THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY FORMED.
Hudson's Bay Company aggressive--The great McTavish--The
Frobishers--Pond and Pangman dissatisfied--Gregory and
McLeod--Strength of the North-West Company--Vessels to be
built--New route from Lake Superior sought--Good-will at
times--Bloody Pond--Wider union, 1787--Fort Alexandria--Mouth of
the Souris--Enormous fur trade--Wealthy Nor'-Westers--"The Haunted
House."
The terrible scourge of smallpox cut off one-half, some say one-third
of the Indian population of the fur country. This was a severe blow to
the prosperity of the fur trade, as the traders largely depended on
the Indians as trappers. The determination shown by the Hudson's Bay
Company, and the zeal with which they took advantage of an early access
to the Northern Indians, were a surprise to the Montreal traders, and we
find in the writings of the time, frequent expressions as to the loss of
profits produced by the competition in the fur trade.
The leading fur merchants of Montreal determined on a combination of
their forces. Chief among the stronger houses were the Frobishers.
Joseph Frobisher had returned from his two years' expedition in 1776,
"having secured what was in those days counted a competent fortune," and
was one of the "characters" of the commercial capital of Canada.
The strongest factor in the combination was probably Simon McTavish, of
whom a writer has said "that he may be regarded as the founder of the
famous North-West Company." McTavish, born in 1750, was a Highlander of
enormous energy and decision of character. While by his force of will
rousing opposition, yet he had excellent business capacity, and it was
he who suggested the cessation of rivalries and strife among themselves
and the union of their forces by the Canadian traders.
[Illustration: THE LAC DES ALLUMETTES.]
Accordingly the North-West Company was formed 1783-4, its stock being
apportioned into sixteen parts, each stockholder supplying in lieu of
money a certain proportion of the commodities necessary for trade, and
the Committee dividing their profits when the returns were made from
the sale of furs. The united firms of Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher
and Simon McTavish administered the whole affair for the traders and
received a commission as agents.
The brightest prospect lay before the new formed Company, and they had
their first gathering at Grand Portage in the spring of 1784. But union
did not satisfy all. A viciously-disposed and self-confident trader,
Peter Pond, had not been consulted. Pond was an American, who, as we
have seen in 1775, accompanied Henry, Cadot, and Frobisher to the far
North-West. Two years later he had gone to Lake Athabasca, and forty
miles from the lake on Deer River, had built in 1778 the first fort in
the far-distant region, which became known as the Fur Emporium of the
North-West. Pond had with much skill prepared a great map of the country
for presentation to the Empress Catherine of Russia, and at a later
stage gave much information to the American commissioners who settled
the boundary line under the Treaty of Paris.
Pond was dissatisfied and refused to enter the new Company. Another
trader, Peter Pangman, an American also, had been overlooked in the
new Company, and he and Pond now came to Montreal, determined to form
a strong opposition to the McTavish and Frobisher combination. In this
they were successful.
One of the rising merchants of Montreal at this time was John Gregory,
a young Englishman. He was united in partnership with Alexander Norman
McLeod, an ardent Highlander, who afterwards rose to great distinction
as a magnate of the fur trade. Pangman and Pond appealed to the
self-interest of Gregory, McLeod & Company, and so, very shortly after
his projected union of all the Canadian interests, McTavish saw arise a
rival, not so large as his own Company, but in no way to be despised.
To this rival Company also belonged an energetic, strong-willed
Scotchman, who afterwards became the celebrated Sir Alexander
Mackenzie, his cousin Roderick McKenzie--a notable character, a trader
named Ross, and also young Finlay, a son of the pioneer so well known
twenty years before in the fur trading and civil history of Canada. Pond
signalized himself by soon after deserting to the older Company.
The younger Company acted with great vigour. Leaving McLeod behind to
manage the business in Montreal, the other members found themselves
in the summer at Grand Portage, where they established a post. They
then divided up the country and gave it to the partners and traders.
Athabasca was given to Ross; Churchill River to Alexander Mackenzie; the
Saskatchewan to Pangman; and the Red River country to the veteran trader
Pollock.
The North-West Company entered with great energy upon its occupation of
the North-West country. We are able to refer to an unpublished memorial
presented by them, in 1784, to Governor Haldimand, which shows very well
their hopes and expectations. They claim to have explored and improved
the route from Grand Portage to Lake Ouinipique, and they ask the
governor to grant them the exclusive privilege of using this route for
ten years.
They recite the expeditions made by the Montreal traders from their
posts in 1765 up to the time of their memorial. They urge the granting
of favours to them on the double ground of their having to oppose the
"new adventurers," as they call the Hudson's Bay Company, in the north,
and they claim to desire to oppose the encroachments of the United
States in the south. They state the value of the property of the Company
in the North-West, exclusive of houses and stores, to be 25,303_l._
3_s._ 6_d._; the other outfits also sent to the country will not fall
far short of this sum. The Company will have at Grand Portage in the
following July 50,000_l._ (original cost) in fur. They further ask the
privilege of constructing a small vessel to be built at Detroit and to
be taken up Sault Ste. Marie to ply on Lake Superior, and also that in
transporting their supplies on the King's ships from Niagara and Detroit
to Michilimackinac, they may have the precedence on account of the
shortness of their season and great distance interior to be reached.
They state that they have arranged to have a spot selected at Sault Ste.
Marie, whither they may have the fort transferred from Michilimackinac,
which place had been awarded by the Treaty of Paris to the Americans.
They desire another vessel placed on the lakes to carry their furs to
Detroit. This indicates a great revival of the fur trade and vigorous
plans for its prosecution.
A most interesting statement is also made in the memorial: that on
account of Grand Portage itself having been by the Treaty of Paris left
on the American side of the boundary on Lake Superior, they had taken
steps to find a Canadian route by which the trade could be carried on
from Lake Superior to the interior. They state that they had sent off on
an expedition a canoe, with provisions only, navigated by six Canadians,
under the direction of Mr. Edward Umfreville, who had been eleven years
in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and who along with his
colleague, Mr. Verrance, knew the language of the Indians.
We learn from Umfreville's book that "he succeeded in his expedition
much to the satisfaction of the merchants," along the route from
Lake Nepigon to Winnipeg River. The route discovered proved almost
impracticable for trade, but as it was many years before the terms of
the treaty were carried into effect, Grand Portage remained for the time
the favourite pathway to the interior.
The conflict of the two Montreal companies almost obscured that with the
English traders from Hudson Bay. True, in some districts the competition
was peaceful and honourable. The nephew of Simon McTavish, William
McGillivray, who afterwards rose to great prominence as a trader, was
stationed with one of the rival company, Roderick McKenzie, of whom we
have spoken, on the English River. In 1786 they had both succeeded so
well in trade that, forming their men into two brigades, they returned
together, making the woods resound with the lively French songs of the
voyageurs.
The attitude of the traders largely depended, however, on the character
of the men. To the Athabasca district the impetuous and intractable
Pond was sent by the older Company, on his desertion to it. Here there
was the powerful influence of the Hudson's Bay Company to contend
against, and the old Company from the Bay long maintained its hold on
the Northern Indians. To make a flank movement upon the Hudson's Bay
Company he sent Cuthbert Grant and a French trader to Slave Lake, on
which they established Fort Resolution, while, pushing on still farther,
they reached a point afterwards known as Fort Providence.
The third body to be represented in Athabasca Lake was the small
North-West Company by their _bourgeois_, John Ross. Ross was a peaceable
and fair man, but Pond so stirred up strife that the employés of the two
Companies were in a perpetual quarrel. In one of these conflicts Ross
was unfortunately killed. This added to the evil reputation of Pond,
who in 1781 had been charged with the murder of a peaceful trader named
Wadin, in the same Athabasca region.
When Roderick McKenzie heard at Ile à la Crosse of the murder, he
hastened to the meeting of the traders at Grand Portage. This alarming
event so affected the traders that the two Companies agreed to unite.
The union was effected in 1787, and the business at headquarters in
Montreal was now managed by the three houses of McTavish, Frobisher, and
Gregory. Alexander Mackenzie was despatched to Athabasca to take the
place of the unfortunate trader Ross, and so became acquainted with the
region which was to be the scene of his triumphs in discovery.
The union of the North-West fur companies led to extension in some
directions. The Assiniboine Valley, in one of the most fertile parts of
the country, was more fully occupied. As in the case of the Hudson's
Bay Company, the occupation of this valley took place by first coming
to Lake Winnipeg and ascending the Swan River (always a fur trader's
paradise), until, by a short portage, the Upper Assiniboine was reached.
The oldest fort in this valley belonging to the Nor'-Westers seems to
have been built by a trader, Robert Grant, a year or two after 1780. It
is declared by trader John McDonnell to have been two short days' march
from the junction of the Qu'Appelle and Assiniboine.
Well up the Assiniboine, and not far from the source of the Swan River,
stood Fort Alexandria, "surrounded by groves of birch, poplar, and
aspen," and said to have been named after Sir Alexander Mackenzie. It
was 256 feet in length by 196 feet in breadth; the "houses, stores,
&c., being well built, plastered on the inside and outside, and washed
over with a white earth, which answers nearly as well as lime for
white-washing."
Connected with this region was the name of a famous trader, Cuthbert
Grant, the father of the leader of the half-breeds and Nor'-Westers,
of whom we shall speak afterwards. At the mouth of Shell River on the
Assiniboine stood a small fort built by Peter Grant in 1794.
When the Nor'-Westers became acquainted with the route down the
Assiniboine, they followed it to its mouth, and from that point, where
it joined the Red River, descended to Lake Winnipeg and crossed to the
Winnipeg River.
In order to do this they established in 1785, as a halting place,
Pine Fort, about eighteen miles below the junction of the Souris and
Assiniboine Rivers. At the mouth of the Souris River, and near the site
of the Brandon House, already described as built by the Hudson's Bay
Company, the North-West Company built in 1795 Assiniboine House. This
fort became of great importance as the depôt for expeditions to the
Mandans of the Missouri River.
The union of the Montreal Companies resulted, as had been expected, in
a great expansion of the trade. In 1788 the gross amount of the trade
did not exceed 40,000_l._, but by the energy of the partners it reached
before the end of the century more than three times that amount--a
remarkable showing.
The route now being fully established, the trade settled down into
regular channels. The agents of the Company in Montreal, Messrs.
McTavish & Co., found it necessary to order the goods needed from
England eighteen months before they could leave Montreal for the West.
Arriving in Canada in the summer, they were then made up in packages for
the Indian trade. These weighed about ninety pounds each, and were ready
to be borne inland in the following spring.
Then being sent to the West, they were taken to the far points in the
ensuing winter, where they were exchanged for furs. The furs reached
Montreal in the next autumn, when they were stored to harden, and
were not to be sold or paid for before the following season. This was
forty-two months after the goods were ordered in Canada. This trade was
a very heavy one to conduct, inasmuch as allowing a merchant one year's
credit, he had still two years to carry the burden after the value of
the goods had been considered as cash.
Toward the end of the century a single year's produce was enormous. One
such year was represented by 106,000 beavers, 32,000 marten, 11,800
mink, 17,000 musquash, and, counting all together, not less than 184,000
skins.
The agents necessary to carry on this enormous volume of trade were
numerous. Sir Alexander Mackenzie informs us that there were employed
in the concern, not including officers or partners, 50 clerks, 71
interpreters and clerks, 1,120 canoe-men, and 35 guides.
The magnitude of the operations of this Company may be seen from the
foregoing statements. The capital required by the agents of the concern
in Montreal, the number of men employed, the vast quantities of goods
sent out in bales made up for the western trade, and the enormous store
of furs received in exchange, all combined to make the business of the
North-West Company an important factor in Canadian life.
Canada was then in her infancy. Upper Canada was not constituted a
province until the date of the formation of the North-West Company.
Montreal and Quebec, the only places of any importance, were small
towns. The absence of manufactures, agriculture, and means of
inter-communication or transport, led to the North-West Company being
the chief source of money-making in Canada. As the fur merchants became
rich from their profits, they bought seigniories, built mansions, and
even in some cases purchased estates in the old land.
Simon McTavish may be looked upon as a type. After a most active life,
and when he had accumulated a handsome competence, Simon McTavish owned
the Seigniory of Terrebonne, receiving in 1802 a grant of 11,500 acres
in the township of Chester. He was engaged at the time of his death,
which took place in 1804, in erecting a princely mansion at the foot of
the Mountain in Montreal. For half a century the ruins of this building
were the dread of children, and were known as McTavish's "Haunted
House." The fur-trader's tomb may still be recognized by an obelisk
enclosed within stone walls, near "Ravenscrag," the residence of the
late Sir Hugh Allan, which occupies the site of the old ruin. _Surely
the glory of the lords of the lakes and the forest has passed away._