A home in the wilderness--Salmon fishing--An idyllic
life--Logging--Fur trade--Durham boats--Rapids of the St.
Lawrence--Trading with the Indians--The Hudson’s Bay
Company--_Coureurs du bois_--Maple sugar making--Friendly Indians.
“Our young, wild land, the free, the proud!
Uncrush’d by power, unawed by fear,
Her knee to none but God is bow’d,
For nature teaches freedom here;
From gloom and sorrow, to light and flowers
Expands this heritage of ours:
Life, with its myriad hopes, pursuits,
Spreads sails, rears roofs, and gathers fruits.
But pass two fleeting centuries back,
This land, a torpid giant, slept,
Wrapp’d in a mantle, thick and black,
That o’er its mighty frame had crept,
Since stars and angels sang, as earth
Shot from its Maker into birth.”
Golden autumn days were those when the emigrants’ long journey was
nearing its end. Provision must first be made for the cattle and horses.
October was upon them and winter near.
[Illustration: ROGER CONANT’S FIRST SETTLEMENT IN DARLINGTON, CO.
DURHAM, UPPER CANADA, 1778.]
At Arnall’s Creek--then known as Barber’s Creek--they found a flat of
marsh-grass quite free from the forest trees which then were universal
above the water’s edge of Lake Ontario.
Here they pitched their tents, the creek and lake forming two sides of a
triangle for defence from wolves, leaving one side only to be protected.
Salmon would run in November, and the winter’s supply of fish could be
secured from the creek, and the marsh-grass gathered for the stock from
the flat at its mouth.
The illustration opposite is of the first house built by Roger Conant in
Upper Canada. The foundation of it yet remains close by the waters of
Lake Ontario. The man in the foreground of the picture is pounding or
crushing grain with a burnt-out stump as a mortar, using as a pestle a
billet of wood which is attached to a spring pole, thus raising it
easily. There was no mill nearer than Kingston where the corn could be
ground. At Port Hope (then called Smith’s Creek), in 1806, Elias Smith
erected a grist-mill. Previous to that date the settlers took their
grist by boat to Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, 110 miles
distant. The journey occupied several days, necessitating their camping
on the shores at night.
At the home by the broad waters of Lake Ontario the settlers led a
truly idyllic life. The unerring rifle supplied them with meat, the
waters with fish, and the distant mill with flour until a crop could be
grown from the cleared land next season. They spent the days “logging”
(felling the trees) and the nights burning. The bright flames among the
trees and against the dark background of the dense forest made a
picturesque scene. A singular fact about “logging” is that the log-heaps
burn better at night than by day; therefore the logging was done in the
day-time and the burning by night. (See illustration, page 40.) But to
make money in this new country, where there were no neighbors nor any
travellers to buy, nor any money to buy with, was a more difficult feat
than making a home.
Furs and furs only would bring money. Possessing some capital (about
$5,000, as already stated), Roger Conant made his way to Montreal by
canoe, and there about 1799 had Durham boats built--broad-beamed open
flat boats, strongly built for rowing and towing. These he filled with
blankets, traps, knives, guns, flints, ammunition, beads and tomahawks,
bought in the Montreal stores, to trade with the Indians for furs.
On page 48 is an illustration of three Durham boats ascending the rapids
of the great St. Lawrence River, each towed by three men. They were
launched above the greater rapids near Montreal, and hugged the shores
while passing the others. An axe was always ready to the hand of the man
who sat in the boat and steered, for should the rapid be too strong and
get the mastery of the three men who were towing from the shore, the
rope was quickly cut, and the Durham, freed, shot like a catapult down
stream, until it was lodged in the first cul-de-sac below. It was
manifestly a most tediously slow and weary mode of progress. There were
no canals built then as now, to form an easy highway past the rapids.
Once attaining Lake Ontario they paddled and rowed, still keeping close
along shore and camping at some convenient landing-place at night.
In the illustration on page 65 we have a fair representation of an
Indian trading scene. The goods brought from Montreal in the Durham
boats have been carried back to a spot a few miles from the lake shore,
in charge of the trader and his assistants. Three guns were fired in
quick succession upon reaching camp the previous night, as a signal for
all Indians within hearing to come with their furs to trade on the
morrow. A beaver skin is lying upon the ground, an Indian is negotiating
for a blanket, while another is looking at a gun, and others are coming
in with their furs on their backs.
A few days’ trading exhausts the goods brought by the trader. He
returns home with the furs received in exchange, deposits them,
replenishes his pack, and sets out on other trips in different
directions, until all the goods are exchanged, and the following summer
the furs are taken to Montreal in the same Durham boats, where gold and
silver, as well as a further supply of goods, are obtained for them.
There is no record of Roger Conant having shipped his furs direct to
London, England. As good prices were paid for furs in Montreal, it is
most probable he disposed of them there. Year after year the trade was
continued without interruption. It brought wealth to the author’s
grandsire, honestly and fairly obtained.
The great Hudson’s Bay Company maintained a regular chain of trading
stations upon the north shore of Lake Ontario, as they did in the far
west and the Arctic north. The trading stations on Lake Ontario being
near to Quebec and Montreal, and close together, were easily supplied
with trading goods.
At the period of which we are now writing, when my forefather became an
opponent to the great Hudson’s Bay Company in the fur trade (1798), that
Company had a trading station very near his home--only some three miles
to the west, and on what is now known as Bluff Point, a promontory two
miles east of Port Oshawa. This trading station was not fortified, but
consisted of a well-built, commodious log-house, with flat roof, and the
corners of the house squared and neatly joined. Standing upon the
promontory, it was easily accessible to the boats passing up or down the
lake. In the spring the boats would come up from Montreal, generally
gaily painted, and rowed quite close to shore, with song and laughter.
After making the round of the trading stations of Lake Ontario, they
came back in the same manner in the fall, laden with furs and
Montreal-ward bound. “Here come the Hudson Bay boats!” was the word on
the day of their arrival. During their first years in the wilderness the
visit of these boats was an event in the lives of the settlers.
Halcyon days were these for the _coureurs du bois_ (as the Frenchmen
were called who manned these boats), who were often traders themselves.
However, the influx of settlers and fur traders, such as my forefathers
were, presented such a strong opposition to the Company, that it
gradually gave up Upper Canada as an exploiting ground, and maintained
its hold of regions more inaccessible. A princely heritage, forsooth!
All of fertile Upper Canada to roam over--mastery of the Indians--and a
steady stream of gold coming in from the trade in furs.
This Hudson’s Bay Company is one of the marvels of the world. Its
charter was granted by Charles II. in 1670 to some favorites, and from
this inception it rapidly went on to growth and prosperity, acquiring
almost despotic rule over its territories. Its servants never have
plundered it. Its factors, having charge over stores and furs of immense
values, away off from white men or the eyes of any who could take an
interest in watching them, have always been faithful to their trust.
There is no record extant of a dishonest factor. No government, priest
or king ever had servants more faithful than have been the directors of
this Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company of Fur Traders for the two hundred
and twenty-eight years of its existence.
Sugar-making was another pursuit which, if it did not add great wealth
to the settler’s pocket, at any rate increased his home comforts. The
illustration on page 78 is a good representation of a sugar-making camp
in the bush. The troughs at the foot of the trees receive the sap, which
drips from a transverse slit in the bark, made by two blows of a
hatchet, at some few feet above the ground. This trough was then no more
than a hollowed-out half log, the ends left closed. The sap runs best
during the day, as the warmth of the sun draws it up to the branches. It
is carried in pails to the great caldrons, set over the fire on a cross
limb, and poured into the one on the right side. When it has boiled, it
is then transferred in rude ladles to the caldron on the left, where it
is further reduced by boiling, and becomes sugared sufficiently to
ensure its hardening when poured into the pans and other receptacles.
When hard, these are turned out and set upon cross-sticks in tiers to
dry. The earliest sap which rises makes the lightest colored sugar.
The Indians are about and assisting in the work. They were always
friendly, never stole or deceived, and were ever the white man’s friend
in Upper Canada. Those in the neighborhood of my grandfather’s
settlement were chiefly Mississaugaus. Every summer they went away to
the small lakes north of Ontario, and came back in the fall for the
salmon and sturgeon fishing, living in lodges or wigwams. These are
covered with birch bark. The illustration, given on page 84, is not
overdrawn as a representation of an Indian camp.