HISTORICAL.
_Origin and Rise of the Fur Trade—The Coureurs des Bois and the
Voyageurs—Perils of the Canoe Voyages—The Hudson Bay Company and the
Northwest Company—Intense Rivalry—Downfall of the Northwest
Company—Sir Alexander Mackenzie—His Character and Physical
Endowments—Cook’s Explorations—Mackenzie Starts to Penetrate the
Rockies—The Peace River—A Marvellous Escape—The Pacific Reached by
Land—Perils of the Sea and of the Wilderness._
The history of the early explorations in the Canadian Rockies centres
about the fur trade. From the date of the very earliest settlements in
Canada, the quest of furs had occupied a position of chief importance,
to which the pursuits of agriculture, grazing, or manufacture had been
subordinate. The search for gold, which throughout the history of the
world has ever been one of the most powerful incentives to hardy
adventure and daring exploit, did not at first occupy the attention of
those who were ready to hazard their lives for the sake of possible
wealth quickly acquired.
The unremitting and often ruthless destruction of the fur-bearing
animals, in the immediate vicinity of the settlements, caused them to
become exceedingly scarce, and at length to disappear altogether. But
fortunately it was not difficult to induce the Indians to bring their
furs from more distant regions, until at length even those who lived in
the most remote parts of Canada became accustomed to barter their winter
catch at the settlements.
As the trade gradually became more extensive, there sprang up two
slightly different classes of men, the _coureurs des bois_, or wood
rangers, and the _voyageurs_, each of Canadian birth, but who, by reason
of constant contact with the Indians and long-continued separation from
the amenities and refinements of civilized life, came at length to have
more in common with the rude savages, than with the French settlers from
whom they were sprung. Many of these wilderness wanderers married Indian
wives, and, moreover, their plastic nature, a result of their French
extraction, helped them quickly to assume the manners and customs of the
swarthy children of the forest. The _voyageurs_, like the _coureurs des
bois_, were accustomed to take long canoe voyages, under the employ of
some fur company, or even of private individuals; sometimes alone, but
more often several banded together, carrying loads of ammunition,
provisions, and tobacco from the settlements and returning with their
canoes laden down with beaver, marten, and other furs collected among
the Indians. The vast domain of Canada is so completely watered by a
network of large streams, rivers, and lakes, more or less connected,
that it is not difficult to make canoe voyages in almost any direction
throughout the length and breadth of this great territory. It is indeed
possible to start from Montreal and journey by water to Hudson Bay, the
Arctic Ocean, or the base of the Rocky Mountains.
The _voyageurs_ were a hardy race, possessed of incredible physical
strength and untiring patience, remarkable for an implicit obedience to
their superiors, and endowed with a happy, careless nature, regardless
of the morrow, so long as they were well-off to-day. While making their
long and arduous journeys, the _voyageurs_ would arouse their flagging
spirits with merriment and laughter, or awaken echoes from the wooded
shores and rocky cliffs along the rivers and lakes, by their
characteristic songs, to the accompaniment of the ceaseless and rhythmic
movement of their paddles.
How much of romance and poetry filled up the measure of their simple
lives! Nature in all its beauty and grandeur was ever around them, and
nature’s people—the Indians—were those with whom they most associated.
They loved all men, and all men loved them, whether civilized or
barbarian. The stranger among them was called Cousin, or Brother, and
the great fur barons, the partners in the fur companies, on whom they
gazed with awe and admiration, as they travelled in regal state from
post to post, and to whom they bore almost the relation of serf to
feudal lord, they called by their Christian names. The melodies which
they chanted in unison as they glided along quiet rivers, with banks of
changing outlines and constant variety of forest beauty, would hardly
cease as they dashed madly down some roaring, snow-white rapid, beset
with dangerous rocks, where a single false stroke would be fatal. For
many days continuously they were wont to travel, with short time for
sleep, working hour after hour at the paddle, or making the toilsome
portages, when they were accustomed to carry on their backs loads of
almost incredible weight. Nevertheless, on any opportunity for
relaxation, they were ever ready for revelry, music, and the dance,
which they would prolong throughout the night.
The usual dress of the _voyageur_ consisted of a coat or capote cut from
a blanket, a cotton shirt, moccasins, and leather or cloth trousers,
held in place by a belt of colored worsted. A hunting knife and
tobacco-pouch, the latter a most indispensable adjunct to the happiness
of the _voyageur_, were suspended from his belt. Sometimes they would be
absent from the settlements twelve or fifteen months, and many never
returned from their perilous trips. Some were drowned while attempting
to run dangerous rapids. Others were overtaken by the approach of
winter, or were stopped by ice-bound rivers impossible to navigate, and
perished miserably from exposure and starvation.
Those who returned, however, would be amply rewarded by the wealth
suddenly acquired from the result of their long toil. The dissipation of
their gains in the course of a few weeks, accompanied by all manner of
revelry, licentiousness, and mad extravagance, was their compensation
for long periods of privation. At length, their means being exhausted, a
longing for the old manner of life returned, and with renewed hopes they
would recommence their long journeys into the wilderness.
The value of the fur trade soon aroused the attention of a number of
wealthy and influential traders, and in 1670 a charter was granted to
Prince Rupert and a company of fourteen others, to “the sole trade and
commerce” throughout all the regions watered by streams flowing into
Hudson or James Bay. This region was henceforth known as Rupert’s Land.
In addition to the right of trade, the Hudson Bay Company had the
authority of government and the dispensation of justice throughout this
vast territory.
During the winter of 1783-4, however, a number of Canadian merchants,
previously engaged in the fur trade, joined their several interests, and
formed a coalition which assumed the name of the Northwest Company.
This organization, governed, as it was, by different principles from
that of the Hudson Bay Company, soon became a powerful rival. The
younger men in the Northwest Company were fired with ambition and
assured of an adequate reward for their services. While for many years
their older rivals had slumbered, content with the limits of their
territory, the more enterprising Northwest Company, with infinite toil
and danger, extended their posts throughout the interior and western
parts of Canada, and opened up a new and hitherto undeveloped country.
Another great advantage that the Northwest Company had over the Hudson
Bay Company resulted from their employment of the suave and plastic
_voyageurs_, in whose blood the French quality of ready adaptability to
surroundings was especially well shown in their dealings with the
Indians, with whom they had the greatest influence.
On the other hand, the greater part of the Hudson Bay canoe men were
imported from the Orkney Islands. What with their obstinate, unbending
nature, and mental sluggishness, these men presented a most unfavorable
contrast to the genial _voyageurs_.
The establishment of the Northwest Company aroused the utmost jealousy
and animosity of the Hudson Bay Company. While the various parties were
engaged in dealings with the Indians, there not infrequently occurred
open conflicts, bloodshed, and murder among the agents, in their
attempts to outwit and circumvent one another.
At length the partners of the Northwest Company in the interior of
Canada, realizing that all the profits were more than balanced by their
endless and painful contest, determined to open a negotiation with their
rivals, and for this purpose sent two delegates to London with full
authority to close whatever agreement would be for the best interests of
the company. Just at this time the directors of the two companies were
about to sign a contract most favorable to the Northwest Company.
Unfortunately, on the eve of this event, the two delegates from Canada
made their appearance, and instead of communicating at once with their
own directors, they showed their papers to the officers of the Hudson
Bay Company. The Hudson Bay Company took advantage of the opportunity,
and, instead of receiving terms from the other, now proceeded to dictate
them. The outcome of this unfortunate manœuvre was, that the Northwest
Company became merged in that of the Hudson Bay Company, together with
the privileges and trade of all of the vast territory which the
Northwest Company had developed by superior enterprise. Thus, in 1821,
the Northwest Company ended its career.
The Hudson Bay Company’s territory was at length, from time to time,
encroached upon as the colonies of British Columbia, Vancouver’s Island,
and Manitoba were established. Finally, in 1869, the Company ceded all
their governmental and territorial rights to the Dominion, receiving
£300,000 in compensation. Their forts or posts, together with a small
amount of land in the immediate vicinity, were reserved by them. The
Hudson Bay Company still exists as a commercial organization, carrying
on a thriving business in many of the principal cities and towns of
Canada.
So much by way of introduction to the exploration of the Canadian
Rockies.
Let us now turn to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the hardy explorer who first
crossed the continent of North America, after penetrating the grim and
inhospitable array of mountains which had hitherto presented an
impassable barrier to all further westward progress.
Mackenzie was born in the northern part of Scotland, in the picturesque
and historic town of Inverness. The year of his birth is usually set
down as 1755. In his youth he emigrated to Canada, and found employment
as a clerk to one of the partners in the great Northwest Fur Company.
Later on he went to Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca, and became one of
the principal partners in the Northwest Company.
Mackenzie was endowed by nature with a powerful physique and a strong
constitution, which enabled him to undergo the unusual hardships of his
explorations in the wilderness. Beside these physical qualifications, he
was inspired with the ambition necessary to the formation of great
plans, and with an enterprising spirit which impelled him to carry them
through to a successful termination. Great versatility of idea enabled
him to oppose every novel and sudden danger with new plans, while a
rugged perseverance, indomitable patience, and a boldness often
bordering on recklessness, carried him through all manner of physical
and material obstacles. In his dealings with the Indians and his own
followers, he showed an unusual tact, a quality which more than any
other contributed to his success. Nothing so quickly saps the strength
and tries the courage of the explorer, be he ever so bold and
persevering, as cowardice and unwillingness among his followers.
Nevertheless, Mackenzie was not a scientific explorer. Outside of the
manners and customs of the various tribes with which he came in contact,
only the most patent and striking phenomena of the great nature-world
impressed him. No better idea of his views on this subject could be
obtained than from a passage in the preface to his _Voyages_:
“I could not stop,” says Mackenzie, “to dig into the earth, over whose
surface I was compelled to pass with rapid steps; nor could I turn aside
to collect the plants which nature might have scattered on the way, when
my thoughts were anxiously employed in making provision for the day that
was passing over me. I had to encounter perils by land and perils by
water; to watch the savage who was our guide, or to guard against those
of his tribe who might meditate our destruction. I had, also, the
passions and fears of others to control and subdue. To-day, I had to
assuage the rising discontents, and on the morrow, to cheer the fainting
spirits of the people who accompanied me. The toil of our navigation was
incessant, and oftentimes extreme; and, in our progress overland, we had
no protection from the severity of the elements, and possessed no
accommodations or conveniences but such as could be contained in the
burden on our shoulders, which aggravated the toils of our march, and
added to the wearisomeness of our way.
“Though the events which compose my journals may have little in
themselves to strike the imagination of those who love to be astonished,
or to gratify the curiosity of such as are enamoured of romantic
adventures; nevertheless, when it is considered that I explored those
waters which had never before borne any other vessel than the canoe of
the savage; and traversed those deserts where an European had never
before presented himself to the eye of its swarthy natives; when to
these considerations are added the important objects which were pursued,
with the dangers that were encountered, and the difficulties that were
surmounted to attain them, this work will, I flatter myself, be found to
excite an interest and conciliate regard in the minds of those who
peruse it.”
Thus Mackenzie writes in the preface to his journal. Nevertheless, there
is no evidence throughout his works that he was learned or even
interested in the sciences of botany or geology. The scientific mind
becomes so much absorbed in the search for information, when surrounded
by the infinite variety of nature’s productions, especially in regions
hitherto unknown, that mere inconvenience, physical suffering, or
imminent peril is incapable of withdrawing the attention from the chosen
objects of pursuit. Whoever reads Humboldt’s narrative of travels in the
equinoctial regions of South America, especially that part which
pertains to his voyage on the Orinoco, will appreciate the truth of
this. The stifling, humid heat of a fever-laden atmosphere, the ever
present danger of sudden death from venomous serpents, ferocious
alligators, or the stealthy jaguar, the very air itself darkened by
innumerable swarms of mosquitoes and stinging insects, with changing
varieties appearing at every hour of the day and night, were unable to
force this great naturalist to resign his work.
Unfortunately, the explorer and the naturalist are not often combined in
one person, notwithstanding that the fact of being one, implies a
tendency toward becoming the other.
Mackenzie mentions one or two attempts previous to 1792 to cross the
Rocky Mountains. No record of these expeditions is available, a
circumstance that implies their termination in failure or disaster.
Up to this time the Rocky Mountains, with their awful array of saw-edged
peaks covered with a dazzling white mantle of perpetual snow, had stood
as the western limit of overland exploration, beyond which no European
had ever passed. The Pacific Coast had already been explored by Captain
Cook in 1778, and a few years later so accurately charted by Vancouver,
that his work is still standard among navigators. The eastern border of
the Rockies was vaguely located, but between these narrow strips there
remained a vast region, four hundred miles wide, extending to the Arctic
Ocean, about which little or nothing was known.
As in the case of other unexplored regions, there were vague and
conflicting rumors among the Indians concerning the dangers of these
upland fastnesses, accounts of hostile tribes, men partly human, partly
animal in form and nature, and colossal beasts, endowed with fabulous
strength and agility, from which escape was next to impossible. These
Indian tales, though in great part the product of imagination or
superstition, unfortunately did but partial justice to the reality, for
although the reported dangers and terrors were mythical, there were real
and material obstacles in the form of mountain ranges bewildering in
their endless extent and complexity, between which were valleys blocked
by fallen timber, and torrential streams rendered unnavigable by roaring
rapids or gloomy canyons of awful depth. In fact, this region was one of
the most difficult to penetrate and explore that the world could offer
at that time.
Nevertheless, Mackenzie now turned his attention toward this region,
resolved to traverse and explore it till he should reach the Pacific.
Moreover, he was confident of success, perhaps realizing his many
qualifications for such an enterprise, and certainly encouraged by the
remembrance of the difficulties he had overcome during his former
voyage, in 1789, to the mouth of that great river which bears his name.
Leaving Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, he soon reached that great
waterway, the Peace River, and with several canoes began to stem the
moderate current of this stream, which is at this point about one fourth
of a mile in width and quite deep.
The origin of names is always interesting, and that of the Peace River
is said to be derived from a circumstance of Indian history. The tribe
of Indians called the Knisteneux, who originally inhabited the Atlantic
seaboard and the St. Lawrence valley, migrated in a northwesterly
direction. In the course of this tribal movement, after reaching the
centre of the continent, they at length came in contact with the Beaver
Indians, and a neighboring tribe called the Slaves, at a point some
fifty leagues due south from Lake Athabasca. The Knisteneux drove these
tribes from their lands, the Slave Indians moving northward down the
Slave River to Great Slave Lake, from which circumstance the lake
derives its name. The term Slave was not applied to indicate servitude,
but by way of reproach on their unusual barbarity and destitution. The
Beaver Indians moved in another direction, more to the westward, and on
the ratification of peace between them and the Knisteneux, the Peace
River was assigned as the boundary between them.
After proceeding for three weeks up the Peace River, Mackenzie camped
for the winter at a point previously decided on, and early in the
following spring recommenced his “voyage,” as these inland water
journeys are called. Mackenzie was accompanied by Alexander Mackay, one
of the officers of the Northwest Company. The crew consisted of six
Canadian _voyageurs_, and the party was completed by two Indians, who,
it was intended, should act as interpreters and hunters. A single canoe,
twenty-five feet long and not quite five feet in extreme breadth, served
to carry the entire party, in addition to three thousand pounds of
baggage and provisions.
It would be entirely aside from our purpose to narrate in detail the
many interesting adventures and narrow escapes of the party. A single
incident will serve to throw some light on the perils and toils that
were encountered. At the time of the incident in question, they had
crossed the watershed by following the south branch of the Peace River
to its source, and were now descending a mad torrent which runs
westward, and is tributary to the Fraser River, which latter Mackenzie
mistook for the Columbia.
It was on the morning of the 13th of June, and the canoe had proceeded
but a short distance, when it struck, and, turning sidewise, broke on a
stone. Mackenzie and all the men jumped into the water at once, and
endeavored to stop the canoe and turn it round. But almost immediately
she was swept into deeper water, where it became necessary for everybody
to scramble aboard with the greatest celerity. In this uncertain
contest, one of the men was left in mid-stream to effect a passage to
shore in the best way he could.
“We had hardly regained our situations,” writes Mackenzie, “when we
drove against a rock, which shattered the stern of the canoe in such a
manner that it held only by the gunwales, so that the steersman could no
longer keep his place. The violence of this stroke drove us to the
opposite side of the river, which is but narrow, when the bow met with
the same fate as the stern. At this moment the foreman seized on some
branches of a small tree, in the hope of bringing up the canoe, but such
was their elasticity that, in a manner not easily described, he was
jerked on shore in an instant, and with a degree of violence that
threatened his destruction. But we had no time to turn from our own
situation to inquire what had befallen him; for, in a few moments, we
came across a cascade, which broke several large holes in the bottom of
the canoe, and started all the bars, except one behind the scooping
seat. If this accident, however, had not happened, the vessel must have
been irretrievably overset. The wreck becoming flat on the water, we all
jumped out, while the steersman, who had been compelled to abandon his
place, and had not recovered from his fright, called out to his
companions to save themselves. My peremptory commands superseded the
effects of his fear, and they all held fast to the wreck; to which
fortunate resolution we owed our safety, as we should otherwise have
been dashed against the rocks by the force of the water, or driven over
the cascades. In this condition we were forced several hundred yards,
and every yard on the verge of destruction; but, at length, we most
fortunately arrived in shallow water and a small eddy, where we were
enabled to make a stand, from the weight of the canoe resting on the
stones, rather than from any exertions of our exhausted strength. For,
though our efforts were short, they were pushed to the utmost, as life
or death depended on them.”
At this juncture, the Indians, instead of making any effort to assist
the others, sat down and shed tears, though it is considered a mortal
disgrace among Indians to weep except when intoxicated.
On the 22d of July, after encountering countless trials and the dangers
of savage foes, no less than the obstacles of nature, Mackenzie reached
an arm of the sea in latitude 52° 20′ 48″, where on a rocky cliff he
inscribed this brief legend in vermilion: “Alexander Mackenzie from
Canada by land, the 22d of July, one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-three.”
The next day, when alone, he was nearly murdered by a band of Indians,
but escaped by his agility and by a fortunate momentary hesitation on
the part of the savages.
Mackenzie’s return journey was over the same route that he had first
taken, and required but four weeks to traverse the mountains.
In reading a detailed account of this voyage, one is impressed with the
many perils encountered, no less than the ofttimes remarkable and
fortunate escapes from them. It is so with the journals of nearly all
great travellers. They recount an endless succession of dangers and
adventures by sea and land, from which, though often in the very jaws of
death by reason of the operations of nature and the elements, the
traveller ever eventually escapes, apparently in defiance of the laws of
chance and probability. But we must bear in mind the great host of
travellers who have never returned, and whose unfinished journals are
lost forever to mankind.
The remotest corners of the earth have been mute witnesses to these
tragedies. The inhospitable, rock-bound shores of lonely islands, or
low-lying sands of coral reefs, where the ceaseless ocean billows
thunder in everlasting surf, have beheld the expiring struggles of many
a bold navigator. The colossal bergs and crushing ice of polar seas;
hurricanes and typhoons in tropic latitudes; the horrors of fire at sea;
the broad wastes of continents; trackless desert sands, where, under a
scorching sun, objects on the distant horizon dance in the waving air,
and portray mirage pictures of lakes and streams to the thirsty
traveller; deep, cool forests bewildering in the endless maze of trees;
piercing winter storms, with cutting winds and driving snows; the
blood-thirsty pack of famishing wolves; rivers, dangerous to navigate,
with impetuous current swirling and roaring in fearful rapids,—all these
have their records of death and disaster.
But of them all, man has ever been the worst destroyer. The hostile
savage, the mutinous crew, or treacherous guide have proved far more
cruel, revengeful, and cunningly destructive than the catastrophes of
nature, whose mute, dead forces act out their laws in accordance with
the great plan of the universe, unguided by motives of hate, and envy,
and the wicked devices of human passions.
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