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THE ROMANTIC SETTLEMENT OF LORD SELKIRK'S COLONISTS
(The Pioneers of Manitoba)
by
DR. GEORGE BRYCE
Of Winnipeg
President of the Royal Society of Canada, etc., etc.
[Illustration: THOMAS, 5TH EARL OF SELKIRK, The Founder of Red River
Colony, 1812. From copy of painting by Raeburn, obtained by author from
St Mary's Isle, Lord Selkirk's seat.]
Toronto
The Musson Book Company Limited
"Copyrighted Canada, 1909, by The Musson Book Company, Limited,
Toronto."
CONTENTS
Page.
Chapter 1. Patriarch's Story 9
An Extinct Race.
The Gay Frenchman.
The Earlier Peoples.
The Montreal Merchants and Men.
The Dusky Riders of the Plain.
The Stately Hudson's Bay Company.
Chapter 2. A Scottish Duel 33
Chapter 3. Across the Stormy Sea 44
Chapter 4. A Winter of Discontent 58
Chapter 5. First Foot on Red River Banks 69
Chapter 6. Three Desperate Years 80
Chapter 7. Fight and Flight 95
Chapter 8. No Surrender 107
Chapter 9. Seven Oaks Massacre 117
Chapter 10. Afterclaps 133
Chapter 11. The Silver Chief Arrives 142
Chapter 12. Soldiers and Swiss 152
Chapter 13. English Lion and Canadian
Bear Lie Down Together 161
Chapter 14. Satrap Rule 170
Chapter 15. And the Flood Came 178
Chapter 16. The Jolly Governor 185
Chapter 17. The Oligarchy 194
Chapter 18. An Ogre of Justice 202
Chapter 19. A Half-Breed Patriot 210
Chapter 20. Sayer and Liberty 216
Chapter 21. Off to the Buffalo 224
Chapter 22. What the Stargazers Saw 232
Chapter 23. Apples of Gold 239
Chapter 24. Pictures of Silver 256
Chapter 25. Eden Invaded 276
Chapter 26. Riel's Rising 284
Chapter 27. Lord Strathcona's Hand 291
Chapter 28. Wolseley's Welcome 300
Chapter 29. Manitoba in the Making 307
Chapter 30. The Selkirk Centennial 315
Appendix 320
PREFACE
The present work tells the romantic story of the Settlement of Lord
Selkirk's Colonists in Manitoba, and is appropriate and timely in view
of the Centennial celebration of this event which will be held in
Winnipeg in 1912.
The author was the first, in his earlier books, to take a stand for
justice to be done to Lord Selkirk as a Colonizer, and he has had the
pleasure of seeing the current of all reliable history turned in Lord
Selkirk's favor.
Dr. Doughty, the popular Archivist at Ottawa, has put at the author's
disposal a large amount of Lord Selkirk's correspondence lately received
by him, so that many new, interesting facts about the Settlers' coming
are now published for the first time.
If we are to celebrate the Selkirk Centennial intelligently, it is
essential to know the facts of the trials, oppressions and heartless
persecutions through which the Settlers' passed, to learn what shameful
treatment Lord Selkirk received from his enemies, and to trace the rise
from misery to comfort of the people of the Colony.
The story is chiefly confined to Red River Settlement as it existed--a
unique community, which in 1870 became the present Province of Manitoba.
It is a sympathetic study of what one writer has called--"Britain's One
Utopia."
The Romantic Settlement
OF
Lord Selkirk's Colonists
* * * * *
Lord Selkirk's Colonists
CHAPTER I.
THE EARLIER PEOPLE.
A PATRIARCH'S STORY.
This is the City of Winnipeg. Its growth has been wonderful. It is the
highwater mark of Canadian enterprise. Its chief thoroughfare, with
asphalt pavement, as it runs southward and approaches the Assiniboine
River, has a broad street diverging at right angles from it to the West.
This is Broadway, a most commodious avenue with four boulevards neatly
kept, and four lines of fine young Elm trees. It represents to us "Unter
den Linden" of Berlin, the German Capital.
The wide business thoroughfare Main Street, where it reaches the
Assiniboine River, looks out upon a stream, so called from the wild
Assiniboine tribe whose northern limit it was, and whose name implies
the "Sioux" of the Stony Lake. The Assiniboine River is as large as the
Tiber at Rome, and the color of the water justifies its being compared
with the "Yellow Tiber."
The Assiniboine falls into the Red River, a larger stream, also with
tawny-colored water. The point of union of these two rivers was long ago
called by the French voyageurs "Les Fourches," which we have translated
into "The Forks."
One morning nearly forty years ago, the writer wandered eastward toward
Red River, from Main Street, down what is now called Lombard Street.
Here not far from the bank of the Red River, stood a wooden house, then
of the better class, but now left far behind by the brick and stone and
steel structures of modern Winnipeg.
The house still stands a stained and battered memorial of a past
generation. But on this October morning, of an Indian summer day, the
air was so soft, that it seemed to smell wooingly here, and through the
gentle haze, was to be seen sitting on his verandah, the patriarch of
the village, who was as well the genius of the place.
The old man had a fine gray head with the locks very thin, and with his
form, not tall but broad and comfortable to look upon, he occupied an
easy chair.
The writer was then quite a young man fresh from College, and with a
simple introduction, after the easy manner of Western Canada, proceeded
to hear the story of old Andrew McDermott, the patriarch of Winnipeg.
"Yes," said Mr. McDermott, "I was among those of the first year of Lord
Selkirk's immigrants. We landed from the Old Country, at York Factory,
on Hudson Bay. The first immigrants reached the banks of the Red River
in the year 1812.
"I am a native of Ireland and embarked with Owen Keveny--a bright
Hibernian--a clever writer, and speaker, who, poor fellow, was killed by
the rival Fur Company, and whose murderer, De Reinhard, was tried at
Quebec. Of course the greater number of Lord Selkirk's settlers were
Scotchmen, but I have always lived with them, known them, and find that
they trust me rather more than they at times trust each other. I have
been their merchant, contractor, treaty-maker, business manager,
counsellor, adviser, and confidential friend."
"But," said the writer, "as having come to cast in my lot with the
people of the Red River, I should be glad to hear from you about the
early times, and especially of the earlier people of this region, who
lived their lives, and came and went, before the arrival of Lord
Selkirk's settlers in 1812." Thus the story-telling began, and patriarch
and questioner made out from one source and another the whole story of
the predecessors of the Selkirk Colonists.
[Illustration: MOUND BUILDERS' ORNAMENTS, ETC.
A. Ornamental gorget of turtle's plastron.
B. Gorget of sea-shell (1879).
C. Gorget of buffalo bone.
D. Breast or arm ornament of very hard bone.
E. String of beads of birds' leg bones. Note cross X.
F. One of three polished stones used for gaming.
G. Columella of large sea couch (tropical, used as sinker for fishing).]
AN EXTINCT RACE.
"Long before the coming of the settler, there lived a race who have now
entirely disappeared. Not very far from the Assiniboine River, where
Main Street crosses it, is now to be seen," said the narrator, "Fort
Garry--a fine castellated structure with stone walls and substantial
bastions. A little north of this you may have noticed a round mound,
forty feet across. We opened this mound on one occasion, and found it to
contain a number of human skeletons and articles of various kinds. The
remains are those of a people whom we call 'The Mound Builders,' who
ages ago lived here. Their mounds stood on high places on the river bank
and were used for observation. The enemy approaching could from these
mounds easily be seen. They are also found in good agricultural
districts, showing that the race were agriculturists, and where the
fishing is good on the river or lake these mounds occur. The Mound
Builders are the first people of whom we have traces here about. The
Indians say that these Mound Builders are not their ancestors, but are
the 'Very Ancient Men.' It is thought that the last of them passed away
some four hundred years ago, just before the coming of the white man. At
that time a fierce whirlwind of conquest passed over North America,
which was seen in the destruction of the Hurons, who lived in Ontario
and Quebec. Some of their implements found were copper, probably brought
from Lake Superior, but stone axes, hammers, and chisels, were commonly
used by them. A horn spear, with barbs, and a fine shell sinker, shows
that they lived on fish. Strings of beads and fine pearl ornaments are
readily found. But the most notable thing about these people is that
they were far ahead of the Indians, in that they made pottery, with
brightly designed patterns, which showed some taste. Very likely these
Mound Builders were peaceful people, who, driven out of Mexico many
centuries ago, came up the Mississippi, and from its branches passing
into Red River, settled all along its banks. We know but little of this
vanished race. They have left only a few features of their work behind
them. Their name and fame are lost forever.
"And is this all? an earthen pot,
A broken spear, a copper pin
Earth's grandest prizes counted in--
A burial mound?--the common lot."
THE GAY FRENCHMAN.
Then the conversation turned upon the early Frenchmen, who came to the
West during the days of French Canada, before Wolfe took Quebec. "Oh! I
have no doubt they would make a great ado," said the old patriarch,
"when they came here. The French, you know, are so fond of pageants. But
beyond a few rumors among the old Indians far up the Assiniboine River
of their remembrance of the crosses and of the priests, or black robes,
as they call them, I have never heard anything; these early explorers
themselves left few traces. When they retired from the country, after
Canada was taken by Wolfe, the Indians burnt their forts and tried to
destroy every vestige of them. You know the Indian is a cunning
diplomatist. He very soon sees which is the stronger side and takes it.
When the King is dead he is ready to shout, Long live the new King. I
have heard that down on the point, on the south side of the Forks of the
two rivers, the Frenchmen built a fort, but there wasn't a stick or a
stone of it left when the Selkirk Colonists came in 1812. But perhaps
you know that part of the story better than I do," ventured the old
patriarch. That is the Story of the French Explorers.
"Oh! Yes," replied the writer, "you know the world of men and things
about you; I know the world of books and journals and letters."
"Let us hear of that," said the patriarch eagerly.
[Illustration: MOUND BUILDERS' REMAINS
A. Native Copper Drill.
B. Soapstone Conjurer's tube.
C. Flint Skinning Implement.
D. Horn Fish Spear.
E. Native Copper Cutting Knife.
F. Cup found in Rainy River Mound by the Author, 1884.]
Well, you know the French Explorers were very venturesome. They went,
sometimes to their sorrow, among the wildest tribes of Indians.
A French Captain, named Verandrye, who was born in Lower Canada, came up
the great lakes to trade for furs of the beaver, mink, and musk-rat.
When he reached the shore of Lake Superior, west of where Fort William
now stands, an old Indian guide, gave him a birch bark map, which showed
all the streams and water courses from Lake Superior to Lake of the
Woods, and on to Lake Winnipeg. This was when the "well-beloved" Louis
XV. was King of France, and George II. King of England. It was heroic of
Verandrye to face the danger, but he was a soldier who had been twice
wounded in battle in Europe, and had the French love of glory. By
carrying his canoes over the portages, and running the rapids when
possible, he came to the head of Rainy River, went back again with his
furs, and after several such journeys, came down the Winnipeg River from
Lake of the Woods, to Lake Winnipeg, and after a while made a dash
across the stormy Lake Winnipeg and came to the Red River. The places
were all unknown, the Indians had never seen a white man in their
country, and the French Captain, with his officers, his men and a
priest, found their way to the Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.
This was nearly three-quarters of a century before the first Selkirk
Colonists reached Red River. The French Captain saw only a few Indian
teepees at the Forks, and ascended the Assiniboine. It was a very dry
year, and the water in the Assiniboine was so low that it was with
difficulty he managed to pull over the St. James rapids, and reached
where Portage la Prairie now stands, and sixty miles from the site of
Winnipeg claimed the country for his Royal Master. Here he collected the
Indians, made them his friends, and proceeded to build a great fort, and
named it after Mary of Poland, the unfortunate Queen of France--"Fort de
la Reine," or Queen's Fort. But he could not forget "The Forks"--the
Winnipeg of to-day--and so gave instructions to one of his lieutenants
to stop with a number of his men at the Forks, cut down trees, and erect
a fort for safety in coming and going up the Assiniboine. The Frenchmen
worked hard, and on the south side of the junction of the Red River with
the Assiniboine, erected Fort Rouge--the Red Fort. This fort, built in
1738, was the first occupation of the site of the City of Winnipeg. The
French Captain Verandrye, his sons and his men, made further journeys to
the far West, even once coming in sight of the Rocky Mountains. But
French Canada was doomed. In twenty years more Wolfe was to wrench
Canada from France and make it British. The whole French force of
soldiers, free traders, and voyageurs were needed at Montreal and
Quebec. Not a Frenchman seems to have remained behind, and for a number
of years the way to the West was blocked up. The canoes went to decay,
the portages grew up with weeds and underwood, and the Western search
for furs from Montreal was suspended.
THE INDIANS OF THE RED RIVER.
No man knew the Indian better than Andrew McDermott. No one knew better
how to trade and dicker with the red man of the prairie. He could tell
of all the feuds of tribe with tribe, and of the wonderful skill of the
Fur Companies in keeping order among the Indian bands. The Red River had
not, after the departure of the French, been visited by travellers for
well nigh forty years. No doubt bands of Indians had threaded the
waterways, and carried their furs in one year to Pigeon River, on Lake
Superior, or to Fort Churchill, or York Factory on Hudson Bay. It was
only some ten or fifteen years before the coming of the Selkirk
Colonists that the fur traders, though they for forty years had been
ascending the Saskatchewan, had visited Red River at all. No missionary
had up to the coming of the Colonists ever appeared on the banks of the
Red River. Some ten years before the settler's advent, the fur traders
on the upper Red River had most bitter rivalries and for two or three
years the fire water--the Indian's curse--flowed like a flood. The
danger appealed to the traders, and from a policy of mere
self-protection they had decided to give out no strong drink, unless it
might be a slight allowance at Christmas and New Year's time. Red River
was now the central meeting place of four of the great Indian Nations.
The Red Pipestone Quarry down in the land of the Dakotas, and the Roches
Percées, on the upper Souris River, in the land of the wild Assiniboines
were sacred shrines. At intervals all the Indian natives met at these
spots, buried for the time being their weapons, and lived in peace. But
Red River, and the country--eastward to the Lake of the Woods--was
really the "marches" where battles and conflicts continually prevailed.
Red River, the Miskouesipi, or Blood Red River of the Chippewas and
Crees, was said to have thus received its name. Andrew McDermott knew
all the Indians as they drew near with curiosity, to see the settlers
and to speculate upon the object of their coming. The Indian despises
the man who uses the hoe, and when the Colonists sought thus to gain a
sustenance from the fertile soil of the field, they were laughed at by
the Indians who caught the French word "Jardiniers," or gardeners, and
applied it to them.
The Colonists were certainly a puzzle to the Red man. To the banks of
the Red River and to the east of Lake Winnipeg had come many of the
Chippewas. They were known on the Red River as Sauteurs, or Saulteaux,
or Bungays, because they had come to the West from Sault Ste. Marie,
thinking nothing of the hundreds of miles of travel along the streams.
They were sometimes considered to be the gypsies of the Red men. It was
they coming from the lucid streams emptying into Lake Superior and
thence to Lake Winnipeg, who had called the latter by its name "Win,"
cloudy or muddy, and "nipiy" water. When the Colonists arrived, the
leading chief of the Chippewas, or Saulteaux, was Peguis. He became at
once the friend of the white man, for he was always a peaceful, kindly,
old Ogemah, or Chieftain.
All the Indians were, at first, kindness itself to the new comers, and
they showed great willingness to supply food to the hungry settlers, and
to assist them in transfer and in taking possession of their own homes.
The Saulteaux Indians while active and helpful were really intruders
among the Crees, a great Indian nation, who in language and blood were
their relations. As proof of this the Crees at this time used horses on
the plains. The horse was an importation brought up the valleys from the
Spaniards of Mexico. Seeing his value as a beast of burden, more fit
than the dog which had been formerly used, they coined the word
"Mis-ta-tim," or big dog as the name for the horse. Their Chiefs were,
with their names translated into pronounceable English, "the Premier,"
"the Black Robe," "the Black Man," while seemingly Mache Wheskab--"the
Noisy Man"--represented the Assiniboines. The Crees, so well represented
by their doughty Chiefs, are a sturdy race. They adapt themselves
readily enough to new conditions. While the northern Indian tribes met
the Colonists, yet in after days, as had frequently taken place in days
preceding, bands of Sioux or Dakotas, came on pilgrimages to the Red
River. Long ago when the French Captain Verandrye voyaged to Lake of the
Woods, his son and others of his men, were attacked by Sioux warriors,
and the whole party of whites was massacred in an Island on the Lake.
The writer in a later day, near Winnipeg, met on the highway, a band of
Sioux warriors, on horse-back, with their bodies naked to the waist, and
painted with high color, in token of the fact that they were on the
warpath. On occasion it was the habit of bands of Sioux to find their
way to the Red River Valley, and the people did not feel at all safe, at
their hostile attitude, as they bore the name of the "Tigers of the
Plains."
With Saulteaux, Crees, Assiniboines, and Sioux coming freely among them,
the settlers had at first a feeling of decided insecurity.
[Illustration: Osoup, Agent, Atalacoup, Kakawistaha, Mistawasis
FOUR CREE CHIEFS OF RUPERT'S LAND]
THE MONTREAL MERCHANTS AND MEN.
But the fur trade paid too well to be left alone by the Montrealers who
knew of Verandrye's exploits on the Ottawa and the Upper Lakes. When
Canada became British, many daring spirits hastened to it from New York
and New Jersey States. Montreal became the home of many young men of
Scottish families. Some of their fathers had fled to the Colonies after
the Stuart Prince was defeated at Culloden, and after the power of the
Jacobites was broken. Some of the young men of enterprising spirit were
the sons of officers and men who had fought in the Seven Years' War
against France and now came to claim their share of the conqueror's
spoils. Some men were of Yankee origin, who with their proverbial
ability to see a good chance, came to what has always been Canada's
greatest city, on the Island of Montreal. It was only half a dozen years
after Wolfe's great victory, that a great Montreal trader, Alexander
Henry, penetrated the western lakes to Mackinaw--the Island of the
Turtle, lying between Lakes Huron and Michigan. At Sault Ste. Marie, he
fell in with a most noted French Canadian, Trader Cadot, who had married
a Saulteur wife. He became a power among the Indians. With Scottish
shrewdness Henry acquired from the Commandant at Mackinaw the exclusive
right to trade on Lake Superior. He became a partner of Cadot, and they
made a voyage as Canadian Argonauts, to bring back very rich cargoes of
fur. They even went up to the Saskatchewan on Lake Winnipeg. After
Henry, came another Scotchman, Thomas Curry, and made so successful a
voyage that he reached the Saskatchewan River, and came back laden with
furs, so that he was now satisfied never to have to go again to the
Indian country. Shortly afterwards James Findlay, another son of the
heather, followed up the fur-traders' route, and reached Saskatchewan.
Thus the Northwest Fur Trade became the almost exclusive possession of
the Scottish Merchants of Montreal. With the master must go the man. And
no man on the rivers of North America ever equalled, in speed, in good
temper, and in skill, the French Canadian voyageur. Almost all the
Montreal merchants, the Forsythes, the Richardsons, the McTavishes, the
Mackenzies, and the McGillivrays, spoke the French as fluently as they
did their own language. Thus they became magnetic leaders of the French
canoemen of the rivers. The voyageurs clung to them with all the
tenacity of a pointer on the scent. There were Nolins, Falcons,
Delormes, Faribaults, Lalondes, Leroux, Trottiers, and hundreds of
others, that followed the route until they became almost a part of the
West and retired in old age, to take up a spot on some beautiful bay, or
promontory, and never to return to "Bas Canada." Those from Montreal to
the north of Lake Superior were the pork eaters, because they lived on
dried pork, those west of Lake Superior, "Couriers of the Woods," and
they fed on pemmican, the dried flesh of the buffalo. They were mighty
in strength, daring in spirit, tractable in disposition, eagles in
swiftness, but withal had the simplicity of little children. They made
short the weary miles on the rivers by their smoking "tabac"--the time
to smoke a pipe counting a mile--and by their merry songs, the "Fairy
Ducks" and "La Claire Fontaine," "Malbrouck has gone to the war," or
"This is the beautiful French Girl"--ballads that they still retained
from the French of Louis XIV. They were a jolly crew, full of
superstitions of the woods, and leaving behind them records of daring,
their names remain upon the rivers, towns and cities of the Canadian and
American Northwest.
Some thirty years before the arrival of the Colonists, the Montreal
traders found it useful to form a Company. This was called the
North-West Fur Company of Montreal. Having taken large amounts out of
the fur trade, they became the leaders among the merchants of Montreal.
The Company had an energy and ability that made them about the beginning
of the nineteenth century the most influential force in Canadian life.
At Fort William and Lachine their convivial meetings did something to
make them forget the perils of the rapids and whirlpools of the rivers,
and the bitterness of the piercing winds of the northwestern stretches.
Familiarly they were known as the "Nor'-Westers." Shortly before the
beginning of the century mentioned, a split took place among the
"Nor'-Westers," and as the bales of merchandise of the old Company had
upon them the initials "N.W.," the new Company, as it was called, marked
their packages "XY," these being the following letters of the alphabet.
Besides these mentioned there were a number of independent merchants, or
free traders. At one time there were at the junction of the Souris and
Assiniboine Rivers, five establishments, two of them being those of free
traders or independents. Among all these Companies the commander of a
Fort was called, "The Bourgeois" to suit the French tongue of the men.
He was naturally a man of no small importance.
"THE DUSKY RIDERS OF THE PLAINS."
But the conditions, in which both the traders and the voyageurs lived,
brought a disturbing shadow over the wide plains of the North-West. Now
under British rule, the Fur trade from Montreal became a settled
industry. From Curry's time (1766) they began to erect posts or depots
at important points to carry on their trade. Around these posts the
voyageurs built a few cabins and this new centre of trade afforded a
spot for the encampment near by of the Indian teepees made of tanned
skins. The meeting of the savage and the civilized is ever a contact of
peril. Among the traders or officers of the Fur trade a custom grew
up--not sanctioned by the decalogue--but somewhat like the German
Morganatic marriage. It was called "Marriage of the Country." By this in
many cases the trader married the Indian wife; she bore children to him,
and afterwards when he retired from the country, she was given in real
marriage to some other voyageur, or other employee, or pensioned off. It
is worthy of note that many of these Indian women became most true and
affectionate spouses. With the voyageurs and laborers the conditions
were different. They could not leave the country, they had become a part
of it, and their marriages with the Indian women were bona fide. Thus it
was that during the space from the time of Curry until the arrival of
the Selkirk Colonists upwards of forty years had elapsed, and around the
wide spread posts of the Fur Trading Companies, especially around those
of the prairie, there had grown up families, which were half French and
half Indian, or half English and half Indian. When it could be afforded
these children were sent for a time to Montreal, to be educated, and
came back to their native wilds. On the plain between the Assiniboine
and the Saskatchewan, a half-breed community had sprung up. From their
dusky faces they took the name "Bois-Brulés," or "Charcoal Faces," or
referring to their mixed blood, of "Metis," or as exhibiting their
importance, they sought to be called "The New Nation." The blend of
French and Indian was in many respects a natural one. Both are stalwart,
active, muscular; both are excitable, imaginative, ambitious; both are
easily amused and devout. The "Bois-Brulés" growing up among the Indians
on the plains naturally possessed many of the features of the Indian
life. The pursuit of their fur-bearing animals was the only industry of
the country. The Bois-Brulés from childhood were familiar with the
Indian pony, knew all his tricks and habits, began to ride with all the
skill of a desert ranger, were familiar with fire-arms, took part in the
chase of the buffalo on the plains, and were already trained to make the
attack as cavalry on buffalo herds, after the Indian fashion, in the
famous half-circle, where they were to be so successful in their later
troubles, of which we shall speak. Such men as the Grants, Findlays,
Lapointes, Bellegardes, and Falcons were equally skilled in managing the
swift canoe, or scouring the plains on the Indian ponies. We shall see
the part which this new element were to play in the social life and even
in the public concerns of the prairies.
THE STATELY HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.
The last of the elements to come into the valley of the Red River and to
precede the Colonists, was the Hudson's Bay Company--even then, dating
back its history almost a century and a half. They were a dignified and
wealthy Company, reaching back to the times of easy-going Charles II.,
who gave them their charter. For a hundred years they lived in
self-confidence and prudence in their forts of Churchill and York, on
the shore of Hudson Bay. They were even at times so inhospitable as to
deal with the Indians through an open window of the fort. This was in
striking contrast to the "Nor'-Wester" who trusted the Indians and lived
among them with the freest intercourse. For the one hundred years spoken
of, the Indians from the Red River Country, the Saskatchewan, the Red
River and Lake Winnipeg, found their way by the water courses to the
shores of the Hudson Bay. But the enterprise of the Montreal merchants
in leaving their forts and trading in the open with the Indians,
prevented the great fleets of canoes, from going down with their furs,
as they had once done to Churchill and York. The English Company felt
the necessity of starting into the interior, and so within six years of
the time of the expedition of Thomas Curry, appeared five hundred miles
inland from the Bay, and erected a fort--Fort Cumberland--a few hundred
yards from the "Nor'-Westers'" Trading House, on the Saskatchewan River.
By degrees before the end of the century almost every place of any
importance, in the fur-producing country, saw the two rival forts built
within a mile or two of each other. Shortly before the end of the 18th
Century, the "Nor'-Westers" came into the Red River Valley and built one
or two forts near the 49th parallel, N. lat.--the U.S. boundary of
to-day. But four years after the new Century began, the "Nor'-Westers"
decided to occupy the "Forks" of the Red and Assiniboine River, near
where Verandrye's Fort Rouge had been built some sixty years before.
Evidently both companies felt the conflict to be on, in their efforts to
cover all important parts, for they called this Trading House Fort
Gibraltar, whose name has a decided ring of the war-like about it. It is
not clear exactly where the Hudson's Bay post was built, but it is said
to have rather faced the Assiniboine than the Red River, perhaps near
where Notre Dame Avenue East, or the Hudson's Bay stores is to-day. It
was probably built a few years after Fort Gibraltar, and was called
"Fidler's Fort." By this time, however, the Hudson's Bay Company,
working from their first post of Cumberland House, pushed on to the
Rocky Mountains to engage in the Titanic struggle which they saw lay
ahead of them. One of their most active agents, in occupying the Red
River Valley, was the Englishman Peter Fidler, who was the surveyor of
this district, the master of several forts, and a man who ended his
eventful career by a will made--providing that all of his funds should
be kept at interest until 1962, when they should be divided, as his last
chimerical plan should direct. It thus came about that when the
Colonists arrived there were two Traders' Houses, on the site of the
City of Winnipeg of to-day, within a mile of one another, one
representing a New World, and the other an Old World type of mercantile
life. It was plain that on the Plains of Rupert's Land there would come
a struggle for the possession of power, if not for very existence.