The Great Company Part 33

"I a.s.sume, your Honours," wrote John Townsend, "that had we shown a front to the enemy, our fort would have outlasted their ammunition, and then they would have been completely at our mercy."

[Sidenote: Hearne blamed for surrendering.]

The Company was very indignant at the conduct of Governor Hearne. They demanded the reason of his not sending a scout overland to apprise the Governor of York Factory of the enemy's proximity. To this Hearne replied that he was given no opportunity, and that any such scout would have been inevitably seized and slain.

On the 11th of August the French fleet set sail for Port Nelson and anch.o.r.ed there. One of the Company's ships was in the harbour at the time, and the captain, perceiving the approach of three large ships, and scenting danger, put out to sea in the night. He was instantly pursued by a frigate, which obviously outsailed him. Whereupon Captain Fowler tacked and made for the south in the hope of enticing the Frenchman into shallow water. But her commander was by no means to become so easy a prey to destruction, and refused to follow.

On the following day the news was brought to the Governor that the enemy was landing in fourteen boats, provided with mortars, cannon, scaling ladders, and about three hundred men, exclusive of marines.

York Factory at this time was garrisoned by sixty English and twelve Indians. Its defence consisted of thirteen cannon, twelve and nine pounders, which formed a half-moon battery in front; but it being thought probable that the enemy would arrive in the night and turn these guns against the fort, they were overturned into the ditch. On the ramparts were twelve swivel guns mounted on carriages, and within were abundance of small arms and ammunition. Besides, a rivulet of fresh water ran within the stockades; and there were also thirty head of cattle and as many hogs within the confines of the fort.

On the 22nd, two Indian scouts were sent out to obtain intelligence; these returned in about three hours with the information that, in their judgment, the enemy were less than a league distant. Indeed they had heard several guns fired in the neighbourhood of the fort; and at sunset of that day all could plainly discern a large fire, presumably kindled by the French about a mile and a half to the west.

[Sidenote: French attack York factory.]

At ten o'clock the next morning, the enemy appeared before the gates.

"During their approach," says one of those in the fort at the time, "a most inviting opportunity offered itself to be revenged on our invaders by discharging the guns on the ramparts, which must have done great execution."

Unhappily, the Governor was hardly the man for such an occasion. He knew nothing of war, and had a wholesome dread of all armed and equipped soldiery. He trembled so that he could scarcely stand, and begged the surgeon, "for G.o.d's sake to give him a gla.s.s of liquor to steady his nerves." There being none at hand, he swallowed a tumbler of raw spirits of wine. This so far infused courage and determination into his blood, that he peremptorily declared he would shoot the first man who offered to fire a gun. Dismay took possession of many of the Company's servants, and the second in command and the surgeon endeavoured to expostulate. To avert this, the Governor caught up a white sheet with his own hand and waved it from a window of the fort.

This was answered by the French officer displaying his pocket handkerchief.

Under the sanction of this flag of truce, a parley took place. The Governor was summoned to surrender within two hours.

But no such time was needed by the Governor; and the fort was most ingloriously yielded in about ten minutes. In vain did the council plead that this fort might have withstood the united efforts of double the number of those by whom it was a.s.sailed in an attack with small arms. In vain they demonstrated that from the nature of the enemy's attack by way of Nelson River, they could not use their mortars or artillery, the ground being very bad and interspersed with woods, thickets and bogs. The Governor was resolved to yield the place, and he carried out his intention much to the astonishment and satisfaction of La Perouse.

[Sidenote: Unwise surrender.]

The unwisdom of the surrender was afterwards made too apparent. It was made to a half-starved, half-shod body of Frenchmen, worn out by fatigue and hard labour, not a man of whom was familiar with the country. It was perceived also, when it was too late, that the enemy's ships lay at least twenty miles from the factory, in a boisterous sea.

Consequently, they could not co-operate with their troops on sh.o.r.e, save with the greatest difficulty and uncertainty, and if the fort had held out a few weeks it would have been impossible. The French troops could have received no supplies but what came from the ships; and cold, hunger and fatigue were working hourly in favour of the Company's men.

La Perouse now issued orders for the fort to be evacuated and burned, and the Company's people were taken prisoners.

The Company suffered great loss by the capture of York Factory, which had, as we have seen, remained in their possession since the Treaty of Utrecht. The whole of the furs which had not yet been sent on board the ship were destroyed, as well as a large quant.i.ty of stores, implements and appliances which had been collecting for nearly seventy years.

This expedition had resulted in two cheap conquests for La Perouse.

But the fortunes of war bade fair to alter the situation. The Company sent in a bill to the British Government of many thousands of pounds for failing to protect their fort on Churchill River; and when peace was proclaimed, the French plenipotentiary agreed on behalf of his master to settle this bill.

Fort Prince of Wales was never rebuilt. Its ruins stand, to-day, to mark the most northern fortress on the continent of North America, scarcely inferior in strength to Louisburg or to Quebec. "Its site,"

remarks Dr. Bell, "was admirably chosen; its design and armament were once perfect; interesting still as a relic of bygone strife, but useful now only as a beacon for the harbour it had failed to protect."

Although the French themselves sustained no loss from the English in their brief campaign against the fort; yet, owing to the severity of the climate and their own inexperience, they lost five large boats, a considerable quant.i.ty of merchandise and fifteen soldiers who were drowned in Hays' River after the surrender of the fort.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] The Eastern traders were always known by this t.i.tle, as though hailing from Boston, in contradistinction to the "King George men."

[78] Upon the new post was bestowed the name of c.u.mberland House.

[79] The following were the prices paid by the Company about 1780, at its inland posts:--

A gun 20 Beaver skins.

A strand blanket 10 do.

A white do. 8 do.

An axe of one pound weight 3 do.

Half a pint of gunpowder 1 do.

Ten b.a.l.l.s 1 do.

The princ.i.p.al profits accrued from the sale of knives, beads, flint, steels, awls and other small articles. Tobacco fetched one beaver skin per foot of "Spencer's Twist," and rum "not very strong," two beaver skins per bottle.

[80] "What folly," asks one of the Company's servants, "could be more egregious than to erect a fort of such extent, strength and expense and only allow thirty-nine men to defend it?"

[81] An account of Hearne's journey was found in MS. among the papers of the Governor, and La Perouse declares in his memoirs that Hearne was very pressing that it should be returned to him as his private property. "The goodness of La Perouse's heart induced him to yield to this urgent solicitation, and he returned the MS. to him on the express condition, however, that he should print and publish it immediately on his arrival in England." "Notwithstanding this,"

observes Mr. Fitzgerald, "Hearne's travels did not appear until 1795, _i.e._, twenty-three years after they were performed." This gentleman, so distinguished in his zeal to prove a case against the Company, evidently overlooks the circ.u.mstance of the gist of travels having been issued in pamphlet form in 1773 and again in 1778-80. The volume of 1795 was merely an application--the product of Hearne's leisure upon retirement.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1783-1800.

Disastrous Effects of the Compet.i.tion -- Montreal Merchants Combine -- The North-Westers -- Scheme of the a.s.sociation -- Alexander Mackenzie -- His two Expeditions Reach the Pacific -- Emulation Difficult -- David Thompson.

[Sidenote: Compet.i.tion of the Canadian traders.]

For many years up to 1770, before the traders from Canada had penetrated their territory, York Factory had annually sent to London at least 30,000 skins. There were rarely more than twenty-five men employed in the fort at low wages. In 1790 the Company maintained nearly one hundred men at this post, at larger wages, yet the number of skins averaged only about 20,000 from this and the other posts. The rivalry daily grew stronger and more bitter. Yet from what has been seen of the habits and character of the Canadian bushrangers and peddlers, it is almost unnecessary to say that the Company's Scotchmen ingratiated themselves more into the esteem and confidence of the Indians wherever and whenever the two rivals met. The advantage of trade, it has been well said, was on their side--because their honesty was proven. But there was another reason for the greater popularity of the Company amongst the natives, and it was that the princ.i.p.al articles of their trading goods were of a quality superior to those imported from Canada.

The extraordinary imprudence and ill-manner of life which characterized the Montreal traders continually offset the enterprise and exertions of their employers. Many of these traders had spent the greater portion of their lives on this inland service; they were devoid of every social and humane tie, slaves to the most corrupting vices, more especially drunkenness. So that it is not strange that they were held in small esteem by the Indians, who, a choice being free to them, finding themselves frequently deceived by specious promises, were not long in making up their minds with whom to deal.

"Till the year 1782," says Mackenzie, "the people of Athabaska sent or carried their furs regularly to Fort Churchill, and some of them have since that time repaired farther, notwithstanding they could have provided themselves with all the necessaries which they required. The difference of the price set on goods here and at the factory, made it an object with the Chippewans to undertake a journey of five or six months, in the course of which they were reduced to the most painful extremities, and often lost their lives from hunger and fatigue. At present, however, this traffic is, in a great measure, discontinued, as they were obliged to expend in the course of their journey, that very ammunition which was its most alluring object."

[Sidenote: Montreal merchants combine.]

But the Company was now threatened with a more determined and judicious warfare by the better cla.s.s of Canadian traders. The enterprise had been checked, first by the animosity of the Indians, and at the same time by the ravages of the smallpox, but during the winter of 1783-4, the Montreal merchants resolved, for the better prosecution of their scheme, to effect a junction of interests, by forming an a.s.sociation of sixteen equal shares, without, however, depositing any capital. The scheme was to be carried out in this way: Each party was to furnish a proportion of such articles as were necessary in the trade, while the actual traders, or "wintering partners," of these merchants were to receive each a corresponding share of the profits. To this a.s.sociation was given, on the suggestion of Joseph Frobisher, the name of the North-West Company. The chief management of the business was entrusted to the two Frobishers and Simon McTavish, another Scotch merchant in Montreal.

In May, 1784, accordingly, Benjamin Frobisher and McTavish went to the Grand Portage with their credentials from the other partners in the new undertaking. Here they met the bulk of the traders and voyageurs, who were delighted to hear of the new scheme. These entered heartily into the spirit of the undertaking, and that spring embarked for the west with the merchandise and provisions brought them, with a lighter heart than they had known for years, and with a determination to profit by the disasters of the past. Not all of the chief traders, it must be said, cast in their lots with the new company. Two, named Pond and Pangman, opposed it; and finding a couple of merchants who were willing to furnish sufficient capital, resolved to strike out for themselves as rivals to the North-West company. This action occasioned, as might be expected, great bitterness and disorder.

Nevertheless, it was the means of bringing to light a young Scotchman from the Isles, whose name will be forever linked with the North-West.

His name was Alexander Mackenzie.

[Sidenote: Alexander Mackenzie.]

This young man had been for five years in the counting-house of Gregory, one of the merchants who had allied themselves with the two malcontents. It was now decided that Mackenzie should set out with Pond and Pangman in their separate trading venture into the distant Indian country. A more perilous business than this can scarcely be imagined. Besides the natural difficulties, the party had to encounter all the fiercest enmity and opposition of which the adherents of the new a.s.sociation were capable. It is enough to say that after a fearful struggle they forced the latter to allow them a partic.i.p.ation in the trade. But the feat which resulted in the coalition of the two interests in 1787 cost them dear. One of the partners was killed, another lamed for life, and many of their voyageurs injured. Yet the establishment thus joined, and shorn of all rivals save the Great Company, was placed on a solid basis, and the fur-trade of Canada began to a.s.sume greater proportions than it had yet done under the English _regime_. As this North-West concern was finally itself to merge into the Company of which these chapters are the history, it will not be unprofitable to glance at its const.i.tution and methods, particularly as the economic fabric was to be likewise transferred and adapted to its Hudson's Bay rival.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.]

[Sidenote: The North-West company.]

It was then, and continued to be, merely an a.s.sociation of merchants agreeing among themselves to carry on the fur-trade by itself, although many of these merchants plied other commerce. "It may be said," observes Mackenzie, "to have been supported entirely on credit; for whether the capital belonged to the proprietor, or was borrowed, it equally bore interest, for which the a.s.sociation was annually accountable." The company comprised twenty shares unequally divided and amongst the parties concerned. "Of these a certain proportion was held by the people who managed the business in Canada and were styled agents for the company. Their duty was to import the necessary goods from England, store them at their own expense at Montreal, get them made up into articles suited to the trade, pack and forward them and supply the cash that might be wanting for the outfits." For all this they received, besides the profit on their shares, an annual commission on the business done. A settlement took place each year, two of the partners going to Grand Portage to supervise affairs of that growing centre, now outrivalling Detroit, Michilimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie. The furs were seen safely to the company's warehouse in Montreal, where they were stored pending their shipment to England.

This cla.s.s were denominated agents for the concern.