Part 32 (1/2)
James FitzGerald.
[72] ”No man,” says Hearne, ”either English or Indian, ever found a bit of copper in that country to the south of the seventy-first degree of lat.i.tude, unless it had been accidentally dropped by some of the far northern Indians on their way to the Company's factory.”
[73] ”This leader,” says Hearne, ”when a youth, resided several years at the above Fort and was not only a perfect master of the Southern Indian language, but by being frequently with the Company's servants had acquired several words of English and was one of the men who brought the latest accounts of the Coppermine River. It was on his information, added to that of one I-dot-le-ezry (who is since dead), that this expedition was set on foot.”
[74] ”I cannot sufficiently regret,” wrote Hearne in 1796, ”the loss of a considerable vocabulary of the northern Indian language, containing sixteen folio pages, which was lent to the late Mr.
Hutchins, then corresponding secretary to the Company, to copy for Captain Duncan, when he went on discoveries to Hudson's Bay in the year 1790. But Mr. Hutchins dying soon after, the vocabulary was taken away with the rest of his effects and cannot now be recovered, and memory, at this time, will by no means serve to replace it.”
[75] The Company had previously written thus to its servant, Mr.
Samuel Hearne:--
Sir,--Your letter of the 28th August last, gave us the agreeable pleasure to hear of your safe return to our factory. Your journal and the two charts you sent sufficiently convinces us of your very judicious remarks.
We have, naturally, considered your great a.s.siduity in the various accidents which occurred in your several journeys. We hereby return you our grateful thanks, and to manifest our obligation we have consented to allow you a gratuity of 200 for those services.
[76] ”Mr. Dalrymple, in one of his pamphlets relating to Hudson's Bay, has been so very particular in his observations on my journey, as to remark that I have not explained the construction of the quadrant which I had the misfortune to break in my second journey to the North.
It was a Hadley quadrant, with a bubble attached to it for a horizon, and made by Daniel Scatlif, of Wapping.”--_Hearne._
CHAPTER XXVI.
1773-1782.
Company Suffers from the Rivalry of Canadians -- c.u.mberland House built -- Debauchery and license of the Rivals -- Frobisher Intercepts the Company's Indians -- The Smallpox Visitation of 1781 -- La Perouse appears before Fort Prince of Wales -- Hearne's Surrender -- Capture of York Fort by the French -- The Post Burned and the Company's Servants carried away Prisoners.
The Company was not immediately advised of the ruinous proceedings of the Montreal traders by its governors at York and Churchill. But at length the diminution of trade became marked. The Indians continued to bring in reports of other white traders speaking English, who intercepted them and gave them trinkets and rum in exchange for their furs. They declared they were conscious of having made a bad bargain in not continuing onward to the Company's posts, but what could they do? ”The _Bostonnais_[77] was cunning and he deceived the Indian.” At last, in view of this, it was felt that further delay were folly.
[Sidenote: c.u.mberland House built.]
In the spring of 1773 instructions were sent out to Governor Norton to despatch Hearne westward and establish a post in the interior. By this time the rival Canadian traders had carried the trade beyond the French limits, although, for reasons to be disclosed, all their activity was in vain, so far as material results either to themselves or their employers or capitalists were concerned, not to mention the aborigines themselves.
Hearne hit upon what he considered a good site for the new post at Sturgeon Lake, on the eastern bank, in lat.i.tude 53, 56 and longitude 102, 15. The post prospered almost from its foundation. The neighbouring tribes found that here were to be procured a larger and better a.s.sortment of goods than the Canadians brought them, and frequented it in preference.[78]
For several years now a trade with the Indians had been carried on in the footsteps of the French license-holders.
[Ill.u.s.tration: VISIT TO AN INDIAN ENCAMPMENT.]
What was to be expected when the character of the Montreal traders themselves, and the commerce they prosecuted, was considered, soon happened. This army of half-wild men, armed to the teeth, unhampered by legal restraint, constantly drinking, carousing and quarrelling amongst themselves, gradually spread over the north-west, sowing crime and anarchy wherever they went. The country they traded in was so distant, and their method of transportation so slow, that they were fortunate if they reached their winter quarters without leaving the corpses of several of their number to mark their path.
Was it singular that trade carried on in such a fas.h.i.+on, and with results so ruinous, should cause the ”partners,” as these unhappy individuals, who had furnished the funds, were called, to contemplate the future with dismay? Season after season the ”winterers” returned to the Grand Portage with the same tale; and season after season were better profits promised, but never, alas, for their dupes, were these promises fulfilled!
[Sidenote: Frobisher intercepts Company's Indians.]
Matters were thus going from bad to worse in this way, when one sober and enterprising trader, Joseph Frobisher, resolved to leave the beaten track and penetrate nearer to the Company's Factory, at Churchill, than had yet been done. In the spring of 1775, as a band of Indians were on their way as usual to Prince of Wales' Fort, they were met by Frobisher, who caused them to halt and to drink and smoke with him. The chiefs imagined he was one of the Company's factors, and Frobisher did not choose to undeceive them. His wares being of a better quality than those of his compeers, the Indians suffered themselves to be persuaded to trade on the spot, which was at a portage afterwards called by the Montreal traders La Traite, on account of this episode. The Indians, nevertheless, resumed their journey to Churchill River, where the indignation of Hearne and the Council knew no bounds. He informed the Indians that a ”scurvy trick”
had been played upon them; and so characterized it in his journal. A few having still some of the heavier furs by them, were paid double, as an encouragement to their future discrimination. Nevertheless, in spite of all, the ”scurvy trick” was repeated by Frobisher the following year, both times securing enormous booty.[79]
The difficulties and sufferings of these two undertakings, however, affected him with a distaste for a repet.i.tion; but he sent his brother Benjamin to explore the region still farther. This he accomplished, going as far west as the Lake of Isle a la Crosse.