"Here is great luck for us!" I exclaimed to Corlaer and
Ta-wan-ne-ars. "We are saved the trip down-river."
"_Ja_," grunted Peter.
Ta-wan-ne-ars smiled.
"Does my brother already surrender to the spell of the wilderness?"
he inquired.
I started, for indeed the Seneca's uncanny inward vision had
perceived the question I was then debating in my own mind.
"How knew you that?" I demanded as we shouldered our way through
Dutch farmers and burghers, English settlers of the newly opened
districts, slaves, patentees, patroons, Indians from the Lower Castle
of the Mohawks, frontiersmen and soldiers.
His smile broadened.
"My brother was pleased to think that he need not go down-river."
"'Tis true," I affirmed. "I have no wish to leave the forest. I
find even this village overcrowded to suit me."
Whilst I pondered this we came to the fort gate and gave our names to
the sentry who stopped all save the few the governor had summoned to
attend upon him. A messenger he dispatched brought back word that we
were to enter, and we were escorted across the parade and into the
quarters of the commandant adjoining the Great Hall.
Master Colden met us in the doorway.
"Zooks, but I am right glad to see you," he cried. "And his
Excellency is overjoyed. But I will leave it to him to express his
satisfaction."
He opened an inner door and ushered us into the presence of the
governor. Master Burnet rose from the chair in which he was sitting
by a flat-topped table which served him for desk, and came forward
with hand outstretched.
"Master Ormerod, this could not have been better! I wished above all
things for speech with you. Corlaer, I am deeply in your debt.
Ta-wan-ne-ars, you have again incurred the gratitude of the province.
I shall not forget that you have imperiled your life in our cause."
"Did you receive my report from Oswego, sir?" I asked.
"Certes, 'twas that--and this"--he tapped a document which lay before
him on the table--"which brought me here."
He proffered it. 'Twas a report from a secret agent at Montreal,
quoting the decision of the French fur-dealers, acting in conjunction
with their Government, to raise the price of beaver from two livres,
or one shilling six pence in English currency, the pound, to the
level of four livres, or three shillings, the established price then
prevailing at the English trading-posts.
"That, mind you," continued the governor as I returned the paper to
him, "was the first reaction in Canada to the tidings that Murray had
succeeded in legitimatizing his trade over the Doom Trail."
"We have found the Doom Trail, your Excellency," I said.
"You have done well," he applauded. "Aye, better than I expected of
you in so short a time."
"We also slew----"
"I beg your Excellency's indulgence," interrupted Master Colden, "but
the gentlemen you bade to meet you are now assembled in the Great
Hall. Can not Master Ormerod's report await the conclusion of your
interview with them!"
"That would be best," agreed the governor, "But I wish Master Ormerod
and his companions to come with me. It may be I shall appeal to them
for first-hand testimony."
We deposited our muskets in a corner of the room, and then filed
behind Master Burnet and the surveyor-general into the larger chamber
adjoining, where some thirty men awaited him. Several were gentry
who were members of his Council. Three were officers in command of
the frontier garrisons. The remainder were merchants, dealing to
greater or lesser extent in the fur-trade, the great export staple of
the province.
They rose when the governor entered and remained standing until he
was seated. Master Colden found seats for Ta-wan-ne-ars, Peter and
me to one side of the room, and we watched with interest the battle
which began almost with his Excellency's first word.
He wasted no time in preliminaries or generalities. He deposited
several papers on the table in front of him, and addressed himself to
his task.
"Gentlemen," he began, "I have summoned you to meet me here because a
situation has arisen which is of the utmost gravity to the welfare of
the province and the larger interests of his Majesty's realm.
Recently I have been in receipt of a communication in the form of a
petition signed by many of the chief merchants of the province,
beseeching me to abandon my opposition to the retention of the free
trade with Canada which is now temporarily secured to them by the
action of the Lords of Trade in suspending decision upon the law
prohibiting the trade in Indian goods which I secured to be passed
last year."
"That petition represented the sober thought of a majority of the
merchants and traders, your Excellency," spoke up a
prosperous-looking man in the front row facing Master Burnet.
"It may be so," replied the governor. "But I would suggest to you,
my friends, that certain knowledge hath come to me which compels me
to wonder whether you would persist in this attitude were you
acquainted with it. Briefly, I have lately obtained definite
information that the French are beginning the erection of a stone
fort at Jagara."
"There are many such reports in circulation," said another merchant,
a hard-featured man with graying hair. "It seems to many of us, sir,
that the fault is as much upon our side as upon that of the French.
Why must we assail them if they seek to protect their interests?"
"I agree with the principle of what you say, sir," answered the
governor patiently. "But in this case, permit me to point out that
the territory this side of the Falls of Jagara is secured to us by
the Peace of Utrecht. 'Tis not only that the French have no right to
construct a fort there. They have no right to maintain a
trading-post there.
"Yet my agent talked with the officers in charge, Monsieur de
Joncaire and Monsieur de Lery, and they boasted of their intent to
erect such a fort as would be a curb on our Indian allies, the
Iroquois, and divert to their posts farther up the Cadarakui Lake the
fur trade which now comes to us at Irondequoit and Oswego,
Schenectady and Albany."
"Your Excellency is needlessly worried concerning the fur-trade,"
asserted the hard-featured merchant. "What matters it to us the way
in which the furs come! They will go ultimately to the people paying
the best prices for them, and those people are ourselves."
"I thank you for putting me in the way of bringing forward a most
important point," returned the governor suavely. "At the time I
received word of the building of the fort at Jagara, I received also
this report from an agent in Montreal----"
"Why must we have spies?" interrupted a third merchant.
"To protect our just interests, sir," said the governor, and for the
first time a hint of sternness rang in his voice. "This report
announces the doubling of the price paid for beaver at tie French
posts, so that now they are on a par with us."
"We can afford to pay more than we do. London will still take it
from us at a profit," rejoined the merchant who had first spoken.
"Aye, sirs," urged the governor; "but do you not see that presently,
if things go on as they do, the French may increase their price again
slowly, a few sous at a time, until they are frankly overbidding you?"
"We will chance that," spoke up several men.
"Trade is trade," cried another. "It goes where the money is."
"Aye, we have no fear," clamored others.
"And let us suppose," resumed the governor, "that the French permit
you to draw supplies of furs through them. I can conceive they might
do so if it netted them the prices they desire. Does that mean that
you will always be safe in expecting to have your wants so filled!"
"To be sure," answered three or four men at once.
"I differ with you," replied Master Burnet. "The fur-trade is not
only a means to earn profits. 'Tis a most important stake in
securing military success. The nation which controls the fur-trade,
my masters, will have the interest of the larger numbers of savages.
The nation which owns the support of the most Indian tribes will be
the nation superior in extending its territories in time of peace and
superior in battle in time of war."
"It ill becomes a plain merchant to take issue with your Excellency,"
remarked the hard-featured merchant. "And 'tis like to go against me
if I do----"
"Speak with entire freedom, sir," interrupted Master Burnet.
"Then I must say, your Excellency, that it seems to me you attach
overmuch importance to savage tribes and war. There is enough land
in North America for French and English and Indians, too. But if you
go around looking for attack, why, 'tis likely you will bring such a
catastrophe upon yourself."
"Hear, hear," cried the bulk of the merchants and traders.
"You mistake me," answered the governor. "I aim to serve your own
interests as well as those of his Majesty's other subjects which
transcend even yours."
"Trade is everything," snapped the hard-featured merchant.
"So long as 'tis rightly conducted," amended Master Burnet. "Bear in
mind, my masters, that the whole history of our possessions on this
continent disproves the statement just made that there is land enough
for ourselves and the French. The French are the first to dispute
this view.
"They plan openly to drive us into the sea. The New France they see
in the future will embrace all the settlements of the Atlantic coast
together with the inland wilderness."
"If you bait them sufficiently, doubtless they will seek to fight
us," asserted a merchant.
"But they know not the English breed if they think to do so," cried a
neighbor.
"Or the Dutchman either," said a third.
"Good! That is the spirit I want to arouse," acknowledged the
governor, quick to seize what he thought an advantage. "Gentlemen,
you have heard some of my evidence. Additional, if you wish it, can
be laid before you.
"What I desire from you especially today is your support in a plan I
have been considering for moderating the exit of goods to Canada.
The volume reached in recent weeks passes all reason. If permitted
to continue 'twill exhaust our supplies. It plays directly into the
hands of----"
But he was not suffered to continue.
"Free trading!" shouted a group.
"Stick by the law, governor!" warned one.
"The law is the law!" cried a third.
The prosperous-looking merchant in the front row stood up and made
himself heard by pounding his stick on the floor.
"Do I understand your Excellency to mean that you would alter the
instructions received from the Lords of Trade?" he asked.
"My plan is rather to amend the carrying out of the law by certain
restrictions until I can forward representations on the situation to
their lordships," replied Master Burnet steadily.
"But as one of my brethren has just remarked, the law is the law.
"The trouble here, sirs, is that there is no law," declared the
governor. "We have the suspension of the law, and in the interim
there is no provision for a substitute statute."
"Tush, we want no such law," proclaimed the hard-featured merchant.
"Let us not quibble. His Excellency might as well know the truth.
Since Master Murray won his case we have been able to sell and buy as
we chose. And our coffers have swollen thereby.
"The law was an ill-judged law. It restricted trade, reduced
profits. Let the French secure furs if they wish. They may do the
dirty work. We will sit back and reap the profits."
"Gentlemen, you still avoid my point," insisted the governor. "The
profits you have made recently are unnatural profits, and were you in
your right minds you would be the first to appreciate that they can
not continue. I should be content to leave your education to the
normal processes of time, but for the fact that the French are
turning your assistance to account, and we are like to pay heavily to
them for it in the long run."
"How?" inquired a skeptical voice.
"By permitting the French to confirm their prestige with the savages,
by undermining the confidence in us of those Indian allies we have
won hitherto. Your lot will be improved only so long as it pleases
the French. If matters continue as they are, the French will force a
war at the moment they deem most promising, and likely enough conquer
us by reason of the very profits which you say have swollen your
coffers."
"Better so, mayhap," shouted the hard-featured merchant. "Better
have free trade under France than limited trade under England or any
other country."
"You talk treason, sir," said the governor coldly. "Moreover, you
talk foolishly. There is no freedom of trade in Canada----"
"Well, we have it here; and by ----, we'll keep it as long as we
can," replied the merchant.
"That is not like to be very long, my masters," announced a new voice.
All eyes were turned to the door. There stood Andrew Murray, a
fashionably cut blue plush coat draping his fine shoulders,
half-revealing the canary-yellow vest beneath; a beautiful periwig
framing his handsome, masterful face; a laced and cocked hat tucked
under his arm.
He bowed low to the governor.
"I must beseech your Excellency's pardon for my unheralded entrance,"
he said. "I am but just arrived in town, and I hastened here to
present my case to you."
He swept his eyes over the room as he spoke and fastened them upon my
face.
"You are welcome, Master Murray," returned the governor. "Had I
known where to reach you I should have invited your attendance."
"I am honored, sir."
Murray bowed again. His eyes passed from me to Peter's stolid
features and the calm, impassive face of Ta-wan-ne-ars.
"I venture to intrude upon you," he continued, "because of
information I possess which I am sure will be of interest to you and
all others who have the prosperity of the province at heart."
"I am interested," said the governor impartially. "Pray state your
case, Master Murray."
"I shall do so all the more readily, your Excellency, because I am
persuaded you can have no knowledge of the crimes recently committed
by persons who represent themselves to be your agents."
"So?" observed the governor.
"Yes, sir," Murray went on. "I see in this room three men whom I
charge with the wanton destruction of a large quantity of furs and
the murder of two of my servants and a number of friendly Indians."
And that there might be no mistaking the objects of his accusation
Murray pointed his forefinger at my comrades and me. A rustle of
interest agitated the audience. Murmurs arose and hostile glances
were bent upon us.
"Be explicit, if you please," said the governor.
"I will, sir," replied Murray boldly. "The young man known as Harry
Ormerod, with Peter Corlaer and a Seneca chief called Ta-wan-ne-ars,
raided a fleet of canoes on the shore of the Cadarakui Lake near
Oswego and burned hundreds of packs of valuable furs which the
far-western savages were bringing in for trade."
"I have heard something of this matter," admitted Master Burnet.
"But I understood the savages were in charge of Monsieur de Joncaire,
the French commandant at Jagara, and bound for Montreal."
"Monsieur de Joncaire was accompanying them, 'tis true," admitted
Murray. "But the savages were bound for my own trading-stations.
The loss, which will run into thousands of pounds, will fall upon our
New York merchants."
The murmurs grew into an outburst of indignation which the governor
quelled with difficulty. But before he could speak Murray continued
his attack.
"Nor is that all, your Excellency. These same three men afterwards
attacked from ambush and murdered two of my servants, a man named
Bolling and a negro."
"It sticks in my mind that both have been charged with murders of
their own in the past," the governor broke in drily.
"They were never convicted of such a crime," returned Murray.
"Bolling was wanted for an attempt upon Master Ormerod's life in New
York town," interjected Colden.
"I am not responsible for that," observed Murray. "It shows at best
that there was enmity betwixt the two. But surely, my masters,
enmity does not call for cold-blooded murder."
There was no misinterpreting the unanimity of the endorsement which
his words received. Governor Burnet held up his hand for silence.
"I shall look into Master Murray's charges," he said. "So much, at
least, he is entitled to. But first I wish to acquaint him with what
I have laid before this gathering, all the more so because he is more
vitally interested perhaps than any other.
"Master Murray, I am concerned over the extent to which the fur-trade
is passing into French hands, and I am bound to say my information
indicates that the French have your assistance in the matter. The
quantities of trade-goods going up-river have enormously increased
this Summer. They are hundreds of tons in excess of what formerly
passed through Albany."
"Doubtless our trading-posts have profited thereby," suggested Murray
blandly.
"On the contrary," returned Master Burnet with decision. "Our
trading-posts have fared worse, if anything. Aside from the
Iroquois, the savages are patronizing more and more the French
traders. And as I have told these gentlemen here, the French have
increased their trading-stocks already to such an extent that they
have been able to establish parity with our prices."
"Yet the volume of furs coming through Albany has increased and not
diminished," said Murray.
"What has that to do with the situation I have outlined?" demanded
the governor with his first show of impatience.
"Everything, sir."
"I think not. Briefly, Master Murray, I am canvassing the sentiment
of our merchants on the advisability of suspending for the time
being, to some degree at any rate, the proclamation I issued in
response to the action of the Lords of Trade in withholding the
assent of his Majesty's government to our law prohibiting the trade
in Indian goods with Canada."
Murray took snuff deliberately, and I, who had passed considerable
time in his company, did not miss the gleam of frank hostility which
showed in his eye.
"I am not surprized," he commented. "I am free to say, your
Excellency, that I have noted hitherto a laxness on the part of the
provincial authorities in administering the free-trade requirements
of their lordships."
"You charge that?" inquired the governor coldly.
"I do, sir. And I give fair warning that, with a view to the best
interests of the province and in response to the wishes of the
majority of the merchants, I purpose to carry my complaint before the
Privy Council at the earliest opportunity."
Governor Burnet rose from his chair. The cordiality was gone from
his manner.
"This meeting is dissolved," he pronounced. "No, not a word,
gentlemen"--this as several undertook to object--"I still hold his
Majesty's commission as governor, and I purpose to secure assent to
my authority by one means or another.
"I have striven to reason with you. I shall now proceed as seems
best to me. Master Murray, file your charges in writing and be
prepared to bear testimony in their defense. You may go."