The crisis
reached—Consequences of Seven
Oaks—The noble Earl— His generous
spirit—His mistakes—Determined
courage—Deserves the laurel
crown—The first Governor—Macdonell's
difficulties—His unwise step—A
Captain in red—Cameron's
adroitness —A wearisome
imprisonment—Last governor of Fort
Gibraltar— The Metis
chief—Half-breed son of old
Cuthbert—A daring hunter—Warden of
the plains—Lord Selkirk's agent—A
Red River patriarch—A faithful
witness—The French bard—Western
war songs—Pierriche Falcon.
The skirmish
of Seven Oaks was the most notable
event that ever occurred on the
prairies of Rupert's Land or in
the limits of the fur country. It
was the crisis which indicated the
determination of the Company,
whose years were numbered by a
century and a half, to hold its
own in a great contest, and of the
pluck of a British nobleman to
show the "perfervidum in-genium
Scotorum" and unflinchingly to
meet either in arms or legal
conflict the fur-trading oligarchy
of that time in Canada. It
represented, too, the fierce
courage and desperate resource of
the traders of the great Canadian
Company, who, we have seen, were
called by Washington Irving "the
lords of the lakes and forests."
It was also
the denouement which led the Old
and the New Worlds' fur companies,
despite the heat of passion and
their warmth of sentiment, to make
a peace which saved both from
impending destruction.
It led,
moreover, to the sealing up for
half a century of Rupert's Land to
all energetic projects and influx
of population, and allowed Sir
George Simpson to build up for the
time being the empire of the
buffalo, the beaver, and the fox,
instead of developing a home of
industry.
Crises such
as this develop character and draw
out the powers of men who would
otherwise waste their sweetness on
the desert air. The shock of
meeting of two such great bodies
as the Hudson's Bay Company and
the North-West Company enabled men
to show courage, loyalty, honest
indignation, decision of
character, shrewdness, diplomatic
skill, and great endurance. These
are the elements of human
character. It is ever worth while
to examine the motives, features
of action, and ends aimed at by
men under the trying circumstances
of such a conflict. At the risk of
some repetition we give sketches
of the lives of several of the
leading persons concerned,
THE EARL OF
SELKIRK.
Chief,
certainly, of the actors who
appeared on this stage was Lord
Selkirk. Born to the best
traditions of the Scottish
nobility, Thomas Douglas belonged
to the Angus-Selkirk family, which
represented the Douglases of
Border story, one of whom boasted
that no ancestor of his had for
ten generations died within
chambers. Lord Daer, as his title
then was, had studied at Edinburgh
University, was an intimate friend
of Sir Walter Scott, and though a
Lowlander, had formed a great
attachment for the Highlanders and
had learned their language. He
was, moreover, of most active
mind, broad sympathies, and
generous impulses. At the age of
thirty years, having become Earl
of Selkirk, he sought to take part
in assisting the social condition
of Britain, which was suffering
greatly from the Napoleonic wars.
He took a large colony of
Highlanders to Prince Edward
Island, acquired land in Upper
Canada and also in New York State,
and then, solely for the purpose
of helping on his emigration
project, entered on the gigantic
undertaking of gaining control of
the Hudson's Bay Company. In all
these things he succeeded. We have
seen the conflicts into which he
was led and the manly way in which
he conducted himself.
We do not say
he made no mistakes. We frankly
admit that he went beyond the
ordinary powers of a magistrate's
commission at Fort William. But we
believe his aim was good. Ho was
convinced that the Nor'-Westers
had no legal right to the Hudson's
Bay Company lands over which they
traded. He believed them to be
unscrupulous and dangerous, and
his course was taken to meet the
exigency of the case. It must be
remembered his responsibility was
a great one. His Highland and
Irish colonists at Red River were
helpless; he was their only
defence; no British law was
present at Red River to help them.
They were regarded as intruders,
as enemies of the fur trade, and
he felt that loyalty and right
compelled him to act as he did.
No doubt it
seemed to the Canadian traders—who
considered themselves as the
successors of the French who, more
than three-quarters of a century
before, had established forts at
what was called the post of the
Western Sea—a high-handed and even
foolhardy thing to bring his
colony by way of Hudson Bay, and
to plant them down at the forks on
Red River, in a remote and
probably unsuccessful colony.
However, in the main the legal
right was with his Lordship. The
popular feeling in Canada toward
Lord Selkirk was far from being a
pure one, and a fair-minded person
can hardly refrain from saying it
was an interested and selfish one.
Certainly, as
we see him, Lord Selkirk was a
high-minded, generous, far-seeing,
adventurous, courageous, and
honourable man. We may admit that
his opinion of the North-West
Company opponents was a prejudiced
and often unjust one. But we
linger on the picture of his
Lordship returning from Montreal
with his Countess, their two young
daughters, the one afterward Lady
Isabella Hope, and the other Lady
Katherine Wigram, with the young
boy who grew up to be the last
Earl of Selkirk; we think of him
worried by the lawsuits and
penalties of which we have spoken,
going home to meet the British
Government somewhat prejudiced
against him as having been a
personage in what they considered
a dangerous émete: wo follow him
passing over to France, attended
by his family, and dying in a
foreign land—and we are compelled
to say, how often does the world
persecute its benefactors and
leave its greatest uncrowned. The
Protestant cemetery at Orthes
contains the bones of one who,
under other circumstances, might
have been crowned with laurel.
GOVERNOR
MILES MACDONELL.
Engaged by
Lord Selkirk to lead his first
company and superintend the
planting of his colony, Capt.
Miles Macdonell found himself
thrust into a position of danger
and responsibility as local
governor at Red River. He was a
man with a considerable
experience. Of Highland origin, he
had with his father, John
Macdonell, called "Scotas," from
his residence in Scotland, settled
in the valley of the Mohawk River,
on the estates of Sir William
Johnson, in New York State. The
estates of Sir William were a
hotbed of loyalism, and here was
enlisted by his son, Sir John
Johnson, under the authority of
the British Government, at the
time of the American Revolution,
the well-known King's Royal
Regiment of New York, familiarly
known as the "Royal Greens." The
older Macdonell was a captain in
this regiment, and Miles, as a boy
of fifteen, was commissioned as
ensign. Afterward the young
Macdonell returned to Scotland,
where he married, and again came
to Canada. Following a military
career, he was engaged by Lord
Selkirk shortly before the war of
1812 to lead his colony to the Red
River. We have seen how
faithfully, both at York Factory
and the Red River, he served his
Lordship. The chief point in
dispute in connection with
Governor Macdonell is whether the
embargo against the export of
supplies from Red River in 1814
was legal or not. If it was not,
then on him rests much of the
responsibility for the troubles
which ensued. The seizure of
pemmican, belonging to the
North-West Company, at the mouth
of the Souris River, seems to have
been high-handed. Undoubtedly
Miles Macdonell believed it to be
necessary for the support of the
settlers in the country. His life
was one of constant worry after
this event. Reprisals began
between the parties. These at
length ended in Miles Macdonell
being seized by the North-West
Company agents on June 22nd, 1815,
and taken as a prisoner to Fort
William, and thence to Montreal.
Macdonell lived upon the Ottawa
till the time of his death in
1828.
He was a man
of good mind and seemingly honest
intentions. His military education
and experience probably gave him
the habits of regularity and
decision which led to the
statement made of him by the Hon.
William McGillivray, "that he
conducted himself like a Turkish
bashaw." The justification of
Governor Macdonell seems to be
that the Nor'-Westers had
determined early in the history of
the colony to destroy it, so that
the charges made against the
Governor wee merely an advantage
taken of disputed points. Capt.
Macdonell's management at York
Factory was certainly judicious,
and there seems but the one
debatable point in his
administration of Red River, and
that was the proclamation of
January 8th, 1814.
DUNCAN
CAMERON.
One of the
most notable leaders on the
Nor'-Wester side was Duncan
Cameron, who has the distinction
of being the last commanding
officer of Fort Gibraltar. Like
Miles Macdonell, Duncan Cameron
was the son of a Highland U. E.
Loyalist, who had been settled on
the Hudson in New York State. He
entered the North-West Company in
1785 and fourteen years after was
in charge of Nepigon district, as
we have seen. He gained much
distinction for his company by his
daring and skilful management of
the plan to induce the Selkirk
settlers to leave Red River and
settle in Upper Canada. Coming
from the meeting of the
Nor'-Westes in Grand Portage, in
1814 Cameron took up his abode in
Fort Gibraltar, and according to
the story of his opponents did so
with much pomp and circumstance.
Miles Macdonell says:—"Mr. Duncan
Cameron arrived at Red River,
sporting a suit of military
uniform, gave himself out as
captain in his Majesty's service,
and acting by the King's authority
for Sir George Prevost." Every
well-informed person looked upon
this as a self-created
appointment, at most a North-West
trick ; but it had a very
considerable effect upon the lower
class of people.
In regard to
this the writer in his work on
"Manitoba," London, 1882, took up
strong ground against Cameron. The
calming influence of years, and
the contention which has been
advanced that there was some
ground for Cameron claiming the
commission in the "Voyageur Corps"
which he formerly held, has led
the writer to modify his opinion
somewhat as to Cameron.
Cameron
succeeded in leading away about
three-quarters of the colony. This
ho was appointed to do and he
seems to have done it faithfully.
The means by which ho appealed to
the Highland colonists may have
been less dignified than might
have been desired, yet his warm
Highland nature attracted his own
countrymen in the settlement, and
they probably needed little
persuasion to escape from their
hardships to what was to them the
promised land of Upper Canada.
In the
following year (1816), as already
stated, Cameron was in command of
Fort Gibraltar, and it was
determined by Governor Semple to
destroy the North-West fort and
bring its material down the river
to supplement the colony
establishment, Fort Douglas.
Before this was done the same
treatment that was given to
Governor Macdonell by the
Nor'-Westers in arresting him was
meted out to Cameron. He was
seized by Colin Robertson and
carried away to York Factory, to
be taken as a prisoner to England.
This high-handed proceeding was
objectionable on several grounds.
The Imperial Parliament had
transferred the right of dealing
with offences committed in
Rupert's Land to the Courts of
Canada, so that Robertson's action
was clearly ultra vires. Moreover,
if the Hudson's Bay Company under
its charter exercised authority,
it is questionable whether that
gave the right to send a prisoner
to Britain for trial, the more
that no definite charge was laid
against Cameron. Certainly Cameron
had reason to complain of great
injustice in this arrest. Taking
him all in all, he was a hot,
impulsive Highland leader of men,
persuasive and adroit, and did not
hesitate to adopt the means lying
nearest to attain his purpose. The
fact that from 1823 to 1828, after
he had left the Company's service,
he represented the County of
Glengarry in the Upper Canadian
Legislature, shows that those who
knew him best had a favourable
opinion about this last commander
of Fort Gibraltar. Fort Gibraltar
was never rebuilt, its place and
almost its very site under the
United Company being taken by the
original Fort Garry. Sir Roderick
Cameron, of New York, who has been
connected with the Australian
trade, was a son of Duncan
Cameron.
CUTHBERT
GRANT.
The skirmish
of Seven Oaks brought into view a
fact that had hardly made itself
known before, viz., that a new
race, the Metis, or half-breed
children of the fur traders and
employes by Indian women, were
becoming a guild or body able to
exert its influence and beginning
to realize its power.
Of this
rising and somewhat dangerous body
a young Scottish half-breed,
Cuthbert Grant, had risen to
sudden prominence as the leader.
His father, of the same name, had
been a famous North-West trader,
and was looked upon as the special
guardian of the Upper Assiniboine
and Swan River district. He had
died in 1799, but influential as
he had been, the son became from
circumstances much more so. The
North-West Company knew that the
Scottish courage and endurance
would stand them in good stead,
and his Indian blood would give
him a great following in the
country. Educated in Montreal, he
was fitted to be the leader of his
countrymen. His dash and
enthusiasm were his leading
characteristics. When the war
party came down from Qu'Appelle
and Portage La Prairie, young
Cuthbert Grant was its natural
leader. When the fight took place
he was well to the front in the
mélee, and it is generally argued
that his influence was exerted
toward saving the wounded and
preventing acts of barbarity, such
as savage races are prone to when
the passions are aroused. On the
night of June 19th, when the
victory had come to his party,
Cuthbert Grant took possession of
Fort Douglas, and the night was
one for revelry exceeding what his
Highland forbears had ever seen,
or equal to any exultation of the
Red man in his hour of triumph.
In after
years, when peace had been
restored, Cuthbert Grant settled
in the neighbourhood of White
Horse Plains, a region twenty
miles west of Red River on the
Assiniboine, and here became an
influential man. He was the leader
of the hunt against the buffalo,
on which every year the
adventurous young men went to
bring back their winter supply of
food. In order that this might be
properly managed, to protect life
in a dangerous sport and to
preserve the buffalo from wanton
destruction, strict rules were
agreed on and penalties attached
to their breach. The officer
appointed by the Council of
Assiniboia to carry out these laws
was called the "Warden of the
Plains." This office Cuthbert
Grant filled. Of the fifteen
members of the Council of
Assiniboia, Grant was one, and he
largely reflected the opinion of
the French half-breed population
of the Red River settlement. He
was the hero of the plain hunters,
and the native bards never ceased
to sing his praises. His case is a
remarkable example of the power
that native representatives obtain
among mixed communities.
JOHN
PRITCHARD.
The name of
John Pritchard carries us back on
the Red River to the beginning of
the century—to a time even before
the coming of the Selkirk colony.
His descendants to the fourth
generation are still found in
Manitoba and are well known. He
was born in 1777 in a small
village in Shropshire, England,
and received his education in the
famous Grammar School of
Shrewsbury. Early in the century
he emigrated to Montreal. At that
time the ferment among the fur
traders was great. The old
North-West Company of Montreal had
split into sections, and to the
new Company, or X Y Company, young
Pritchard was attached. We first
hear of him at the mouth of the
Souris River in 1805, and shortly
after in charge of one of the
forts at that point where the
Souris River empties into the
Assiniboine.
We have
already given the incident of
Pritchard being lost on the
prairie for forty days. Pritchard
does not seem to have taken kindly
to the United North-West Company,
for at the time of the Seven Oaks
affair we find him as one of the
garrison occupying Fort Douglas,
although he represents himself as
being a settler on the Red River.
After the
skirmish of Seven Oaks Pritchard
sought to escape with the other
settlers to the north of Lake
Winnipeg, but was made prisoner by
the North-West Company's agents
and taken to Fort William. Thence
he went east to Montreal and gave
evidence in connection with the
trials arising out of the Red
River troubles. Pritchard was a
capable and ready man. His
evidence is clear and well
expressed. He had much facility in
doing business, and had a smooth,
diplomatic manner that stood him
in good stead in troublous times.
Pritchard
afterwards entered Lord Selkirk's
service and as his agent went over
to London. Returning to the Red
River settlement, he married among
the people of Kildonan, and lived
not far from the Kildonan Church,
on the east side of the river. A
number of his letters have been
printed, which show that he took a
lively interest in the affairs of
the settlement, especially in its
religious concerns. It is not,
then, remarkable that among his
descendants there should be no
less than seven clergymen of the
Church of England. It is
interesting to know that the
Hudson's Bay Company voted him
about 1833 a gratuity of 251. in
consideration of valuable services
rendered by him to education, and
especially in the establishment of
Sunday schools and day schools.
This man, whose life was a
chronicle of the history of the
settlement, passed away in 1856
and was buried in St. John's
Churchyard.
PIERRE
FALCON, THE RHYMESTER.
Among the
wild rout of the Nor'-Westers at
the skirmish of Seven Oaks was a
young French half-breed, whose
father was a French Canadian
engaged in the fur trade, and his
mother an Indian woman from the
Missouri country. The young
combatant had been born in 1793,
at Elbow Fort, in the Swan River
district. Taken as a child to
Canada, young Pierre lived for a
time at Laprairie, and at the age
of fifteen returned with his
father to the Red River, and with
him engaged in the service of the
North-West Company. What part
Falcon took in the affair at Seven
Oaks we are not told, except that
he behaved bravely, and saw
Governor Semple killed.
Pierre Falcon
was, however, the bard or poet of
his people. This characteristic of
Falcon is quite remarkable,
considered in connection with the
time and circumstances. That a man
who was unable to read or write
should have been able to describe
the striking events of his time in
verso is certainly a notable
thing. He never tires singing in
different times and metres the
valour of the Bois Brules at Seven
Oaks.
"Voulez-vous
écouter chanter
Une chanson do
vérité?
Le dix-neuf Juin, la
bande des Bois Brules
Sont
arrivés comme des braves guerriers."
Then with
French gaiety and verve he gives
an account of the attack on the
Orkneymen, as he calls them, and
recites the Governor's action and
his death. Falcon finishes up the
chanson with a wild hurrah of
triumph—
"Les Bois
Brules jetaient des cris de joie."
The lively
spirit of the rhymester broke out
in song upon all the principal
events which agitated the people
of the settlement. Joseph Tasse,
to whom we are chiefly indebted in
this sketch, says of him, "all his
compositions are not of the same
interest, but they are sung by our
voyageurs to the measured stroke
of the oar, on the most distant
rivers and lakes of the
North-West. The echoes of the
Assiniboine, the Mackenzie, and
Hudson Bay will long repeat them."
The excitable
spirit of the rhymer never left
him. At the time of the Riel
rebellion (1869-70) Falcon was
still alive, and though between
seventy and eighty years of age,
he wished to march off with his
gun to the fray, declaring that
"while the enemy would be occupied
in killing him his friends would
be able to give hard and
well-directed blows to the."
For about
half a century he lived on the
White Horse Plains, twenty miles
or more up the Assiniboine from
Winnipeg, and became an
influential man in the
neighbourhood. His mercurial
disposition seems to have become
more settled than in his fiery
youth, for though unlettered, he
was made a justice of the peace.
His
verse-making was, of course, of a
very simple and unfinished kind.
One of his constant fashions was
to end it with a declaration that
it was made by Falcon, the singer
of his people.
"Qui en a
fait la chanson?
Un poète de
canton;
Au bout de la chanson
Nous vous le nommerons.
Un
jour étant à table,
A boire et
à chanter,
A chanter tout au
long
La nouvelle chanson.
Amis, buvons, trinquons,
Saluons la chanson
De
Pierriche Falcon,
Ce faiseur
de chanson."
The last line
being often varied to
"Pierre Falcon, le bon garcon."