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For the next few years
Thompson's work was confined to the Province of Alberta, but before we
follow him let us consider what had been done by those who preceded him.
As we have seen, Peter Pangman of the North West Company ascended the
North Saskatchewan as far as the site of Rocky Mountain House in 1789.
Angus Shaw built Fort George in 1792 and Fort Augustus in 1794. In 1795
George Sutherland of the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Edmonton,
probably naming it after Edmonton, near London, England, the birthplace
of John Prudens, his clerk. Buckingham House also had been built in the
neighborhood of Fort George but the date is uncertain, probably 1793. In
1798 the North West Company sent James Hughes to build a fort close to
Fort Edmonton, which was called New Fort Augustus, on the site of the
present city of Edmonton. It was in charge of Hughes and Macdonald of
Garth. Macdonald tells us in his autobiographical notes that there was
another fort at Edmonton, "a new concern which assumed a powerful shape
in the name of the XY Co., at the head of which was the late John
Ogilvie in Montreal and at this establishment a Mr. King, an old south
trader in his prime and pride as the first among bullies." The new
concern, as Macdonald calls it, was composed of the dissatisfied
partners of the North West Company, who had retired and were organized
into a company in 1795 by the firm of Messrs. Forsyth, Richardson and
Company of Montreal. The name by which the company was designated was
given to it on account of the symbols XY used to mark the bales of fur
and to distinguish them from those of the North West Company, usually
marked NW. It was not really the legal name of the company. The XY
Company during its existence included some of the most enterprising men
that ever engaged in the fur trade, including Sir Alexander Mackenzie
who, as we have seen, was never on cordial relations with old Simon
McTavish and we may take John Macdonald's estimate of them as "A new
concern which assumed powerful shape" as a measure of the race they gave
the old North West Company. The XY Company also had a post at Fort
George. The most westerly post on the North Saskatchewan was Rocky
Mountain House built about a mile above the confluence of the Clearwater
and the Saskatchewan in 1799 by Macdonald of Garth.
Up to this time there had
been but one fort built on the South Saskatchewan, if we except Fort La
Jonquiere of De Niverville in 1751. This was South Branch House near
Gardepui's Crossing. It is not known exactly when it was established but
Thompson visited it October 18th, 1793, and Peter Fidler says that the
Hudson's Bay Company post was plundered June 24th, 1794, though the
North West Company house close by escaped. After this the fort was
abandoned until 1804 when a new post was established six miles farther
up the river.
We are now in a position
to follow Thompson in his various expeditions throughout the province.
We left him at Fort George. In the spring of 1800 he set out on
horseback to Fort Augustus and thence to Rocky Mountain House, taking
the well known Blackfoot trail from Fort Augustus. On May 5th he
embarked at Rocky Mountain house and made a survey of the Saskatchewan
River to The Elbow. On his way down he found the Hudson's Bay Company
men encamped at Buck Lake Creek, eight miles below Goose Encampment. He
passed White Mud House at the mouth of Wabamun Creek in charge of a
clerk named Hughes of the North West Company. On May 7th he reached Fort
Augustus and three days later passed Fort George, his starting place.
Fort George was by this time in a ruinous condition and was being
abandoned for a fort a few miles up the river called Island Fort built
by De Coigne in 1801, situated in section 19, township 56, range 5, west
of the 4th meridian. On May 18th he left Fort George and mentions the
ruins of several old posts observed by him, viz., Umfreville's old
house, in section 4, township 53, range 25 west 3rd meridian on May
20th. He mentions another Island House near the old site of Manchester
House where he spent the winter of 1793—and Turtle River house in
section 4, township 36, range 18 west 3rd meridian. Before he reached
The Elbow he must have noticed the site of Cole's old post where Cole
gave the laudanum to the Indians in 1780. He went on to Grand Portage
and in the autumn returned to Rocky Mountain House, then in charge of
Duncan McGillivray.
Rocky Mountain house and
Alexander Mackenzie's old fort on the Peace River were now to be
Thompson's headquarters during the years he was to spend in Alberta and
before he began his transmontane explorations. On October 5th Thompson
traveled up the Clearwater and over to the Red Deer River and visited a
camp of the Peigans at the mouth of William Creek. From there he
travelled twenty-two miles vest to conduct a band of Kootenay Indians to
Rocky Mountain House. When the Indians were ready to return he sent two
of his men, Le Blanc and Le Gassi, with them to spend the winter in
their home across the mountains. These men were, as far as we know, the
first white men to cross from the Saskatchewan to the Columbia River.
Accompanied by Duncan McGillivray, a North West Company partner,
Thompson went south again until he reached the Bow River in the vicinity
of Calgary. According to Tyrell's summary he surveyed the northeast side
of the river down to a short distance below the bend, where he crossed
it and went on to the Highwood River which he reached two miles above
its mouth. From here he turned a little west of south and reached a camp
of the Peigans in latitude 50 degrees, 35 minutes, 30 seconds north,
travelling on Tongue Flag Creek. He was now farther south in Alberta
than any white man had yet reached, except Peter Fidler of the Hudson's
Bay Company, who was at the foot of Chief Mountain in 1792. "After
stopping here for a short time," says Tyrell, "in order to establish
friendly relations with these Indians, he turned northward and again
reached the Bow River at a point which he places in latitude 51 degrees,
13 minutes, 51 seconds north, longitude 114 degrees, 58 minutes, 22
seconds west, a short distance from the mouth of the Ghost River. From
here he followed the Bow River upwards on its south bank for three miles
and then fording the stream, followed the trail on its north bank to the
steep cliffs of the mountains where the town of Exshaw is now located."
Here McGillivray killed a mountain sheep, possibly the first specimen to
reach the hands of systematic naturalists. Thence he returned to his old
camp on the Bow River and struck northward to Rocky Mountain House.
McGillivray explored the country towards the Brazeau River and the
country up the Saskatchewan to its headwaters and discovered Howse Pass,
which he crossed to the head of the Blaeberry River. Thompson,
accompanied by Hughes, explored the Saskatchewan up to Sheep Creek and
up the valley of this creek as far as horses could go. An effort was
made to go on with the canoe by a way over the mountains, but as the
river was in flood the expedition failed.
He returned to the fort
June 30th and towards the end of the summer came down to Fort Augustus
and back again on horseback. Here he remained until May, 1802, when he
went to Fort William and returned to Lesser Slave Lake in October of the
same year. Crossing the lake to a North West Company post where Grouard
now stands, he proceeded to the Peace River and took up his headquarters
at Mackenzie's old fort. He spent the winter at the fort, but was active
throughout the summer in exploration, making five trips from the fort
and back. In December of that year he was back at the North West Company
post on the west end of Lesser Slave Lake and crossed the lake to its
outlet to the Little Slave River where the principal North West Company
post on the lake was situated, and in charge of John McGillivray,
MacIntosh and Jarvis, clerks of the company. Here Thompson wrote a
number of letters to the agents of the Company at different posts for
porcupine quills, upon which Coues comments: "No doubt to adorn his
young wife." This was Thompson's substitute in those simple days for cut
glass or a wrist watch. He was back to the Forks on the Peace December
29th. On these trips he noticed the existence of XY posts at Peace River
Forks and near the head of Little Slave River.
On February 29th, 1804,
he journeyed up the Peace River to the most westerly posts of the North
West Company, Rocky Mountain house, which must be distinguished from the
one on the Saskatchewan where he wintered in 1800-1801, and also from
the Rocky Mountain House afterwards built on the Athabaska River within
the present Jasper Park, The Peace River Mountain House was in longitude
120 degrees, 38 minutes, a short distance beyond the boundary line
between Alberta and British Columbia. He arrived here on March 6th and
was back at headquarters March 13th. Two days later he set out with his
wife and children for Fort William. Ile travelled down the river to
Horse Shoe House, latitude 57 degrees, 8 minutes north, where he
remained from March 20th to April 30th until the river was clear of ice.
He then continued by canoe passing the North West Company post on May
2nd, which he calls Fort Vermilion, though it was considerably higher up
the river than the present Fort Vermilion of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Below it the following posts are mentioned in succession: Old Fort
DuTremble; Fort Liard, not far from the site of the present Fort
Vermilion; Fort Wenzel, five miles below the Vermilion Falls; and Grand
Marais of the North West Company, then deserted. On May 12th he reached
Athabaska House at the present site of Fort Chipewyan, in company with a
North West Company trader by the name of Wenzel. Crossing Lake Athabaska
he ascended the river and on May 17th passed Peter Pond's old fort,
reaching the mouth of the Clearwater, where McMurray now stands, on May
19th. From here he proceeded along the route he had already surveyed up
Clearwater River across the Methy Portage and thence by Cumberland House
to Fort William.
The next few years
Thompson spent in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. Meantime old Simon
McTavish died in 1804 and the XY Company amalgamated with the North West
Company. At the big meeting at Fort William in 1806, the North West
Company, renewed and strengthened by the union, resolved on a vigorous
policy of expansion and to follow up the work of Alexander Mackenzie.
Accordingly Thompson, the most suitable man in the service, was
delegated to open up relations with the Indians west of the mountains.
He arrived at Rocky Mountain House on the Saskatchewan, October 29th,
1806, then in charge of Jules Quesnell. Here he spent the winter
1806-1807 maturing plans for his transmontane expedition. With wife and
family he started on May 10th, sending Finan Macdonald ahead with canoes
up the river while he travelled on horseback. The party passed Kootenay
Plain and reached a spot in the mountains where they were forced to
abandon the canoes. They packed their supplies on horses and reached the
summit of Howse Pass June 25th. Emerging from the pass the party
descended the Blaeberry River to the Columbia, which Thompson called the
Kootenay, which he reached on June 30th. The reader will wonder why this
pass is called Howse. Joseph Howse was a clerk of the Hudson's Bay
Company. He crossed the pass in 1809, two years later than Thompson. The
pass was really discovered and traversed first by Duncan McGillivray in
1800 and Jaco Finlay, the Indian half brother of James Finlay, who kept
an outpost of the Rocky Mountain House at Kootenay Plain, and had been
over the pass in 1806. Howse, however, was the best publicity agent and
so carried off the honour.
Thompson spent the next
twelve months on the Columbia trading with the Indians, but returned to
the Saskatchewan via Howse Pass, reaching Kootenay Plain June 22nd,
1808. Leaving his family at Boggy Hall, he descended the river by canoe
and went east as far as Rainy Lake, returning to Boggy Hall, October 3rd
of the same year. This trip of Thompson's is interesting to Albertans
because of the observations he makes respecting the forts on the river
at this time. Boggy Hall is a new post to the reader. When it was built
we do not exactly know, but it was situated on the north bank of the
Saskatchewan between townships 46 and 47, range 9, just above Blue
Rapids. The next post was Fort Muskako in township 30, range 6 west 5th,
called Quagmire Hall by Henry. He does not mention Upper White Mud
House, Fort Edmonton, nor Fort Augustus, though we have seen that these
posts were in existence on his first trip down the river in 1800. Fort
George was in ruins and old Fort Augustus had been pillaged and
destroyed by the Blackfeet. He mentions Old Island Fort, twenty miles
above Fort George and a new fort within Alberta, viz., Fort Vermilion.
This fort was just built on the north side of the river opposite the
mouth of the Vermilion River. It was the headquarters of the district.
Alexander Henry the younger had just arrived from the Red River to take
charge of this fort for the North West Company. There was also a
Hudson's Bay Company post at this point in charge of Henry Hallett and
Robert Longmore. After spending 40 years with the Company Longmore left
the country, having saved £1800 in that time.
We find Thompson in the
Kootenay country across the mountains during the winter of 1808-1809 and
back again at new Fort Augustus (Edmonton of the present day) in June,
1809, where he met his old friend James Hughes, now partner of the North
West Company of whom Macdonald of Garth says "he was as brave a fellow
as ever treaded the earth." He sent his brigade eastward while he
returned to the Columbia, meeting Joseph Howse at Kootenay Plain on his
way back from the pass that falsely bears his name. We find him back on
the Saskatchewan again in 1810 on his way to Rainy Lake accompanied by
his family. By this time Upper Fort Augustus (present Edmonton) and Fort
Vermilion were abandoned and a new house built at the mouth of the White
Earth River, section 1, township 59, range 16, west 4th. Henry was in
charge of the post for the North West Company and Hallett for the
Hudson's Bay Company. Returning in the autumn with his canoes laden with
goods for the Colurnbia department he attempted to cross by his old
route—Howse Pass. His objective was now the mouth of the Columbia River.
Bad luck attended his attempts to reach the Columbia by this route. His
canoes were turned back at the head of the Saskatchewan by the Peigans
who were angry at the North West Company for supplying arms to their
enemies, the Kootenays. Not all the ability of Alexander Henry could
outwit the Indians, and Thompson was forced to find another route over
the Rocky Mountains.
The route he followed on
this expedition became one of the most important in the whole history of
trans-continental transportation in western Canada. From the time that
Thompson discovered the Athabaska Pass in 1810, it was the main highway
across Canada until the completion of the C. P. Railway in 1886.
Frustrated in his attempt to cross the Howse Pass, Thompson gathered his
men and horses at Boggy Hall and followed the old Indian trail until he
reached the Athabaska River near the point where the Canadian National
Railway reaches it now. This was in December, 1810. Proceeding up the
river he turned southward at the point where the Miette joins the
Athabasca to Whirlpool River and crossed the Athabasca Pass descending
Wood River to Boat Encampment on the Columbia. After unfortunate delays
at this point he finally reached the mouth of the Columbia July 15th,
1811, two months after the establishment of Fort Astoria by the Pacific
Fur Company, a new rival in the fur trade of the west, headed by John
Jacob Astor.
The reader will be
interested to learn that one of the principal members of Astor's party
sent out to found Astoria, was Alexander McKay, who accompanied
Mackenzie on his overland journey to the Pacific Ocean in 1793. The ship
"Tonquin" which brought the party from New York to the mouth of the
Columbia was blown up with all on board while on a trading voyage up the
west coast of Washington and Vancouver Island. Alexander McKay, chosen
to lead this expedition, lost his life in this disaster, and as we may
surmise, it was "an irreparable loss to the Company" as Franchere tells
us.
The next year Thompson
made his last journey through the Province. Returning from the Lower
Columbia to Boat Encampment, he crossed the Athabaska Pass May 8th, and
on May 11th was at Henry House at the confluence of the Miette with the
Athabaska, opposite the present station house at Jasper. From 1-lenry
House he proceeded by canoe down the Athabaska to the Little Slave River
and turned up to the North West Company post at the foot of the lake.
Continuing his journey down the Athabaska he reached the mouth of Lac la
Biche River and ascended to the Lake of the same name. Crossing the
Portage to Beaver River he descended to Isle a la Crosse. From here he
continued by the usual route to Fort William and thence to Terrebonne,
near Montreal. Here Thompson took up his residence and set to work to
prepare his wonderful map of Western Canada for the North West Company.
He never returned to the West again. Towards the end of his life he lost
his fortune, and the great explorer was forced to sell his instruments
and pawn his coat for food. The reader will observe that Thompson
traversed every principal river of the Province. He established the
first trans-continental trade route and made the first topographical
survey of western Canada. Like \Terendrye he has not received the fame
due his name for his great work.
This is an appropriate point at which to review progress made on the
Peace, Athabaska and Mackenzie Rivers since we parted with Alexander
Mackenzie in 1793. The twenty years that succeeded Mackenzie's
expeditions to the Pacific Ocean witnessed a rapid development of the
fur trade within Alberta and its adjacent territory. Thompson explored
the lower Columbia and the Kootenay and Simon Fraser following in the
footsteps of Mackenzie ascended the Peace River and reached the Fraser,
descending this turbulent stream to its mouth, 1806-07. There were now
three passes through the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia Department,—
Howse, Athabaska and Peace. A lucrative trade was springing up. Each
year the Peace and Saskatchewan were thronged to and fro with rich
cargoes of fur for the East and goods and supplies for the western
posts. Within the Province of Alberta and outlying territory many posts
were built, principally by the North West Company and the XY Company.
The Hudson's Bay Company found great difficulty in establishing trade in
these regions and cannot be said to have gained a foothold within the
period considered. Though Peter Fidler built Nottingham House in 1802 on
the site of the present Fort Chipewyan, beside North West post the
Hudson's Bay Company abandoned it in 1806 and retired from the whole
Athabasca district until 1815 when the company built Fort Wedderburne
near the same post. Posts were built by the rival Canadian companies all
the way from Hudson's Hope on the Peace River to Bears Lake Castle on
the west end of Great Bear Lake and up the Liard River to Fort Nelson on
the Nelson River.
Beginning at the west end
of the Peace we shall try to give the posts in order as they existed
when Thompson left the country in 1812. The first post was at Hudson's
Hope. This post was established by Simon Fraser and John Stewart in 1805
as the base for Fraser's explorations in New Caledonia. It was situated
on the north bank of the Peace. Subsequently there was a post on the
south bank of the river at the foot of the Canyon. Harmon, who passed
here in 1810 on his way to take charge of the North West Company affairs
in New Caledonia, called it Rocky Mountain Portage Fort. The next fort
was Fort St. John. Thompson does not mention this post in his survey of
the river in 1804. Tyrell says this was Rocky Mountain house and it is
marked on Tyrell's map. As Rocky Mountain House is a generic name, it is
evident the post is the same as Fort St. John.
Entering Alberta the next
post was Fort Dunvegan. This was a large, well built fort. Harmon
arrived here in 1808 and spent the winter here with a number of of North
West Company partners, among whom were John McGillivray, J. D. McTavish,
John McTavish, Archibald Norman Macleod and 32 others comprising clerks
and voyageurs, nine women and several children. Supplies of buffalo,
moose, red deer and berries were easily obtained, which no doubt was the
reason it was regarded as such a popular winter resort. The Indians in
the neighborhood were Beavers and a few Iroquois and were excellent
hunters. The Iroquois Indians were brought from the East by the North
West Company to assist in hunting furs. Potatoes, vegetables and barley
were grown and yielded large returns. In 1809 barley was cut on July
21st and Harmon says it was the finest he had ever seen in any country.
Proceeding down the river
the next fort was near the junction of the Smoky with the Peace. This
was where Alexander Mackenzie wintered before his dash to the Pacific
and where Thompson spent the winters of 1803 and 1804 and was called by
him the Fort of Forks.
Five miles below the
Smoky on the north side of the Peace was Macleod's Fort. This was a well
constructed fort, for James Mackenzie, a grouchy old partner of the
North West Company, stationed at Fort Chipewyan in 1799, complained that
the men's quarters at Macleod's Fort were better than those provided for
the bourgeois at Fort Chipewyan. There were five bastions, courtyards
everywhere and spacious gardens. Below this point, Thompson in his
voyage down the Peace in 1804 mentions forts in the following order:
Horse Shoe Fort, latitude 57 degrees, 8 minutes; Fort Vermilion,
considerably higher up the river than the present post of that name;
Fort DuTremble; Fort Liard, not far from the present site of Fort
Vermilion; Fort Wenzel, five miles below Vermilion Falls; Grand Marais,
and 'Athabasca House on the site of the present Fort Chipewyan. Harmon
ascended the Peace from Fort Chipewyan in 1808 and mentions Fort
Vermilion sixty miles above Virmilion Falls which would be near the site
of the present Fort Vermilion, lie also mentions Encampment Island Fort
but does not give its position and it is not marked on Thompson's map.
On Lake Athabaska, a new Fort Chipewyan was rising on the north side of
the lake on the site of the present fort. Beside the North West Company
fort was the Hudson's Bay Company fort built by Peter Fidler in 1802. It
is not definitely known when the new fort was built by the North West
Company, but it was there when Thompson came down in 1804. In the
Mackenzie River region, the reader will remember that Laurent Leroux
built a post on the north side of Great Slave in 1786. It was found to
be too distant from the Northern Chipewyans and ten years later Duncan
Livingstone was sent to build a fort eighty miles from the source of the
Mackenzie, which would place it near the site of Fort Providence. John
Thompson, who succeeded him in 1799, was killed on the lower reaches of
the Mackenzie by the Esquimaux. A post was later established on the west
end of Great Bear Lake soon afterwards known as Fort Franklin. In 1805
Alexander Mackenzie (not Sir Alexander) went down to old Fort Good Hope
and on his return left Charles Grant to build a post at Blue Fish River,
60 miles below Fort Norman. There was also a fort at the mouth of the
Clearwater as shown on Thompson's map, where Fort McMurray now stands.
Some of the best men of
of the service were generally stationed inside the Athabasca and
Mackenzie departments, indicating the importance of these regions as a
fur supply for the North West Company. The maintenance of these posts
was difficult and often hazardous owing to the possibility of starvation
and the hostility of the Indians. At Great Bear Fort in 1811, all but
one of the clerks starved to death.
Although the Athabaska
River was becoming at this time the principal highway from the plains to
the Pacific Coast, few posts were built along its course. The first we
have any record of is Henry House, built by William Henry, cousin of the
famous diarist, during the interval that Thompson was on the Columbia
from June, 1811, to May, 1812. Reference is made to this post by several
travellers who crossed the continent by this route. Gabriel Franchère,
who descended the Athabasca in May, 1814, on his way from Fort Astoria
with a number of North West Company men and Pacific Fur Company men,
mentions this post as "an old house which the traders of the North West
Company had once constructed, but which had been abandoned for four or
five years."
The next post down the
river was located on the west side on the lower end of Brule Lake.
Franchère called it "Rocky Mountain House" and described it as
"surrounded by steep rocks, inhabited only by mountain sheep and goats."
It was really the original site of Jasper's House, and so called after
Jasper Hawes or Howse, who built it. It was maintained as a provision
depot to facilitate traffic through the mountains to the Columbia River
posts. Joseph Decoigne, the founder of Fort D'Isle on the Saskatchewan
River, above Fort George, was in charge.
From this point
Franchère's party took canoes to a small post called "Hunter's Lodge"
some miles above the junction of the Pembina with the Athabasca, and
where a supply of canoes was kept for the use of North West Company men
who went up and down the river.
Ross Cox, who Passed down
the river in 1817, with a brigade of over eighty people of the Pacific
Fur Company from Astoria, says Henry's old fort was abandoned, and that
"Jasper's House" was a "miserable concern of rough logs with only three
apartments, but scrupulously clean." Jasper Hawes himself was now in
charge. In later years Jasper's House was built farther up the river at
the foot of Jasper Lake.
It will no doubt be
observed by the reader that the development of the fur trade was
confined to the northern part of the province. This was due to the
character of the country. The open plains of Southern Alberta were not a
good fur country. The only furs were buffalo and wolf skins, lightly
prized by the trader in comparison with marten, beaver, black and silver
fox of the Athabaska and Mackenzie districts.
The Blackfeet and Sarcees
found no difficulty in reaching the trading posts on the Saskatchewan
and could travel at all seasons of the year. The only post by this time
in the south country was Chesterfield house at the confluence of the Red
Deer River and the south branch of the Saskatchewan. It was built by
Macdonald of Garth for the North West Company in 1805. It was soon
abandoned, however, and not re-built until after the union of 1821. The
Hudson's Bay Company and XY Company had posts on the same site.
Conditions of living and
trade at the posts in Alberta were much the same as in other parts of
the North-West. Alexander Henry, the younger, who spent many years in
the Red River, Saskatchewan and Columbia districts for the North West
Company, has left in his extensive journals an instructive picture of
life in the province at the end of the 18th century. Henry arrived at
Fort Vermilion, situated as we have seen on the North Saskatchewan,
opposite where the Vermilion debouches into the Saskatchewan from the
south, in September, 1808, and spent three years on the Saskatchewan
visiting at different and frequent intervals the various posts from the
Vermilion to the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains. During this period
the bitter opposition that characterized the relations of the North West
Company and the Hudson's Bay Company had not developed. From Henry's
observations and Harmon's express statements, we learn that the rival
companies and their men lived on amicable terms. The whole occupation of
the people, Indians and traders, was obtaining food and fur. Indians
exchanged their furs for the merchandise of the company which was
imported into the country by the Hudson's Bay Company via York House and
Fort Churchill and by the North West Company via Fort William and Rainy
Lake. Transportation was by York Boats, canoes, dogs and horses. Red
River carts were not used in Alberta until many years later. Horses were
procured from the Blackfeet and Henry tells us the price of a horse in
his day was a keg of Blackfoot rum, 2 fathoms of new twist tobacco, 20
balls and powder enough to fire them, one awl, one scalper, one falcher,
one worm, I. P. C. glass, one steel and one flint. "We did not mix our
liquor," he says, "so strong as we did for tribes who are more
accustomed to use it. To make a nine gallon keg of liquor we generally
put in four or five quarts of high wine, then filled it up with water.
For the Crees and Assiniboines we put in six quarts of high wine and for
the Saulteurs eight or nine quarts." Horse stealing was very common
among the Indians and they were bold enough to steal from the company's
herds. In fact horse stealing persisted in the North-West until it was
finally and effectually stamped out by the N. W. M. P. and Chief Justice
Sifton over a century later.
When the goods arrived in
the fall the Indians thronged the forts to get their supplies, which
were advanced for the winter's hunt. Henry calls this "giving debts for
the winter." The utmost diplomacy and firmness was necessary in handling
the various tribes who frequented the forts; for example, at Vermilion
in 1808 and 1809 Henry tells us that he traded with the Crees and a few
Slaves from the north, with the Assiniboines from Battle River, the
Blackfeet, Bloods and some Sarcees from the south. Every tribe was a
rival of every other one. For this reason the fur traders tried to keel)
the tribes separated by having each one attend a certain fort. For
example, the Peigans traded at Fort Augustus (Edmonton) and Rocky
Mountain House. The Bloods and Blackfeet, however, were not allowed to
trade at Rocky Mountain House until about 1860. When one considers that
there was no organized government and no police within thousands of
miles, the accomplishment of the task of preserving the life of the
trader and those of his men, not to mention the maintenance of peace and
order necessary to pursue successful commerce with all tribes, —seems a
miracle.
In addition to furs, the
traders of the Saskatchewan traded their goods for buffalo and moose
meat, pemmican and dried berries. Pemmican was one of the principal
articles of trade in the Saskatchewan country. It was taken for example
to Cumberland House, and shipped to the northern posts on the Athabaska
and Mackenzie, which were never so fortunate in the matter of a safe
supply of food, if reliance was placed on local resources of those
distant posts. Sometimes the pemmican was shipped overland from the
Saskatchewan to Isle a la Crosse and thence to the Athabasca posts.
Bateaux were built expressly for this purpose at Fort George where there
was considerable timber. The Indians were continually arriving at the
forts during the winter with their furs. It was customary for the tribe
to come in a body. A short distance from the fort they halted and sent a
deputation of young men to announce their arrival. Presents consisting
of six inches of tobacco twist and a pint of Indian rum were sent to
each principal man of the tribe. After regaling themselves the Chief and
his principal men came in and met the factor, and trading began. Prices
were fixed by a tariff agreed upon for the season's business at the big
meeting at Fort William in the previous summer. In the spring packing
commenced for the long journey to Hudson's Bay or Lake Superior. During
the winter life at the fort was a busy one for all. While waiting for
the Indians to come in with their season's catch, the men at the forts
were engaged in various tasks. Some built bateaux to carry 90 pound bags
of pemmican and kegs of grease. Others built new canoes or repaired the
old ones and searched the woods for bark and gum. Still others sawed
boards for the houses. Hunters were kept at each establishment to secure
food and supplement the catch of fur by the Indians. Many of the posts,
such as Vermilion, White Earth House and Edmonton House had immense ice
houses where hundreds of large buffalo carcasses were stored. Henry
tells us in the winter of 1809 he packed 380 front quarters and 530 hind
quarters of buffalo meat in his ice house. When the North West Company
abandoned Fort Vermilion May 31st, 1810, "400 limbs of buffalo meat
still frozen" were left in the ice house. The women busied themselves
stretching buffalo skins and sewing pemmican bags. There was constant
travelling up and down the river between the various posts. Men and
goods were transferred and exchanged according to the necessity of the
respective posts. For example at White Earth House in 1810 the barley
was frozen, so Henry sent his harvesters to Edmonton to reap a splendid
harvest at that post.
We get a still more
intimate glimpse of life on the river and plain from Henry's story of
the establishment of White Earth House in 1810. As we have seen, Fort
Vermilion and Fort Augustus were abandoned in 1810 for a new post at the
mouth of the White Earth River. It was a joint venture of the North West
and Hudson's Bay Companies. The post was a compact little village
composed of two distinct communities representing two great trading
companies. This was before the savage and bloody conflict that later
disgraced the conduct of both companies in the years between 1811 and
1821. The population of the post included 135 North West Company and 85
Hudson's Bay Company people. Henry and Hallett laid out the ground
together which was enclosed by a stockade. Within the stockade positions
were assigned for the houses of each company separated by another
stockade which divided the entire enclosure. Henry's workmen ate a bag
of pemmican a day. All summer the work went merrily on. Warehouses were
built and covered with boards sawn from timber in the near-by woods.
Workmen's houses and the Big House for the Chief Factor were built
before the winter set in. Some were covered with earth or bark and
plastered with the white mud that gave its name to the post. Stockades
were cut and stones gathered for the chimneys of the houses. The logs
and heavy planks were drawn from the woods by a drag or what Henry calls
"a go-devil." A blacksmith's shop and a hen house were erected and Henry
says he had to make a separate coop for his rooster, for as he notes in
his journal with apparent regret, this rooster killed one of the two
chickens he raised that summer. Fields were cleared for barley and
potatoes and turnips and radishes were sown in the woods. Women picked
strawberries, raspberries and cranberries to mix with the pemmican.
Haying was finished on August 29th, the men having put up more than 2000
bundles. Altogether Henry was well satisfied with the work of the
summer, though he remarked "The men work as usual but they take their
own time and smoke very often." If Henry was alive in 1923 he would
readily recognise many of his old gang. It is worthy of note, however,
that throughout the entire season the men did not work on Sunday but
once. That was on September 16th and they worked that Sunday on the
condition that they would get a holiday when the brigade arrived from
Fort William. |
