1673-1682.
Progress of the Company -- Confusion as to the Names and Number
of the Tribes -- Radisson goes to Paris -- His Efforts to
Obtain Support there, and from Prince Rupert, in England, Fail
-- Arrival of M. de la Chesnaye -- With his help Radisson
Secures Support -- And Sails for Quebec -- Thence Proceeds with
Two Ships to Attack the English Ports in Hudson's Bay -- His
Encounters with Gillam's Expedition from London, and his Son's,
from New England.
Rapidly advancing in prosperity and reputation, and possessed of a
basis of credit which gave it a welcome sense of solidity, the Company
now renewed its efforts to extend its trade and settlements. The
weekly meetings in Mr. John Horth's house, which were so full of
mystery to the public, continued to bear fruit; and at length a
regular system was determined for the organization and government of
its distant dependencies.
[Sidenote: Ignorance of the geography of Hudson's Bay.]
All ships bound for Hudson's Bay were now ordered to visit Charlton
Island, which lies about forty miles from the mouth of Rupert's River,
in the extreme south of the Bay; and the island was also made a
rendezvous whither all factors were to bring all their merchandise for
the purpose of loading the Company's ships. The geography of the
district had hitherto, in spite of the researches of a long series of
explorers, beginning with Frobisher, and ending with Fox, remained
obscure. But the Company's servants had not been idle, and the
Adventurers were soon in possession of carefully drawn charts, and
maps of the straits, the Bay itself, and the lands surrounding it.
They kept themselves also well-advised by lists, drawings, and
detailed descriptions, of the tribes inhabiting the territories
granted to them under the charter; and the discussions which went on
over this subject were not lacking in humour. It is worth observing
that for a great many years during the early history of the Company,
its Governors, captains, chief factors, chief traders, and the rank
and file of its employees could never by any chance agree, either as
to the number or the characteristics of the aborigines. In concocting
their reports many were animated purely by love of romance: others
relied too implicitly on the tales told by the Indians themselves;
others may be credited with being the victims of their own
imaginations. Nor could the lists enumerating the tribes boast more
consistency. Extracts from those of two governors may be given here
for purposes of comparison:--
NATIONS VISITING HUDSON'S BAY.
Bailey, 1673: Lyddal, 1678:
Esquemos, Askimows,
Nodwayes, Odwayes,
Twegwayes, Twagions,
Pankeshones, Paggarshows,
Noridgewelks, Narchuels,
Abenekays, Penkayes,
Micmacks, Micmackes,
Kilistinons, Crilistinons,
Assinapoils, Ossa-poets,
Cuchneways, Kitchenayes,
Algonkins, Algonkings,
Outaways, Otawayes,
Outagamis. Wattagamais.
No wonder, therefore, that the Adventurers in England were puzzled,
and that at one of their later meetings Prince Rupert was forced to
exclaim:
"Gentlemen, these Indians" (each member had been supplied with
Governor Nixon's list) "are not our Indians. 'Fore God, out of the
nineteen I see only five we have dealt with before."
Another worthy member declared, on a similar occasion that the tribes
frequenting the Bay were more volatile than the Bedouins. "These are
not men, but chameleons"--was the remark of another adventurer.
[Sidenote: Confusion of tribes.]
The chief cause of the confusion lay in the variations of spelling.
More than a century was to elapse before a common orthography was
adopted, and in the interval it was impossible to fix the tribes by
name with certainty. The name of no tribe perhaps underwent such
vicissitudes of spelling and pronunciation as that described by the
earliest Jesuit pioneers as the Ossa-poiles, which in our own day are
known as the Assiniboines. They were in process of time the Poeles,
Poets, the Pedlas, the Semplars, Oss-Semplars, Essapoils and the
Simpoils.[17]
At a general court held to consider the action of Governor Bailey, the
majority of the adventurers professed themselves rejoiced at having
been quit of the services of the Sieurs Groseilliers and Radisson; yet
there were not wanting others to openly regret the treatment these two
men had received. As may be supposed, the most fervent of their
advocates and defenders was Sir John Kirke, whose daughter had married
Radisson, and who himself had lately been knighted by the king. He
predicted some disaster to the Company from having dismissed these two
faithful servants, and he was loud and persistent in asserting the bad
faith and unjust suspicions of Bailey.
While the affairs of the Company were proceeding tranquilly at home,
the conduct and employment of one of these two bushrangers was more
enlivening. Chouart was passing his time in inactivity at Three
Rivers. But his brother-in-law, after several ineffectual endeavours
to establish a northern rivalry to the Company, had offered his
services to the French Navy. This career, which at that period must
have been, even for him, sufficiently eventful and exciting, was cut
short by ship-wreck in 1679. Losing all his property, even to his
clothing, Radisson made his way first to Brest and then to Paris. The
Vice-Admiral and Intendant of the Fleet having written in his favour,
the Court was pleased to grant him a sum of one hundred crowns, and
hope was also held out to him that he would be honoured by the command
of a frigate. In the meantime he was accorded leave to go to England
to fetch his wife.
[Sidenote: Radisson in France.]
Madame Radisson, otherwise Mistress Mary Kirke, appears to have caused
her husband a great deal of mortification and numerous disappointments.
There is no doubt that her continued residence in England, in spite of
her husband's return to the French service, made him an object of
suspicion to the French Court. Once when he endeavoured, in a
memorable interview with Colbert, to press upon that Minister his
scheme for ousting the English from Hudson's Bay, the Minister
responded coldly:
"M. Radisson, you are suspected of being in league with the English,
your father-in-law is one of the members of the English Company; and
your wife resides under his roof."
"I made him understand," declared Radisson long afterwards, "that,
though married, I was not master of my wife. Her father would by no
means consent to my bringing her to France with me."
These rebuffs determined him to make an attempt to better his worldly
condition elsewhere. A true soldier of fortune, patriotism appears to
have had little weight with him; he was as ready to serve under the
English as the French. He returned to find his father-in-law more
placable. Sir John had at this time certain claims against the French;
and he doubtless fancied that Radisson might assist him in preferring
these at the French Court. He took occasion to ask his father-in-law
what chance there remained to him of again securing employment under
the Company. "None, sir," replied Kirke, "both Bailey, Lyddal and
others are against you and have poisoned the minds of their employers.
Prince Rupert is, however, your friend, and also Captain Gillam; but
one dislikes to speak openly, and the other dare not."
Acting on this intelligence, Radisson resolved to see Rupert. The
prince received him kindly enough; he took pains to show him his
collection of mezzotints, and to explain some of his scientific
curiosities. He even went so far as to condole with Radisson on the
treatment he had received. But he had to point out that the temper of
the Company was such that he feared it would be in vain for him to
exercise his interest for his visitor's reinstatement.
[Sidenote: Plan to dislodge the Company.]
Radisson, disappointed of his hopes, and frustrated in his desire to
return with his wife, did not meet with a warm welcome on the other
side of the Channel. Colbert received him with black looks; and the
suspicions which gathered about him were now strengthened rather than
dissipated. In this extremity he repaired to the Marquis de Seignely,
to whom he set forth substantially the same plan which he had
cherished for years, of opening out the trade of the North, with the
additional attraction now of dislodging the English from a commerce
which had already proved vastly profitable. Seignely listened with
interest, and requested time to reflect on the matter. At the second
interview Radisson was not overwhelmed with disappointment, for he had
expected no other issue; he was told flatly that he was regarded by
the king as little better than a traitor; and that his Canadian
project met with universal distrust.
The outlook seemed discouraging indeed, when happily at this juncture
there arrived in Paris M. de la Chesnaye, who was in charge of the
fur-trade in Canada, as the head of the Compagnie du Nord. This event
proved Radisson's salvation. He learned with great rejoicing that La
Chesnaye's visit to France was actuated by a desire to report upon the
intrusion of the English Company. La Chesnaye proved a true friend; he
evinced himself most heartily in favour of the Government securing the
services of Radisson in establishing a rival establishment, on the
principle of those of the Company to which he had formerly been
attached.
Many consultations took place, both Seignely and Chesnaye listening
with great interest while Radisson explained the equipment and
merchandise of the Hudson's Bay Company, which he strongly advised
should be taken as a pattern in all practical extensions of the French
fur-trade in those regions.
[Sidenote: Radisson assisted by the Jesuits.]
The only difficulty now presenting itself was to find money for the
enterprise. The exchequer of the Court was at a low ebb; and it had a
thousand calls upon its charity and liberality. Radisson must wait
even for the few hundred crowns he so sadly needed for his passage to
New France and his personal needs. There was, however, one force in
France which could always be approached with a good courage when any
enterprise in a new country required support, and always with success.
It was the power which, though it had endured a thousand
disappointments and sacrificed a thousand lives, and as many fortunes,
in the attempt to teach the Gospel of Jesus in the wilderness, had
adhered without wavering to its faith in the ultimate victory of the
Cross over the savage nature of the Indians. No adventurer, if he had
but a sufficiently plausible story, need turn away empty-handed from
the door of the Jesuits. To the Jesuits of Paris Radisson presented
himself as a good Catholic seeking to subvert the designs of the
heretic English. He applied for assistance, and he was at length
rewarded for his pains by a sum of five hundred crowns.
But nearly two years had passed before this assistance was procured.
Radisson's debts had accumulated; his creditors were clamouring about
him, threatening him with the sponging-house; no effort to elude them
met with success, and at length he found himself at Rochelle, with
scarce twenty crowns in his pocket over and above the cost of his
passage. It was then that he made the resolve to reimburse the
Jesuits, "if he should live to be worth so great a sum," and it is
interesting to discover that two years later he kept his word. At
present he could only trust to La Chesnaye, who was anxiously awaiting
his arrival in Quebec. Thither Radisson arrived on the 25th of
September, 1681.
La Chesnaye showed much joy at seeing his friend; for in truth his own
plans for seeking to share the northern trade of the English were
nearly ripe. He declared that there was no time to be lost; but that
in spite of the urgency of the matter the greatest circumspection
would have to be observed, as Frontenac by no means desired to
compromise the king without first seeing his way clear.
But if the Governor whose career was about to close was punctilious,
the Intendant Duchesneau was not. He had already dispatched a memoir
to his superior relating to Hudson's Bay, and to what he believed to
be the French rights there.
[Sidenote: Duchesneau protests against English encroachments.]
"They" (the English) he wrote, "are still on Hudson's Bay on the north
and do great damage to our fur-trade. The farmers [of the revenue]
suffer in consequence by this diminution of the trade at Tadoussac,
and throughout the entire country, because the English drive off the
Outaoua nations. For the one and the other design they have two forts
on the said Bay--the one towards Tadoussac and the other at Cape
Henrietta Marie, on the side of the Assinibonetz. The sole means to
prevent them succeeding in what is prejudicial to us in this regard
would be to drive them by main force from that Bay, which belongs to
us. Or, if there would be an objection in coming to that extremity, to
construct forts on the rivers falling into the lakes, in order to stop
the Indians at these points."
The zealous Intendant declared that should King Lewis adopt the
resolution to arrange with the Duke of York for his possessions in
that quarter, "in which case Boston could not resist," Canada would be
ruined, "the French being naturally inconsistent and fond of novelty."
Finding, however, that they could obtain no official recognition of
the enterprise, La Chesnaye at length resorted to a transparent
fiction in order to account for Radisson's departure--a subterfuge
which was the more necessary since many had begun to suspect his
destination and urged the Governor to do nothing which would bring
down on them the enmity of the English and their allies, the Iroquois.
He requested the Governor, if he would not countenance an expedition
with license to trade on the shores of the Bay, to grant Radisson
formal permission to return to France by way of New England in a
vessel belonging to the Government of Acadia, which at that moment
lay in the St. Lawrence ready to sail.
It was arranged privately that after his departure Radisson should
proceed in this vessel only as far as Isle Percée in the Gulf, near
the mouth of the river, and there await his kinsmen Groseilliers, his
nephew Chouart, and the two ships which La Chesnaye was even then
busily fitting out. Thus all official cognizance of the expedition
would be avoided.
[Sidenote: Company's enemies leave Quebec.]
The terms agreed upon were, that in return for La Chesnaye's
equipment, Radisson and Groseilliers were, provided certain conditions
were carried out, to receive jointly half the profits of the venture,
and La Chesnaye the other half. What these conditions were can only be
guessed; but beyond all question, they concerned the capture or
spoliation of the English trading posts on the Bay. Radisson took with
him his nephew, Jean Baptiste, who had passed nearly the whole of his
life among the Indians as a _coureur de bois_; the pilot, Pierre
Allemand, and an old bushranger named Godefrey, who was well
acquainted with the Indians of the northern regions. Groseilliers was
to remain behind until the spring, when he was to have the command of
the smaller of the two vessels. On the 4th of November the advance
guard of the expedition directed against the Company's establishment
in Hudson's Bay left Quebec.
In the following spring the rendezvous was kept at the island named.
Radisson is found complaining bitterly of the character of the vessels
_St. Pierre_ and _St. Anne_. The former he describes as an old craft
of 50 tons only, "with twelve men of a crew, including those with me.
There were goods enough for the trade aboard her," he adds, "but so
scanty a supply of provisions that if I had not been so deeply engaged
I should not venture on the enterprise."
[Sidenote: Rejected advice of Radisson and Groseilliers.]
If his case was scarcely hopeful, that of his brother-in-law was far
worse. The latter's vessel could boast but little more than half the
tonnage, and while her crew was larger by three men, she carried even
fewer supplies. But Radisson and Groseilliers were not men to shrink
from any enterprise because it seemed hazardous. They had led bold,
reckless lives, and their spirits rose at the prospect of danger. It
was afterwards alleged of this pair that one great cause of their
disagreement with the Company was their absolute inability to remain
quiet and content in the enjoyment of a regular traffic. Such a career
seemed to their bold, energetic dispositions worthier of drapers'
apprentices. It is said they counselled the Company not to think of
establishing one or two trading posts and expect the Indians to come
to them for trade, but to push on in the wilderness to the north and
west, building new depots and stirring up the hunters to greater
activity and more profitable results. Had this advice been followed,
the exploration of the great North-West would not only have been
anticipated by almost a century; but by the occupation of its
territory, the great evils of a later day would have been averted; nor
would anyone in England have challenged the Company's right to an
exclusive trade in the regions granted by its charter.
But the Company was soon to learn that its earliest pioneers and
forerunners were not to be cast off with impunity. The two bushrangers
experienced considerable difficulty at the outset in propitiating and
calming the fears of their crews, who were terrified, and not without
reason, at the prospect of a voyage of 900 leagues in such craft as
the _St. Pierre_ and the _St. Anne_, and amidst rough water and ice.
But they at length succeeded and effected a start.
After nineteen days the crew of Groseilliers' ship mutinied.
Groseilliers' attempts to appease them seemed about to end in signal
failure when the man on watch cried out that a vessel was in sight to
windward. Groseilliers seized his opportunity; "See!" he cried,
pointing to the distant barque, "yonder is one of the English Company,
laden with the profits of their trade in the Bay. Every man has his
pocket full of gold and his stomach full of rum; and we shall have the
same if we are not cowards enough to abandon our voyage."
After innumerable episodes, some of which almost ended in tragic
consequences, Radisson at last, on the 26th of August, arrived on the
west coast of Hudson's Bay. On the following day he was joined by his
brother-in-law in the _St. Anne_ at the mouth of a river named by the
Indians Ka-kirka-kiouay, translated by Radisson as "who goes, who
comes."
Twelve days before their arrival another ship had entered this same
river, commanded by none other than Captain Gillam, and having on
board John Bridgar, commissioned as Governor of the new settlement at
Port Nelson.
Having thus entered the river, they advanced fifteen miles up stream,
and Radisson then left Groseilliers to build a fort, while he himself
departed in search of savages with whom to trade. With him he took his
nephew and Godefrey, all three being well armed with muskets and
pistols. In the course of eight days they accomplished forty leagues
and attained the upper part of the river, though without meeting a
single savage. On the eighth day, however, their eyes were rejoiced by
the sight of a large encampment of Indians, who, while not especially
rich in furs, were eager to conclude a treaty with the French, and to
encourage their settlement in the country. Radisson now decided to
return, accompanied by some of the savages, and on the 12th day of
September rejoined his brother-in-law, whose fort he found pretty well
advanced.
[Sidenote: The younger Gillam discovered.]
Hardly had he returned when the sudden booming of a cannon startled
the settlement. It was the first time the Indians had ever heard the
sound, and they expressed much astonishment and apprehension. While
the two adventurers hastened to re-assure their allies, they were
themselves hardly less disturbed. Radisson made up his mind to
immediately ascertain whence the firing came and with this intention
he embarked in a canoe and went to the mouth of the river. In passing
to the opposite bank of the stream, and while in the vicinity of a
small island, they perceived signs of European habitation. A tent had
been erected, and at that moment a log house was being built. After a
stealthy reconnoitre, lasting the whole night, Radisson and his
companions advanced boldly in the morning from the opposite shore in
their canoe. The islanders were engaged in making a repast when
Radisson attracted their attention. Speaking first to them in French,
and finding that none of them understood, he thereupon addressed them
in English. He asked them what was their business in those parts.
Their leader quickly responded: "We are English, and come for the
beaver trade."
"By whose authority," asked Radisson; "do you possess a commission?"
The other replied that he did not himself possess such a document, but
that his father did, and that he and his companions hailed from New
England. Whereupon Radisson, still seated in his canoe at some
distance from the shore, informed them that they had not a shadow of
right to be in those regions, which he himself had discovered and
settled for the French some years before. He drew upon his imagination
so far as to intimate that he was at that moment in command of a large
force of Frenchmen near at hand, who would effectually maintain the
sovereignty of King Lewis and his exclusive trading right in this
territory; and he concluded his harangue, which was delivered almost
at the top of his voice, by advising the party of New Englanders to
embark as soon as possible and to return from whence they came.
Before any reply could be made, a cry broke from the lips of both the
leaders. The canoe had touched the bank, and they recognized one
another. The New Englander was the son of Radisson's old friend
Gillam; and, as may be supposed, he possessed a very high admiration
for a man of whom he had heard so much. They speedily embraced, but
Radisson is careful to inform us that he did not entirely trust his
young friend. When young Gillam's ship appeared at the mouth of the
river, and he was invited to go on board, he did so, but he took the
precaution of insisting upon two Englishmen being left as hostages on
shore. It was not without misgivings that, as he neared the vessel in
their canoe, he observed the captain posting the English emblem and
likewise discharging a number of cannon shots.
"I told him," says Radisson, "that it was not necessary to fire any
more, for fear of causing jealousy amongst our people, who might show
themselves hostile. He proposed that we should negotiate together. I
promised that I would persuade our other officers to consent that,
since the season was already too far advanced for them to withdraw, he
should pass the winter where he was without their doing him any
mischief."
In short Radisson was resolved at all costs to keep up appearances. He
even went so far as to grant Gillam formal permission to continue
building his house, "barring fortifications," and to guarantee him
against insults from the Indians, over whom he professed to have
absolute power. The two men parted on good terms; and perhaps Gillam's
complaisance was well-advised. Radisson confesses that had the English
shown themselves refractory or exhibited any disposition to assert
rights over the country, it was his firm intention to concert a plan
for seizing their ship, which he observes, was an "excellent prize"
inasmuch it held no commission or warrant to trade from any power.
It afterwards appeared that this enterprise of the New England ship
was set on foot by Gillam senior, who, dissatisfied with his profits
under the Company, sought to adventure an expedition on his own
account from Boston. He was destined to pay the penalty for this
indiscretion.
Happy at having come out of this encounter so easily, Radisson and his
party re-embarked in their canoe and struck out northwards. Another
surprise was in store for them. A ship under full sail was on the
point of entering the river. More strategy was necessary. The party
regained the shore and instantly kindled a huge bonfire, upon which
they cast grass and leaves so as to produce a thick column of smoke.
Their purpose was to attract the attention and arrest the progress of
the vessel and in this they succeeded. Believing they had come upon an
Indian settlement, and anxious to reconnoitre before proceeding
farther, the parties aboard the ship cast anchor immediately and so
remained motionless in the channel all night.
[Sidenote: Arrival of Bridgar.]
Early in the morning they saw that a boat was being lowered from the
ship, and while it was filling with occupants Radisson made ready to
receive them. Each of his party was posted, armed, at the entrance to
the wood, while Radisson himself walked down to the shore to greet the
strangers.
They were soon within hail. Radisson set up a loud cry, Indian
fashion, for the purpose of eliciting a response. He was disappointed
in this; for the boat approached steadily and silently; there was a
movement of the oars, but most of the figures appeared stern and
motionless. The boat grounded ten yards from where Radisson stood with
folded arms, and a general attitude of defiance. One of the crew had
got a leg over the side of the boat when our bushranger cried out in a
loud voice:
"Hold, in the King's name." And then presenting his carbine, "I forbid
you to land."
The occupants of the boat were astonished.
"Who are you?" they asked, "and what is your business?"
"I am a Frenchman," was the answer, delivered in English; "and I hold
this country for his Most Christian Majesty, King Lewis!"
Radisson signalled to his followers, who emerged from their retreat,
making a brave show of their weapons. The coup seemed destined to be
successful. The leader of the boat party, visibly impressed, remained
standing up in his craft without any attempt on the part of his
followers to land.
"I beg to inform you, gentlemen, that we hail from London. Our ship
yonder is the _Prince Rupert_, belonging to the honourable Hudson's
Bay Company and commanded by Captain Zachary Gillam."
"You arrive too late. This country is already in the possession of the
King of France, and its trade belongs to the Northern Company of
Canada."
A short dispute succeeded. Suddenly changing his tactics, Governor
Bridgar, for it was no other, feigned acquiescence, admitted that
after all Radisson might be right, and requested the privilege of
landing and saluting him.
[Sidenote: The Bushranger's mendacity.]
The two leaders now conversed amicably. Radisson took occasion to
elaborate the narrative to which he had recently treated young Gillam,
without, however, mentioning the circumstance of his having met the
latter. He did not scruple to allege a lengthy residence in the
region, detailing his forces, both French and Indian, with a fine
display of exactitude. Commenced on shore, the interview was
transferred to the ship; Radisson, while accepting Bridgar's
hospitality, took care to keep, as before, two or three hostages on
land. On board the _Prince Rupert_ he embraced Gillam, and listened
with a real interest to the tidings he had to convey of what had been
happening in Europe, and of the affairs of the Company. For himself,
he readily volunteered the information that he and his brother-in-law
Groseilliers had two fine large vessels in the vicinity, while the
third was shortly expected. He likewise made no secret of the fact
that a huge fort was being constructed hard by in the interests of the
French Company. In all of these statements Governor Bridgar professed
absolute credence, whatever may have been his private opinion of their
value.
In reality, however, he was not deceived; and if it had not been for
Radisson's precaution as to the hostages, there is some reason to
believe he would have detained his guest on board the Company's ship
to ruminate for a while on his treachery to the Company. Even allowing
for the truth of Radisson's assertions regarding the occupation by the
French of Port Nelson and the surrounding neighbourhood in large
numbers, Bridgar was not to be dissuaded by mere words from his
intention to establish a factory there. He had every confidence in the
Company's rights; and he determined to carry out his instructions to
the letter.
No sooner had Radisson departed, therefore, than a majority of the
people on board the _Prince Rupert_ landed and commenced building a
fort.
The French party hiding in the woods spied on their movements; and
before rejoining their comrades at their own settlement they had the
privilege of seeing the erection of Fort Nelson, the fourth
establishment of the Company in the Hudson's Bay territories, well
under way.
FOOTNOTE:
[17] Also known to-day as the Stone Indians.