groseilliers decided to leave Quebec, which they did in about a fortnight after their arrival. The exact date of their departure was the 11th of November 1683. It was effected on board a French frigate which had brought troops to the colony. But though the captain of the frigate made all haste, the frail and shattered St. Anne, with Captain Gillam on board, arrived in Europe before them; and soon England was ringing with his story of the dastardly encroachment of the French into the realms of the Company at Port Nelson.^ ^ The material for the two last chapters has been derived chiefly from a ^ " ^^^- ** ** ^ 1.0 1.1 12.5 Ui|28 ■tt m 12.2 £ Ufi 12.0 ^ IJi& 1? FholDgFaphic Sciences CarporatiQn -''-v ** ^J^- n WHT MAIN STRHT WnSTIR.N.Y. 14SI0 (7I«) t72^S03 ^ A y 'v:^ %\\ 144 THE GREAT COMPANY river. " At first," he says, " I thought some French- men might be with them, whom my nephew might have sent to discover who the new arrivals were." Upon this supposition Radisson severed himself from his comrades; and going to meet the savages he made the usual signs to them from the bank, which the Indians at first seemed to respond to in no amiable spirit. Albeit, on addressing them in their own tongue, he was immediately recognised, the Indians testifying by shouts and playful postures to their joy at his arrival. He quickly learned from them that The pre- _. i t\ senceof his ncphew and the other Frenchmen were the French a^ove the rapids, four leagues from the place made known. r ' o r where they then were. They had expected Groseilliers would accompany Radisson, and when they expressed surprise that this was not the case, Radisson did not scruple to tell them that Groseilliers awaited him at a short distance. " But what," asked Radisson, " are you doing here ? What brings you into this part of the country and in such numbers ? " The savage leader's sudden confusion betrayed him to Radisson. The fact of the Indians having volun- tarily sought trade with the English greatly simplified the situation. "Look you," he cried heartily, at the same time calling to Captain Geyer, who was in ambush hard by, " I am glad to find you seeking trade with the English. I have made peace with the English for GREETING BY THE INDIANS 145 the love of our Indian brothers ; you, they, and I are to be henceforth only one. Embrace us, therefore, in token of peace; this (pointing to Geyer) is your new brother. Go immediately to your son at the fort yonder and carry him these tidings and the proofs of peace. Tell him to come and see me at this place, while the others will wait for me at the mouth of the river." It may be mentioned that the chief of this band had previously announced himself as young Chouart's sire, according to the Indian custom. He now readily departed on his mission. Badisson passed an anxious night. The sun had been risen some hours before his eyes were gladdened by the sight of a canoe, in which he descried Chouart. The young man's countenance bore, as well it might, an expression of profound amazement ; and at first hardly the bare civilities of relationship passed between the pair. Chouart waited patiently for his uncle to render an explanation of the news which had reached him. Silently and slowly they walked together, and after a time the prince of liars, traitors, adventurers, and bushrangers began his account of his position. Radisson states that his nephew immediately ac- quiesced in his scheme. A memoir penned in 1702, the year of Radisson's death, by M. Earthier, of Quebec, asserts that the young man received with the utmost disgust, and flatly declined to entertain, his relative's proposals. He expressed, on the other .:.! 'i^ m VOL. I. K f irt' ' "'I 1^ nr- ^^-^ / r i I: I? 146 THE GREAT COMPANY Chouart surrenders to Badisson. hand, the greatest grief on hearing the news ; for he had hegun to believe that it was through their efforts that the dominion of the King had been extended in that region. Now it appeared that this labour had all been in vain. It was only his love for his mother, Radisson's sister, which prevented an open rebellion on the part of Chouart against the proposed treachery. No rupture took place; the stronger and more crafty spirit prevailed. Chouart surrendered on the following day his command of the fort. He had, he complained, expected a far different fate for the place and his men. The tattered old jienr de lis standard brought by the St. Anne*s captain from Quebec was lowered and the English emblem, with the device of the Company, run up in its stead. All the forces were assembled, and amidst cheers for King Charles and the Honourable Adventurers, the Company's Governor took formal possession. But the French bushrangers and sailors watched these proceedings with melancholy dissatisfaction, not, perhaps, as much from patriotic motives as from the frailty of their own tenure. They could no longer be assured of a livelihood amongst so many English, bear- ing themselves with so haughty a mien. Radisson proceeded to make an inventory of all the skins on hand, together with all those concealed in caches in the woods. The results showed 239 packages of beaver, or about 12,000 skins, together REPROACHES OF KA-CHOU-TOUAY 147 with merchandise sufficient to barter for seven or eight thousand more. Instructions were now given by Radisson, the Governor remaining passive, to have all these goods taken in canoes to the ships. It now only remained for the bushranger to accom- plish one other object before setting sail with the cargo for England. Radisson speaks of himself as having a secret commission, but no authority can be found for his statement. It involved the retention in the Company's service of his nephew and the other Frenchmen; but even assuming that Radisson were armed with any such instructions, the plan was not likely to enjoy the approval of Governor Phipps, who, if he were at the outset of his term of office deter- mined upon any one thing, it was that Fort Nelson should be cleared of Frenchmen. Exactly how this was to be arranged was not quite clear, especially as there was yet no open rupture between the two authorities. But for such a rupture they had not long to wait. They were destined on the very eve of his departure to be involved in a quarrel. Some years before an Assiniboine chief named Ka- chou-touay had taken Radisson to his bosom and adopted him as his son with all the customary cere- monies. This formidable chief, who had been at war with a neighbouring tribe at the time of his adopted son's arrival in the country, now put in an appear- ance, and instead of the joy Radisson expected he was greeted with reproaches. For Ka-chou-touay informe t iii llji lii. / ;l^ 148 THE GREAT COMPANY him that a brother chief of his, named La Barb^, with one of his sons, had been killed while ex- postulating with a party of English. The conse- quences of this rash action might be so grave that Radisson felt it to be his duty to resort to the Governor and demand that his servants should be punished for the crime, or else he would not be answerable for the consequences. The Governor does Dispute not appear to have taken Radisson's demand ^tween jj^ g^^^ i^^xty declining altogether to intervene and the in the matter. Radisson soon proceeded to overnor. commands and threats. He asserted that as long as he remained in the country the Governor was his subordinate, which greatly angered that official, and high words passed. The task the Governor had set himself was by no means easy, especially if he wished to avoid bloodshed. But the plan of overpowering and disarming the French was finally accomplished through strategy, and all were escorted aboard the ship, even to Chouart himself. On the 4th of September sail was set. On this voyage Radisson's state of mind rivalled that which he had experienced when outward bound. His late anxiety to be the first upon the scene at Port Nelson was paralleled now by his desire to be the first in London. If, happily, the Company should first hear an account of what had transpired from himself, he felt convinced fiill measure of justice would be done him. If, on the other hand. Governor Phipps's relation BADISSON S ARRIVAL IN LONDON 149 were first received, there was no knowing how much prejudice might be raised against him. Great as was his impatience, he managed to hide it with adroitness, so that none save his nephew suspected the intention he shortly executed. The captain, crew, and Company's servants left the ship leisurely at Portsmouth, those going up to London lingering on for the coach. As for Pierre Radisson, he instantly made his way to the post-house, where he hired a second-rate steed, mounted it, and, without the courtesy of an adieu to his late comrades, broke into a gallop, hardly restrained until London Bridge was reached. His entry was made close upon midnight, but late as was the hour, Radisson took no thought of securing lodging or of apprising his family. He spurred on his stumbling horse to the dwelling of Mr. Young, in Wood Street, Cheapside. The Honourable Adven- turer had retired for the night, but, nevertheless, in gown and night-cap he welcomed Radisson with great cordiality. He listened, we are told, with the greatest interest and satisfaction to the bushranger's tale, garnished with deta^s of his own marvellous prowess and zeal for the Company. Nor, perhaps, was Radisson less satisfied when, on attaining his own lodging, he pondered on the day's exploits. He slumbered little, and at eleven o'clock Young was announced, and was ushered in, declaring that he had already been to Whitehall and apprised the Court of the good news. ■i,.j 1^ ■■<% Ml ,>r. 1^ li " r y 150 THE GBEAT COMPANY His Majesty and his Royal Highness had expressed a wish to see Radisson, the hero of these great doings, Phipps's *^^ Young was accordingly brought to escort letter to the the bushranger into the Royal presence. It ompany. ^^ ^ triumph, but a short-lived one. Radisson had hardly left the precincts of the Court, his ears still ringing with the praises of King and courtiers, when the Deputy-Governor, Mr. Bering, re- ceived Phipps's account of the affair, which was almost as unfair to Radisson and the part he had played in the re-capture of Port Nelson, as Radisson's own account was flattering. On the receipt of the report, a General Court of the Adventurers was held on September 26th. By the majority of members the bushranger was hardly likely to be accorded full justice, for great offence had been given by his presentation at Court and the extremely informal manner of his arrival. Despite the friendli- ness of Hays, Young, and several other partners, Radisson was not again granted a position of authority in the Company's service. In the meanwhile young Chouart, being detained in England against his wish, decided to write to Denonville and propose to accompany his uncle to Port Nelson and make his escape and gain Quebec by land. The Governor forwarded this letter to Paris and demanded permission to promise fifty pistoles to those who would seize the traitor Radisson and bring him to Quebec. The minister complied. But in / FALL OF BADISSON 151 March, 1687, he had had no success. "The misfor- tune," says the minister, " that the man Radisson has done to the colony, and that he is still capable of doing if he remains longer amongst the English, should oblige Denonville and Champagne to make every effort to seize him, and so judgment will be held out." Radisson did, it is true, make another voyage to Hudson's Bay, but his sojourn was of brief duration, and a plot set on foot to seize him failed. Not long afterwards, " Peter Raddison " is found to be in receipt of a pension of ten pounds a month from the Company, which he continued to enjoy for many years to the time of his death at Islington, in 1702. Thus perished one of the most extraordinary characters of the early fur-trade. He had survived his old comrade and brother-in-law, Groseilliers (about the exact date of whose death is some uncertainty), more than ten years. ~i' Ml i\. H 1- ' 'I iv I ' m CHAPTER XI 1685-1686 ^ Fbignbd anger of Lewis— He writes to La Barbb— Import- ance ATTACHED TO INDIAN TREATIES — DULUTH'S ZEAL— Oauthibr db Compobtier— Denonville made Governor- Capture OF the *• Merchant op Perpbtuana " — Expedi- tion op Troyes against the Company's Posts in the Bay— Moose Fort surrendered. When the news of the expedition of 1684 reached the Court of Versailles, Lewis professed anger that the peace between the two crowns should be broken even in that remote corner of the world. He related the discussion which had taken place between the English ambassador and himself with regard to Radisson's treachery. He had been happy, he said, to inform King Charles's representative that he was unwilling to afford his "brother of England" any cause of complaint. Nevertheless, as he thought it important to prevent the English from establishing themselves in that river, it would be well to make a proposal to the commandant at Hudson's Bay that neither French nor English should have power to make any new establishments. Long before that he had written to Governor La 152 DULUTH IN THE WEST 153 Barre, in no measured terms, demanding of him what he meant by releasing the Boston vessel, the Susan, without calling on the intendant, or consulting the sovereign council. :^ "You have herein done," said he, "just what the English would be able to make a handle of, since in virtue of your ordinance you caused a vessel to be surrendered which ought strictly to be considered a pirate, as it had no commission ; and the English will not fail to say that you so fully recognised the regu- larity of the ship's papers as to surrender it." Simultaneously with the receipt of this letter from his monarch, there came to the perplexed Governor Duiuth in «- letter from the Sieur Duluth, stating that the West. ^t great expense of presents he had pre- vented the western tribes from further carrying their beaver trade to the English. He had, it appeared, met the Sieur de la Croix with his two comrades, who had presented the despatches in which the Governor had urged him to use every endeavour in forwarding letters to Chouart, at Nelson River. "To carry out your instructions," wrote Duluth, "there was only Monsieur P^re, who would have to go himself, the savages having all at that time with- drawn into the interior." He added that P^r^ had left during the previous month, and doubtless at that time had accomplished his mission. Duluth invariably expressed himself with great confidence on the subject of the implicit trust which the savages reposed in 1 i 5 !: t'% hi 154 THE GREAT COMPANY IK: ;■' him. More than onoe in his letters, as well as in verbal messages forwarded to his superiors, he boasted that before a couple of years were out not a single savage would visit the English at Hudson's Bay. To this end they had bound themselves by the numerous presents they had received at his hands ; and he was assured that they would not go back on their word. As with Duluth so with the other officials, pioneers, and emissaries amongst the French, great importance was attached to treaties and compacts with the aborigines. Every endeavour was made to obtain the goodwill and amity of the Indians. Perhaps nothing exhibits so powerfully the totally differing attitude and motives of the Company, com- pared with the French traders, than the manner in which, in those early times, the Red man was trusted and believed by the one and distrusted and contemned by the other. One may peruse neither the narratives of the Jesuits nor of the traders without an emotion of awe at the simple faith of those pioneers in the French and honesty and probity of the Red men. To English ^]jQ yQYy ^^j^ when disaster succeeding with the disaster overwhelmed the propaganda of ""^'^ Loyola amongst the northern trihes and exterminated its disciples, we read of the Frenchman trusting to the word and deferring to the prejudices of his Indian brother. It was as if the latter were indeed of a common steadfastness and moral nature with his own. Contrast this attitude with that trait in y Iwell as in le boasted a single Bay. To numerous |nd he was word, pioneers, i^nportance with the to obtain be totally any, com- aanner in as trusted ontemned narratives emotion •s in the aen. To icceeding anda of bes and >iichman ejudices ler were nature trait in DULUTHS VAIN ATTEMPT 156 the English character which is still exhibited in his dealings with inferior and black peoples in India and Africa, at the present day. Never was the contrast greater than during the acute conflict of English and French interests in Hudson's Bay at this time. The early governors and traders almost vdthout exception openly despised the Indian and secretly derided his most solemn counsels. August treaties were set aside on the most flimsy pretexts, and if the virtues of the savages were too highly esteemed by the French, they were on the other hand perhaps much too cheaply held by their rivals. But to whatever extent they may have held them- selves bound by compacts of this kind, the Company's officials were not so foolish as to doubt their potency amongst savages. Thus we find that from the years 1682 to 1688 the Company regularly instructed its servants to enact the strongest treaties with the " captains and kings of the rivers and territories where they had settlements." "These compacts," observes one of the Company's servants, " were rendered as firm and binding as the Indians themselves could make them. Ceremonies of the most solenm and sacred character accompanied them." Duluth had already built a fort near the River h. la Maune, at the bottom of Lake Nepigon, and thither he expected at least six of the northern nations to resort in the spring. Lest this should not be sufficient for the purpose, he designed building another in the i t '\ 13 % if' !■''('■ !l 156 THE GREAT COMPANY 'Hi ' ;• * M Christineaux River, whicli would offer an effectual barrier to the expansion of the English trade. With characteristic zeal Duluth, in a letter written at this time, concluded with these words : "Finally, sir, I wish to lose my life if I do not absolutely prevent the savages from visiting the English." But with every good will to serve his monarch and stifle in infancy the growing trade of the Hudson's Bay Company in the northern regions, Duluth vastly imdervalued the forces of circumstance as well of enterprise at the command of the enemy. The plans of the French were destined to be confounded by the unforeseen and treacherous action of Radisson and Chouart in the following year. " What am I to do ? " now became the burden of La Barre's appeals to the King. The young ^priest who acted as his secretary at Quebec was kept per- petually writing to Versailles for instructions. His letters are long, and filled with explanations of the situation, which only served to confuse his superiors. Fearful of offending the English on one hand and thereby precipitating New France in a war with New England, and on the other of arousing the resentment of the colonists by a supine behaviour, the unhappy La Barre was in an unpleasant dilemma. " Am I to oppose force to force ? " he asks in one letter. "Am I to venture against those who have committed these outrages against your Majesty's sub- LEWIS UNWILLING TO OPPOSE THE ENGLISH 157 Ijects at sea? It is a matter in which your Majesty will please to furnish me with some precise and decisive orders whereunto I shall conform my conduct and actions." , '' But the Most Christian King was by no means anxious to quarrel with his cousin Charles either for the dominion of, or the fiir-trade monopoly in, the North. Charles was in possession of a handsome subsidy paid out of the exchequer of Lewis, unwilling Europe was spectator of the most cordial to oppose relations between these two monarchs, rela- tbe English. ' tions which are described by more than one candid historian as those commonly subsisting between master and vassal. That tempest of indignation which was to break over England in the reign of Charles's successor would have not so long been deferred had but a real knowledge of the "good understanding and national concord " been known to Englishmen at large. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that Lewis concluded to do nothing. It was not that opportunities to regain what was lost were lacking. An old soldier, Gauthier de Comportier, who with a number of other patriots had learned of the jeopardy in which French interests lay in the North, presented a memoir to the King offering, if a grant were made him, to win all back from the English and to establish three posts on the Bourbon River. The grant was refused. Hh V iJ It m ) '1* !;:|;: 1:1 ,;:|j I IfL?^ M.t m* t. 158 THE GREAT COMPANY A change then came which altered the aspect of affairs. In February, 1685, Charles II. died, and the Duke of York, second Governor of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, ascended the throne of England. Lewis was not the last to perceive that the accession of James would cause but little real difference, as the latter and himself weie bound together by ties as strong as had bound Charles, yet saw at the same time that full advantage might safely be reaped from the change of monarchs. Proceedings were instantly set on foot therefore to retrieve the fortunes of the French in the fur countries. The conduct of Groseilliers and Radisson had deeply offended the inhabitants of Quebec. An excited popu- lace burnt the pair in effigy, and a decree was issued for their arrest should they at any time be appre- hended, and for their delivery to those whom they had betrayed. But it was the anger of La Chesnaye and his associates of the Company which was especially strong. A new expedition which they had sent out to Port Nelson, with the intention of collecting a wealth of peltries, returned to the St. Lawrence without so much as a single beaver. The success of the English made some decided action on the part of the French inevitable. La Barre was recalled, and his successor, the Marquis de Denonville, determined to take matters into his own hands rather than see the interests of New France in the Bay suffer. He relied upon the success of the expedition to atone 1*1: .-.t- . I I CAPTURE OF A COMPANY'S SHIP 159 for the boldness of the initiative, but his action was not taken without repeated warnings addressed to the Minister. " All the best of our furs, both as to quality and quantity, we must expect to see shortly in the hands of the English." If the English were not expelled they would secure all the fat beaver from an infinite number of tribes in the north who were being discovered every day, besides abstracting the greater portion of the peltries that ordinarily reached them at Montreal through the Ottawas, Assiniboines, and other tribes.^ In the month of July, 1685, two ships belonging to the French Company, returning in disappointment to Canada from Port Nelson, met, at the mouth of the Straits, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels, the Merchant of Perpetiiana, commanded by Edward Humes. This ship was bound for York Fort with a cargo of merchandise and provisions, and no time was lost on the part of the French in intercepting her. Captain Humes not sur- rendering with sufficient alacrity to please the enemy, the Merchant of Perpettbana was boarded and forcibly possessed in the name of King Lewis. 1 (< Our Frenchmen have seen quite recently from Port Nelson some Indians who were known to have traded several years ago at Montreal. The posts at the head of the Bay Ahbitibi and Nemisco can be reached through the woods and seas ; our Frenchmen are acquainted with the road. But in regard to the posts occupied by the English in the river Bourbon or Port Nelson it is impossible to hold any posts below them and convey merchandise thither except by sea. Some pretend that it is feasible to go thence overland ; but the river to reach that quarter The French capture a Company's ship. I< ! I IK 1 it iitf. m I'l.'v ■ Mrt 160 THE GREAT COMPANY Several English sailors lost their lives. The vessel having been seized in this manner, her prow was headed for Quebec, where master and crew were summarily cast into gaol. After a miserable confinement, lasting eleven months, the sufferings of Captain Humes ended with his death, and the other prisoners, exposed to the insults and indignities of the Quebec populace, were ultimately sent away to Martinique on board their own ship, and there sold as slaves. The mate, Richard Smithsend by name, managed to escape, and upon reaching London, the tale he unfolded to his employers excited general indignation. A memorial of the outrage, couched in vigorous language, was presented to the King, but James, resolved not to give offence to his friend and ally the Most Christian King, took no notice of the matter. remains yet to be discovered, and when discovered could only admit the conveyance of a few men and not of any merchandise. In regard to Hudson's Bay, should the King not think proper for enforcing the reasons his Majesty has for opposing the usurpation of the English on his lands, by the just titles proving his Majesty's possession long before the English had any knowledge of the country, nothing is to be done but to find means to support the Company of the said Bay, formed in Canada, by the privilege his Majesty has been pleased this year to grant to all his subjects of New France ; and to furnish them for some years with a few vessels of 120 tons, well armed and equipped. I hope with this aid our Canadians will support this business, which will otherwise perish of itself ; whilst the English merchants, more powerful than our Canadians, will with good ships continue their trade, whereby they will enrich themselves at the expense of the Colony and the King's revenue."— Despatch of Denonville, 12th November 1685. THE CHEVALIER DE TROYES 161 Amongst the French in Canada there were not wanting bold spirits to follow up this daring stroke. Chief amongst them, not merely for the character of his achievements, but for his uncommon and romantic personality, was the ChevaUer de Troyes. This Canadian nobleman, much advanced in years, was a retired captain in the army. He believed he now saw an opportunity to win a lasting distinction, and to rival, and perhaps surpass, the exploits of Champlain, Lusson, Frontenac, and the other hero-pioneers of New France. Scholarly in his tastes, and frail of body, though by profession a soldier, he emerged from privacy on Christmas Eve, 1685, and asked of the Governor a commission to drive the English utterly from the Northern Bay. The authority the old soldier sought for was granted. He was empowered to " search for, seize, and occupy the most advantageous posts, to seize the robbers, bushrangers, and others whom we know to have taken and arrested several of our French engaged in the Indian trade, whom we order him to arrest, especially the said Radisson and his adherents wherever they may be found, and bring them to be punished as deserters, according to the rigour of the ordinances." The rigour of the ordinances was death. Fourscore Canadians were selected to form part of the expedition against the Hudson's Bay Company's posts by the Chevalier de Troyes. For his lieutenants, the leader .chose the three sons of a nobleman of New VOL. I. 1* i mil m Kill ) 1 ■•• I- 162 THE GBEAT COMPANY 1 ^^H 1 '■ 1 ;■' '' : 1' ^f: S! m France named Charles Le Moine. One, the eldest, a young man of only twenty-five, was to bear an enduring distinction in the annals of France as one of her most able and intrepid naval commanders. This was the'Sieur d'Iberville. His brothers, taking their names, as he had done, from places in their native land, were called the Sieurs de Sainte Helene and de Marincourt. Thirty soldiers were directly attached to the Chevalier's command, veterans who had, almost to a man, seen service in one or other of the great European wars. That they might not be without the ministrations of religion, Father Sylvie, a Jesuit priest, accompanied the expedition. "The rivers," writes a chronicler of the Troyes expedition, "were frozen and the earth covered with Expedition snow whcn that small party of vigorous of de Troyes. ^gj^ ^q^^ Montreal in order to ascend the Ottawa River as far as the height of land and thence to go down to James' Bay." At the beginning of April they arrived at the Long Sau'lt, where they prepared some canoes in order to ascend the Ottawa River. From Lake Temiscamingue they passed many portages until they reached Lake Abbitibi, at the entrance or most southern extremity of which they built a small fort of stockades. After a short halt thoy continued their course towards James' Bay. The establishment first doomed to conquest by Troyes and his companions was Moose Factory, a .stockade fort having four bastions covered with earth. Wf •:; my< CAPTURE OF MOOSE FACTORY 163 t I In the centre was a house forty feet square and as many high, termmatmg in a platform. The fort was escaladed by the French late at night, and the palisades made short work of by the hatchets of their bush- rangers. Amongst the garrison none appears to have at- tempted a decent defence save the chief gunner, who perished bravely at his post of duty.^ A cry for quarter went up, and the English were made prisoners on the spot. They were sixteen in number, and as the attack was made at night they were in a state of almost complete undress. Troyes found in the fort twelve cannon, chiefly six and eight-pounders, three thousand pounds of powder, and ten pounds of lead. It is worthy of record that the capture was eflfected with an amount of pomp and ceremony calculated to strike the deepest awe into the hearts of those fifteen unhappy and not too intelligent Company's apprentices, who knew nothing of fighting nor had bargained for anything so perilous. For so small a conquest it was both preceded and followed by almost as much circum- stance as would have sufficed for the Grand Monarque himself in one of his theatrical sieges. The Chevalier announced in a loud voice that he took possession of the fort and island "in the name of his Most Christian Majesty the Most High, Most Mighty, Most Redoubtable Monarch Lewis XIV. of the Most Christian Name, King of ^ Iberville declares that he split the gunner's head into fragments. Capture of Moose Factory. !'■ 1 5 i t Vf fi t^, 164 THE GREAT COMPANY France and Navarre." In obvious imitation of Lusson, a sod of earth was thrice raised in the air, whilst a cry of "Vive le Roi" rang out over those waters wherein were sepultured the bodies of Henry Hudson and his men. • w CHAPTER XII 1686-1689 The Fbbkch attack upon Fobt Rupbbt— Qovbbnob Sabqbakt APPBIBBD — INTBEPIDITY OP NiXON — CAPTUBE OP FOBT Albany — DiSASTEB to the " Chubohill " — The Company HEABS THE ILL NeWS— NEGOTIATIONS FOB COLONIAL NEU- tbality— Dbstbuction op New Sevebn Foet— Loss op the " Hampshibe "— The Revolution. 11 I ! Undecided whether next to attack Fort Rupert or Fort Albany, the Chevalier de Troyes was prompted to a decision through learning that a boat containing provisions had left Moose Factory on the previous day bound for Rupert's River. Iberville was therefore sent with nine men and two bark canoes to attack a sloop belonging to the Company then lying at anchor at the mouth of the latter river with fourteen souls aboard, including the Governor. To accomplish this stroke it was necessary to travel forty leagues along the sea coast. The road was extremely difficult and in places almost iiupassable. A shallop was constructed to carry a couple of small cannon, and on the 25 th of June Troyes left for Fort Rupert. St. H^l^ne was sent on in advance to reconnoitre the establishment. He returned with the information 3 166 166 THE GREAT COMPANY that it was a square structure, flanked by four bastions, but that all was in a state of confusion owing to repairs and additions then being made to the fort. The cannon had not yet been placed, being temporarily accommodated outside on the slope of a redoubt. Before the attack, which could only have one issue, was made by the land forces, Iberville had boarded the Company's sloop, surprised captain and crew, and made all, including Governor Bridgar, prisoners. Four of the English were killed. After this exploit Iberville came ashore, rejoined his superior, and overpowered the almost defenceless garrison of Fort Rupert. The French forces now united, and St. H^l^ne having been as successful as his brother in securing the second of the Company's ships, all embarked and sailed for the remaining post of the Company in that part of the Bay. Neither Troyes nor Iberville knew its precise situa- tion; but a little reconnoitring soon discovered it. Fort Albany was built in a sheltered inlet forty yards from the borders of the Bay. Two miles to the north- east was an estrapade, on the summit of which was placed a seat for a sentinel to sight the ships expected from England and to signal them if all was well. But on this morning, unhappily, no sentinel was there to greet with a waving flag the Company's ship, on the deck of which stood young Iberville. A couple of Indians brought Governor Sargeant bastions, wing to he fort, iporarily 3t. le issue, boarded •ew, and 1. Four rejoined enceless H^lfene securing Led and in that e situa- sred it. iy yards 3 north- ich was xpected 1. But here to on the 1 argeant 1 r t * ;l !■ I 1 ■ 1 ;i ! '1 1 j : t If 1 ., c r SAMUEL HEARNE From a print published in 1 796 II ATTACK ON FORT ALBANY 167 Attack on Fort Albany. tidings of the approach of the enemy, and his previous successes at Moose and Rupert rivers. The Governor immediately resolved upon making a bold stand ; all was instantly got in readiness to sustain a siege, and the men were encouraged to behave witli fortitude. Two hours later the /)Ooming of cannon was heard, and soon afterwards a couple of skirmishers were sighted at a distance. Despite the Commander's example, the servants at the fort were thrown into the greatest confusion. Two of their number were deputed by the rest to inform the Governor that they were by no means disposed to sacrifice their lives unless provision were made, in case of a serious issue, for themselves and families. They were prevailed upon by the Governor to return to their posts, and in return for this obedience a bounty was promised them. Bombardment by the French then commenced, and lasted for two days, being occasionally replied to by the English. But it was not until the evening of the second day that the first fatality occurred, when one of the servants was killed, and a mutiny precipitated. Elias Turner, the chief gunner, declared to his conu'ades that it was impossible for the Governor to hold the place, and that, for his part, he was ready to throw himself on the clemency of the enemy. Sargeant, overhearing this declaration, drew his pistol and threatened to blow out the gunner's brains if he did not return to his post, a form of persuasion which proved highly effec- !,J t h i -I 168 THE QBEAT COMPANY tive. Profiting by the darkness the French brought their cannon through the wood closer to the fort; and by daybreak a series of heavy balls struck the bastions, causing a breach. Sargeant and Captain Outlaw (who was then at Fort Albany) were con- vinced that the enemy was undermining the powder magazine, in which case they would certainly be blown up. The French from the ship had thrown up a battery, which was separated from the moat surrounding the fort by less than a musket shot ; and none amongst the beleagured English ventured to show himself above ground at a moment of such peril. A shell exploded at the head of the stairway and wounded the cook. The cries of the French could be distinctly heard outside the fort — " Vive le Roi, vive le Roi ! " In their fright and despair the English echoed the cry " Vive le Roi," thinking thereby to propitiate their aggressors. But the latter mistook the cry for one of defiance, as a token of loyalty to an altogether different monarch, and the bullets whistled faster and thicker. Sargeant desired to lower the flag floating above his own dwelling, but there was none to undertake so hazardous a task. Finally Nixon, the under-factor, offered to show himself and allay the fury of the Fiench. He first thrust a white cloth from a window and waved a lighted torch before it. He then called in a loud voice, and the firing instantly ceased. The under- factor came forth, fully dressed, and bearing two huge i CAPITULATION OF THE FORT 169 J.i '■'' \ t flagons of port wine. Walking beyond the parapets he encountered both Troyes and Iberville, and by the light of a full moon the little party of French officers and the solitary Englishman sat down on the mounted cannon, or on the ground beside it, broached the two flagons and drank the health of both kings, their respective masters. " And now, gentlemen," said Nixon, " what is it you want ? " " Possession of your fort," was the answer, " in the name of his Most Christian Majesty, King Lewis XIV." Nixon, explaining that he was not master there offered to convey this message to Sargeant. In a very short time the French commanders were seated comfortably within the house of the Governor. The demand was again preferred, it being added that great offence had been given by the action of the English in taking captive three French traders the previous autumn, and keeping them prisoners on ground owned and ruled by the King of France. For this reason reparation was demanded, and Sargeant was desired at once to surrender the fort. The Governor was surprised at such extreme measures, for which he was totally unprepared, but was willing to surrender upon terms of capitulation. On the following morning the desired terms were arranged. It was agreed that Sargeant should continue to enjoy all his personal effects; and further, that his deputy, Nixon, three domestics, and his servant, should ■X' ; 1 t ! m :n 1 ! I f J I / III il ^i ," 170 THE GREAT COMPANY accompany him out of the fort. It was also agreed that Troyes should send the clerks and servants Capitulation of the Company to Charlton Island, there of the fort. ^Q await the arrival of the Company's ships from England. In case of their non-arrival within a reasonable time, Troyes promised to assist them to such vessel as he could command for the purpose. The Frenchmen also gave Sargeant the provisions necessary to keep him and his companions from starvation. All quitted the fort without arms, save Sargeant and his son, whose SAvords and pistols huug at their sides. The Governor and his suite were provided with passage to Hays Island, where he after- wards made his escape to Port Nelson. The others were distributed between Forts Moose and Albany, and were treated with considerable severity and hardship. Having attended to the disposition of his prisoners and their property, Troyes, accompanied by Iberville, departed on 10th August for Montreal. The gallant Chevalier and his associates would have been glad to have pursued their successes, by crossing the Bay and capturing Port Nelson. But although two ships be- longing to the Company had fallen to their lot, yet they could find none competent to command them. The distance between Albany and Port Nelson was by water two hundred and fifty leagues, and the road overland was as yet unknown to the French. But it was not their purpose that it should long remain so. In a letter to his official superior at Quebec, Denon- V FRENCH PRISONERS TAKEN 171 ville, pursuing his way amongst the tribes of the Upper Mississippi region, boasted that the next year would not pass without their becoming acquainted with it. Wherefore Troyes suffered himself to be prevailed upon by Iberville, and be content with the victories already won. They carried with them in their journey more than 50,000 beaver as a trophy of their arms. Many of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants were employed in bearing the spoils. Along the dreary march several of these unhappy captives were killed through the connivance of the French with the Indians; and the survivors reached Quebec in a wretchedly emaciated and halt condition. Troyes' victories were ludicrously exaggerated: his return to Quebec, in consequence, was attended with much pomp. Wholly ignorant of Troyes and his proceedings in the Bay, the Company sent out its annual expedition as usual in 1 6 8 7. In the autumn of this year the Churchill was caught in the ice near Charlton Island. Iberville being quickly apprised of this mishap, sent a party of four across the ice to reconnoitre. They appear to have been somewhat careless, for, while one sank down from utter exhaustion, the ^^'^^^J'y *'^® others were surprised by the Company's crew, seized, and bound. One of the three, how- ever, managed to escape the fate of his companions, who were manacled and placed in the bottom of the ship's hold, where they passed the winter. French prisoners 'I i I [i i, s«; ■■'■\i 172 THE OBEAT COMPANY But the French captives enjoyed no monopoly of misfortune. The captain of the ship, while hunting on the island in the early days of spring, lost his life by drowning; and there were numerous minor calamities. In May, preparation was made for de- parture, and as the English were short-handed the two prisoners were forced to lend their aid. This they did willingly, glad to exchange the ship's fetid atmosphere for the open air of heaven. One day, while most of the crew were aloft, one of the Frenchmen, perceiving only two of his captors on deck, furtively secured an axe, with which implement he silently split the skulls of both men, and then ran to release his comrade, temporarily chained below. The pair seized fire-arms which they came upon in a corner of the hold, and brandishing these in skilful fashion, changed suddenly from captives into masters. In opprobrious terms and with violent gesticulations they dared the ciew to come down from the rigging, or indeed to lay a hand upon the fringe of a shroud ; and while one watched with two drawn pistols in hand the shivering seamen in the shrouds and rigging, the other steered the ship towards Rupert's River. How long this drama might have lasted it is hard to say, for within a few hours Iberville and his ship hove in sight. He had fitted out an expedition to rescue his men as soon as the ice would permit, and now came and took charge of the Churchill and all on board. The tidings of the expedition of the Chevalier de NEWS OF THE DISASTER REACHES ENGLAND 173 Troyes, following close upon the harrowing tale of Smithsend, the mate of the Merchant of Petrpetuarm, excited the Adventurers to a pitch of fury, disaster An extraordinary general meeting was held, reaches ^^^ London was placarded with an account England. ■*■ of the outrages. A news-letter was issued at the Company's expense detailing the events, and carrying them into the remotest parts of the kingdom. Lord Churchill, who had succeeded King James in the governorship of the Company, personally presented a petition of the outraged Adventurers to the King, wherein it was prayed " that James would be pleased to afford them his Royal assistance and Protection and that Your Majesty will demand and procure satisfaction to be made them for all losses and damages they have suffered as well formerly as by this last invasion." It will assist a comprehension of the situation to allude to what had been happening between the two crowns from 1685 to 1688. In the first-named year, in response to the pressure brought to bear upon both by their subjects, James had agreed with Lewis to appoint a joint commission to examine into the disputes between the two nations and, if possible, effect a pacific settlement. Their respective possessions in America were giving both powers so much trouble and expense that they were ready to welcome any arrangement which would reduce the burden. War between England and France in the old days had been a simple matter, confined 1 'I ,: \' ■ill ii!« ■04 174 THE GREAT COMPANY to contiguous territory of whose geography and physical features they knew something. But now the mother countries could not offer each other hos- tilities without a score or so of their offspring colonies springing at each other's throats. If war between France and England could only be confined to war between those two countries, and not be allowed to spread itself over innumerable savage tribes and dependencies in North America, it was felt that a great end would thereb}'^ be gained. The point sought by both kings was to make North America neutral. Such a thing would have been excellent, had it but been possible. But the futility of such an arrangement was instantly made manifest. Both races in North America were too eager and too Negotiations ^uxious to reap the advantages of war. It Avas not likely that the Colonial English would allow a rich prize to pass them, only to be seized a hundred leagues farther east by the home authorities. The Colonial French were not to be expected in time of war to suffer tamely from competition in the fur-trade, when the very prin- ciples of their allegiance urged them to forcible retaliation. Even without the episode of the Merchant of Per- 2)etuana the rivalry between the two nations for the fur-trade was so bitter as to be a perpetual danger to peace. For this reason, and in order to mark some delimitation to the trade of the two countries, the for Colonial neutrality. A TREATY OF NEUTRALITY 175 },' . joint commission had sat and examined into the matter. On the sixth of November, 1686, a treaty of neutrality had been concluded between the two kings. It stipulated for a " firm peace, union, and concord, and good understanding between the subjects" of James and Lewis. No vessels of either sovereign were thereafter to be employed in attacking the subjects of the other in any of the colonies. No soldiers of either king stationed in any of the colonies were to engage in any act of hostility such as giving aid or succour to men, or provisions to savages, at war with one another. But the fourth article of this treaty was productive of much confusion and misunder- standing. " It has been agreed," it ran, " that each of the said kings shall hold the domains, rights, pre-eminences in the seas, straits, and other waters of America which, and in the same extent, of right belongs to them ; and in the same manner which they enjoy at present." Now, at the very moment this treaty was signed, the French, by the victory of Troyes, were in posses- sion of Fort Albany and the English still held Port Nelson. As the liberty of navigation was not dis- turbed by the Treaty, it would appear that the French retained the right to sail in the Bay. Commissioners were appointed to consider the carrying out of the treaty, the Sieurs Barillon and Bonrepas acting on behalf of France, and Lords it 176 THE GREAT COMPANY r: I it \h\ I'i M ! :li| i ji^ Sutherland, Middleton, and Godolphin for James. To these commissioners the Company presented a further memorial, which dwelt upon their grievances " for five years past, in a time of peace and good correspondence between the two crowns." These commissioners appear to have done their best to arrange matters satisfactorily; but such a result was impossible under the conditions. They were privately instructed by their respective masters to agree to hold the trade of Port Nelson in common, impracti- Such a proposal was extremely impracti- cability of cable, as that well-informed subject, Denon- "* y* ville, made haste to inform his royal master. The proximity of the EngUsh, he declared, in such a remote pai't would be a certain source of hostility on both sides, and a dangerous temptation for numbers of ** libertines," whom the least dissatisfaction would induce to take refuge at Port Nelson. The "libertines" he thus alluded to were the bushrangers, who were already giving the French great trouble and uneasiness through their wild, un- disciplined habits and their freedom from restraint. Denonville added that the Hudson's Bay Company, paying higher prices for beaver than the French could do, would always have a preference, and con- sequently would almost monopolise the trade. It was therefore better, in his opinion, to effect a compromise in the Bay, restoring the three forts which Troyes had taken in exchange for Port Nelson, which, so he CAPTAIN MOON SURPRISES THE FRENCH 177 stated, was worth more than the other three together for trading purposes. Besides, on the first rupture, it would be very easy to retake them by an overland march, as Troyes had done. But such proposals on the part of the French were indignantly rejected by the English Company. There was, therefore, nothing available but a modus vivendi, under which no further encroachments in the Bay were to be made by either party. There was no force to compel the parties directly interested to subscribe to this arrangement. The elated French Company was too much inclined to retain what Troyes had wrested from the English to listen to sophistries and amiable generalities. It en- gaged Iberville to return to Fort Albany, upon which establishment it had bestowed the name of St. Anne, and repulse the English should their crews arrive and endeavour to land. Captain Moon, returning from Port Nelson, made an attempt with twenty-four men to surprise the French. He built a station some eight miles from Albany; Iberville heard of it, marched with great despatch, and chased the English for twenty miles. He then made preparations for seizing Captain Moon's ship, embarking for this purpose upwards of forty men in canoes and small boats. But those aboard defeated his intention in the night, by setting fire to the Company's ship and making their escape to the shore, where they rejoined their com- panions and made the best of their way overland to ! I , « i ' '■ 1 i'. \ i : 1 e I I VOL. I. u •i •' :' ■ ■'■■ I • ,i'l .■ 1,-1" m 178 THE GREAT COMPANY New Severn, a fort which had been erected in the previous year as a means of drawing trade away from the French conquerors in the eastern parts of the Bay. Iberville was not long ignorant of the retreat of those who had escaped him; nor of the prosperity which attended the new factory. Arriving before New Severn in October 1689, he obtained its surrender and took the Company's Governor prisoner. Amongst the papers belonging to this official which he seized was a letter from the secretary of the Company, ordering him, on behalf of the partners, to proclaim the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen of England, of itself testimony that the chief spirits of the Company were not unfriendly to those who precipitated the Revolution. Glorying in his new exploit, Iberville now returned to Fort St. Anne, there to behold the spectacle of two strange ships standing motionless in the Bay. The presence of these vessels is explained by the Company's having sent out an expedition, comprising eighty-three men of both crews, with instructions to land on an island close to the Chechouan River and establish a fort, from whence they could sally forth to the re-conquest of Fort Albany. But already the winter had overtaken them, and the two vessels were locked in the ice. Happily, the new fort was pretty well advanced, and the party had landed a number of pieces of cannon. Iberville lay in ambush watching his 'opportunity, and when twenty-one of the English i I i SURRENDER OF THE COMPANY H Si 179 were proceeding for a supply of stores to he shij intercepted them. The whole party fell into the handh of the French; and Marincourt, with fourteen men, instituted an attack upon the forces on the island. A brisk cannonading ensued between French and English. After this had lasted some days Iberville peremptorily summoned the Company's commander to surrender, threatening him with no quarter if he deferred com- pliance. To this the Governor responded that he had been given to understand on his departure from London that a treaty was in force between the two Crowns, and that Surrender ^^ occasioned him much astonishment that of the the French paid so little heed to it. Iber- shipa to the viUe's rospouse was not exactly tiiithful, for French. j^^ declared that whether a treaty existed or not he had not been the first to invade it ; and that in any case he could waste no time in parley. The Governor replied that his force was still a strong one ; but that he would not be averse to surrender if Iber- ville would agree to reimburse the Company's officers out of the proceeds of their store of furs; and also accord them a vessel wherewith to sail away. This stipulation was granted ; Iberville grimly remarking that it was extraordinary what a large number of officers there were for so small a company of men. He had already captured the captain of one of the vessels and the surgeon; and there now remained thirteen others who by reason of Iberville's promise ^ P I >. 1 f, *■ 180 THE GREAT COMPANY I escaped scot-free from the clutches of the French. The amount of wages demanded was close upon two thousand pounds. All the others were made prisoners, including the pilots, of whom it is said there were twelve who had been despatched by the Admiralty to acquire a knowledge of the fiay and Straits. All were carried off by Iberville to Quebec, and Marincourt left behind with thirty-six men to guard the two posts. The young commander did not this time proceed over- land, but having got possession of the Company's ship, the Hampshire, he sailed northward for the Straits. He had scarcely reached the latitude of Southampton Island when an English ship hove in sight, proceeding in his direction. They came so close together as to exchange speech. Iberville had taken the precaution Iberville's *° hoist the English flag, and the presence treacherous of the prisoners caused implicit belief in his ^ *"* friendly pretensions. He learned that young Chouart, Radisson's nephew, was on board, and himself declares that he longed to attack openly the Company's ship, but the insufficiency of his force to guard the prisoners prevented his following that plan. He had, however, recourse to a stratagem which almost obtained success. The captain of the English ship agreed to sail in his company through the Straits, and on the first clear weather to pay a visit to Iberville. Where- upon it was, it is almost needless to observe, the Frenchman's intention to seize the guileless Englishman and his coippanions the moment they set foot on his NON-ARRIVAL OF THE " HAMPSHIRE " 181 deck. But storms intervening, this project fell through. The ships separated and they did not meet again. The Hudson's Bay Company was not a little puzzled at the non-arrival of the Hampshire^ which had been spoken thus happily in Hudson's Straits. For a long time the v essel was believed to be lost ; as, indeed, she was, but not quite in the manner apprehended by her owners. Possession was not regained for some years ; and when again the Hampshire sailed for the Bay it was there to suiFer complete destruction in battle. As has been foreshadowed, in 1689 an event which had been brewing ever since James had relinquished the governorship of the Company for the governorship of his subjects at large occurred. William of Orange landed at Plymouth, and the Revolution in England put a new king on the English throne. Note. — The career of the Chevalier de Troyes ended abruptly and tragically in 1687, when he and all his men, to the number of ninety, were massacred at Niagara. h u I I I ly [im III ,»' CHAPTER XIII 1689-1696 Company's claims mentioned in Declaration op War- Parliament GRANTS Company's application for confir- mation of its Charter — Implacability op the Felt- makers— Fort Albany not a success in the hands of THE French — Denonville urges an attack upon Port Nelson— Lewis despatches Tast with a Fleet to Canada —Iberville's jealousy prevents its sailing to the Bay -Governor Phipps burns Fort Nelson— Further agita- tion ON THE PART OP THE FRENCH TO POSSESS THE WeST Main— Company makes another attempt to regain Fort Albany— Fort Nelson surrendered to Iberville — Its re-conquest by the Company. Straightway upon William the Third's accession the Company renewed its claims to the property of which it had been deprived, and also for reparation for the damages it had suffered at the hands of the French in time of peace. "As to the article of the Company's losses, it will appear," it said, " by a true and exact estimate, that the French took from the Company, in full peace between 1682 and 1688, seven ships with their cargoes^ and six forts and factories, from which they carried away great stores of goods laid up for 182 W,: ll'l THE COMPANY S CLAIMS RENEWED 183 F WAR~ R CONPIR. HE Felt- hands OP PON Port o Canada THE Bay BR AGITA- rHE West JAIN Fort tLLB — Its sion the f which for the French sses, it ^timate, in full 8 with which up for trading with the Indians. The whole amounts to £38,332, 15s." To such effect was this memorial presented to the King that William caused the hostile proceedings of Lewis in the Company's territory to be inserted in one of the articles of his Declaration of War, in these words : " But that the French King should invade our Caribbee Islands and possess himself of our territories of the Province of New York and Hudson's Bay, in hostile manner, seizing our forts, burning our subjects' Ixjiipes and enriching his people with the spoil of our goods and merchandises, detaining some of our subjects under the hardships of imprisonment, causing others to be inhumanly killed, and driving the rest to sea in a small vessel without food or necessaries to support them, are actions not even becoming an enemy; and yet he was so far from declaring himself so, that at that very time he was negotiating here in England, by his Ministers, a treaty of neutrality and good correspondence in America." Much has been made by later writers, hostile to the Company, of a circumstance which soon afterwards took place. Owing to the state of public feeling in England towards the Stewarts at the time of the Revolution, the Company, keenly alive to the fact of the exiled king's having been so recently its Governor, sought at the beginning of William's reign to strengthen its posi- tion by an Act of Parliament confirming the charter II ^ '•-. ill m i 184 * THE GREAT COMPANY The Company's charter confirmed. granted by Charles II. Why, have asked its enemies, if the Company had the utmost confidence in this instrument, did it thus resort to Lords and Commons ? And why was this confirmation limited to but seven years ? I have already answered the first question ; as to the second, the Company itself asked for no longer period. The proceeding was no secret ; it was done openly. Parliament made but one stipulation, and that at the instance of the Felt-makers' Company; that the Adventurers " should be obliged to make at least two sales of 'coat beaver* annually, and not ex- ceeding four. These should be proportioned in lotts of about £19.0 sterling each, and not exceeding £200. In the int^vals of public sales the Company should be debarred from selling beaver by private Contract, or at any price than was sett up at the last Publick sale." The Company asked for a confirmation of its charter by Parliament as a prudent course in uncertain times ; and also in order to more firmly establish its claim to reparation for damages. The nation's representa- tives saw no reason why they should not issue a con- firmation ; there being none, save the Felt-makers, to oppose it. The charter being confirmed, it was decided that the nominal capital of the Company should be increased to £31,500, several good reasons being put foward in committee for thus trebling the stock. These reasons were quaintly enumerated as follows : — increases its capital THE COMPANY INCREASES ITS CAPITAL 185 " I. That the Company have actually in Warehouse above the value of their first original stock. "II. That they have set out an Expedition this Yeare in their Shipps and Cargoe to more than the Value of their First Stock again ; the trading of which Goods may well be estimated, in expectation as much more. " III. That our Factories at Port Nelson River and The Company ^®^ Sevcrne are under an increasing Trade ; and that our Returns in Beavers this yeare (by God's Blessing) are modestly expected to be worth £20,000. " IV. Our Forts, Factories, Guns and other Materials, the prospect of new Settlements and further Trade, are also reasonably to be estimated at a considerable intrinsic Value. " V. And lastly, our just Expectancy of a very con- siderable reparation and satisfaction from the French and the close of this War and the restoring our places and Trade at the Bottom of the Bay; which upon proof, hath been made out above £100,000." Some years later the Treaty of Ryswick, in securing to the French the fruits of Iberville's victory, power- fully affected for ill the fortunes of the Company. Nevertheless, the whole nation was then in sympathy with its cause, knowing that but for the continued existence of the Honourable Adventurers as a body cor- porate the chances of the western portion of the Bay reverting to the English Crown were remote indeed. ,! ! M i \ I I ■■ / a I: f 186 THE GBEAT COMPANY But the Felt-makers, who would like to have seen the beaver trade in their own hands, proved im- placable. At the expiration of the seven years for which the confirmation was allowed, they again, as will be shown,- evinced, yet vainly, their enmity. Because this parliamentary confirmation was limited to so short a period, some writers have conjectured that at the expiration of that period the charter ceased to be valid. So absurd a conclusion would scarcely appear to stand in need of refutation. Could those who pretend to have reached it have been ignorant that if some of the rights conferred by tlie charter required the sanction of Parliament, other rights were conferred thereby which required no such sanction, because they were within the prerogative of the Crown ? Even assuming that at the end of the term for which the act of William and Mary Avas passed, such of the provisions of the charter (if there could be found any such) as derived their efficacy only from parliamentary support should be considered inefficient, still all the rights similar to those of the charters for former governments and plantations in America would continue to exist. That they were regarded as existing is made evident by the repeated references to them in various subsequent international treaties and acts of Parliament. King George and his advisers completely recognised the Company as proprietors of a certain domain. In establishing the limits of the newly-acquired Province of Canada, it FOET ALBANY NOT A SUCCESS 187 li was enacted that it should be bounded on the north by " the territory granted to the Merchants- Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," a boundary which by statute was long to subsist. Fort Albany did not prove a success in the hands of the French. The Quebec Company were losing money, and they had no ships. They were, besides, severely handicapped by physical conditions, owing to the inaccessibility of the Bay by land and the imprac- ticability of carrying merchandise by the overland route. It seemed clear that, after all, the trade of the Bay could only be made profitable by sea.^ The French were consequently most anxious to exchange the forts on James' Bay for Fort Nelson, because they were aware that better furs were to be had in the north ; and because it would enable them to intercept the tribes who hunted about Lake Nepigon. Denonville is now found writing long despatches to Seignely, assuring him that French affairs in Hudson's Bay would prosper if the Northern Company continued to co-operate with and second the designs of Iberville, whose fixed resolve was to go and seize Fort Nelson. For that purpose Denonville regarded it as necessary ^ It has been well observed that the protracted and bloody contest between the French and English for the possession of the Baj was the result of a desire of the Governor to have access to those waters, and the resolve of the latter to defeat this purpose. " The truth is," says Mr. Lindsay, ''the fur- trade was only profitable when carried on by water." At Quebec or Three Rivers forty beaver skins made a canoe load. A single canoe load of northern furs was worth six of the southern. ! I| I It '• t-H / 188 THE GREAT COMPANY capture of Fort Nelson that the Minister should inform M. de Lagny that the King desired the capture of that fort, and to "furnish Iberville with everything he re- Denonville . . . , plans the quires to render his designs successful." The Governor himself thought one ship added to those they had captured in 1689 from the English would suffice. He sought to obtain for Iberville some honourable rank in the navy, as this would, he urged, excite honourable emulation amongst the Canadians who were ready to follow the sea. Denonville suggested a lieutenancy, adding his opinion that his young friend was " a very fine fellow, capable of rendering himself expert and doing good service." His plea was most successful at court ; for Lewis was pleased to confer upon Iberville the rank of lieutenant in the French Royal Navy, the first distinction of the kind then granted. It fired the blood and pride of not a few of the Canadian youth, one Peter Gaulthier de Varennes amongst the rest. Many years later he, under the name of Verandrye, was the first of the great pioneers through the territories of the Great Company. All negotiations for an exchange of forts having been fruitless, the Compagnie du Nord determined to make a valiant attempt to obtain their desires by force. For this purpose they made powerful applica- tion to the Court; and in the autumn of 1691 their petition resulted in the arrival at Quebec of Admiral Tast with no fewer than fourteen ships. il ADMIRAL TAST S FLEET 189 // Ii It was said in Quebec that while Lewis XIV. sur- prised his enemies by his celerity in taking the field in Europe, the vessels sent out to America by his order always started two or three months too late for Canada and the Bay. This tardiness, it was declared, was the sole cause of all the losses and want of success attending French enterprises in that part of the New World.^ However this may be, there was beyond question another and not less potent reason for the failure which overtook the proposed expedition of Tast on behalf of the Northern Company. Iberville's successes had up to this moment tended to bolster up the waning popularity of the Company in Canada. This popular hero had just returned from the Bay with 80,000 francs value in beaver skins, and 6000 livres in small furs. He now refused point blank to have anything to do with the new expedition, as he did not care to share such glory and profit as he might obtain aided by his own followers, with the Company and Admiral Tast. Without this powerful auxiliary and the support of the populace, Tast's fleet abandoned its expedition to the Bay, and sailed away to Acadia and Newfoundland. Nevertheless, while Governor Phipps was in charge of Fort Nelson this year, a French frigate belonging to the enemy appeared at the entrance of Bourbon River. As it chanced that nearly the whole of his ^ Charlevoix. ! I H I il / 190- THE GREAT COMPANY iHi' garrison were absent from tho fort on a hunting expedition, it seemed to the Governor that armed resistance would be folly. Rather, therefore, than Burning of allow the fort to pass again into the hands Port Nelson. q£ ^j^g French under circumstances so humiliating, he resolved to burn it, together with a large part of its merchandise, valued at about £8000, well knowing that without the merchandise the French could not procure furs from the Indians. Whilst the flames of the fort were ascending, Phipps and three men he had with him retreated into ambush, afterwards establishing themselves with some Indians in the interior. The Frenchman landed, saw the perdition of his hopes in the ruin of the fort and its contents, and returned to the ship with a few hatchets and knives as the sole trophy of his enterprise. On -the arrival of the Company's ship in the spring, however, York Factory was rebuilt stronger and on a larger scale than before. Iberville at this time finds great cause of complaint in the French Company's poverty, and its inability to occupy the region after it had been won for them. More than a single trading ship was required ; and a larger number of men in the vicinity of Fort Nelson would have served to keep the English off perpetually. In 1693 the Northern Company petitioned Pont- chartrain, who had succeeded Seignely at Court, with respect to operations in the Bay. The Company !■ IBEBVILLE CROSSES OVER TO FRANCE 191 declared that it could hold everything were it but enabled to seize Fort Nelson; but that continued hostilities and losses had so weakened it as to oblige it to have recourse to his Excellency to obtain sufficient force at a suitable time to drive out the English. In another petition it is alleged that this "single fort which remains in the possession of the English is of so much importance that the gain or loss of everything in Hudson's Bay depends upon it. The Company's establishment in Quebec, to carry on this commerce, claims anew the protection of your Excel- lency, that you may give it a sufficient force to enable it to become master of Fort Nelson, which the English took by an act of treason against this Company in time of peace. This they hope from the strong desire which you have for the aggrandisement of the kingdom, and from your affection for this colony." Iberville crossed over to France, meeting with a warm reception from the Court at Versailles. He unfolded his plans for the capture of Fort Nelson, stated what force he would require for this desirable purpose, and was promised two ships in the following spring.^ Highly elated with his success, he departed for home in the Unvieux. I ^ Although by this action the French Court directly participated in and lent its support to the hostilities against the English, yet to all intents and purposes the war was between two commercial corpora- tions. The ruling spirits of the Northern Company were not unaware of the importance and power of the enemy they had to deal with. In a pamphlet published in France in 1692 there is amusing testimony to (; -^ "! m ir ' 192 THE GREAT COMPANY i'H Meanwhile the Hudson's Bay Company made an- other effort to regain Fort Albany. A fleet of three powerfully armed ships under Captain Grimington wintered at Port Nelson and sailed southward in the spring of 1693.^ From all accounts that had been received, it was not believed that the rival French Company was in a position to maintain a very strong force for an all-winter defence, especially since the alienation of Iberville. Forty men were landed, and approaching the post were met by a fire which though brisk failed to check the English advance. Much to their own astonishment, they were permitted to close the consideration in which the Hudson's Bay Company was held by the French. '*It is composed," says this authority, "of opulent merchants and noblemen of the first quality ; and it is known that the King himself is part proprietor, having succeeded to that emolument with tlie other belongings to King James II. So great are its profits that each member is worth at least £50,000 English sterling above what he was before he embarked in the fur traffic. There can be no secrecy about its intention, which is to subvert and subjugate the whole northern country to its sway." 1 Captain Grimington was an experienced naval officer, who had seen service in the late wars. I have not been able to ascertain Grimington's fate, but in the Company's minute-book, under date of 19th of May 1714, 1 find the following entry : — "Mrs. Ann Grimington, widow of Captain Michael Grimington, deceased, having delivered in her petition to the Company, the same was read, and considering her poverty and the faithful services her husband performed for the Company, the Committee agreed to allow the said Mrs. Grimington twelve shillings per month for her subsist- ence, which the secretary is ordered to pay her every first Monday in the month, to commence the first Monday in June next. Interim, the secretary is ordered to pay her twenty shillings as charity, which is afterwards to be taken out of the poor-box." This is sufficiently strong evidence of the statu into which the Company had fallen. la m :J i J' Jtu \ % THE ENGLISH REGAIN FORT ALBANY 193 ! upon the fort without check, and consequently a ruse was suspected. Entrance was effected with great caution; and the premises seemed, at first, deserted. But at length, in a corner of the cellar, shrivelled, covered with rags, and a victim to scurvy, a human being was discovered. His arms and legs were fastened together, and a heavy chain kept him close to the The English ^^^^' While all were marvelling at this regain discovcry, somc of the sailors came to in- form the captain that three Frenchmen had been seen at a distance flying as fast as their legs would carry them. Captain Grimington was not long left in doubt as to the facts : these three Frenchmen were the garrison of the fort St. Anne. The unlucky wretch they had found proved to be a bushranger who, in a paroxysm of rage, had murdered the surgeon at the fort. Horrified, on recovering his reason, at what he had done, and fearing that the only witness of the deed, Father Dalmas, would betray him to the rest, he slew him also. The priest lived long enough to disclose his murderer, whose ten companions had chained the criminal in the cellar, not themselves relishing the task of his summary execution. Iberville did not leave Quebec until the lOth^ of ^ To illustrate the divergence of authorities in such matters, I may mention that while Jerdmie, who took part in this expedition, calls the two ships the Pdi and Charente (in which he is followed by Abb^ Ferland), Father Marest, the aumonier of the crew, refers to the second ship as the Salamandrc. His relation is entitled " Le Voyage du Poll et Salamandre." In the letter of Frontenac to the French VOL. I. N ^ ii > 194 THE GREAT COMPANY - W' August, and arrived at Fort Nelson, September 24th. Almost immediately he disembarked with all his people, also with cannons, mortars, and a large quantity of ammunition. Batteries were thrown up about five hundred yards from the palisades, and upon these guns were mounted.^ A bombardment now took place, lasting from the 25 th of September to the 14th of October, when the Governor was forced to surrender, owing to his dread of a conflagration as well as to the loss of several of his best men. On this occasion young Henry Kelsey^ showed great bravery, and a minister (November 5, 1694) it is stated that S^rigny commanded the Salamandre. La Potherie observes that the ships sent out in 1694 were the Poli and Salamandre. Furthermore, he declares, they sailed the 8th of August ; Frontenac states the 9th, and J^r^mie the 10th {Jour de St. Laurent). La Potherie and J^rdmie agree on the date of their arrival, September 24th, although Ferland says it was the 20th. * J^r^mie gives us a detailed description of the fort in his " Relation." He says it was composed of four bastions, which formed a square of thirty feet, with a large stone house above and below. In one of these bastions was the store-room for furs and merchandise, another served for provisions ; a third was used by the garrison. All were built of wood. In a line with the first palisade there were two other bastions, in one of which lodged the officers, the other serving as a kitchen and forge. Between these two bastions was a crescent-shaped earthworks sheltering eight cannon, firing eight-pound balls, and defending the side of the fort towards the river. At the foot of this earthworks was a platform, fortified by six pieces of large cannon. There was no butt-range looking out upon the wood, which was a weak point ; all the cannon and swivel-guns were on the bastions. In all, the armament consisted of thirty-two cannon and fourteen swivel-guns outside the fort and fifty-three inside ; on the whole, calculated to make a stalwart defence. ' Kelsey was the earliest English explorer in the North- West. Mention of his achievements will be found in the course of Chapter XV. IBERVILLE TAKES FORT NELSON 195 )er 24th. all his quantity )out five 3n these ok place, 14th of urrender, bU as to occasion y, and a nanded the 1 1694 were ' sailed the J 10th {Jour ^te of their 20th. "Relation." a square of one of these ther served ere built of er bastions, kitchen and earthworks fending the hworks was ere was no : point; all 3 armament outside the to make a Jorth-West. course of report of his gallantry being forwarded to the Com- pany, he was presented with a sum of forty pounds as a token of their appreciation. Thia youth was destined to be long in the service of the Company, as first in command at Fort Nelson. Iberville accomplished his entry on the 15 th of October. The French standard was hoisted and Iberville ^^® ^^^^ christeued Bourbon; it being St. takes Theresa's Day, the river was given the name of that saint. The enemy did not come out of this business unscathed ; for they lost several of their men, including a brother of Iberville. Some of the English were kept prisoners, while others made their way as best they could to New Severn and Albany. At the time of the surrender, the fort was well furnished with merchandise and provisions, and this circumstance induced the French to remain for the winter, before returning to France. On the 20 th of the following July, Iberville de- parted for the straits in his two vessels, the Poli and Salamandre. He left 67 men under the command of La Forest. Martigny became lieutenant, and J^r^mie was appointed ensign, with the additional functions of interpreter and " director of commerce." But the French conquerors were not likely to enjoy security of trade and occupation for long. A meeting of the Company was convened in London the moment these outrages were reported. The King was besought to send a fleet of four ships to the > 196 THE GREAT COMPANY rescue and recapture of Fort Nelson. But it was too late to sail that year. When the news of this English expedition at length reached Lewis, Serigny was sent in June 1696, with two of the best craft procurable at Rochelle. Although they sailed three days before the English, the French ships arrived two hours too late to succour the garrison. They were no match for the English, and as the Company's vessels occu- pied the mouth of the river, there was no safe landing- place at hand. Accordingly they discreetly withdrew, and both ships set sail again for France; but one, the Hardi, was never to reach her destination. She ran against ice at the mouth of the straits and went to the bottom with all on board. The English commenced the attack on the fort August 29 th. On the following day it was decided to land, and the French, seeing the strength of surrenders to their forco, had no alternative but surrender, the English Perchance by way of retaliation for the affairs of Albany and New Severn, the provisions of capitulation^ were disregarded; all the French were ^ Allen sent home to his superiors a copy of the capitulation pro- posals of the French Commandant. This document is not without interest. It is headed : — , CAPITULATION OP PORT YORK, 1696. Articles of capitulation between William Allen, Commandant-in- Chief at Hays, or St. Therese Biver, and Sieur G. de la Forest, Com- mandant at Fort York, or Bourbon, August 31, 1696. I consent to give up to you my fort on the following conditions : — 1. That I and all my men, French as well as Indians, and my English CAPITULATION OF FORT YORK 197 ' - .! made prisoners and carried to England. Possession was taken of a vast quantity of furs, and the English returned, well satisfied with their exploit; but not ignorant of the difficulties which surrounded the maintenance of such ascendency as their conquest had procured. servant, shall have our lives and liberty granted to us, and that no wrong or violence shall be exercised upon us or whatever belongs to us. 2. We shall march out of the fort without arms, to the beat of the drum, match lighted, ball in mouth, flags unfurled, and carry with us the two cannon which we brought from France. 3. We shall be transported altogether, in our own vessel, to Plaisance, a French Port in New Newfoundland. We do not wish to give up the fort till we have embarked, and we shall keep the French flag over the fort till we march out. 4. If we meet with our vessels there shall be a truce between us, and it shall be permitted to transport us with whatever belongs to r s. 5. We shall take with us all the beaver skins and other merchandise obtained in trade this year, which shall be embarked with us upon our vessels. 6. All my men shall embark their clothes and whatever belongs to them without being subject to visitation, or robbed of anything. 7. In case of sickness during the voyage, you shall furnish us with all the remedies and medicines which we may require. 8. The two Frenchmen, who ought to return with the Indians, shall be received in the fort on their return, where thny shall be treated the same as the English, and sent to Europe during the same year, or they shall be furnished with everything necessary to take them to Rochelle. We shall have the full exercise of our religion, and the Jesuit priest, our missionary, shall publicly perform the functions of his ministry. \l'> m n 't If! I 1,4 . •I ■? ■i- CHAPTER XIV 1696-1697 •■■ 'M\\ iMPRisoNBD French Fub-Tbadebs beach Paris— A Fleet under Ibebyille despatched by Lewis to the Bay— Company's FOUB Ships pbecede them through the Straits— Begin- ning OP A FiBBCE Battle — The •'Hampshibb" Sinks- Escape op the "Debing" and captubb op the "Hudson's Bay" — Dbeadpul Stobm in the Bay — Losses of the ViCTOBS— Landing op Ibebville— Opebations against Fobt Nelson— Bailey Yields— Evacuation by the English. The French prisoners captured in the Company's expedition of 1696 suffered an incarceration of nearly four months at Portsmouth. No sooner had their liberty been regained than they boarded a French brig bound for Havre, and on arrival in Paris lost little time in making known the condition of affairs at Hudson's Bay. Lewis and his Ministers, gazing upon this emaciated band of traders and bushrangers, could hardly refrain from taking immediate action to retrieve the situation. Precisely following the tactics of their enemy in the previous year, they engaged four men- of-war; which fleet was despatched to join Iberville, then at the port of Placentia in Newfoundland. The Court was well aware that there was no one man so m m i=ii ^ M MEETING OF FRENCH AND ENGLISH SHIPS 199 thoroughly equipped at all points in knowledge of the Bay, and the conditions there of life and war- fare, as this hero. Consequently it is not surprising, although numerous enough, all other offers to lead the expedition were rejected. On the ai rival of the French ships at Plaeentia, Iberville took command, embarking in the Pelican, of fifty guns. The others were the Palmier, the Weespliy the Pelican, and the Violent} But Fort Nelsoii was not to be captured without a grim struggle. At the very moment almost that the French fleet sailed, there departed from Plymouth foiu: of the Company's ships, the Hampshire, the Hudsons Bay, the Dering, and Owners Love, a fire-ship, the two former having participated in the re-conquest of the prc^ 'ons year. The Company's fleet entered the straits fo L Mours only before the ships of the French; and like them was much impeded by the ice, which was, that season, unusually troublesome. Passage was made by Iberville in the English wake, the French The Profond, commanded by Duqu^, pushed and Enghah p^^g^ ^j^^ currents, taking a northerly course, which brought her commander into full view of two of the Company's ships. Shots were ^ A young Irishman, Edmund Fitz-Maurice, of Kerry, who had embraced the Church, and had served with James's army at the Battle of the Boyne, accompanied the expedition in the character of chaplain. He is alluded to by the French chronicler of the affair as "Fiche- Maurice de Kieri de la Maison du Milord Kieri en Irlande." ■" i ^ '. i ic '\ t-, • i ! i ■ i 1 1 lU 200 THE GREAT COMPANY exchanged;- but owing to the difficulties engendered by the ice, it was impossible to manoeuvre with such certainty as to cut off the Frenchman's escape. While this skirmish was in progress, Iberville in the Pelican succeeded in getting past the English without their knowledge, and reached the mouth of the Nelson River in sight of the fort. His presence, as may be conceived, greatly surprised and disturbed the Governor and the Company's servants; for they had believed their own ships would arrive in ample season to prevent the enemy from entering the straits. Several rounds of shot were fired as a signal, in the forlorn hope of a response by the ships of the Company ex- pected hourly in that quarter. But eyes and ears were strained to no purpose. On his part the French commander was equally disturbed by the non-arrival of his three consorts, which the exigencies of the voyage had obliged him to forsake. Two days were passed in a state of suspense. At daybreak on the 5 th of September three ships ^ were distinctly visible; each party joyfully believed they were its own. So certain was Iberville, that he immediately raised anchor and started to join the newcomers. He was soon unde- ceived, but the perception of his mistake in no way daunted him. ^ Of the fourth, the fire-ship Owner's Love, nothing more was ever heard. It is supposed that, separated from the others, she ran into the ice and was sunk, with all on board. :k 1 A FIERCE BATTLE IN THE BAY 201 The Company's commanders were not prepared either for the daring or the fury of the Frenchman's onslaught. It is true the Pelican was much superior to any of their own craft singly, being manned by nearly two hundred and fifty men, and boasting forty- four pieces of cannon. The Company's ships lined up, the Hampshire in front, the Bering next, with the Hudson's Bay bringing up the rear. The combatants being in close proximity the battle began at half-past nine in the morning. The French commander came straight for the Hampshire, whose captain, believing it was his enemy's design to board, instantly lowered his mainsheet and put up his fore- topsail. Contact having been by these means narrowly avoided, the scene of battle suddenly shifted to the Pelican and the Bering, whose mainsail was smitten by a terrific volley. At the same time the Hudson's Bay, veering, received a damaging broadside. The Company's men could distinctly hear the orders shouted by Iberville to both ships to discharge a musket fire into the Bering's fore- castle, but in this move he was anticipated by the English sailors, who poured a storm of bullets in upon the Frenchman, accompanied by a broadside of grape, which wrought havoc with his sails. While the cries of the wounded on the Pelican could be distinctly heard, all three of the Company's ships opened fire, with the design of disabling her rigging. But the captain of the Hudson's Bay, seeing that he could not A fierce battle in the Bay. ■ ' i ■ I' ! i 1 202 THE GREAT COMPANY ' ^ ^■:^i U:?! engage the Pelican, owing to Iberville's tactics, deter- mined to run in front of her and give her the benefit of a constant hull fire, besides taking the wind from her sails. Iberville observed the movement; the two English vessels were near ; he veered around, and by a superb piece of seamanship came so near to the Hampshire that the crew of the latter perceived that boarding was intended. Every man flew out on the main deck, with his pistol and cutlass, and a terrific broadside of grape on the part of the Englishman alone saved him. The battle raged hotter and fiercer. The Mamj)- shires salvation had been only temporary ; at the end of three hours and a half she began to sink, with all sails set. When this occurred, Iberville had ninety men wounded, forty being struck by a single broad- side. Notwithstanding this, he decided at once to push matters with the Hampshire's companions, although the Pelican was in a badly damaged state, especially the forecastle, which was a mass of splinters. The enemy made at once for the Leringy which, besides being the smallest ship, had suffered severely. She crowded on all sail and so managed to avoid an encounter, and Iberville being in no condition to prosecute the chase, returned to the HudsorCs Bay, which soon surrendered. Iberville was not destined, however, to reap much advantage from his prize, the Hampshire. The English flag-ship was unable to ■ :-M irt. W'M A GREAT STORM 203 render any assistance to her, and she soon went down with nearly all on board.^ To render the situation more distressing, no sooner had some ninety prisoners been transferred to the French vessel, than a storm arose ; so that it became out of the question to approach the shore with design of landing. They were without a long-boat, and each attempt to launch canoes in the boiling surf was attended with failure. Night fell; the wind instead of calming, grew fiercer. The sea became * Jy terrible, seeking, seem- ingly, with all its power to drive the Pelican and the Etidsons Bay upon the coast. The rudders of each A great ship brokc ; the tide rose, and there seemed storm. jjQ hope for the crews whose destiny was 30 cruel. Their only hope in the midst of the bitter blast and clouds of snow which environed them, lay in the strength of their cables. Soon after nine o'clock the Hudson's Bay and its anchor parted with a shock. "Instantly," says one of the survivors, "a piercing cry went up from our forecastle. The wounded and dead lay heaped up, with so little separation one from the other that silence and moans alone dis- tinguished them. All were icy cold, and covered with blood. They had told us the anchor would hold ; and ^ Thns was concladed what was, in the opinion of the best autho- rities, French and English, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the war. " Toate la Marine de Rochefort croient que ce combat a ^t^ nn des plus rades de cette Ouerre," says La Potherie. lit Wl i! M M rl h I'll i r ' k 204 THE GREAT COMPANY we dreaded being washed up on the shore stiff the next morning." A huge wave broke over the main deck and the ship rocked desperately. Two hours later the keel was heard to split, and the ship was hurled rudderless to and fro in the trough of the sea. By the French account, matters were in no more enviable state aboard the Pelican; Iberville, however, amidst scenes rivalling those just described, did his best to animate his officers and men with a spirit equalling his own. " It is better," he cried, " to die, if we must, outside the bastions of Fort Bourbon than to perish like pent sheep here on board." When morning broke, it was seen by the French that their ship was not yet submerged, and it was resolved to disembark by such means as lay in their power. The Company's servants were more fortunate. The Hudson's Bay had drifted eight miles to the south of the fort, and was wrecked on a bank of icy marsh- land, which at least constrained them to wade plight of the no deeper than their knees. The French, shipwrecked ^j^ ^j^g other hand, were forced to make their French. way through the icy water submerged to their necks, from the results of which terrible exposure no fewer than eighteen marines and seamen lost their lives. Once on shore they could not, like the English, look forward to a place of refuge, and appease their hunger with provisions and their thirst with otimulat- PLIGHT OF THE VICTORS 205 ing drink. They were obliged, in their shivering, half- frozen state, to subsist upon moss and seaweed, but for which indifferent nourishment they must inevitably have perished. The Company's garrison witnessed the calamities which were overtaking the French, but not knowing how great their numbers, and assured of their hostility, did not attempt any acts of mercy. They perceived the enemy camped in a wood, less than two leagues distant, where, building several large fires, they sought to restore their spirits by means of warmth and hot draughts of boiled herbs. While the fort was being continually recruited by survivors of the two wrecked ships, the other three French vessels had arrived on the scene. The fourth, the Violent, lay at the bottom of the Bay, having been sunk by the ice. The Palmier had suffered the loss of her helm, but was fortunate in not being also a victim of the storm. The French forces being now united, little time was lost by Iberville in making active preparations for the attack upon the fort. On the 11th, the enemy attained a small wood, almost under the guns of the fort, and having en- trenched themselves, lit numerous fires and made considerable noise in order to lend the impression to the English that an entrenchment was being thrown up. This ruse was successful, for the Governor gave orders to fire in that direction. Iberville, seizing the I'i^R I : !• I >l ■f.' n i-'i M 1,1 206 THE GREAT COMPANY opportunity thus afforded, efifected a landing of all his men and armaments from the ships. The fort would now soon be hemmed in on all sides, and it were indeed strange if a chance shot or firebrand did not ignite the timbers, or the powder magazine were not exploded. Governor Bailey was holding a council of his advisers when one of the French prisoners in the fort gave notice of the approach of a messenger bearing a flag of truce. He was recognised as Martigny. The Governor permitted his advance, but sent a factor to meet him and insist upon his eyes being bandaged before he would have leave to enter. Martigny was conducted to where the council was sitting and there delivered Iberville's message, demanding surrender. He was instantly interrupted by Captain Smithsend, who, with a great show of passion, asked the emissary if it were not true that Iberville had been killed in the action. In spite of Martigny's denials, Smithsend loudly persisted in believing in Iberville's death; and held that the French were in sore straits and only made the present attack because no other alternative was offered to desperate men to obtain food and shelter. Bailey allowed himself to be influenced by Smithsend, and declined to yield to any of Martigny's demands. The latter in consequence retired, and the French instantly set up a battery near the fort and continued, amidst a hail of bullets, the work of landing their damaged Iberville demands surrender of the fort. moi of tl At Coi 1 wasi ATTACK ON FORT NELSON 207 stores and armaments. Stragglers from the wreck of the Hudson's Bay continued all day to find their way to the fort, but several reached it only to be shot down in mistake by the cannon and muskets of their own men. On the 12 th, after a hot skirmish, fatal to both sides, the Governor was again requested, this time by Serigny, to yield up the fort to superior numbers. " If you refuse we will set fire to the place, and accord you no quarter," was the French ultimatum. " Set fire and be d d to you ! " responded Governor Bailey. He then set to work, with Smithsend, whose treat- ment at the hands of the French in the affair of the Merchant of Perpetuana was still vividly before him, to animate the garrison. " Go for them, you dogs ! " cried Bailey. " Give it to them hot and heavy; I promise you forty pounds apiece for your widows ! " Fighting in those days was attended by fearful mortality, and the rarity of pensions to the family of the slain, perhaps, made the offer seem handsome. At any rate it seemed a sufficient incentive to the Company's men, who fought like demons.^ A continual fire of guns and mortars, as well as of muskets, was maintained. The Canadians sallied out, filling the air with a frightful din, as they borrowed \A ! f \ ^ " lis avoient de trds habile cannooiers," J^r^mle, an eye-witness, was forced to confess. 208 THE GREAT COMPANY C: from the Iroquois their piercing war-cries. In one of these skirmishes St. Martin, one of their bravest men, perished. . Under protection of a flag of truce, S^rigny came again to demand a surrender. It was the last time, he said, that the request would be preferred. A general assault had been resolved upon by the enemy, who were at their last resort, living like beasts in the wood, feeding on moss, and to whom no extremity could be odious were it but an exchange for their present condition. They were resolved upon carrying the fort, even at the point of the bayonet and over heaps of their slain. Bailey prudently decided to yield. Morrison was appointed to carry the terms of capitulation, in which he demanded all the peltries in the fort belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. This demand being rejected by the enemy, Bailey later in the evening sent Henry Kelsey with a proposition to retain a portion of their armament; this also was refused. There was now nothing for it but surrender. Iberville having granted an evacuation with bag and baggage the terms were accepted. At one o'clock on the following day, therefore, the Evacuation ©vacuation took place. Bailey, at the head of the of his garrison, a number of the crew of the wrecked Hudson's Bay, and six survivors of the Hampshire, marched forth from Fort York with drums beating, flag flying, and with arms and 1 one of est men, ay came ist time, Ted. A enemy, is in the xtremity :or their carrjnng md over ison was in which •nging to id being evening retain a refused. Iberville baggage sfore, the the head )w of the survivors >rt York rms and w*- -i^; . ifl^H -/i- I^^^H^ .^^^^^^^^HK^ -- ' " '^"' .^fcgp 1 ■ ^^ ^^ ^X^i\'I!^8Mi^ 4b)Bany were the trade 'xtension. ing more json and his place e though i? Why imerce ? " 3 a more still the i before, s to its iligence," ' tribes," etary in illing to ger and 9, is not CHARACTER OF THE COMPANY'S FACTORS 219 more now than formerly ; and for their encouragement we shall plentifully reward them, when we find they deserve it by bringing down Indians to our factories of which you may assure them. We judge Robert Sandford a fit person to travel, having the linguse and understanding the trade of the country ; and upon a promise of Mr. Young (one of our Adventurers) that he should travel, for which reason we have advanced his wages to £30 per annum, and Mr. Arrington. called in the Bay, Red-Cap, whom we have again entertained in our service ; as also John Vincent, both which we do also judge fit persons for you to send up into the country to bring down trade." To this the Governor replied that Sandford was by no means disposed to accept the terms their Honours proposed but rather chose to go home. "Neither he nor any of your servants will travel up the country, although your Honours have earnestly desired it, and I pressed it upon those proposals you have hinted." I have already shown why the Company's wishes in this respect were not fruitful; that the character of the men in the Company's employ was not yet adapted to the work in hand. Its servants were not easily induced to imperil their lives; they gained little in valour or hardihood from their sur roundings. They were shut up in the forts as sailors are shut up in a ship, scarcely ever venturing out in winter, and hardly ever holding converse with a savage in his wild state. In vain Character of the Company's factors. m' i i lii il:- ■ ? , 220 THE GREAT COMPANY for the most part, were such men stirred to enterprise : and so this choice and habit of seclusion grew into a rule with the Company's employees ; and the discipline common to the ship, or to contracted bodies, became more and more stringent. The Company's policy was nearly always infllienced by the advice of their factors, but it can be shown that these were not always wise, dreading equally the prospect of leading an expedition into the interior, and the prestige which might be gained in their despite were such an enterprise en- trusted to a subordinate. A discipline ludicrous when contrasted with the popular impressions concerning the fur-trader's career, was maintained in the early days. It was the disci- pline of the quarter-deck, and surprised many of the youth who had entered the Company's employ ex- pecting a life of pleasure and indulgence. Many of the governors resembled Bridgar and Bailey in being surly, violent men, and were, indeed, often chosen for these qualities by the Company at home. Is is singular but true, that in the days of our ancestors a choleric temper was often considered an unfailing index to the masterful man. In both branches of the King's service, on sea and on land, there seemed to have been no surer sign of a man's ability to govern and lead than spleen and tyranny; and many an officer owed his promotion and won the regard of the Admiralty and the War Office by his perpetual exhibition of the traits and vices of the mterprise : •ew into a discipline es, became policy was jir factors, ways wise, expedition might be rprise en- with the ir's career, the disci- tny of the nploy ex- Many of T in being shosen for j^s of our idered an In both on land, ' a man's tyranny; I won the 36 by his s of the LIFE AT THE COMPANY'S FACTORIES 221 martinet. One of the Company's governors, Duffell, was wont to order ten lashes to his men on the smallest provocation. Another named Stanton, the governor at Moose Factory, declared he would whip any man, even to the traders, without trial if he chose; and this declaration he more than once put into practice. The whipping of two men, Edward Bate and Adam Farquhar, at Moose Factory, almoi^t occasioned a mutiny there. The death of one Robert Pilgrim, from a blow administered by the chief factor, created a scandal some years later in the century. It was the practice of the early governors to strike the Indians when they lost their own tempers or for petty offences. It is diverting to compare nineteenth century life at the factories, on its religious, moral, and intellectual side, to what obtained in the early days. In Governor Stanton's time, out of thirty-six men only six were able to read. There was neither clergyman nor divine worship. The men passed their time in eating and sleeping. Occasionally, Indian squaws were smuggled into the fort, at the peril of the Governor's displeasure, for immoral purposes. The displeasure of the Governor was not, however, excited on the grounds of morality, for it was nearly always the case that the Governor had a concubine residing on the premises or near at hand ; and it was observed in 1749 by a servant of thirty years' standing in the Company's employ, that at each fort most of the Life at the Company's factories. il i! ■■■ :^' !■• :i!. 'n 222 THE GREAT COMPANY half-breed children in the country claimed paternity of the one or other of the chief factors of the Company. To return to the question of the extension of trade, there were from time to time governors and servants who evinced a zeal and love for adventure which con- trasted favourably with that of their fellows. Their exploits, however, when compared with those of the hardier race of French-Canadian bushrangers, were tame enough. In 1673 Governor Bailey summoned all the servants of the fort to appear before him, and informed them that it was the Company's wish that some amongst them should volunteer to find out a site for a new fort. Three young men presented them- selves, fo of whom afterwards became governors of the Company. The names of these three were William Bond, Thomas Moore, and George Geyer. Some years later Bond was drowned in the Bay; but his two companions continued for some years to set an example which was never followed, and of which they seem finally to have repented. Indeed, almost without exception, once a fort was built the servants seem to have clung closely to it ; and it was not until the year 1688 that a really brave, adventurous figure, bearing considerable resemblance to the bushrangers of the past, and the explorers of the future, emerges into light. Henry Kelsey, a lad barely eighteen years of age, was the forerunner of all the hardy British pioneers of the ensuing century. He is described as active, ¥ .. KEL8EY S VOYAGE 223 aternity of lompany. a of trade, d servants vhich con- va. Their >se of the ^ers, were mmmoned i him, and wish that out a site bed them- vemors of •e William ome years b his two n example hey seem without s seem to I the year 3, bearing rs of the 3rges into •s of age, pioneers as active, " delighting much in Indians' company ; being never better pleased than when he is travelling amongst them." Young as he was, Kelsey volunteered to find Keisey's o^^t a sitc for a fort on Churchill River. Voyage. j^-q rccord exists of this voyage; but a couple of years later he repeated it, and himself kept II detailed diary of his tour. In this journal the explorer states that he received his supplies on the 5th of July 1691. He had de- spatched a party of Assiniboines on in advance, and now set out to seek the remainder of their tribe. At one place it was the custom for the Indians to assemble when they went down the coast on trading expeditions. Kelsey soon overtook them, and ac- companied them to the country of the " Naywatamee Poets," the journey consuming fifty-nine days. He travelled first by water seventy-one miles from Bering's Point, and there beached his canoes and continued by land a distance of three hundred and sixteen miles, passing through a wooded country. At the end of this he came upon prairie lands for forty-six miles, intersected by a small shallow river scarcely a hundred yards wide. Crossing ponds, woods, and champaign for eighty-one miles more, discovering many buffalo and beavers, the young explorer retraced his steps fifty-four miles, and there met the tribe of which he was in search. Kelsey did not accomplish this journey with- out meeting with many adventures. On one occasion the Naywatamee Poets left him asleep on the ground. 224 THE GREAT COMPANY During his slumber the fire burnt the moss upon which he was lying and entirely consumed the stock of his gun, for which he was obliged to improvise from a piece of wood half dry. On another occasion, he and an Indian were surprised by a couple of grizzly bears. His companion made his escape to a tree, while Kelsey, his retreat cut off, hid himself in a clump of high willows. The bears perceiving the Indian in the branches made directly for him, but Kelsey observing their action, levelled his gun and killed one of the animals. The other bear bounded towards the place from which the shots came, and not finding the explorer, returned to the tree, when he was brought down by Kelsey's second shot. Good fortune attended this exploit, for it attained for the young man the name among the tribes of Miss-top- ashish, or " Little Giant." He returned to York Factory after this first expedition, apparelled after the manner of his Indian companions, while at his side trudged a young woman with whom he had gone through the ceremony of marriage after the Indian fashion. It was his wish that Mistress Kelsey should enter with her husband into the court, but this desire quickly found an opponent in the Governor, whose scruples, however, were soon undermined, on the explorer's flatly refusing to resume his place and duties in the establishment unless his Indian wife were admitted with him. Thus, then, it is seen that in 1691, forty years THE COMPANY S LETTER TO GEYER 225 ii loss upon the stock jvise from casion, he of grizzly to a tree, iself in a siving the him, but gun and f bounded le, and not when he )t. Good 3d for the Miss-top- to York jUed after lie at his had gone he Indian sey should this desire lor, whose I, on the place and idian wife orty years before Verandrye's voyages of discovery, this young servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, had penetrated to no slight extent into the interior. He had crossed the Assmiboine country, seen for the first time among English or Frenchmen the buffaloes of the plain, he had been attacked by the grizzly bears which belong to the far west; and in behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company had taken possession of the lands hft had traversed, and secured for his masters the trade with Indians till then considered hostile. Although the Governor hoped that the encourage- ment noted in the case of Kelsey, together with the advance of salary, would stimulate other young men to follow his example, yet, strange to say, none came forward. The day of the Henrys, the Mackenzies, the Thompsons, and the Frobishers had not yet dawned. For many years after this the Company was in constant apprehension that its profits would be cur- tailed by tribal wars. " Keep the Indians from warring with one another, that they may have more time to look after their trade," was a frequently repeated injunction. Effect of Company's business. Indian wars •< jf yo^^ prevent them from fighting they will bring a larger quantity of furs to the Factory," they wrote on one occasion to Geyer. The Governor admitted the premise, "but," said he, " perhaps your Honours will tell mo how I am going to do it." The Company devoted a whole meeting to consider the matter, and decided VOL. I. p ^' "4; 'I li » I Wit * II 226 THE GREAT COMPANY that nothing was easier, provided their instructions were implicitly obeyed. " Tell them what advantages they may make," they wrote ; " that the more furs they bring, the more goods they will be- able to purchase of us, which will enable them to live more comfortably and keep theni from want in a time of scarcity. Inculcate better morals than they yet understand; tell them that it doth nothing advantage them to kill and destroy one another, that thereby they may so weaken themselves that the wild ravenous beasts may grow too numerous for them, and destroy them that survive." If Geyer delivered this message to the stern and valorous chiefs with whom he came in contact, they must have made the dome of heaven ring with scornful laughter. He was obliged to write home that fewer savages had come down than former seasons because they expected to be attacked by their enemies. The Company then responded shortly and in a business-like manner, that if fair means would not prevail to stop these inter- tribal conflicts, that the nation beginning the next quarrel was not to be supplied for a year with powder or shot, " which will expose them to their enemies, who will have the master of them and quite destroy them from the earth, them and their wives and children. This," adds the secretary, in a spirit of true prophecy, " must work some terror amongst them." A potent cause contributed to the lack of prosperity which marked Port Nelson under the French regime. itructions ke," they he more ^hich will Bep theri\ te better Q. that it stroy one lemselves aumerous If Geyer )us chiefs ive made iter. He ages had expected )any then iner, that ese inter- the next h powder enemies, e destroy ives and it of true hem." prosperity oh regime. THE FRENCH AT MICHTLIMACKINAC 227 *> It was the exploitation of the west by an army of traders and bushrangers. The new post of Michili- mackinac had assumed all the importance as a fur- The French trading Centre which had formerly belonged atMichiii- to Montreal. The French, too, were served by capable and zealous servants, none better than Iberville himself, the new Governor of the Mississippi country. His whole ambition continued to be centred upon driving out the English from the whole western and northern region, and destroying forever their trade and standing with the aborigines, and none more than he more ardently desired the suppression of the coureur de hois. " No Frenchmen," he declared, "should be allowed to follow the Indians in their hunts, as it tends to keep them hunters, as is seen in Canada ; and when they are in the woods they do not desire to become tillers of the soil." ^ At the same time the value of the bushrangers to the French regime was considerable in damaging the English interests in the Bay. " It is certain," observed one of their defenders, " that if the articles required for the upper tribes be not sent to Michilimackinac, the Indians will go in search of them to Hudson's Bay, to whom they will convey all their peltries, and will detach themselves entirely from us." ' Afucr the battle of Port Nelson, Iberville had returned to France, leaving Martigny in command of the Fort. His subsequent career may be read elsewhere , the Bay was no longer to be the theatre of his exploits. He perished in 1707 at Havana. :^fi I, ■ r.. If: I !p:i! 228 THE GREAT COMPANY The bushrangers penetrated into the wilderness and intercepted the tribes, whose loyalty to the English was not proof against liquor and trinkets served on the spot, for which otherwise they would have to proceed many weary leagues to the Bay. The Company came to be alarmed at the fashion in which the trade was sapped from its forts at Albany and Moose/ The Quebec Company was in the same plight with regard to Port Nelson. An association of French merchants, known as the Western Company, sprang up in the early days of the eighteenth century, and many forts and factories were built in the Mississippi region. Its promoters expected great results from a new skin until now turned to The Western little account, that of the bison, great herds Company. q£ whicli had been discovered roaming the western plains. M. de Juchereau, with thirty-four Canadians, established a post on the Wabash, in the name of the Western Company. Here, it was said, he colbcted in a short time fifteen thousand buffalo skins. From 1697 to 1708 a series of three commandants were appointed, one of whom now administered the affairs at Fort Bourbon. But the post never assumed the importance which had attached to it under the English rule. ^ At Albany they were surrounded by the French on every side, a circumstance which greatly sapped their commerce. Yet, even at this period, the importation of beaver and other peltries from the single fort remaining to thera was above thirty thousand annually. ai. i ■ ! J^R^IE GOVERNS FORT BOURBON 229 )rness and 3 English ed on the jo proceed le fashion forts at ly was in wn as the ays of the ories were 5 expected turned to reat herds aming the thirty-four ^abash, in ire, it was thousand imandants stored the ir assumed under the evt'vy side, a b, even at this }m the single There is one romantic episode which belongs to this period, serving to relieve by its bright, perhaps too vivid colouring, the long sombreness of the French regime. It was the visit in 1704 of an officer named Lagrange and his suite from France. In the train of this banished courtier came a number of gallant youths and fair courtesans; and for one brief season Fort Bourbon rang with laughter and revelry. Hunting parties were undertaken every fine day; and many trophies of the chase were carried back to France. Have ever the generations of quiet English servants and Scotch clerks snatched a glimpse, in their sleeping or waking dreams, of those mad orgies, a voluptuous picture amidst an environment so sullen and prosaic ? In the year 1707 J^remie, the lieutenant, obtained permission of the Company to return to France on leave. He succeeded in obtaining at court his nomina- tion to the post of successor to the then commandant, Delisle. After a year's absence he returned to Port Nelson, to find matters fallen into a truly shocking state. No ships had arrived from France, and stores and ammunition were lacking. A few days after the new commandant's arrival, Delisle was taken seriously ill, and expired from the effects of cold and exposure. For a period of six years J^r^mie continued to govern Fort Bourbon, receiving his commission not from the Company but direct from the King himself, a fact of which he seems very proud. Jer(5mie's tenure of office was marked by a bloody ! J mii : I. 230 THE GREAT COMPANY affair, which fortunately had but few parallels under either English or French occupation. Although the tribes in the neighbourhood were friendly and docile, they were still capable, upon provocation, to rival those Iroquois who were a constant source of terror to the New England settlers. In August 1708, Juremie sent his lieutenant, two traders, and six picked men of his garrison to hunt for provisions. They camped at nightfall near a band of savages who had long fasted and lacked powder, which, owing to its scarcity, the French did not dare give them. Heaped round about these unhappy savages, who loudly lamented the passing of the English dominion when powder and shot were plenty, were the furs which to them were useless. They had journeyed to the fort in all good faith, as was their custom, across mountain and torrent, only to find their goods rejected by the white men of the fort, who told them to wait. When the French hunting party came to encamp near them, several of the younger braves amongst the Indians crept up to where they feasted, and returned with the news to their comrades. The tribe, fired with resentment, and exasperated by the cruelty of their fate, hatched a plan of vengeance and rapine. Two of their youngest and comeliest women entered the assemblage of the white men, and by seductive wiles drew two of them away to their own lodges. The remaining six, having eaten and drunk INDIAN TREACHERY 231 As under )ugh the d docile, val those >r to the lant, two to hunt V a band powder, not dare ge«, who dominion the furs neyed to m, across I rejected them to came to r braves y leasted, ies. The 1 by the ance and ;t women and by heir own id drunk their fill, believed in their security, and turned to slumber. Hardly had the pair of roysterers arrived at the Indian camp than instead of the cordial privacy they expected, they were confronted by two Indian score famished men drawn up in front of treachery, ^.j^q lodges, kuivcs in hand or brandishing hatchets. All unarmed as they were, the savages unceremoniously seized and slew them. No trace was ever found of their bodies, which were, although denied by one eye-witness of the tragedy, a squaw, probably devoured on the spot. The younger men now stole again to the French camp, where they massacred all the others in their sleep, save one, who being wounded feigned death, and after having been with his dead comrades stripped to the skin, managed to crawl off. In this naked state, and half-covered with blood, he made his way back to the fort. The distance being ten leagues, his survival was a matter of wonder, even to those hardy men of the wilderness. The Governor naturally apprehended that the Indians would attempt to follow up their crime by an attack upon the fort. As only nine men remained in the garrison, it was felt impossible to defend both Fort Bourbon and the small auxiliary establishment near by. He therefore withdrew the men hastily from the little Fort Phili- peaux, and none too quickly, for the Indians came immediately before it. Finding nobody in charge they wrought a speedy and vigorous pillage, taking i ( 'i 232 THE GREAT COMPANY many pounds of powder which J^remie had not had time to transfer to Bourbon. The condition of the French during the winter of 1708-9 was pitiable in the extreme. Surrounded by starving, bloodthirsty savages, with insufficient pro- visions, and hardly ever daring to venture out, they I nay well have received with joy the tidings that the indomitable English Company had re-established a Factory some leagues distant, and were driving a brisk trade with the eager tribes. ' It was not until 1713 that the French Fur Company succeeded in relieving its post of Fort Bourbon. It had twice sent ships, but these had been intercepted on the high seas by the English and pillaged or destroyed. The Providence arrived the very year of the Treaty of Utrecht. But wretched as was the case of the French, that of the Indians was lamentable indeed. A few more years of French occupation and the forests and rivers of the Bay would know its race of hunters no more. Many hundreds lay dead within a radius of twenty starvation le^gues from the fort, the flesh devoured amongst the from their bones. They had lost the use of the bow and arrow since the advent of the Europeans, and they had no resources as cultivators of the soil; which besides their errant life forbade. Pressed by a long-endured hunger, parents had killed their children for food ; the strong had devoured the weak. One of these unhappy victims of civilisation anc tha dec ten yoi He the STARVATION AMONGST THE INDIANS 233 not had rinter of nded by nt pro- ut, they that the ished a a brisk and commercial rivaby, confessed to the commandant that he had eaten his wife and six children. He declared that he had not experienced the pangs of tenderness until he had slain and half-devoured his youngest child, whom he loved more than the others. He had arisen and gone away weeping, after burying the rest of the body in the earth. ompany Don. It ercepted aged or year of ich, that }w more id rivers 10 more, twenty evoured the use ivent of itivators forbade, i killed ired the ilisation i.'ll m CvJ^ \^ ^3^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) /. &c i A 4^ 4^ 1.0 I.I 11.25 2.0 wuu Hiotographic Sciences Carporation 23 WIST MAIN STRUT WIISTIR,N.V. 14SM (71*) 173.4503 '^^^1^ ^ ^^v^ V CHAPTER XVI 1697-1712 Company sebiously damaged by Loss of Fobt Nelson— Send AN Account of their Claims to Lords of Trade— De- finite boundary propositions of Trade— Lewis anxious to create boundabies — company look to outbbbak of Wab— War of Spanish Succession breaks out— Period OF Adversity fob the Company— Employment of Obkney- mbn— Attack on Fobt Albany— Despebate condition of THE FBENCH at YOBK FOBT— PETITION TO ANNB. The Treaty of Ryswick * had aimed a severe blow at ^ By the Treaty of Ryswick, Great Britain and France were respec- tively to deliver up to each other generally whatever possessions either held before the outbreak of the war, and it was specially provided that this should be applicable to the places in Hudson's Bay taken by the French during the peace which preceded the war, which, though retaken by the British during the war, were to be given up to the French. Commissioners were to be appointed in pursuance of the Treaty to determine the rights and pretensions which either nation had to the places in Hudson's Bay. But these commissioners never met. The commissioners must, however, have been bound by the text of the Treaty wherever it was explicit. They might, said the Company's opponents, have decided that France had a right to the whole, but they could not have decided that Great Britain had a right to the whole. They would have been compelled to make over to France all the places she took during the peace which preceded the war, for in that the Treaty left them no discretion. The following are the words of the Treaty : " But the possession of those places which were taken by the French, during the peace that preceded this present war, and were retaken by the English during the war, shall be t 284 if. 1-1 THE COMPANY 8 CLAIMS 235 SON— Send BADE — DE- 3 ANXIOUS BBEAK OF r — Pbbiod r Obknby- DITION of blow at ere respec- possessious 3 specially dson's Bay i the war, irere to be pointed in )reten8ions But these ever, have oit. They ince had a 3at Britain d to make ti preoeded I following ose places ceded this T, shall be the prosperity of the Company/ by deprivmg them of that important quarter of the Bay known as Port Nelson. Although now on the threshold of a long period of adversity, the Merchants-Adventurers, losing neither hope nor courage, continued to raise their voice for restitution and justice. Petition after petition found its way to King, Commons, and the Lords of Trade and Plantations. In May 1700, the Company were requested by the left to the French by virtue of the foregoing article." Thus the Treaty of Byswick recognised and confirmed the right of France to certain places in Hudson's Bay distinctly and definitely, but it recog- nised no right at all on the part of Great Britain ; it merely provided a tribunal to try whether she had any or not. ^ "Therefore, we shall proceed to inform your Lordships of the present melancholy prospects of our trade and settlement in Hudson's Bay, and that none of his Majesty's plantations are left in such a deplorable state as those of this Company, for by their great losses by the French, both in times of peace as well as during the late war, together with the hardships they lie under by the late Treaty of Byswick, they may be said to be the only mourners by the peace. They cannot but inform your Lordships that the only settlement that the Company now have left in Hudson's Bay (of seven they formerly possessed) is Albany Fort, vulgarly called Checheawan, in the bottom of the said Bay, where they are surrounded by the French on every side, viz., by their settlements on the lakes and rivers from Canada to the northwards, towards Hudson's Bay, as also from Port Nelson (Old York Fort) to the southward ; but beside this, the Company have, by the return of their ship this year, received certain intelligence that the French have made another settlement at a place called New Severn, 'twizt Port Nelson and Albany Fort, whereby they have hindered the Indians from coming to trade at the Company's factory, at the bottom of the Bay, so that the Company this year have not received above one-fifth part of the returns they usually had from thence, insomuch that the same doth not answer the expense of their expedition." f. >. I-' 1* , 'i! ii ^t'^'ii t 236 THE GREAT COMPANY Vi ?n Lords of Trade and Plantations to send an account of the encroachments of the French on her Majesty's The Com- Dominion in America within the limits of pany's claims, ^j^g Company's charter ; to which the Com- pany replied, setting forth their right and title, and praying restitution. It has been stated, and urged as a ground against the later pretensions of the Hudson's Bay Company, that at this time they were willing to contract their limits. While disposed to do this for the purpose of effecting a settlement, it was only on condition of their not being able to obtain " the whole Straits and Bay which of right belongs to them." " This," remarked a counsel for the Company in a later day, " is like a man who has a suit of ejectment, who, in order to avoid the expense and trouble of a lawsuit, says, * I will be willing to allow you certain bounds, but if you do not accept that I will insist on getting all my rights and all that I am entitled to.'" The Company's propositions soon began to take a definite form. One of their memorials is well worthy of being here transcribed. It is addressed to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and is entitled : — The Company's Claims afi'br the Treaty of Ryswick. The limits which the Hudson's Bay Company conceive to be necessary as boundaries between the French and them in case of an exchange of places, and that the Company cannot account ajesty's mits of e Com- tle, and against mpany, ct their •pose of ition of lits and ny in a ictment, )le of a certain 11 insist entitled gan to rials is idressed •ners of 3WICK. ceive to them in r cannot A PROPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT 237 obtain the whole Straights and Bay, which of right belongs to them, viz. : — 1. That the French be limited not to trade by wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or Fort, beyond the bounds of 53 degrees, or Albany River, vulgarly called Chechewan, to the northward, on the west or main coast. 2. That the French be likewise limited not to trade by wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or Fort, beyond Rupert's River, to the northward, on the east or main coast. 3. On the contrary, the English shall be obliged not to trade by wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or Fort, beyond the aforesaid latitude of 53 degrees, or Albany River, vulgarly called Chechewan, south-east towards Canada, on any land which belongs to the Hudson's Bay Company. 4. As also the English be likewise obliged not to trade by wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or Fort, beyond Rupert's River, to the south-east, towards Canada, on any land which belongs to the Hudson's Bay Company. 5. As likewise, that neither the French or English shall at any time hereafter extend their bounds contrary to the aforesaid limitations, nor instigate the natives to make war, or join with either, in any acts of hostility to the disturbance or detriment of the trade of either nation, which the French may very reasonably comply with, for that they by such limitations will have all the country south-eastward betwixt Albany Fort and Canada to themselves, which is not only the best and most fertile part, but also a much larger tract of land than can be supposed to be to the northward, and the Company deprived of that which was always their undoubted right. And unless the Company can be secured according to these propositions, they think it will be impossible for them to continue long at York Fort (should they exchange with the French), nor will the trade answer their charge ; and therefore 't :|i :1 "III •ii': 1 1^1 -i S* ■m 1 ■; 238 THE GREAT COMPANY if youi lordships cannot obtain these so reasonable propositions from the French, but that they insist to have the limits settled between [Albany and] York and Albany Fort, as in the latitude of 55 degrees or thereabouts, the Company can by no means agree thereto, for they by such an agreement will be the instruments of their own ruin, never to be retrieved. By order of the General Court, Wm. Potter, Secretai'y. Confirmed by the General Court of the said Company, lOik July 1700. The Adventurers were, they said, not indisposed to listen to reason. They proposed limits to be observed by the two nations in their trade and possessions in the Bay. But should the French be so foolish as to refuse their offer, then they would not be bound by that or any former concession, but would then, as they had always theretofore done, " insist upon the prior and undoubted right to the whole of the Bay and straits." The Court of Versailles was now most anxious to delimit the boundaries of the respective possessions of the two countries in the Bay. To this end, proposals were exchanged between the two crown governments. One alternative proposed by the French Ambassador was that the Weenisk River, which was exactly half way between Fort Bourbon and Fort Albany, should mark the respective limits of the French on the east, while the limits of New France on the side of Acadia should be restricted to the River St. George. V Lewis proposes boundaries. opositions )he limits , as in the can by no rill be the retai'y. posed to observed isions in sh as to oimd by as they »rior and itraits." sious to 3sions of Toposals nmeiits. French : River, en Fort spective imits of Jstricted BOARD OP TRADE DISCOURAGES SCHEME 239 This proposition having been referred to them, the Board of Trade and Plantations discouraged the scheme. The Hudson's Bay Adventurers, it said, challenged an undoubted right to the whole Bay, antecedent to any pretence of the French. It was, therefore, requisite that they should be consulted before any concession of territories could be made to the Most Christian King or his subjects. The Company pinned their hopes to an outbreak of hostilities,^ which would enable them to attempt to regain what they had lost. A protracted peace was hardly looked for by the nation. In answer to Governor Knight's continual complaints, to which were added those of the dispossessed Geyer, the Company begged its servants to bide their time; and to exert themselves to the utmost to increase the trade at Albany, and Moose, and Rupert's River. "England," says a popular historian, "was still 1 <r the relief of the forts and the transportation of the fui>s to France. We know already that the garrison at Fort Bourbon nearly perished for lack of provisions. The assistance was given ; but two years later it was dis- Desperate Continued, because they could no longer condition of spare either ships or men, both being at Port urgently needed for defence against the York. ]s^g^ Englanders. Owing to the enormous increase of unlicensed bushrangers, the continued hos- tilities and the unsettled state of the country, no small proportion of the entire population chose rather to ad- venture the perils of illicit trade in the wilderness, than to serve the King in the wars at home.^ Unaccustomed for so long a period to till the soil, their submission was not easily secured, no matter how dire the penalties. Finding their continual petitions to the Lords of Trade ineffectual, the Company now drew up one even more strongly worded which they presented to Queen Anne herself. The memorial differed from any other, inasmuch as the Company now lay stress for the first time on some other feature of their commerce than furs. " The said country doth abound with several other commodities (of which your petitioners have not been able to begin a trade, by reason of the interruptions they have met with from the French) as of whale-bone, whale-oil (of which last your subjects now purchase ^ " This oountry," it was remarked in 1710, " is composed of persons of various character and different inclinations. One and the other ought to be managed, and can contribute to render it flourishing." 'S\ .ik :,; n f ' li ', > r 1 m M m 'iiilll 'JR m if f i.i ■ ii ^f^ 246 THE GREAT COMPANY from Holland and Germany to the value of £26,000 per annum, which may be had in your own dominions) besides many other valuable commodities, which in time may be discovered." If the French, it was argued, came to be entirely possessed of Hudson's Bay, they would undoubtedly give up whale fishing in those parts, which would greatly tend to the increase of their navigation and to their breed of seamen. " When your Majesty, in your high wisdom, shall think fit to give peace to those enemies whom your victorious arms have so reduced and humbled, and when your Majesty shall judge it for your people's good to enter into a treaty of peace with the French King, your petitioners pray that the said Prince be obliged by such treaty, to renounce all right and pretensions to the Bay and Streights of Hudson, to quit and surrender all posts and settlements erected by the French, or which are now in their possession, as likewise not to sail any ships or vessels within the limits of the Company's charter, and to make restitution of the £108,514, 19s. 8d., of which they robbed and despoiled your petitioners in times of perfect amity between the two Kingdoms." This petition seems actually to have come into the hands of the Queen and to have engaged her sympathy, for which the Honourable Adventurers had to thank John Robinson, the Lord Bishop of London.^ This dignitary, persona grata in the highest degree to the ^ I find the following in the minute books, under date of 24th March 1714. " It was resolved that the Committee when they meet Friday come Senuit, do agree to wait on the Lord Bishop of London, in order to return him the thanks of this Company for the care that has been taken of them by the Treaty of Ryswick." DEMAND OF THE COMPANY 247 £26,000 sminions) which in e entirely doubtedly ch would on and to think fit to 1 arms have shall judge peace with said Prmce pretensions urrender all ich are now s or vessels id to make phey robbed lity between e into the sympathy, to thank on.^ This ree to the date of 24th ten they meet [)p of London, the care that sovereign, was also a close personal friend of the Lake family, whose fortunes were long bound up with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company was asked to state what terms it desired to make. In great joy they acceded to the request.^ ^ To THE Right Honoubable the Lobds Commissionees of ■ . Tbades and Plantations. 7%c Memoraiidum of the Oovemor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay. That for avoiding all disputes and differences that may, in time to come, arise betwe^ the said Company and the French, settled in Canada, they humbly represent and conceive it necessary — That no wood-runners, either French or Indians, or any other person whatsoever, be permitted to travel, or seek for trade, beyond the limits hereinafter mentioned. That the said limits began from the island called Grimington's Island, or Cape Perdriz, in the latitude of 58^° north, which they desire may be the boundary between the English and the French, on the coast of Labrador, towards Rupert's Land on the east main, and Novia Britannia on the French side, and that no French ship, bark, boat, or vessel whatsoever, shall pass to the northward of Cape Perdrix, or Grimington's Island, towards or into the Streights of Bay or Hudson, on any pretence whatever. That a line be supposed to pass to the south-westward of the said Island of Grimington or Cape Perdrix to the great Lake Miscosinke, alias Mistoveny, dividing the same into two parts (as in the map now delivered), and that the French, nor any others employed by them, shall come to the north or north-westward of the said lake, or supposed line, by land or water, or through any rivers, lakes, or countries, to trade, or erect any forts or settlements whatsoever, and the English, on the contrary, not to pass the said supposed line either to the southward or eastward. That the French be likewise obliged to quit, surrender, and deliver up to the English, upon demand, York Fort (by them called Bourbon), imdemolished ; together with all forts, factories, settlements, and buildings whatsoever, taken from the English, or since erected or Demand of the Company m ^ i « If^ .5' 1 V>' 248 THE GREAT COMPANY Note. — A List of the Company s principal Forts from 1668 to 1712 may prove serviceable to the reader. They were : — 1. Rupert, called by the French St. Jacques. Founded 1668 by Gillam. Taken by the French under Troyes and Iberville, July 1686. Retaken by the English, 1693. 2. Fort Monsippi, Monsonis, St. Lewis and Moose Fort, taken by Troyes and Iberville 20th June 1686. Retaken 1693. 3. Fort Chechouan, St. Anne or Albany, taken by De Troyes and Iberville in 1686. Retaken 1693. 4. New Severn or Nieu Savanne, taken by Iberville, 1690. 5. Fort Bourbon, Nelson or York. Founded 1670. Taken by the French, 1682, acting for English, 1684. Retaken by Iberville, 12th October 1894. Retaken by the English, 1696, and by the French, 1697. 6. Fort Churchill, 1688. 7. East Main. built by the French, with all the artillery and ammunition, in the condition they are now in ; together with all other places they are possessed of within the limits aforesaid, or within the Bay and Streights of Hudson. These limits being first settled and adjusted, the Company are willing to refer their losses and damages formerly sustained by the French in time of peace, to the consideration of commissioners to be appointed for that purpose. By order of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay. Hudson's Bay House, 1th of February 1711-12. rts from to the ;>r Founded royes and fort, taken L693. jn by De lie, 1690. 0. Taken Retaken by lish, 1696, :,ion, in the es they are nd Streights ompany are ined by the lionets to be ) of England CHAPTER XVII 1712-1720 QuBBN Anne espouses the Cause of the Company— Pbiob's View op its Wants— Tbeaty of Utrecht— Joy of the Advbntubers— Petition fob Act op Cession — Not pbbssbd BY THE BBITISH GoVEBNMENT— GOVBBNOB KNIOHT AUTHOR- ISED TO TAKE Possession of Pobt Nelson-" Smug ancient GENTLEMEN "— COMMISSIONEBS TO ASCEBTAIN RIGHTS— THEIB Meeting in Pabis— Mattebs move slowly — Bladen and PULTENEY BETUBN TO ENGLAND. At last had the Company triumphed. Its rights were now admitted ; and the Queen and her ministers were convinced of the justice of its claims.^ Peace, I The Lobds of Tbade to the Eabl of Dabtmouth. To the Right HonouraMe the Earl of Dartinouth. My Lobd, — In obedience to her Majesty's commands, signified to us, we have considered the enclosed petition from the Hudson's Bay Company to her Majesty, and are humbly of opinion that the said Company have a good right and just title to the whole Bay and Streights of Hudson. Since the receipt of which petition, the said Company have delivered us a memorial, relating to the settlement of boundaries .... between them and the French of Canada, a copy whereof Trade ^^ enclosed, and upon which we take leave to offer, that as it will be for the advantage of the said Company that their boundaries be settled, it will also be necessary that the boundaries between her Majesty's colonies on the continent of America and the said French of Canada be likewise agreed and settled ; wherefore we 249 V" ;. . IP ■■\' 250 THE GREAT COMPANY rtt long and anxiously awaited, began to dawn over the troubled horizon. Lewis and his courtiers had long sickened of the war: and at the Flemish town of Utrecht negotiations were on foot for a cessation of hostilities and the adjustment of differences between the crowns of England and France/ These negotiations finally resulted in a treaty signed on the 31st of March (O.S.), 1713, by which the whole of Hudson's Bay was ceded to Great Britain without any distinct definition of boundaries, for the determining of which commissioners were to be appointed. On the news of the conclusion of the Treaty, the Adventurers were filled with joy. The Committee was in session when a messenger came hot haste from Whitehall to bear the glad tidings. A General Court was convoked several days later. Plans were humbly offer these matters may be recommended to her Majesty's Plenipotentiaries at Utrecht. — We are, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient, and most humble servants, WiNCHELSEA, OEO. BAILLIE, Ph. Meadows, Arth. Moore, Chas. Turner, Fra. Gwyn. Whitehall, February 19, 1711-12. ^ The view which Matthew Prior, the English plenipotentiary, took of the Company's rights was not one, however, inspired by that body. He wanted the trade of Rupert's Land, rather than the sovereignty. "I take leave to add to your lordship," he observes at the end of a communication addressed to the Secretary of State, "that these limitations are not otherwise advantageous or prejudicial to Great Britain than as we are both better or worse with the native Indians ; and that the whole is a matter rather of industry than of dominion." 1^ I- -A •ftVji o )ver the ad long town of ation of between treaty which Great andaries, were to eaty, the ittee was ste from General ians were r Majesty's [ship's most IE, RE, Qtiary, took r that body, ereignty. the end of 'that these Ell to Great ve Indians ; lominion." on the Company. EFFECT OF THE TREATY ON THE COMPANY 251 concerted for securing the very most that the cir- cumstances would allow. It was recognised as neces- sary to secure a copy of the Act of Cession Effect of "^ ^-^ the Treaty which it was supposcd would be issued by Lewis, ceding to Great Britain the places on Hudson's Bay, the Company being re- garded merely in the light of ordinary subjects. Without this document they would of course be powerless to act with authority in the Bay : or to enforce the restoration of their forts. Many of the members wished to press at once for pecuniary com- pensation, but the wiser heads agreed that this would best be a matter for subsequent negotiation. Many thought indeed that perhaps there need be no haste in the matter, as the interest on the original estimate of damages, already nearly double the principal, was growing daily at an enormous rate. " As to the Company's losses," says a memorandum of this year, "it will appear by a true and exact estimate that the French took from the Company in fiiU peace between 1682 and 1688 seven ships, with their cargoes, and six forts and caches m which were carried away great stores of goods laid up for trading with the Indians. The whole amounts to £38,332 15s., and £62,210 18s. 9d. interest, computed to 1713." But the year passed without the Hudson's Bay Company claims being taken up by Government. Under date of 30th July 1714, occurs the follow- ing : " The Committee having received a letter from H'i 'i ^■i;f: i ■iCi -i: ■: !'■, ' ■.|i: ; 252 THE GREAT COMPANY t! ■if i' : ^: Pi 'I 111 >',.. 1 S 1 the Lords Commissioners of Trade, and they desiring their attendance on Tuesday next, and to bring in writing the demands of the Co. for damages Company's claim for rcc'd from the French in times of peace compen. pursuant to the 10th & 11th Articles of the sation. ^ Treaty of Utrecht. Upon which the Secre- tary is ordered to Copy out the Abstract of the whole damage sustained, amounting to with Interest the sum of £100,543-13-9 ; as likewise the particulars in these small volumes in order to present the same to the Commission of Trade on Wednesday next." It does not seem to have been doubted but that the Queen, if petitioned, would grant the Company's request for a copy of the Act of Cession, in time to send an expedition to the Bay that very year.^ Nevertheless, while vessels were being acquired, fitted out and loaded with cargoes, the Company was wise 1 The Company's Petition to Queen Anne for Act op Cessio n. To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty : — The humble petition of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, sheweth : That your petitioners, being informed that the Act of Cession is come over, whereby (among other matters thereby concerted) the French King obliges himself to restore to your Majesty (or to whom your Majesty shall appoint to take possession thereof) the Bay and Streights of Hudson, as also all forts and edifices whatsoever, entire and demolished, together with guns, shot, powder, and other warlike provisions (as mentioned in the 10th article of the present treaty of peace), within six months after the ratification thereof, or sooner, if possible it may be done. Tour petitioners do most humbly pray your Majesty will be graciously y desiring bring in damages of peace lies of the he Secre- the whole \t the sum rs in these ne to the I but that Company's n time to .1 Lired, fitted ^ was wise OF Cbbsio k. : Adventurers of Cession is mcerted) the (or to whom the Bay and soever, entire other warlike ent treaty of )f, or sooner, be graciously DISTRUST OF THE QUEBEC OFFICIALS 253 enough not to run the risk of falling into a trap. No- thing would be done without the fullest royal authority. It was not at all likely that the French at Port Nelson would recognise mere word of mouth. It is worthy of remark as illustrating how much the Company trusted the Canadian authorities, Bolingbroke (May 29, 1713) reminded the Duke of Shrewsbury (then at Paris) that in Pontchartrain's letter to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, the latter was directed to yield the forts and settlements belong- ing to the Hudson's Bay Company: "But this order the Merchants thought would hardly fulfil their re- quirements. They were despatching two ships to the Bay. It would therefore be better if his Grace obtained direct order to M. J6r6m.iQ in duplicate." But the Act of Cession eagerly awaited by the Company was not then forthcoming, or at any time subsequently. The Queen's advisers were in this matter pleased to direct the said Act of Cession may be transmitted to your petitioners, as also your Majesty's commission to Captain James Knight and Mr. Henry Eelsey, gentleman, to authorise them, or either of them, to take possession of the premises above mentioned, and to constitute Captain James Knight to be Governor of the fortress called Fort Nelson, and all other forts and edifices, lands, seas, rivers, and places aforesaid; and the better to enable your petitioners to recover the same, they humbly pray your Majesty to give orders that they may have a small man-of-war to depart with their ships, by the 12th of June next ensuing, which ship may in all probability return in the month of October. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray. By order of the Company. per Wm. Pottbr, Secretary. H'ij ■'iii: * li I •11 . ii M ! ^•1 ;l _ 254 THE GREAT COMPANY wiser than anybody else. Lord Dartmouth's letter ^ of the 27th May 1713, enclosing the petition of the No Act of Hudson's Bay Company, shows what was the Cession. design in not accepting an Act of Cession from the French King. Her Majesty insisted only upon an order from the French Court for delivering posses- sion ; " by which means the title of the Company was acknowledged, and they will come into the immediate enjoyment of their property without further trouble." The summer of 1713 came on apace, and it was soon too late to think of occupying Port Nelson that year. But all was made ready for the next season. On the 5th of June 1714, many of the Adventurers repaired to Gravesend, in order to wish Governor Knight and his deputy, Henry Kelsey, godspeed. " The Committee," we read in the minutes, " delivered to Captain Knight, her Majesty's Royal Commission, to take possession (for the Company) of York Fort, and all other places within the Bay and Straits of Hudson. Also another Commission from her Majesty 1 " My Lords and Gentlemen, — The Queen has commanded me to transmit to you the enclosed petition of the Hudson's Bay Company, that you may consider of it and report your opinion what orders may properly be given upon the several particulars mentioned. In the meantime I am to acquaint you that the places and countries therein named, belonging of right to British subjects, her Majesty did not think fit to receive any Act of Cession from the French King, and has therefore insisted only upon an order from that Court for delivering possession to such persons as should be authorised by her Majesty to take it ; by this means the title of the Company is acknowledged, and they will come into the immediate enjoyment of their property without further trouble." REGULATION OF BOUNDARY 255 letter* of >n of the it was the >f Cession only upon ag posses- ipany was immediate trouble." ad it was elson that xt season, iventurers Governor godspeed. ' delivered )mmission, !'ork Fort, Straits of er Majesty landed me to ay Company, it orders may ned. In the atries therein jesty did not Cing, and has 'or delivering er Majesty to wledged, and perty without constituting him Governor under the Company, and Mr. H. Kelsey, Deputy Governor of the Bay and Straits of Hudson, aforesaid." Knight took with him, likewise, " the French King's order under his hand and seal, to Mons. Jcrt^mie, Commander at York Fort, to deliver the same to whom her Majesty should appoint, pursuant to the Treaty of Utrick." Knight's eyes, now dimmed with age, were gladdened by the sight of Port Nelson, his ancient command, on the 25 th of July. J^r^mie was aheady advised by the French ship, and no time was lost in evacuation. A bargain was made for such buildings and effects as the French had no further use for, which had been beforehand arranged. " From his particular regard for the Queen of Great Britain, the King will leave to her the artillery and ammunition in the forts and places in Hudson's Bay and Straits, notwithstanding the urgent reasons his Majesty has to withdraw them, and to appropriate them elsewhere." The cannon were accordingly left. By Article X. of the Treaty of Utrecht it was pro- Regulation posed, in order to avoid all further conflict of boundary, g^^j misunderstanding, that commissioners should be appointed to regulate the boundaries of Hudson's Bay and the extent of the trade thereof, which should be enjoyed by each.^ But no great ^ In 1714 the Hudson's Bay Company sent a memorandum to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, accompanied by a i;l '.ill i'4 I ';i - H'lt, i ■J 41' •' 256 THE GREAT COMPANY haste was apparent on the part of France to secure this end. For several years nothing was done in the matter, save and except the continuous exchange of letters between the two ambassadors. There is a letter of Bolingbroke's which evinces the feeling current in diplomatic circles at the time. "There is nothing more persistent in the world,' he says, ''than these claims of the Hudson's Bay Company. We are desirous greatly to see all these smug ancient gentlemen satisfied; notwithstanding which we are unable to budge an inch. The truth of the business seems to me to be that the French are always hoping that their ultimate concessions will be less, and the English that these concessions will be vastly more." Lewis had consented, at the time of the peace, to name two commissioners who should give possession to such of the Enghsh, as proved that they were actual proprietors, or the heirs of proprietors, of those who had in a former time possessed property in the Bay. While this seemed to provide for the Company's rights in a manner most satisfactory, nevertheless matters dragged on, and it was not until 1719 that a practical movement was made. On the 3rd of map in which they claimed that the eastern boundary should be a line running from Grimington's Island through Lake Miscosinke or Mistassinnie, and from the said lake by a line run south-westward into 49 degrees north latitude, as by the red line may more particularly appear, and that that latitude be the limit ; that the French do not come to the north of it, nor the English to the south of it. APPOINTMENT OF A COMMISSION 25T to secure >ne in the change of lere is a le feeling tie world,' son's Bay all these :hstanding e truth of 'rench are ns will be IS will be ) peace, to possession they were s, of those >rty in the Company's Bvertheless 1719 that le 3rd of should be a iliscosinke or xrestward into e particularly 'rench do not September of that year, Daniel Pulteney and Martin Bladen, Lords of Trade, were appointed Commis- - ^ , sioners in response to the appointment by Appointment ^ ^ ^*^ '' of a Com- Lewis of the Mareschal Comte d'Estrees •"*""'°°- and the Abbd Dubois, Minister and Secre- tary of State. Pulteney was a shrewd politician, and Bladen had been an officer in the army. The Lords of Trade having made the suggestion, the Company now wished their Governor, Sir Bibye Lake, to go over to Paris the "more earnestly to solicit and prosecute the claims of the Honourable Adventurers."^ Lake accordingly joined Bladen and Pulteney, and was permitted to take a part, though a silent one, in the conference. It was intended that this Commission, meeting in Paris, should have power to settle generally the boundaries between the English and French posses- sions in America. But this was soon seen to be impracticable. The settlement of these matters was too vast and complicated for the Commission to deal with; and the Lords of Trade instructed Bladen, on his setting out, to deal only with the Hudson's Bay territories. It is significant that private instructions ^ " It is by this Committee desired most humbly of the Governor to accept and undertake this journey and to manage the Company's affairs there, as he shall judge most conducive to their interest and advantf^e. Which, being signified to the Governor, he did, to the great satisfaction of the Committee, readily undertake and accept the same. It was ordered that the Governor have liberty to take with him such person or persons to France as he shall think fit." "11 VOL. I. R 258 THE GREAT COMPANY of a similar nature were at the same time conveyed to the French Commissioners by their Government. The Commissioners finally met. Perhaps it were a pity if Bladen's own account of what followed were allowed to perish : — . "On Saturday last, my Lord Stair and I met Marechal d'Estrees and Abbe Dubois. Our time was spent in pre- paratory discourses concerning the intent of the 10th article of the Treaty of Utrecht, relating to the boundaries of Hudson's Bay ; and at our next meeting, which will be to-morrow at my Lord Stair's House, we design to give in the claim of the Hudson's Bay Company, in writing, with some few additions pretty material for their service, in case the Abbe Dubois his health will allow him to be there, which I fear it will not, for he is confined at pre.«ent to his bed. " But I confess, I cannot help thinking it will be to a very little purpose to puzzle ourselves about setting boundaries, by treaty, in the North of America, if the French have so concise a way of fixing theirs in the south, without asking our concurrence ; it is to be hoped they will have the modesty to recede from this new acquisition, but in the meantime I cannot help saying this gives me no very good relish either of their friend- ship or discretion. "I cannot leave this subject without observing how much it imports us to be upon our guard in our American Colonies. It were to be wished that the several Governments of his Majesty's plantations would pay the respect they owe to their instructions, and if those of Barbados for some time past had observed theirs, relating to Santa Lucia, the settlement of a hundred French families there could never have been put upon us at this day as a proof of their right to that island." Martin Bladen's ■description of the Oommission Hi li! conveyed inent. it were tved were -;■! Marechal it in pre- 0th article I Hudson's TOW at my lim of the r additions Dubois his rill not, for to a very 3ut setting America, if xing theirs rence ; it is y to recede jannot help aeir friend- ow much it n Colonies. nts of his we to their time past settlement have been ;ht to that A FRENCH SCHEME 259 There is, further, much talk of a "multiplicity of books and papers necessary to be read," and of "arduous labours" in going over maps, charts, and memoirs, which, however numerous, " are not to be depended on." ^ While this initial work was going on, one of the Adventurers was entreating his fellows at a Company meeting in London, to take note of a scheme which the French had been insidiously attempting for the previous four years to utterly destroy not only the Company's trade, but all the English colonies as well. He proceeded to read a private letter from a relation in the colony of Pennsylvania in which it was shown that the Mississippi Company required close watching. " Its leaders are egged on by the Jesuits, and will stop at no bloody measures to draw down trade from the Indians. Their projects must inevitably succeed if we are not watchful." This was put forward as one potent reason why the French were complaisant about yielding us the Bay itself. It was but the shell they would surrender, whilst preserving to themselves the kernel. ' Mk. Bladen to Mb. Delkfaye. Pakis, November 11, 1719, N.S. On Wednesday last, my Lord Stair and I delivered to the Marechal d'Estrees the demand of the Hudson's Bay Company, with respect to their limits, and by comparing the enclosed, which is a copy of that demand, with the instruction upon his head, you will perceive the same has been fully complied with. So soon as I shall have the French Commissary's answer to our demand, I shall likewise take care to transmit you a copy of it, to be laid before their Excellencys the Lord Justices. I'H %\r 1^ : .- (■ ■1:1' Mi 260 THE GREAT COMPANY This letter from the Pennsylvanian had its effect upon the easily alarmed Adventurers, for they lost no time in communicating their apprehensions to the Lords of Trade. The matter was sent forward to Bladen and Pulteney. "It were heartily to be wished," the Company wrote, " that in imitation of our indus- trious neighbours the French, some means can be determined upon to extend the trade in furs south- wards." In response, Bladen imparted a brilliant idea. He suggested that St. Augustine might be "reduced at a small cost," and advantage taken thereby of the war then in progress with Spain. Had such a suggestion been acted upon the United States would have been saved the trouble, a century later, of paying Spain for the cession of Florida. Matters went on in Paris as badly as could be. The English commissioners lost all patience. Nothing was in the air but the notorious John Law and his Mississippi scheme. The three Englishmen, Bladen, Pulteney, and Lake, were dined and feted, and they had no reason to complain of the hospitality of the Court : but they became at length disgusted with the whole business.^ The "smug ancient gentlemen," as * Mb. Pulteney to Mr. Secretary Cragos. Paris, May the ith, N.S., 1720. My Lord Stair has spoke to the Regent, who said immediately that the conferences shall be renewed whenever we please ; his Excellency thfn desired His Royal Highness would appoint a day, which he id its effect they lost no ions to the Bladen and ished," the our indus- ans can be furs south- it idea. He educed at a of the war a suggestion [ have been Qg Spain foi- ls could be. !e. Nothing Law and his nen, Bladen, 5d, and they tality of the ted with the ntlenien," as GOS. [th, N.S., 1720. mmediately that ; his Excellency day, which he SUDDEN END OF THE COMMISSION 261 Bolingbroke had irreverently dubbed the Honourable Adventurers, were not yet to be satisfied in regard to the delimitation of boundaries. But perhaps even they had less interest at this moment in Hudson's Bay than in the new interests which had dramatically arisen much nearer home. Governor Lake was suddenly sent for from London, and Bladen and Pulteney were not long in following him thither. promised to do. This is what the Regent has promised my Lord Stair once every week, for fonr or five months past, without any effect, and his Excellency does not expect any more from the promise now, though possibly a conference may be appointed for form sake. I have been here near six months, and have seen only one conference, which was appointed by my Lord Stanhope's desire. I think there had been two conferences before I came ; at the first of them the commissions were read, and at the second my Lord Stair and Mr. Bladen gave in a memorial about the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which no answer has been made. I must own that I never could expect much success from this commission, since the French interests and ours are so directly opposite, and our respective pretensions interfere so much with each on the several points we were to treat about ; but that the French have not been willing to entertain us now and then with a conference, and try how far we might be disposed to comply with a conference, and try how far we might be disposed with any of the views they had in desiring the commission, cannot, I should think, be accounted for but by supposing they knew we came prepared to reject all their demands, and to make very considerable ones for ourselves. ... I shall expect your further direction as to my stay or return ; I cannot help owning I heartily wish for the latter, but I shall always submit to what his Majesty likes best, and shall only desire in this case that I may have a supply from the treasury, since I have not had the good fortune to be concerned in either of the Misiseppis. n CHAPTER XVIII hi /. 5 1719-1727 -^ The South Sea Bubble— Nation catches the Fever op Speculation — Stbong temptation fob the Company—- Pricking of the Bubble — Narrow escape op the Adven- turers — Knight AND his Expedition — Anxiety as to THEIR Fate— Certainty op their Loss— Burnett's scheme TO cripple the French— It forces them Westward into Rupert's Land. The cause of the Governor's recall lay in the existence of a crisis which arose through the venality of some of the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, victims of the South Sea fever. The South Sea Company, whose extraordinary sue- South Sea cess gave rise to a thousand joint-stock Company. enterprises equally unsound and fatuous, owed its origin in 1711 to Harley, Earl of Oxford, who in return for their acceptance of a government debt of £10,000,000, granted to a number of merchants a monopoly of the trade to the South Seas. At that time the most extravagant ideas prevailed concerning the riches of South America. " If," it was said, " the Hudson's Bay Company can make vast moneys out of the frozen North, what can be done I , iHHi B Fevbb of Company— ^ THB Adven- XIETY AS TO ETT'S SCHEME bSTWABD INTO ie existence iity of some any, victims rdinary suc- joint-stock nd fatuous, Oxford, who nment debt [uerchants a as prevailed I. "If," it 1 make vast lan be done THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 263 with lands flowing with milk and honey ? " The South Sea Adventurers carefully fostered all the current notions, spreading likewise the belief that Spain was ready to admit them to a share of its South American commerce. In 1717 this company advanced to the English Government five more millions sterling, at an interest of six per cent. Their shares rose daily, and even the outbreak of war with Spain, which destroyed all hope in the minds of sensible persons of any share in the Spanish traffic, did not lessen the company's popularity. In Paris, John Law s Mississippi Bubble burst, ruin *ng thousands, but, far from being alarmed at this catas- trophe, it was universally believed that Law's scheme was sound, and had been wrecked through unwise methods. In May 1720, the South Sea Company proposed to take upon themselves the entire national debt of upwards of £30,000,000 upon a guarantee of five per cent, per annum for seven and one-half years, at the end of which period the debt might be redeemed if the Government chose, or the interest reduced to four per cent. The nation was dazzled; Parliament accepted the offer; and the Company's stock rose steadily to 330 on April 7, falling to 290 on the following day. This day in April witnessed a change in method on the part of the South Sea directors. Until then the scheme had been honestly promoted ; but the prospect of enormous wealth was too near to be permitted tlii luti! r III 'I < ; II 264 THE GREAT COMPANY ^t i to escape. It became thenceforward, until the crash, the prime object of the directors, at no matter what A fever of cost or scruple, to maintain the fictitious speculation, ^^lue of the shares. By May 28, £100 shares were quoted at 550 ; three days later they had reached 890. The whole nation caught the fever; the steadiest merchants turned gamblers. Hardly a day passed without a new swindling concern being started as a joint-stock company. Meanwhile several of the Hudson's Bay Merchants- Adventurers looked on with envious eyes. The desire was great to embark in so tempting a scheme, and the opportunity to cast inflated shares on the market almost too great to withstand. But for many weeks the temptation was resisted. At last, at a meeting early in August, the chief director came before a general court of the Adventurers with a scheme by which each partner could either retire with a moderate fortune or remain an active parti- cipant, and reap the benefit of an infusion of public capital. The scheme was, to modern notions, simplicity itself ; but that it was not so regarded by some of the Adventurers themselves may be gathered from the following passage from o, letter of Mrs. Mary Butter- field, one of the owners of the Company's stock. " I cannot tell you how it is to be done, for that passes my wit ; but in short, the value of our interests is to be trebled without our paying a farthing; and !,..-,..„.. PLAN TO REORGANISE THE COMPANY 265 he crash, iter what fictitious 8, £100 they had le fever; lardly a rn being erchants- he desire 3me, and B market sted. At director rers with ler retire ve parti- of public implicity ne of the :rom the r Butter- k. for that interests ing; and then to be trebled again if the business is to the publick taste, and we are told it cannot fail to be." It was late in August before the scheme was detailed. It was explained that the Company's assets in quick and dead stock and lands were £94,500. With this as a basis, it was proposed to enlarge the stock to the sum of £378,000, dividing this into 3780 shares of £100 each. Before this could be carried out, however, the existing stock, being but £31,500, or 315 shares, was to be made and reckoned 945 shares of £100 value each. By such means a result of £94,500 actual capital would appear. A majority of partners favoured the scheme, and the proposal was carried amidst the greatest enthusiasm. Its purpose was to unload the stock at an inflated figure, far even in excess of that actually named by its promoters. Had it succeeded ™ . „^ and the flotation been carried out, it would rlan to re- ' organise the havo doubtlcss administered a death-blow ompany. ^^ ^^^ Company as then organised, and would probably have involved the revocation of its charter in view of what was soon to occur. But the plan met with a sudden arrest by an event which, in beggaring multitudes, altered the whole disposition of the public with regard to joint-stock enterprises. A general impression gained ground that the South Sea Company's stock had attained high-water mark, and so many holders rushed to realise that the price fell, on June 3rd, to 640. The directors were not yet ready for their coup. Agents were despatched iCil 1 \i I ■< , Ml '!■' •iJ < '■ c. ^^^B ' ^H i ■ 1 Hi ,' 1 ■ ' ■ 1 ' y 1 1 L Hi 266 THE GREAT COMPANY by them to buy up and support the market, and the result was that by nightfall of that day the quoted price was £750. By means of similarly unscrupulous devices, the shares were sent up, early in August, to 1000. The long-awaited opportunity had arrived. Many of the directors sold out; a general anxiety prevailed and the shares began to decline. In view of this change in affairs, the Hudson's Bay Company's meeting for September 3rd was deferred. On the 12th, South Sea shares were selling at 400, and the decline continued. The country was thrown into the greatest excitement, and by December Parliament met to consider the calamity. With what happened subsequently, to the authors and participators in this celebrated joint-stock swindle, it is not my present purpose to deal ; it is sufficient to say that the Hudson's Bay Company was saved most opportunely from sharing the fate of its neigh- bour and rival. A meeting was held on the 23rd of December, at which it was resolved that the " said subscription be vacated ; and that the Company's seal be taken off from the said instrument." Nevertheless there remained one permanent result. For the nominal capital of the Hudson's Bay Company had been trebled, and it was now further resolved that each subscriber should be credited with £30 of stock "for each £10 by him paid in." The total capital thus stood at the beginning of 1721 at over £100,000. NARROW ESCAPE OF THE COMPANY 267 and the quoted crupulous ugust, to arrived, anxiety In view ompany's On the ), and the I into the ,ment met le authors 5k swindle, } sufficient was saved its neigh- the 23rd the " said pany's seal ent result, r Company r resolved th £30 of The total II at over The Company had experienced a narrow escape. To what extent its shares would have been inflated may only be conjectured; but it is certain it could not have avoided being swept into the vortex and sharing the same fate which overtook so many of its commercial contemporaries. Its enemies were on the watch, and they would have proved relentless. A revocation of its charter would have accomplished its final downfall. Already the Company was being assailed because it had not complied with one of the provisions named in that instrument : that of making search for a north- west passage. It was not, however, to quiet these reproaches, so persistently levelled at it, that a year before the bursting of the South Sea Bubble an expe- dition was actually set on foot to accomplish the long- deferred exploration. Knight, the Company's aged Governor at York Factory, had long listened to the tales of the Indians concerning the copper mines to the north; and re- solved, on his return to England, to bring the matter before the Company. This he did, but it was by no means an easy matter to induce the Adventurers to consent to the expense of further exploration. Never- theless Knight's insistence prevailed, more especially as, besides the pro^table results to be obtained through such a voyage, he was careful to point out that the Company were constrained under their charter to undertake such an expedition. i^^ m li 1-1. ,, 'il I 268 THE GREAT COMPANY north-west passage In 1719 the Company, therefore, fitted out two ships for the purpose of discovery north of Churchill. One of these, called the Albany, a frigate, was com- manded by George Barlow, whom we have Expedition to , , *^ ^ ^ explore the already seen as Deputy-Governor at Albany in 1 704, when the French failed to capture that post. The other, named the Discovery, a sloop, under David Vaughan. But the command of the expedition itself was entrusted to Knight, who was a man of great experience in the Company's service, who had been for many years Governor of diflferent Factories in the Bay, and who had made the first settlement at Churchill River. Notwithstanding the extensive knowledge Knight possessed of the Company's business, and its methods of trade with the Indians, there was nothing to lead any one to suppose liim especially adapted for the present enterprise, having nothing to direct him but the slender and imperfect accounts which he, in common with many other of the Company's servants, had received from the Indians, who, as we have seen, were at that time little known and less understood. But these disadvantages, added to his advanced years (Knight being then nearly eighty), by no means restrained his bold spirit. Indeed, so confident was he of success and of the material advantages which would accrue from his impending discoveries, that he caused to be made, and carried with him, several large iron- bound chests, wherein to bestow the gold dust and V GOVERNOR KNIGHT 8 EXPEDITION $9 ' i:-1 it two irchill. corn- have A.lbany capture \scovery. Land of ho was service, ifferent le first Knight lethods to lead for the lim but he, in ervants, ve seen, ;ood. ivanced ) means b was he h would ) caused ge iron- lust and other treasures which he " fondly flattered himb \i were to be found in those parts." The first paragraph of the Company's instructions to Knight on this occasion was as follows : — To Captain James Knight. ith June 1719. SiE, — From the experience we have had of your abilities in the management of our affairs, we have, upon your application to us, fitted out the Albany frigate. Captain George Barlow, and the Discovery^ Captain David Vaughan, Commander, upon a discovery to the northward ; and to that end have given you power and authority to act and do all things relating to the said voyage, navigation of the said ship and sloop only excepted; and have given orders and instructions to our said Commanders for that purpose. You are, with the first opportunity of wind and weather, to depart from Gravesend on your intended voyage, and by God's permission to find out the Straits of Anian,^ and to discover gold and other valuable commodities to the north. Knight departed from Gravesend on board the Albany, and proceeded on his voyage. The ships not returning to England that year no uneasiness was felt, as it was judged they had wintered in the Bay. Both were known to have on board a plentiful stock of pro- visions, a House in frame, together with the requisite tools and implements, and a large assortment of trading goods. Little anxiety was therefore entertained con- cerning their safety for fifteen months. But when New Year's Day, 1721, arrived, and neither ship nor sloop had been heard from, the Company naturally became alarmed for their welfare. ^ For au account of these fabled straits, see chapter xxviii. M5 : » ! 270 THE GREAT COMPANY ^By the ship sailing to Churchill in June they sent orders for a sloop then in the Bay, called the Whale- bone, John Scroggs, master, to go in search of the missing explorers. But the Whalebone was cruising about in the north of the Bay at the time, on the Esquimaux trade, and returned to Churchill at so advanced a season of the year as to defer the execu- tion of the Company's wishes until the following summer. The north-west shore was little known in those days, so it is not singular that Captain Scroggs, on board the little Whalebone, finding himself encompassed by dangerous shoals and rocks, should return to Prince of Wales' Fort little the wiser regarding the fate of the two ships. He saw amongst the Anxiety as . . . i i • to the fate Esquimaux, It IS true, European clothmg **'*^*!.,. and articles, as at a later day Rae and expedition. '' McClintock found souvenirs of the Franklin tragedy ; but these might have been come by in trade, or as the result of chance events. None could yet affirm that a shipwreck or other total calamity had overtaken Knight and his companions. Many years elapsed without anything to shed light on the fate of this expedition. At first, the strong belief which had so long prevailed in Europe of a north-west passage by way of this Bay, caused many to conjecture that the explorers had found that passage and had gone through it into the South Sea. But before the voyages of Middleton, Ellis, Bean, Christopher, Hel pre ATTEMPT TO SECURE THE FUR-TRADE 271 By sent Whale- of the iruising on the at so execu- )llowing ., ise days, 1 board ssed by Prince he fate igst the clothmg ^ae and Franklm in trade, ould yet Qity had led light e strong ope of a ed many t passage ea. But ristopher, and Jobington had weakened this belief, all Europe knew that Knight, Barlow, and the crews of the two ships had perished. Proofs of their fate were reserved for the year 1767, as will appear in a later chapter of this work. An important circumstance now transpired which was not without effejt upon the Company's trade; and which, for a time, gave the Adventurers great uneasiness. In 1727 Burnett had been appointed to the Governorship of New York. Finding that the French in Canada were in possession of all the Indian fur- trade of the north and west, which was not in the Hudson's Bay Company's hands, and that the New Eng- landers were employed trafficking with the Iroquois, he determined to take a bold step with a view to crippling the French. It had long been understood that the chief support of New France was in the fur commerce ; and upon inquiry it was found that the traders of Quebec and Montreal were chiefly supplied with European mer- chandise for barter from the New York merchants, from whom they procured it upon much easier terms than it could possibly be got from France. New York With this knowledge, the Governor resolved to secure the ^^ foster the fur-trado of his colony by in- fiir-trade. , . . ducing direct transactions with the Indians. He procured an Act in the Assembly of the colony, prohibiting the trade in merchandise from New York. i-,a m m % ill I'ji-. % 272 THE GKEAT COMPANY The colonial merchants were not unnaturally up in arms against such a measure ; but Burnett, bent upon carrying his point, had their appeal to King George set aside and the Act confirmed by that monarch. By reason of this measure, trade at once sprang up with the Western Indians, since the French had no goods to offer them in any way to their liking at a reasonable price. Intercourse and familiarity ensued moreover in consequence ; a fortified trading post was built at Oswego, which not only drew away trade from the French, at Michilimackinac and St. Marie, but from Albany and Moose as well. It has been observed that the ancient boundaries of Canada or New France were circumscribed by the Treaty of Utrecht, and that it is difficult to determine precisely the new boundaries assigned to it. The general interpretation adopted by the British geo- graphers, as the country gradually became better known from that time up to the final cession of Canada, was that the boundary ran along the high lands separating the waters that discharged into the St. Lawrence from those that discharge into Hudson's Bay to the sources of the Nepigon River, and thence along the northerly division of the same range of high lands dividing the waters flowing direct to Hudson's Bay, from those flow- ing into Lake Winnipeg, and crossing the Nelson, or (as it was then known) the Bourbon River, about midway between the said Lake and Bay, thence pass- ing to the west and north by the sources of Churchill FRENCH AND ENGLISH BOUNDARIES 273 Uy up in )ent upon ig George arch. prang up h had no kmg at a ty ensued I post was rade from l^arie, but andaries of ed by the • determine ) it. The ritish geo- jtter known :3anada, was J separating irrence from the sources le northerly iividing the those flow- > Nelson, or liver, about hence pass- 3f Churchill River ; no westerly boundary being anywhere assigned to Canada. Thus, Burnett's measure could have but Boundaries 0^® rcsult: to make the French traders and between the Government of New France perceive that English their only hope to avert famine and bank- temtory. ruptcy lay in penetrating farther and farther into the west, in an effort to reach remote tribes, ignorant of true values and unspoilt by a fierce and ungenerous rivalry. It is fitting to reserve the next two chapters for a consideration of who and what were the tribes at this time inh J^l^ing the territories granted by its charter to the Great Company ; together with their numbers, their modes of life, and relations with the factories. M i' m '<:'.':■ \ VOL. I. i I'll - l»r'>; i. Tl CHAPTER XIX 1687-17 I 2 • Hudson's Bay Tribes peacbpul — Effect op the Traders PRESENCE — Depletion of Population — The Crees and AssiNiBOiNES— Their Habits and Customs— Their Numbers —No Subordination amongst them— Spirituous Liquors — Effect of Intemperance upon the Indian. Let us imagine for a moment that the Hudson's Bay Company had held traiEc with the fierce and implac- able Iroquois, the Mohawks or the courageous and bloodthirsty tribes of the Mississippi, instead of with the Crees and Assiniboines. How different would have been its early history! What frail protection would have been afforded by the forts and wooden palisades, often not stronger than that last fort of the Jesuits in the Huron country, the inmates of which were slaughtered so ruthlessly, or that other at Niagara, where the Chevalier de Troyes and ninety of his companions perished. » . But the Red men of the Company's territories, com- pared to these, were pacific. Occasionally want or deep injustice drove them to acts of barbarism, as we have seen in the case of the massacre at York Factory under J^r^mie's rigime ; but on the whole they had no 274 CHARACTER OF THE ASSINIBOINES 275 Tradebs BEES AND : Numbers S LiQUOBS ion's Bay i implac- eous and I of with Dt would protection i wooden jt fort of imates of bat other nd ninety ries, corn- want or ism, as we k Factory ey had no of the Assiniboines. marked enmity to the European, and long displayed a remarkable and extremely welcome docility. " The Assinibouels," remarked J^r^mie, " are humane and aiFable; and so are also all those Indians with whom we have commerce in the Bay, never trading with the French but as their fathers and patrons. Character Although savagcs, they are foes to lying, which is extraordinary in nations which live without subordination or discipline. One cannot impute to them any vice, unless they are a little too slanderous. They never blaspheme and have not even a term in their language which defines an oath." If we are to believe the early traders and explorers, the Red man of Rupert's Land spoke a tongue by no means difficult for an Englishman to master. Yet if the fur pioneers really took the trouble to master it, as they alleged they had done, their knowledge, it is certain, brought little order into the chaos of tribal nomenclature. The custom of fantas^'c names for the Indians was long continued. More than one instance occurs of the impropriety with which the French-Canadians named the Indians. They called one tribe Gros Ventres, or Big Bellies, and that without any known reason; they being as comely and well made as any other tribe. "They are very far," says one trader, "from being remarkable for their corpulency." This tribe also came to be known as the Fall Indians. !m m y ..: , t: 276 THE GREAT COMPANY ll'^l. ! J(^rdmie observed that the Ouinebigonholinis m- habited the sea-coast. The Poaourinagou country Indian was inhabited by the Miskogonhirines or country. Savannas, who made war with the Hakou- chirmions. Twelve leagues above York Factory was situated the River Oujuragatchousibi, while far beyond dwelt the Nakonkirhirinons. One might readily suspect a commandant of one fort in the Indian country of drawing upon his imagination when he speaks of such nations as the Unighkillyiakow, Ishisageck Roanu, the Twightwis Roanu, the Oskiakikis, Oyachtownuck Roanu, Kighetawkigh Roanu, and the Kirhawguagh Roanu. One of the Company's factors reported, in 1736, that a tribe lived beyond the range of mountains, who had never known the use of firearms, for which reason they were made slaves of by the Assiniboines and Crees. He declared he had beheld several of this tribe " who all wanted a joynt of their little finger, which was cut off soon after birth." " The Migichihilinons, that is the Eagle Ey'd Indians," reported Middleton, one of the Company's captains, " are at two hundred Leagues Distance; the Assinibouels inhabit the West and North ; they are reputed to be the same Nation because of the great affinity of their language. The name signifies Men of the Rock. They use the Calumet and live at two hundred and fifty Leagues Distance. They paint their Bodies, are grave, and have much Phlegm, like Flemings." He also V,- THE CBEES 277 ilinis in- country irines or Hakou- tory was r beyond one fort agination Uyiakow, skiakikis, and the 736, that who had ison they rees. He " who all LS cut off Indians," lins, " are linibouels ed to be r of their ik. They and fifty ire grave, He also enumerates the Michinipic Poets, or Men of Stone, of the Great Lake ; but it is easy to believe that these two are of the same tribe. In the seventeenth century, the districts about the Great Lakes were rather thickly populated. Certain regions which at the opening of the eighteenth century were but thinly sprinkled by inhabitants, once had boasted numerous tribes. For when the first mis- sionaries visited the south of Lake Superior in 1668, they found the country full of inhabitants. They relate that about this time a band of Nepisingues, converts to the Jesuitical teaching, emigrated to the Nepigon country. By 1785 few of their descendants were said to exist, and not a trace amongst them of the religion espoused by their ancestors. As to the Lake of the Woods district, before the smallpox, in 1781, ravaged these parts and completed what the Nodwayes by their warfare had gone far to accomplish, this country was very densely inhabited. The Crees, or Christineaux, were the earliest as well as the most numerous tribe which had dealings The with the Company. They sprang from the Crees. same stock as the Ojibways, Chippewas or Saulteurs, who with the Assiniboines inhabited the vast interior of the country to the west of the Bay. Their language, according to one of the early traders, was less copious and expressive than their mother tongue. They were deficient in many direct terms for things, often expressing themselves in approximate t t : ! I ' 278 THE GREAT COMPANY n u phrases, whereas the Ojibways would have an exactly corresponding term ready at command. The Crees appear not to have possessed the custom of totems, so that it was often difficult for members of the tribe to trace their ancestry back for more than two or three generations. In their ideas of creation the Crees and the Saulteurs resembled, and the early traders and bushrangers learnt gradually that both nations owned a mythology of no mean proportions. Nain au Bouchaw, the God of the Saulteurs, was known as " Wee sue-ha-jouch," amongst the Crees ; but the tales they told concerning him were by no means clear and distinct, nor in such general currency. The Crees were divided into two groups: those inhabiting the plains, and the denizens of the woods ; the latter being far the most enterprising and useful to the trade of the Company. The tents of the Crees, like those of the other tribes in Rupert's Land, Their mode wcro of drcsscd leather, erected by means of of living. poles, seventeen of which latter were required for the purpose, two being tied together about three feet from the top. The whole formed nearly a circle which was then covered with buffalo, moose, or red deer skins, well sewn together, nicely cut to fit the conical figure of the poles. An opening was then arranged above to let out the smoke, and admit the light. Such tents were of goodly size, commonly measuring twenty feet in diameter. A fire was kindled in the centre, around which a range of stones was placed to keep the V( GHABAGTEB OF THE CBEES 279 exactly he Crees F totems, the tribe L two or Saulteurs 3rs learnt igy of no 3d of the amongst him were general groups : LS of the Lsing and its of the :'t's Land, means of required 3ut three r a circle red deer Q conical arranged it. Such g twenty e centre, keep the i fire compact. The Crees were fond of self-adornment and were much addicted to the use of false hair. Their morals at first greatly shocked the servants of the Company, and in the early reports sent home from York Factory much stress was laid upon the need for en- lightenment in this regard amongst the savages. Poly- gamy was common, but not universal. The first wife was considered as mistress of the tent, ruling all the others, often with a rod of iron, and obliging them to perform all the drudgery. The names of the children were always given to them by their parents, or some near relative. Those of the boys were various, and generally derived from some place, season, or animal. The names of the female children, amongst the northern Indians, were chiefly taken from some part or property of a marten, such as the White Marten, the Black Marten, the-Summer Marten, the Marten's Head, the Marten's Foot, the Marten's Heart, the Marten's Tail, &c.^ The exact number of Crees at the time of the Com- pany's advent, it is difficult to compute. Even at that time they were dispersed over a vast extent of country mixing with the Assiniboines and other nations with whom they were on terms of peace. In 1709 appeared an estimate that there were no fewer than a million members of the Cree Nation. From what source was derived this conclusion is not given. ^ "Matonabbee,"sa7s Governor Hearne, "had eight wives, and they were all called Martens." mi I ,"ir^ Ml r ■!' 280 THE GREAT COMPANY fi'iii It may be laid down as a general rule that all con- temporary estimates as to the population of the Indian tribes which were necessarily founded upon hearsay prior to actual penetration into their country are fanciful and totally unreliable. Perhaps the most significant fact which the historian Parkman brought home to the masses of his readers, was the astounding discrepancy between current conception of the numbers of the various tribes, particularly the Iroquois, and that attested and corroborated by the acute research of scholars, and by the testimony of contemporaries. In 1749 the Company thought the number of the Crees to be about 100,000 men, women, and children. A half century later they had diminished to about 14,000, although, in 1810, Henry can find only about 300 tents full of Crees capable of furnishing less than 1000 men. In this calculation, however, he did not include the Crees who lived north of Beaver River. The Crees were, for the most part, quiet and inoffensive, and their personal appearance not entirely prepossessing. Com- pared with the wilder and more valiant tribes to the south and east, their carriage and deportment was inferior ; still they were gifted with activity, and with prominent, wiry figures and intelligent countenances. The next numerous tribe was the Assiniboine, or The Stone Indians, who it is believed originated Assiniboines. ^^]j ^j^g Sioux or Nodwayes. But owing to some misunderstanding between the bands they separated, and some half century before the first fort Vt- THE ASSINIBOINES 281 >t all con- he Indian hearsay re fanciful significant me to the screpancy of the and that search of iries. In the Crees Idren. A It 14,000, 300 tents 000 men. elude the Phe Crees and their g. Com- >es to the nent was and with inances. iboine, or originated Jut owing mds they 1 first fort was built by the Company they were in possession of a vast extent of prairie country near rtie Red River, and thence running westward. The region they inhabited may be said to commence at the Hare Hills, near Red River, and running along the Assiniboine to the junction of the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan. They were generally of a moderate stature, slender and active. In complexion they were of a lighter copper colour than the Crees, with more regular features. Moreover they were readily distinguished from the latter by a different head-dress. Other tribes trading with the Company were the Sioux, Blackfeet, Blood, Slave, and Crow Indians. There were also the Esquimaux, with whom a traffic in the north was carried on chiefly for whalebone, ivory, and oil. " I have often," wrote Captain Coats, " thought this people of the lineage of the Chinese, in the many features I see in them, their bloated flatt faces, little eyes, black hair, little hands and feet, and their list- lessness in travelling. The women are very fair, when free from grease, very submissive to their men, very tender to their children, and indefatigable in the gee- gaws to please their men and children." The Red Indians of Rupert's Land owned no manner of government or subordination. The father or head of the family obeyed no superior nor any command, and he himself only gave his advice or opinions. Consequently it was rarely that any great chief ever '1 282 THE GREAT COMPANY lit m I existed, and then only in time of war. It is true that when several families went to war, or to the factories to trade, they chose a leader, but to such a one obedi- ence was only voluntary; every one was at Hberty to leave when he. pleased, and the notion of a com- mander was soon obliterated. Merit alone gave title to distinction ; such merit as an experienced hunter could boast, or one who pos- sessed knowledge of communication between lakes rk Factory Winnipeg to The chief nting theh* Qg men to reach the terms from :east, in the leir number During the led it was Lances to be morrow was i which the ; and being ►f the expe- my actually the number tribes being sease raged [y speaking, e thousand annually to 1 striving to be foremost, because those in the vanguard had the best chance of procuring food. During the voyage each leader canvassed, with all manner of art and diligence, for braves to join his party. Some were influenced by presents, and others by promises ; for the more canoes each petty leader had under his command the greater he appeared at the factory. Throughout their journey the Indians were obliged to go ashore for several hours daily, which caused great delay in their progress. Their canoes were small, Difficulties l^oldiug ouly two men and a pack of one of the hundred beaver skins, with not much room ^°" for provisions. Had their canoes been larger their voyages would undoubtedly have been less pro- tracted, and each would have been able to transport a greater cargo. Often great numbers of skins were left behind. A good hunter of these nations could kill six hun- dred beavers in the course of a season ; he could carry down to the factory rarely more than one hundred, using the remainder at home in various ways. Some- times he hung them upon branches of trees by way of votive offering upon the death of a child or near relation ; often they were utilised as bedding and bed coverings ; occasionally the fur was burnt off, and the carcase roasted whole for food at banquets. These annual journeys were beset by much hardship and suffering even at the best of times ; and concern- ing this the testimony of at least one Governor is ^11 1^! I ' 294 THE GREAT COMPANY significant. " While," said he, " it is the duty of every one of the Company's servants to encourage a spirit of industry among the natives, and to use every means in their power to induce them to procure furs and other commodities for trade ... at the same time, it must be confessed that such conduct is by no means for the real benefit of the poor Indians ; it being well known that those who have the least intercourse with the factories are by far the happiest. ... It is true that there are few Indians but have once in their lives, at least, visited the fort, and the hardships and dangers which most of them experienced on those occasions have left such a lasting impression on their minds, that nothing can induce them to repeat their visits." Arriving near the end of such annual journey to the forts, they all put ashore ; the women going into the woods to gather pine-brush for the bottom of the tents, while the leaders smoked together and arranged the procession to the factory. This settled, they re- embarked, and soon after arrived before the post of the Company ; if there happened to be but one captain, his situation was in the centre of all the canoes; if more than one, they placed themselves at the wings, their canoes being distinguished by a small flag hoisted on a stick and placed astern. When within two hun- dred yards of the palisade, they discharged their fowling-pieces by way of compliment to the Governor, who returned the salute by letting off two or three small cannon. The men of the tribe seldom concerned ARKIVAL AT THE FORT 295 ty of every ge a spirit srery means e furs and same time, y no means being well course with It is true their lives, nd dangers e occasions minds, that its." journey to going into tom of the id arranged d, they re- he post of )ne captain, canoes; if the wings, lag hoisted 1 two hun- rged their Governor, 3 or three concerned themselves with taking out the bundles, but occa- sionally the younger ones condescended to assist the women. By such means the factor being informed that the Indians had arrived, a trader was sent to introduce their leaders into the fort. Chairs were placed in the trading-room for the visitors, and pipes handed in. During the first part of the ceremony the leader puffed great clouds of smoke, but said little; but Arrival at whcu the tobacco in the bowl became low, the Fort. j^^ grow morc talkative. Fixing his eyes immovably on the ground, he informed the factors how many canoes he had brought, and what tribes he had seen ; he inquired after the health of his hosts, and de- clared his pleasure at seeing them. When this speech was concluded the Governor bade the chief and his party welcome, informing him that he had good goods and plenty, that he loved the Indians, and they might count upon his kindness to them. The pipe was then removed, and the conversation became general. During this visit the chief was newly apparelled at the Company's expense, being furnished with a coarse cloth coat, red or blue, lined with baize, with white regimental cuffs; a waistcoat and breeches of baize. This suit was neatly ornamented with orris lace. He was likewise presented with a white or checked cotton shirt, stockings of yarn, one red and the other blue, and tied below the knee with worsted garters; his moccasins were sometimes put on over these, but he as I i 296 THE GREAT COMPANY often walked away in his bare feet. His hat was of coarse felt, bedecked with three ostrich feathers of various colours. A worsted sash was fastened to the crown, a small silk handkerchief drawn about his neck ; and thus attired, the chief strutted up and down in a state of boundless delight. The second in command now claimed attention. He was given an unlined coat, and a shirt and a cap such as was worn by sailors of the period. The guests having been thus equipped, such highly esteemed luxuries as bread and prunes were forthcoming and set before the chief; of which confections he took care to fill his pockets before they were carried out. Follow- ing these came a two-gallon keg of brandy, pipes and tobacco for the chief and his followers. It was now high time to think of returning to the camp, but this exit was not to be undertaken without further marks of the favour and esteem in which the chief was held by the Company. His conduct from the fort was a ceremony of state. In front were borne a halberd and ensign ; next came a drummer beating a march, followed by several of the factory servants bear- ing bread, prunes, pipes, tobacco, brandy, &c. Next came the " King," " Captain," or chief, with stately tread and erect, smoking his pipe and conversing with the factors at his side. Afterwards followed the " Lieu- tenant," " Prince," relative or friend, who had accom- panied the chief. The tent was found ready for their reception ; having CEREMONY OF THE PIPE 297 kt was of ithers of d to the his neck ; own in a ion. He cap such guests esteemed y and set k care to FoUow- )ipes and ig to the t without hich the iict from jre borne :>eating a nts bear- 3. Next ely tread with the 3 "Lieu- [ accom- ; having been strewn with clean pine-brush, and beaver coats placed for them to sit upon. The brandy was deposited on the groimd, and the chief gave orders for its dis- tribution. After this the factor left, and none too quickly was his departure taken, for all were soon plunged into a state of brutal intoxication. " It is fifty to one," writes one trader, " but some one is killed before morning. They give loose rein to every species of dis- orderly tumult — all crying, fighting, and dancing." About 1735, a party of Indians came down to trade, and the first day of their arrival, as was their invariable custom, got vilely drunk. While thus inebriated, they fought, not noisily, but silently, in the darkness. When morning dawned, two corpses, in a fearful state of mutilation, were found stretched on the ground in pools of blood. After such a debauch, which lasted about two or three days, the sobered braves had resort to the calumet of peace. The stem of this pipe was three or four feet Ceremony ^oug, dccorated with pieces of lace, bears' of the pipe, claws, eagles' talons, and the feathers of the most beautiful birds. The pipe being affixed to the stem, the factor took it in both hands, and with great gravity rose from his chair and pointed the end of the stem to the east or sunrise, and then to the zenith, and to the west, and then perpendicularly to the nadir. After this he took three or four hearty whiffs and then presented it to the chief, and so on round the whole party, the women excepted. When the tobacco was \A\ ill , ,|i 298 THE GREAT COMPANY consumed the factor took the pipe again, and twirling it three times round his head laid it with great de- liberation on the table. A great Ho ! was thereupon emitted from the mouths of the assemblage.^ This ceremony being over, a further gratuity of bread and prunes was distributed, and the chief made a speech, which one trader has reported, after this style — " You told me last year to bring many Indians to trade, which I promised to do. You see, I have not lied, here are many young men come with me; use them kindly, I say ; let them trade good goods, I say. We lived hard last winter and were hungry ; powder being short measure and bad, I say. Tell your ser- vants to fill the measure, and not put their thumbs within the brim; take pity on us, take pity on us, I say. " We paddle a long way to see you ; we love the English. Let us trade good black tobacco, moist and hard twisted ; let us see it before it is opened. Take pity on us, take pity on us, I say. " The guns are bad, let us trade light guns, small in the hand and well shaped, and locks that will not freeze in the winter, and red gun-cases. Let the young All this ceremony has a Mgnificance of its own. Interpreted, it said : " Whilst the sun shall visit the different parts of the world and make daj and night ; peace, firm friendship, and brotherly love shall be established between the English and the Indians, and the same on the latter's part. By twirling the pipe over the head, it was further intended to imply that all persons of the two nations, whosoever they were, should be comprised in the friendship and brotherhood then concluded or renewed. VARIETIES OF BEAVER 299 id twirling . great de- thereupon 1 ty of bread le a speech, le— Indians to I have not h me; use oods, I say. ry; powder 1 your ser- eir thumbs pity on us, re love the , moist and ned. Take ns, small in at will not b the young Interpreted, it : the world and lerly love shall ad the same on , it was further whosoever they >therhood then men have more than measure of tobacco, cheap kettles, thick and high. " Give us good measure of cloth ; let us see the old measure. The young men love you by coming so far to see you. Give them good goods ; they like to dress and be fine ; do you see ? " As soon as the chief had finished the above speech, he, with his followers, proceeded to examine the guns and tobacco ; the former with a most minute attention. This over, they traded with furs promiscuously, the leader being so far indulged as to be admitted into the trading-room, there to remain the whok time if he so desired. The beaver thus received by the chief t-acicr and stored at the factory pending its shipment io EngLiiid in the Company's ships, was classified into eight varieties. The first was the fat winter beaver, sL.iin in winter, which was valued at five shillings and fiix- pence a pound. The second sort was the fat summer beaver, worth two shillings and ninepence. Next cp.me in order the dry winter beaver, and the Boideaiix, ertch Varieties of worth three shillings and sixpence , the dry beaver. summer beaver, not much valued, about one shilling and ninepence. Sixth came the coat beaver, as it was called, which brought four shillings and ni\- pence. The Muscovite, dry beaver of a iino. skin, and covered with a silky hair, was w(^rix in ivussia, where the short fur was combed away and manu- factured into fabric, leaving only tlie hair : this fetched m ! I .'-*?■• 300 THE GREAT COMPANY I ?> 'v-m\ four and sixpence. And lastly on the list figured the mittain beaver, which was utilised in the manufacture of mittens, being worth one shilling and ninepence. It was reported that in the year 1742 the natives were so discouraged in their trade with the Company that many found the peltry hardly worth the carriage, and the finest furs sold for very Uttle. When the tribes came to the factory in June they found the goods much higher in price, and much in excess of the standard they were accustomed to. According to Joseph la France, a French-Canadian voyageur, they gave but a pound of gunpowder for four beavers, a fathom of tobacco for seven beavers, a pound of shot for one, an ell of coarse cloth for fifteen, a blanket for twelve, two fish-hooks or three flints for one, a gun for twenty-five, a pistol for ten ; a common hat with white lace cost seven beavers, an axe four, a bill-hook one, a gallon of brandy four, a chequered shirt seven ; "all of which sold at a monstrous profit, even to two thousand per cent." It was a fact, nevertheless, that notwithstanding such discouragement the two expeditions of Indians who visited York and Churchill that year brought down two hundred packs of one hundred each, that is to say twenty thousand beaver skins. As to the other Indians who arrived from another direction, they carried three hundred packs of one hundred each, which made a total of fifty thousand beavers, besides nine thousand martens. ured the lufacture ence. e natives Company carriage, iT'hen the mnd the excess of ording to eur, they )eavers, a i of shot ianket for a gun for dth white )ok one, a 1 ; "all of thousand hstanding f Indians : brought iach, that Ls to the direction, hundred I beavers, CHAPTER XXI ^ 1731-1742 System op Licenses be-adopted by the Fbench— Vebandbyk sets out fob the pacific— his son slain— disappointments —He beaches the Rockies— Death of Vbbandbye— Fobts IN Rupebt's Land— Peteb the Gbbat and the Hudson's Bay Company— Expeditions of Bebing— A Nobth-West Pas- sage — Opposition of the Company to its Discoveby — DOBBS and MIDDLETON— LUDICBOUS DlSTBUST OP THE Ex- PLOBEB — An Anonymous Letteb. It has already been observed how fearful had grown the demoralisation of the Indians, chiefly through the instrumentality and example of the coureiirs des hois. This class seemed daily to grow more corrupt, bid- ding fair to throw off the last vestige of restraint and become merged with the savage races in all their natural and acquired iniquity. We have seen, too, how the missionaries intervened, and implored the civil authorities to institute some sort of reform. It was at their solicitation that the Government of Canada at length decided to re-adopt the system of licenses, and to grant the privileges of exclusive trade to retired army officers, to each of whom they accorded a certain fur-bearing district by way of recompense 801 i« i 302 THE GREAT COMPANY m for services rendered by him. In order that the trader might be protected against hostile assault, permission was given to establish forts in certain places suitable for their construction. One of the French Canadian youth, whom the ex- ploits of Iberville against the Hudson's Bay Company had fired with a spirit of emulation, and who was head and shoulders above all that race of soldiers turned fur-traders, who now began to spread themselves throughout the great west — was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verandrye. This gallant soldier and intrepid explorer, to whose memory history has as yet done but scant justice, was born at Three Rivers on the 17th of November 1685. At an early age he embraced the profession of arms, Sieur de la and at twcnty-four fought so valorously Verandrye. against Marlborough's forces at Malplaquet that, pierced by nine wounds, he was left for dead upon the field of battle. Upon his recovery he re- turned to the colony, and at twenty-seven married the daughter of the Seigneur d'Isle Dupas, by whom he had four sons. These sons were all destined to be associated with their father in the subsequent explora- tions in Rupert's Land and the Uplands. At the hour when Verandrye was seized with his zeal for exploration and discovery, the Company's rivals already possessed numerous posts established by Iberville, Duluth, Frontenac, and Denonville, and a host of lesser lights, in the west. Of one of these, VERANDRYE EXPLORES THE WEST 303 he trader ermission I suitable 1 the ex- Company was head •s turned lemselves ultier de to whose stice, was jer 1685. of arms, ralorously 'alplaquet for dead :y he re- irried the whom he led to be i explora- with his ompany's itablished irille, and of these, Verandryo sets out to explore the West. on the shores of Lake Nepigon at the extreme end of Lake Superior, Verandrye had been given the command. While at this fort, a rumour had reached him of a mighty river flowing into the great ocean. Credulous of the truth of this rumour; borne to him by the Indians, Verandrye losi little time in communicating it to a friend, Father de Gonor, at Michilmackinac. It was shortly thereafter carried to Governor Beauharnois, who was induced, but not without much pleading, to grant Verandrye fifty men and a missionary for the purposes of exploration. But, although he had thus far suc- ceeded, the only pecuniary aid upon which the explorer could rely was from the fur-trade. He was accordingly given a license to trade, and on the strength of this concession certain merchants advanced him an outfit. He set out, and arrived at Rainy Lake in September 1731, traversed it, and erected a fort near the site of the present Fort Francis of a later day, to which he gave the name of St. Peter. A year later he built another fort on the western shore of the Lake of the Woods, and in 1733 paddled down to the mouth of the Winnipeg River to the lake of that name. Crossing Lake Winnipeg, he ascended the Assiniboine River and constructed Fort Rouge.^ ^ This fort has been thought to have been in the neighbourhood of Selkirk, Manitoba. But Verandrye would not have abandoned such an advantageous position as that which the meeting of the two rivers afforded at the modern Winnipeg. s*:v' ' w c VI 11 -A 304 THE GEEAT COMPANY In 1738 the explorer's three sons, under their shre's instructions, made their way up the Assinihoine and built Fort la Reine, on the site of the present Portage la Prairie. Well may it be said that the five years from 1733 to 1738 were years of cruel grief and disappointment for Verandrye. He had been struggling on to a reaUsation of his dream in spite of the bitterest dis- couragements. One of his sons had been slain by the Sioux ; he was without funds, fur-trading being with him only a subsidiary employment. His ^.en, lacking both courage and faith, became unmanageable, and Verandrye addressed the most affecting letters to his monarch in France, who looked coldly upon him and his schemes. Those merchants who had advanced Verandrye money loaded him with their distrust, perpetually harassed him for returns, and loudly de- manded his recall, so that he was forced to stand still and engage in barter when his whole soul cried aloud for him to press on in his path and reach the Pacific of his dreams. Verandrye divided his little party in the spring of 1742 and ascended the Souris River. Those who came to be familiar with the territory in a later day, when it was frequented by traders, might well appreciate what were the perils these pioneers encountered, and what dangers they escaped when they finally left the country of the peace-loving Ojibways at Red River, and struck off into the land of the Sioux, a tribe then, from m •-' VERANDRYE'S son reaches the ROCKIES 305 their sire's iboine and int Portage from 1733 ppointment ; on to a tterest dis- lain by the being with en, lacking reable, and iters to his n him and L advanced Lr distrust, loudly de- > stand still cried aloud the Pacific e spring of Those who later day, appreciate itered, and lly left the River, and then, from son reaches the Rockies. their ferocity to the whites, called the " tigers of the plains." But they were to go still farther. Already the eldest son of the explorer had reached the tribe of the Mandans on the Missouri, but by reason of his in- ability to obtain guides had been forced to return. He was again despatched by his father, this time in com- pany with the younger son, known as the Chevaher, and two other Frenchmen into the imknown country to the west. This little band of four made a journey of several hundred miles, entering into a league with Verandrye's ^^® ^^ *'^® nations into whoso country they penetrated, to lead them to the great Western Ocean. On the first day of January 1743 they beheld, the first amongst white men, the eastern spurs of the northern Rocky Mountains. But here the Bow Indians, their guides, deserted them ; surrounded by hostile tribes, the party sadly retraced its steps. It was in this same year that the elder Verandrye, scarred and gaunt from his long wanderings in the wilderness, presented himself at Quebec to confront his enemies and traducers. They had represented him as making a mighty fortune and leading an idle life who could point proudly to having taken possession of the country of the Upper Missouri for Lewis XV. : who had built a score and more of forts in the un- known regions of the West. "If 40,000 livres of debt that I have over my head," said Verandrye bittv^rly, " are an advantage, then I can compliment myself on being very rich, and i;'1 VOL. I. U ! ',:! ^■Pii 306 THE GREAT COMPANY I would have been much more so in the end, if I had continued." His license was given to another who, however, made a poor showing by means of it, and it was not until Beauharnois's successor investigated Verandrye's claims that the explorer received some recognition at court. He was given a captaincy and the Cross of St. Lewis. But the explorer had not waited for this. He had been pushing on in his work, and in 1748 ascended the Saskatchewan. The progress of the French was marked by more forts, one on Lake Dauphin and another called Bourbon at the extremity of his discoveries. Veran- drye was about to cross the Rocky Mountains when death overtook him, on the 6th of December 1749. The sons of Verandrye were eager to continue his work and attain at last the Pacific. But Bigot, the intendant, was not their friend; he had other plans, and the Verandryes were deposed by favourites with n ^t half their ability or their claim to honours and rewards. But they had paved the way, and now the French were reaping the profits of the fur-trade in the North- West on a great scale. Thus were successively established, from 1731 to 1748, by Verandrye and his sons, Fort St. Pierre, on Rainy Lake; Fort St. Charles, on the Lake of the Verandrye's W( ods ; Fort Maurcpas, near the mouth of ''ork- the Winnipeg ; Fort Dauphin, on the north- west extremity of Lake Manitoba; Fort la Reine, on the southern extremity of the last-named lake ; Fort RUSSIA LOOKS TOWARD THE NEW WORLD 307 , if I had )ver, made not until ^e's claims at court. t. Lewis. He had jended the as marked bher called J. Veran- ains when • 1749. ntinue his Bigot, the ;her plans, irites with ►nours and d now the ade in the 1731 to Pierre, on ike of the > mouth of the north- Reine, on lake ; Fort Rouge, at the confluence of the Assinihoine and Red River ; Fort Bourhon, at the head of Lake Winnipeg ; Fort Poskoyac, on the Saskatchewan, and Fort Lacome (Nipawi), at the forks of the last-named river. In 1752, some years prior to the conquest of Canada, a relative of Verandrye, named Niverville, established Fort Jonquiere, at the foot of the mountains.^ Which of all these forts were to pass, after many vicissitudes, into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, we shall see in the course of subsequent pages. Verandrye and his compeers chose their sites with great care and ability; so that rarely were their successors able to improve upon them. On the foundations or charred remnants of the French forts, when the structures themselves had perished, the English fur-traders, when they came, reared their own posts. While thus the French were pressing forward from the south and east, at the same moment a new rivalry threatened to spring up in the far North-West. The eighteenth century broke upon an abated zeal of the Spaniards in extending their discoveries and dominions in the New World. Almost contempor- Russia looks ^^leously the threads they threw down were toward the grasped by another power, which the zeal and energy of one man had transformed from a collection of barbarous tribes into a great nation. ^ On the Bite of Fort Jonquiere, a century later Captain Brisebois, of the Mounted Police, founded a post bearing his name. This post has given way to-day to the well-built and thriving town of Calgary. ll'li m !>.,! 308 THE GBEAT COMPANY $m Haying achieved conquest over his neighbours and the cohesion of his new empire, Peter the Great turned his attention to a task well worthy of his attention. None knew as yet whether the two great continents, Asia and North America, united on the north-east. During Peter's residence in England, not the least of the insti- tutions which interested him, was the Hudson's Bay Company. A letter from Peter is quoted by a Russian writer, in which he alludes to the English rivalry for these trades " which had so long been the monopoly of Muscovy, fur-himting and fur-gathering." Doubtless even at this time he was speculating upon Russia's chances of competition with England for the fur-traffic of the New World. But before such a competition could be brought about, it was of the highest import- ance that the question of the geographical connection between Asia and North America should be settled. When Peter had been in Holland in 1717, he had been urged by some of the most eminent patrons of discovery amongst the Dutch to institute an expe- dition of investigation. But again other matters intervened; although in 1727 two Russian officers were actually equipped and in readiness to start overland when unexpectedly recalled for service in Sweden. Not until he was upon his death-bed did Czar Peter pen with his own hand those instructions to Admiral Apraxin which later bore fruit. It was then, too, that the idea, according to Lestkof, was discussed of a md the ned his None bs, Asia During LO insti- q's Bay Russian airy for jpoly of oubtless Russia's ir-traffic ipetition import- [inection settled, he had trons of 1 expe- matters officers o start rvice in ar Peter Admiral boo, that jd of a PETER THE GREAT 8 PLANS 309 Russian fiir company, similar in its methods and organisation to the Hudson's Bay Company. Peter directed first that one or two boats with decks should be built at Kamschatka, or in the vicinity ; that with these a survey should be made of the most northerly coasts of his Asiatic Empire, in order to determine whether they were or were not contiguous to North America. Also that the persons to whom the expedition might be entrusted should endeavour to ascertain whether there was any port in those regions belonging to Europe, and to keep a strict look-out for any European ship, taking care to employ some skilful men in making inquiries regarding the names and situation of the coasts which they discovered. They were instructed to keep an exact journal and to transmit it to St. Petersburg. Peter died; but the Empress Catherine, his successor, was equally favourable to the scheme, and gave orders to fit out the expedition. To Captain Vitus Bering was entrusted the command. Under him were two lieutenants, Martin Spangberg and Alexi Tchirikoff; and besides other subalterns were several excellent ship-carpenters. On February 5, 1735, they set out from St. Peters- burg, and on March 16 arrived at Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia. Bering returned from his first voyage satisfied that he had reached the utmost limits of Asia, and that no junction with North America existed. Some years lU i t'^ . 310 THE GREAT COMPANY elapsed, and in 1741 Bering, Spangberg, and Tchirikoff again volunteered. This expedition was destined to Bering's prove fatal to the explorer; lost in a fog, discoveries, while intense cold prevailed, and scurvy broke out amongst his men, on a little island^ in Bering's Sea he breathed his last. Although many years were to pass before the Russians took any more active steps, they had, by virtue of Bering's discoveries, secured a footing on the North American Continent, and were thus already neighbours, if not yet rivals, of the Hudson's Bay Company. " It is very evident," wrote one of the contemporary chroniclers, " that for upwards of two centuries and a half an opinion has prevailed amongst the most know- ing and experienced persons, that there is a passage to the North-West, and this built partly upon science, partly upon tradition. Now, it is very hard to con- ceive how such an opinion should maintain its credit if it was not founded in reality ; for it is an old and true maxim that specious opinions endure but a short time, whereas truth is everlasting." For many years the notion of a North- West passage had slept; but in 1737 it again attracted public atten- tion. In that year Arthur Dobbs, a gentleman of some means and of scientific bent, made formal appli- cation to the Hudson's Bay Company for a search to be undertaken. Upon his representations the Com- 1 Named after him Bering's Island. ^Ml / 'chirikoff .tined to in a fog, [ scurvy land^ in fore the had, by oting on i already on's Bay • jmporary les and a • )st know- k passage a science, - . to con- its credit L old and it a short t passage lie atten- ieman of Qal appli- search to ;he Com- - » H U I : u C Jl ! SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, F.R.S. Fro/n a picture in the National Portrait Gallery by Thomas Phiixips, R.A. luxii's, R.A. CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON 311 pany sent forth two of their ships upon the quest. These, the Churchill and the Musquash, went, however, no farther north than latitude 62" 15', and returned without seeing anything worthy of notice, save " a number of small islands, abundance of black whales, but no very great tides, the highest about two fathoms, the flood coming from the northward." There had been for a great many years in the Com- pany's employ an extremely able mariner. Captain Christopher Middleton. For some reason or other Middleton had become dissatisfied with its service, and one of his friends placed him in communication with the afore-mentioned patron of discovery, Dobbs. A close correspondence ensued.^ Dobbs was eager to employ Middleton in a search for- the long-sought straits. This was by no means an easy matter. In the first place the Company flatly declined to participate in the scheme,^ alleging that ^ In one of his letters, dated 21st of January 1737, Middleton held that the Company thought it their interest rather to prevent than forward new discoveries in that part of the world. " For that reason they won't suffer any of our journals to he made public," he adds. Than which certainly no observation could be truer : or policy wiser. ' A List of Vessels Fitted Out by the Hudson's Bay Company ON DiSCOVBEY OP A NORTH-WBST PASSAGE. 1719 — Albany Frigate, Capt. George Barlow, sailed from England on or about 5th June. Never returned. Discovery, Capt. David Vaugban, sailed from England on or about 5th June. Never returned. ^ ProtperoMs, Capt. Henry Eelsey, sailed from York Fort, June 19th. Returned 10th August following. c 312 THE GREAT COMPANY they had already done enough m that direction and that the whole idea was a fallacy. There was no North-West passage to India, and the sooner the public mind divested itself of the folly of supposing one existed the better it would be for the public purse and the public wisdom. The Company pointed out that if Middleton should winter at either of the factories in the Bay it might drive the natives to trade with the French, who were always on the alert; and trade so lost would never return or be regained. They begged the Admiralty to re- strain Captain Middleton from interfering with the Com- pany's trade a'^.d invading their property and rights. Dobbs, in the meantime, had secured from the Admiralty for Middleton's use the bomb ketch Mtmace, which, with another small vessel, the Welcome, was ready to sail early in June. So opposed do the Company appear to having their 1719 — Success, John Hancock, master, saileC from Prince of Wales Fort, July 2nd. Retarned 10th August. IT/l — Prosperous, Capt. Henry Eelsey, sailed from York Fort, June 26th. Returned 2nd Sept. Success, James Napper, master, sailed from York Fort, June 26th. Lost 30th of same month. Whaleboney John Scroggs, master, sailed from Gravesend, 31st May ; wintered at Prince of Wales' Fort. 1722 — Sailed from thence 21st June. Returned July 25th following. 1737 — The Churchill, James Napper, master, sailed from Prince of Wales' Fort, July 7th. Died 8th August ; and the vessel returned the 18th. The Musquash, Robert Crow, master, sailed from Prince of Wales' Fort, July 7th. Returned 22nd August. m Qtion and b, and the 3 folly of e for the )n should it might who were lid never dty to re- the Corn- rights, from the I Mtmace, •ome, was ring their B of Wales Fort, June Fort, June esend, 31st 'ollowing. Prince of the vessel :e of Wales' COMPANY OPPOSES FURTHER EXPLORATION 313 domains meddled with by these fruitless expeditions, that they sent out a letter to their Governor at Churchill, which was the most convenient harbour for the explorers to w'nter in, not to receive Middleton The into their fort. Dobbs and his friends c ipany getting wind of this, complained to the opposes o o J. further Admiralty, who wrote to the Honourable exploration. Adveuturers in a tone of decided reproof. They observed that even if Middleton were to receive assistance and provisions, payment would be made for these to the Company on the return of the expedition to England. After deliberating for some time, the Company wrote to the Lords of the Admiralty, saying that they had sent a further letter to Governor Norton requiring him to extend the necessary hospitality to Middleton. That the sort of hospitality the Company was prepared to dispense was not of too warm a character may be judged from the following — " Hudson's Bay House, London, May 15, 1741. •* Mr. J antes Isham and Council, Prince of Wales' Port, ChurehiU River. " Gentlemen, — Notwithstanding our orders to you, if Captain Middleton (who is sent abroad in the Government's service to discover a passage north-west) should by inevitable necessity be brought into real distress and danger of his life and loss of his ship, in such case you are then to give him the best assist- ance and relief you can." 111! I 314 THE GREAT COMPANY i'l !^^^'l!i A duplicate of this letter was put into Middleton's possession, who, still dissatisfied, rushed off instantly with it to Whitehall. It was deemed necessary to apply to the Lords of the Regency that the Secretary of State might, by their orders, write to the Company to request the assistance they had refused to the Admiralty. The Company, thus hemmed in, issued a letter couched in more friendly terms. " It is plain," remarks a contemporary writer, " that the Company beliuvo there is a passage, which they want to conceal; for otherwise it would have been their interest to have the attempt made. If not found there would have been an end to prosecuting it any further, and they might probably have enjoyed their trade to the Bay, without its being coveted or inquired into." Middleton owned to Dobbs that, just before his departure, the Company had endeavoured to bribe him with an offer of £5000 to return to their service, or (if he was determined to go) to pursue the voyage by Davis' Straits, or by any other way than to the west of the Bay. One of the Committee was said to have asserted that it would cost the Company that amount to sup- port itu right against the Crown and against private adventurers, and that " as he had been their friend, and knew all their concerns, it would be better to give him that sum than to give it to their lawyers." The Company did not deny that such an offer had been made privately by two or three of the Committeo. i middleton's "forbidden straits ' 315 Middleton's ff instantly lecessary to e Secretary e Company sed to the in, issued a Titer, "that which they have been f not found ting it any joyed their or inquired before his J bribe him service, or voyage by the west of ive asserted mt to sup- nst private leir friend, ;ter to give ers." The had been litteo. Middleton now proceeded on his journey in quest of the famed North-West passage. It is charged that on his arrival in the Bay he never once went ashore or sent his boat to search for any inlet or to try explores for *^® tide. He investigated the current in a north-west latitude 63° 20', and found it very rapid, in spite of the fact that there existed a great deal of ice to the northward, whose presence compelled him to stand off from shore until he passed Cape Dobbs, beyond which he found an opening north-westward. In this opening he sought shelter, remaining there for three weeks. No voyage of discovery since the world began was ever made under such circumstances. Numerous members of the crew, who had got wind of the situa- tion, were filled, or professed to be filled, with distrust of their captain. Caring nothing about the voyage itself or the object for which it was undertaken, they entered with zeal a hundred times a day into plots to make the commander's life unbearable. The supposed passage was christened the " Forbidden Straits," and the crews vastly amused themselves with Middleton's supposed discomfiture. Several were very nearly yard- armed for spreading reports that the captain liad purposely sailed past the straits. Sometimes the captain merely laughed at the \aews of his subordinates; at other times, it is said, he flew into a temper, and indulged in threats and abuse. Once, when from the number of whales and the Ijfg&cjth and depth of the ■il ill i":!3i 316 THE 6BEAT COMPANY Trouble between Middleton and his men. river, word sped from mouth to mouth that it was a strait they were in, and no river, " he rated several of them for pretending to say so against his opinion, sajdng his clerk was. a double-tongued rascal, that he would cane the lieutenant, broomstick the master, and lasl any others who would concern themselves about the voyage." It was, moreover, charged against Middleton that he interdicted the keeping of private journals, and that if any should disobey this order he threatened to break open their boxes and get possession of such records. Once when the lieutenants and masters were absent down the river to look for a cove suitable for harbouring the ships, Middleton grimly observed that he supposed they would bring back "some romantic account of a strait or passage." Nevertheless, for his part, he would not take the ships a foot farther. Petty intrigue characterised the whole of this voyage of discovery. The officers of both the Furnace and the Discovery took turns in making jaunts into the country. On the 8th of August, Captain Middleton, the clerk, gunner, and carpenter went ashore at Cape Frigid, and after pacing some fifteen miles into the country, returned to find that the ship had drifted, although it then lacked some hours of high water. Officers and men on board from this circumstance had become convincod that it was directly due to the flood from the supposed strait. The captain laughed them to scorn, and said that if it came from any strait at all it was Hudson's Strait. hi MIDDLETON*S CRUELTY TO INDIANS 317 )hat it was a ed several of jinion, saying lat he would ier, and lasl es about the st Middleton g of private di^iobey this n their boxes lords. Once mt down the ng the ships, 1 they would a strait or uld not take characterised be Discovery ry. On the erk, gunner, i, and after returned to then lacked 3n on board lead that it posed strait, d that if it Strait. Two northern Indians were taken on board the Discovery, and Thompson, the surgeon, who understood some of the southern Indian tongue, began busying himself with making a vocabulary of their language. At this innocent occupation he was observed by Middleton, who threatened to " crop " him in case he persisted. When they reached Marble Island, although the two Indians were desirous of proceeding to Eng- land, he put the pair ashore in an ill boat which they were ignorant how to manage. The supplications of the unhappy savages were useless to turn the Com- pany's captain from his purpose. In vain they told him that the island was three leagues from the mainland, and a hundred miles from their own country ; that it was inhabited by the Esquimaux, their enemies. " The captain gave them some provisions, ammuni- tion, hatchets, and toys. The exciise he made for not bringing them to England was, that upon hiu return his friends might be out of the Admiralty, and as he had no orders to take them home, they would be left a charge upon him." This was plausible, but Middle- ton's detractors did not rest there. They accused the captain of saying that he was afraid that the Indians, when they had learned to speak English, would be talking of the copper mine and the North- West passage, and would thereby put the public to the expense of sending out more ships in quest of it. "And this, no doubt," commen^ied Dobbs, " was the true reason for that piece of cruelty, for he ihot^ght if they Ii1!^ 318 THE GREAT COMPANY came to England he should not be able to conceal the passage." On Middleton's return, after hiL quest, he was ac- cused of saying, " My character is so well established as a discoverer that no man will ever, hereafter, attempt to discover the North-West passage." He certainly received a cordial invitation from the rt'^vernment, the Admiralty, and the Court. Immedi- ately upon his arrival in London he communicated with several of the partners of the Hudson's Bay Company. The preparation of his journal occupied for a time his leisure. " He himself," says Dobbs, " had got great reputation from the Royal Society for his observations upon cold ; and for what he had dis- covered had got a medal from them. He was upon good terms with the Lords of the Admiralty, and was to dedicate his charts and discoveries to the King and noblemen of the first rank as well as to the Lords of the Admiralty." That the Lords of the Admiralty were perfectly satisfied with his conduct, there is every reason to believe, as in the following year Middleton Middieton ^^^ pkbccd in Command of the sloop returns Shark. All this naturally put him into a discovering positiou to scrve those under him. His re- the passage, commendations for promotion only strength- ened the suspicions gathering in the mind of Dobbs and his fellow-patrons. *• He had recommended also his lieutenant, and thought none other on board had weight enough to impeach his proceedings, which, if to conceal the >, he was ac- l established Br, hereafter, ge." ion from the pt. Immedi- [unmunicated udson's Bay nal occupied says Dobbs, 1 Society for he had dis- ie was upon alty, and was :he King and the Lords of e Admiralty here is every ir Middleton the sloop him into a im. His re- ily strength- id of Dobbs tnended also 1 board had js, which, if SUSPICION ATTACHES TO MIDDLETON 31d they failed in, would ruin their characters; so that securing his officers, he thought all things would be safe amongst the crew." But Middleton was not one to forget the patron and prime mover of the expedi- tion, whom he endeavoured to propitiate by sending him an abstract of his journal. This abstract seemed, to Dobbs, to be so full of contradictions and discre- pancies, that he wrote to the explorer to send him, if possible, the journal itself. He had scarcely despatched this communication when he received a letter from 'Lanrick, " a gentleman who had been bred a scholar," who had accompanied Middleton on the voyage. It was substantially the same account rendered by the captain, with this added paragraph : " Sir, — ^This account I should have sent you before now but that the captain, for reasons to himself best known, desired that none of us should say anything about it relating to the discovery for a little." This extremely natural desire on the part of an explorer, about to become an author, seems to have been fraught with deep and incriminating significance to Dobbs. After a short time the whole of Middleton's journal reached him; it appeared to confirm all the scientist's singular presentiments. Dobbs and the other patrons were therefore con- vinced that Middleton had played them false for the Hudson's Bay Company ; and their belief in a North- West passage was strengthened rather than weakened. \m 320 THE GREAT COMPANY K !?i m^' h) attaches to Middleton. In their report, after going over the whole account of the voyage furnished them, they were especially severe upon Middleton. "His whole conduct," they said, "from his going to Churchill until his return Suspicion to England, and even since his return, will appe^.r plainly that he intended to serve the Company at the public expense, and contrived everything so as to stifle the discovery, and to prevent others from undertaking it for the future so as to secure the favour of the Company and the reward they said they promised him before he began the voyage." An informer appeared, who testified that Middleton had declared in presence of the others at a council held at York Factory, Churchill, that he " should be able to make the voyage, but none on board should be any the wiser and he would be a better friend to the Company than ever." Middleton was charged in public with neglect in having failed to explore the line of coast which afforded a probability of a passage to the North- West. The principal points at issue appear to have been in respect to the discovery by Middleton of the Wager River, Repulse Bay, and the Frozen Strait. But a century later Sir Edward Parry has said : " The accuracy of Captain Middleton is manifest upon the point most strenuously argued against him, for our subsequent experience has not left the smallest doubt of Repulse Bay and the northern part of the Welcome being filled lole account e especially iduct," they I his return return, will 3d to serve icpense, and scovery, and r the future my and the re he began t Middleton it a council "should be sard should )r friend to neglect in ich afforded West. The Q in respect ager River, a century accuracy of point most subsequent of Repulse being filled A FARCICAL COMMUNICATION 321 by a rapid tide flowing into it from the eastward through the Frozen Strait." Dobbs, fully possessed by a conviction that the captain's story of the Frozen Strait was fictitious, as well as everything Middleton had said concerning that part of the voyage, confidently insisted on the probability of the tide finding its way through Wager River, or at least through some arm of the sea communicating with that inlet from the westward.^ One detail only was lacking to render the situation farcical — an anonymous letter. This reached Dobbs on the 21st of January, and ran in this absurd strain : — This Script is only open to your Eyes, which have been sealed or closed with too much (we cannot say Cunning) Arti- fice, so as they have not been able to discover our Discoverer's Pranks. All Nature cries aloud that there is u Passage, and we are sure there is one from Hudson's Bay to Japan. Send a Letter directed to Messieurs Brook and Cobham, who are Gentlemen who have been the Voyage, and cannot hear so Glorious an Attempt, should die under the Hands of Mercenary Wretches, and they will give you such Pungent Reasons as will awaken all your Industry. They desire it may be kept secret so long as they shall think fit; they are willing to venture their Lives, their Fortunes, their All, in another attempt ; and they are no inconsiderable persons, but such as have had it much at heart ever since they saw the Rapidity of Tides in the 1 "On looking through the correspondence at the Admiralty, it is impossible not to be struck with the straightforward manliness, can- dour, and honesty of purpose exemplified by Captain Middleton through- out this trying business. It was a cruel attack, " — Sir John Barrow. VOL. I. X :m 322 THE OBEAT COMPANY Welcome. The Frozen Straits is all Chimera, en'^ everything you have yet read or seen concerning that part of our "^^oyage. We shall send you some unanswerable Queries. Direct for us at the Chapter Coffee House, St. Paul's Churchyard, London." It was now clear that Middleton's voyage had been made in vain, and that another in search of the passage would at no very distant day be attempted. k '\ -s-if ':' everything our Voyage. Direct for us rd, London." 3 had been the passage CHAPTER XXII I 744-1 748 War again with France— Company takes Measures to Defend ITS Forts and Property— '• Keep your guns loaded"— Prince "Charlie"— His Stock in the Company confis- cated—Further Instructions to the Chief Factors— Another Expedition to Search for a North-West Passage — Parliament offers Twenty Thousand Pounds Reward —Cavalier Treatment from Governor Norton— Expedi- tion Returns- DoBBS' Enmity— Privy Council refuse to grant his Petition — Press-gang Outrages — Voyage of the " Seahorse." In the year 1740 the state of aifairs in Europe be- tokened hostilities between England and France. England had declared war against Spain, and although for a time Lewis XV. and his ministers sympathised War with with the latter country, they endeavoured to France. avoid being drawn into a conflict with her powerful neighbour and hereditary enemy across the Channel. Yet such a conflict seemed inevitable, when by degrees Spanish commerce became shattered under the blows of King George's navy. Apprehensive that England would wrest from Spain her colonies, France resolved to take sides with Spain. In 1744 war was 323 ii ii ^, m \r 1^ -> IMAGE EVALUATION TARGET (MT-3) ^CT // ^ ^\^ / 1.0 1.1 11.25 ■" m 12.2 £ us 12.0 U 1 1.6 FholDgraphic ScMices Carporation ^ ^'^ \ N ^. O^ 23 WnST MAM STRIIT WnSTII,N.V. USM (7U) ■73-4503 '4^ ^:i 324 THE GREAT COMPANY i;p declared, and hostilities, which had been in abeyance for thirty-one years, at once recommenced in the transatlantic possessions of both crowns. It was therefore decided at a general court of the Adventurers, at which no fewer than seventy were present, to take measures to avoid a repetition of the disasters of fifty years previously. They felt that their enemies were now many, that they would be glad to see them driven from the Bay, and that less assistance might be expected from the Government than at any of the crises which had previously overtaken them. We have seen to what this official imfriendliness was due. It now behoved the Company to gird up its loins, and if the foe came, to strike, and to strike with force. It was the Hudson's Bay Company against France and Spain, and the episode of Louisburg alone saved the Company from destruction. To illustrate the temper of the Company at this crisis, instructions were drawn up by the Committee, and despatched to the chief Factors in the Bay. The one addressed to Joseph Isbister and Council at Albany Fort was dated the 10th of May 1744. " The English and French having declared war," it ran, *' against each other, and the war with Spain still continuing, we do hereby strictly direct you to be always on your guard, and to keep a good watch, and that you keep all your men as near home as possible. " We do also direct that you fix your cannon in the BELLICOSE INSTEUCTIONS 325 in abeyance need in the court of the seventy were etition of the felt that their d be glad to ess assistance b than at any rtaken them, endliness was I gird up its to strike with jainst France r alone saved ipany at this e Committee, le Bay. The icil at Albany lared war," it th Spain still 1 to be always and that you le. iannon in the most proper places to defend yourselves and annoy an enemy, after which you are to fire each cannon once with powder to see how they prove, and instruct your men to the use of them without firing ; and that you keep them constantly loaded with powder and inatruotions ^^^^> ready for service. You are also to keep fromtha your small arms loaded and in good order Company. and at hand, to be easily come at ; and that those loaded arms be drawn or discharged once a month, and be well cleaned ; and you are to exercise your men once a week till they are well disciplined and afterwards once a month. And you are also to keep a sufficient number of your trading guns loaded and at hand in case of an attack ; and if there be any Indians that you can confide in, and will be of service in your defence, we recommend it to you to employ them ill such manner as you think proper. ' " We have wrote to the factory at Moose River, that in case they have any intelligence of the French coming down that river to attack them, they are immediately to send you notice thereof, that you may make the necdssary preparations for your defence, and that there be a constant correspondence and intelligence between each factory for the safety of both. "As we rely on the courage and conduct of Mr. Isbister, our chief, in case of an attack from the enemy, which, if done at all on your factory, we apprehend it will be by land in the winter, from Canada ; in which case the enemy not being able to bring down any 326 THE GREAT COMPANY f I •"I n 1 m cannon with them, we doubt not of your frustrating their designs and repulsing them. " In case you are attacked at Henly House, and not- withstanding a vigorous resistance you should have the misfortune to be overpowered, then you are to nail up the cannon, blow up the House, and destroy everything that can be of service to the enemy, and make the best retreat you can to the factory." The letters to the other Governors were in similar strain. The Company directed Isbister to get the best in- formation he could from the trading Indians, " whether the French are making any preparations to come down to the factory, or have lodged any provisions, stores, or ammunition at certain distances from their supply. We also direct you, for your better security, at all times to keep two Indians in the factory with civil and kind usage, and send them out every morning for in- telligence, to a proper distance, so that they may return in the evening ; and provided that they do not return that it be an alarm to you, and that you thereupon prepare yourselves for a vigorous defence. But," it was added, " you must not, upon any consideration, let those Indians have the least knowledge of the use you intend to make of their not returning." At the Company's urgent request letters of marque were granted to the Prince Rupert against both France and Spain. The Prmce Mwpert was one hundred and eighty tons burthen, and the crews were full of expecta- tion that the voyage would yield them a prize of some LETTERS OF MARQUE 327 iir frustrating >use, and not- )uld have the jre to nail up oy everything Qake the best etters to the the best in- ms, " whether ;o come down ons, stores, or their supply, curity, at all mth civil and )ming for in- 3y may return 10 not return ou thereupon But," it was tion, let those se you intend rs of marque both France hundred and 11 of expecta- 3rize of some sort or another. But they were destined not merely to be disappointed, but to be given a great fright into the bargain. When in the neighbourhood of Davis' Letters of Straits, where a whale fishery was estab- Marque lished, scvoral large vessels were sighted. Company's They Seemed to the Company's captain un- ships, doubtedly French men-of-war. Filled with fear, he immediately turned round in his tracks and bore away as fast as his sails could carry him, and after beat- ing about for a time managed to pass through the straits unobserved. So convinced were the Company on the return of its ship in the autumn that the French were lying in wait for its ships at the straits, they besought the Admiralty with a request for a convoy to York Fort, to return with its vessels the following autumn. A convoy was granted, but it was hardly necessary. Louisburg had fallen, and all the strength the French could mus*er was being directed in an attempt to win back that fortress from the English. No French ships could therefore be spared to cruise north of latitude fifty in North America. One consequence of the war with France was a revival of the hopes of the Jacobites. In 1744 Charles Edward, the grandson of James II., was placed by Lewis in command of "a formidable armament," and in the following year the young Pretender placed his foot on a little island of the Hebrides, where for three weeks he stood almost alone. But the Highland blood was fired ; the clans rallied to the standard of " Prince 328 THE GREAT COMPANY K M i. Charlie," and when he began his march on Edinburgh, several thousand Scottish zealots had rallied to his standard. "James the Eighth" was proclaimed at the Town Cross of the capital, and when his troops and the English regiments met at Prestonpans, in September, the latter were defeated with heavy loss. But although this victory swelled his numbers it did not bring the Lowlanders and English to fight for him. " Hardly a man," we are told, " had risen in his support as he parsed through the districts where Jacobl&m boasted of its strength. The people flocked to see his march as if it had been a show. Catholics and Tories abounded in Lancashire, but only a single squire took up arms." The knell of Jacobitism was rung, and after a brief success the English forces fell upon Prince Charles Edward at Culloden Moor, and cut his little army to pieces. Fifty of his followers and adherents in England ascended the scaffold ; Lords Lovat, Bal- merino, and Kilmarnock were beheaded, and over forty noblemen and gentlemen were attainted by Act of Parliament. Scarcely a month had elapsed of°Prince"* ^^m Charlcs Edward's escape to France Charlie's after his romantic adventures, when a motion was submitted to the Governor and Com- pany of Adventurers in England trading into Hud- son's Bay, ordering the confiscation of the stock held by the heir of the second Governor of the Company, King James II. The exiled monarch had never re- linquished his share, and under the name of "John / 1 . ■ ■ INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFICIALS 329 Q Edinburgli, illied to his roclaimed at n his troops istonpans, in L heavy loss, rubers it did ight for him. 1 his support 9 Jacobitism cd to see his IS and Tories I squire took 3 rung, and upon Prince ut his little d adherents Lovat, Bal- d over forty by Act of had elapsed to France ten a motion and Com- into Hud- stock held Company, d never re- of "John Stanion " the dividends had always reached him. But the Jacobite rising affected his feUow-adventurers' com- plaisance, and by 1746 "John Stanion" had ceased to figure as an activQ partner of the Company.^ Under date of 3rd of May 1745, the Company wrote to Governor Isbister and Council, at Albany Fort, to say that they had " augmented the complement of men (as you desired) at your Factory and Moose Fort, that in case of need you may assist each other, and thereby we hope you will be enabled to baffle the designs of the enemy. ""We do direct," it pursued, "that not only a con- tinual correspondence be kept between you and Moose Fort, but that you correspond with the Factory at Slude River, York Fort, and Prince of Wales' Fort as often as you oan, and if under any apprehensions of an attack; to give immediate notice to Moose Fort. We still recommend your diligence in getting intelligence and information of the designs of the French." It also urged Governor Pilgrim and Council, at Prince of Wales's Fort, to keep a sfood !r:Lo. watch, and hU men near home "except to Company's thosc that are guarding the battery at Cape ""-^ Merry, but not to hnfder a proper numlTr to be employed in providing a sufficient quantity of the country provisions to prevent the complaint of those ^ While the name of John Stanion certainly appears in the list of proprietors of Hudson's Bay stock, published in 1749, it is followed by the significant term deceased. 330 THE GREAT COMPANY persons that murmur for want of victuals; and we recommend sobriety, that you may be capable of making a vigorous defence if attacked. " We again recommend your keeping the land, round the Fort and the Battery at Cape Merry, free from everything that may possibly conceal or shelter an enemy, that you may thereby prevent being surprised. " We again direct that you keep up a general corre- spondence with all the Factories, and get what intelli- gence you can of the designs of the French." The course of events now bids us return to Dobbs and the renewed endeavours to find a North- West pas- sage through the Company's territory. A number of public-spirited persons came forward for the prosecution of the design. Parliament was urged to act in the matter, and a bill was carried, offering a reward of twenty thousand pounds for the discovery of the North- West passage. " Whereas," ran the Act, " the discovering of a North- West passage through Hudson's Straits, to the Western American Ocean, will be of great Benefit andthe^" and advantage to the trade of this King- North-West dom ; and whereas it will be a great encour- passage. agement to Adventurers to attempt the same, if a public reward was given to such person or persons as shall make a perfect discovery of the said passage : May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be en- acted ; and be it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Us; and we capable of 3 land, round y, free from r shelter an ig surprised, eneral corre- what intelli- 1." rn to Dobbs th-West pas- ame forward liament was was carried, ands for the y of aNorth- the Western reat Benefit : this King- :reat encour- pt the same, •n or persons aid passage: t may be en- )st Excellent isent of the OQ g o fa n H o H 5 fa o OQ 332 THE GREAT COMPANY »' i'' Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any ship or vessel, ships or vessels belonging to any of his Majesty's subjects, shall find out and sail through any passage by sea between Hudson's Bay and the Western and Southern Ocean of America, the owner or owners of such ship or ships, vessel or vessels as aforesaid, so first finding out and sailing through the said passage, his or their executors, administrators, or assigns shall be entitled to receive and shall receive as a reward for such discovery, the sum of twenty thousand pounds." Parliament took care, however, to declare that nothing in the Act should " any ways extend or be construed to take away or prejudice any of the estates, rights, or privileges of or belonging to the Governor and Company of Adven,turers trading into Hudson's Bay." With such encouragement, it was not long before a North- West Association was formed for the raising of £10,000, which sum it was thought would answer the necessary expense of the proposed expedition. The ships bought by the Committee were one of one himdred and eighty tons, called the Dobba* CkUley, and another of one hundred and forty tons, to which the name of the California was given. Each of these vessels was got ready, and a sufficient quantity of stores and provisions put on board. A cargo of merchandise, suitable for presents to the natives, was put on board, after assurance to the Hudson's Bay EXPEDITION OF NORTH-WEST ASSOCIATION 333 ions in this authority of s or vessels s, shall find ea between ;hem Ocean ip or ships, ng out and ir executors, I to receive scovery, the hat nothing e construed s, rights, or id Company ng before a B raising of answer the ition. The me of one QcUleyy and which the ti of these juantity of L cargo of latives, was dson's Bay Company that t^^ese would not be used for purpose of barter. The command of the Dolibs* Galley was en- trusted to Captain William Moor, an old servant of the Company; that of the California being given to Francis Smith. By way of encouragement, premiums were settled on officers and crew, in case of success. Thus the captain was to have £500, each of the mates £200, and every other officer and seaman, a reward suitable to his station. Over and above all this, in case they were so fortunate as to take any prizes, such were to belong entirely to them. On the 10th of May the expedition started. In order that they might get safely beyond the o f*Se * *°° British Isles without danger from the French North-West privatcersmen, the Admiralty appointed a Assooiation. convoy to meet them at the Island of Pomona, in the Orkneys. Judge of their surprise to find this convoy commanded by Captain Middleton himself, on board H.M.S. Shark. Some days later the explorer of 1742 and the explorers of 1746 bade fare- well to one another. For some months the ships cruised about the Bay. At last, in September, it was decided to set about pre- parations for wintering in some part of Hays' River. This they found in a creek about five miles above York Factory, on the south side of the stream. The locality was, perhaps, hardly congenial iu a social sense. " The Governor," says one who accompanied the ex- / 334 THE GBBAT COMPANY pedition as the agent of the patrons/ " being now con- vinced of our intentions to winter there, used his utmost endeavours that we might lay our ships below m\ OONTBMPOBABT MAP SHOWING THE HAYS' BIVBR the fort, in a place open to the sea, where they would have been in all probability beat to pieces, either from the waves of the sea setting in or the breaking of the 1 Henry Ellis. / ing now oon- ire, used his r ships below • • •*% ■; , A". .« t . • BIVBR > they would , either from »aking of the GOVERNOR NORTON 335 ice ; but as his arguments were of no efficacy in per- suading us, and finding himself disappointed in this, as m his former scheme, being still resolved to distress OoTeraor US as much as possible, he sent most of the Norton. Indians, whose chief employment is to kill deer, geese, &c., into the country, on purpose that we might not make use of them in that way, or be in any wise benefited by their means." The charge that Governor Norton desired the de- struction of the ships is too absurd to refute at this late day; nevertheless there is little doubt that the explorers believed it, and anything else their inflamed imagina- tions and prejudice against the Company suggested. Even when Norton designed to show them kindness, the design was twisted into sinister shape, as for instance, when at Christmas time, hearing that their supply of liquor was short, he sent as a present to the explorers, at the little log-house they had christened Montague House, a couple of casks of brandy with which to make good cheer. Soon afterwards scurvy broke out, and immediately the disease was set down to the brandy. " Our people had been healthy enough before," says Ellis. But even when the scurvy had carried oif several of the men at Montague House, Governor Norton was alleged to have refused either to succour or to suggest a remedy. " The Indians were charged not to come near us, or to furnish us with anything (and this out of consideration for them), because we had a contagious 336 THE GREAT COMPANY » J II distemper amongst us." Norton's sole view in all his actions is represented to have been to hinder and distress the explorers, "which," remarks the writer quoted, philosophically, " is the encouragement that all are to expect who go in search of a North- West passage from such neighhours" When spring came the expedition resumed its labours. It is said the crews were full of alacrity and cheerfulness. One honest seaman, " whose sole delight was a delicious dram," was so enthusiastic over the dis- covery that "in the warm sincerity of his heart he could not help saying, with a good round oath, 'Now, I had rather find the North- West passage than half an anchor of brandy ! * " The summer was spent in coasting the whole north- west side of the Bay. But, alas, the North- West passage so ardently and characteristically desired by the honest seaman, was not found, and by the 14th of October the expedition was back again in England, theexpedi- ^^*®^ ^^ absence of one year, four months, tion to and seventeen days. The explorers and the ^* * patrons might well have been discouraged from further attempts, albeit they returned, we are told, " with clearer and fuller proofs, founded on plain facts and accurate experiments, that such a passage existed." Nevertheless, if the Company breathed easier on their return, it was a temporary relief. A new trial was in store for the Honourable Adventurers, as will be seen in the next chapter. \ IMPROVED CONDITION OF FORTS 337 3W in all his hinder and the writer aent that all (Vest passage resumed its alacrity and I sole delight over the dis- lis heart he oath, * Now, than half an whole north- West passage y the honest of October in England, 'our months, »rers and the discouraged , we are told, plain facts age existed." ier on their trial was in will be seen I In 1748, war still continuing with France and Spain, the Company again issued strict orders to Governor Spence at Albany Fort to be always on his guard, and to keep a good watch and his men near home, "but not to hinder a proper number to be employed in providing a sufficient quantity of the coimtry provisions, particularly geese, which we find you constantly employ the Indians only to kill for you, and which we are dissatisfied with ; that being such a material article, you ought always to blend some of your people with the natives in the goose seasons, that they may understand how to kill them, and thereby lessen your dependence on the native hunters." To the Governor of Prince of Wales' Fort it directed that he should " constantly keep his great guns loaded with powder and ball ready for service during the time the rivers are open. You are also to keep your small arms loaded and in good order, and at hand, to be easily come at, which loaded arms and cannon are to be drawn once a month and well cleaned, and to exer- cise your men as often as requisite, whom we expect by this time are artists, not only in the use of small arms but also of cannon, that the great expense we have been at in this particular may answer the end proposed thereby in case of an attack. You are also to keep a sufficient number of your trading guns loaded and at hand, which charges are also to be drawn every month, and if there be any Indians you can confide in and will be of service to you in your defence, we re- VOL. I. Y 338 THE GREAT COMPANY 11^ (4!, |i 3 commend it to you to employ them in such manner as you think proper." Certainly if a French commander of even Iberville's power had appeared before the forts of the Company in 1748 he would have met with a far different recep- tion to that which was offered to that champion in 1697. The Company suffered much from the press-gangs, from time to time, and in eras of war the evil was almost intolerable. It was well known that the sailors in its employ were amongst the ablest and hardiest on the high seas, which fact exposed them perpetually to the onslaughts of the crimps and bullies. In 1739 the Company's vessel, the Seahorse^ was intercepted by the man-of-war Warvnch, and seventeen men of the Seahorse crew captured by the press-gang for services in the navy. That the Seahorse might not be totally without servants, a number of incompetent landsmen were put aboard in their stead. Nevertheless, the voyage was continued to the Bay, although not without great peril, not arriving until 27th of September. The voyage of the disabled Seahorse was long a tradition in the Company's service. By an Order-in-Council dated the 4th of February 1748, a petition from Arthur Dobbs and members of a committee appointed by the subscribers for finding out a passage to the Western and Southern Ocean of America, " was referred to the consideration of a com- / ch maimer as (Ten Iberville's the Company Lfiferent recep- champion in e press-gangs, the evil was lat the sailors id hardiest on perpetually to DOBBS PETITION BEJECTED 339 mittee of Parliament." After hearing counsel for and against the Company, this committee of two members decided that " considering how long the Company have Dobbs' peti- ©^joycd and acted under this charter with- tion rejected out interruption or encroachment, we cannot bv ft Pftpli&~ mentary think it advisable for his Majesty to make committee, ^uy express or implied declaration against the validity of it till there has been some judgment of a court of justice to warrant it." Enraged at this decision, Dobbs and his friends lost no time in taking other steps towards the accomplishment of their purpose hostile to the interests of the Honourable Merchants- Adventurers in England trading into Hudson's Bay. Seahorse, was and seventeen he press-gang )tally without men were put e voyage was ut great peril, The voyage tdition in the END OF VOL. I. of February d members of 3rs for finding lem Ocean of ion of a com- Printed by BALLANTTRB, HANSON &* Co. Edinburgh &» London