Part 15 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIV

THE GREATEST FUR COMPANY OF THE WORLD

In the history of the world only one corporate coe as Europe Only one corporate company has lived up to its constitution for nearly three centuries Only one corporate company's sway has been so beneficent that its profits have stood in exact proportion to the well-being of its subjects Indeed, few armies can boast a rank and file of men who never once retreated in three hundred years, whose lives, generation after generation, were one long bivouac of hardshi+p, of danger, of arim purpose, of silent achieveland Trading into Hudson's Bay,” as the charter of 1670 designated the with savages in the white wilderness of the north as it hen Charles II granted a royal charter for the fur trade to his cousin Prince Rupert

Governors and chief factors have changed with the changing centuries; but the character of the coed Prince Rupert, the first governor, was succeeded by the Duke of York (Jauished public overnor, and C C Chipman, the chief commissioner or executive officer All have been men of noted achievement, often in touch with the Crown, alith that passion for executive and mastery of difficulty which exults most when the conflict is keenest

Pioneers face the unknohen circumstances push them into it

Adventurers rush into the unknown for the zest of conquering it It has been to the adventuring class that fur traders have belonged

Radisson and Groseillers, the two Frenchreat wealth in furs round the far northern sea, had been gentlemen adventurers--”rascals” their eneued himself with the Frenchmen to obtain a charter for his fur trade, had been an adventurer of the high seas--”pirate” ould say--long before he becaovernor of the Hudson's Bay Coovernor, was as great an adventurer as he was a general

Latterly the word ”adventurer” has fallen in such evil repute, itit in the old-tiold braid and spurs could beDonald S seventeen years in the hardest field of the fur co on snow-shoes half the width of a continent, ca of snow-drifts, who rose step by step from trader on the east coast to commissioner in the west? And this Donald Sovernor of the Hudson's Bay Company

Men bold in action and conservative in traditions have ruled the coland is now represented by the chief commissioner, who in turn is represented at each of the many inland forts by a chief factor of the district Nooverned by the Parliament of Canada

Virtually, the chief factor rules as autocratically to-day as he did before the Canadian Governhts of the fur company

How did these rulers of the wilds, these princes of the fur trade, live in lonely forts and mountain fastnesses? Visit one of the northern forts as it exists to-day

The colder the climate, the finer the fur The farther north the fort, the more typical it is of the fur-trader's realht months of the year, the fur-trader's world is a white wilderness of snow; snoater-waved by winds that sweep from the pole; snow drifted into rahest picket sinks beneath the white flood and the corner bastions are alate rese of a railway tunnel; snow that billows to the unbroken reaches of the circling sky-line like a white sea East, frost-mist hides the low horizon in clouds of smoke, for the sun which rises from the east in other cli equinox, bringing sus in the east like a fog South, the sun moves across the snowy levels in a wheel of fire, for it has scarcely risen full sphered above the sky-line before it sinks again etching drift and tip of half-buried brush in long lonely fading shadows The west shi+rays, for thethe snow by ht Northern Lights darting through the polar dark like burnished spears

Christ of cannon from the snow-muffled bastions Before the stars have faded, chapel services begin Frequently on either Christiven the tawny-skinned _habitues_ of the fort, who co to theof the latch, and billet themselves on the hospitality of a host that has never turned hungry Indians from its doors

For reasons well-known to the woodcrafts in December, and all the trappers within a week's journey frouides who add to the instinct of native craft the reasoning of the white, all the Indian hunters ranging river-course andtrain to spend festive days at the fort A great jangling of bells announces the huskies (dog trains) sca over the crusted snow-drifts A babel of barks and curses follows, for the huskies celebrate their arrival by tangling theht

Dogs unharnessed, in troop the trappers to the banquet-hall, flinging packs of tightly roped peltries down promiscuously, to be sorted next day One Indian enters just as he has left the hunting-field, clad from head to heel in white caribou with the antlers left on the capote as a decoy His squaw has togged out for the occasion in a cos, with a bear's claw necklace and ermine ruff which no city connoisseur could possibly hter yet reayest attire--red flannel galore, red shawl, red scarf, with perhaps an apron of white fox-skin and rasses The braves outdo even a vain young squaw Whole fox, mink, or otter skins have been braided to the end of their hair, and hang down in two plaits to the floor Whitest of buckskin has been ornaaudiest of blankets, it may be a musk-ox-skin with the feats of the warrior set forth in rude drawings on the smooth side

Children and old people, too, conet that draws his soul Grotesque little figures the children are, withpast their heels, rabbit-skin coats with the fur turned in, and on top of all so half-way down to the urchin's neck The old people have narled sticks than to hus They shi+ver under dirty blankets with every sort of cast-off rag tied about their li toothless requests for so to wear, for tobacco, the solace of Indian woes, or what is next best--tea

Auests areoutpost, where perhaps a whitea hunting party's return, arrives at the fort with frozen feet Little Labree's feet must be thawed out, and soacy to the chief factor the death-bed pledge that the corpse be taken to a distant tribal burying-ground And no matter how inclee, for the integrity of a promise is the only law in the fur-trader's realm Special attentions, too, must be paid those old retainers who have acted as o it would not have been safe to give this treat inside the fort walls Rations would have been served through loop-holes and the feast held outside the gates; but so faithfully have the Indians become bound to the Hudson's Bay Company there are not three forts in the fur territory where Indians must be excluded

Of the feast little need be said Like the ca from his capacity for weeks of morrows

His benefactor no more dines with him than a plantationslaves Elsewhere a bell calls the company officers to breakfast at 730, dinner at 1, supper at 7

Officers dine first, white hunters and trappers second, that difference betweenmaintained which is part of the coe forts are libraries, whither resort the officers for the long winter nights But over the feast wild hilarity reigns

A French-Canadian fiddler strikes up a tuneless jig that sets the Indians pounding the floor in figureless dances with ht toof one such ed itself past four of the secondyarns of the past There is a print of Sir George Siuides all reh half a century has passed since his day He was the governor who travelled with flags flying fro when he left the forts, andan emperor when he entered the fur posts with _coureurs_ and all the flourish of royal state Then souides tell of the i personal conflict with an equally iovernor into a lake they were traversing and then ducked into the lake hiovernor

And there is a crucifix high on the wall left by Pere Lacomb the last time the famous missionary to the red men of the Far North passed this way; and every Indian calls up soun-rack are oldback the days when Russian traders instigated a massacre at this fort and hite traders flew at each other's throats as Nor' Westers struggled with Hudson's Bay for supremacy in the fur trade

”Ah, oui, those white hters, they did not kno to stop Mais, sacre, they were fools, those whitein ambush to catch the foe, those white men measured off paces, stood up face to face and fired blank--oui--fired blank! Ugh!