1668-1670.
The Prince Visits the _Nonsuch_ -- Arrival in the Bay --
Previous Voyages of Exploration -- A Fort Commenced at Rupert's
River -- Gillam's Return -- Dealing with the Nodwayes --
Satisfaction of the Company -- A Royal Charter Granted.
Early in the morning of the 3rd of June, 1668, without attracting
undue attention from the riparian dwellers and loiterers, a small
skiff shot out from Wapping Old Stairs. The boatman directed its prow
towards the _Nonsuch_, a ketch of fifty tons, then lying at anchor in
mid-Thames, and soon had the satisfaction of conveying on board in
safety his Highness Prince Rupert, Lord Craven, and Mr. Hays, the
distinguished patrons of an interesting expedition that day embarking
for the New World. Radisson was to have accompanied the expedition but
he had met with an accident and was obliged to forego the journey
until the following year.
All hands being piped on deck, a salute was fired in honour of the
visitors. Captain Zachary Gillam and the Sieur des Groseilliers
received the Prince, and undertook to exhibit, not without a proper
pride, their craft and its cargo. Subsequently a descent was made to
the captain's cabin, where a bottle of Madeira was broached, and the
success of the voyage toasted by Rupert and his companions. The party
then returned to Wapping, amidst a ringing cheer from captain and
crew. By ten o'clock the _Nonsuch_ had weighed anchor and her voyage
had begun.
The passage across the Atlantic was without any incident worthy of
record. The vessel was fortunate in encountering no gales or rough
seas. The leisure of Groseilliers and Captain Gillam was employed
chiefly in discussing the most advantageous landfall, and in drawing
up plans for a settlement for fort-building and for trade with the
tribes. By the 4th of August they sighted Resolution Isle, at the
entrance of Hudson's Straits. They continued fearlessly on their
course. During their progress the shores on either hand were
occasionally visible; and once a squall compelled them to go so near
land as to descry a band of natives, the like of whom for bulk and
singularity of costume, Groseilliers and the captain had never clapped
eyes upon. They were right in judging these to be Esquimaux.
[Sidenote: The "Nonsuch" in the Bay.]
On the seventh day of their passage amongst those narrow channels and
mountains of ice which had chilled the enthusiasm and impeded the
progress of several daring navigators before them, the forty-two souls
on board the _Nonsuch_ were rewarded with a sight of Hudson's Bay.[9]
Already, and long before the advent of the _Nonsuch_, Hudson's Bay had
a history and a thrilling one.
In 1576 Sir Martin Frobisher made his first voyage for the discovery
of a passage to China and Cathay by the north-west, discovering and
entering a strait to which he gave his name. In the following year he
made a second voyage, "using all possible means to bring the natives
to trade, or give him some account of themselves, but they were so
wild that they only studied to destroy the English." Frobisher
remained until winter approached and then returned to England. A
further voyage of his in 1578-79 made no addition to the knowledge
already derived.
Six years later Captain John Davis sailed from Dartmouth, and in that
and succeeding voyages reached the Arctic circle through the straits
bearing his name. He related having found an open sea tending
westward, which he hoped might be the passage so long sought for; but
the weather proved too tempestuous, and, the season being far
advanced, he likewise returned to a more hospitable clime. After this
there were no more adventures in this quarter of the world until 1607,
when Captain Hudson explored as far north as 80 degrees 23 minutes. On
his third voyage, two years later, he proceeded a hundred leagues
farther along the strait, and arriving at the Bay resolved to winter
there.
Hudson was preparing for further exploration when Henry Green, a
profligate youth, whom he had taken into his house and preserved from
ruin by giving him a berth on board without the knowledge of the
owners, conspired with one Robert Ivett, the mate, whom Captain Hudson
had removed, to mutiny against Hudson's command. These turned the
captain, with his young son John, a gentleman named Woodhouse, who had
accompanied the expedition, together with the carpenter and five
others, into a long-boat, with hardly any provisions or arms. The
inhuman crew suffered all the hardships they deserved, for in a
quarrel they had with the savages Green and two of his companions were
slain. As for Ivett, who had made several voyages with Hudson, and was
the cause of all the mischief, he died on the passage home. Habbakuk
Prickett, one of the crew, who wrote all the account we have of the
latter part of the voyage, was a servant of Sir Dudley Diggs. Probably
his master's influence had something to do with his escape from
punishment.
[Sidenote: Henry Hudson's fate.]
This was the last ever seen or heard, by white men, of Henry Hudson,
and there is every likelihood that he and the others drifted to the
bottom of the Bay and were massacred by the savages.
In the year of Hudson's death Sir Thomas Button, at the instigation of
that patron of geographical science, Prince Henry, pursued the dead
hero's discoveries. He passed Hudson's Straits and, traversing the
Bay, settled above two hundred leagues to the south-west from the
straits, bestowing upon the adjacent region the name of New Wales.
Wintering in the district afterwards called Port Nelson, Button made
an investigation of the boundaries of this huge inland sea, from him
named Button's Bay.
In 1611 came the expedition of Baffin; and in 1631 Captain James
sailed westward to find the long-sought passage to China, spending the
winter at Charlton Island, which afterwards became a depot of the
Company. Captain Luke Fox went out in the same year, but his success
was no greater than his predecessors in attaining the object of his
search. He landed at Port Nelson and explored the country round about,
without however much advantage either to himself or to his crew. When
the _Nonsuch_ arrived a quarter of a century had passed since an
European had visited Hudson's Bay.
After much consultation, the adventurers sailed southward from Cape
Smith, and on Sept. 29 decided to cast anchor at the entrance to a
river situated in 51 degrees latitude. The journey was ended; the
barque's keel grated on the gravel, a boat was lowered and Gillam and
Groseilliers went promptly ashore. The river was christened Rupert's
River,[10] and it being arranged to winter here, all hands were ordered
ashore to commence the construction of a fort and dwellings, upon
which the name of King Charles was bestowed. Thus our little
ship's-load of adventurers stood at last on the remotest shores of the
New World; all but two of them strangers in a strange land.
[Sidenote: The first Fort.]
For three days after their arrival Groseilliers and his party beheld
no savages. The work of constructing the fort went on apace. It was,
under Groseilliers' direction, made of logs, after the fashion of
those built by the traders and Jesuits in Canada; a stockade enclosing
it, as some protection from sudden attack. The experienced bushranger
deemed it best not to land the cargo until communication had been made
with the natives; and their attitude, friendly or otherwise, towards
the strangers ascertained. No great time was spent in waiting; for on
the fourth day a small band of the tribe called Nodwayes appeared,
greatly astonished at the presence of white settlers in those parts.
After a great deal of parleying, the Indians were propitiated by
Groseilliers with some trifling gifts, and the object of their
settlement made known. The Indians retired, promising to return before
the winter set in with all the furs in their possession, and also to
spread the tidings amongst the other tribes.
The autumn supply proved scanty enough; but the adventurers being well
provisioned could afford to wait until the spring.
Groseilliers' anticipations were realized; but not without almost
incredible activity on his part. He spent the summer and autumn, and
part of the ensuing winter, in making excursions into the interior. He
made treaties with the Nodwayes, the Kilistineaux, the Ottawas, and
other detachments of the Algonquin race. Solemn conclaves were held,
in which the bushranger dwelt--with that rude eloquence of which he
was master, and which both he and Radisson had borrowed from the
Indians--on the superior advantages of trade with the English. Nor did
his zeal here pause; knowing the Indian character as he did, he
concocted stories about the English King and Prince Rupert; many a
confiding savage that year enriched his pale-face vocabulary by adding
to it "Charles" and "Rupert," epithets which denoted that transcendent
twain to whom the French bushranger had transferred his labours and
his allegiance.
The winter of 1668-69 dragged its slow length along, and in due course
the ground thawed and the snow disappeared. No sooner had the spring
really arrived than strange natives began to make their appearance,
evincing a grotesque eagerness to strike bargains with the whites for
the pelts which they brought from the bleak fastnesses. By June it was
thought fit that Captain Gillam should return with the _Nonsuch_,
leaving Groseilliers and others at the fort. Gillam accordingly sailed
away with such cargo as they had been able to muster, to report to the
Prince and his company of merchants the excellent prospects afforded
by the post on Rupert's River, provided only the Indians could be made
aware of its existence, and the French trade intercepted.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL CHARTER OF THE GREAT COMPANY.
(_From a Photograph._)]
[Sidenote: Groseilliers' presence of mind.]
Chouart des Groseilliers in all his transactions with the natives
exhibited great hardihood of speech and action; and few indeed were
the occasions which caught him unawares. It happened more than once,
for instance, that some of the wandering Algonquins or Hurons
recognized in this smooth-tongued leader of the English fort the same
French trader they had known at Montreal, and the French posts on the
western lakes, and marvelled much that he who had then been loudly
crying "up King Lewis and the Fleur-de-lis," should now be found
surrounded by pale-faces of a different speech, known to be the allies
of the terrible Iroquois. Groseilliers met their exclamations with a
smile; he represented himself as profoundly dissatisfied with the
manner in which the French traders treated his friends the Indians,
causing them to travel so far and brave such perils to bring their
furs, and giving them so little in return. "Tell all your friends to
come hither," he cried, "and King Charles will give you double what
King Lewis gives."
In August, 1669, a gun was heard by Groseilliers and his English and
native companions. With great joy the bushranger ran from the fort to
the point of land commanding the Bay, thinking to welcome back Gillam
and the expected _Nonsuch_. But as the vessel came nearer he saw it
was not the _Nonsuch_, and for a moment he was dismayed, uncertain
whether or not to make himself known. But the colour of the flag she
carried reassured him; he caused a fire to be made, that the attention
of those on board might be attracted by the smoke; and was soon made
aware that his signal had been seen. The sloop headed up Rupert's
River, and a boat containing three men was lowered from her side.
Greater still was Groseilliers' joy when he recognized amongst the
approaching party in the boat his brother-in-law, Pierre Radisson.
These two sturdy children of the wilderness embraced one another with
great affection and set to work diligently to barter. The _Nonsuch_
arrived safely in the Thames in the month of August.
[Sidenote: Satisfaction of the Adventurers.]
It would be difficult to exaggerate the satisfaction of the company
of London merchants at hearing the results of their first venture.
They had taken counsel together, and considering the importance of
securing a charter of monopoly from the King to be paramount, Prince
Rupert was persuaded to use his good offices to this end.
Charles was doubtless relieved to hear that his cousin Rupert desired
no greater favour. He expressed himself ready to grant such a patent,
provided the Lord Chancellor approved. A charter was accordingly drawn
up forthwith at the instance of the Prince, in the usual form of such
charters; but the winter of 1669-70 elapsed without its having
received the royal assent. Indeed it was not until the second day of
May that Prince Rupert, presenting himself at Whitehall, received from
the King's own hands one of the most celebrated instruments which ever
passed from monarch to subject, and which, though almost incessantly
in dispute, was perpetuated in full force throughout two
centuries.[11]
[Sidenote: The Charter.]
This document was granted to Prince Rupert and seventeen nobles and
gentlemen, comprising the Duke of Albemarle,[12] Earls Craven and
Arlington, Lord Ashley,[13] Sir John Robinson, Sir Robert Vyner, Sir
Peter Colleton, Sir Edward Hungerford, Sir Paul Neele, Sir John
Griffith, Sir Philip Carteret, Knights and Baronets; James Hays, John
Kirke, Francis Wellington, William Prettyman, John Fenn, Esquires, and
John Portman, "Citizen and Goldsmith," incorporated into a company,
with the exclusive right to establish settlements and carry on trade
at Hudson's Bay. The charter recites that those adventurers having, at
their own great cost, undertaken an expedition to Hudson's Bay in
order to discover a new passage into the South Sea, and to find a
trade for furs, minerals and other commodities, and having made such
discoveries as encouraged them to proceed in their design, his Majesty
granted to them and their heirs, under the name of "The Governor and
Company of Merchants-Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay," the power
of holding and alienating lands, and the sole right of trade in
Hudson's Strait, and with the territories upon the coasts of the same.
They were authorized to get out ships of war, to erect forts, make
reprisals, and send home all English subjects entering the Bay without
their license, and to declare war and make peace with any prince or
people not Christian.
The territory described as Rupert's Land consisted of the whole region
whose waters flowed into Hudson's Bay. It was a vast tract--perhaps as
vast as Europe--how much vaster was yet to be made known, for the
breadth of the Continent of North America had not yet been even
approximately ascertained. For all the Adventurers knew the Pacific
Ocean was not distant more than one hundred miles west of the Bay.
In the same merry month of May the _Prince Rupert_ set sail from
Gravesend, conveying a new cargo, a new crew, and a newly appointed
overseer of trade, to the Company's distant dominions.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The proportions of this inland sea are such as to give it a
prominent place among the geographical features of the world. One
thousand three hundred miles in length, by six hundred miles in
breadth, it extends over twelve degrees of latitude, and covers an
area not less than half a million square miles. Of the five basins
into which Canada is divided, that of Hudson's Bay is immeasurably the
largest, the extent of country draining into it being estimated at
three million square miles. To swell the mighty volume of its waters
there come rivers which take their rise in the Rocky Mountains on the
west, and the Labrador wilderness on the east; while southward its
river roots stretch far down below the forty-ninth parallel, reaching
even to the same lake source whence flows a stream into the Gulf of
Mexico. A passing breath of wind may determine whether the ultimate
destiny of the rain drop falling into the little lake be the bosom of
the Mexican Gulf or the chilly grasp of the Arctic ice-floe.
[10] Known afterwards as Nemiscau by the French.
[11] See Appendix.
[12] The second Duke, Charles' old friend, General George Monk, known
to all the leaders of English history as the brave restorer of the
King, afterwards created Duke of Albemarle, died in the year the
charter was granted.
[13] Lord Ashley, the ancestor of the present Earl of Shaftsbury, and
one of the ruling spirits of the reign of Charles II., will also be
remembered as the Achitophel of Dryden.
"A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one; but all mankind's epitome."
Arlington, another of the Honourable Adventurers, was also a member of
the celebrated Cabal.