ACADIA AND HUDSON BAY
In the last chapter the main stream of Canadian history has been
followed down to the Treaty of Utrecht. New France was essentially
the colony on the St. Lawrence; but with the story of Canada proper
the story of Acadia is interwoven, and Acadia under another name now
forms part of the Canadian Dominion. To complete the tale to 1713, it
is necessary to go back to the early days of settlement in the
present Maritime Provinces of the Dominion. Some notice must also be
made of English commercial enterprise on the northern side of Canada,
the shores of Hudson Bay.
[Sidenote: _Acadia._]
Acadia, Acadie--a name which the French took from the
Indians[1]--included an ill-defined region. Whoever held it, at any
given time, naturally claimed as large an area as possible, and,
after it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, the
question of the boundary was a fruitful source of trouble. Under the
French, Acadia was roughly coterminous with the present provinces of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and part of the State of Maine; but
Acadia proper was the peninsula of Nova Scotia. There, and on the
immediately adjoining coast of the mainland, the fighting and the
raids took place. It was not until after the Peace of Utrecht was
signed that Cape Breton Island, whose name recalls the nationality of
early voyagers to North America, became, under the new title of Ile
Royale, a renowned stronghold of France; while Prince Edward Island,
the Ile de {171} St. Jean, played little part in the early history of
North America.
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 36, note.]
[Sidenote: _The peninsula of Nova Scotia._]
Linked to the continent by the isthmus of Chignecto, sixteen miles in
breadth, the peninsula of Nova Scotia runs for some 300 miles
north-east and south-west, parallel to the North American coast. From
that coast it is separated on the southern side of the isthmus by the
Bay of Fundy--the Baie Francoise as it was called in old days--a bay
into which the sea runs strong and which divides at the head, forming
on the left, the mainland side, Chignecto Bay, on the right the Basin
of Mines. The shores of this latter land-locked basin were in the
eighteenth century a well-known scene of Acadian settlement, and here
stood the village of Grand Pre. On the same side of Nova Scotia,
lower down than the Basin of Mines, is Annapolis harbour, better
known in old days as Port Royal. The opposite sides of New Brunswick
and Maine are deeply indented by the estuaries of various rivers--the
St. John, the St. Croix, now the border stream between Canada and the
United States, and, further south, the Penobscot and the Kennebec,
names that constantly occur in the story of Acadian and New England
warfare. Cape Sable--the sand cape--is the southernmost point of Nova
Scotia: midway on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is Halifax
harbour, formerly known as Chebucto; and on the north the narrow
strait known as the Gut of Canso divides Nova Scotia proper from Cape
Breton Island. Cape Breton Island on the south, Newfoundland on the
north, mark the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are the
buttresses of the main gateway of Canada.
[Sidenote: _Geographical importance of Acadia._]
Sea-girt and sea-beaten was and is Acadia, with broken shores and
many bays, where fishermen and freebooters came and went: a land to
nurse a hardy race in small and scattered settlements, nestling in
nooks and corners by inlets of the sea. Its importance did not lie in
natural riches, but in its geographical position. It was the
borderland of French and {172} English colonization. Whoever held in
strength Acadia and Cape Breton on the one side, and Newfoundland on
the other, could command the river of Canada.
[Sidenote: _Acadia was in the English sphere of colonization, but was
all important to France._]
Taking the two spheres of colonization, the seaboard settlements of
the English on the one hand, the inland river settlements of the
French on the other, it is clear that Acadia naturally belonged to
the former; it was within the sphere of which Boston was the centre,
not within that which was ruled by Quebec. The coasts of Maine, of
New Brunswick, and of Nova Scotia prolong the shores of New England:
any dividing line has been made by man not by nature. The Boston
fishermen went faring north, not into strange waters or by foreign
coasts, for land and sea were as their own. Between Quebec and Port
Royal, on the other hand, there was no natural connexion, yet the
possession of Acadia was of more vital importance to France than to
England. With Acadia in French hands the New England colonies could
still grow in strength; but English occupation of Acadia, Cape
Breton, and Newfoundland meant the beginning of the end for New
France, the closing of the St. Lawrence, if England kept command of
the sea. Thus it was that in the negotiations which ended in the
Treaty of Utrecht the French King fought hard to keep Acadia, and,
thwarted in this endeavour, made the most of Cape Breton Island,
rearing in it the strong fortress of Louisbourg.
[Sidenote: _Early settlers in Acadia._]
Acadia then was a borderland, and its history resembled that of other
borderlands. Its first settlers were French, and the majority of the
scanty population remained French in language, in tradition, in
religion, in sympathy; but for years rival adventurers squabbled and
fought, with doubtful allegiance to England or France.
[Sidenote: _The De la Tours._]
We have seen how in 1613 the freebooter Argall,[2] sailing up from
Virginia, destroyed Poutrincourt's settlement at Port Royal. In spite
of this disaster, Biencourt, {173} Poutrincourt's son, with a handful
of Frenchmen, few but sturdy, still held fast to the shores of
Acadia. Among them was a French Huguenot, Claude Etienne de la Tour,
who with his son, Charles de la Tour, had come out from France in or
about the year 1609. When the Port Royal settlement was broken up, he
crossed over to the mouth of the Penobscot, and held a station there
until the year 1626, when he was driven out by an expedition from New
England. Biencourt appears to have died either in Acadia or in France
about the year 1623, and the younger La Tour became the foremost man
among the French settlers, holding a small fort near Cape Sable,
which seems to have been known by various names--Fort Louis, Fort
l'Omeroy or Lomeron, and Fort or Port Latour. In 1627, according to
the ordinary account, the father went to France to interest the
French Government in the fortunes of Acadia, and to secure the
position and title of Governor for his son. It was the year in which
Richelieu founded the company of the One Hundred Associates, and in
1628 a French squadron was sent out to America. The ships were
intercepted by David Kirke, and Claude de la Tour, who was on board,
was carried a prisoner to England.
[Footnote 2: See above, p. 42.]
[Sidenote: _Sir William Alexander._]
[Sidenote: _His patent._]
[Sidenote: _Nova Scotia._]
Acadia had by this time acquired a second name, its present name of
Nova Scotia. A Scotch scholar of some repute, William Alexander, born
near Stirling, became tutor to Prince Henry, son of James VI of
Scotland and I of England, and rose to high favour at Court. He was a
prolific writer, composed tragedies and sonnets, and after the King's
death completed a metrical version of the Psalms which James had
begun. In 1621 Sir William Alexander, as he then was, obtained from
the King a grant of the Acadian peninsula, Cape Breton Island, and
all the mainland from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, the whole
territory within these wide limits being given the name of New
Scotland or Nova Scotia.
The terms of the charter were of the most liberal kind, and {174}
Alexander was constituted Lieutenant-General for the King, with
practically sovereign powers. The grant was made as an appanage of
the kingdom of Scotland; and, in seeking for and obtaining it,
Alexander seems to have been stimulated by the fact that an English
charter had lately been given to Fernando Gorges in the region of New
England. In other words, the patent represented the effort of an
energetic Scotchman to bring his country and his people into line
with the English in the field of western adventure.
[Sidenote: _Alexander's scheme of colonization._]
[Sidenote: _The baronets of Nova Scotia._]
Cape Breton Island he made over to another Scotchman, Sir Robert
Gordon, of Lochinvar, and went to work to find settlers for the rest
of his domain. His scheme was not taken up warmly; two ships were
sent out in 1622 and 1623, but no settlement was formed, and he found
himself involved in a debt of 6,000 pounds. He tried to rouse
enthusiasm for the colonization of New Scotland by publishing a
pamphlet entitled _An Encouragement to Colonies_; and, finding that
it met with little response, he hit upon the device of inducing the
King, who a few years before had created baronets of Ulster, to
establish also an order of baronets of New Scotland. The recipients
of the honour were to have grants of land on the other side of the
Atlantic, and the fees which they paid would, it was hoped, recoup
past losses and provide funds for future colonization.
[Sidenote: _Renewal of the patent by Charles I._]
King James having died, his successor Charles I, in 1625, renewed
Alexander's patent, and formally ratified the creation of the Nova
Scotian order, the honours being to a certain extent taken up under
pressure from the King. A new expedition was now set on foot, but in
the meantime news came that Richelieu had formed a rival company, and
that the French were preparing to make good their old title to
Acadia. The prospect of foreign competition gave fresh vigour to the
enterprise; Kirke offered his services to Alexander, and in 1628
captured Richelieu's squadron; while earlier in the same year four
ships in charge of {175} Alexander's son landed a party of settlers
safely at Port Royal, who established themselves on the site of the
old French settlement. In the following year Kirke took Quebec.
[Sidenote: _The elder La Tour joins Alexander._]
The elder La Tour, we have seen, was brought a prisoner to England.
There he seems to have transferred his allegiance to Great Britain,
in the words of an old record to have 'turned tenant'[3] to the
English King. According to one account, he married a maid of honour
to the Queen. At any rate, he threw in his lot with Alexander, was
created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1630 received for himself
and his son--also created a baronet--two baronies in the Nova Scotian
peninsula. In the same year he seems to have returned to Acadia with
some more Scotch colonists, and vainly attempted to induce his son,
who was still holding the fort near Cape Sable, to come over to the
British cause, and take up the grant and honours which had been
conferred upon him. The son, we read, would yield neither to
persuasion nor to force, and the elder La Tour apparently went on to
the Scotch settlement at Port Royal.
[Footnote 3: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1574-1660, pp.
119-20.]
[Sidenote: _Fort Latour built._]
[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France._]
Already, in 1629, the Convention of Susa had been signed between the
Kings of England and France. Charles La Tour received a message of
encouragement from France; and, coming to terms with his father,
crossed over to the mainland, where he built Fort Latour at the mouth
of the river St. John.[4] In 1631 he was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor by the French King; and in 1632 the Treaty of St.
Germain-en-Laye restored to France 'all the places occupied in New
France, Acadia, and Canada' by British subjects.
[Footnote 4: The exact date at which the La Tours founded the fort is
very uncertain.]
[Sidenote: _The Scotch settlement at Port Royal abandoned._]
This treaty put an end to Scotch colonization of Acadia, and nothing
is now left to tell of Alexander's enterprise beyond the name of Nova
Scotia. The Scotch emigrants returned {176} home, or were lost among
the outnumbering French, and the old station of Port Royal was either
at the time or a few years afterwards entirely deserted. The site on
the northern or western side of Annapolis Basin was subsequently
known as Scots Fort; but the later Port Royal, which Phipps and
Nicholson took, was situated five miles away, on the other side of
the estuary, and is now the town of Annapolis.
[Sidenote: _Death of Alexander._]
Alexander never made good his losses. He died in 1640, in high honour
and position, having been Secretary of State for Scotland and
ennobled as Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada; but he must have
learnt, as all who had dealings with the Stuarts learnt, not to put
his trust in princes; for his well-meant scheme to make a New
Scotland, which should rival New France, ended, through the tortuous
policy of the King whom he served, in utter failure.
[Sidenote: _Razilly, Denys, and D'Aunay._]
Isaac de Razilly was sent by Richelieu to receive Acadia back from
Alexander's representatives, upon the conclusion of the Treaty of
1632, and to be Governor of the country. With him went out, among
other settlers, Nicholas Denys, a native of Tours, and Charles de
Menou de Charnizay, known also as the Chevalier d'Aunay. Acadia now
became the scene of intestine feuds between Frenchmen with rival
claims and interests.
[Sidenote: _French adventurers in Acadia._]
It is exceedingly difficult to trace the relations between the
various adventurers, where they went and what they did. Razilly, who
was Governor-in-chief, settled at La Heve on the Atlantic coast of
Nova Scotia. D'Aunay seems to have driven out the New Englanders from
the Penobscot, and taken possession of Pentegoet at its mouth.
Charles La Tour held his fort on the estuary of the St. John, his
father having died or disappeared from the story, and raided, in or
about 1633, an outpost established by the Plymouth settlers at
Machias, north of the Penobscot. Denys formed trading stations at
Chedabucto, now Guysboro, at the eastern end of the Nova Scotian
peninsula, and in Cape Breton Island, {177} leaving to posterity an
account of Acadia and Cape Breton, in his book entitled _Description
des Costes de l'Amerique Septentrionale_.[5]
[Footnote 5: Charlevoix's account is that Acadia was divided into
three provinces, both for government and for ownership. Razilly had
the superior command over all, and was given Port Royal and the
mainland south to New England; Charles La Tour had the Acadian
peninsula, excluding Port Royal; and Denys had the northern district
from Canso to Gaspe, including Cape Breton Island. This leaves out
D'Aunay, and the arrangement, if it existed, was modified, inasmuch
as Razilly settled at La Heve, and Charles La Tour was on the river
of St. John.]
[Sidenote: _Feud between D'Aunay and Charles La Tour._]
Razilly died in 1635 or 1636; his brother, Claude de Razilly,
assigned his rights in Acadia to D'Aunay, and between the latter and
Charles La Tour a deadly quarrel ensued. D'Aunay, it would seem,
re-established Port Royal on the present site of Annapolis, making it
the principal settlement of Acadia instead of La Heve. His rival, La
Tour, had strong claims both on France and on Acadia. He had been far
longer in the country than D'Aunay, he had in trying circumstances
retained his allegiance to the Crown of France, he had been given a
commission by the King, and moreover something was owing to him in
virtue of the grants which Alexander had made in 1630 to his father
and himself, which grants appear to have been subsequently construed
into a transfer of the whole of Alexander's patent. However, D'Aunay
had the ear of the French Court.
It is stated[6] that, in 1638, the King prescribed certain boundaries
between the two rivals, but the delimitation had no effect; for in
1640 La Tour seems to have attacked Port Royal, with the result that
he was taken prisoner with his wife, both being released at the
intercession of French priests. In the next year, 1641, D'Aunay
obtained an order from home which revoked La Tour's commission and
empowered his enemy to seize him, if he refused to submit, and send
him prisoner to France. La Tour now turned for help to New England,
and, in 1643, after long and scriptural {178} debates by the Puritans
as to the lawfulness of aiding 'idolaters,'[7] succeeded in hiring
four ships at Boston to join him in raiding D'Aunay's property. In
the following year, however, an emissary from D'Aunay came to Boston
to protest against English interference; and in October, 1644, a
convention was concluded between the New Englanders and D'Aunay,
providing for mutual peace and free trade.
[Footnote 6: By Haliburton in his _History of Nova Scotia_, vol. i,
p. 53.]
[Footnote 7: The younger La Tour was not, like his father, a
Huguenot.]
[Sidenote: _Madame La Tour._]
[Sidenote: _D'Aunay gains possession of Fort Latour._]
D'Aunay had now the upper hand, and Madame La Tour becomes the
heroine of the story. She had followed her husband's fortunes with
undaunted courage, and had been to France to plead his cause. Going
on to London, she took passage on board ship, the master contracting
to take her to Fort Latour. Instead of carrying out his contract, he
wasted time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and finally landed her at
Boston, where she brought an action against him and was awarded
damages of 2,000 pounds. Reaching Fort Latour, she was attacked there
by D'Aunay in 1645,[8] while her husband was absent, and the garrison
reduced to a very few men. She held the fort, notwithstanding, with
so much determination, and in spite of treachery within the walls,
that D'Aunay agreed to a capitulation, by which all the lives of the
defenders were to be spared. The terms were broken as soon as he
obtained possession of the fort, and the whole of the garrison was
put to death, with the exception of Madame La Tour and one man who
was spared to act as hangman to the rest. Madame La Tour herself was
compelled to witness the execution with a rope round her neck, and
three weeks afterwards she died.
[Footnote 8: According to Haliburton, D'Aunay besieged Madame La Tour
in the fort twice, being beaten off the first time. Kingsford gives
the date of the siege as 1647.]
[Sidenote: _Later career of Charles La Tour._]
Ruined and an outlaw, La Tour found his way to Newfoundland, where he
tried in vain to enlist the aid of the {179} English governor, Sir
David Kirke. He is said also to have visited Quebec and Hudson Bay,
and in his distress to have made an ill return for the kindness which
had been shown to him at Boston, by raiding a ship from that port and
ejecting her crew on to the Nova Scotian coast in the middle of
winter. Ultimately, in 1650, D'Aunay died, and La Tour, who must have
had a keen eye to business, some little time after married the widow.
New complications now arose. A creditor of D'Aunay, Le Borgne by
name, came out from France to enforce his claims against D'Aunay's
property, and in virtue of those claims to take possession of Acadia.
He first attacked Denys[9] at Chedabucto, and took him prisoner. He
was next preparing to attack La Tour, when events took a wholly
different turn, and the English again became masters of Acadia.
[Footnote 9: Denys went to France and secured, in 1654, the
restitution of his property, together with a commission as Governor
from Cape Canso to Cape Rosiers or Race, i.e. of Cape Breton, Prince
Edward Island, and Newfoundland. He was then raided by another
Frenchman, Giraudiere. He seems to have eventually given up his
stations in Cape Breton, and in 1679 was at Quebec, old and blind.]
[Sidenote: _The English under Sedgwick take Acadia._]
Cromwell, in 1654, sent out an expedition to take Manhattan Island
from the Dutch, Major-General Sedgwick being in command. Peace being
made with the Netherlands, the force intended to drive the Dutch out
of Manhattan was turned against the French in Acadia; and in quick
succession, Sedgwick reduced the fort at Penobscot, La Tour's station
on the St. John, and Port Royal, where Le Borgne was at the time.[10]
Mazarin attempted to recover these posts under the twenty-fifth
article of the Treaty of Westminster of November 3, 1655; but, less
complaisant than the Kings who {180} preceded or who followed him,
Cromwell refused to entertain the proposals for a transfer.
[Footnote 10: Sedgwick was shortly afterwards sent to Jamaica, where
he died in June, 1656. In Appendix xxviii to Carlyle's _Oliver
Cromwell_, reference is made to the taking of the French forts in
Acadia, with the following characteristic but not very accurate note:
'Oliver kept his forts and his Acadie through all French treaties for
behoof of his New Englanders. Not till after the Restoration did the
country become French again, and continue such for a century or so.']
[Sidenote: _La Tour and Temple become owners of Acadia._]
[Sidenote: _Death of La Tour._]
La Tour now turned to account the fact that he had been created a
Nova Scotian baronet and received a grant from Alexander; he became a
British subject; and on August 10, 1656, letters patent were issued
by which he became, under the name of Sir Charles La Tour, joint
owner of Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crowne. Very
shortly afterwards he sold his interest to Temple, but appears to
have remained in Acadia, where he died in 1666.
[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France by the Treaty of Breda._]
Temple, who received a commission from Cromwell as Governor of
Acadia, and went out there in 1657, laid out money in the country and
carried on trade with energy and success. He maintained the existing
stations, planted a new settlement at Jemseg on the St. John river,
higher up than Fort Latour, and drove out a son of Le Borgne, who
attempted to reoccupy La Heve; but, like Alexander before him, he
suffered at the hands of the Stuarts, for Charles II, after renewing
his commission as Governor and creating him a baronet of Nova Scotia,
subsequently, in spite of remonstrances from Massachusetts, restored
Acadia to France by the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, in return for
French concessions in the West Indies. Temple attempted to dispute
the extent covered by the treaty, but with no effect; and, in 1670,
the whole area became again a French possession. Temple retired to
Boston with a promise of 16,200 pounds which he never received, and
finally died in London in 1674.
The above is a bare recital of early days in Acadia, when it was, in
effect, no man's land. The story might be made picturesque, with La
Tour and his first wife for hero and heroine, with some embellishment
of Alexander's scheme, and a little dressing of D'Aunay, Denys, and
the other adventurers who come on the scene; but in truth it is a
very slender record of two or three Frenchmen and Englishmen, who did
a little trade or a little fishing on desolate {181} shores, and who
plundered each other in rather squalid fashion--left to themselves by
their rulers, except when their acts or their claims had a bearing on
international questions.
[Sidenote: _Acadia under French rule._]
When Temple retired in 1670 in favour of a new French commander, De
Grandfontaine, the total number of settlers in Acadia did not exceed
400. Some new French colonists now came in: the beginning of
settlement was made at Chignecto and the Basin of Mines, and
communication was for a time opened by land between Acadia and
Quebec. The great majority of the French inhabitants were at Port
Royal; but Pentegoet on the Penobscot was the seat of government,
until, in 1674, it was taken and plundered by a Dutch privateering
vessel, the same fate befalling the fort of Jemseg on the St. John
river. Chambly, who had succeeded Grandfontaine as Commander in
Acadia, was carried off a prisoner to Boston, and Pentegoet was for
the time abandoned by the French. Two years later, in 1676, it was
occupied by the Dutch; but the latter were in their turn driven out
by the New Englanders,[11] and the place passed into the hands of a
Frenchman notable in Acadian border warfare, the Baron de St. Castin.
[Footnote 11: In the Government records at The Hague, under date Oct.
27, 1678, there is a claim of the Netherlands West India Company
against Great Britain to the forts of Penobscot and St. John in
Acadie and Nova Scotia, and a request that they may be allowed to
remain in quiet and peaceable possession thereof.]
[Sidenote: _St. Castin at Pentegoet._]
He was a Bearnese, and had come out to Canada as an officer in the
Carignan Regiment. Finding, like other Frenchmen, a charm in forest
life, he drifted off to Acadia and lived as an Indian among Indians,
a devout Roman Catholic, but in other respects a native chief, with
his squaws and following of savage warriors. He established himself
at Pentegoet, on or near the site of the old fort, where Castine now
stands; he raided and was raided; in time of peace making money by
trade, in time of war joining in the border forays. For Pentegoet was
the southernmost {182} station of the French, standing on soil
claimed by the English, and granted by Charles II to the Duke of
York. Similarly, Pemaquid, near the Kennebec, established in 1677,
was the northernmost post of the English; and, if there was a line
between the two nations, it was between Pentegoet and Pemaquid. But
French influence extended to the Kennebec river, and Indian converts
of French priests were to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of
Pemaquid.
[Sidenote: _French priests and the Abenaki Indians._]
In 1676, the war between the New Englanders and the neighbouring
Indians, known as Philip's war, came to an end, leaving bitterness
between the conquered natives and victorious colonists. Hatred of the
English meant love of the French; and the Abenaki Indians of Acadia
and Maine, under the tutelage of fanatical and unscrupulous French
priests, became trained to enmity with the heretics; many of them
migrated to mission stations in Canada; while those who remained
behind were ever ready to obey the call to murder and pillage. In
Acadia, even more than in Canada proper, the Indian as a convert
became the tool of the Frenchman, and the Frenchman lent himself to
the barbarism of the Indian. The full effects of the unnatural blend
were seen and felt a little later on; but for twenty years after the
Treaty of Breda and the restoration of Acadia to France, there was
more often peace than war between the English and the French; and the
Boston fishermen were, about 1678, licensed for the time being by the
French Commandant, La Valliere, to ply their trade on the Acadian
coasts.
[Sidenote: _French Governors and colonists of Acadia._]
With some trading of this kind and with a good deal of privateering,
the years passed by. Perrot, who had been Governor of Montreal and
had distinguished himself even among French officials of the time for
corrupt practices, succeeded La Valliere in 1684, with a commission
as Governor of Acadia. Still intent on enriching himself by illicit
trade, he was recalled in 1687, and his place was taken by Meneval.
The latter, like Perrot, was subordinate to the {183}
Governor-General of Canada, and the number of colonists whom he ruled
was, according to a census held in 1686, 858, 600 of whom lived at or
near Port Royal, and the remainder chiefly at Beaubassin at the head
of Chignecto Bay, and on the Basin of Mines.
[Sidenote: _Acadia ceded to England by the Peace of Utrecht._]
In 1688, Andros, then Governor of the New England colonies, plundered
St. Castin's station at Pentegoet; the French and Indians retaliated,
taking the fort of Pemaquid in the following year; and there followed
a long series of butcheries and reprisals, of which an account has
already been given in a preceding chapter, the taking of Fort Royal
by Phipps in 1690, and, in 1710, its final surrender to Nicholson. In
the end, the Treaty of Utrecht provided in its twelfth article that
'all Nova Scotia or Accadie with its ancient boundaries' should be
'yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown
for ever.'
[Sidenote: _Henry Hudson sails to the Arctic regions and is lost._]
[Sidenote: _The search for the North-West Passage._]
[Sidenote: _Button._]
We have seen[12] that, in 1609, Henry Hudson led Dutchmen into the
present State of New York, and left his name to the river on which
the city of New York stands. In the following year, he took service
under an English syndicate, to make a further attempt to find a
North-West Passage to the Indies. In April, 1610, he started in a
small ship, the _Discovery_, found his way through Hudson Straits
into Hudson Bay, wintered at the extreme south-eastern end of James'
Bay, and, cast adrift by his mutinous followers in the following
summer, never saw home again, 'dearly purchasing the honour of having
this large Strait and Bay called after his name.'[13] The Arctic
seas, where he met his death, and where his name has lived through
the centuries, were visited again and again by English explorers,
still seeking for the North-West Passage. One voyager after another
went out, hoping to return by China and the East. In April, 1612,
Captain Button set forth with two ships, one of which was {184}
Hudson's old vessel, the _Discovery_, reached the western coast of
Hudson Bay--which was long called after him, Button's Bay--wintered
at Port Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson river, and returned in the
autumn of 1613.
[Footnote 12: See above, p. 63.]
[Footnote 13: Oldmixon's _British Empire in America_ (1741 ed.), vol.
i, p. 543.]
[Sidenote: _Royal charter granted to the Merchants Discoverers of the
North-West Passage._]
His instructions had been drawn up by the young Prince of Wales,
Prince Henry, who died not long afterwards; and three months after
Button started, the merchants at whose expense both his expedition
and Hudson's had been fitted out, were incorporated under royal
charter as the 'Company of the Merchants of London Discoverers of the
North-West Passage,' having the Prince of Wales as governor or
'Supreme Protector,' and including among many well-known names that
of Richard Hakluyt.
[Sidenote: _Gibbons._]
[Sidenote: _Bylot and Baffin._]
In 1614, the _Discovery_ was sent out again under the command of
Captain Gibbons, but returned in the same year, having penetrated no
further than Hudson Strait. In 1615, Bylot and Baffin set sail for
the North, again taking with them the _Discovery_; they too returned
in the same year, concluding that the North-West Passage was not to
be found by the way of Hudson Straits. Once more, in the next year,
1616, the same men went out, and once more the stout old ship, the
_Discovery_, carried them, the voyage resulting in the exploration of
Baffin Bay. For two years after their return there was a respite from
Arctic voyages, but in 1619 Captain Hawkridge led a fresh expedition,
which proved a failure.
[Sidenote: _Luke Foxe and Thomas James._]
Much money had now been spent in the attempt to find a North-West
Passage, and little had been achieved; but after an interval of
twelve years, in 1631, two more Arctic voyages took place. One
expedition was commanded by a Yorkshireman, Luke Foxe, the other by
Captain Thomas James, who was connected with Bristol. The former was
backed by London merchants, the latter was a Bristol venture; but
both received sanction and encouragement from the King. James' voyage
was unfortunate and barren of result; but Foxe, {185} though he did
not find the Passage, which was the one aim and object of all these
early attempts, completed the exploration of Hudson Bay, and
penetrated further north than previous sailors by the way of what is
still known as Fox Channel.
[Sidenote: _The period of discovery in the far North followed by
trading enterprise._]
With these two voyages the first chapter in Arctic discovery comes to
an end. As in the record of English colonization we have a distinct
break between the time of discovery and adventure on the one hand,
and the time of trade and settlement on the other, so even in the far
North there was a time of exploration, followed after an interval by
a time of trade. All the early voyages, which have been recounted
above, were voyages of discovery, and, though they were fitted out
for the most part by syndicates of merchants, their object was not to
bring back furs, or to establish trading stations, but to search for
a new route to the East.[14]
[Footnote 14: A most excellent account of the early voyages in search
of a North-West Passage is given in Mr. Miller Christy's Introduction
to the _Voyages of Foxe and James to the North-West_ (Hakluyt
Society, 1894).]
[Sidenote: _Zachariah Gillam._]
[Sidenote: _Radisson and Des Groseilliers._]
Forty years passed away and, in the year 1668, an English ship once
more found its way into Hudson Bay. The ship was named the _Nonsuch_,
her commander was Captain Zachariah Gillam, and Prince Rupert seems
to have had a hand in sending her out. The expedition was designed to
establish trade with the Indians, and Gillam wintered in James Bay,
near where Hudson had wintered in 1610, building a fort called
Charles Fort at the mouth of a river which was named Rupert river.
The fort was subsequently known as Fort Rupert or Rupert House. It is
stated that this new enterprise was undertaken in consequence of
information received from two French settlers in Canada named
Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and that the latter was on board
Gillam's ship, while Radisson had embarked on another vessel which
started from England with Gillam, but put back on account of stress
of weather.
{186} [Sidenote: _French claims to priority in Hudson Bay._]
How far these two Frenchmen contributed to the beginning of trade in
Hudson Bay, and to the founding of the Hudson Bay Company, has been a
matter of much controversy. The question was originally of some
importance, for French claims to priority of occupation in the Arctic
regions rested in large measure on the real or the alleged doings of
the two adventurers. Like the rest of the world, they must have heard
of the existence of Hudson Bay, for the voyages to discover the
North-West Passage, though not made by Frenchmen, were not made in
secret; and they had gathered information from the Indians of Canada
as to the possibilities of fur trading in these northern regions.
They had more than once attempted, between 1658 and 1663, to make
their way by land to the bay, but never seem to have reached its
shores; and the first recorded overland visit from Canada, is that of
a French priest, Albanel, who, in 1671-2, journeyed from Quebec to
Lake St. John, and thence, by the line of the Rupert river, came to
the sea, to find an English factory already established at the mouth
of the river.
[Sidenote: _Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company._]
[Sidenote: _Rupert's Land._]
Gillam returned to England in 1669, and on May 2, 1670, the Hudson
Bay Company came into existence. On that day Charles II issued a
royal charter, creating a corporate body under the title of 'The
Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's
Bay.' Prince Rupert was the first Governor; Albemarle, Ashley, and
Arlington were among the original grantees. The preamble of the
charter recited that the persons named had 'at their own great cost
and charges, undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay, in the
North-West part of America, for the discovery of a new passage into
the South Sea, and for the finding some trade for furs, minerals, and
other considerable commodities'; and in their corporate capacity the
Company were constituted absolute lords and proprietors, with a
complete monopoly of trade of all the lands and seas 'that lie within
the entrance of the straits, commonly called Hudson's {187} Straits,'
so far as they were not already actually granted to or possessed by
British subjects, or the subjects of any other Christian Prince or
State. The charter enacted that 'the said land' should be 'from
henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our plantations or colonies
in America, called Rupert's Land.'
[Sidenote: _Operations of the company._]
Armed with practically unlimited powers over an unlimited area, the
company lost little time in sending out ships and establishing
factories. In addition to Fort Rupert at the south-eastern end of
James Bay, Fort Hayes, or Moose Fort, was constructed at the
south-western end of the bay, at the mouth of the Moose river; and
some distance to the north of the latter fort, Fort Albany was placed
at the outlet of the Albany river. Voyages were also made to the
mouth of the Nelson river, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, but no
attempt was made to plant a factory there till the year 1682.
[Sidenote: _Collision between French and English in Hudson Bay._]
[Sidenote: _A Canadian company formed._]
It was in that year and at Fort Nelson, as it was called, that French
and English first came into collision in the far North. Radisson and
Des Groseilliers, who had taken service with the English in
consequence of being fined by the Governor of Canada for making their
early journeys without his licence, subsequently returned to Canada,
and piloted their countrymen by sea into Hudson Bay. A company was
formed in Canada in 1682, the Compagnie du Nord, and sent out an
expedition from Quebec with these two men on board. They reached the
Nelson river; a few days before they arrived a Boston vessel appeared
on the scene, and a few days subsequently a vessel came from England,
sent by the Hudson Bay Company to build a fort. After a short
interval the French overpowered the English; but two years later, in
1684, Radisson and Des Groseilliers having in the meantime again come
back to the Hudson Bay Company, that company recovered its fort, and
the French lost their footing on Hudson Bay.
{188} [Sidenote: _Attack made overland from Canada on the English
forts on Hudson Bay._]
In the following year two Frenchmen passed overland from the bay to
Canada by the Abbitibbi river, Lake Temiscaming, and the Ottawa; and
it was determined to send a Canadian expedition by that route to
attack the factories of the Hudson Bay Company. The rulers of Canada
viewed with distrust English settlements to the north of New France,
as they feared and distrusted the English colonies on the southern
side, and they determined if possible to strangle them in infancy.
Denonville was now Governor of Canada; and early in the year 1686 he
dispatched a party of soldiers and Canadians to attack the forts on
Hudson Bay. It was the kind of expedition in which French Canadians
excelled, indifferent to privation and hardship, trained to toil
through ice and snow, through unknown forests, making the rivers the
highways for sleigh or canoe. Their leader was De Troyes, and with
him went three sons of the celebrated Le Moyne family, including the
most noted of them, Iberville. The Frenchmen followed the line of the
Ottawa and the Abbitibbi, and in June, 1686, surprised and took Fort
Hayes on the outlet of the Moose river. Crossing the eastern end of
James Bay on the floating ice, they next reached Fort Rupert, seized
a ship which was moored in front of the fort, and overpowered the
fort itself. The sea was by this time open to navigation, and in
canoes and the captured vessel the victorious Frenchmen turned west
to attack Fort Albany. There was here some semblance of siege, but
the little English garrison was forced to capitulate, and leaving
Iberville in charge of the fort, which was renamed Fort St. Anne, De
Troyes returned in November to Canada.
[Sidenote: _Complaints of the Hudson Bay Company against the seizure
of their forts._]
[Sidenote: _The English forts recovered._]
This successful raid was organized and carried out in a time of peace
between the English and French Crowns; and, when the Englishmen who
had been taken prisoners at the forts found their way home, the
Hudson Bay Company laid the case before the Government, demanding
satisfaction for the wrong done and restitution of their property.
{189} There was little likelihood of redress while James II was King
of England. On November 16, 1686, he concluded a treaty of neutrality
with the French King, the Treaty of Whitehall; and a mixed commission
of French and English was appointed to inquire into the claims of the
company. No settlement was arrived at: in 1688 came the Revolution in
England; in 1692 the battle of La Hogue crippled the French at sea;
and at length, in 1693, an English expedition was sent to Hudson Bay
which recovered all the forts in James Bay.
[Sidenote: _Iberville takes Port Nelson and the forts in James Bay._]
[Sidenote: _They are recovered by the English._]
The northernmost post of the Hudson Bay Company, the post on the
Nelson river, or rather on the Hayes river, which flows into the same
estuary, had not been taken by the French in their buccaneering
expedition of 1686. It was known indifferently as Port Nelson or Fort
York. It was at some distance from the forts in James Bay, and
promised to be an outlet for trade from the regions west of the great
lakes. It had been threatened by the French in 1690, and in October,
1694, the bold and restless Iberville, who had returned to Canada in
1687, appeared before it with two ships. After a short siege it
capitulated, and was renamed Fort Bourbon; and Iberville followed up
his success by recapturing the forts in James Bay. Thus, by the
middle of 1695, the French held every post in Hudson Bay. In the next
year came English ships, and all the positions were regained for
England.
[Sidenote: _Fresh raid by Iberville._]
[Sidenote: _The Peace of Ryswick._]
[Sidenote: _The Peace of Utrecht._]
[Sidenote: _Hudson Bay secured to England._]
Once more, in 1697, Iberville appeared on the scene. He had in the
meantime taken Fort Pemaquid on the Acadian frontier, and overrun
Newfoundland; and starting from Placentia, with four ships of war
sent out from France, he made sail for Hudson Bay. The destination
was Port Nelson; but the vessels became separated, and with a single
ship, Iberville, when nearing the fort, came into collision with
three armed English merchantmen. The bold Frenchman closed with them,
one to three, sank one of the vessels, took a second, {190} while the
third made its escape. A heavy gale came on, his own ship was driven
ashore and broken up; but landing with his men, he was rejoined
shortly afterwards by the rest of the French squadron, and laying
siege to the fort compelled it to capitulate. This feat of arms took
place early in September, 1697; on the twentieth of the same month
the Peace of Ryswick was signed, and under its terms the French were
placed in possession of all the Hudson Bay forts, with the exception
of Fort Albany.[15] They held them down to the year 1713, when the
Peace of Utrecht in no uncertain words gave back to Great Britain 'to
be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson,
together with all lands, seas, seacoasts, rivers and places situate
in the same Bay and Straits and which belong thereunto, no tracts of
land or of sea being excepted, which are at present possessed by the
subjects of France.' Boundaries, which by the treaty were to be
defined, were never fixed; but no French ship appeared again with
hostile intent in Hudson Bay until the year 1782.
[Footnote 15: The manner in which the Treaty of Ryswick worked out in
favour of the French in Hudson Bay is explained, as far as it can be
explained, in Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. iii, pp. 39-41.]
NOTE.--For the first part of the above chapter, see
KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. ii.
Sir J. BOURINOT'S _Cape Breton_ (referred to above, p. 34, note).
The same author's _Canada_, in the 'Story of the Nations' Series,
chap. vii, and
Dr. PATTERSON'S Paper on _Sir William Alexander and the Scottish
Attempt to Colonize Acadia_, published in the _Proceedings and
Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, vol. x, 1892.
For the second part, see KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii.
Two books have recently been published on the Hudson Bay Company,
viz: _The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company_, by GEORGE
BRYCE, M.A., LL.D., and _The Great Company (1667-1871)_, by BECKLES
WILSON.
{191}