1763-1770.
Effect of the Conquest on the Fur-trade of the French --
Indians again Seek the Company's Factories -- Influx of
Highlanders into Canada -- Alexander Henry -- Mystery
Surrounding the _Albany_ Cleared Up -- Astronomers Visit Prince
of Wales' Fort -- Strike of Sailors -- Seizure of Furs --
Measures to Discourage Clandestine Trade.
[Sidenote: Effect of the Conquest.]
The conquest of Canada by the English in 1760[68] had an almost
instantaneous effect upon the fur-trade of the French. The system of
licenses was swept away with the _régime_ of Intendants of New France.
The posts which, established chiefly for purposes of trade, were yet
military, came to be abandoned, and the officers who directed them
turned their disconsolate faces towards France, or to other lands
where the flag of the lily still waved. The English colonies were not
devoid of diligent traders ready to pursue their calling
advantageously: but they shrank from penetrating a country where the
enemy might yet lurk, a country of whose approaches, and of whose
aspect or inhabitants they knew nothing and feared everything. As for
the Indians themselves, they, for a time, awaited patiently the advent
of the French trader. Spring came and found them at the deserted
posts. They sought but they could not find; "their braves called
loudly, but the sighing trees alone answered their call." Despair at
first filled the bosoms of the Red men when they found that all their
winter's toil and hardships in the forest and over the trail had been
in vain. They waited all summer, and then, as the white trader came
not, wearily they took up their burdens and began their journey anew.
For a wise Indian had appeared amongst them, and he had said: "Fools,
why do you trust these white traders who come amongst you with beads,
and fire-water and crucifixes? They are but as the crows that come and
are gone. But there are traders on the banks of the great lake yonder
who are never absent, neither in our time nor in the time of our
grandfathers and great-grandfathers. They are like the rock which
cannot be moved, and they give good goods and plenty, and always the
same. If you are wise you will go hence and deal with them, and never
trust more the traders who are like fleas and grasshoppers--here one
minute and flown away the next."
More than one factor of the Company heard and told of this oft-spoken
harangue, and many there lived to testify to its effect upon the
assembled Indians. Not even was it forgotten or disregarded years
afterwards in the height of the prosperity of the Northmen, whose arts
of suasion were exercised in vain to induce the Red man to forego his
journey to York, Churchill or Cumberland.
"No," they would say, "we trade with our friends, as our grandfathers
did. Our fathers once waited for the French and Bostonians to come to
their forts, and they lay down and died, and their squaws devoured
them, waiting still. You are here to-day, but will you be here
to-morrow? No, we are going to trade with the Company."
And so they pressed on, resisting temptation, wayward, though loyal,
enduring a long and rough journey that they might deal with their
friends.
[Sidenote: The "coureurs de bois."]
Thus for some years the Company prospered, and did a more thriving
business than ever. But before, however, dealing with the new
_régime_, let us turn for a moment to the Canadian bushrangers and
voyageurs thus cut off from their homes and abandoned by their
officers and employers. Their occupation was gone--whither did they
drift? Too long had they led the untrammelled life of the wilderness
to adjust again the fetters of a civilized life in Montreal or Quebec;
they were attached to their brave and careless masters; these in many
instances they were permitted to follow; but large numbers dispersed
themselves amongst the Indians. Without capital they could no longer
follow the fur-trade; they were fond of hunting and fishing; and so by
allying themselves with Indian wives, and by following the pursuits
and adopting the customs of the Red men, themselves became virtually
savages, completely severed from their white fellows.
But an influx of Scotch Highlanders had been taking place in Canada
ever since 1745, and some of these bold spirits were quick to see the
advantages of prosecuting, without legal penalty, a private trade in
furs. To these were added English soldiers, who were discharged at the
peace, or had previously deserted. How many of these were slain by the
aborigines, and never more heard of, can never be computed; but it is
certain that many more embarked in the fur-trade and fell victims to
the tomahawk, torch, hunger and disease than there is any record of.
[Sidenote: Hostility of the Indians to the English.]
It is certain, also, that the hostility of the tribes, chief amongst
them the Iroquois, to the English, was very great, and this hostility
was nourished for some years by the discontented bushrangers and
voyageurs. In the action of Pontiac at Detroit, and the surprise and
capture of Michilimackinac with its attendant horrors, there is
ample proof, both of the spirit animating the Indians, and the danger
which went hand in hand with the new trade in furs.
[Illustration: A BLACKFOOT BRAVE.
(_Drawn by Edmund Morris, after photo._)]
The first of these English traders at Michilimackinac to penetrate
into the west, where the French had gone, is said to be Thomas Curry.
This man, having by shrewdness and ability procured sufficient capital
for the purpose, engaged guides and interpreters, purchased a stock of
goods and provisions, and with four canoes reached Fort Bourbon, which
was situated at the western extremity of Cedar Lake, on the waters of
the Saskatchewan. His venture was successful, and he returned to
Montreal with his canoes loaded with fine furs. But he never expressed
a desire to repeat the performance, although it was not long before
his example was followed by many others. James Finlay was the first of
these; he penetrated to Nipawee, the last of the French posts on the
Saskatchewan, in latitude 53½, and longitude 103. This trader was
equally successful.
[Sidenote: Henry's expedition.]
After a career of some years in the vicinity of Michilimackinac, of a
general character, identical with that pursued a hundred years before
by Groseilliers, another intrepid trader, Alexander Henry, decided to
strike off into the North-West. He left "the Sault," as Sault Ste.
Marie was called, on the 10th of June, 1775, with goods and provisions
to the value of £3,000 sterling, on board twelve small canoes and four
larger ones. Each small canoe was navigated by three men, and each
larger one by four. On the 20th they encamped at the mouth of the
Pijitic. It was by this river, he tells us, that the French ascended
in 1750, when they plundered one of the Company's factories in the
bay, and carried off the two small pieces of brass cannon, which fell
again into English hands at Michilimackinac. But here Henry fell into
error; for it was by the River Michipicoten that the French went, and
the factory plundered of its adornments was Moose, not Churchill, and
the year 1756, not 1750.
Henry himself was going on a sort of plundering expedition against
the Company, which was to be far more effective in setting an example
to others, than any the French had yet carried through. Everywhere as
he passed along there were evidences of the recent French occupation.
To return to 1767, this year had witnessed a clearing up of the
mystery surrounding the fate of the _Albany_, the first of the vessels
sent by the Company to search for a north-west passage.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER HENRY.]
[Sidenote: Fate of the "Albany."]
The Company was at that time carrying on a black whale fishery, and
Marble Island was made the rendezvous, not merely on account of the
commodious harbour, but because of the greater abundance of whales
there. Under these circumstances the boats, when on the lookout for
fish, had frequent occasion to row close to the island, which led to
the discovery, at the easternmost extremity, of a new harbour.[69]
Upon landing at this place, the crews made a startling discovery. They
found English guns, anchors, cables, bricks, a smith's anvil, and many
other articles lying on the ground, which, though they were very old,
had not been defaced by the hand of time, and which having been
apparently without use to the native Esquimaux, and too heavy to be
removed by them, had not been removed from the spot where they had
originally been laid a little farther inland. The whalers beheld the
remains of a frame house,[70] which, though half destroyed by the
Esquimaux for the wood and iron, yet could plainly be seen at a
distance. Lastly, when the tide ebbed in the harbour there became
visible the hulls of two craft, lying sunk in five fathoms of water.
The figurehead of one of these vessels, together with the guns and
other implements, was shortly afterwards carried to England. The
hypothesis of Governor Norton was instantly and only too correctly
espoused by the Company. On this inhospitable island, where neither
stick nor stump was, nor is to be seen, and which lies sixteen miles
from a mainland, no less inhospitable, perished Knight, Barlow, and
the other members of the exploring expedition of 1719. Thus was a fate
nearly half a century in the balance ascertained at last.
Two years later some members of a whaling party landed at this same
harbour, and one of their number, perceiving some aged Esquimaux,
determined to question them on the matter.
"This," says the narrator, "we were the better enabled to do by the
assistance of an Esquimau, who was then in the Company's service as a
linguist, and annually sailed in one of their vessels in that
character. The account received from these aged natives was 'full,
clear and unreserved,' and its purport was in this wise:
"When the doomed vessels arrived at Marble Island, it was late in the
autumn of 1719, and in making the harbour through the ice, the larger
was considerably damaged. The party landed safely, however, and at
once set about building the house. As soon as the ice permitted, in
the following summer, the Esquimaux paid them a further visit, and
observed that the white strangers were largely reduced in number and
that the survivors were very unhealthy in appearance. According to the
account given by these Esquimaux, these were very busily employed, but
the nature of their employment they could not easily describe. It is
probable they were lengthening the long-boat or repairing the ship,
and to support this conjecture, forty-eight years later there lay, at
a little distance from the house, a quantity of oak chips, 'most
assuredly made by carpenters.'"
Much havoc must have been thenceforward wrought among the explorers,
who could not repair their ship, which even may by this time have been
sunk; and by the second winter, only twenty souls out of fifty
remained.
[Sidenote: Wretched death of Knight and his men.]
That same winter, some of the Esquimaux had taken up their abode on
the opposite side of the harbour to the English, and frequently
supplied them with such provisions as they had, which consisted
chiefly of whale's blubber, seal's flesh and train oil. When the
spring advanced, the natives crossed over to the mainland, and upon
visiting Marble Island in the summer of 1721 found only five of the
white men alive, and those in such distress that they instantly seized
upon and devoured the seal's flesh and whale blubber, given them in
trade by their visitors, in a raw state. This occasioned a severe
physical disorder which destroyed three of the five; and the other
two, though very weak made shift to bury their dead comrades. These
two survivors eked out a wretched existence for many weeks, frequently
resorting to the summit of an adjacent rock, in the vain hope of
being seen by some relief party. But alas, they were doomed to a daily
disappointment; the Esquimaux themselves had little to offer them; and
at last they were seen by the wandering natives to crouch down close
together and cry aloud like children, the tears rolling down their
cheeks. First one of the pair died, and then the other, in an attempt
to dig a grave for his fellow. The Esquimau who told the story, led
the whalers to the spot and showed them the skulls and the larger
bones of the luckless pair, then lying above ground not a great
distance from the dwelling. It is believed that the last survivor must
have been the armourer or smith of the expedition, because according
to the account given by the aborigines, he was always employed in
working iron into implements for them, some of which they could still
show.
There flourished in 1768 the body known as the "Royal Society for
Improving Natural Knowledge." This society wrote to the Company,
requesting that two persons might be conveyed to and from Fort
Churchill in Hudson's Bay, in some of the Company's ships, "to observe
the passage of Venus over the sun, which will happen on the 3rd of
June, 1769." It was desired that these persons might be maintained by
the Company, and furnished with all necessary articles while on board
and on shore. The Company was asked to furnish them with materials and
the assistance of servants to erect an observatory; the Society
engaging to recoup the Company's whole charge, and desiring an
estimate of the expense.
[Sidenote: Astronomers at Hudson's Bay, 1769.]
The Company expressed itself as "ready to convey the persons desired,
with their baggage and instruments, to and from Fort Churchill, and to
provide them with lodging and medicine while there, _gratis_, they to
find their own bedding." The Company demanded £250 for diet during the
absence of the astronomers from England, which would be about eighteen
months. The Adventurers recommended the Society to send the intended
building in frame, with all necessary implements, tools, etc., which
"will be conveyed upon freight, the Royal Society likewise paying for
any clothing that may be supplied the observers during their
residence in Hudson's Bay."
It is interesting to record that the expedition was entirely
successful. The two astronomers went out to Prince of Wales' Fort, and
returned in the _Prince Rupert_, after having witnessed the transit of
Venus on the 3rd of June, 1769.
Towards the middle of the century there had grown up a deep prejudice
and opposition towards the Hudson's Bay Company from the sailors and
watermen who frequented the Thames.
It was alleged that the Company did nothing to make itself popular;
its rules were strict and its wages to seamen were low, albeit it had
never suffered very much from this prejudice until the return of the
Middleton expedition. Many absurd stories became current as to the
Company's policy and the life led by the servants at the factories.
These travellers' tales had been thoroughly threshed out by the
enquiry of 1749. The opponents of the Company had told their "shocking
narratives." It was only natural, perhaps, that these should be passed
about from mouth to mouth, and so become exaggerated beyond bounds.
Upon the discharge and death of Captain Coats a demonstration against
the Company had been talked of at Wapping and Gravesend, but nothing
came of it but a few hootings and bawlings as the ships sailed away on
their annual voyages to the Bay.
By 1768, however, the dissatisfaction had spread to the Company's own
seamen, and now took an active form. The time was well chosen by the
malcontents, because the public were ready at that time to sympathize
with the movement for the amelioration of the conditions which
characterized the merchant service generally.
[Sidenote: The Company's seamen strike.]
A numerous body of seamen forcibly entered the Company's ships in the
River Thames, demanding that wages should be raised to 40s. per month.
They struck the topgallant masts and yards, and lowered the lower
yards close down, and got them in fore and aft. The consequence was
that the crews of the Company's ships and brigantine were compelled
to quit their vessels.
The moment the tidings of this reached the Governor and Company it was
deemed advisable for the Deputy Governor, Thomas Berens and James
Fitzgerald, Esquires, to "attend his Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State, and such other gentlemen in the Administration as they shall
find necessary, and represent the urgent situation of the Company's
affairs in general."
This was done forthwith, and the facts of the situation placed before
Viscount Weymouth and Sir Edward Hawke First Lord of the Admiralty.
Secretary of State Weymouth appeared well disposed to do all the
service in his power to redress the present grievances; that a
memorial should be presented on the Company's behalf.
While the memorial was being drawn up, the three captains acquainted
the Commissioners that under the present disturbances on the River
Thames, they should not be able to secure the seamen they had already
got, without allowing their sailors 40s. per month. It was then the
18th of May, and the Company considered that the lives of its servants
abroad, and the event of the intended voyage, would not admit of
delay. They therefore told their three captains, and the master of the
_Charlotte_, brigantine, that they would allow the sailors 35s. per
month from their respective entries to this day, inclusive, and 40s.
per month from this day for their voyage out and home.
Hardly had this been done than a letter was received expressing Lord
Weymouth's great concern on being informed that the Company's ships
had been prevented from sailing until a promise was made to raise the
seamen's wages, and that some acts of violence had been committed to
effect their purpose. From the strong assurance his Lordship had
received that there was no danger of any obstacle to delay the
voyages, he was almost ready to doubt the rumour.
Berens called on Weymouth and informed him that the Company's critical
situation had already obliged the Company to acquiesce in the demand
of 40s. per month for the seamen's wages. No acts of violence were
committed on board the Company's ship, other than that the crews were
daily forced against their inclination to join the rioters.
The ships were at length got down to Greenwich and proceeded on their
voyage with despatch.
But the Company was not yet out of the wood. Clandestine trade was to
be again its bogey. The disaffection had been temporarily arrested
amongst the sailors: but they were hardly prepared to learn that it
extended to the captains themselves, who had, however, the best of
reasons for concealing their feelings. When the ships came home in the
following year the Company received information that a seizure of furs
and other valuable goods brought from Hudson's Bay had been made since
the arrival of the Company's ships that season. Communication was
entered into with the Commissioners of Customs requesting a particular
account of such seizures either from the Company's ships or other
places, "in order that the Commissioners may pursue an enquiry for
detecting the frauds that have been committed to the prejudice of His
Majesty's Revenue and the interest of the Company."
[Sidenote: Clandestine trade by the Company's captains.]
Suspicion for the loss of numerous packages of furs now began to
fasten itself upon one of the Company's captains, Horner of the
_Seahorse_. Horner acknowledged that he was not altogether ignorant
that the furs had been abstracted from the hold of his ship. The
Company deliberated on his case, and it was "unanimously resolved that
the said John Horner be discharged from the Company's service." The
other captains were now called in and acquainted with the reasons for
Captain Horner's discharge. The Adventurers declared their
determination to make the like public example of all persons who
should be found to be concerned in clandestine trade.
In the following year the Company came to a wise decision. Taking into
consideration the state of its trade and the many frauds that "have
been practised and detected," it was concluded that such frauds were
connived at by the Company's chief factors and captains, who were not
only privy thereto, but in consideration for some joint interest,
permitted this illicit trade to be carried on.
[Sidenote: Salaries increased.]
The Company seems to have thought that the chief factors and captains
might have been tempted to these nefarious practices by the smallness
of their respective salaries, and therefore in the hope of securing
their fidelity and encouraging diligence and industry, and the
extending of the Company's trade to the utmost to the benefit of the
Company and the revenue, it was decided that a salary of £130 per
annum be allowed the chief factors at York, Albany, and Prince of
Wales' Fort; also the factors about to be appointed at Moose Fort and
Severn House, "in lieu of former salaries, and all trapping
gratuities, and perquisites whatever, except a servant, which is to be
allowed to them as before."
A gratuity was to be given to all chief factors of three shillings
upon every score of made beaver which they consigned and "which shall
actually be brought home to the Company's account."
To the captains a gratuity was decreed of one shilling and sixpence
per score of made beaver which they should bring to the Company's
warehouse in good saleable condition.
To prevent any loss from rioters or dissatisfied sailors the Company
decided, in 1770, to insure their ships and goods for the first time
in its history. The secretary made enquiries at the London Assurance
Office, and reported that the premium would be five per cent. per
annum on each ship during their being in dock, or on the River Thames
above Gravesend; and the same on the ships' stores while they
continued in the Company's warehouse at Ratcliff. Whereupon the
Company insured each of its three ships for £2,000, and the ships'
stores in the above warehouse for £3,000.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] France ceded to England "Canada with all its dependencies,"
reserving only such part of what had been known as Canada as lay west
of the Mississippi. The watershed between the Missouri and the
Mississippi rivers had been the boundary between Canada and Louisiana
when both were owned by France, and by the treaty of 1763 the River
Mississippi was agreed to as the future boundary between the English
and French possessions in that quarter; the language of the treaty
being, "that the confines between [France and England] in that part of
the world shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle
of the River Mississippi from its source [etc.], to the sea." Very
soon after this treaty, viz., on 7th October, 1763, the Province of
Quebec was erected by Royal Proclamation, but the Province as then
constituted took in very little of what was afterwards Upper Canada
and what is now Ontario; the most north-westerly point was Lake
Nipissing; the whole of the territory adjacent to the great lakes was
excluded. In 1774 the boundaries of Quebec were enlarged by the Quebec
Act. That Act recited that "by the arrangements made by the said Royal
Proclamation a very large extent of territory, within which were
several colonies and settlements of subjects of France, who claimed to
remain therein under the faith of the said treaty, was left without
any provision being made for the administration of civil government
therein." The Act, therefore, provided that "all the territories,
islands and countries in North America belonging to the Crown of Great
Britain, bounded on the south by a line" therein described, "from the
Bay of Chaleurs to the River Ohio, and along the bank of the said
river, westward, to the banks of the Mississippi, and northward to the
southern boundary of the territory granted to the Merchants-Adventurers
of England trading into Hudson's Bay," etc., "be, and they are hereby,
during His Majesty's pleasure, annexed to and made part and parcel of
the Province of Quebec as created and established by the said Royal
Proclamation of the 7th October, 1763."
[69] It is not a little singular that neither Middleton, Ellis,
Christopher, Johnston nor Garbet, all of which explorers had visited
Marble Island prior to 1767, and some of them often, ever discovered
this harbour. The actual discoverer was Joseph Stephens, commanding
the _Success_, a small vessel employed in the whale fishery. Two years
later Stephens was given the command of the _Charlotte_, a fine brig
of 100 tons, his mate then being Samuel Hearne, the explorer.
[70] "I have seen," wrote Governor Hearne, "the remains of those
houses several times; they are on the west side of the harbour, and in
all probability will be discernible for many years to come."