1697-1712.
Company Seriously Damaged by Loss of Port Nelson -- Send an
Account of their Claims to Lords of Trade -- Definite Boundary
Propositions of Trade -- Lewis anxious to Create Boundaries --
Company look to Outbreak of War -- War of Spanish Succession
breaks out -- Period of Adversity for the Company -- Employment
of Orkneymen -- Attack on Fort Albany -- Desperate Condition of
the French at York Fort -- Petition to Anne.
The Treaty of Ryswick[40] had aimed a severe blow at the prosperity of
the Company,[41] in depriving them of that important quarter of the
Bay known as Port Nelson.
Although now on the threshold of a long period of adversity, the
Merchants-Adventurers, losing neither hope nor courage, continued to
raise their voice for restitution and justice. Petition after petition
found its way to King, Commons, and the Lords of Trade and
Plantations.
[Sidenote: The Company's claims.]
In May, 1700, the Company were requested by the Lord of Trade and
Plantations to send an account of the encroachments of the French on
Her Majesty's Dominion in America within the limits of the Company's
charter; to which the Company replied, setting forth their right and
title, and praying restitution.
It has been stated, and urged as a ground against the later
pretensions of the Hudson's Bay Company, that at this time they were
willing to contract their limits. While willing to do this for the
purpose of effecting a settlement, it was only on condition of their
not being able to obtain "the whole Straits and Bay which of right
belongs to them."
"This," remarked a counsel for the Company in a later day, "is like a
man who has a suit of ejectment, who, in order to avoid the expense
and trouble of a law suit, says, 'I will be willing to allow you
certain bounds, but if you do not accept that I will insist on getting
all my rights and all that I am entitled to.'"
The Company's propositions soon began to take a definite form.
THE COMPANY'S CLAIMS AFTER THE TREATY OF RYSWICK.
[_To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Trade and
Plantations._]
The limits which the Hudson's Bay Company conceive to be
necessary as boundaries between the French and them in case of
an exchange of places, and that the Company cannot obtain the
whole Streights and Bay, which of right belongs to them,
viz.:--
1. That the French be limited not to trade by wood-runners, or
otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or Fort, beyond the
bounds of 53 degrees, or Albany River, vulgarly called
Chechewan, to the northward, on the west or main coast.
2. That the French be likewise limited not to trade by
wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or
Fort, beyond Rupert's River, to the northward, on the east or
main coast.
3. On the contrary, the English shall be obliged not to trade
by wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or
Fort, beyond the aforesaid latitude of 53 degrees, or Albany
River, vulgarly called Chechewan, south-east towards Canada, on
any land which belongs to the Hudson's Bay Company.
4. As also the English be likewise obliged not to trade by
wood-runners, or otherwise, nor build any House, Factory, or
Fort, beyond Rupert's River, to the south-east, towards Canada,
on any land which belongs to the Hudson's Bay Company.
5. As likewise, that neither the French or English shall at any
time hereafter extend their bounds contrary to the aforesaid
limitations, nor instigate the natives to make war, or join
with either, in any acts of hostility to the disturbance or
detriment of the trade of either nation, which the French may
very reasonably comply with, for that they by such limitations
will have all the country south-eastward betwixt Albany Fort
and Canada to themselves, which is not only the best and most
fertile part, but also a much larger tract of land than can be
supposed to be to the northward, and the Company deprived of
that which was always their undoubted right.
And unless the Company can be secured according to these
propositions, they think it will be impossible for them to
continue long at York Fort (should they exchange with the
French), nor will the trade answer their charge; and therefore
if your lordships cannot obtain these so reasonable
propositions from the French, but that they insist to have the
limits settled between [Albany and] York and Albany Fort, as in
the latitude of 55 degrees or thereabouts, the Company can by
no means agree thereto, for they by such an agreement will be
the instruments of their own ruin, never to be retrieved.
By order of the General Court,
WM. POTTER, _Secretary_.
Confirmed by the General Court of }
the said Company, 10th July, 1700.}
The adventurers were, they said, not indisposed to listen to reason.
They proposed limits to be observed by the two nations in their trade
and possessions in the Bay. But should the French be so foolish as to
refuse their offer, then they would not be bound by that or any former
concession, but would then, as they had always theretofore done,
"insist upon the prior and undoubted right to the whole of the Bay and
straits."
[Sidenote: Lewis proposes boundaries.]
The Court of Versailles was now most anxious to delimit the boundaries
of the respective possessions of the two countries in the Bay. To this
end, proposals were exchanged between the two crown governments. One
alternative proposed by the French Ambassador was that the Weemish
River, which was exactly half way between Fort Bourbon and Fort
Albany, should mark the respective limits of the French on the east,
while the limits of New France on the side of Acadia should be
restricted to the River St. George.
This proposition having been referred to them, the Board of Trade and
Plantations discouraged the scheme. The Hudson's Bay Adventurers it
said, challenged an undoubted right to the whole Bay, antecedent to
any pretence of the French. It was, therefore, requisite that they
should be consulted before any concession of territories could be made
to the Most Christian King or his subjects.
The Company pinned their hopes to an outbreak of hostilities,[42]
which would enable them to attempt to regain what they had lost. A
protracted peace was hardly looked for by the nation. In answer to
Governor Knight's continual complaints, to which were added those of
the dispossessed Geyer, the Company begged its servants to bide their
time; and to exert themselves to the utmost to increase the trade at
Albany, and Moose, and Rupert's River.
"England," says the historian Green, "was still clinging desperately
to the hope of peace, when Lewis, by a sudden act, forced it into war.
He had acknowledged William as King in the Peace of Ryswick, and
pledged himself to oppose all the attacks on his throne. He now
entered the bed-chamber at St. Germain, where James was breathing his
last, and promised to acknowledge his son at his death as King of
England, Scotland and Ireland."
[Sidenote: Outbreak of the war between England and France.]
Such a promise was tantamount to a declaration of war, and in a moment
England sprang to arms. None were so eager for the approaching strife
as the Honourable Merchants-Adventurers. They expressed their opinion
that, while their interests had undoubtedly suffered at the peace of
1697, they were far from attributing it to any want of care on the
part of his Majesty. Their rights and claims, they said, were then
"overweighed by matters of higher consequence depending in that
juncture for the glory and honour of the King."
Yet a dozen more years were to elapse before they were to come into
their own again; and during that critical period much was to happen to
affect their whole internal economy. The value of the shares fell; the
original Adventurers were all since deceased, and many of their heirs
had disposed of their interests. A new set of shareholders appeared on
the scene; not simultaneously, but one by one, until almost the entire
personnel of the Company had yielded place to a new, by no means of
the same weight or calibre.[43]
Mention has already been made of the manner in which the Company
devoted its thought and energy to its weekly meetings. Not even in
the gravest crises to which the East India Company was subjected, was
there a statute more inconvenient or severe, than the following:
"Resolved and ordered by the Committee, to prevent the Company's
business from being delayed or neglected, that for the future if any
member do not appear by one hour after the time mentioned in the
summons and the glass run out, or shall depart without leave of the
Committee, such member shall have no part in the moneys to be divided
by the Committee, and that the time aforesaid be determined by the
going of the clock in the Court-room, which the Secretary is to set as
he can to the Exchange clock; and that no leave shall be given until
one hour after the glass is run out."
But out of their adversity sprung a proposition which, although not
put into effect upon a large scale until many years afterwards, yet
well deserves to be recorded here. To stem the tide of desertions from
the Company's service, caused by the war, and the low rate of wages,
it was in 1710 first suggested that youthful Scotchmen be
employed.[44]
[Sidenote: Employment of Scotchmen in the service.]
The scarcity of servants seems to have continued. In the following
year greater bribes were resorted to. "Captain Mounslow was now
ordered to provide fifteen or sixteen young able men to go to H. B.
This expedition for five years, which he may promise to have wages,
viz.: £8 the 1st year; £10 the 2nd; £12 the 3rd and £14 for the two
last years, and to be advanced £3 each before they depart from
Gravesend." The result of this was that in June, 1711, the first batch
of these servants came aboard the Company's ship at Stromness. But
they were not destined to sail away to the Bay in their full numbers.
Overhauled by one of Her Majesty's ships, eleven of the young men were
impressed into the service. For many years after this incident it was
not found easy to engage servants in the Orkneys.
[Illustration: "The younger men now stole again to the French camp
and massacred all the others in their sleep."
(_See page 185._)]
Captain Barlow was governor at Albany Fort in 1704 when the French
came overland from Canada to besiege it. The Canadians and their
Indian guides lurked in the neighbourhood of Albany for several days
before they made the attack, and killed many of the cattle that were
grazing in the marshes. A faithful Home Indian (as those Crees in the
vicinity were always termed), who was on a hunting excursion,
discovered those strangers, and correctly supposing them to be
enemies, immediately returned to the fort and informed the governor of
the circumstance. Barlow, while giving little credit to the report,
yet took immediately every measure for the fort's defence. Orders were
given to the master of a sloop hard by to hasten to the fort should he
hear a gun fired.
In the middle of the night the French came before the fort, marched up
to the gate and demanded entrance. Barlow, who was on watch, told them
that the governor was asleep, but he would go for the keys at once.
The French, according to the governor, on hearing this, and expecting
no resistance, flocked up to the gate as close as they could stand.
Barlow took advantage of this opportunity, and instead of opening the
gate opened two port-holes, and discharged the contents of two
six-pounders into the gathering. This quantity of grape-shot
slaughtered great numbers of the French, and amongst them their
commander, who was an Irishman.
A precipitate retreat followed such an unexpected reception; and the
master of the sloop hearing the firing proceeded with the greatest
haste to the spot. But some of the enemy, who lay in ambush on the
river's bank, intercepted and killed him, with his entire crew.
Seeing no chance of surprising the fort, the French retired
reluctantly, and did not renew the attack; although some of them were
heard shooting in the neighbourhood for ten days after their repulse.
One man in particular was noticed to walk up and down the platform
leading from the gate of the fort to the launch for a whole day. At
sundown Fullerton, the governor, thinking his conduct extraordinary,
ventured out and spoke to the man in French. He offered him lodgings
within the fort if he chose to accept them; but to such and similar
proposals the man made no reply, shaking his head. Fullerton then
informed him that unless he would surrender himself as his prisoner he
would have no alternative but to shoot him. In response to this the
man advanced nearer the fort. The governor kept his word, and the
unhappy Frenchman fell, pierced by a bullet. No explanation of his
eccentric behaviour was ever forthcoming, but it may be that the
hardships he expected to encounter on his return to Canada had
unbalanced his mind, and made him prefer death to these while scorning
surrender.
[Sidenote: Desperate condition of the French at Fort York.]
It was some solace to know that their French rivals were in trouble,
and that York Factory had hardly proved as great a source of profit to
the French Company as had been anticipated. The achievements of
Iberville and his brothers had done little, as has been shown, to
permanently better its fortunes. To such an extent had these declined,
that the capture, in 1704, of the principal ship of the French Company
by an English frigate, forced these traders to invoke the assistance
of the Mother Country in providing them with facilities for the relief
of the forts and the transportation of the furs to France. In the
following year, the garrison at Fort Bourbon nearly perished for lack
of provisions. The assistance was given; but two years later it was
discontinued, because they could no longer spare either ships or men.
Although both were urgently needed for defence against the New
Englanders. Owing to the enormous increase of unlicensed bushrangers,
the continued hostilities and the unsettled state of the country, no
small proportion of the entire population chose rather to adventure
the perils of illicit trade in the wilderness, than to serve the king
in the wars at home.[45] Unaccustomed for so long a period to till the
soil, their submission was not easily secured, no matter how dire the
penalties.
Finding their continual petitions to the Lords of Trade ineffectual,
the Company now drew up a more strongly worded one and presented it
to Queen Anne herself. The memorial differed from any other, inasmuch
as the Company now lay stress for the first time on some other feature
of their commerce than furs.
"The said country doth abound with several other commodities (of which
your petitioners have not been able to begin a trade, by reason of the
interruptions they have met with from the French) as of whale-bone,
whale-oil (of which last your subjects now purchase from Holland and
Germany to the value of £26,000 per annum, which may be had in your
own dominions), besides many other valuable commodities, which in time
may be discovered."
If the French, it was argued, came to be entirely possessed of
Hudson's Bay, they would undoubtedly give up whale fishing in those
parts, which will greatly tend to the increase of their navigation and
to their breed of seamen.
When your Majesty, in your high wisdom, shall think fit to give
peace to those enemies whom your victorious arms have so
reduced and humbled, and when your Majesty shall judge it for
your people's good to enter into a treaty of peace with the
French King, your petitioners pray that the said Prince be
obliged by such treaty, to renounce all right and pretensions
to the Bay and Streights of Hudson, to quit and surrender all
posts and settlements erected by the French, or which are now
in their possession, as likewise not to sail any ships or
vessels within the limits of the Company's charter, and to make
restitution of the £108,514, 19s. 8d., of which they robbed and
despoiled your petitioners in times of perfect amity between
the two Kingdoms.
This petition seems actually to have come into the hands of the Queen
and to have engaged her sympathy, for which the Honourable Adventurers
had to thank John Robinson, the Lord Bishop of London. This dignitary,
_persona grata_ in the highest degree to the sovereign, was also a
close personal friend of the Lake family, whose fortunes[46] were long
bound up with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company was asked to state
what terms it desired to make. In great joy they acceded to the
request.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF TRADES AND
PLANTATIONS.
_The Memorandum of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of
England trading into Hudson's Bay:_
That for avoiding all disputes and differences that may, in
time to come, arise between the said Company and the French,
settled in Canada, they humbly represent and conceive it
necessary--
That no wood-runners, either French or Indians, or any other
person whatsoever, be permitted to travel, or seek for trade,
beyond the limits hereinafter mentioned.
That the said limits began from the island called Grimington's
Island, or Cape Perdrix, in the latitude of 58½° north, which
they desire may be the boundary between the English and the
French, on the coast of Labrador, towards Rupert's Land, on the
east main, and Novia Britannia on the French side, and that no
French ship, bark, boat or vessel whatsoever, shall pass to the
northward of Cape Perdrix or Grimington's Island, towards or
into the Streights or Bay of Hudson, on any pretence whatever.
[Sidenote: Demand of the Company.]
That a line be supposed to pass to the south-westward of the
said Island of Grimington or Cape Perdrix to the great Lake
Miscosinke, _alias_ Mistoveny, dividing the same into two parts
(as in the map now delivered), and that the French, nor any
others employed by them, shall come to the north or
north-westward of the said lake, or supposed line, by land or
water, or through any rivers, lakes or countries, to trade, or
erect any forts or settlements whatsoever; and the English, on
the contrary, not to pass the said supposed line either to the
southward or eastward.
That the French be likewise obliged to quit, surrender and
deliver up to the English, upon demand, York Fort (by them
called Bourbon), undemolished; together with all forts,
factories, settlements and buildings whatsoever, taken from the
English, or since erected or built by the French, with all the
artillery and ammunition, in the condition they are now in;
together with all other places they are possessed of within the
limits aforesaid, or within the Bay and Streights of Hudson.
These limits being first settled and adjusted, the Company are
willing to refer their losses and damages formerly sustained by
the French in time of peace, to the consideration of
commissioners to be appointed for that purpose.
By order of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England,
trading into Hudson's Bay.
Hudson's Bay House, 7th of February, 1711-12.
A LIST OF FORTS FROM 1668 TO 1714.
1. Rupert, called by the French St. Jacques. Founded 1668 by
Gillam. Taken by the French under Troyes and Iberville, July,
1686. Retaken by the English, 1693.
2. Fort Monsippi, Monsonis, St. Lewis and Moose Fort, taken by
Troyes and Iberville 20th June, 1686. Retaken 1693.
3. Fort Chechouan, St. Anne or Albany, taken by de Troyes and
Iberville in 1686. Retaken 1693.
4. New Severn or Nieu Savanne, taken by Iberville, 1690.
5. Fort Bourbon, Nelson or York. Founded 1670. Taken by the
French, 1682, acting for English, 1684. Retaken by Iberville
12th October, 1894. Retaken by the English 1696, and by the
French, 1697. Retaken by the English, 1714.
6. Fort Churchill, 1688.
7. East Main.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] By the Treaty of Ryswick, Great Britain and France were
respectively to deliver up to each other generally whatever
possessions either held before the outbreak of the war, and it was
specially provided that this should be applicable to the places in
Hudson's Bay taken by the French during the peace which preceded the
war, which, though retaken by the British during the war, were to be
given up to the French. Commissioners were to be appointed in
pursuance of the Treaty to determine the rights and pretensions which
either nation had to the places in Hudson's Bay. But these
commissioners never met. The commissioners must, however, have been
bound by the text of the Treaty wherever it was explicit. They
_might_, said the Company's opponents, have decided that France had a
right to the whole, but they could _not_ have decided that Great
Britain had a right to the whole. They would have been compelled to
make over to France all the places she took during the peace which
preceded the war, for in that the Treaty left them no discretion. The
following are the words of the Treaty:--"But the possession of those
places which were taken by the French, during the peace that preceded
this present war, and were retaken by the English during the war,
shall be left to the French by virtue of the foregoing article." Thus
the Treaty of Ryswick recognized and confirmed the right of France to
certain places in Hudson's Bay distinctly and definitely, but it
recognized no right at all on the part of Great Britain; it merely
provided a tribunal to try whether she had any or not.
[41] "Therefore, we shall proceed to inform your Lordships of the
present melancholy prospects of our trade and settlement in Hudson's
Bay, and that none of his Majesty's plantations are left in such a
deplorable state as those of this Company, for by their great losses
by the French, both in times of peace as well as during the late war,
together with the hardships they lie under by the late Treaty of
Ryswick, they may be said to be the only mourners by the peace. They
cannot but inform your Lordships that the only settlement that the
Company now have left in Hudson's Bay (of seven they formerly
possessed) is Albany Fort, vulgarly called Checheawan, in the bottom
of the said Bay, where they are surrounded by the French on every
side, viz., by their settlements on the lakes and rivers from Canada
to the northwards, towards Hudson's Bay, as also from Port Nelson (Old
York Fort) to the southward; but beside this, the Company have, by the
return of their ship this year, received certain intelligence that the
French have made another settlement at a place called New Severn,
'twixt Port Nelson and Albany Fort, whereby they have hindered the
Indians from coming to trade at the Company's factory, at the bottom
of the Bay, so that the Company this year have not received above
one-fifth part of the returns they usually had from thence, insomuch
that the same doth not answer the expense of their expedition."
[42] The Company being by these and other misfortunes reduced to such
a low and miserable condition, that, without his Majesty's favour and
assistance, they are in no ways able to keep that little remainder
they are yet possessed of in Hudson's Bay, but may justly fear in a
short time to be deprived of all their trade in those parts which is
solely negotiated by the manufacturers of this kingdom. Upon the whole
matter, the Company humbly conceive, they can be no ways safe from the
insults and encroachments of the French, so long as they are suffered
to remain possessed of any place in Hudson's Bay, and that in order to
dislodge them from thence (which the Company are no ways able to do) a
force of three men-of-war, one bomb-vessel, and two hundred and fifty
soldiers besides the ships' company will be necessary, whereby that
vast tract of land which is of so great concern, not only to this
Company in particular, but likewise to the whole nation in general,
may not be utterly lost to this kingdom.
[43] The Duke of York's (James II.) share, however, was retained by
his heirs up to 1746.
[44] Captain John Merry is desired to speak with Captain Moody, who
has a nephew in the Orkneys, to write to him to provide fifteen or
sixteen young men, about twenty years old, to be entertained by the
Company, to serve them for four years in Hudson's Bay, at the rate of
£6 per annum, the wages formerly given by the Company.--From the
Company's Order Book, 29th February, 1710.
[45] "This country," it was remarked in 1710, "is composed of persons
of various character and different inclinations. One and the other
ought to be managed, and can contribute to render it flourishing."
[46] I find the following in the minute books, under date of 24th
March, 1714. "It was resolved that the Committee when they meet Friday
come Senuit, do agree to wait on the Lord Bishop of London, in order
to return him the thanks of this Company for the care that has been
taken of them by the Treaty of Ryswick."