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STRUGGLE OF THE FUR
COMPANIES
"I SING arms and the
hero," the words used by Virgil to introduce his great story of
valour and heroism in the far Mediterranean may be as truly applied
by us in beginning an account of deeds and men in the rise and
struggles of frontier life in the far west of North America. The
picturesque and heroic are not confined to any age or clime; indeed,
they are characteristic in a peculiar degree of the early days of
occupation of the American continent. The conflict of the two great
cur companies, which carried on a trade covering the vast expanse of
British North America, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Oceans, brings before us operations extending over distances before
which Ceasar's invasions or even Alexander's great marches shrink
into insignificance.
The now venerable
Hudson's Bay Company, which we recognize to-day as having a history
of two and a quarter centuries, had spent the first century of its
rule satisfied with its place of pre-eminence on the shores of
Hudson Bay, had declared several enormous dividends, and had begun
to consider its right prescriptive to the trade brought by the
Indians down the rivers, even from the Rocky Mountains, two thousand
miles to the west. It was a beautiful thing to see the fealty with
which the northern Indians, the Crees and Chipewyans, and the
Eskimos as well, regarded the English traders, and brought to them
at York Factory and Fort Churchill the marten, fox and beaver skins
caught, by their shrewdness and ceaseless energy, on the rivers and
in the forests of the vast interior. The taking of French Canada by
the English relieved the company for one or two decades from any
show of competition which may have affected them on their southern
border during the French regime.
But as Canada began
to receive adventurous spirits from Scotland, England, and the
American colonies, it became evident to the traders of Hudson Bay
that new opponents not to be despised would have to be met and dealt
with. The Scottish merchants of Montreal, many of whom had the blood
and spirit of the Highland clans that had fought at Culloden, and
Englishmen, who had braved the hardships of the American frontier
and had come to Canada to try their fortunes, looked towards the fur
country as a new field for adventure and profit. Men of this class
are proverbially men of daring and of self-confidence. In frequent
contact with the Indians, encountering the big game of the Woods,
crossing deep rivers, and running dangerous rapids, accustomed, in
short, to all the hardships of the border country, the frontiersman
is full of spirit and resource.
Accordingly, a few
years after the conquest, Curry, Finlay, Henry, sen., and many
others whose names are well known, started from Montreal with their
companies of Indians and French-Canadians, and, going up the Ottawa
River and Great Lakes, fixed their eyes on the star of hope in the
far north. Verendrye, a French explorer, had led the way inland from
Lake Superior, thirty or forty years before, though he and his
followers had never gone north of the Saskatchewan. The merchants of
Montreal thought nothing of penetrating farther to the north; so,
leaving the Saskatchewan behind, they planned a flank movement on
the Hudson's Bay Company, which would completely cut off from them
the great bodies of Indians who came down the English River or the
Saskateliewan to the forts on Hudson Bay.
True, a few years
before this plan was undertaken, the Hudson's Bay Company, no doubt
preparing to gird itself for the fray, had sent an ardent explorer,
Samuel Hearne, afterwards known as the "'Mungo Park' of Canada," to
explore the interior, conciliate the Indians, and ascertain the
possibility of increasing trade. After two absolute failures, Hearne
gained, on his third journey from Hudson Bay, Lake Atliapapuskow,
probably Great Slave Lake; and, going north-eastward, he discovered
the Copper Mine River, and reached the shore of the Arctic Sea. This
was a worthy achievement, and it was three years after this that
Thomas and Joseph Frobisher, two merchants from Montreal, in
furtherance of the plan spoken of, built (1772) a fur trader's fort
at Sturgeon Lake on the Saskatchewan River, where the northern lakes
and watercourses make a connection with the Churchill or English
River, which runs down to Hudson Bay.
This was a strategic
point of first importance. North, east, and west it commanded the
approaches; and it was a stroke of genius when the brothers
Frobisher erected their simple log fort at this point, and prepared
to wage a war worthy of the giants. Hearne and his colleagues at
Fort Churchill were not long in hearing of the intruders and their
plans; in fact, friendly Indians in a single season blazed the news
on the very shore of Hudson Bay. Hearne lost no time in taking up
the gage of battle thrown to him by the Frobishers. Going to Pine
Island Lake, the western arm of the Sturgeon, within five hundred
yards of the fort built by the Montrealers, he began (1774) the
erection of Fort Cumberland, a trading-post well known to the
present day.
It was a fateful year
when first two forts, the embodiment of rival interests, stood face
to face, a few hundred yards apart, on the Saskatchewan River, the
great artery of Rupert's Land. Then and there was begun a conflict
which for well-nigh half a century stirred the passions of violent
and headstrong Then, urged to its height one of the most celebrated
competitions of modern times, introduced the fire-water—the curse of
the poor Indian —as a means of advancing trade, and dyed with the
blood of some of the best men of both companies the snows of
Athabaska, the banks of the Saskatchewan, the rocky shores of Lake
Superior, and the fertile soil of the prairies on the Red River of
the North.
At the very time when
the thirteen English colonies on the Atlantic shore were
precipitating a fratricidal conflict, in which families were
divided, neighbours alienated, and English-speaking colonists
separated into hostile camps, in the far north a company of
Englishmen from Hudson Bay were turning their weapons against
Englishmen in Canada, both speaking the salve tongue, respecting the
same laws, and flying the same flag.
Seventeen hundred and
seventy-four and its succeeding years thus presented the sad
spectacle of Anglo-Saxon interests, both in the Atlantic colonies
and in Rupert's Land, in a state of fiercest conflict and division,
from the tropics to the Arctic circle, from the Gulf of Mexico to
the icy sea.
The Hudson's Bay
Company had been averse to entering on a conflict which promised to
be so severe and destructive of successful trade, but the Montreal
traders were aggressive. Frobisher's men had penetrated to Lake
Athabaska and built forts in the surrounding region. But the English
company, with enormous energy, pushed forward its plans and built
its forts. It took hold of the Assiniboine and Red River country,
and built famous forts, such as Brandon House, Edmonton House,
Carlton House, and trading-posts at the mouth of Winnipeg River, on
Rainy Lake, and even in the country now included in Minnesota. The
great distance of these trading-houses from each other well shows
how thoroughly the Hudson's Bay Company had covered the country, for
each of these centres carried with it a number of subordinate posts.
The Montreal traders
were no less energetic. In fact, though the Hudson's Bay Company had
a higher reputation with the Indians, and though the English company
could reach the interior earlier in the spring, yet the dash and
spirit and acquaintance with the country of the Canadian traders
made them, in organization and trading ability, more than a match
for their rivals. Finding the need of strengthening themselves, the
several firms of merchants who were trading from Montreal agreed to
unite in 1783-4. The prospect of peace and cooperation was, however,
immediately destroyed by some of the selfish and unworthy elements
of the new company breaking away from it, and with the help of other
Montreal merchants organizing an opposition.
Four years afterwards
a cruel murder was perpetrated in the Saskatchewan region, by Pond,
the marplot who had divided the company, and so great was the fear
and confusion caused by this act that the three Montreal companies
effected a union in 1787 into one North-West Company. New posts and
a great impulse to trade resulted from this union. The trade, which
at the time of union amounted to £40,000, by the end of the century
had increased to three tinges that sum. The last quarter of the
eighteenth century thus saw the English and the Canadian fur
companies, side by side, occupying the vast interior of Rupert's
Land, and even crossing the Rocky Mountains in search of trade.
Into the Canadian
company, among the young Scotsmen who were attracted to Canada by
the fur trade, entered a young Highland adventurer, Alexander
Mackenzie by name. He at once rose to prominence, and became a
determined and perhaps rather aggressive and irreconcilable element
among the Nor'-Nesters in the Protean phases of their exciting
history. The nineteenth century had just dawned as Alexander
Mackenzie published in London an account of his great discovery. The
book had ardent readers in Great Britain. One of these was a young
Scottish nobleman, Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, who had a lofty
imagination and a high public spirit. The book of travels excited in
the young peer the spirit of adventure, and led to his embarking on
a great scheme of emigration. In a few years, to further his
emigration plans, Lord Selkirk gained a controlling interest in the
Hudson's Bay Company, being opposed in this by Alexander Mackenzie,
who held a quantity of stock in the English company. [The second
part of this book narrates in detail the circumstances connected
with Lord Selkirk's great project.] Lord Selkirk organized his
colony under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, though
opposed by Mackenzie and others of the Nor'-Westers. But, as we
shall presently learn, colonizer and fur trader could not at all
agree. Their aims, methods, and interests were not to be reconciled,
and blood ran plentifully on the bleak plains of Rupert's Land to
the disgrace of both parties, who claimed the shelter of the British
flag.
The imperial and
Canadian authorities were both compelled to interfere. Lord Selkirk,
wearied and harassed by conflicts, lawsuits, and misunderstandings,
returned home to die. With sympathetic interest in this conflict
from the other side, Alexander Mackenzie, far away in Britain, spent
his declining years, until, in the same year, (1820) the opposing
leaders passed away.
The following year
saw more peaceable counsels prevail, and the two companies united
under the name of the older organization as the Hudson's Bay
Company. Just as the union was effected a new force appeared in the
trader's clerk, George Simpson, who, as governor, was destined to
unite the discordant elements, and in a career of nearly forty years
to raise the united companies to a position of greatest influence.
We ask the patient
attention of our readers, as with some detail we set forth the life,
work, and influence of these three representatives of the great fur
companies, viz., Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the Earl of Selkirk, and
Sir George Simpson. |
