A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
The Emigrant ship has landed its living freight at Fort Factory, upon
the Coast of Hudson Bay--a shore unoccupied for hundreds of miles except
by a few Hudson's Bay Company forts such as those at the mouth of the
Nelson River, and of Fort Churchill, a hundred miles or more farther
north. It was now the end of the season, and it will not do to trifle
with the nip of cold "Boreas" on the shore of Hudson Bay. The icy winter
is at hand, and all know that they will face such temperatures as they
never had seen even among the stormy Hebrides, or in the Northward
Orkneys. Lord Selkirk's dreams are now to be tested. Is the story of the
Colony to be an epic or a drama?
It was by no means the first experiment of facing in an unprepared way
the rigors of a North American winter.
In the fourth year of the Seventeenth Century De Monts, a French
Colonizer, had a band of his countrymen on Douchet's Island, in the Ste.
Croix River, on the borders of New Brunswick. Though fairly well
provided in some ways yet the winter proved so trying that out of the
number of less than eighty, nearly one-half died. The winter was so
long, weary and deadly, that in the spring the survivors of the Colony
were moved to Port Royal in Acadia and the Ste. Croix was given up. This
was surely dramatic; this was tragic indeed. But in the fourth year of
this Century, the Tercentenary of this event was celebrated in Annapolis
and St. John, as the writer himself beheld, and the shouts and applause
of gathered thousands made a great and patriotic epic.
Again four years after De Monts, when knowledge of climate and
conditions had become known to the French pioneers, Samuel de Champlain
wintered with his crew and a few settlers on the site of Old Quebec, on
the St. Lawrence. Discontent and dissension led to rebellion, and blood
was shed in the execution of the plotters. Hunger, suffering and the
dreadful scurvy attacked the founder's party of less than thirty, of
whom only ten survived, and yet in July of 1908, the writer witnessed
the grand Tercentenary celebration of Champlain's settlement of Quebec,
and with the presence of the Prince of Wales, General Roberts, the idol
of the British Army, a joint fleet, of eleven English, French and
American first-class Men-of War, with pageantry and music, the Epic of
Champlain was sung at the foot of the great statue erected to his
memory.
In the Twentieth year of the Seventeenth Century, a company of very
sober folk, came to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in a trifling little
vessel the "Mayflower," and brought about one hundred Immigrants from
the British Isles to Plymouth Rock to build up a refuge and a home. What
a mighty song of patriotism will burst out when in a few years the
United States hold their Tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers.
And so we see the first Selkirk Colonists landed on the Hudson Bay
numbering at the outside seventy, a number not greatly different from
the French and Pilgrim Fathers and called on to pass through similar
trials in the severe winter of Hudson Bay. Their experience has been
less tragic than that of the other parties spoken of, but in it the same
elements of discomfort, dissension and disease certainly present
themselves. However distressing their winter was, the dramatic
conditions passed away, in a short time we shall be engaged in
commemorating the patience and the heroism of these settlers, and in
1912 we shall sing a new song--the epic of the Lord Selkirk Colonists.
But to be true we must look more closely at the trials, and sufferings
of the untried, and somewhat turbulent band, on their way to the Red
River.
York Factory as being the port of entry for the southern prairie country
was a place of some importance. As in the largest number of cases, other
than a few huts for workmen, and a few Indian families, the Fort was the
only centre of life in the whole region. Two rivers, the Nelson and the
Hayes, enter the Hudson Bay at this point--the Nelson being the more
northerly of the two. Between the two rivers is really a delta or low
swampy tongue of land. On the Nelson's north bank, the land near the Bay
is low, while inland there is a rising height. Five or six different
sites of forts are pointed out at this point. These have been built on
during the history of the Company, which dates back to 1670. In Lord
Selkirk's time the factory was more than half a mile from the Bay and
lay between the two rivers. Miles Macdonell states that it was on "low,
miry ground without a ditch." The stagnant water by which the post was
surrounded would be productive of much ill-health, were there a longer
summer. The buildings of the Factory were also badly planned, and badly
constructed, so that the Fort was unsuitable for quartering the
Colonists. Besides this, Messrs. Cook and Auld, the former Governor of
York Factory, and the latter chief officer of Fort Churchill, having the
old Hudson's Bay Company's spirit of dislike of Colonists, decided that
the new settlers, being an innovation and an evil, should have separate
quarters built for them at a distance from the Fort.
Poor Colonists! Miles Macdonell is wearied with them in their
complaining spirit, berates them for indolence, and finds fault with
their awkwardness as workmen. To Macdonell, who was a Canadian,
accustomed as a soldier and frontiersman to dealing with canoes, boats,
and every means of land transport, the sturdy, steady going Orkneyman
was slow and clumsy.
The inexperienced new settler thus gets rather brusque treatment from
the Colonial, more a good deal than he deserves.
Accordingly it was decided to erect log dwellings for the workmen and
the settlers on the higher ground north of the Nelson River. Several
miles distant from the Factory itself, Spruce trees of considerable size
grew along the river, and so all hands were put to work to have huts or
shanties erected to protect the Colonists from the severe cold of
winter, which would soon be upon them, although on October 5th Miles
Macdonell wrote home to Lord Selkirk: "The weather has been mild and
pleasant for some days past."
The erection of suitable houses, that is homely on the exterior, but
warm in the coldest weather, was superintended by Miles
Macdonell--himself a Colonial and one aware of the precautions needing
to be taken.
Amid all the troubles and complaints of the winter there were none
against the suitableness of the log dwellings which were erected on the
chosen site to which was given the name, "Nelson Encampment." Winter,
however, came in fiercely enough in November, although again on the 29th
of November, Macdonell writes to Cook, Governor of the Factory: "A mild
day enables us to send a boat across the Nelson with the Express." It
was open water on the river.
Macdonell knew well that with the recent arrivals from the Old Land, one
of the greatest dangers would be the weakening and dangerous disease of
scurvy. He had sought for supplies of "Essence of Malt" and "Crystallized
Salts of Lemon," and at the beginning of December as the people were
living chiefly on salt provisions and a short allowance of oatmeal the
scurvy made its appearance. Medical care was given by Mr. Edwards and
the disease was at once met. However within a month one-third of the
Immigrants were thus afflicted and the fear was that the malady would go
through the whole Encampment. But the remedy that Champlain found so
effective at Quebec--the juice of the Spruce tree, which grew in
abundance around the Encampment--checked the disease, wherever the
obstinacy of the settlers did not prevent its use, for says Macdonell,
"It is not an easy matter to get the Orkneymen to drink it, particularly
the old hands." A smouldering fire of discontent that had been detected
on board the ship on crossing the ocean now broke out into a flame. The
Irish and the Orkneymen could not agree. In February the vigilant leader
Macdonell writes: "The Irish displayed their native propensity and
prowess on the first night of the year, by unmercifully beating some
Orkneymen. Too much strong drink was the chief incitement." This
antipathy continued to be a difficulty even until the party arrived at
Red River.
There are signs in his letters, of the constant strain on Miles
Macdonell arising from the difficulties of his position and the
waywardness of the Immigrants. At times he consults with the Hudson's
Bay Company's officer, Mr. Hillier, and at others thus unbosoms himself
to Messrs. Cook and Auld. "In this wild, desolate and (I may add) barren
region, excluded at present from all communication with the civilized
world, intelligence of a local kind can alone be expected. Could we join
in the sentinel's cry of 'All is well,' although not affording great
changes, it might yet be satisfactory in our isolated condition. We have
as great variety as generally happens in this sublunary world, of which
we here form a true epitome, being composed of men of all countries,
religions and tongues."
Plainly Governor Macdonell feels his burdens! However, the culmination
of this officer's troubles did not reach him until a serious rebellion
occurred among his subjects--so mixed and various.
A workman--William Finlay--presumably an Orkneyman, who had been
regularly employed by Miles Macdonell when the scurvy was bad in Mr.
Hillier's camp, refused to obey the health regulations, his one
objection being to drink this spruce decoction. He was immediately
dropped from work. A few days afterward supposing the matter had blown
over, Macdonell ordered him to work again. Finlay declined, whereupon,
though under engagement he refused to further obey Macdonell. The
Governor then brought him before Mr. Hillier, who like himself, had been
made a magistrate. His breach of law in this, as in other matters being
brought against Finlay he was sentenced to confinement. There being no
prison at York Factory it seemed difficult to carry out the sentence by
his being simply confined with his other companions in the men's
quarters. Accordingly the Governor ordered a single log hut to be
constructed, and this being done, in it the prisoner was confined. Not a
day had entirely passed when a rebellion arose among some of his
compatriots--the Scottish contingent from Orkney and Glasgow--and a band
of thirteen of them surrounded the newly built hut, set it on fire and
as it went up in smoke rescued the prisoner.
The men were arrested and were brought before Macdonell and Hillier,
sitting as magistrates. This was about the end of February. The rebels,
however, defied the authorities, departed carrying Finlay with them and
getting possession of a house took it defiantly for their own use.
During their remaining sojourn at York Factory they subsisted on
provisions obtained at the Factory itself and carried by themselves from
the post to the encampment. Governor Macdonell, meantime, decided to
send these rebellious spirits home to Britain for punishment, and not
allow them to go on to Red River.
The possession by the rioters of some five or six stand of firearms, was
felt to be a menace to the peace of the encampment. An effort was made
to obtain them by Macdonell, but "the insurgents," as they were called,
secreted the arms and thus kept possession of them. In June on the
rebels being very bold and being unable to get back across the Nelson
River from the Factory for a number of days, they were forced by Mr.
Auld, then at York Factory, to give up their arms and submit or else
have their supplies from the Factory stopped. They were thus compelled
to submit and on the receipt of a note from Mr. Auld to Macdonell, the
latter wrote a joyful letter to Lord Selkirk to the effect that the
insurgents had at length come to terms, acknowledged their guilt and
thrown themselves upon the mercy of the Hudson's Bay Committee.
This surrender made it unnecessary to send the body of rioters back to
England for trial.
During the months of later winter Governor Miles Macdonell was specially
employed in building boats for the journey up to Red River. He
introduced a style of boat used on the rivers of New York, his native
State. These, however, he complains, were very badly constructed through
the clumsiness and lack of skill of the Colonists and Company employees,
whom he had ordered to build them.
Now on July fourth, 1812, Governor Macdonell, his Colonists, and the
Hudson's Bay officials--Cook and Auld--are all gazing wistfully up the
Nelson and Hayes Rivers, and we have the postscript to the last letter
as found in Miles Macdonell letter book, sent to Lord Selkirk, reading,
"Four Irishmen are to be sent home; Higgins and Hart, for the felonious
attack on the Orkneymen; William Gray, non-effective, and Hugh Redden,
who lost his arm by the bursting of a gun given him to fire off by Mr.
Brown, one of the Glasgow clerks."
(Signed) H. MacD.
The expedition left York Factory for the interior on the 6th of July,
1812.