Rocky mountains, if these rocky passes support any, are not better
known than their vegetable and mineral productions. The mountain
sheep resorts generally to steep rocks, where it is impossible for
men or even for wolves to reach them: we saw several on the rocks
which surround the Mountain House. {302} This animal has great
curved horns, like those of the domestic ram: its wool is long, but
coarse; that on the belly is the finest and whitest. The Indians
who dwell near the mountains, make blankets of it, similar to ours,
which they exchange with the Indians of the Columbia for fish, and
other commodities. The ibex, or mountain goat, frequents, like the
sheep, the top and the declivities of the rocks: it differs from the
sheep in having hair instead of wool, and straight horns projecting
backward, instead of curved ones. The color is also different. The
natives soften the horns of these animals by boiling, and make
platters, spoons, &c., of them, in a very artistic manner.[172]
Mr. Decoigne had not sufficient food for us, not having expected
so many people to arrive at once. His hunters were then absent
on _Smoke_ river (so called by some travellers who saw in the
neighborhood a volcanic mountain belching smoke), in quest of
game.[173] We were therefore compelled to kill one of the horses for
food. We found no birch bark either to make canoes, and {303} set
the men to work in constructing some of wood. For want of better
materials, we were obliged to use poplar. On the 22d, the three men
whom we had left at the old-house, arrived in a little canoe made of
two elk-skins sewed together, and stretched like a drum, on a frame
of poles.
On the 24th, four canoes being ready, we fastened them together two
and two, and embarked, to descend the river to an old post called
_Hunter’s Lodge_, where Mr. Decoigne, who was to return with us to
Canada, informed us that we should find some bark canoes _en cache_,
placed there for the use of the persons who descend the river. The
water was not deep, and the stream was rapid; we glided along, so to
speak, for ten or a dozen leagues, and encamped, having lost sight of
the mountains. In proportion as we advanced, the banks of the river
grew less steep, and the country became more agreeable.
On the 25th, having only a little _pemican_ left, which we wished
to keep, we sent forward a hunter in the little elk-skin canoe, to
kill some {304} game. About ten o’clock, we found him waiting for us
with two moose that he had killed. He had suspended the hearts from
the branch of a tree as a signal. We landed some men to help him
in cutting up and shipping the game. We continued to glide safely
down. But toward two o’clock, P. M., after doubling a point, we got
into a considerable rapid, where, by the maladroitness of those who
managed the double pirogue in which I was, we met with a melancholy
accident. I had proposed to go ashore, in order to lighten the
canoes, which were loaded to the water’s edge; but the steersman
insisted that we could go down safe, while the bow-man was turning
the head of the pirogue toward the beach; by this manœuvre we were
brought athwart the stream, which was carrying us fast toward the
falls; just then our frail bark struck upon a sunken rock; the lower
canoe broke amid-ships and filled instantly, and the upper one being
lighted, rolled over, precipitating us all into the water. Two of
our men, Olivier Roy Lapensée and André Bélanger, were drowned;
{305} and it was not without extreme difficulty that we succeeded
in saving Messrs. Pillet and Wallace, as well as a man named _J.
Hurteau_.[174] The latter was so far gone that we were obliged to
have recourse to the usual means for the resuscitation of drowned
persons. The men lost all their effects; the others recovered but
a part of theirs; and all our provisions went. Toward evening,
in ascending the river (for I had gone about two miles below, to
recover the effects floating down), we found the body of Lapensée.
We interred it as decently as we could, and planted at his grave a
cross, on which I inscribed with the point of my knife, his name and
the manner and date of his death.[175] Bélanger’s body was not found.
If anything could console the shades of the departed for a premature
and unfortunate end, it would be, no doubt, that the funeral rites
have been paid to their remains, and that they themselves have given
their names to the places where they perished: it is thus that the
shade of Palinurus rejoiced in the regions below, at learning from
the mouth of the Sibyl, {306} that the promontory near which he was
drowned would henceforth be called by his name: _gaudet cognomine
terra_. The rapid and the point of land where the accident I have
described took place, will bear, and bears already, probably, the
name of _Lapensée_.[176]
On the 26th, a part of our people embarked in the three canoes which
remained, and the others followed the banks of the river on foot. We
saw in several places some veins of bituminous coal, on the banks
between the surface of the water and that of the plain, say thirty
feet below the latter; the veins had a dip of about 25°. We tried
some and found it to burn well. We halted in the evening near a small
stream, where we constructed some rafts, to carry all our people.
On the 27th, I went forward in the little canoe {307} of skins,
with the two hunters. We soon killed an elk, which we skinned and
suspended the hide, besmeared with blood, from the branch of a tree
at the extremity of a point, in order that the people behind, as they
came up, might perceive and take in the fruit of our chase. After
fortifying ourselves with a little food, we continued to glide down,
and encamped for the night near a thick wood where our hunters, from
the tracks they observed, had hopes of encountering and capturing
some bears. This hope was not realized.
On the 28th, a little after quitting camp, we killed a swan. While
I was busy cooking it, the hunters having plunged into the wood, I
heard a rifle-shot, which seemed to me to proceed from a direction
opposite to that which they had taken. They returned very soon
running, and were extremely surprised to learn that it was not I who
had fired it. Nevertheless, the canoes and rafts having overtaken us,
we continued to descend the river. Very soon we met a bark canoe,
containing two men and a woman, who were ascending {308} the river
and bringing letters and some goods for the _Rocky Mountains House_.
We learned from these letters addressed to Mr. Decoigne, several
circumstances of the war, and among others the defeat of Captain
Barclay on Lake Erie. We arrived that evening at _Hunter’s Lodge_,
where we found four new birch-bark canoes. We got ready two of them,
and resumed our journey down, on the 31st. Mr. Pillet set out before
us with the hunters, at a very early hour. They killed an elk, which
they left on a point, and which we took in. The country through which
we passed that day is the most charming possible; the river is wide,
handsome, and bordered with low outjutting points, covered with birch
and poplar.
On the 1st of June, in the evening, we encamped at the confluence
of the river _Pembina_. This stream comes from the south, and
takes its rise in one of the spurs of the great chain of the Rocky
mountains; ascending it for two days, and crossing a neck of land
about seventy-five miles, one reaches Fort Augustus, a trading-post
{309} on the _Saskatchawine_ river. Messrs. M’Donald and M’Kenzie
had taken this route, and had left for us half a sack of pemican in
a _cache_, at the mouth of the river _Pembina_.[177] After landing
that evening, Mr. Stuart and I amused ourselves with angling, but
took only five or six small fish.
On the 2d, we passed the confluence of _Little Slave Lake_ river. At
eight o’clock in the morning, we met a band or family of Indians, of
the _Knisteneaux_ tribe.[178] They had just killed a buffalo, which
we bought of them for a small brass-kettle. We could not have had a
more seasonable _rencontre_, for our provisions were all consumed.
On the 3d, we reached _Little Red Elk_ river, which we began to
ascend, quitting the _Athabasca_, or _Great Red Elk_.[179] This
stream was very narrow in its channel, and obstructed with boulders:
we were obliged to take to the shore, while some of the men dragged
along the canoes. Their method was to lash poles across, and
wading themselves, lift the canoes over the rocks--a laborious and
infinitely tedious operation. {310} The march along the banks was not
less disagreeable: for we had to traverse points of forest where the
fire had passed, and which were filled with fallen trees.
Wallace and I having stopped to quench our thirst at a rill, the rest
got in advance of us; and we lost our way in a labyrinth of buffalo
tracks which we mistook for the trail, so that we wandered about for
three hours before we came up with the party, who began to fear for
our safety, and were firing signal-guns to direct us. As the river
now grew deeper, we all embarked in the canoes, and about evening
overtook our hunters, who had killed a moose and her two calves.
We continued our journey on the 4th, sometimes seated in our canoes,
sometimes marching along the river on foot, and encamped in the
evening, excessively fatigued.
[167] The Rocky Mountain House, at this place, is usually
spoken of as Jasper House from a North West clerk
by the name of Jasper Hawse, who was stationed here
for some years. It was situated on the second or
Burnt (Brulé) Lake, and was “a miserable concern
of rough logs.” A few years later the Hudson’s Bay
Company built a better post on the first, or Jasper
Lake, which was the Rocky Mountain House for the
Athabascan route. See Ross, _Fur Traders_, ii, pp.
202-204.--ED.
[168] François Decoigne (Ducoigne) was an experienced
employé of the North West Company, having been in
their service since 1798 or 1799. McDonald, the
leader of the brigade, had wintered with him in the
Athabascan district in 1803-04; he had also served
with Alexander Henry. In 1818 he joined the Hudson’s
Bay Company.--ED.
[169] Franchère here refers to John Pinkerton (1758-1826),
the well-known Scotch antiquarian, historian, and
geographer. He published a _Modern Geography_
in several editions; also a _New Modern Atlas_
(1808).--ED.
[170] This is interesting, as the rough calculation of an
unscientific traveller, unprovided with instruments,
and at that date. The real height of the Rocky
Mountains, as now ascertained, averages twelve
thousand feet; the highest known peak is about
sixteen thousand.--HUNTINGTON.
[171] See Thwaites, _Rocky Mountain Exploration_, chap.
ii, for the early French explorations, and the name
“Shining Mountains.”--ED.
[172] Franchère here gives a brief but accurate account
of the two distinctive animals of the Rocky
Mountains--the sheep usually known as the bighorn
(_ovis montana_), and the ibex (_haplocerus
montana_). They were first made known in the United
States by Lewis and Clark.--ED.
[173] This is probably not the Smoky River, an affluent of
the Peace, but a small neighboring stream called by
Cox, who gives the same derivation for the name, La
Rivière à la Boucane.--ED.
[174] Of these unfortunate men, Lapensée was an Astorian
voyageur, the others were Nor’Westers. William
Wallace came out as a clerk with Franchère on the
“Tonquin.” He had wintered both years since upon the
Willamette.--ED.
[175] Ross in 1825 found the wooden cross with the
inscription “Olivie Lapensie, from Lachine, drowned
here in May, 1814.”--ED.
[176] Mr. Franchère, not having the fear of the _Abbé
Gaume_ before his eyes, so wrote in his Journal of
1814; finding consolation in a thought savoring, we
confess, more of Virgil than of the catechism. It is
a classic term that calls to our mind rough Captain
_Thorn’s_ sailor-like contempt for his literary
passengers so comically described by Mr. _Irving_.
Half of the humor as well as of the real interest of
Mr. Franchère’s charming narrative, is lost by one
who has never read “Astoria.”--HUNTINGTON.
[177] Pembina River is the largest southern affluent of
the Athabasca. It was discovered and explored by
Thompson in 1799. The name is from a berry found on
its bank.
Fort Augustus was built about 1809, after the
destruction of an older fort of the same name, some
twenty miles farther up on the Saskatchewan. It became
the principal post of the region, and under the name
of Edmonton is still a Hudson’s Bay station, and
the terminus of the Edmonton branch of the Canadian
Pacific Railway.--ED.
[178] For the Cristineaux (Knisteneaux), see J. Long’s
_Voyages_, volume ii of our series, note 75.--ED.
[179] Little Red Elk River, an affluent of the Athabasca
from the east, in northeastern Alberta, is now known
as La Biche River.--ED.
{311} CHAPTER XXV
Red Deer Lake--Antoine Déjarlais--Beaver River--N. Nadeau--Moose
River--Bridge Lake--Saskatchawine River--Fort Vermilion--Mr.
Hallet--Trading-Houses--Beautiful Country--Reflections.
The 5th of June brought us to the beautiful sheet of water called
_Red Deer lake_, irregular in shape, dotted with islands, and about
forty miles in length by thirty in its greatest width. We met,
about the middle of it, a small canoe conducted by two young women.
They were searching for gulls’ and ducks’ eggs on the islands, this
being the season of laying for those aquatics. They told us that
their father was not far distant from the place where we met them.
In fact, we presently saw him appear in a canoe with his two boys,
rounding a little isle. We joined him, and learned that his name was
{312} Antoine Déjarlais; that he had been a guide in the services
of the Northwest Company, but had left them since 1805.[180] On
being made acquainted with our need of provisions, he offered us
a great quantity of eggs, and made one of our men embark with his
two daughters in their little canoe, to seek some more substantial
supplies at his cabin, on the other side of the lake. He himself
accompanied us as far as a portage of about twenty-five yards formed
at the outlet of the lake by a Beaver dam. Having performed the
portage, and passed a small pond or marsh, we encamped to await
the return of our man. He arrived the next morning, with Déjarlais,
bringing us about fifty pounds of dried venison and from ten to
twelve pounds of tallow. We invited our host to breakfast with us: it
was the least we could do after the good offices he had rendered us.
This man was married to an Indian woman, and lived with his family,
on the produce of his chase; he appeared quite contented with his
lot. Nobody at least disputed with him the sovereignty of Red Deer
lake, of which he {313} had, as it were, taken possession. He begged
me to read for him two letters which he had had in his possession
for two years, and of which he did not yet know the contents. They
were from one of his sisters, and dated at _Verchères_, in Canada. I
even thought that I recognised the handwriting of Mr. L. G. Labadie,
teacher of that parish. At last, having testified to this good man,
in suitable terms, our gratitude for the services he had rendered us,
we quitted him and prosecuted our journey.
After making two portages, we arrived on the banks of Beaver river,
which was here but a rivulet.[181] It is by this route that the
canoes ordinarily pass to reach Little Slave lake and the Athabasca
country, from the head of Lake Superior, via., _Cumberland House_, on
_English river_. We were obliged by the shallowness of the stream, to
drag along our canoes, walking on a bottom or beach of sand, where we
began to feel the importunity of the mosquitoes. One of the hunters
scoured the woods for game but without success. By-and-by we passed a
small canoe {314} turned bottom up and covered with a blanket. Soon
after we came to a cabin or lodge, where we found an old Canadian
hunter named _Nadeau_. He was reduced to the last stage of weakness,
having had nothing to eat for two days. Nevertheless, a young man who
was married to one of his daughters, came in shortly after, with the
good news that he had just killed a buffalo; a circumstance which
determined us to encamp there for the night. We sent some of our men
to get in the meat. Nadeau gave us half of it, and told us that we
should find, thirty miles lower down, at the foot of a pine tree, a
_cache_, where he had deposited ten swan-skins, and some of martin,
with a net, which he prayed us to take to the next trading-post.
We quitted this good fellow the next morning, and pursued our way.
Arriving at the place indicated, we found the _cache_, and took the
net, leaving the other articles. A short distance further, we came
to Moose river, which we had to ascend, in order to reach the lake
of that name. The water in this river was so low that we were {315}
obliged entirely to unload the canoes, and to lash poles across
them, as we had done before, that the men might carry them on their
shoulders over the places where they could not be floated. Having
distributed the baggage to the remainder of the hands, we pursued our
way through the woods, under the guidance of Mr. Decoigne.
This gentleman, who had not passed here for nineteen years, soon lost
his way, and we got separated into small parties, in the course of
the afternoon, some going one way, and some another, in search of
Moose lake. But as we had outstripped the men who carried the baggage
and the small stock of provision that old Nadeau had given us, Mr.
Wallace and I thought it prudent to retrace our steps and keep with
the rear-guard. We soon met Mr. Pillet and one of the hunters. The
latter, ferreting the woods on both sides of a trail that he had
discovered, soon gave a whoop, to signify that we should stop.
Presently emerging from the underwood, he showed us a horsewhip
which he had found, and from which and from other unmistakeable
signs, he was confident {316} the trail would lead either to the
lake or a navigable part of the river. The men with the baggage then
coming up, we entered the thicket single file, and were conducted
by this path, in a very short time, to the river, on the banks of
which were visible the traces of an old camping ground. The night
was coming on; and soon after, the canoes arrived, to our great
satisfaction; for we had begun to fear that they had already passed.
The splashing of their paddles was a welcome sound, and we who had
been wise enough to keep behind, all encamped together.
Very early on the 8th, I set out accompanied by one of the hunters,
in quest of Messrs. D. Stuart, Clarke and Decoigne, who had gone
on ahead, the night previous. I soon found MM. Clarke and M’Gillis
encamped on the shore of the lake. The canoes presently arrived and
we embarked; MM. Stuart and Decoigne rejoined us shortly after, and
informed us that they had bivouacked on the shore of Lac _Puant_, or
Stinking lake, a pond situated about twelve miles E. N. E. from the
lake we were now entering. {317} Finding ourselves thus reunited,
we traversed the latter, which is about eighteen miles in circuit,
and has very pretty shores. We encamped, very early, on an island,
in order to use old Nadeau’s fishing net. I visited it that evening
and brought back three carp and two water-hens. We left it set all
night, and the next morning found in it twenty white-fish. Leaving
camp at an early hour, we gained the entrance of a small stream that
descends between some hills of moderate elevation, and there stopped
to breakfast. I found the white-fish more delicious in flavor, even
than the salmon. We had again to foot it, following the bank of this
little stream. It was a painful task, as we were obliged to open a
path through thick underbrush, in the midst of a rain that lasted all
day and kept us drenched. Two men being left in each canoe, conveyed
them up the river about thirty miles, as far as Long lake--a narrow
pond, on the margin of which we spent the night.
On the 10th, we got through this lakelet, and entered another small
stream, which it was necessary {318} to navigate in the same manner
as the preceding, and which conducted us to Bridge lake. The latter
received its name from a sort of bridge or causeway, formed at its
southern extremity, and which is nothing more than a huge beaver dam.
We found here a lodge, where were a young man and two women, who had
charge of some horses appertaining to one of the Hudson’s Bay trading
houses. We borrowed of them half a dozen pack horses, and crossed the
bridge with them. After surmounting a considerable hill, we reached
an open, level, and dry prairie, which conducted us in about two
hours to an ancient trading-post on the banks of the _Saskatchawine_.
Knowing that we were near a factory, we made our toilets as well as
we could, before arriving. Toward sundown, we reached Fort Vermilion,
which is situated on the bank of a river, at the foot of a superb
hill.
We found at this post some ninety persons, men, women, and children;
these people depend for subsistence on the chase, and fishing with
{319} hooks and lines, which is very precarious. Mr. Hallet, the
clerk in charge was absent, and we were dismayed to hear that there
were no provisions on the place: a very disagreeable piece of news
for people famished as we were.[182] We had been led to suppose that
if we could only reach the plains of the Saskatchawine, we should be
in the land of plenty. Mr. Hallet, however, was not long in arriving:
he had two quarters of buffalo meat brought out, which had been laid
in ice, and prepared us supper. Mr. Hallet was a polite sociable man,
loving his ease passably well, and desirous of living in these wild
countries, as people do in civilized lands. Having testified to him
our surprise at seeing in one of the buildings a large _cariole_,
like those of Canada, he informed us that having horses, he had
had this carriage made in order to enjoy a sleigh-ride; but that
the workmen having forgot to take the measure of the doors of the
building before constructing it, it was found when finished, much
too large for them, and could never be got out of the room where it
was; and it was like to {320} remain there a long time, as he was not
disposed to demolish the house for the pleasure of using the cariole.
By the side of the factory of the Northwest Company, is another
belonging to the Company of Hudson’s Bay. In general these
trading-houses are constructed thus, one close to the other, and
surrounded with a common palisade, with a door of communication
in the interior for mutual succor, in case of attack on the part
of the Indians. The latter, in this region, particularly the
Black-feet, _Gros-ventres_, and those of the Yellow river, are very
ferocious:[183] they live by the chase, but bring few furs to the
traders; and the latter maintain these posts principally to procure
themselves provisions.
On the 11th, after breakfasting at Fort Vermilion, we resumed our
journey, with six or seven pounds of tallow for our whole stock of
food. This slender supply brought us through to the evening of the
third day, when we had for supper two ounces of tallow each.
On the 14th, in the morning, we killed a wild {321} goose, and toward
midday, collected some flag-root and _choux-gras_, a wild herb,
which we boiled with the small game: we did not forget to throw into
the pot the little tallow we had left, and made a delicious repast.
Toward the decline of day, we had the good luck to kill a buffalo.
On the 15th, MM. Clarke and Decoigne having landed during our course,
to hunt, returned presently with the agreeable intelligence that
they had killed three buffaloes. We immediately encamped, and sent
the greater part of the men to cut up the meat and jerk it. This
operation lasted till the next evening, and we set forward again in
the canoes on the 17th, with about six hundred pounds of meat half
cured. The same evening we perceived from our camp several herds of
buffaloes, but did not give chase, thinking we had enough meat to
take us to the next post.
The river _Saskatchawine_ flows over a bed composed of sand and
marl, which contributes not a little to diminish the purity and
transparency {322} of its waters, which, like those of the Missouri,
are turbid and whitish. Except for that it is one of the prettiest
rivers in the world. The banks are perfectly charming, and offer
in many places a scene the fairest, the most smiling, and the
best diversified that can be seen or imagined: hills in varied
forms, crowned with superb groves; valleys agreeably embrowned, at
evening and morning, by the prolonged shadow of the hills, and of
the woods which adorn them; herds of light-limbed antelopes, and
heavy colossal buffalo--the former bounding along the slopes of the
hills, the latter trampling under their heavy feet the verdure of
the plains; all these champaign beauties reflected and doubled as it
were, by the waters of the river; the melodious and varied song of a
thousand birds, perched on the tree-tops; the refreshing breath of
the zephyrs; the serenity of the sky; the purity and salubrity of
the air; all, in a word, pours contentment and joy into the soul of
the enchanted spectator. It is above all in the morning, when the
sun is rising, and in the evening when he is {323} setting, that the
spectacle is really ravishing. I could not detach my regards from
that superb picture, till the nascent obscurity had obliterated its
perfection. Then, to the sweet pleasure that I had tasted, succeeded
a _triste_, not to say, a sombre, melancholy. How comes it to pass, I
said to myself, that so beautiful a country is not inhabited by human
creatures? The songs, the hymns, the prayers, of the laborer and the
artisan, shall they never be heard in these fine plains? Wherefore,
while in Europe, and above all in England, so many thousands of
men do not possess as their own an inch of ground, and cultivate
the soil of their country for proprietors who scarcely leave them
whereon to support existence; --wherefore--do so many millions of
acres of apparently fat and fertile land, remain uncultivated and
absolutely useless? Or, at least, why do they support only herds
of wild animals? Will men always love better to vegetate all their
lives on an ungrateful soil, than to seek afar fertile regions, in
order to pass in peace and plenty, at least the last portion of {324}
their days? But I deceive myself; it is not so easy as one thinks,
for the poor man to better his condition: he has not the means of
transporting himself to distant countries, or he has not those of
acquiring a property there; for these untilled lands, deserted,
abandoned, do not appertain to whoever wishes to establish himself
upon them and reduce them to culture; they have owners, and from
these must be purchased the right of rendering them productive!
Besides one ought not to give way to illusions: these countries, at
times so delightful, do not enjoy a perpetual spring; they have their
winter, and a rigorous one; a piercing cold is then spread through
the atmosphere; deep snows cover the surface; the frozen rivers
flow only for the fish; the trees are stripped of their leaves and
hung with icicles; the verdure of the plains has disappeared; the
hills and valleys offer but a uniform whiteness; Nature has lost all
her beauty; and man has enough to do, to shelter himself from the
injuries of the inclement season.
[180] Red Deer Lake is Lake La Biche, discharging
through La Biche River into the Athabasca. Henry
makes frequent mention in his journals of Antoine
Desjarlais, both as employé of the North West
Company, and as free trapper. See _Henry-Thompson
Journals_, index.--ED.
[181] By means of the two portages here mentioned, the
party crossed the watershed between the waters of
the Arctic Ocean and those of Hudson Bay. Beaver
River is a tributary of the Churchill; the overland
trail, however, followed it but a short distance,
passing to Moose River by means of a portage which
Franchère fails to note. The Moose is one of the
upper waters of the Saskatchewan.--ED.
[182] Fort Vermillion was situated on the north bank
of the Saskatchewan opposite to the mouth of
the Vermillion River, which debouches from the
southwest. Both the North West and Hudson’s Bay
companies had posts at this place, which was a
rendezvous for the Cree, Assiniboin, Blackfeet, and
Slave tribes. Alexander Henry had charge of the post
in 1808-10. Hallet had been a clerk there as early
as 1807.--ED.
[183] For the Blackfeet Indians see Bradbury’s _Travels_,
vol. v of our series, note 120. The Grosventres here
mentioned are to be differentiated from the tribe of
that name commonly known as Minitaree (_op. cit._,
note 76). Those mentioned here are the Grosventres
of the Prairies (Indian name, Atsina), sometimes
known as the Falls or Rapids Indians, from having
first been met at the falls of the Saskatchewan.
They are a kindred tribe to the Blackfeet, and the
tribe most relentlessly hostile to the whites in
all the annals of Indian warfare. They attacked
and massacred the dwellers of a Hudson Bay post in
1794; and it was a party of these Indians with whom
Captain Lewis had an unfortunate encounter upon
Maria’s River in 1806. There are now a band of about
five hundred of them upon Fort Belknap Reservation,
Montana; and many are still wandering in the
northwest territories of Canada.--ED.
{325} CHAPTER XXVI
Fort Montée--Cumberland House--Lake Bourbon--Great Winipeg
Rapids--Lake Winipeg--Trading-House--Lake of the Woods--Rainy
Lake House, &c.
On the 18th of June (a day which its next anniversary was to render
forever celebrated in the annals of the world),[184] we re-embarked
at an early hour: and the wind rising, spread sail, a thing we
had not done before, since we quitted the river Columbia. In the
afternoon the clouds gathered thick and black, and we had a gust,
accompanied with hail, but of short duration; the weather cleared
up again, and about sundown we arrived at _Le Fort de la Montée_,
so called, on account of its being a depôt, where the traders going
south, leave their canoes and take pack-horses to reach their several
posts.[185] We found here, as at Fort Vermilion, two trading-houses
{326} joined together, to make common cause against the Indians; one
belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company, the other to the company of
the Northwest: the Hudson’s Bay house being then under the charge
of a Mr. Prudent, and the N. W. Company’s under a Mr. John M’Lean.
Mr. de Roche Blave, one of the partners of the last company having
the superintendence of this district, where he had wintered, had gone
to Lake Superior to attend the annual meeting of the partners.[186]
There were cultivated fields around the house; the barley and peas
appeared to promise an abundant harvest. Mr. M’Lean received us as
well as circumstances permitted; but that gentleman having no food
to give us, and our buffalo meat beginning to spoil, we set off the
next morning, to reach Cumberland house as quick as possible. In the
course of the day, we passed two old forts, one of which had been
built by the French before the conquest of Canada. According to our
guide, it was the most distant western post that the French traders
ever had in the northwestern wilderness.[187] Toward evening we {327}
shot a moose. The aspect of the country changes considerably since
leaving _Montée_; the banks of the river rise more boldly, and the
country is covered with forests.
On the 20th, we saw some elms--a tree that I had not seen hitherto,
since my departure from Canada. We reached Fort Cumberland a
little before the setting of the sun. This post, called in English
_Cumberland House_, is situated at the outlet of the _Saskatchawine_,
where it empties into _English lake_, between the 53d and 54th
degrees of north latitude. It is a depot for those traders who are
going to Slave lake or the Athabasca, or are returning thence, as
well as for those destined for the Rocky mountains.[188] It was
under the orders of Mr. J. D. Campbell, who having gone down to Fort
William, however, had left it in charge of a Mr. Harrison.[189]
There are two factories, as at Vermilion and la Montée. At this
place the traders who resort every year to Fort William, leave their
half-breed or Indian wives and families, as they can live here at
little expense, the lake abounding in fish. Messrs. {328} Clarke
and Stuart, who were behind, arrived on the 22d, and in the evening
we had a dance. They gave us four sacks of pemican, and we set off
again, on the 23d, at eight A. M. We crossed the lake, and entered a
small river, and having made some eighty or ninety miles under sail,
encamped on a low shore, where the mosquitoes tormented us horribly
all night.
On the 24th, we passed _Muddy_ lake, and entered Lake
_Bourbon_,[190] where we fell in with a canoe from _York_ factory,
under the command of a Mr. Kennedy, clerk of the Hudson’s Bay
Company.[191] We collected some dozens of gull’s eggs, on the rocky
islands of the lake: and stopping on one of the last at night, having
a little flour left, Mr. Decoigne and I amused ourselves in making
fritters for the next day’s breakfast: an occupation, which despite
the small amount of materials, employed us till we were surprised by
the daybreak; the night being but brief at this season in that high
latitude.
At sunrise on the 25th, we were again afloat, passed Lake _Travers_,
or _Cross_ lake, which {329} empties into Lake Winipeg by a
succession of rapids; shot down these cascades without accident,
and arrived, toward noon, at the great rapid _Ouénipic_ or Winipeg,
which is about four miles long. We disembarked here, and the men
worked down the canoes.[192] At the foot of this rapid, which is the
inlet of Winipeg, we found an old Canadian fisherman, who called
himself _King of the lake_. He might fairly style himself king of
the fish, which are abundant and which he alone enjoyed. Having made
a boil, and regaled ourselves with excellent sturgeon, we left this
old man, and entered the great lake Winipeg, which appeared to me
like a sea of fresh water. This lake is now too well known to need
a particular description: I will content myself with saying that it
visibly yields in extent only to Lake Superior and Great Slave lake:
it has for tributaries several large rivers, and among others the
Saskatchawine, the Winipeg, in the east; and Red river in the south;
and empties into Hudson’s bay by the _Nelson_, N. N. E., and the
_Severn_, E. N. E. The shores which it bathes are {330} generally
very low; it appears to have little depth, and is dotted with a vast
number of islands, lying pretty close to land. We reached one called
_Egg island_, whence it was necessary to cross to the south to reach
the main; but the wind was so violent that it was only at decline
of day that we could perform the passage. We profited by the calm,
to coast along all day and a part of the night of the 26th; but to
pay for it, remained in camp on the 27th, till evening: the wind not
suffering us to proceed. The wind having appeared to abate somewhat
after sunset, we embarked, but were soon forced to land again. On
the 28th, we passed the openings of several deep bays, and the isles
of _St. Martin_, and camped at the bottom of a little bay, where
the mosquitoes did not suffer us to close our eyes all night. We
were rejoiced when dawn appeared, and were eager to embark, to free
ourselves from these inconvenient guests. A calm permitted us that
day to make good progress with our oars, and we camped at _Buffalo
Strait_. We saw that day two Indian wigwams.[193]
{331} The 30th brought us to Winipeg river, which we began to ascend,
and about noon reached Fort _Bas de la Rivière_. This trading post
had more the air of a large and well-cultivated farm, than of a fur
traders’ factory: a neat and elegant mansion, built on a slight
eminence, and surrounded with barns, stables, storehouses, &c., and
by fields of barley, peas, oats, and potatoes, reminded us of the
civilized countries which we had left so long ago. Messrs. Crébassa
and Kennedy, who had this post in charge, received us with all
possible hospitality, and supplied us with all the political news
which had been learned through the arrival of canoes from Canada.[194]
They also informed us that Messrs. M’Donald and de Rocheblave had
passed, a few days before our arrival, having been obliged to go up
Red river to stop the effusion of blood, which would probably have
taken place but for their intervention, in the colony founded on that
river by the earl of Selkirk.[195] Mr. Miles M’Donnell, the governor
of that colony, or rather of the _Assiniboyne_ district,[196] had
issued a proclamation {332} forbidding all persons whomsoever,
to send provisions of any kind out of the district. The Hudson’s
Bay traders had conformed to this proclamation, but those of the
Northwest Company paid no attention to it, thinking it illegal, and
had sent their servants, as usual to get provisions up the river. Mr.
M’Donnell having heard that several hundred sacks of pemican[197]
were laid up in a storehouse under the care of a Mr. Pritchard,
sent to require their surrender:[198] Pritchard refused to deliver
them, whereupon Mr. M’Donnell had them carried off by force. The
traders who winter on Little Slave lake, English river, the Athabasca
country, &c., learning this, and being aware that they would not
{333} find their usual supply at _Bas de la Rivière_, resolved to
go and recover the seized provisions by force, if they were not
peaceably given up. Things were in this position when Messrs. de
Rocheblave and M’Donald arrived. They found the Canadian _voyageurs_
in arms, and ready to give battle to the colonists, who persisted in
their refusal to surrender the bags of pemican. The two peacemakers
visited the governor, and having explained to him the situation in
which the traders of the Northwest Company would find themselves, by
the want of necessary provisions to enable them to transport their
peltries to Fort William, and the exasperation of their men, who
saw no other alternative for them, but to get possession of those
provisions or to perish of hunger, requested him to surrender the
same without delay. Mr. M’Donnell, on his part, pointed out the
misery to which the colonists would be reduced by a failure in the
supply of food. In consequence of these mutual representations, it
was agreed that one half of the pemican should be restored, and
the other half remain for the {334} use of the colonists. Thus was
arranged, without bloodshed, the first difficulty which occurred
between the rival companies of the Northwest, and of Hudson’s
Bay.[199]
Having spent the 1st of July in repairing our canoes, we re-embarked
on the 2d, and continued to ascend Winipeg river, called also
_White river_, on account of the great number of its cascades, which
being very near each other, offer to the sight an almost continuous
foam.[200] We made that day twenty-seven portages, all very short.
On the 3d, and 4th, we made nine more, and arrived on the 5th, at
the _Lake of the Woods_.[201] This lake takes its name from the
great number of woody islands with which it is dotted. Our guide
pointed out to me one of these isles, telling me that a Jesuit
father had said mass there, and that it was the most remote spot to
which those missionaries had ever penetrated.[202] We encamped on
one of the islands. The next day the wind did not allow us to make
much progress. On the 7th, we gained the entrance of _Rainy Lake
river_.[203] I do not remember ever to have seen {335} elsewhere so
many mosquitoes as on the banks of this river. Having landed near a
little rapid to lighten the canoes, we had the misfortune, in getting
through the brush, to dislodge these insects from under the leaves
where they had taken refuge from the rain of the night before; they
attached themselves to us, followed us into the canoes, and tormented
us all the remainder of the day.
On the 8th, at sunset, we reached _Rainy Lake House_. This fort
is situated about a mile from a considerable rapid. We saw here
cultivated fields and domestic animals, such as horses, oxen, cows,
&c. The port is a depôt for the wintering parties of the Athabasca,
and others still more remote, who bring to it their peltries and
return from it with their outfits of merchandise. Mr. John Dease, to
whose charge the place had been confided, received us in the most
friendly manner possible; and after having made an excellent supper,
we danced a part of the evening.[204]
We took leave of Mr. Dease on the 10th, well provided for the
journey, and passing round {336} Rainy Lake falls, and then
traversing the lake itself, which I estimated to be forty miles
long, we encamped at the entrance of a small river. On the next day
we pursued our way, now thridding streams impeded with wild rice,
which rendered our progress difficult, now traversing little lakes,
now passing straits where we scarcely found water to float our
canoes.[205] On the 13th, we encamped near _Dog Portage_ (_Portage
des chiens_), where, from not having followed the advice of Mr.
Dease, who had counselled us to take along a bag of pemican, we found
ourselves absolutely without food.
[184] Date of the Battle of Waterloo.--ED.
[185] Fort de la Montée was probably built in 1797, at
the point where the route ascending the North
Saskatchewan crossed that leading to the South
branch, or where the traders left their canoes and
mounted horses. It was at the site of the present
Fort Carlton, now a Hudson’s Bay post.--ED.
[186] Pierre de Rocheblave was an important figure in
the fur-trade of the Northwest. He was a nephew of
Philippe de Rastel, Sieur de Rocheblave, who was
captured at Kaskaskia (1778) by George Rogers Clark
(see Chicago Historical Society _Collections_, vol.
iv, for his life and papers). The younger Rocheblave
entered the fur-trade in early life, and in 1801 was
a bourgeois in the X Y Company, and superintendent
of the Athabasca district. After the coalition of
the two companies (1804), Rocheblave became one of
the most influential members of the North West,
being agent in charge of Fort William in 1818. After
retiring from the trade, Rocheblave entered the
public service, acting as member of the legislature
and of the executive council for Lower Canada.
See Masson, _Bourgeois_, i, p. 120; and Wisconsin
Historical _Collections_, iii, p. 215; vii, p.
132.--ED.
[187] These were Forts Nippeween and à la Corne. The
former was situated just below the forks of the
Saskatchewan, the site of the present town of Prince
Albert. Henry the elder visited it in 1776 (see his
_Travels_, Bain ed., p. 275). This post seems to
have been abandoned in 1805. The old French post was
Fort à la Corne (also called St. Louis), founded by
St. Luc de la Corne in 1753. It was on the south
bank of the river, on the site where in 1858 the
Hudson’s Bay Company built a fort of the same name.
This was virtually the uppermost post of the French,
that built by De Niverville in 1751, at the foot of
the Rocky Mountains, and named La Jonquière, not
being a permanent post.--ED.
[188] Cumberland House was one of the most important
fur-trading stations of the Upper Country; being, as
Franchère says, at the point of divergence for the
Saskatchewan and Athabasca brigades. The Hudson’s
Bay post was founded by Samuel Hearne in 1774 on
the site of an earlier lodge of Samuel Frobisher.
The North West Company’s house, a few rods from the
other, was built about 1793. The factory stands some
two miles north of the Saskatchewan, on the south
shore of the lake known variously as Cumberland,
English, or Sturgeon. Three outlets form the
connection with the Saskatchewan River; these flow
in either direction, according to the height of the
waters. Sir John Franklin wintered here (1819-20);
and Ross here met one of his advance parties
(1825).--ED.
[189] John Duncan Campbell was a wintering partner of the
North West Company (1794) in the Rocky Mountain
department, and signed the Montreal agreement of
union, by attorney, in 1804. In 1819 he was captured
by the Hudson’s Bay agents along with Frobisher,
McTavish, and others. Edward Harrison was a clerk
who was in the service before 1797.--ED.
[190] Muddy Lake (Lac Vaseaux) is a small overflow sheet
at the discharge of the Saskatchewan into Bourbon
Lake. The latter takes its name from Fort Bourbon,
built by Vérendrye in 1749. The English generally
speak of this as Cedar Lake, from its Indian name.
The North West Company had a post thereon, abandoned
in 1802. The present Hudson’s Bay Cedar Lake House
was built in 1858.--ED.
[191] York Factory, at the southern end of Hudson Bay,
on the west bank of Hayes River, is chief post for
the company in the southern department. It is a
stockaded square of six acres, within which are the
agent’s large wooden buildings. As Fort Nelson,
this post has had a long and varied history. It was
built in 1682, the fourth point to be occupied. From
then until the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the post
was alternately in the possession of English and
French, changing hands at least six times. After
d’Iberville’s expedition in 1697, the French had
possession for fifteen years. The post was captured
for the last time by La Pérouse’s expedition of
1782, but restored by the Treaty of Paris. It is
still maintained as a fur-trading station.--ED.
[192] Lac à Traverse, or Cross Lake, is so named because
the route leads directly across its narrowest width
of about three miles--the axis of length is about
fifteen miles. The rapids at the entrance, called
Grand Décharge or Cross Lake Rapids, may usually be
run by boats. The Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan,
between Cross Lake and the entrance to Lake
Winnipeg, are for a long distance the only serious
obstruction in this river.--ED.
[193] The regular canoe route led along the west shore
of Lake Winnipeg, past Egg Island just south of
the Grand Detour or Long Point, among St. Martin’s
Islands at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay; then across
through the Narrows, and down the eastern shore of
the lower lake. Buffalo Strait is between Buffalo
Head on the east, and a group of islands on the
west, of which Black Island is the largest.--ED.
[194] Fort Bas de la Rivière, otherwise Fort Alexander,
is on the west bank of Winnipeg River, immediately
below its entrance to the lake. This was the site of
Vérendrye’s Fort Maurepas, built in 1734. It was an
important post on the main route to the fur-trading
country.
John Crébassa was a former X Y Company’s clerk, whom
Henry met in this region in 1801-02. He was upon
Red River in 1804 with the North West Company, and
as late as 1817 Cox found him in charge of Fort
Alexander.--ED.
[195] This was the well-known Red River Settlement.
As early as 1802 Lord Selkirk had endeavored to
interest the English government in sending to
British America colonies of Highland peasants, who
were in deep distress. Unable to influence the
government, he turned to the Hudson’s Bay Company,
and in 1811 obtained from them for colonization
a tract of land in the valleys of the Red and
Assiniboin rivers. The first band of settlers,
consisting of about seventy Highlanders from
Sunderlandshire and some twenty Irish, reached
Hudson Bay late in the fall of 1811. The next spring
they removed to Red River, where they found it
difficult to obtain sufficient food. The Indians
and French half-breeds, under the influence of the
North West Company, kept aloof and regarded them
with suspicion; but until the incident mentioned by
Franchère no important difficulty had arisen.--ED.
[196] Miles McDonell was born in Inverness, Scotland,
in 1767. His father came to America in 1773 and
settled at Caughnawaga on the Mohawk River, but when
the Revolutionary War broke out removed to Canada.
Miles was an ensign in the King’s royal regiment of
New York, and in 1796 became captain in the Royal
Canadian Volunteers. When on a visit to London he
was appointed by the Hudson’s Bay Company governor
of Assiniboia. He left for the Red River settlements
in 1811 and remained there until their destruction
in 1816. His last years were spent on his farm at
Osnaburg, Upper Canada. He died in 1828.--ED.
[197] _Pemican_, of which I have already spoken several
times, is the Indian name for the dried and pounded
meat which the natives sell to the traders. About
fifty pounds of this meat is placed in a trough (_un
grand vaisseau fait d’un tronc d’arbre_), and about
an equal quantity of tallow is melted and poured
over it; it is thoroughly mixed into one mass, and
when cold, is put up in bags made of undressed
buffalo hide, with the hair outside and sewed up
as tightly as possible. The meat thus impregnated
with tallow, hardens, and will keep for years. It is
eaten without any other preparation; but sometimes
wild pears or dried berries are added, which render
the flavor more agreeable.--FRANCHÈRE.
[198] John Pritchard was born (1777) in Shropshire,
England. He emigrated to Montreal early in the
nineteenth century, and entered the service of the
North West Company, being stationed on Red River
at the time of the arrival of Selkirk’s colony. In
1815 he left the company and cast in his lot with
the settlers. He won the favor of Lord Selkirk,
and was employed by him on a mission to England.
He died at Kildonan in 1856. See Bryce, “Worthies
of Old Red River,” in Manitoba Historical Society
_Transactions_, No. 48.--ED.
[199] This was but the beginning of the trouble. The
North West traders determined to get rid of the
colony. By holding out promises of better land
in Canada, and free transportation thither, they
induced about three-fourths of the people to leave
(June, 1815). The remainder they drove off by force,
and set fire to their buildings. The unfortunate
settlers had gone but a short way, however, when
they met a new band of immigrants, and encouraged
by them, all returned to Red River. The next year
a more determined effort was made to destroy the
settlements. An armed party of Nor’Westers and
Indians attacked the colony and Fort Douglas.
Governor Semple and about twenty followers who rode
out to meet them, were surrounded and killed, and
for a second time the Highlanders were driven from
Red River. Lord Selkirk was on Lake Superior upon
his way to the settlement when he learned of its
destruction. He captured Fort William and proceeded
to the Red River, protected by a troop of disbanded
soldiers whom he had hired at Montreal. The colony
was reinstated, lands were assigned, and the name
Kildonan formally given to it (August, 1817). From
this time forward, the controversy between Lord
Selkirk and the North West Company was carried on in
the courts, and the people on Red River were left
in peace. It was not until 1826, however, that they
were able to raise sufficient grain for support
throughout the winter. For further details see
Bryce, _Manitoba_ (London, 1882).--ED.
[200] From Fort Bas de la Rivière to Fort William,
Franchère passed over the most famous canoe-route
in the Northwest--one which had been known and
traversed since early in the eighteenth century.
Franchère mentions the important links in this chain
of waterways, over six hundred miles in length. The
French, under the leadership of Vérendrye, were the
first to explore and penetrate this region to Lake
Winnipeg and beyond (see notes 187 and 190, _ante_).
After the English occupation, Alexander Henry’s
journey by this route made it known to the early
Scotch traders (see Alexander Henry’s _Travels_,
Bain ed., Boston, 1901, for excellent notes on
the route). The classic description is that of
Mackenzie, _Travels_, pp. xlvi-lxi. The annotations
of Coues in the _Henry-Thompson Journals_ omit
little in the way of details. For other references
see Bigsby, _Shoe and Canoe_ (London, 1850); Hind,
_Canada Exploring Expedition_ (Toronto, 1859;
London, 1860); Dawson, _Report on Exploration
of Country between Lake Superior and Red River
Settlement_ (Toronto, 1859); Butler, _Great Lone
Land_ (London, 1875).
Winnipeg River flows from the Lake of the Woods into
Lake Winnipeg, a course of about one hundred and
sixty miles. It is swift, and much obstructed by
rapids and cascades. The name is from a Cree term
signifying “turbid water.” The variants of this
name are many; for different forms, see Bell,
“Some Historical Names and Places of the Canadian
North-West,” Manitoba Historical and Scientific
Society _Transactions_, 1884-85. Vérendrye named the
stream Rivière Maurepas, for the French minister
of the marine. The name White River is applied
only to a portion by Mackenzie, who says it is “so
called from its being, for a considerable length,
a succession of falls and cataracts.” The Canadian
Pacific Railway crosses this stream at Rat Portage,
where it flows from the Lake of the Woods.--ED.
[201] Lake of the Woods is a translation of the French
designation Lac des Bois; they also termed it Lac
des Isles, because of its numerous woody islets. The
Indian name was Minnititi. The canoe-route across it
from northwest to southeast is about seventy-five
miles in length. The lake has played a prominent
part in the history of the Northwest. Vérendrye’s
Fort St. Charles was built upon its western bank in
1732. At the Peace of Paris (1783) the northwest
corner of the Lake of the Woods (which was then
supposed to be in latitude 49°), was made the
boundary between the United States and Canada. This
point being 39′ north of the supposed latitude, a
long controversy ensued, which was finally settled
by a joint commission in 1876. See Campbell and
Twining, _Reports upon Survey of Boundaries between
territory of the United States and possessions
of Great Britain from the Lake of the Woods to
the Summit of the Rocky Mountains_ (Washington,
1878).--ED.
[202] Franchère here refers to the Jesuit missionary,
Father Aulneau (or Auneau), who came to Canada in
1734, accompanied Vérendrye to Fort St. Charles the
following year, and was massacred by the Sioux on an
island in Lake of the Woods (June, 1736), upon his
return journey to Mackinac. See _Jesuit Relations_
(Thwaites ed., Cleveland, 1896-1901), lxviii and
lxxi; also Burpee, “The Lake of the Woods Tragedy,”
in Royal Society of Canada _Transactions_ (Ottawa,
1904), 2nd series, section ii, vol. ix.--ED.
[203] This is now Rainy River, outlet of the lake of the
same name, which is derived from the mist occasioned
by the Chaudière (or Kettle) Falls, at the outlet of
the lake. The river forms part of the international
boundary between Minnesota and Ontario. Mackenzie
thus describes it: “This is one of the finest rivers
in the North-West, and runs a course West and East
one hundred and twenty computed miles; but in
taking its course and distance minutely I make it
only eighty. Its banks are covered with a rich soil
particularly to the North.... Its waters abound in
fish, particularly the sturgeon which the natives
both spear and take with drag-nets.”--ED.
[204] Rainy Lake House was a North West establishment upon
a high bank on the north side of the river, just
above the falls. There had from early times been
a post at this place. Sieur de la Noue built one
in 1717, which was known as Tekamamaouen; it was
superseded (1731) by Vérendrye’s Fort St. Pierre.
The Hudson’s Bay house stood just below the falls,
and was named Fort Frances for Sir George Simpson’s
wife. Early in the nineteenth century the American
Fur Company had a post on the south bank of the
river. Fort Frances is the present station on the
Canadian Pacific Railway. John Warren Dease was a
North West Company clerk who was in charge of Rainy
Lake House in 1817, when it was captured by Lord
Selkirk, after the taking of Fort William.--ED.
[205] From Rainy Lake to Lake Superior there were
two prominent trade routes--that known as the
Grand Portage or Pigeon River route, following
the chain of waterways through which now runs
the international boundary; and that of the
Kaministiquia River, ending at Fort William. The
latter path was the earliest used by the French,
but later, they found shorter and more available
the Grand Portage route which was followed by
the early British traders. See descriptions of
Alexander Henry the elder, and Mackenzie. About
1802 it was discovered that the depot of the North
West Company at the commencement of Grand Portage
was upon American soil, whereupon removal to the
northern station was begun, and consummated upon
the completion of Fort William. The Kaministiquia
route had been re-discovered and re-opened by
Roderick McKenzie in 1797. His path united with the
Grand Portage route at Lac la Croix. Dawson (1857)
explored another route into Rainy Lake along the
Seine River, corresponding nearly to the present
line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Franchère took
the regular Nor’Westers route through Namakam Lake
and River, across Lac la Croix, up the Maligne or
Sturgeon River, through Lake Windigoostigwan, to Lac
des Mille Lacs.
Wild rice (_zizania aquatica_) is an important staple
of Indian food. See Jenks, “Wild Rice Gatherers of
the Upper Lakes,” in American Bureau of Ethnology
_Report_, 1897-98.--ED.
{337} CHAPTER XXVII
Arrival at Fort William--Description of the Fort--News from the
River Columbia
Starving men are early-risers. We set out on the 14th before day, and
effected the portage, which is long and difficult. At the foot of the
rapid we found a sort of _restaurant_ or _cabaret_, kept by a man
named _Boucher_.[206] We treated the men to a little _eau de vie_,
and breakfasted on some detestable sausages, poisoned with salt.
After this wretched repast, we set out again, and passed toward
noon, the _Mountain Portage_. Here the river _Kaministiquia_ flings
itself over a rock of immense height, and forms a fall scarcely less
curious to see than that of Niagara. Below, the succession of falls
and rapids is constant, so that we made no fewer than thirty-six
portages {338} in the course of the day.[207] Nevertheless we pursued
our laborious way with good cheer, and without a murmur from
our Canadian boatmen, who kept their spirits up by singing their
_voyageur_ songs. At last, at about nine o’clock in the evening, we
arrived at Fort William.
Fort William is situated on Lake Superior, at the mouth of the
_Kaministiquia_ river, about forty-five miles north of old _Grand
Portage_. It was built in 1805, when the two rival Canadian companies
were united, and was named in honor of Mr. (now the Honorable)
William M’Gillivray, principal agent of the Northwest Company.[208]
The proprietors, perceiving that the old fort of _Grand Portage_
was on the territory claimed by the American government, resolved
to demolish it and build another on the British territory. No
site appeared more advantageous than the present for the purposes
intended; the river is deep, of easy access, and offers a safe
harbor for shipping. It is true they had to contend with all the
difficulties consequent on a low and swampy soil; but by incredible
labor and {339} perseverance, they succeeded in draining the marshes
and reducing the loose and yielding soil to solidity.
Fort William has really the appearance of a fort, with its palisade
fifteen feet high, and that of a pretty village, from the number
of edifices it encloses. In the middle of a spacious square rises a
large building elegantly constructed, though of wood, with a long
piazza or portico, raised about five feet from the ground, and
surmounted by a balcony, extending along the whole front. In the
centre is a saloon or hall, sixty feet in length by thirty in width,
decorated with several pieces of painting, and some portraits of
the leading partners. It is in this hall that the agents, partners,
clerks, interpreters, and guides, take their meals together, at
different tables. At each extremity of the apartment are two rooms;
two of these are destined for the two principal agents; the other two
to the steward and his department. The kitchen and servants’ rooms
are in the basement. On either side of this edifice, is another of
the same extent, but of {340} less elevation; they are each divided
by a corridor running through its length, and contain each, a dozen
pretty bed-rooms. One is destined for the wintering partners, the
other for the clerks. On the east of the square is another building
similar to the last two, and intended for the same use, and a
warehouse where the furs are inspected and repacked for shipment.
In the rear of these, are the lodging-house of the guides, another
fur-warehouse, and finally, a powder magazine. The last is of stone,
and has a roof covered with tin. At the angle is a sort of bastion,
or lookout place, commanding a view of the lake. On the west side is
seen a range of buildings, some of which serve for stores, and others
for workshops; there is one for the equipment of the men, another for
the fitting out of the canoes, one for the retail of goods, another
where they sell liquors, bread, pork, butter, &c., and where a treat
is given to the travellers who arrive. This consists in a white loaf,
half a pound of butter, and a gill of rum. The _voyageurs_ give
this tavern the name of _Cantine_ {341} _salope_. Behind all this
is another range, where we find the counting-house, a fine square
building, and well-lighted; another storehouse of stone, tin-roofed;
and a _jail_, not less necessary than the rest. The _voyageurs_
give it the name of _pot au beurre_, the butter-tub. Beyond these
we discover the shops of the carpenter, the cooper, the tinsmith,
the blacksmith, &c.; and spacious yards and sheds for the shelter,
reparation, and construction of canoes. Near the gate of the fort,
which is on the south, are the quarters of the physician, and those
of the chief clerk. Over the gate is a guard-house.
As the river is deep at its entrance, the company has had a wharf
constructed, extending the whole length of the fort, for the
discharge of the vessels which it keeps on Lake Superior, whether to
transport its furs from Fort William to the _Saut Ste. Marie_, or
merchandise and provisions from _Saut Ste. Marie_ to Fort William.
The land behind the fort and on both sides of it, is cleared and
under tillage. We saw barley, peas, and oats, which had a very fine
appearance. At {342} the end of the clearing is the burying-ground.
There are also, on the opposite bank of the river, a certain number
of log-houses, all inhabited by old Canadian _voyageurs_, worn out
in the service of the company, without having enriched themselves.
Married to women of the country, and incumbered with large families
of half-breed children, these men prefer to cultivate a little Indian
corn and potatoes, and to fish, for a subsistence, rather than
return to their native districts, to give their relatives and former
acquaintance certain proofs of their misconduct or their imprudence.
Fort William is the grand depôt of the Northwest Company for their
interior posts, and the general _rendezvous_ of the partners. The
agents from Montreal and the wintering partners assemble here every
summer, to receive the returns of the respective outfits, prepare
for the operations of the ensuing season, and discuss the general
interests of their association. The greater part of them were
assembled at the time of our arrival. The wintering hands who are
to return {343} with their employers pass also a great part of the
summer here; they form a great encampment on the west side of the
fort, outside the palisades. Those who engage at Montreal to go no
further than Fort William or _Rainy lake_, and who do not _winter_,
occupy yet another space, on the east side. The _winterers_, or
_hivernants_, give to these last the name of _mangeurs de lard_, or
pork-eaters. They are also called _comers-and-goers_. One perceives
an astonishing difference between these two camps, which are composed
sometimes of three or four hundred men each; that of the pork-eaters
is always dirty and disorderly, while that of the winterers is clean
and neat.
To clear its land and improve its property, the company inserts a
clause in the engagement of all who enter its service as canoe-men,
that they shall work for a certain number of days during their stay
at Fort William. It is thus that it has cleared and drained the
environs of the fort, and has erected so many fine buildings. But
when a hand has once worked the stipulated {344} number of days, he
is for ever after exempt, even if he remain in the service twenty or
thirty years, and should come down to the fort every summer.
They received us very courteously at Fort William, and I perceived
by the reception given to myself in particular, that thanks to the
Chinook dialect of which I was sufficiently master, they would not
have asked better than to give me employment, on advantageous terms.
But I felt a great deal more eagerness to arrive in Montreal, than
desire to return to the River Columbia.
A few days after we reached Fort William, Mr. Keith made his
appearance there from Fort George, or Astoria, with the news of the
arrival of the “Isaac Todd” in the Columbia river. This vessel,
which was a dull sailer, had been kept back a long time by contrary
winds in doubling Cape Horn, and had never been able to rejoin the
vessels-of-war, her consorts, from which she was then separated.
When she reached the _rendezvous_ at the island of Juan Fernandez,
finding that the three ships-of-war had sailed, {345} the captain and
passengers, as they were short of provisions, determined to range
the coast. Entering the harbor of _Monterey_,[209] on the coast
of California, in order to obtain provisions, they learned that
there was an English vessel-of-war in distress, in the bay of _San
Francisco_.[210] They repaired thither accordingly, and found, to
their great surprise, that it was the sloop _Raccoon_. This vessel,
in getting out of the River Columbia, had touched on the bar, with
such violence, that a part of her false keel was carried away; and
she had with difficulty made San Francisco, with seven feet of water
in the hold, although her crew had been constantly at the pumps.
Captain Black, finding it impossible to repair his ship, had decided
to abandon her, and to cross the continent to the Gulf of Mexico,
thence to reach some of the British West India islands. However, on
the arrival of the Isaac Todd, {346} means were found to careen the
vessel and repair the damage. The Isaac Todd then pursued her voyage
and entered the Columbia on the 17th of April, thirteen months after
her departure from England.
[206] Dog Portage is that which leads over the Height
of Land between the Lake Superior and Hudson Bay
water-systems. It is about forty-five miles from
Fort William, and about a mile in length and five
hundred feet high. Authorities differ on the origin
of the name. One Indian tradition recites that two
enormous dogs slept upon the hill, leaving the
impress of their figures. Another relates that the
Indians carved upon a cliff the figure of a dog, to
commemorate a great battle between the Sioux and
Chippewa.
Boucher was apparently a free trapper, whom Henry
had found selling provisions in this neighborhood
as early as 1803.--ED.
[207] The brigade now passed down Little Dog River,
through Dog Lake, into the Kaministiquia River--a
short, rapid stream that falls into Lake Superior in
Thunder Bay. The Mountain Portage was at the Great
Falls, sometimes called Kakabeka, from the Indian
term for “Cleft Rock.” This cataract is twenty-two
miles from the mouth of the river, and the water
makes a leap of one hundred and twenty feet.
Between the falls and the mouth, the Kaministiquia
is a succession of shallow rapids. The Indian
significance of the name of this river is that of
“difficult entrance.” The entire length of the
stream is now followed by a wagon-road.--ED.
[208] The date of the building of Fort William is
variously given--the removal had begun in 1802,
but was not completed until 1805, and the new
post did not receive its name until 1807. See
_Henry-Thompson Journals_, p. 220. The site was
occupied as early as 1678 by a stockade built by
Duluth, the great _coureur des bois_. His fort had
fallen into ruins when that of La Noue was built
in 1717. The French maintained this post until the
close of their régime. In 1757 it was farmed to
M. Toussaint Pothier, and produced from sixty to
seventy bundles of furs. The English traders having
abandoned this route for the easier one of Pigeon
River, clustered at Grand Portage until Fort William
was erected. Lord Selkirk captured the post in 1817,
during the struggle of the Red River settlement with
the North West Company. Upon the coalition of the
latter corporation with the Hudson’s Bay (1821),
Fort William was abandoned, and two years later was
falling into ruins. The Canadian Pacific Railway
station of Port Arthur is eight miles beyond the
site of old Fort William. The classic account of
Fort William’s palmy days is that of Irving, in
_Astoria_.--ED.
[209] A Spanish mission or presidency, in about the 36th
degree of latitude.--FRANCHÈRE.
[210] Another Spanish presidency, in about the 38th degree
of latitude, and the first European establishment
to be met with south of the Columbia.--FRANCHÈRE.
_Comment by Huntington_: These now obsolete notes
are interesting as indicative of the period when
they were written.
{347} CHAPTER XXVIII
Departure from Fort William--Navigation on Lake Superior--
Michipicoton Bay--Meeting a Canoe--Batchawainon Bay--
Arrival at Saut Ste. Marie--Occurrences there--Departure--
Lake Huron--French River--Lake Nipissing--Ottawa River--Kettle
Falls--Rideau River--Long-Saut--Arrival in Montreal--Conclusion.
On the 20th of July, in the evening, Mr. D. Stuart notified me that
he should start the next morning for Montreal, in a light canoe.
I immediately wrote to my relatives: but the next morning Mr.
Stuart told me that I was to be myself the bearer of my letters, by
embarking with him. I got ready my effects, and toward evening we
quitted Fort William, with fourteen stout _voyageurs_ to man our
large canoe, and were soon floating on the bosom of the largest
body of fresh water on the surface of the globe. We counted six
passengers, namely, Messrs. D. {348} Stuart, D. M’Kenzie, J.
M’Donald, J. Clarke, myself, and a little girl of eight or nine
years, who came from Kildonan, on Red river.[211] We passed the first
night on one of the islands in _Thunder bay_, so named on account of
the frequent storms, accompanied with lightning and thunder, which
burst over it at certain seasons of the year. On the 22d and 23d,
we continued to range the southern coast of Lake Superior.[212] The
navigation of this superb lake would be extremely agreeable but for
the thick fogs which reign during a part of the day, and do not
permit a rapid progress. On the 24th, we dined at a small trading
establishment called _Le Pic_, where we had excellent fish.[213]
On the 26th, we crossed _Michipicoton bay_, which, at its entrance,
may be nine miles wide, and twenty fathoms deep.[214] As we were
nearing the eastern point, we met a small canoe, having on board
Captain M’Cargo, and the crew of one of the schooners owned by the
company. Mr. M’Cargo informed us that he had just escaped from _Saut
Ste. Marie_, whither the Americans had {349} sent a detachment of
one hundred and fifty men; and that having been obliged to abandon
his schooner, he had set fire to her.[215] In consequence of this
news it was resolved that the canoe on which we were proceeding,
should return to Fort William. I embarked with Mr. Stuart and two
men, in Captain M’Cargo’s canoe, while he and his crew took our
places. In the haste and confusion of this exchange, which was made
on the lake, they gave us a ham, a little tea and sugar, and a bag
containing about twenty-five pounds of flour, but forgot entirely
a kettle, knives, forks, and so on, all articles which Mr. M’Cargo
had not time to take when he left _Saut Ste. Marie_. We subsisted
miserably in consequence for two days and a half that we continued
to coast the lake before reaching any post. We moistened in the bag
a little flour, and having kneaded it, made cakes, which we baked on
flat stones by our camp fire.
On the 29th, we reached Batchawainon, where we found some women,
who prepared us food and received us well. It is a poor little
post, {350} situated at the bottom of a sandy cove, which offers
nothing agreeable to the eye. Mr. Frederic Goedike, who resided
here, was gone to see what had taken place at Saut Ste. Marie.[216]
He returned the next day, and told us that the Americans had come,
with a force of one hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major
Holmes;[217] and that after having pillaged all that they considered
worth taking, of the property of the N. W. Company and that of a Mr.
Johnston,[218] they had set fire to the houses, warehouses, &c.,
belonging to the company and to that gentleman, and retired, without
molesting any other person.[219] Our canoe arrived from Fort William
in the evening, with that of Mr. M’Gillivray; and on the morrow we
all repaired to Saut Ste. Marie, where we saw the ruins which the
enemy had left. The houses, stores, and saw-mills of the company were
still smoking. {351} The schooner was at the foot of the rapids; the
Americans had run her down, but she grounded on a ledge of rocks,
whence they could not dislodge her, and so they had burnt her to the
water’s edge.
_Le Saut de Ste. Marie_,[220] or as it is shortly called, _Saut
Ste. Marie_, is a rapid at the outlet of Lake Superior, and may be
five hundred or six hundred yards wide; its length may be estimated
at three quarters of a mile, and the descent of the water at about
twenty feet. At the lower extremity the river widens to about a
mile, and here there are a certain number of houses. The north bank
belongs to Great Britain; the southern to the United States. It was
on the American side that Mr. Johnston lived. Before the war he was
collector of the port for the American government. On the same side
resided a Mr. Nolin, with his family, consisting of three half-breed
boys and as many girls, one of whom was passably pretty. He was an
old Indian trader, and his house and furniture showed signs of his
former prosperity. On the British side we found {352} Mr. Charles
Ermatinger, who had a pretty establishment: he dwelt temporarily
in a house that belonged to Nolin, but he was building another of
stone, very elegant, and had just finished a grist mill.[221] He
thought that the last would lead the inhabitants to sow more grain
than they did. These inhabitants are principally old Canadian
boatmen, married to half-breed or Indian women. The fish afford them
subsistence during the greater part of the year, and provided they
secure potatoes enough to carry them through the remainder, they
are content. It is to be regretted that these people are not more
industrious, for the land is very fertile.
On the 1st of August, an express was sent to _Michilimackinac_
(Mackinaw) to inform the commandant thereof what had happened at
_Saut Ste. Marie_.[222] While expecting the return of the messenger,
we put ourselves in a state of defence, in case that by chance
the Americans should make another irruption. The thing was not
improbable, for according to some expressions which fell from one of
their number who spoke French, {353} their object was to capture the
furs of the Northwest Company, which were expected to arrive shortly
from the interior. We invited some Indians, who were camped on _Pine
Point_,[223] at some distance from the _Saut_, to help us in case
of need; which they promised to do. Meanwhile we had no provisions,
as everything had been carried off by the American forces, and were
obliged to subsist on such brook trout as we could take with hook and
line, and on wild raspberries.
On the 4th, the express returned, without having been able to
accomplish his mission: he had found the island of Mackinaw so
completely blockaded by the enemy, that it was impossible to reach
it, without running the greatest risk of being made prisoner.
On the 12th, we heard distinctly the discharges of artillery which
our people were firing off at Michilimackinac, although the distance
was nearly sixty miles. We thought it was an attempt of the enemy
to retake that post, but we afterward learned that it was only a
royal salute {354} in honor of the birthday of the prince regent.
We learned, however, during our stay at Saut Ste. Marie, that the
Americans had really made a descent upon the island, but were
compelled to retire with a considerable loss.[224]
On the 19th, some of the partners arrived from Fort William,
preceding the flotilla which was coming down richly laden with furs.
They sent on Mr. Decoigne in a light canoe, with letters to Montreal,
to order provisions to meet this brigade.
On the 21st, the canoe on which I was a passenger, was sent to the
mouth of _French_ river, to observe the motions of the enemy. The
route lay between a range of low islands, and a shelvy beach, very
monotonous and dreary. We remained at the entrance of the aforesaid
river till the 25th, when the fleet of loaded canoes, forty-seven in
number, arrived there. The value of the furs which they carried could
not be estimated at less than a million of dollars: an important
prize for the Americans, if they could have laid their hands upon
it. We were three {355} hundred and thirty-five men, all well armed;
a large camp was formed, with a breast-work of fur-packs, and we
kept watch all night. The next morning we began to ascend the French
river, and were soon out of reach of the dreaded foe.[225] French
river flows from the N. E. and empties into Lake Huron, about one
hundred and twenty miles from Saut Ste. Marie. We reached Lake
Nipissing, of which it is the outlet, the same evening, and encamped.
We crossed that lake on the 27th, made a number of portages, and
encamped again, not far from _Mattawan_.[226]
On the 28th we entered, at an early hour, the river _Ottawa_, and
encamped, in the evening, at the _Portage des deux Joachims_.[227]
This is a grand river, but obstructed by many falls and rapids on its
way to join the St. Lawrence; which caused us to make many portages,
and so we arrived on the 31st at _Kettle falls_.
The rock which here arrests the course of the _Ottawa_, extends
from shore to shore, and so completely cuts off the waters, that at
the time we passed none was seen falling over, but sinking by {356}
subterranean channels, or fissures in the rock, it boiled up below,
from seven or eight different openings, not unlike water in a huge
caldron, whence the first explorers of the country gave it the name
of _Chaudière_ or Caldron falls. Mr. P. Wright resided in this place,
where he had a fine establishment and a great number of men employed
in cultivating the land, and getting out lumber.[228]
We left the _Chaudières_ a little before sunset, and passed very
soon the confluence of the _Rideau_ or _Curtain river_. This river,
which casts itself into the Ottawa over a rock twenty-five by thirty
feet high, is divided in the middle of the fall by a little island,
which parts the waters into two white sheets, resembling a double
curtain open in the middle and spreading out below. The _coup d’œil_
is really picturesque; the rays of the setting sun, which struck the
waters obliquely as we passed, heightened exceedingly their beauty,
and rendered it worthy of a pencil more skilful than mine.[229]
We voyaged till midnight, when we stopped to {357} let our men take
a little repose. This rest was only for two hours. At sunrise on
the 1st September, we reached _Long-Saut_, where, having procured
guides, we passed that dangerous rapid, and set foot on shore near
the dwelling-house of a Mr. M’Donell, who sent us milk and fruits for
our breakfast. Toward noon we passed the lake of the Two Mountains,
where I began to see the mountain of my native isle.[230] About two
o’clock, we passed the rapids of St. Ann.[231] Soon after we came
opposite _Saut St. Louis_ and the village of _Caughnawago_[232]
passed that last rapid of so many, and landed at Montreal, a little
before sunset.
I hastened to the paternal roof, where the family were not less
surprised than overjoyed at beholding me. Not having heard of me,
since I had sailed from New York, they had believed, in {358}
accordance with the common report, that I had been murdered by the
savages, with Mr. M’Kay and the crew of the Tonquin: and certainly,
it was by the goodness of Providence that I found myself thus safe
and sound, in the midst of my relations and friends, at the end of
a voyage accompanied by so many perils, and in which so many of my
companions had met with an untimely death.
[211] Kildonan is a parish north of Winnipeg, sometimes
called Frog Pond Parish. It was named by Lord
Selkirk in remembrance of the Scottish parish from
which his settlers had migrated, and was the centre
of the Red River establishment.--ED.
[212] Thunder Bay, at the western end of Lake Superior,
lies between the high promontory of Pie Island
and the cliffs of Thunder Cape, the latter over
one thousand three hundred feet high. The region
is noted for its picturesqueness and the Indian
traditions which cluster around it. See Henry’s
_Travels_, p. 205. Franchère’s statement is an
obvious mistake, as the usual route from Thunder
Bay was along the northern coast; and the places
mentioned indicate that this was followed by the
present expedition.--ED.
[213] This post was situated at the mouth of Pic River,
two hundred miles from the entrance of St. Mary’s.
The name is an Indian word meaning “mud,” and was
applied because of the reddish yellow color of the
stream, due to the beds of clay through which it
flows. When the stream is swollen, it colors the
lake for a mile or more from its mouth. The North
West Company had an important post on this river,
which was the centre of a department; it produced
more valuable furs in the early years of the century
than when Franchère passed. Later, it was maintained
by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Canadian Pacific
Railway crosses the river near its mouth.--_Ed._
[214] Michipicoton Bay is one hundred and twenty-five
miles from St. Mary’s River, by canoe travel. The
shore at the entrance is high and rocky; but at the
bottom of the bay, where the Michipicoton River
empties, it is low and sandy. The French had a
fur-trading post near the mouth of the stream, which
was abandoned in 1763. The post of the North West
Company at this place was tributary to that at Pic
River.--_Ed._
[215] When Colonel George Croghan sailed from St. Joseph,
July 20, 1814, on his way to attack Mackinac, he
detached Major Holmes with two small vessels, to
destroy the British post at Sault Ste. Marie.
Holmes met with no resistance, as the men had gone
to the defense of Fort Mackinac. He burned the
warehouses of the North West Company, and carried
away considerable plunder. See M’Afee, _History of
the Late War in the Western Country_ (Lexington,
Kentucky, 1816).--ED.
[216] Frederic Goedike was an old employé of the North
West Company, having been on the Assiniboin
(1801-05) and on the Peace (1808-09). He seems to
have retired to this small post upon Batchewana Bay,
forty-five miles from Sault Ste. Marie.--ED.
[217] Major Arthur Hunter Holmes was a Virginian and a
friend of Jefferson. He was stationed at Detroit,
as captain, when (February, 1814) he was placed
in charge of a detachment ordered to attack the
enemy at Delaware on the Thames. He succeeded,
although with a force much inferior to the British.
Immediately after this expedition he was promoted
to be major. After plundering Sault Ste. Marie he
rejoined the main army two days after it reached
Mackinac, and was killed in the attack on that
place, August 4, 1814. When the Americans again
obtained possession of the fort at Mackinac, the
name of Fort George was, in his honor, changed to
Fort Holmes.--ED.
[218] John Johnston, born at Craignear, Giant’s Causeway,
Ireland, in 1763, came to Canada in 1792. Lord
Dorchester introduced him to the partners of the
North West Company, and he quickly decided to cast
in his lot with the Western fur-traders. First
settled at La Pointe, he married the daughter of
an Indian chief. In 1794 he removed to Sault Ste.
Marie, and lived there until his death in 1828.
Although living on the American shore, he sided
with the British in the War of 1812-15. Hearing of
Colonel Croghan’s expedition, he armed all his men,
about a hundred in number, and embarked with them
for Mackinac, thus leaving his property at the mercy
of Major Holmes. Johnston’s son served as lieutenant
on the “Queen Charlotte,” and was captured by
the Americans in the naval battle on Lake Erie.
Bigsby, on his journey through the lakes in 1824,
visited Johnston, and commented upon the value and
extent of his library--“a thousand well-bound and
well-selected volumes, French and English, evidently
much in use, in winter especially.” For further
details of his career, see Masson, _Bourgeois_, ii,
pp. 137-142.--ED.
[219] The N. W. Company having raised a regiment composed
of their own servants, and known as the _voyageur
corps_, and having also instigated to war, and
armed, the Indian tribes, over which they had
influence, had brought on themselves this act of
retaliation. Mr. Johnston also had engaged actively
in the war against the United States.--FRANCHÈRE.
[220] For a brief history of Sault Ste. Marie, see J.
Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii of our series, note
38.--ED.
[221] Nolin lived at Sault Ste. Marie until 1819, when
he sold his property to Ermatinger and removed to
Pembina, in the Red River Valley.
Charles Ermatinger was the son of a Swiss merchant who
removed from the English colonies to Quebec after
Wolfe’s capture. He became, next to Johnston, the
wealthiest trader at the Sault. Bigsby describes him
as “every inch a trader, public-spirited, skilful,
sanguine and indefatigable.”--ED.
[222] For a short account of Mackinac, see Thwaites,
“Story of Mackinac,” in _How George Rogers Clark won
the Northwest_ (Chicago, 1903).--ED.
[223] This is about six and a half miles from Sault Ste.
Marie. It is a broad, low point thickly covered with
pines, sheltering a good harbor at the expansion of
St. Mary’s River.--ED.
[224] The American troops under Colonel Croghan were not
strong enough to attack the fort, but landed on the
west side of Mackinac Island with the hope that
the British would advance to meet them in the open
plain. Not far from the place of landing they found
the enemy waiting for them at the edge of a wood,
and succeeded in driving them back. Thinking pursuit
among the trees would be dangerous, they returned to
their boats and abandoned the expedition. It was in
this onslaught that Major Holmes was killed.--ED.
[225] French River has so many islands and deep and narrow
bays, that it often appears more like a number of
parallel streams than a single river. It is about
seventy-five miles long, and sometimes broadens into
a lake. About twenty miles from Lake Nipissing are
the Récollets Falls. This river owes its name to
serving as the early waterway from Lower Canada to
the Upper Country. See J. Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii
of our series, note 36.--ED.
[226] This was at the junction of the Mattawa River with
the Ottawa--the limit of Champlain’s exploration in
1613. This was a well-known post on the Ottawa River
route to the Upper Lakes, and now a station of the
Canadian Pacific Railway.--ED.
[227] These rapids are three-quarters of a mile long;
being, in fact, low cascades. They are about
twenty-five miles below the forks of the Ottawa.--ED.
[228] The Kettle (Chaudière) Falls are opposite the city
of Hull, Quebec. In 1800, Philemon Wright, “the
father of the town of Hull,” came from Woburn,
Massachusetts, and settled at the foot of the falls.
He brought twenty-five men with him, bought the land
from the Indians for twenty dollars, immediately
began to clear the forest, and in a short time had
become a well-to-do proprietor. He died in 1839, at
the age of seventy-nine.--ED.
[229] This is the site of Ottawa, founded in 1825, and in
1865 made the seat of government for Canada. The
curtains are of unequal width; the longer being
about three hundred, the shorter about a hundred
feet.--ED.
[230] The Long Sault Rapids, about sixty miles below
Ottawa, are nine miles long and full of islets,
rocky bars, and narrow passes. For the heroic
defense of this place, see Parkman, _Old Régime in
Canada_ (Boston, 1875), chap. iii. At the base of
the rapids the Ottawa widens into the Lake of Two
Mountains, twenty miles long and from two to three
miles broad.--ED.
[231] “Far-famed and so well described,” adds Mr.
Franchère, in his own translation, but I prefer
to leave the expression in its original striking
simplicity, as he wrote it before he had heard of
MOORE. Every reader remembers:--
“Soon as the woods on shore grow dim,
We’ll sing at St. Ann’s our parting hymn.”
_Canadian Boatman’s Song._
--HUNTINGTON.
[232] For a sketch of the Indian mission at Caughnawaga,
see J. Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii of our series, note
9.--ED.
{359} CHAPTER XXIX
Present State of the Countries visited by the Author--Correction of
Mr. Irving’s Statements respecting St. Louis.
The last chapter closes the original French narrative of my travels
around and across the continent, as published thirty-three years
ago. The translation follows that narrative as exactly as possible,
varying from it only in the correction of a few not very important
errors of fact. It speaks of places and persons as I spoke of them
then. I would not willingly lose the veri-similitude of this natural
and unadorned description, in order to indulge in any new turns of
style or more philosophical reflections.
But since that period many changes have occurred in the scenes which
I so long ago visited and described. Though they are well known, I
may be pardoned for alluding to them.
{360} The natives of the Sandwich islands, who were in a state of
paganism at that time, have since adopted a form of Christianity,
have made considerable progress in imitating the civilization of
Europe, and even, at this moment, begin to entertain the idea of
annexation to the United States. It appears, however, that the real
natives are rapidly dwindling away by the effects of their vices,
which an exotic and ill-assimilated civilization has rather increased
than diminished, and to which religion has not succeeded in applying
a remedy.
At the mouth of the Columbia, whole tribes, and among them, the
_Clatsops_, have been swept away by disease. Here again, licentious
habits universally diffused, spread a fatal disorder through the
whole nation, and undermining the constitutions of all, left them
an easy prey to the first contagion or epidemic sickness. But
missionaries of various Christian sects have labored among the
Indians of the Columbia also; not to speak of the missions of the
Catholic Church, so well known by the narrative of Father De Smet
{361} and others;[233] and numbers have been taught to cultivate the
soil, and thus to provide against the famines to which they were
formerly exposed from their dependence on the precarious resources
of the chase; while others have received, in the faith of Christ,
the true principle of national permanence, and a living germ of
civilization, which may afterward be developed.
Emigration has also carried to the Oregon the axe of the settler, as
well as the canoe and pack of the fur-trader. The fertile valleys
and prairies of the Willamet--once the resort of the deer, the elk,
and the antelope, are now tilled by the industrious husbandman.
Oregon City, so near old “Astoria,” whose first log fort I saw
and described, is now an Archiepiscopal see, and the capital of a
territory, which must soon be a state of the Union.[234]
Of the regions east of the mountains described in my itinerary,
little can be said in respect to improvement: they remain in the
same wild state. The interest of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as
an association of fur-traders, is opposed to agricultural {362}
improvements, whose operation would be to drive off and extinguish
the wild animals that furnish their commerce with its object. But on
Lake Superior steamboats have supplanted the birch-bark canoe of the
Indian and the fur-trader, and at Saut Ste. Marie, especially on the
American side, there is now every sign of prosperity. How remote and
wild was the region beyond, through which I passed, may be estimated
by the fact that in thirty-eight years the onward-rolling wave of our
population has but just reached its confines.
Canada, although it has not kept pace with the United States, has yet
wonderfully advanced in forty years. The valley of the Ottawa, that
great artery of the St. Lawrence, where I thought it worth while to
notice the residence of an enterprising farmer and lumber merchant,
is now a populous district, well cultivated, and sprinkled with
villages, towns, and cities.
The reader, in perusing my first chapter, found a description of the
city of New York in 1810, and of the neighboring village of Brooklyn.
It {363} would be superfluous to establish a comparison at this day.
At that time, it will be observed, the mere breaking out of war
between America and England was thought to involve the sacrifice of
an American commercial establishment on the Pacific, on the ground
of its supplies being necessarily cut off (it was supposed), and of
the United States government being unable to protect it from hostile
attack. At present it suffices to remark that while New York, then
so inconsiderable a port, is now perhaps the third city in the
world, the United States also, are, undoubtedly, a first-rate power,
unassailable at home, and formidable abroad, to the greatest nations.
As in my preface I alluded to Mr. Irving’s “Astoria,” as reflecting,
in my opinion, unjustly, upon the young men engaged in the first
expedition to the mouth of the Columbia, it may suffice here to
observe, without entering into particulars, that my narrative, which
I think answers for its own fidelity, clearly shows that some of
them, at least did not want courage, activity, zeal for the interests
of the company, while it existed, and patient {364} endurance
of hardship. And although it forms no part of the narrative or
my voyage, yet as subsequent visits to the West and an intimate
knowledge of St. Louis, enable me to correct Mr. Irving’s poetical
rather than accurate description of that place, I may well do it
here. St. Louis now bids fair to rival ere long the “Queen of the
West;” Mr. Irving describes her as a small trading place, where
trappers, half-breeds, gay, frivolous Canadian boatmen, &c., &c.,
congregated and revelled, with that lightness and buoyancy of spirit
inherited from their French forefathers; the indolent Creole of St.
Louis caring for little more than the enjoyment of the present hour;
a motley population, half-civilized, half-barbarous, thrown, on his
canvas, into one general, confused (I allow highly _picturesque_)
mass, without respect of persons: but it is fair to say, with due
homage to the talent of the sketcher, who has verged slighty on
caricature in the use of that humor-loving pencil admired by all the
world, that St. Louis even then contained its noble, industrious, and
I may say, {365} princely merchants; it could boast its _Chouteaus_,
_Soulands_, _Céré_, _Chéniers_, _Vallées_, and _La Croix_,[235] with
other kindred spirits, whose descendants prove the worth of their
sires by their own, and are now among the leading business men, as
their fathers were the pioneers, of the flourishing St. Louis.
With these remarks, which I make simply as an act of justice in
connection with the general subject of the founding of “Astoria,”
but in which I mean to convey no imputation on the intentional
fairness of the accomplished author to whom I have alluded, I take a
respectful leave of my readers.
[233] For the history of Catholic missions in Oregon,
see journals of Father De Smet, which are to
be published in volumes xxviii and xxix of our
series.--ED.
[234] Oregon City is situated at the falls of Willamette
River. It was laid out in lots in 1842, when the
rivalry for the possession of this site between
McLaughlin, Hudson’s Bay factor, and Waller, of the
Methodist Mission, was at its height. The rapid
growth of Portland has prevented Oregon City from
becoming the important place it once promised.
In 1900 its population was only thirty-five
hundred.--ED.
[235] For these early families of St. Louis, consult
Billon, _Annals of St. Louis_ (St. Louis, 1886).--ED.
APPENDIX[236]
In Chapter XVII, I promised the reader to give him an account of the
fate of some of the persons who left Astoria before, and after its
sale or transfer to the British. I will now redeem that pledge.
Messrs. Ramsay Crooks, R. M’Lelland, and Robert Stuart, after
enduring all sorts of fatigue, dangers and hairbreadth escapes
with their lives--all which have been so graphically described by
Washington Irving in his “Astoria,” finally reached St. Louis and New
York.
Mr. Clapp went to the Marquesas Islands, where he entered into
the service of his country {368} in the capacity of midshipman
under Commodore Porter--made his escape from there in company
with Lieutenent Gamble of the Marine corps, by directions of the
Commodore, was captured by the British, landed at Buenos Ayres, and
finally reached New York.
D. M’Dougall, as a reward for betraying the trust reposed in him
by Mr. Astor, was made a Partner of the Northwest Company, crossed
the mountains, and died a miserable death at _Bas de la Rivière_,
Winipeg. Donald M’Kenzie, his coadjutor, went back to the Columbia
River, where he amassed a considerable fortune, with which he
retired, and lived in Chautauque County in this state, where he died
a few years since unknown and neglected:--he was a very selfish man,
who cared for no one but himself.
It remains only to speak of Messrs. J. C. Halsey, Russell Farnham,
and Alfred Seton, who, it will be remembered, embarked with Mr. Hunt
on the “Pedlar,” in Feb. 1814.
Leaving the River about the 1st of April, they proceeded to the
Russian establishment at Sitka, {369} Norfolk Sound, where they fell
in with two or three more American vessels, which had come to trade
with the natives or to avoid the British cruisers. While there, a
sail under British colors appeared, and Mr. Hunt sent Mr. Seton to
ascertain who she was. She turned out to be the “Forester,” Captain
Pigott, a repeating signal ship and letter-of-marque, sent from
England in company of a fleet intended for the South Seas. On further
acquaintance with the captain, Mr. Seton (from whom I derive these
particulars) learned a fact which has never before been published,
and which will show the solicitude and perseverance of Mr. ASTOR.
After despatching the “Lark” from New York, fearing that she might be
intercepted by the British, he sent orders to his correspondent in
England to purchase and fit out a British bottom, and despatch her to
the Columbia to relieve the establishment.
When Mr. Hunt learned this fact, he determined to leave Mr. Halsey at
Sitka, and proceeding himself northward, landed Mr. Farnham on the
coast of _Kamskatka_, to go over land with {370} despatches for Mr.
Astor. Mr. Farnham accomplished the journey, reached Hamburg, whence
he sailed for the West Indies, and finally arrived at New York,
having made the entire circuit of the globe.
The “Pedlar” then sailed to the southeast, and soon reached the coast
of California, which she approached to get a supply of provisions.
Nearing one of the harbors, they descried a vessel at anchor inside,
showing American colors. Hauling their wind, they soon came close
to the stranger, which, to their surprise, turned out to be the
Spanish corvette “Santa Barbara,” which sent boats alongside the
“Pedlar,” and captured her, and kept possession of the prize for
some two months, during which they dropped down to _San Blas_. Here
Mr. Hunt proposed to Mr. Seton to cross the continent and reach the
United States the best way he could. Mr. Seton, accordingly, went
to the Isthmus of Darien, where he was detained several months by
sickness, but finally reached Carthagena, where a British fleet
was lying in the roads, to take off the English {371} merchants,
who in consequence of the revolutionary movements going on, sought
shelter under their own flag. Here Mr. Seton, reduced to the last
stage of destitution and squalor, boldly applied to Captain Bentham,
the commander of the squadron, who, finding him to be a gentleman,
offered him every needful assistance, gave him a berth in his own
cabin, and finally landed him safely on the Island of Jamaica, whence
he, too, found his way to New York.
Of all those engaged in the expedition there are now but four
survivors--Ramsay Crooks, Esq. the late President of the American
Fur Company; Alfred Seton, Esq., Vice-president of the Sun Mutual
Insurance Company; both of New York city; Benjamin Pillet of Canada;
and the author, living also in New York. All the rest have paid the
debt of nature, but their names are recorded in the foregoing pages.
Notwithstanding the illiberal remarks made by Captain Thorn on the
persons who were on board the ill-fated Tonquin, and reproduced
by Mr. Irving in his “Astoria”--these young men who {372} were
represented as “Bar keepers or Billiard markers, most of whom had
fled from Justice, &c.”--I feel it a duty to say that they were for
the most part, of good parentage, liberal education and every way
were qualified to discharge the duties of their respective stations.
The remarks on the general character of the voyageurs employed as
boat-men and Mechanics, and the attempt to cast ridicule on their
“Braggart and swaggering manners” come with a bad grace from the
author of “Astoria,” when we consider that in that very work Mr.
Irving is compelled to admit their indomitable energy, their fidelity
to their employers, and their cheerfulness under the most trying
circumstances in which men can be placed.
With respect to Captain Thorn, I must confess that though a stern
commander and an irritable man, he paid the strictest attention to
the health of his crew. His complaints of the squalid appearance of
the Canadians and mechanics who were on board, can be abated of their
force by giving a description of the accommodation of {373} these
people. The Tonquin was a small ship; its forecastle was destined for
the crew performing duty before the mast. The room allotted for the
accommodation of the twenty men destined for the establishment, was
abaft the forecastle; a bulk-head had been let across, and a door led
from the forecastle into a dark, unventilated, unwholesome place,
where they were all heaped together, without means of locomotion, and
consequently deprived of that exercise of the body so necessary to
health. Add to that, we had no physician on board. In view of these
facts, can the complaints of the gallant Captain be sustained? Of
course Mr. Irving was ignorant of these circumstances, as well as of
many others which he might have known, had some one suggested to him
to ask a few questions of persons who were within his reach at the
time of his publication. I have (I need scarcely say) no personal
animosity against the unfortunate Captain; he always treated me,
individually, as well as I could expect; and if, in the course of my
narrative, I have been severe on his actions, I was impelled {374}
by a sense of justice to my friends on board, as well as by the
circumstance that such explanations of his general deportment were
requisite to convey the historical truth to my readers.
The idea of a conspiracy against him on board is so absurd that it
really does not deserve notice. The threat, or rather the proposal
made to him by Mr. M’Kay, in the following words--“if you say
fight, fight it is”--originated in a case where one of the sailors
had maltreated a Canadian lad, who came to complain to Mr. M’Kay.
The captain would not interpose his authority, and said in my
presence, “Let them fight out their own battles:”--it was upon that
answer that Mr. M’Kay gave vent to the expression quoted above. I
might go on with a long list of inaccuracies, more or less grave
or trivial, in the beautifully written work of Mr. Irving, but it
would be tedious to go through the whole of them. The few remarks
to which I have given place above, will suffice to prove that the
assertion made in the preface was not unwarranted. It is far from my
intention to enter the lists with a man of the {375} literary merit
and reputation of Mr. Irving, but as a narrator of events of which
I was an EYE-WITNESS, I felt bound to tell the truth, although that
truth might impugn the historical accuracy of a work which ranks as
a classic in the language. At the same time I entirely exonerate Mr.
Irving from any intention of prejudicing the minds of his reader, as
he doubtless had only in view to support the character of his friend:
that sentiment is worthy of a generous heart, but it should not be
gratified, nor would he wish to gratify it, I am sure, at the expense
of the character of others.
NOTE BY HUNTINGTON
Perhaps even contrary to the wish of Mr. Franchère, I have left
the above almost word for word as he wrote it. It is a part of the
history of the affairs related as well in Mr. Irving’s ASTORIA as
in the present volume, that the reclamations of one of the clerks
on that famous and unfortunate voyage of the Tonquin, against the
disparaging description of himself and his colleagues given in the
former work, should be fairly recorded. At the same time, I can not
help stating my own impression that a natural susceptibility roused
by those slighting remarks from Captain Thorn’s correspondence, to
which Mr. Irving as an historian gives currency, has somewhat blinded
my excellent friend to the tone of banter, so characteristic of the
chronicler of the Knickerbockers, in which all these particulars
are given, more as traits of the character {376} of the stern old
sea-captain, with his hearty contempt for land-lubbers and literary
clerks, than as a dependable account of the persons on board his
ship, some of whom might have been, and as we see by the present
work, were, in fact, very meritorious characters, for whose literary
turn, and faithful journalizing (which seems to have especially
provoked the captain’s wrath), now at the end of more than forty
years, we have so much reason to be thankful. Certainly Mr. Irving
himself, who has drawn frequently on Mr. Franchere’s narrative, could
not, from his well-known taste in such matters, be insensible to the
Defoe-like simplicity thereof, nor to the picturesque descriptions,
worthy of a professional pen, with which it is sprinkled.
[236] We have thought it best to give this Appendix,
excepting some abbreviations rendered necessary to
avoid repetition of what has been stated before,
in Mr. Franchère’s own words, particularly as a
specimen of his own English style may be justly
interesting to the reader.--HUNTINGTON.
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