FORTS AND POSTS.
The Hudson's Bay Company's establishments comprised two Factories,
several Forts and numerous posts, out-posts and smaller ones called
"flying posts." I am writing of the days gone by for now, since the
country is opened up, forts, as they were then known, no longer
exist. The so-called factories were not places in which fabrics or
other goods were manufactured, but more rightly speaking great depots
where an entire year's supplies were stored in advance in case of a
mishap to either of the ships.
The country was subdivided into the Northern Department and Southern
Department. York Factory supplying the requirements of the former and
Moose Factory the latter. At these places the summer months was their
busy season, for not only did they receive the next year's outfit
from the ships, but numerous brigades of boats and canoes were
continually loading and departing for the far away inland posts and
forts.
With the exception of one or two which were built of stone, the forts
and posts were constructed of heavy hewn logs which, being placed
flat to flat, were bolted with strong treenails every second or third
tier until the desired height of wall was attained. The windows were
mere narrow slits in the walls and as few as possible on the ground
floor.
All the buildings were made in the same strong way and consisted, in
an ordinary fort, of the master's house (or chief officer's
dwelling); this was the most pretentious building in the lot, for not
only did the factor and his family occupy it but it also lodged the
clerks and other petty officials, besides furnishing a spacious mess
or dining room and a guard room in which the officers lounged and
smoked and the small arms were stacked ready for use.
Within the enclosure were the following other buildings, similar in
construction to the great house. A store house in which was kept the
bulk of the outfit and the furs gathered. A trade shop in which the
Indians bartered their peltries. A men's house or servants' quarters.
A work shop in which all necessary repairs were made on guns,
harness, etc., and a stable to house the stock at night. They
pastured, under guard, outside the walls during the day.
These buildings were generally in the form of a hollow square and the
whole surrounded by a picket stockade ten or twelve feet high. This
protection was made from trees of about seven inches in diameter,
brought to a sharp point at the upper end and planted deep in the
ground, touching one another. Here and there, inside, the stockade
was reinforced by strong braces, which added to its solidity, should
a combined force of men be brought against it.
At each of the four corners of the square a strong block tower was
erected with embrasures cut therein for shooting from. In some of the
larger forts small cannon were placed that commanded each side of the
square and all around the inside of the pickets ran a raised platform
on which men standing would be breast high to the top of the
protection. This gave them a great advantage in shooting on coming
enemies or repelling scalers.
Such places were only in the prairie country where the warlike and
turbulent Black Feet, Bloods, Pegans and Sioux roamed. Amongst the
bush or fish-eating tribes less severe precaution was required, altho
the most of them were enclosed by the picket stockade and supplied
liberally with muskets, cutlasses and side arms.
While the Indians were paying their semiannual trading visits the
dwellers of the forts were confined pretty well indoors and the stock
hobbled close to the stockades, for it was not always safe for a
small party to be caught far afield. Great massive, barred gates
opened into the fort, in the leaves of one side a wicket placed for
the entrance and departure of men afoot, and it was thru this wicket
an Indian and his wife were admitted with their furs to trade. When
they were finished bartering and departed, two others were allowed in
and so it went on.
The trade shop was so constructed that the Indian and his wife did
their barter at the end of a long narrow passage, at the end of which
a square hole was cut in the logs, behind which the trader stood with
an assistant to fetch the goods required by the purchaser. The
display of goods on the shelves was invisible to the Indian, but it
was not necessary he should see them inasmuch as there being no great
variety, everything being staple and the same from year to year,
manufactured of the best material expressly for the Company.
The trade shop was always built near the gate and the guard at the
wicket, after admitting the would-be purchaser of supplies, locked
and barred the gate and conducted them to the entrance of the
passageway along which all they had to do was to travel until they
reached the trader at the end.
So that the Indian might know the amount of his means of trade the
furs were taken in first and valued at a certain well-known currency
of that particular part of the country in which he resided, i. e.,
"Made Beaver" or so many "Martens." In some places he was given the
gross amount in certain quills and about the Bay in brass tokens. Of
this latter coinage the Company had quarters, halves and whole M. B.
(Made Beaver). Once this was mutually adjusted, trade commenced. The
Indian would call for a gun and pay so many Made Beaver, a scalp
knife, powder, shot and so on, paying for each article as he received
it in either quills or tokens.
The outposts or "flying posts" were more in the bush country, where
the Indians, as a rule, lived peaceably with one another and the
whites. The smaller of these trading places were only kept open
during the winter months and were generally built for the
accommodation of the Indians and supplied with absolute necessities
only. This enabled the hunter to keep closer to his work and not
travel long distances, when furs were prime, for some positive
requirement, such as the replacing of a broken gun. The keepers of
these small posts were in most cases guides or deserving and
trustworthy servants of long standing in the employ. With their
families and a man or two they departed from the forts in September,
taking the supply of trading stuff with them.
These small parties were self-sustaining, being given one day's
provisions to take them away from the fort. After that until the next
May they lived on fish and the small game of the country, with
probably an odd wood caribou. The men of the party trapped furs while
hunting game for their sustenance. The proceeds for the personal
winter trapping of each servant was allowed him as a bonus over and
above his wages. Cash was not given, but they had permission to
barter the skins for what they chose out of the trade shop and they
went principally in tobacco for the men and finery for the women.
Where fish and rabbits in their season was the mainstay with these
people, prodigious numbers were required and consumed to sustain
life. Thirty or forty white fish or the same of rabbits was an
ordinary daily consumption of the dwellers at one of these "flying
posts," but the reader must remember they had no auxiliaries to help
out this plain straight food.
No butter, lard, pork, sugar or vegetables, just rabbit or white fish
twice a day and nothing else. This was washed down with bouillon in
which the food was cooked. Spring and fall they had a variety in
ducks, geese, beaver and an occasional bear and then they lived in
the tallest kind of clover while it lasted.
As no insurance company could be found who would take fire risks that
could only be represented to them on paper by the interested parties,
the Hudson's Bay Company began years ago to take certain sums of
money out of each year's profits and created a marine and fire
account, out of which fund any loss by sea or fire is met and the
district or department where the accident occurred is recouped for
its loss. Fires at the forts and posts have been of very rare
occurrence, as the utmost care and precaution has ever been exercised
in preventing such by the officer in charge.
Self-preservation is the first law of nature and the dwellers of
these far away Hudson's Bay posts knew of no greater calamity than
that of being burnt out and they looked to it that as far as
precaution went this should not occur.