1698-1713.
Petition Presented to Parliament Hostile to Company --
Seventeenth Century Conditions of Trade -- _Coureurs de Bois_
-- Price of Peltries -- Standard of Trade Prescribed --
Company's Conservatism -- Letters to Factors -- Character of
the Early Governors -- Henry Kelsey -- York Factory under the
French -- Massacre of Jérémie's Men -- Starvation amongst the
Indians.
Before the news of the catastrophe could reach England, in April,
1698, there was presented to Parliament a petition appealing against
the confirmation of the privileges and trade granted to the Company in
1690.
The principal reason alleged for this action was the exorbitant price
of beaver which it was contended turned away an immense amount of
Indian trade, which reverted to the French in Canada.
Another reason given was the undesirable monopoly which caused English
dealers, while paying the highest prices for beaver, to get the worst
article; the best travelling to Russia and other continental
countries. In this petition, concocted by enemies of the Company
envious of its success, it was insinuated that the Company's trade had
been of no use save to increase the practice of stock-jobbing.
[Sidenote: The Company replies to its enemies.]
To this the Company made reply that "it was well known that the price
of beaver had decreased one-third since its own establishment; and
that themselves, far from hindering the trade, encouraged it by every
means in their power, being anxious to be relieved of an over-stocked
commodity." Herein they referred to the enormous quantity of furs
stored in their warehouse, for which, during the stringency of
continued trade they were obliged to retain and pay repeated taxes
upon.[37] As for sending goods to Russia it was only of late years
that the Company had extended its trade to that and other foreign
countries and for no other cause than that reasonable prices could not
be obtained in England.
Although two London guilds, the Skinner's Company and the Felt-makers'
Company, joined issue with the Honourable Adventurers, the fate of the
petition was sealed. On account of the misfortunes which had overtaken
the Company, together with the presence of other and weightier
matters, for Parliamentary consideration, the petition was laid on the
table, and from the table it passed to the archives, where, together
with the Act of 1690, it lay forgotten for a century and a half.
It will be diverting, at this juncture in the general narrative, to
glance at seventeenth century conditions of life and commerce in the
domain of the Company.
[Sidenote: Method of trade with the Indians.]
Even at so early a period as 1690 was the method of transacting trade
with the Indians devised and regulated. The tribes brought down their
goods, beaver skins, martens, foxes and feathers, to the Factory and
delivered them through a small aperture in the side of the storehouse.
They entered the stockade three or four at a time; trading one by one
at the window over which presided the traders. The whole of the actual
trading of the Factory was in the hands of two officials known as
traders. None other of the Company's servants at any fort were
permitted to have direct intercourse with the Indians, save in
exceptional circumstances. The trade was chiefly carried on in summer
when the rivers were free from ice, although occasionally the natives
in the immediate region of the factories came down in winter; the
factors never refusing to trade with them when they so came. No
partiality was shown to particular tribes, but the actual hunters were
favoured more than those who merely acted as agents or carriers. It
was not unusual for the chief factors, as the Governors came to be
called after 1713, to make presents to the chiefs in order to
encourage them to bring down as many of their tribe the ensuing year
as possible.
[Illustration: TRADING WITH THE INDIANS.]
Before the era of the standard of trade, it was customary at all the
forts, as it was at one or two long afterwards, for remuneration for
the furs of the savages to be left at the chief factor's discretion.
Many things conspired to alter the values from season to season, and
even from day to day, but no cause was so potent as the contiguous
rivalry of the French. When the French were close at hand in the
vicinity of Fort Nelson, as they were from 1686 to 1693, the price of
beaver would fluctuate with surprising rapidity. It should be borne in
mind that the western country at this period, and for long afterwards,
was frequented by roving, adventurous parties of _coureurs des bois_,
whose activity in trade tended to injure the Company's business. Even
an enactment prescribing death for all persons trading in the interior
of the country without a license, had proved insufficient to abate
their numbers or their activity.
[Sidenote: Activity of "coureurs des bois."]
The Hudson's Bay Company seem to have some cognizance of this state of
affairs, and were wont to put down much of the depredations it
suffered at the hands of the French to the unkempt multitude of
bushrangers. In one document it describes them as "vagrants," and La
Chesnaye, who had been the leading spirit of the Quebec Company, was
ready to impute to them much of the woes of the fur-trade, as well as
the greater part of the unpleasant rivalries which had overtaken the
French and their neighbours. One day it would be carried like
wild-fire amongst the tribe who had come to barter, that the French
were giving a pound of powder for a beaver; that a gun could be bought
from the English for twelve beaver. In an instant there was a stampede
outside the respective premises, and a rush would be made for the
rival establishment. Fifty miles for a single pound of powder was
nothing to these Indians, who had often journeyed two whole months in
the depth of winter, endured every species of toil and hardship in
order to bring down a small bundle of peltries; nor when he presented
himself at the trader's window was the Indian by any means sure what
his goods would bring. He delivered his bundles first, and the trader
appraised them and gave what he saw fit. If a series of wild cries and
bodily contortions ensued, the trader was made aware that the Indian
was dissatisfied with his bargain, and the furs were again passed back
through the aperture. This was merely a form; for rarely did the
native make a practical repentance of his bargain, however
unsatisfactory it might appear to him. It is true the Indian was
constant in his complaint that too little was given for his furs; but
no matter what the price had been this would have been the case. Apart
from dissatisfaction being an ineradicable trait in the Indian
character, the contemplation of the sufferings and privations he had
undergone to acquire his string of beads, his blanket, or his hatchet,
must have aroused in him all his fund of pessimism.
In 1676 the value of the merchandise exported did not exceed £650
sterling. The value of the furs imported was close upon £19,000.
[Illustration: A "COUREUR DES BOIS."]
[Sidenote: Prices paid for furs.]
In 1678 the first standard was approved of by the Company on the
advice of one of its governors, Sargeant, but it does not appear to
have been acted upon for some years. The actual tariff was not fixed
and settled to apply to any but Albany fort, and a standard was not
filed at the Council of Trade until 1695. It originally covered
forty-seven articles, later increased to sixty-three, and so remained
for more than half a century. At first, as has been noted in an
earlier chapter, the aborigines were content with beads and toys, and
no doubt the bulk of the supplies furnished them might have continued
for a much longer period to consist of these baubles and petty
luxuries had not the policy of the Company been to enrich the Indians
(and themselves) with the arms and implements of the chase. Gradually
the wants of the savages became wider, so that by the time, early in
the eighteenth century, the French had penetrated into the far western
country, these wants comprised many of the articles in common use
amongst civilized people. The standard of trade alluded to was
intended to cover the relative values at each of the Company's four
factories. Yet the discrepancy existing between prices at the
respective establishments was small. In 1718 a blanket, for example,
would fetch six beavers at Albany and Moose, and seven at York and
Churchill. In nearly every case higher prices were to be got from the
tribes dealing at York and Churchill than from those at the other and
more easterly settlements, often amounting to as much as thirty-three
per cent. This was illustrated in the case of shirts, for which three
beavers were given in the West Main, and only a single beaver at East
Main. The Company took fifteen beavers for a gun; whereas, when
Verandrye appeared, he was willing to accept as small a number as
eight. Ten beavers for a gun was the usual price demanded by the
French. It may be observed that a distinguishing feature of the French
trade in competition with the Company was that they dealt almost
exclusively in light furs, taking all of that variety they could
procure, the Indians bringing to the Company's settlements all the
heavier furs, which the French refused at any price, owing to the
difficulty of land transportation. These difficulties, in the case of
the larger furs, were so great that it is related that upon
innumerable occasions the savages themselves, when weakened by hunger,
used to throw overboard all but mink, marten and ermine skins rather
than undergo the painful labour of incessant portages.
It must not be inferred, however, that the factors ever adhered
strictly in practice to the standard prescribed and regulated from
time to time by the Company. The standard was often privately doubled,
where it could be done prudently, so that where the Company directed
one skin to be taken for such or such an article, two were taken. The
additional profit went into the hands of the chief factor, and a
smaller share to the two traders, without the cognizance of the
Company, and was called the overplus trade.
[Sidenote: Stationary character of the Company's trade.]
Occasionally, far seeing, active spirits amongst its servants strove
to break through the policy of conservatism which distinguished its
members; but where they succeeded it was only for a short period; and
the commerce of the corporation soon reverted to its ancient
boundaries. But this apparent attitude is capable of explanation. The
Company were cognizant, almost from the first, that the trade they
pursued was capable of great extension. One finds in the minute-books,
during more than forty years from the time of Radisson and
Groseilliers, partner after partner arising in his place to enquire
why the commerce, vastly profitable though it was, remained stationary
instead of increasing.
"Why are new tribes not brought down? Why do not our factors seek new
sources of commerce?" A motion directing the chief factor to pursue a
more active policy was often put and carried. But still the trade
returns, year after year, remained as before. Scarce a season passed
without exhortations to its servants to increase the trade. "Use more
diligence," "prosecute discoveries," "draw down distant tribes," form
the burden of many letters.
"We perceive," writes the Company's secretary in 1685 to Sargeant,
"that our servants are unwilling to travel up into the country by
reason of danger and want of encouragement. The danger, we judge, is
not more now than formerly; and for their encouragement we shall
plentifully reward them, when we find they deserve it by bringing down
Indians to our factories, of which you may assure them. We judge
Robert Sandford a fit person to travel, having the linguæ and
understanding the trade of the country; and upon a promise of Mr.
Young (one of our Adventurers) that he should travel, for which
reason we have advanced his wages to £30 per annum, and Mr. Arrington,
called in the Bay, Red-Cap, whom we have again entertained in our
service; as also John Vincent, both which we do also judge fit persons
for you to send up into the country to bring down trade." To this the
Governor replied that Sandford was by no means disposed to accept the
terms their Honours proposed, but rather chose to go home. "Neither he
nor any of your servants will travel up the country, although your
Honours have earnestly desired it, and I pressed it upon those
proposals you have hinted."
[Sidenote: Character of the Company's Factors.]
I have already shown why the Company's wishes in this respect were not
fruitful; that the character of the men in the Company's employ was
not yet adapted to the work in hand. Its servants were not easily
induced to imperil their lives; they gained little in valour or
hardihood from their surroundings. They were shut up in the forts, as
sailors are shut up in a ship, scarcely ever venturing out in winter,
and hardly ever holding converse with a savage in his wild state. In
vain, for the most part, were such men stirred to enterprise; and so
this choice and habit of seclusion grew into a rule with the Company's
employees; and the discipline common to the ship, or to contracted
bodies, became more and more stringent. The Company's policy was
nearly always dictated by the advice of their factors, but it can be
shown that these were not always wise, dreading equally the prospect
of leading an expedition into the interior, and the prestige which
might ensue if it were entrusted to a subordinate.
A discipline ludicrous when contrasted with the popular impression
regarding the fur-trader's career, was maintained in the early days.
It was the discipline of the quarter-deck, and surprised many of the
youth who had entered the Company's employ expecting a life of
pleasure and indulgence. Many of the governors were resembled, Bridgar
and Bailey being surly, violent men, and were, indeed, often chosen
for these qualities by the Company at home.
It is singular but true, that in the days of our ancestors a choleric
temper was considered an unfailing index of the masterful man. In
both branches of the King's service, on sea and on land, there seemed
to have been no surer sign of a man's ability to govern and lead, than
spleen and tyranny; and many an officer owed his promotion and won the
regard of the Admiralty and the War Office by his perpetual exhibition
of the traits and vices of the martinet. One of the Company's
governors, Duffell, was wont to order ten lashes to his men on the
smallest provocation. Another named Stanton, the governor at Moose
Factory, declared he would whip any man, even to the traders, without
trial if he chose; and this declaration he more than once put into
practice. The whipping of two men, Edward Bate and Adam Farquhar, at
Moose Factory, almost occasioned a mutiny there. The death of one
Robert Pilgrim, from a blow administered by the chief factor, created
a scandal some years later in the century. It was the practice of the
early governors to strike the Indians when they lost their own tempers
or for petty offences.
[Sidenote: Life at the Company's factories.]
It is diverting to compare nineteenth century life at the factories,
on its religious, moral and intellectual side, to what obtained in the
early days. In Governor Stanton's time, out of thirty-six men only six
were able to read. There was neither clergyman nor divine worship. The
men passed their time in eating and sleeping. Occasionally, Indian
squaws were smuggled into the fort, at the peril of the governor's
displeasure, for immoral purposes. The displeasure of the governor was
not, however, excited on the grounds of morality, for it was nearly
always the case that the governor had a concubine residing on the
premises or near at hand; and it was observed in 1749 by a servant of
thirty years' standing in the Company's employ, that at each fort most
of the half-breed children in the country claimed paternity of the one
or other of the factors of the Company.
[Illustration: AN EARLY RIVER PIONEER.]
To return to the question of the extension of trade, there were from
time to time governors and servants who evinced a zeal and love for
adventure which contrasted favourably with that of their fellows.
Their exploits, however, when compared with those of the hardier race
of French-Canadian bushrangers were tame enough. In 1673 Governor
Bailey summoned all the servants of the fort to appear before him, and
informed them that it was the Company's wish that some amongst them
should volunteer to find out a site for a new fort. Three young men
presented themselves, two of whom afterwards became governors of the
Company. The names of these three were William Bond, Thomas Moore and
George Geyer. Some years later Bond was drowned in the Bay; but his
two companions continued for some years to set an example which was
never followed; and of which they seem finally to have repented.
Indeed, almost without exception, once a fort was built the servants
seem to have clung closely to it; and it was not until the year 1688
that a really brave, adventurous figure, bearing considerable
resemblance to the bushrangers of the past, and the explorers of the
future, emerges into light.
[Sidenote: Kelsey's Voyage.]
Henry Kelsey, a lad barely eighteen years of age, was the forerunner
of all the hardy British pioneers of the ensuing century. He is
described as active, "delighting much in Indians' company; being never
better pleased than when he is travelling amongst them." Young as he
was, Kelsey volunteered to find out a site for a fort on Churchill
River. No record exists of this voyage; but a couple of years later he
repeated it, and himself kept a detailed diary of his tour.
In this journal the explorer states that he received his supplies on
the 5th of July, 1691. He sent the Assiniboines ten days before him,
and set out for Dering's Point to seek the remainder of their tribe.
At this place it was the custom for the Indians to assemble when they
went down the coast on trading expeditions. Kelsey soon overtook them,
and accompanied them to the country of the Naywatamee Poets, the
journey consuming fifty-nine days. He travelled first by water
seventy-one miles from Dering's Point, and there beached his canoes
and continued by land a distance of three hundred and sixteen miles,
passing through a wooded country. At the end of this came prairie
lands for forty-six miles, intersected by a small shallow river
scarcely a hundred yards wide. Crossing ponds, woods and champaign for
eighty-one miles more, discovering many buffalo and beavers, the young
explorer retraced his steps fifty-four miles, and there met the tribe
of which he was in search. Kelsey did not accomplish this journey
without meeting with many adventures. On one occasion the Naywatamee
Poets left him asleep on the ground. During his slumber the fire burnt
the moss upon which he was lying and entirely consumed the stock of
his gun, for which he was obliged to improvise from a piece of wood
half dry. On another occasion, he and an Indian were surprised by a
couple of grisly bears. His companion made his escape to a tree, while
Kelsey, his retreat cut off, hid himself in a clump of high willows.
The bears perceiving the Indian in the branches made directly for
him, but Kelsey observing their action levelled his gun and killed one
of the animals, the other bear bounding towards the place from which
the shots came, and not finding the explorer, returned to the tree,
when he was brought down by Kelsey's second shot. Good fortune
attended this exploit, for it attained for the young man the name
among the tribes of Miss-top-ashish, or "Little Giant." He returned to
York Factory after this first expedition, apparelled after the manner
of his Indian companions, while at his side trudged a young woman with
whom he had gone through the ceremony of marriage after the Indian
fashion. It was his wish that Mistress Kelsey should enter with her
husband into the court, but this desire quickly found an opponent in
the Governor, whose scruples, however, were soon undermined when the
explorer flatly declined to resume his place and duties in the
establishment unless his Indian wife were admitted with him.
Thus, then, it is seen that in 1691, forty years before Verandrye's
voyages of discovery, this young servant of the Hudson's Bay Company,
had penetrated to no slight extent into the interior. He had crossed
the Assiniboine country, seen for the first time among the English and
French the buffaloes of the plain, he had been attacked by the grisly
bears which belong to the far west; and in behalf of the Hudson's Bay
Company had taken possession of the lands he traversed, and secured
for his masters the trade of the Indians hitherto considered hostile.
Although the Governor hoped that the encouragement noted in the case
of Kelsey, together with the advance of salary, would stimulate other
young men to follow his example, yet, strange to say, none came
forward. The day of the Henrys, the Mackenzies, the Thompsons and the
Frobishers had not yet dawned.
For many years after this the Company was in constant apprehension
that its profits would be curtailed by tribal wars.
[Sidenote: Effect of Indian wars on the Company's business.]
"Keep the Indians from warring with one another, that they may have
more time to look after their trade," was a frequently repeated
injunction. "If you prevent them from fighting they will bring a
larger quantity of furs to the Factory," they wrote on one occasion to
Geyer. The Governor admitted the premise, "but," said he, "perhaps
your Honours will tell me how I am going to do it." The Company
devoted a whole meeting to consider the matter, and decided that
nothing was easier, provided their instructions were implicitly
obeyed.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF COMPANY'S STANDARD OF TRADE.]
"Tell them what advantages they may make," they wrote; "that the more
furs they bring, the more goods they will be able to purchase of us,
which will enable them to live more comfortably and keep them from
want in a time of scarcity. Inculcate better morals than they yet
understand; tell them that it doth nothing advantage them to kill and
destroy one another, that thereby they may so weaken themselves that
the wild ravenous beasts may grow too numerous for them, and destroy
them that survive." If Geyer delivered this message to the stern and
valorous chiefs with whom he came in contact, they must have made the
dome of heaven ring with scornful laughter. He was obliged to write
home that fewer savages had come down than in former seasons because
they expected to be attacked by their enemies. The Company then
responded shortly and in a business-like manner, that if fair means
would not prevail to stop these inter-tribal conflicts, that the
nation beginning the next quarrel was not to be supplied for a year
with powder or shot "which will expose them to their enemies, who will
have the master of them and quite destroy them from the earth, them
and their wives and children. This," adds the secretary, and in a
spirit of true prophecy, "must work some terror amongst them."
[Sidenote: The French at Michilimackinac.]
A potent cause contributed to the lack of prosperity which marked Port
Nelson under the French _régime_. It was the exploitation of the west
by an army of traders and bushrangers. The new post of Michilimackinac
had assumed all the importance as a fur-trading centre which had
formerly belonged to Montreal. The French, too, were served by capable
and zealous servants, none more so than Iberville himself, the new
Governor of the Mississippi country.[38] His whole ambition continued
to be centred upon driving out the English from the whole western and
northern region, and destroying forever their trade and standing with
the aborigines, and none more than he more ardently desired the
suppression of the _coureur de bois_. "No Frenchmen," he declared,
"should be allowed to follow the Indians in their hunts, as it tends
to keep them hunters, as is seen in Canada; and when they are in the
woods they do not desire to become tillers of the soil."
At the same time the value of the bushrangers to the French _régime_
was considerable in damaging the English on the Bay.
"It is certain," observed one of their defenders, "that if the
articles required for the upper tribes be not sent to Michilimackinac,
the Indians will go in search of them to Hudson's Bay, to whom they
will convey all their peltries, and will detach themselves entirely
from us."
The bushrangers penetrated into the wilderness and intercepted the
tribes, whose loyalty to the English was not proof against liquor and
trinkets served on the spot, for which otherwise they would have to
proceed many weary leagues to the Bay.
The Company began to experience some alarm at the fashion the trade
was sapped from their forts at Albany and Moose.[39] The Quebec
Company was in the same plight with regard to Port Nelson.
[Sidenote: The Western Company.]
An association of French merchants, known as the Western Company,
sprang up in the early days of the eighteenth century and many forts
and factories were built in the Mississippi region. Its promoters
expected great results from a new skin until now turned to little
account, that of bison, great herds of which animal had been
discovered roaming the western plains. M. de Juchereau, with
thirty-four Canadians, established a post on the Wabash, in the name
of the Western Company. Here, he writes, he collected in a short time
fifteen thousand buffalo skins.
From 1697 to 1708 a series of three commandants were appointed, one of
whom now administered the affairs at Fort Bourbon, which however never
assumed the importance which had attached to it under the English
rule.
There is one romantic episode which belongs to this period, serving to
relieve by its vivid, perhaps too vivid, colouring, the long
sombreness of the French _régime_. It was the visit in 1704 of an
officer named Lagrange and his suite from France. In the train of this
banished courtier came a number of gallant youths and fair courtesans;
and for one brief season Fort Bourbon rang with laughter and revelry.
Hunting parties were undertaken every fine day; and many trophies of
the chase were carried back to France. Have ever the generations of
quiet English servants and Scotch clerks snatched a glimpse, in their
sleeping or waking dreams, of those mad revels, a voluptuous scene
amidst an environment so sullen and sombre?
In the year 1707 Jérémie, the lieutenant, obtained permission of the
Company to return to France on leave. He succeeded in obtaining at
court his nomination to the post of successor to the then commandant,
Delisle. After a year's absence he returned to Port Nelson, to find
matters in a shocking state. No ships had arrived from France, and
stores and ammunition were lacking. A few days after his arrival,
Delisle was taken seriously ill, and expired from the effects of cold
and exposure.
For a period of six years Jérémie continued to govern Fort Bourbon,
receiving his commission not from the Company but direct from the King
himself, a fact of which he seems very proud.
Jérémie's tenure of office was marked by a bloody affair, which
fortunately had but few parallels under either English or French
occupation. Although the tribes in the neighbourhood were friendly and
docile, they were still capable, upon provocation, to rival those
Iroquois who were a constant source of terror to the New England
settlers.
In August, 1708, Jérémie sent his lieutenant, two traders and six
picked men of his garrison to hunt for provisions. They camped at
nightfall near a band of savages who had long fasted and lacked
powder, which, owing to its scarcity, the French did not dare give
them.
[Sidenote: Indian Treachery.]
Round about these unhappy savages, loudly lamenting the passing of the
English dominion when powder and shot was plenty, were the heaps of
furs which to them were useless. They had journeyed to the fort in all
good faith, across mountain and torrent, as was their custom, only to
find their goods rejected by the white men of the fort, who told them
to wait. When the French hunting party came to encamp near them,
several of the younger braves amongst the Indians crept up to where
they feasted, and returned with the news to their comrades. The tribe
was fired with resentment. Exasperated by the cruelty of their fate,
they hatched a plan of revenge and rapine. Two of their youngest and
comeliest women entered the assemblage of the white men, and by
seductive wiles drew two of them away to their own lodges. The
remaining six, having eaten and drunk their fill, and believing in
their security, turned to slumber. Hardly had the two roysterers
arrived at the Indian camp than instead of the cordial privacy they
expected, they were confronted by two score famished men drawn up in
front of the lodges, knives in hand and brandishing hatchets. All
unarmed as they were, they were unceremoniously seized and slain. As
no trace was ever found of their bodies, they were, although denied by
the eye-witness of the tragedy, a squaw, probably devoured on the
spot. The younger men now stole again to the French camp and massacred
all the others in their sleep, save one, who being wounded feigned
death, and afterwards managed to crawl off. But he, with his
companions, had been stripped to the skin by the savages, and in this
state, and half-covered with blood, he made his way back to the fort.
The distance being ten leagues, his survival is a matter of wonder,
even to those hardy men of the wilderness.
The Governor naturally apprehended that the Indians would attempt to
follow up their crime by an attack upon the fort.
As only nine men remained in the garrison, it was felt impossible to
defend both of the French establishments. He therefore withdrew the
men hastily from the little Fort Philipeaux near by, and none too
quickly, for the Indians came immediately before it. Finding nobody in
charge they wrought a speedy and vigorous pillage, taking many pounds
of powder which Jérémie had not had time to transfer to Bourbon.
The condition of the French during the winter of 1708-9 was pitiable
in the extreme. Surrounded by starving, blood-thirsty savages, with
insufficient provisions, and hardly ever daring to venture out, they
may well have received the tidings with joy that the indomitable
English Company had re-established a Factory some leagues distant, and
were driving a brisk trade with the eager tribes.
It was not until 1713 that the French Fur Company succeeded in
relieving its post of Fort Bourbon. It had twice sent ships, but these
had been intercepted on the high seas by the English and pillaged or
destroyed. The _Providence_ arrived the very year of the Treaty of
Utrecht.
[Sidenote: Starvation amongst the Indians.]
But wretched as was the case of the French, that of the Indians was
lamentable indeed. A few more years of French occupation and the
forests and rivers of the Bay would know its race of hunters no more.
Many hundreds lay dead within a radius of twenty leagues from the
fort, the flesh devoured from their bones. They had lost the use of
the bow and arrow since the advent of the Europeans, and they had no
resource as cultivators of the soil; besides their errant life forbade
this. Pressed by a long hunger, parents had killed their children for
food; the strong had devoured the weak. One of these unhappy victims
of civilization and commercial rivalries, confessed to the commandant
that he had eaten his wife and six children. He had, he declared, not
experienced the pangs of tenderness until the time came for him to
sacrifice his last child, whom he loved more than the others, and that
he had gone away weeping, leaving a portion of the body buried in the
earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] "Six or seven times over," the Company say in their reply.
[38] After the battle of Port Nelson, Iberville had returned to France
leaving Martigny in command of the Fort. His subsequent career may be
read elsewhere; the Bay was no longer to be the theatre of his
exploits. He perished in 1707 at Havana.
[39] At Albany they were surrounded by the French on every side, a
circumstance which greatly sapped their commerce. Yet, even at this
period, the importation of beaver and other peltries from the single
fort remaining to them was above thirty thousand annually.