FROM OREGON TO VANCOUVER ISLAND.
Fort Vancouver on American soil--Chief Factor Douglas
chooses a new site--Young McLoughlin killed--Liquor selling
prohibited--Dealing with the Songhies--A Jesuit father--Fort
Victoria--Finlayson's skill--Chinook jargon--The brothers
Ermatinger--A fur-trading Junius--"Fifty-four, forty, or
fight"--Oregon Treaty--Hudson's Bay Company indemnified--The waggon
road--A colony established--First governor--Gold fever--British
Columbia--Fort Simpson--Hudson's Bay Company in the interior--The
forts--A group of worthies--Service to Britain--The coast become
Canadian.
The Columbia River grew to be a source of wealth to the Hudson's Bay
Company. Its farming facilities were great, and its products afforded
a large store for supplying the Russian settlements of Alaska. But as
on the Red River, so here the influx of agricultural settlers sounded a
note of warning to the fur trader that his day was soon to pass away.
With the purpose of securing the northern trade, Fort Langley had been
built on the Fraser River. The arrival of Sir George Simpson on the
coast on his journey round the world was the occasion of the Company
taking a most important step in order to hold the trade of Alaska.
In the year following Sir George's visit, Chief Factor Douglas crossed
Puget Sound and examined the southern extremity of Vancouver Island
as to its suitability for the erection of a new fort to take the
place in due time of Fort Vancouver. Douglas found an excellent site,
close beside the splendid harbour of Esquimalt, and reported to the
assembled council of chief factors and traders at Fort Vancouver that
the advantages afforded by the site, especially that of its contiguity
to the sea, would place the new fort, for all their purposes, in a much
better position than Fort Vancouver. The enterprise was accordingly
determined on for the next season.
A tragic incident took place at this time on the Pacific Coast, which
tended to make the policy of expansion adopted appear to be a wise and
reasonable one. This was the violent death of a young trader, the son
of Chief Trader McLoughlin, at Fort Taku on the coast of Alaska, in the
territory leased from the Russians by the Hudson's Bay Company. The
murder was the result of a drunken dispute among the Indians, in which,
accidentally, young McLoughlin had been shot.
Sir George Simpson had just returned to the fort from his visit to the
Sandwich Islands, and was startled at seeing the Russian and British
ships, with flags at half-mast, on account of the young trader's death.
The Indians, on the arrival of the Governor, expressed the greatest
penitence, but the stern Lycurgus could not be appeased, and this
calamity, along with one of a similar kind, which had shortly before
occurred on the Stikine River, led Sir George Simpson and the Russian
Governor Etholin to come to an agreement to discontinue at once the
sale of spirituous liquor in trading with the Indians. The Indians for
a time resorted to every device, such as withholding their furs unless
liquor was given them, but the traders were unyielding, and the trade on
the coast became safer and more profitable on account of the disuse of
strong drink.
The decision to build a new fort having been reached in the next spring,
the moving spirit of the trade on the coast, James Douglas, with fifteen
men, fully supplied with food and necessary implements, crossed in the
_Beaver_ from Nisqually, like another Eneas leaving his untenable city
behind to build a new Troy elsewhere. On the next day, March 13th, the
vessel came to anchor opposite the new site.
A graphic writer has given us the description of the beautiful spot:
"The view landwards was enchanting. Before them lay a vast body of land,
upon which no white man then stood. Not a human habitation was in sight;
not a beast, scarcely a bird. Even the gentle murmur of the voiceless
wood was drowned by the gentle beating of the surf upon the shore. There
was something specially charming, bewitching in the place. Though wholly
natural it did not seem so. It was not at all like pure art, but it was
as though nature and art had combined to map out and make one of the
most pleasing prospects in the world."
The visitor looking at the City of Victoria in British Columbia to-day
will say that the description is in no way overdrawn. Not only is the
site one of the most charming on the earth, but as the spectator turns
about he is entranced with the view on the mainland, of Mount Olympia,
so named by that doughty captain, John Meares, more than fifty years
before the founding of this fort.
The place had been already chosen for a village and fortification by the
resident tribe, the Songhies, and went by the Indian name of Camosun.
The Indian village was a mile distant from the entrance to the harbour.
When the _Beaver_ came to anchor, a gun was fired, which caused a
commotion among the natives, who were afraid to draw near the intruding
vessel. Next morning, however, the sea was alive with canoes of the
Songhies.
The trader immediately landed, chose the site for his post, and found
at a short distance tall and straight cedar-trees, which afforded
material for the stockades of the fort. Douglas explained to the Indians
the purpose of his coming, and held up to them bright visions of the
beautiful things he would bring them to exchange for their furs. He also
employed the Indians in obtaining for him the cedar posts needed for his
palisades.
The trader showed his usual tact in employing a most potent means of
gaining an influence over the savages by bringing the Jesuit Father
Balduc, who had been upon the island before and was known to the
natives. Gathering the three tribes of the south of the island, the
Songhies, Clallams, and Cowichins, into a great rustic chapel which had
been prepared, Father Balduc held an impressive religious service, and
shortly after visited a settlement of the Skagits, a thousand strong,
and there too, in a building erected for public worship, performed the
important religious rites of his Church before the wondering savages.
It was the intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to make the new fort
at Camosun, which they first called Fort Albert, and afterwards Fort
Victoria--the name now borne by the city, the chief trading depôt on the
coast.
[Illustration: FORT VICTORIA, B.C.]
As soon as the buildings were well under way, Chief Factor Douglas
sailed northward along the coast to re-arrange the trade. Fort Simpson,
which was on the mainland, some fifteen degrees north of the new fort
and situated between the Portland Canal and the mouth of the Skeena
River, was to be retained as necessary for the Alaska trade, but the
promising officer, Roderick Finlayson, a young Scotchman, who had shown
his skill and honesty in the northern post, was removed from it and
given an important place in the new establishment. Living a useful and
blameless life, he was allowed to see the new fort become before his
death a considerable city. Charles Ross, the master of Fort McLoughlin,
being senior to Finlayson, was for the time being placed in charge of
the new venture. The three minor forts, Taku, Stikine, and McLoughlin,
were now closed, and the policy of consolidation led to Fort Victoria at
once rising into importance.
On the return of the chief factor from his northern expedition, with
all the employés and stores from the deserted posts, the work at Fort
Victoria went on apace. The energetic master had now at his disposal
fifty good men, and while some were engaged at the buildings--either
store-houses or dwellings--others built the defences. Two bastions
of solid block work were erected, thirty feet high, and these were
connected by palisades or stockades of posts twenty feet high, driven
into the earth side by side. The natives encamped alongside the new
work, looked on with interest, but as they had not their wives and
children with them, the traders viewed them with suspicion. On account
of the watchfulness of the builders, the Indians, beyond a few acts of
petty theft, did not interfere with the newcomers in their enterprise.
Three months saw the main features of the fort completed. On
entering the western gate of the fort, to the right was to be seen a
cottage-shaped building, the post office, then the smithy; further
along the walls were the large store-house, carpenter's shop, men's
dormitory, and the boarding-house for the raw recruits. Along the east
wall were the chapel, chaplain's house, then the officers' dining-room,
and cook-house attached. Along the north wall was a double row of
store-houses for furs and goods, and behind them the gunpowder magazine.
In the north-west corner was the cottage residence of the chief factor
and his family.
The defences of the fort were important, consisting of two bastions on
the western angles, and these contained six or eight nine-pounders. The
south tower was the real fort from which salutes were fired; the north
tower was a prison; and near the western or front gate stood the belfry
erection and on its top the flag-staff. Such was the first Fort Albert
or Victoria.
Victoria rapidly grew into notice, and in due time Roderick Finlayson,
the man of adaptation and force, on the death of his superior officer
became chief factor in charge. The writer met the aged fur trader years
after he had retired from active service, and spent with him some hours
of cheerful discourse. Large and commanding in form, Finlayson had
the marks of governing ability about him. He lacked the adroitness of
McLoughlin, the instability of Tod, and the genius of Douglas, but he
was a typical Scotchman, steady, patient, and trustworthy. Like an old
patriarch, he spent his last days in Victoria, keeping a large extent of
vacant city property in a common. Urged again and again to sell it when
it had become valuable, the sturdy pioneer replied that he "needed it to
pasture his 'coo.'"
One of the things most striking in all the early traders was their
ability to master language. Many of the officers of the Company were
able to speak four languages. On the Pacific Coast, on account of
the many Indian tongues differing much from each other, there grew
up a language of commerce, known as the Chinook jargon. It was a
most remarkable phenomenon; it is still largely in use. The tribe
most familiar to the traders at the beginning of the century was the
Chinooks. English-speaking, French, and United States traders met with
them, and along with them the Kanakas, or Sandwich Island workmen, with
many bands of coast Indians.
A trade has developed upon the Pacific Coast, the Chinook jargon has
grown, and now numbers some five hundred words. Of these, nearly half
were Chinook in origin, a number were from other Indian languages,
almost a hundred were French, and less than seventy English, while
several were doubtful. The then leading elements among the traders were
known in the jargon as respectively, Pasai-ooks, French, a corruption
of Français; King Chautchman (King George man), English; and Boston,
American. The following will show the origin and meaning of a few words,
showing changes made in consonants which the Indians cannot pronounce.
_French._ _Jargon._ _Meaning._
Le mouton. Lemoots. Sheep.
Chapeau. Seahpo. Hat.
Sauvage. Siwash. Indian.
_English._ _Jargon._ _Meaning._
Fire. Piah. Fire or cook.
Coffee. Kaupy. Coffee.
Handkerchief. Hat'atshum. Handkerchief.
_Chinook._ _Jargon._ _Meaning._
Tkalaitanam. Kali-tan. Arrow.
Thliakso. Yokso. Hair.
---- Klootchman. Woman.
Songs, hymns, sermons, and translations of portions of the Bible are
made in the jargon, and used by missionaries and teachers. Several
dictionaries of the dialect have been published.
Among the out-standing men who were contemporaries upon the Pacific
Coast of Finlayson were the two brothers Ermatinger. Already it has
been stated that they were nephews of the famous old trader of Sault
Ste. Marie. Their father had preferred England to Canada, and had gone
thither. His two sons, Edward and Francis, were, as early as 1818,
apprenticed by their father to the Hudson's Bay Company and sent on the
Company's ship to Rupert's Land, by way of York Factory. Edward, whose
autobiographical sketch, hitherto unpublished, lies before us, tells
us that he spent ten years in the fur trade, being engaged at York
Factory, Oxford House, Red River, and on the Columbia River. Desirous
of returning to the service after he had gone back to Canada, he had
received an appointment to Rupert's Land again from Governor Simpson.
This was cancelled by the Governor on account of a grievous quarrel
with old Charles, the young trader's uncle, on a sea voyage with the
Governor to Britain. For many years, however, Edward Ermatinger lived
at St. Thomas, Ontario, where his son, the respected Judge Ermatinger,
still resides. The old gentleman became a great authority on Hudson's
Bay affairs, and received many letters from the traders, especially, it
would seem, from those who had grievances against the Company or against
its strong-willed Governor.
Francis Ermatinger, the other brother, spent between thirty and forty
years in the Far West, especially on the Pacific Coast. An unpublished
journal of Francis Ermatinger lies before us. It is a clear and vivid
account of an expedition to revenge the death of a trader, Alexander
Mackenzie, and four men who had been basely murdered (1828) by the tribe
of Clallam Indians. The party, under Chief Factor Alexander McLeod,
attacked one band of Indians and severely punished them; then from the
ship _Cadboro_ on the coast, a bombardment of the Indian village took
place, in which many of the tribe of the murderers were killed, but
whether the criminals suffered was never known.
That Francis Ermatinger was one of the most hardy, determined, and
capable of the traders is shown by a remarkable Journey made by him,
under orders from Sir George Simpson on his famous journey round the
world. Ermatinger had left Fort Vancouver in charge of a party of
trappers to visit the interior of California. Sir George, having heard
of him in the upper waters of one of the rivers of the coast, ordered
him to meet him at Monterey. This Ermatinger undertook to do, and
after a terrific journey, crossing snowy chains of mountains, fierce
torrents in a country full of pitfalls, reached the imperious Governor.
Ermatinger had assumed the disguise of a Spanish caballero, and was
recognized by his superior officer with some difficulty. Ermatinger
wrote numerous letters to his brothers in Canada, which contained
details of the hard but exciting life he was leading.
Most unique and peculiar of all the traders on the Pacific Coast was
John Tod, who first appeared as a trader in the Selkirk settlement and
wrote a number of the Hargrave letters. In 1823 he was sent by Governor
Simpson, it is said, to New Caledonia as to the penal settlement of
the fur traders, but the young Scotchman cheerfully accepted his
appointment. He became the most noted letter-writer of the Pacific
Coast, indeed he might be called the prince of controversialists among
the traders. There lies before the writer a bundle of long letters
written over a number of years by Tod to Edward Ermatinger. Tod,
probably for the sake of argument, advocated loose views as to the
validity of the Scriptures, disbelief of many of the cardinal Christian
doctrines, and in general claimed the greatest latitude of belief. It is
very interesting to see how the solemn-minded and orthodox Ermatinger
strives to lead him into the true way. Tod certainly had little effect
upon his faithful correspondent, and shows the greatest regard for his
admonitions.
The time of Sir George Simpson's visit to the coast on his journey round
the world was one of much agitation as to the boundary line between
the British and United States possessions on the Pacific Coast. By the
treaty of 1825 Russia and Britain had come to an agreement that the
Russian strip along the coast should reach southward only to 54 deg.
40´ N. lat. The United States mentioned its claim to the coast as far
north as the Russian boundary. However preposterous it may seem, yet
it was maintained by the advocates of the Monroe doctrine that Great
Britain had no share of the coast at all. The urgency of the American
claim became so great that the popular mind seemed disposed to favour
contesting this claim with arms. Thus originated the famous saying,
"Fifty-four, forty, or fight." The Hudson's Bay Company was closely
associated with the dispute, the more that Fort Vancouver on the
Columbia River might be south of the boundary line, though their action
of building Fort Victoria was shown to be a wise and timely step. At
length in 1846 the treaty between Great Britain and the United States
was made and the boundary line established. The Oregon Treaty, known in
some quarters as the Ashburton Treaty, provided that the 49th parallel
of latitude should on the mainland be the boundary, thus handing over
Fort Vancouver, Walla Walla, Colville, Nisqually, and Okanagan to the
United States, and taking them from their rightful owners, the Hudson's
Bay Company. Article two of the great treaty, however, stated that the
Company should enjoy free navigation of the Columbia River, while the
third article provided that the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay
Company and all other British subjects on the south side of the boundary
line should be respected.
The decision in regard to the boundary led to changes in the Hudson's
Bay Company establishments. Dr. McLoughlin, having lost the confidence
of the Company, threw in his lot with his United States home, and
retired in the year of the treaty to Oregon City, where he died a
few years after. His name is remembered as that of an impulsive,
good-hearted, somewhat rash, but always well-meaning man.
Though Fort Victoria became the depôt for the coast of the trade of
the Company, Fort Vancouver, with a reduced staff, was maintained for
a number of years by the Company. While under charge of Chief Trader
Wark, a part of the fields belonging to the Company at Fort Vancouver
were in a most high-handed manner seized by the United States for
military purposes. The senior officer, Mr. Grahame, on his return from
an absence, protested against the invasion. In June, 1860, however,
the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from the Columbia. The great herd of
wild cattle which had grown up on the Columbia were disposed of by the
Company to a merchant of Oregon. The Company thus retired to the British
side of the boundary line during the three years closing with 1860.
Steps were taken by the Hudson's Bay Company to obtain compensation from
the United States authorities. A long and wearisome investigation took
place; witnesses were called and great diversity of opinion prevailed as
to the value of the interest of the Company in its forts. The Hudson's
Bay Company claimed indemnity amounting to the sum of 2,000,000 dols.
Witnesses for the United States gave one-tenth of that amount as a fair
value. Compensation of a moderate kind was at length made to the Company
by the United States.
On its withdrawal from Oregon the Hudson's Bay Company decided on
opening up communication with the interior of the mainland up the Fraser
River. This was a task of no small magnitude, on account of the rugged
and forbidding banks of this great river. A. Caulfield Anderson, an
officer who had been in the Company's service for some fourteen years
before the date of the Oregon Treaty and was in charge of a post on the
Fraser River, was given the duty of finding the road to the interior.
He was successful in tracing a road from Fort Langley to Kamloops. The
Indians offered opposition to Anderson, but he succeeded in spite of
all hindrances, and though other routes were sought for and suggested,
yet Anderson's road by way of the present town of Hope and Lake Nicola
to Kamloops afterwards became one great waggon road to the interior. No
sooner had the boundary line been fixed than agitation arose to prepare
the territory north of the line for a possible influx of agriculturists
or miners and also to maintain the coast true to British connection. The
Hudson's Bay Company applied to the British Government for a grant of
Vancouver Island, which they held under a lease good for twelve years
more. Mr. Gladstone opposed the application, but considering it the best
thing to be done in the circumstances, the Government made the grant
(1847) to the Company under certain conditions. The Company agreed to
colonize the island, to sell the lands at moderate rates to settlers,
and to apply nine-tenths of the receipts toward public improvements.
The Company entered heartily into the project, issued a prospectus
for settlers, and hoped in five years to have a considerable colony
established on the Island.
Steps were taken by the British Government to organize the new colony.
The head of the Government applied to the Governor of the Company to
name a Governor. Chief Factor Douglas was suggested, but probably
thinking an independent man would be more suitable, the Government gave
the appointment to a man of respectability, Richard Blanshard, in the
end of 1849.
The new Governor arrived, but no preparations had been made for his
reception. No salary was provided for his maintenance, and the attitude
of the Hudson's Bay Company officially at Fort Victoria was decidedly
lacking in heartiness. Governor Blanshard's position was nothing
more than an empty show. He issued orders and proclamations which
were disregarded. He visited Fort Rupert, which had been founded by
the Company on the north-east angle of the island, and there held an
investigation of a murder of three sailors by the Newitty Indians.
Governor Blanshard spent much of his time writing pessimistic reports
of the country to Britain, and after a residence of a year and a half
returned to England, thoroughly soured on account of his treatment by
the officers of the Company.
The colonization of Vancouver Island proved very slow. A company of
miners for Nanaimo, and another of farmers from Sooke, near Victoria,
came, but during Governor Blanshard's rule only one _bonâ-fide_ sale
of land was made, and five years after the cession to the Company
there were less than five hundred colonists. Chief Factor Douglas
succeeded to the governorship and threw his accustomed energy into his
administration. The cry of monopoly, ever a popular one, was raised,
and inasmuch as the colony was not increasing sufficiently to satisfy
the Imperial Government, the great Committee of the House of Commons
of 1857 was appointed to examine the whole relation of the Company to
Rupert's Land and the Indian territories. The result of the inquiry was
that it was decided to relieve the Hudson's Bay Company of the charge of
Vancouver Island at the time of expiry of their lease. The Hudson's Bay
Company thus withdrew on the Pacific Coast to the position of a private
trading company, though Sir James Douglas, who was knighted in 1863,
continued Governor of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island, with the
added responsibility of the territory on the mainland.
At this juncture the gold discovery in the mainland called much
attention to the country. Thousands of miners rushed at once to the
British possessions on the Pacific Coast. Fort Victoria, from being a
lonely traders' post, grew as if by magic into a city. Thousands of
miners betook themselves to the Fraser River, and sought the inland
gold-fields. All this compelled a more complete organization than the
mere oversight of the mainland by Governor Douglas in his capacity as
head of the fur trade. Accordingly the British Government determined to
relieve the Hudson's Bay Company of responsibility for the mainland,
which they held under a licence soon to expire, and to erect New
Caledonia and the Indian territories of the coast into a separate Crown
Colony under the name of British Columbia. In Lord Lytton's dispatches
to Governor Douglas, to whom the governorship of both of the colonies
of Vancouver Island and British Columbia was offered, the condition is
plainly stated that he would be required to sever his connection with
the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company,
and to be independent of all local interests. Here we leave Sir James
Douglas immersed in his public duties of governing the two colonies,
which in time became one province under the name of British Columbia,
thus giving up the guidance of the fur-trading stations for whose
up-building he had striven for fifty years.
The posts of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific Coast in 1857
were:--
_Vancouver Island_--
Fort Victoria.
Fort Rupert.
Nanaimo.
_Fraser River_--
Fort Langley.
_Thompson River_--
Kamloops.
Fort Hope.
_North-West Coast_--
Fort Simpson.
_New Caledonia_--
Stuart Lake.
McLeod Lake.
Fraser Lake.
Alexandria.
Fort George.
Babines.
Connolly Lake.