FIGHT AND FLIGHT.
The year 1815 was a year of world-wide disaster. Napoleon's
Europe-shadowing wings had for years been over that continent and he
like a ravenous bird had left marks of his ravages among the most
prominent European nations. The world had a breathing spell for a short
time with Napoleon a virtual prisoner in Elba, but now in March of this
year he broke from the perch where he had been tethered and all Europe
was again in terror. The nations were thunderstruck; the alarm was
deepened by the appearance of Olber's great comet, and in their
superstition the ignorant were panic-stricken, while the more religious
and informed saw in these terrible events the scenes pictured in the
Apocalypse and maintained that the battle of Armageddon was at hand. The
epoch-marking battle of Waterloo in June of this year was sufficiently
near the picture of blood painted in the Revelation to satisfy the
credulous.
But in a remote corner of Rupert's Land, where the number of the
combatants was small and the conditions exceedingly primitive the comet
was alarming enough. The action of Governor Miles Macdonell in the
beginning of 1814, in forbidding the export of food from Rupert's Land
and in interfering with the liberty of the traders, Indians and
half-breeds, who had regarded themselves as outside of law, and as free
as the wind of their wild prairies, produced an open and out-spoken
dissent from every class.
The Nor'-Westers took time to consider the grave step of interrupting
trade which Governor Miles Macdonell had taken. Immediate action was
impossible. It was four hundred miles and more from the Colony to the
great emporium of the fur trade on Lake Superior. The annual gathering
of the Nor'-Westers was held at Grand Portage, the terminus of a road
nine miles long, built to avoid the rapids of the Pigeon River which
flows into Lake Superior some thirty or forty miles southwest of where
Fort William now stands. This concourse was a notable affair. From
distant Athabasca, from the Saskatchewan, from the Red River and from
Lake Winnipeg, the traders gathered in their gaily decked canoes, to
meet the gentlemen from Montreal, who came to count the gains of the
year, and lay out plans for the future. Indians gathered outside of
Grand Portage Fort. The Highland Chieftains were now transformed into
factors and traders, and for days they met in counsel together. Their
evenings were spent in the great dining room of the Fort in revelry.
Songs of the voyage were sung and as the excitement grew more intense
the partners would take seats on the floor of the room and each armed
with a sword or poker or pair of tongs unite in the paddle song of "A la
Claire Fontaine," and make merry till far on in the morning. The days
were laboriously given to business and accounts. When the great
MacTavish--the head of the Nor'-Westers--was there he was often opposed
by the younger men, yet he ended the strife with his tyrannical will and
silenced all opposition.
The Nor'-Westers at their meeting, July, 1814, under Honorable William
McGillivray, after whom Fort William was named, decided to oppose the
Colony and sent two of their most aggressive men to meet force with
force, and to give Miles Macdonell, the new Dictator, either by arms or
by craft, the reward for his tyranny, as they regarded it.
The whole body of the traders were incensed against Lord Selkirk, for
had not one of the chief Nor'-Wester partners written two years before
from London saying, "Lord Selkirk must be driven to abandon his project,
for his success would strike at the very existence of our trade."
The two men chosen at the gathering in Grand Portage were well fitted
for their work. Most forward was Alexander Macdonell. On his journey
writing to a friend he said: "Much is expected of us.... So here is at
them with all my heart and energy." But the master-mind was his
companion Duncan Cameron who, as a leader, stands out in the conflicts
of the times as a determined man, of great executive ability, but of
fierce and over-bearing disposition. The Nor'-Westers, having planned
bloodshed, all agreed that Duncan Cameron was well chosen. He had been a
leading explorer and trader in the Lake Superior district and knew the
fur traders' route as few others did. His well-nigh thirty years of
service made him a man of outstanding influence in the Company.
Moreover, he could be bland and jovial. He had the Celtic adroitness. He
knew how to ingratiate himself with every class and possessed all the
devices of an envoy. His appearance and dress at Red River were notable.
Having had some rank as a U.E. Loyalist leader in the war of 1812, he
came to the Forks dressed in a scarlet military coat with all the
accoutrements of a Captain in the Army. He even made display of his
Captain's Commission by posting it at the gate of Fort Gibraltar. Of the
Fort itself he took possession as Bourgeois or master and laid his plans
in August, 1814, for the destruction of the Selkirk Colony. Cameron then
began a systematic course of ingratiating himself with the Colonists.
Speaking, as he did the Gaelic language, he appealed with much success
to his countrymen. He represented himself as their friend and stirred up
the people of Red River against Selkirk tyranny. He pictured to them
their wrongs, the broken promises of the founder, and the undesirability
of remaining in the Colony. He brought the settlers freely to his table,
treating them openly to the beverage of their native country, and
completely captured the hearts of a number of them. Those, friends of
his, he made use of to carry out his deep plans. On the very day of the
issue of the rations, he induced some of the Colonists to demand the
nine small cannon in the Colony store houses. The request was refused by
Archibald Macdonald, the acting Governor. The settlers then went
forward, broke open the store houses and removed the cannon. Macdonald
now arrested the leading settler, who had taken the field pieces,
whereupon Cameron, like a small Napoleon, incited his clerks and men, to
invade the Governor's house and release the prisoner. This was done, and
now it may be said that war between the rival Companies was declared. On
the return of Miles Macdonald, Cameron ordered his arrest. Macdonell
refused to acknowledge the lawfulness of this action. The oily
Nor'-Wester Highlander then threatened the people that if the Governor
would not submit to the law, the whole body of settlers would be
dispossessed of their farms and driven away from the banks of Red River.
As if to make this threat seem more real, several loyal settlers were
fired at by unseen marksmen.
Once having begun, Cameron was not the man to hesitate. Another
Nor'-Wester plan was put into effect.
Cameron's comrade, Alexander Macdonell, now arrived from the Western
plains leading it was said, a band of Cree Indians. The Crees are
stubborn and determined warriors, but they are also crafty. The proposal
by Alexander Macdonell ("Yellow Head as he was called" to distinguish
him), was gravely considered by the Indians. The Indians respect
authority and in this case they were not very sure who had the
authority. The Indians declined the offer, and the report proved untrue.
The Nor'-Westers were, however, strong in their influence over the
Chippewas of Red Lake in Minnesota. Similar propositions were made to
the Sand Lake band of this tribe. Though offered a large reward to go on
this expedition against the Selkirk settlers, the chief refused the
bribe, and the tribe declined to undertake the enterprise.
Cameron however, knew the importance of keeping up the war-like spirit
of his following, and early in June himself took part in an attack upon
the Colony houses. The affray took place on the edge of the wood near
the Governor's residence. Surgeon White and Burke the store-keeper,
narrowly escaped being killed by the shots fired and four of the
servants were actually wounded. Cameron like a real operator effusively
thanked his followers for their grand attack. This state of constant
hostility, ostensibly on account of the refusal of Governor Macdonell to
respect the legal summons served upon him, was ended by the surrender of
Miles Macdonell, who was taken as a prisoner to Montreal, though he was
never brought up for trial.
Thus far Cameron had succeeded in his plans. He was an artful plotter.
His capture of Miles Macdonell gave him great prestige. Besides, he had
roused feelings of serious discontent in the minds of nearly all of the
Selkirk Colonists. His apparent sincerity and kindness to them had also
won their hearts. He was now to make the greatest move in the game. This
was nothing less than a tempting offer to transfer the whole of them to
the fertile townships of Upper Canada. He provided all the means of
transport, he promised them free lands in the neighborhood of market
towns--two hundred acres to each family. Any wages due to them by Lord
Selkirk he would pay and should three-quarters of the Colony accept his
offer they would have provisions provided for a year free of cost. When
the poor Colonists thought of the bleak, uncultivated country in which
they were, of the inevitable hardships which lay before them, and saw
the dangerous, unsettled state of the Selkirk settlement, they could not
well resist the offer. Furthermore, the schemer did not stop here. As
was afterward found out, George Campbell, the arch-agitator and leader
among the disaffected settlers received a promise of £100, and others of
£20 and the like. Further to allay their fears it was urged that they
were going where the British flag was flying and where the truest
loyalty prevailed. It was pointed out that it had been to prevent any
obstacles being raised against their going, that the nine guns had been
seized and were in the custody of the Nor'-Westers. Accordingly full
arrangements were made. A supply of canoes was obtained and on the 15th
of June, 1815, no less than one hundred and forty of the two hundred
Colonists on Red River embarked and drifted down the river on their long
canoe voyage of more than a thousand miles. By the end of July they had
gone over the dangerous Fur traders' route and passing over four or five
hundred miles reached Fort William, near Lake Superior. But their
journey was not one-half over. Along the base of the rugged shores of
Lake Superior, through the St. Mary's River, down the foaming Sault and
then along the shores of Georgian Bay, they paddled their way to
Penetanguishene. From this point they crossed southward to Holland
Landing, which is forty miles north of Toronto, and arrived at their
destination on the 5th of September.
It is hard to find a parallel for such a journey. They were a large
body, made up of men, women, and children, continuously journeying for
eighty-two days, through an unsettled and barren country, running
dangerous rapids, and exposed to storms with a poorly organized
commissariat, and under fear of pursuit by the agents of Lord Selkirk,
to whom many of them were personally bound. In the township of West
Gwillinbury, north of Toronto, near London, and in the Talbot
settlement, near St. Thomas--all in Upper Canada--they received their
lands. Half a century later, in one of the townships north of Toronto,
the writer had pointed out to him a man named MacBeth weighing two
hundred and fifty pounds, of whom it was humourously told that he had
been carried all the way from Red River. The explanation of course was,
that he had been brought as an infant on this famous Hegira of the
Selkirk Colonists.
The finishing of Cameron's work on the Red River, was handed over to
Alexander Macdonell. The plan was nothing less than that the settlers
remaining should be driven by force from the banks of Red River. The
party led by Macdonell was made up of Bois-Brulés, under dashing young
Cuthbert Grant. On their agile ponies they appeared like scourging Huns,
to drive out the discouraged remnant of Colonists.
Each remaining settler was on the 25th of June served with a notice
signed by four Nor'-Westers, thus:
"All settlers to retire immediately from Red River, and no trace of a
settlement to remain." (Signed) Cuthbert Grant, etc.
Two days after the notice was served the beleaguered settlers, made up
of some thirteen families--in all from forty to sixty persons, who had
remained true to Lord Selkirk and the Colony--went forth from their
homes as sadly as the Acadian refugees from Grand Pré. They were allowed
to take with them such belongings as they had, and in boats and other
craft went pensively down Red River with Lake Winnipeg and Jack River in
view as their destination. The house of the Governor, the mill, and the
buildings which the settlers had begun to build upon their lots were all
set on fire and destroyed.
The U.E. Loyalists of Upper Canada and Nova Scotia draw upon our
sympathies in their sufferings of hunger and hardship, but they afford
no parallel to the discouragement, dangers, and dismay of the Selkirk
Colonists.
Alexander Macdonell's party of seventy or eighty mounted men easily
carried out this work of destruction. There was one fly in the ointment
for them. The small Hudson's Bay House built by Fidler still remained.
Here a daring Celt, John McLeod, was in charge. Seeing the temper of
Macdonell's levy McLeod determined to fortify his rude castle. Beside
the trading house of the Hudson's Bay Company stood the blacksmith's
shop. Hurriedly McLeod, with a cart, carried thither the three-pounder
cannon in his possession, then cut up lengths of chain to be his shot
and shell, used with care his small supply of powder and with three or
four men, his only garrison, stood to his gun and awaited the attack of
the Bois-Brulés. Being on horseback his assailants could not long face
his one piece of artillery. It is not known to what extent the
assailants suffered in the skirmish, but John Warren, a gentleman of the
Hudson's Bay Company, was killed in the encounter. The siege of McLeod's
improvised fort continued for several days, but the defence was
successful, and McLeod saved for the Company £1,000 worth of goods.