DESCRIPTION OF THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY--THEIR FORTS AND ESTABLISHMENTS--
FOOD--ARTICLES OF TRADE AND MANNER OF TRADING.
In the year 1669, a Company was formed in London, under the direction of
Prince Rupert, for the purpose of prosecuting the fur-trade in the
regions surrounding Hudson Bay. This Company obtained a charter from
Charles the Second, granting to them and their successors, under the
name of "The Governor and Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson's
Bay," the sole right of trading in all the country watered by rivers
flowing into Hudson Bay. The charter also authorised them to build and
fit out men-of-war, establish forts, prevent any other company from
carrying on trade with the natives in their territories, and required
that they should do all in their power to promote Discovery.
Armed with these powers, then, the Hudson Bay Company established a fort
near the head of James Bay. Soon afterwards, several others were built
in different parts of the country; and before long the Company spread
and grew wealthy, and eventually extended their trade far beyond the
chartered limits.
With the internal economy of the Company under the superintendence of
Prince Rupert, however, I am not acquainted; but as it will be necessary
to the reader's forming a correct idea of the peculiarities of the
country and service, that he should know something of its character
under the direction of Sir George Simpson, I shall give a brief outline
of its arrangements.
Reader, you will materially assist me in my description if you will
endeavour to draw the following landscape on the retina of your mind's
eye.
Imagine an immense extent of country, many hundred miles broad and many
hundred miles long, covered with dense forests, expanded lakes, broad
rivers, wide prairies, swamps, and mighty mountains: and all in a state
of primeval simplicity--undefaced by the axe of civilised man, and
untenanted by aught save a few roving hordes of Red Indians and myriads
of wild animals. Imagine amid this wilderness a number of small
squares, each enclosing half a dozen wooden houses and about a dozen
men, and between each of these establishments a space of forest varying
from fifty to three hundred miles in length; and you will have a pretty
correct idea of the Hudson Bay Company's territories, and of the number
of and distance between their forts. The idea, however, may be still
more correctly obtained by imagining populous Great Britain converted
into a wilderness and planted in the middle of Rupert's Land. The
Company, in that case, would build _three_ forts in it--one at the
Land's End, one in Wales, and one in the Highlands; so that in Britain
there would be but three hamlets, with a population of some thirty men,
half a dozen women, and a few children! The Company's posts extend,
with these intervals between, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
and from within the Arctic Circle to the northern boundaries of the
United States.
Throughout this immense country there are probably not more ladies than
would suffice to form half a dozen quadrilles; and these--poor banished
creatures!--are chiefly the wives of the principal gentlemen connected
with the fur-trade. The rest of the female population consists chiefly
of half-breeds and Indians; the latter entirely devoid of education, and
the former as much enlightened as can be expected from those whose life
is spent in such a country. Even these are not very numerous; and yet
without them the men would be in a sad condition, for they are the only
tailors and washer-women in the country, and make all the mittens,
moccasins, fur caps, deer-skin coats, etcetera, etcetera, worn in the
land.
There are one or two favoured spots, however, into which a missionary or
two have penetrated; and in Red River Settlement (the only colony in the
Company's territories) there are several churches and clergymen, both
Protestant and Roman Catholic.
The country is divided into four large departments: the Northern
department, which includes all the establishments in the far north and
frozen regions; the Southern department, including those to the south
and east of this, the post at the head of James Bay, and along the
shores of Lake Superior; the Montreal department, including the country
in the neighbourhood of Montreal, up the Ottawa River, and along the
north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Esquimaux Bay; and the
Columbia department, which comprehends an immense extent of country to
the west of the Rocky Mountains, including the Oregon territory, which,
although the Hudson Bay Company still trade in it, now belongs to the
Americans.
These departments are divided into a number of districts, each under the
direction of an influential officer; and these again are subdivided into
numerous establishments, forts, posts, and outposts.
The name of _fort_, as already remarked, is given to all the posts in
the country; but some of them certainly do not merit the name--indeed,
few of them do. The only two in the country that are real, _bona fide_
forts, are Fort Garry and the Stone Fort in the colony of Red River,
which are surrounded by stone walls with bastions at the corners. The
others are merely defended by wooden pickets or stockades; and a few,
where the Indians are quiet and harmless, are entirely destitute of
defence of any kind. Some of the chief posts have a complement of about
thirty or forty men; but most of them have only ten, five, four, and
even _two_, besides the gentleman in charge. As in most instances these
posts are planted in a wilderness far from men, and the inhabitants have
only the society of each other, some idea may be formed of the solitary
life led by many of the Company's servants.
The following is a list of the forts in the four different departments,
as correctly given as possible; but, owing to the great number in the
country, the constant abandoning of old and establishing of new forts,
it is difficult to get at a perfectly correct knowledge of their number
and names:--