Part 29 (1/2)
[Sidenote: Case of Capt. Coats.]
Coats at first endeavoured to excuse himself, but finding the proofs contained in the letter papers (many of which were in his own handwriting and signature) so strong in evidence against him, at last owned he was guilty of the offence he was accused of and submitted himself to the Company, and he was ordered to withdraw while his case was considered. At the expiration of two hours the culprit was called in and acquainted with his sentence, which was dismissal from the service. He was ordered to deliver up the keys of the _King George_, of which he was commander, together with the stores and the keys of such stores in the warehouse in his custody belonging to the Company.
The disgraced captain went home, and after a miserable existence of some weeks, ended his life by his own hand. On the 20th of February, there is a letter to the Company from his widow, Mary Coats, which was read out to the Adventurers a.s.sembled. It prayed that the Committee would ”indulge her so far as to order the balance that shall appear upon her late husband's account to be paid, and to permit her to have the stores brought home, still remaining in the _King George_; the profit of these, urged the widow, had always been enjoyed by every master in the Company's services.” Moved by the appeal, Widow Coats was called in and informed that provided she delivered up to the Company all the books, papers, charts or drafts belonging to her late husband and now in her custody, she might expect to meet with the favour of the Company. ”For which she returned thanks and promised to comply therewith.” But the Hakluyt Society's publication of Coats'
journal is sufficient to show that his widow did not keep to the strict letter of her word.
FOOTNOTES:
[62] The number of the Adventurers was, before the enquiry of 1749, a mystery. By many it was charged that they were not above a dozen or fifteen.
[63] Dobbs's ”Hudson's Bay,” a hysterical work, which was throughout an attack on Captain Christopher Middleton.
[64] 1720
[65] On June 28th, 1749, at a Company's meeting, an account was made of the cost of defending the Company's charter, upon the motion made in the House of Commons. It amounted in the whole to only 755 5s.
10d., exclusive of Sharpe, the Company solicitor's services.
[66] In refusing to advise the granting of a charter to the Company's enemies, the Attorney-General, Sir Dudley Ryder, and the Solicitor-General, Sir William Murray--afterwards Lord Mansfield--drew up a lengthy and important paper, reviewing the charges against the Company. Their conclusion was that either the charges were ”not sufficiently supported in point of fact, or were in great measure accounted for from the nature and circ.u.mstances of the case.” They deemed the charter valid for all practical purposes.
[67] ”The Company being apprehensive that Mr. Secretary Pitts'
indisposition should deprive them of an opportunity of conferring with him in due time, with respect to the Company's claim on the French nation for depredations in times of peace before the Treaty of Utrecht, resolved that a pet.i.tion should be drawn up to his Majesty, humbly representing such losses and damages, reciting the tenth and eleventh article of the said treaty, and praying that his Majesty will give his plenipotentiaries at the approaching congress for a treaty of peace, such directions as will suffice for justice being done to the Company by compensation for such losses. Also that the boundaries of Hudson's Bay may be settled.”--_Minute Book_, May 20th, 1761.
CHAPTER XXIV.
1763-1770.
Effect of the Conquest on the Fur-trade of the French -- Indians again Seek the Company's Factories -- Influx of Highlanders into Canada -- Alexander Henry -- Mystery Surrounding the _Albany_ Cleared Up -- Astronomers Visit Prince of Wales' Fort -- Strike of Sailors -- Seizure of Furs -- Measures to Discourage Clandestine Trade.
[Sidenote: Effect of the Conquest.]
The conquest of Canada by the English in 1760[68] had an almost instantaneous effect upon the fur-trade of the French. The system of licenses was swept away with the _regime_ of Intendants of New France.
The posts which, established chiefly for purposes of trade, were yet military, came to be abandoned, and the officers who directed them turned their disconsolate faces towards France, or to other lands where the flag of the lily still waved. The English colonies were not devoid of diligent traders ready to pursue their calling advantageously: but they shrank from penetrating a country where the enemy might yet lurk, a country of whose approaches, and of whose aspect or inhabitants they knew nothing and feared everything. As for the Indians themselves, they, for a time, awaited patiently the advent of the French trader. Spring came and found them at the deserted posts. They sought but they could not find; ”their braves called loudly, but the sighing trees alone answered their call.” Despair at first filled the bosoms of the Red men when they found that all their winter's toil and hards.h.i.+ps in the forest and over the trail had been in vain. They waited all summer, and then, as the white trader came not, wearily they took up their burdens and began their journey anew.
For a wise Indian had appeared amongst them, and he had said: ”Fools, why do you trust these white traders who come amongst you with beads, and fire-water and crucifixes? They are but as the crows that come and are gone. But there are traders on the banks of the great lake yonder who are never absent, neither in our time nor in the time of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. They are like the rock which cannot be moved, and they give good goods and plenty, and always the same. If you are wise you will go hence and deal with them, and never trust more the traders who are like fleas and gra.s.shoppers--here one minute and flown away the next.”
More than one factor of the Company heard and told of this oft-spoken harangue, and many there lived to testify to its effect upon the a.s.sembled Indians. Not even was it forgotten or disregarded years afterwards in the height of the prosperity of the Northmen, whose arts of suasion were exercised in vain to induce the Red man to forego his journey to York, Churchill or c.u.mberland.
”No,” they would say, ”we trade with our friends, as our grandfathers did. Our fathers once waited for the French and Bostonians to come to their forts, and they lay down and died, and their squaws devoured them, waiting still. You are here to-day, but will you be here to-morrow? No, we are going to trade with the Company.”
And so they pressed on, resisting temptation, wayward, though loyal, enduring a long and rough journey that they might deal with their friends.
[Sidenote: The ”coureurs de bois.”]
Thus for some years the Company prospered, and did a more thriving business than ever. But before, however, dealing with the new _regime_, let us turn for a moment to the Canadian bushrangers and voyageurs thus cut off from their homes and abandoned by their officers and employers. Their occupation was gone--whither did they drift? Too long had they led the untrammelled life of the wilderness to adjust again the fetters of a civilized life in Montreal or Quebec; they were attached to their brave and careless masters; these in many instances they were permitted to follow; but large numbers dispersed themselves amongst the Indians. Without capital they could no longer follow the fur-trade; they were fond of hunting and fis.h.i.+ng; and so by allying themselves with Indian wives, and by following the pursuits and adopting the customs of the Red men, themselves became virtually savages, completely severed from their white fellows.
But an influx of Scotch Highlanders had been taking place in Canada ever since 1745, and some of these bold spirits were quick to see the advantages of prosecuting, without legal penalty, a private trade in furs. To these were added English soldiers, who were discharged at the peace, or had previously deserted. How many of these were slain by the aborigines, and never more heard of, can never be computed; but it is certain that many more embarked in the fur-trade and fell victims to the tomahawk, torch, hunger and disease than there is any record of.
[Sidenote: Hostility of the Indians to the English.]