Part 16 (1/2)
Two hours later the keel was heard to split, and the s.h.i.+p 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 here like pent sheep on board.”
[Sidenote: Terrible plight of the s.h.i.+pwrecked French.]
When morning broke, it was seen by the French that their s.h.i.+p 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 marshland, which at least constrained them to wade no deeper than their knees. The French, however, were forced to make their 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 sh.o.r.e they could not, like the English, look forward to a place of refuge and appease their hunger with provisions and drink. They were obliged, in their s.h.i.+vering, 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 number, and a.s.sured 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”The enemy camped in a wood where, building several large fires, they sought to restore their spirits.”]
While the fort was being continually recruited by survivors of the two wrecked s.h.i.+ps, 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 entrenched 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; and Iberville, seizing this opportunity, effected a landing of all his men and armaments from the s.h.i.+ps.
[Sidenote: Iberville demands surrender of the fort.]
The fort would now soon be hemmed in on all sides, and it were indeed strange if a chance shot or fire-brand did not ignite the timbers, and 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 recognized as Martigny. The Governor permitted his advance, and sent a factor to meet him and insist upon his eyes being bandaged before he would be permitted 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 pa.s.sion, 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 returned, and the French instantly set up a battery near the fort and continued, amidst a hail of bullets, the work of landing their damaged 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 12th, 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 Bailey.
He then set to work, with Smithsend, whose treatment 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 paucity of pensions to the hero's family, perhaps, made the offer seem handsome. At any rate it seemed a sufficient incentive to the Company's men, who fought like demons.[34]
A continual fire of guns and mortars, as well as of muskets, was kept up. The Canadians sallied out upon a number of skirmishes, filling the air with a frightful din, borrowing from the Iroquois their piercing war-cries. In one of these sallies St. Martin, one of their bravest men, perished.
Under protection of a flag of truce, Serigny came again to demand a surrender. It was the last time, he said, the request would be preferred. A general a.s.sault 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 decided to yield. He sent Morrison 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 to surrender, Iberville having granted an evacuation with bag and baggage.
[Sidenote: Evacuation of the English.]
At one o'clock on the following day, therefore, the evacuation took place. Bailey, at the head of his garrison and a number of the crew of the wrecked _Hudson's Bay_, and six survivors of the _Hamps.h.i.+re_, marched forth from Fort York with drums beating, flag flying, and with arms and baggage. They hardly knew whither they were to go; or what fate awaited them. A vast and inhospitable region surrounded them, and a winter long to be remembered for its severity had begun. But to the French it seemed as if their spirits were undaunted, and they set forth bravely.
The enemy watched the retreat of the defeated garrison not without admiration, and for the moment speculation was rife as to their fate.
But it was only for the moment. Too rejoiced to contemplate anything but the termination of their own sufferings, the Canadians hastened to enter the fort, headed by Boisbriant, late an ensign in the service of the Compagnie du Nord. Fort Nelson was once more in the hands of the French.[35]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTURE OF FORT NELSON BY THE FRENCH.
(_From a Contemporary Print appearing in M. de la Potherie's ”Relation.”_)]
The Company, too, was debarred from any attempt at reconquest, because of the Treaty[36] just concluded at Ryswick, which yielded the territory which had been the scene of so much commerce, action and bloodshed to the subjects of the Most Christian King.