Part 39 (1/2)
[Sidenote: The Company in Athabasca.]
This first expedition was highly successful. Never had the natives received such high prices for their furs. Seduced from their allegiance to the Northmen, and dimly recalling the tales of their sires, regarding whilom journeys to the posts of the Great Company, they rallied in scores and hundreds round its standard. The news spread far and wide. Other tribes heard and marvelled. They, too, had listened to stories of the white traders, who far away, past rivers and plain and mountain, sat still in their forts and waited for the Red man to bring them furs. Now the Mountain was coming to Mahomet.
Many of them resolved to keep their furs until the traders from the Bay came amongst them, too; and, gnas.h.i.+ng their teeth, the Northmen were compelled to give them still higher prices, if they would obtain the goods of the savages, and secure their wavering loyalty.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ARRIVAL OF THE UPLAND INDIANS.]
Other measures became inc.u.mbent upon them to perform. They were obliged to send double the quant.i.ty of merchandise into the interior, and they were also to supply extra provisions to their own men, and to raise their wages; while several clerks were elected partners. Cost what it might, the Northmen were determined to fight to the end.
It has been shewn in preceding pages how the step of removing from Grand Portage had been antic.i.p.ated as far back as 1785, when Edward Umfreville was sent to reconnoitre a site for a new fort on British territory. None appeared more suited to the purposes of the Nor'-Westers than this; the river was deep and of easy access, and offered a safe harbour for s.h.i.+pping. On the other hand, it was situated in low, swampy soil; but by dint of great labour and perseverance they succeeded in draining the marshes and in converting to solidity the loose and yielding soil, accomplis.h.i.+ng on a small scale much of what Czar Peter was obliged to do on a large scale with the foundation of Petersburg.
[Sidenote: Fort William.]
When all was finished, Fort William as it was called,[97] presented an engaging exterior. It possessed the appearance of a fort, having a palisade fifteen feet high, while the number of dwellings it enclosed, gave it, from a distance, the appearance of a charming village. In the centre of the s.p.a.cious enclosure rose a large wooden building, constructed with considerable pretensions to elegance, a long piazza or portico, at an elevation of five feet from the ground and surmounted by a balcony, fronting the building its entire length. The great hall or saloon was situated in the middle of this building. At each extremity of this apartment were two rooms, designed for the use of the two princ.i.p.al agents, and the steward and his staff, the last named official being a highly important personage. The kitchen and servants' rooms were in the bas.e.m.e.nt. On either side of the main edifice was another of similar but less lofty extent, each divided by a corridor running through its length and containing a dozen cosy bedrooms. One was destined for the wintering partners, the other for the clerks. On the east of the square stood another building similar to the ones named, and applied to the same purpose; also a warehouse, where the furs were inspected and packed for s.h.i.+pment. In the rear of these were the lodging house of the guides, another fur warehouse, and lastly, a powder magazine, a substantial structure of stone with a metal roof. A great bastion, at an angle of the fort, commanded a view of Lake Superior. There were other buildings to the westward, stores, a gaol, workshops of the carpenter, cooper, blacksmith and tinsmith, with s.p.a.cious yards for the shelter, repair and construction of canoes. Near the gate of the fort, which faced the south, were the quarters of the physician and the chief clerks, and over the gates was a guard-house. The river being of considerable depth at the entrance, the Company had a wharf built extending the whole length of the fort, for the discharge of the vessels it maintained on the lake, and for the transport of its furs from Fort William to Sault Ste. Marie or merchandise and provisions from the latter place to Fort William. The land behind the fort and on both sides was cleared and under cultivation.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE WAY TO FORT WILLIAM.]
[Sidenote: The immigrants at Red River.]
At the beginning of spring the ”first brigade” of immigrants resumed its journey to the Red River Valley, arriving at what is now known as Point Douglas, late in August, 1812. Hardly had they reached this spot than they were immediately thrown into the greatest fright and disorder. A band of armed men, painted, disfigured and apparelled like savages, confronted this little band of colonists and bade them halt. They were told briefly that they were unwelcome visitors in that region, and must depart. The colonists might have been urged to make a stand, but to the terrors of hostile Indian and half-breed was added that of prospective starvation, for none would sell them provisions thereabouts. The painted warriors, who were North-West company Metis in disguise, urged them to proceed to Pembina, where they would be unharmed, and offered to conduct them there. They acquiesced, and the pilgrimage, seventy miles farther on, was resumed. At Pembina they pa.s.sed the winter in tents, according to the Indian fas.h.i.+on, subsisting on the products of the chase, in common with the natives.
When spring came it was decided to again venture to plant the colony on the banks of the Red River. Means were found to mollify their opponents, and log-houses were built, and patches of prairie sown with corn. A small quant.i.ty of seed wheat, obtained at Fort Alexander, yielded them handsome returns at harvest time and the lot of the settlers seemed brighter; but nevertheless they decided to repair to Pembina for the winter, and saving their corn, live by hunting until the spring.
While affairs were thus proceeding with the colonists, Lord Selkirk, in 1813, paid a visit to Ireland, where he secured a large number of people as servants for the fur-trade and the colony, in addition to those engaged in the Highlands.[98]
Selkirk infused new life into the Company, and a number of plans for its prosperity emanated from his brain. For a long time the Company had had much at heart the erection of a new factory in place of York Factory, but they had not thitherto had sufficient strength of hands to accomplish this. Selkirk wrote to McDonnell that if the settlers were employed in that object for the winter, the Company stood ready to pay their wages. ”Perhaps,” he added, ”it would be more advisable to do this than to make an abortive attempt to reach the interior....
I believe that I mentioned that I am anxious to have the soundings of Nelson River taken, from Seal Island down to the open sea. I beg that while you are at York, you will try to induce some of the officers of the s.h.i.+ps to go and make the survey. I will pay a handsome premium to the individual who accomplishes it.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COMPANY'S s.h.i.+PS IN 1812.
(_From the picture in Hudson's Bay House._)]
[Sidenote: Irish colonists brought out.]
On June 28, the Company's s.h.i.+ps, the _Prince of Wales_ and the _Eddystone_, sailed out of the little harbour of Stromness. They were accompanied by two other vessels, one a brig bound for the Moravian missions on the Labrador coast, and the other his Majesty's sloop of war _Brazen_, as armed convoy. The voyage was by no means as monotonous as such voyages usually were. On board the _Prince of Wales_, typhoid fever of a virulent character broke out, causing a panic and a number of deaths, marine funerals being a daily occurrence. As for the _Eddystone_, an insurrection occurred; during which the sailors and pa.s.sengers between decks sought to obtain possession of the s.h.i.+p and dispose of her, together with cargo and effects to France or Spain, or to the s.h.i.+ps or colonies of those hostile countries. The captain was, however informed of the plan, and immediately placed armed men to guard the hatches, loaded the quarter gun with grape shot and coolly awaited the advent on deck of the conspirators. These appeared in due course, but were quick to perceive themselves completely non-plussed and retired below in confusion.
On the 12th of August the little fleet found an anchorage in Churchill River, in close proximity to the new fort Prince of Wales. Here the immigrants were landed, and after a short rest were sent forward, some on foot and others by boat, to a place known as Colony Creek. Here they built log cabins, and in their weak, unacclimatized state, drew together to pa.s.s the winter in those hyperborean regions. In order to receive the scant rations dealt out to them by the Company at the fort, they were obliged to perform a journey of thirty miles on snowshoes each week. But the trials and hards.h.i.+ps of the poor wanderers, amongst which was the deprivation of the locks of their guns ”in order that they should not kill the Company's partridges,”
came to an end in April, when their gun-locks were restored and they took up their journey to York Factory, slaying innumerable game as they went. Here they met from the Chief Factor, Cook, a hospitable reception, and continuing their journeyings after a short halt, reached Fort Douglas in the early autumn. Governor McDonnell welcomed the members of this second brigade and proceeded to allot to each head of a family one hundred acres of land and an Indian pony. A few days later they were called together, and after each had been regaled with a gla.s.s of spirits, he was furnished with a musket, bayonet and ammunition. They were told they must offer an armed resistance to their tormentors and aggressors should they again appear, and admonished that the strong could dictate to the weak. Notwithstanding, the colonists could not but marvel at the plentiful lack of preparation for the agricultural pursuits which they had intended to follow in this remote region. There were no farm implements, nor was there metal of which these could be fas.h.i.+oned, unless it was the formidable battery of field-guns, or the plentiful supply of muskets and bayonets. At Fort Douglas, under the circ.u.mstances, the colonists could remain but a short time; it was necessary for them to resort, as their forerunners had done, to Pembina, so as to be within convenient distance of the buffalo.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FORT DOUGLAS, RED RIVER.
(_From a drawing by Lord Selkirk._)]
In the spring of 1814, the colonists, after a winter rendered miserable by the jealousy and unfriendliness of the Indians and half-breeds, returned to Red River in a state of great dest.i.tution, resolved never to return again to Pembina, no matter what their circ.u.mstances.
But a step had been taken during that winter by Governor McDonnell which was to reverberate throughout the English-speaking world.
Incensed at the boycotting of the colonists and stirred to action by their condition, he issued from Fort Daer, which was the Company's post erected at Pembina, the following proclamation:
Whereas, the Right Honourable Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, is anxious to provide for the families at present forming settlements on his lands at Red River and those on the way to it, pa.s.sing the winter at York and Churchill Forts in Hudson's Bay, as also those who are expected to arrive next autumn, rendering it a necessary and indispensable part of my duty to provide for their support. In the yet uncultivated state of the country, the ordinary resources derived from the buffalo and other wild animals hunted within the territory, are not deemed more than adequate for the requisite supply.
[Sidenote: Governor McDonnell's proclamation.]