The Great Company Part 49

The residence was the only two-storey house in the fort, and before its door were mounted two old eighteen-pounders. Two swivel guns stood before the quarters of the chief factor. A prominent position was occupied by the Roman Catholic chapel, to which the majority of the fort's inmates resorted, the dining-hall serving for the smaller number of Church of England worshippers. The other buildings were dwellings for officers and men, school and warehouses, retail stores and artisan shops. The interior of the dwellings exhibited, as a rule, an unpainted pine-board panel, with bunks for bedsteads, and a few other simple pieces of furniture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORT SIMPSON.]

Another post on the Pacific, of different character and greater strength, was Fort Walla Walla. It stood on the site of Fort Nez Perce, which was established when the Indians attacked Ogden's party of fur-traders here in 1818. The a.s.sault was repelled; but it was found necessary as a safeguard to rear this retreat. Fort Walla Walla was built of adobe and had a military establishment.

A strong fort was Fort Rupert, on the north-east coast of Vancouver Island. For a stockade, huge pine trees were sunk into the ground and fastened together on the inside with beams. Round the interior ran a gallery, and at two opposite corners were flanking bastions mounting four nine-pounders. Within were the usual shops and buildings, while smaller stockades protected the garden and out-houses.

Fort Yukon was the most remote post of the Company. It was beyond the line of Russian America, and consequently invited comparison with the smaller and meaner Russian establishments. Its commodious dwellings for officers and men had smooth floors, open fire-places, glazed windows, and plastered walls. Its gun room, fur press, ice and meat wells were the delight and astonishment of visitors, white and red.

[Ill.u.s.tration: YORK FACTORY.]

After the treaty of 1846, by which the United States obtained possession of Oregon territory, the headquarters of the Company on the Pacific Coast were transferred from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria.

This post was enclosed one hundred yards square by cedar pickets twenty feet high. At the north-east and south-west corners were octagonal bastions mounted with six six-pounders. It had been founded three years earlier as a trading post and depot for whalers, and possessed more than three hundred acres under cultivation, besides a large dairy farm, from which the Russian colonies in Alaska received supplies.

Old Fort Kamloops was first called Fort Thompson, having been begun by David Thompson, astronomer of the North-West Company, on his overland journey from Montreal to Astoria, by way of Yellowhead Pa.s.s, in 1810.

It was the capital of the Thompson River district, and one of the oldest in all the Oregon region. After Thompson, hither came Alexander Ross, who, in 1812, conducted operations there on behalf of Astor's Pacific Fur Company. After the coalition in 1821, the veteran fur-trader, John McLeod, was in charge of the Thompson River district.

Then came Ermatinger, who presided at Kamloops in 1828, when Governor Simpson visited the fort and harangued the neighbouring Indians, beseeching them to be "honest, temperate and frugal; to love their friends, the fur-traders, and above all to bring in their heaps of peltries, and receive therefor the goods of the Company."

[Sidenote: Legend of Kamloops.]

The post was not without thrilling legends and abundance of romance.

It was here that the Company's officer in command, Samuel Black, in 1840, challenged his brother Scot, and guest, David Douglas, the wandering botanist, to fight a duel, because the latter bluntly, one night, over his rum and dried salmon, had stigmatized the Honourable Adventurers as "not possessing a soul above a beaver skin." Black repelled in fury such an a.s.sertion; but Douglas refused to fight. He took his departure, only to meet his death shortly afterwards by falling into a pit at Hawaii, while homeward bound.

If this was the fate of the calumniator of the Company, that of its defender was not less tragic; for soon after his display of loyalty, while residing at Fort Kamloops, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by the nephew of a friendly neighbouring chief, named Wanquille, "for having charmed his uncle's life away." Black's successor, John Tod, built a new fort on the opposite side of the river, which differed but little from the later fortresses of the Company. There were seven houses, including stores, dwellings and shops, enclosed in palisades fifteen feet in height, with gates on two sides and bastions at two opposite angles.

Early in 1848 a small post was erected by the Company on the Fraser River, near a village of the Lachincos, adjacent to the rapids ascended by Alexander Anderson the previous year. The fort was called Yale, in honour of Chief Factor Yale, who was at that time in charge of Fort Langley. It was the only post on that wild stream, the Fraser, between Langley and Alexandria, a distance of some three hundred miles. Two causes led to its erection: the Waiilatpu ma.s.sacre in 1847, and the conclusion of the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which placed the boundary line several degrees north of the Lower Columbia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FATHER LACOMBE.]

[Sidenote: Mountain House.]

Perhaps one of the most remarkable of the Company's posts was Mountain House. "Every precaution known to the traders," writes a visitor of thirty years ago, "has been put in force to prevent the possibility of a surprise during 'a trade.' Bars and bolts, and places to fire down at the Indians who are trading, abound in every direction; so dreaded is the name borne by the Blackfeet, that it is thus their trading-post has been constructed." Eighty years ago, the Company had a post far south of the Bow River, in the very heart of the Blackfeet country; but, despite all precautions, it was frequently plundered and finally burnt down by the Blackfeet, and no attempt was since made to construct another fort in their country.

The hilly country around Fort Pitt was frequently the scene of Indian ambush and attack, and on more than one occasion the post itself has been captured by the Blackfeet. The surroundings are a favourite camping-ground of the Crees; and it was found difficult to persuade the Blackfeet that the factors and traders there are not the active friends and allies of their enemies. In fact, they regarded both Fort Pitt and Fort Carlton as places belonging to another company from that which ruled at Mountain House and Edmonton. "If it was the same company," they were wont to say, "how could they give our enemies, the Crees, guns and powder; for do they not give us guns and powder, too?"

The strength of the Company throughout the vast region where their rule was paramount, was rather a moral strength than a physical one.

Its roots lay deep in the heart of the savage, who in time came to regard the great corporation as the embodiment of all that was good, and great, and true, and powerful. He knew that under its sway justice was secured to him; that if innocent he would be unharmed, that if guilty he would inevitably pay the penalty of his transgression. The prairie was wide, the forests were trackless, but in all those thousands of miles there came to be no haven for the horse-thief, the incendiary or the murderer, where he would be free, in his beleaguered fastness, to elude or defy Nemesis. The Company made it its business to find and punish the real offender; they did not avenge themselves on his friends or tribe. But punishment was certain--blood was paid for in blood, and there was no trial. Often did an intrepid factor, trader or clerk, enter a hostile camp, himself dest.i.tute of followers, walk up to the trembling malefactor, raise his gun or pistol, take aim, fire, and seeing his man fall, stalk away again to the nearest fort.

"This certainty of punishment," it was said, "acted upon the savage mind with all the power of a superst.i.tion. Felons trembled before the white man's justice, as in the presence of the Almighty."

That sense of injustice which rankled in the bosoms of the other Indians of the Continent, causing them to continually break out and give battle to their tormentors and oppressors--a warfare which, in 1870, had cost the United States more than five hundred million of dollars, could not exist. The Red men, as Red men, could have no well-founded grievance against the Company, which treated white and red with equity.

[Sidenote: The Great Company's Policy.]

"I have no hesitation in attributing the great success attendant for so many years upon the Indian policy of the Hudson's Bay Company,"

wrote an American Commissioner, Lieutenant Scott, in 1867, "to the following facts:--

"The savages are treated justly--receiving protection in life and property from the laws which they are forced to obey.

"There is no Indian Bureau with attendant complications.

"There is no pretended recognition of the Indian's t.i.tle in fee-simple to the lands on which he roams for fish or game.

"Intoxicating liquors were not introduced amongst these people so long as the Hudson's Bay Company preserved the monopoly of trade.

"Prompt punishment follows the perpetration of crime, and from time to time the presence of a gunboat serves to remind the savages along the coast of the power of their masters. Not more than two years ago the Fort Rupert Indians were severely punished for refusing to deliver up certain animals demanded by the civil magistrate. Their village was bombarded and completely destroyed by Her Britannic Majesty's gunboat _Clio_."

What was the direct consequence of such a policy? That among distant and powerful tribes trading posts were built and maintained, well stocked with goods tempting to savage cupidity, yet peacefully conducted by one or two white men. There was not a regular soldier in all this territory (except the marines on shipboard and at Esquimault) and yet white men could hunt through the length and breadth of the land in almost absolute security.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GATEWAY TO FORT GARRY.

(_Drawn by Edmund Morris, from a Photo taken in 1877._)]

Search all Europe and Asia, and you will find no parallel to the present sway of the Company, for it feeds and clothes, amuses and instructs, as well as rules nine-tenths of its subjects, from the Esquimaux tribes of Ungava to the Loucheaux at Fort Simpson, thousands of miles away--all look to it as to a father.

The communication with the outside world is slight, yet the thread that binds is encrusted with h.o.a.r frost, reaching far away to that little island in the North Sea which we call Britain. If these strong men, immured for years in the icy wildernesses are moved by the news which reaches them twice in the year, through a thousand miles and more of snow, it is British news. Kitchener's victory at Khartoum sent a patriotic thrill through thousands of bosoms six months after it became known to the Englishman who is content to live at home.

THE HUDSON'S BAY POSTS.

In their Report of 28th June, 1872, the Governor and Committee report the details of the varied posts from Ocean to Ocean of the Hudson's Bay Company, as follows:--

_Statement of Land belonging to the HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, exclusive of their claim to one-twentieth of the Land set out for settlement in the "Fertile Belt."_

========================+====+==========================+======= Acres DISTRICT. POST. of Land ------------------------+----+--------------------------+------- Lake Huron 1 La Cloche 6,400 Temiscaminque 2 Kakababeagino 10 Superior 3 Long Lake 10 United States 4 Georgetown 1,133 Manitoba, or } 5 Fort Garry 500 Red River Settlement } 6 Lower Fort 500 7 White Horse Plains 500 Manitoba Lake 8 Oak Point 50 Portage la Prairie 9 1,000 Lac la Pluie 10 Fort Alexander 500 11 Fort Frances 500 12 Eagles Nest 20 13 Big Island 20 14 Lac du Bennet 20 15 Rat Portage 50 16 Shoal Lake 20 17 Lake of the Woods 50 18 White Fish Lake 20 19 English River 20 20 Hungry Hall 20 21 Trout Lake 20 22 Clear Water Lake 20 23 Sandy Point 20 Swan River 24 Fort Pelly 3,000 25 Fort Ellice 3,000 26 Qu'Appelle Lakes 2,500 27 Touchwood Hills 500 28 Shoal River 50 29 Manitoban 50 30 Fairford 100 c.u.mBERLAND 31 c.u.mberland House 100 32 Fort la Corne 3,000 33 Pelican Lake 50 34 Moose Woods 1,000 35 The Pas 25 36 Moose Lake 50 37 Grand Rapid Portage 100 50 Acres at each end of Portage SASKATCHEWAN 38 Edmonton House 3,000 39 Rocky Mountain House 500 40 Fort Victoria 3,000 41 St. Paul 3,000 42 Fort Pitt 3,000 43 Battle River 3,000 44 Carlton House 3,000 45 Fort Albert 3,000 46 Whitefish Lake 500 47 Lac la Biche 1,000 48 Fort a.s.siniboine 50 49 Lesser Slave Lake 500 50 Lac St. Anne 500 51 Lac la Nun 500 52 St. Albert 1,000 53 Pigeon Lake 100 54 Old White Mud Fort 50 ENGLISH RIVER 55 Isle a la Crosse 50 56 Rapid River 5 57 Portage la Loche 20 58 Green Lake 100 59 Cold Lake 10 60 Deers Lake 5 YORK 61 York Factory 100 62 Churchill 10 63 Severn 10 64 Trout Lake 10 65 Oxford 100 66 Jackson's Bay 10 67 G.o.d's Lake 10 68 Island Lake 10 NORWAY HOUSE 69 Norway House 100 70 Berens River 25 71 Grand Rapid 10 72 Nelson's River 10 ALBANY 73 Albany Factory 100 74 Martin's Falls 10 75 Osnaburg 25 76 Lac Seul 500 EAST MAIN 77 Little Whale River 50 78 Great Whale River 50 79 Fort George 25 MOOSE 80 Moose Factory 100 81 Hannah Bay 10 82 Abitibi 10 83 New Brunswick 25 RUPERT'S RIVER 84 Rupert's House 50 85 Mista.s.sing 10 86 Temiskamay 10 87 Woswonaby 10 88 Meehiskun 10 89 Pike Lake 10 90 Nitchequon 10 91 Kamapiscan 10 KINOGUMISSEE 92 Matawagauinque 50 93 Kuckatoosh 10 LABRADOR 94 Fort Nascopie 75 95 Outposts do 25 96 Fort Chimo (Ungava) 100 97 South River, Outposts 30 98 George's River 50 99 Whale River 50 100 North's River 25 101 False River 25 ATHABASCA 102 Fort Chippewyan 10 103 Fort Vermilion 500 104 Fort Dunvegan 50 105 Fort St. John's 20 106 Forks of Athabasca River 10 107 Battle River 5 108 Fond du Lac 5 109 Salt River 5 MCKENZIE RIVER 110 Fort Simpson 100 111 Fort Liard 300 112 Fort Nelson 200 113 The Rapids 100 114 Hay River 20 115 Fort Resolution 20 116 Fort Rae 10 117 Fond du Lac 10 118 Fort Norman 10 119 Fort Good Hope 10 120 Peel's River 10 121 Lapierre's House 10 122 Fort Halkett 100 ------------------------+----+--------------------------+------

WESTERN DEPARTMENT.

===============+========================================+====== Acres DISTRICT. POST. of Land ---------------+----+-----------------------------------+------ VANCOUVER'S 123 Victoria, including Town Lots, ISLAND about 70 124 Esquimault (Puget's Sound Company's Land) 2,300 125 Uplands Farm 1,125 126 North Dairy Farm 460 BRITISH 127 Fort Alexander 100 COLUMBIA 128 Fort George 100 129 Fraser's Lake 100 130 Stuart's Lake 100 131 McLeod's Lake 100 132 Connolly's Lake 100 133 Babine 100 134 Chilcotin 100 Five other places 100 135 Fort Dallas 50 136 Fort Berens 50 137 Fort Shepherd 100 138 Fort Simpson 100 139 Salmon River 50 140 Langley and Langley Farm 2,220 141 Yale, sundry small blocks 142 Hope 5 143 Kamloops 1,976 144 Similkameen 1,140 Barkerville } Town Quesnel } Lots.

APPENDIX.

THE CHARTER INCORPORATING THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.

_Granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second, in the 22nd Year of his Reign, A.D. 1670._

CHARLES THE SECOND, by the grace of G.o.d, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c.