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THE COLONY BEGUN
AN anxious season was
now passed through by the colonizer. The planning and execution of a
scheme of emigration as comparatively simple as carrying his eight
hundred settlers to the shore of Prince Edward Island had been
serious and difficult, how much more so was the crossing of the flow
of Arctic ice from Hudson Strait, the landing on the inhospitable
shore of Hudson .Bay, and the penetration of the interior by a wild
and dangerous route of seven hundred miles to the banks of the Red
River. In all probability the founder had no conception himself of
the gigantic obstacles which were to be met and overcome.
The project once
entered on could not be abandoned; and the colonizer issued the
advertisement and prospectus of the colony, and called for emigrants
to join the enterprise. The advantages presented were clearly set
forth, and the principles on which the colony was to be organized
were satisfactory. His Lordship undertook to provide transport, to
give the means of livelihood for a time, and to bestow parcels of
land from his broad acres on Red River. The declaration that the
greatest freedom of religious opinion was to be allowed, was, for
the beginning of the nineteenth century, a rather unique and
unexpected proviso. Here was a contrast both to the conditions of
settlement in Puritan New England, and to the early settlement of
Lord Baltimore in Maryland where belief in the doctrine of the
Trinity was a sine qud non.
As it was not a part
of Lord SeIkirk's plan to accompany the expedition himself, it was
necessary for him to obtain the assistance of a competent director
or leader for the band of colonists. Some years before this time,
the earl had been in correspondence with a young United Empire
Loyalist named Miles Macdonell, who with his family, well-known in
Canadian affairs, had left New York state and come to Glengarry, in
Upper Canada. Young Macdonell had been an officer of the King's
Royal Regiment in the war of the American Revolution, and held the
rank of captain in the Canadian militia. To the colonizer's mind he
possessed the necessary experience and firmness for the difficult
task of leading a mixed band of emigrants during their trying
journey. By the end of June, Captain Miles Macdonell had reached
Britain and had been placed in charge of the enterprise.
Three ships, the
Prince of Wales, the Eddystone and an old craft the Edward and Anne
with worn rigging and an incompetent crew, had proceeded to
Yarmouth, on the east coast of England. The two first-named were to
carry the regular cargo of the company to Hudson Bay; the third,
unsuitable though it was, was to be the receptacle of the precious
human freight going forth to found a new community. By the middle of
July the little fleet had reached the Pentland Firth and was
compelled to put into Stronmess, in the Orkneys. Here the Prince of
Wales took on board a number of Orkneymen who were to go out as
servants of the company. Proceeding on their way the fleet made
rendezvous at Stornoway, the chief town of Lewis, one of the
Hebrides. Here had arrived a number of colonists or employes, some
from Sligo, others from Glasgow, and others from the Highlands.
Many influences were
now brought to bear against the colonizing expedition. It had the
strenuous opposition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and pressure was
successfully brought to bear upon some of those who had actually
accepted Lord Selkirk's offer, in order to induce them to desert the
expedition. A so-called "Captain" Mackenzie, denominated a "mean
fellow," came alongside the Edward and Anne, which had some
seventy-six men aboard—Glasgow men, Irish, and a few from Orkney—and
claimed some of them as "deserters from His Majesty's service." The
demand was, however, resisted. It is no wonder that in his letter to
Lord Selkirk, Captain Macdonell writes: "All the men that we shall
have are now embarked, but it has been a herculean task."
A prominent member of
the expedition, Mr. Moncrieff Blair, though posing as a gentleman,
deserted on July 25th, the day before the sailing of the vessels. A
number of the deserters at Stornoway had left their effects on
board, and these were disposed of by sale among the passengers.
Among the officers was a Mr. Edwards, who acted as the medical man
of the expedition. He had his hands completely full during the
voyage, and returned to England with the ships.
Another notable
person on board was a Roman Catholic priest, known as Father Bourke.
Captain Macdonell was himself a Roman Catholic, but he seems from
the first to have had no confidence in the priest, who, he stated,
had come away without the leave of his bishop, who was at the time
in Dublin. Father Bourke, though carried safely to the shores of
Hudson Bay, never reached the interior, but returned to Britain in
the following year.
After the usual
incidents, and an "uncommon share of boisterous, stormy, and cold
weather " on the ocean, the ships entered Hudson Bay. Experiencing
in the bay a course of fine mild weather and moderate fair winds, on
September 24th the fleet reached the harbour of York Factory, after
a voyage of sixty-one days out from Stornoway. The Eddystone, which
was intended to go to Churchill, not having been able to reach that
place, sailed with the other vessels to York Factory.
The late arrival of
the expedition on the shores of Hudson Bay made it impossible to
ascend the Nelson River and reach the interior during the season of
1811. Accordingly Captain Macdonell made preparations for wintering
on the coast. York Factory would not probably have afforded
sufficient accommodation for the colonists. Captain Macdonell states
in a letter to Lord Selkirk that "the Factory is very ill
constructed and not at all adapted for a cold country." In
consequence of these considerations, Captain Macdonell at once
undertook, during the fair weather of the season yet remaining, to
build winter quarters on the north side of the river, at a distance
of some miles from the Factory. No doubt matters of discipline
entered into the plans of the leader of the colonists. In a short
time very comfortable dwellings were erected, built of round logs a
foot thick, the front side high with a shade roof sloping to the
rear. The group of huts was known as the "Nelson encampment."
During the early
winter the chief work which the captain laid on his two score men
was providing themselves with fuel, of which there was plenty, and
obtaining food from the Factory, for which sledges drawn over the
snow were utilized by the detachments sent on this service. The most
serious difficulty, however, arose at a meeting in which a dozen or
more of the men became completely insubordinate, and refused to
yield obedience either to Captain Macdonell or to M. W. H. Cook, the
governor of the Factory. Every effort was made to maintain
discipline, but the men steadily held to their own way, lived apart
from Macdonell, and drew their own provisions from the fort to their
huts. These troubles tended to make the winter somewhat long and
disagreeable.
Captain Macdonell,
being a Canadian, knew well the danger of the dread scurvy attacking
his inexperienced colonists. The men at the fort prophesied evil
things in this respect for the "encampment." The captain took early
steps to prevent the disease, and his letters to Governor Cook
always contain demands for "essence of malt," "crystallized salts of
lemon," and other anti-seorbutics. Though some of his men were
attacked by scurvy, yet the sovereign remedy so often employed in
the lumber camps of America, the juice of the white spruce, was used
with almost magical effect. As the winter went on, plenty of venison
was obtained, and the health of his party was in the spring much
better than could have been anticipated.
After the New Year
had come, all thoughts were directed to preparations for the journey
of seven hundred miles or thereabouts to the interior. A number of
boats were required for the transportation of the colonists and
their effects. Captain Macdonell insisted on his boats being made
after a different style from the boats commonly used at that time by
the company. His model was the flat boat, which he had seen used on
the Mohawk River in the state of New York. The workmanship displayed
in the making of these boats was very disappointing to Captain
Macdonell, and he constantly complained of the indolence of the
workmen. In consequence of this inefficiency the cost of the boats
to Lord Selkirk was very great, and drew forth the objections of the
leader of the colony.
Captain Macdonell had
the active assistance of Mr. Cook, the officer in charge of York
Factory, and of Mr. Auld, the commander of Churchill, the latter
having come down to York to make arrangements for the inland journey
of the colonists.
By June 1st, 1812,
the ice had moved from the river, and the expedition started soon
after on its journey to Red River. The new settlers found the route
a hard and trying one with its rapids and portages. The boats, too,
were heavy, and the colonists inexperienced in managing them. It was
well on towards autumn when the company, numbering about seventy,
reached the Red River. No special preparation had been made for the
colonists, and the winter would soon be upon them. Some of the
parties were given shelter in the fort and buildings of the company,
others in the huts of the freed men, who were married to the Indian
women and settled in the neighbourhood of the Forks, while others
still found refuge in the tents of the Indian encampment in the
vicinity.
The arrival of this
party, small, discontented, wearied and well-nigh despairing, marks
an era in the history of the Red River, and of the present province
of Manitoba. Though it was no very distinguished party, though it
had no story of sentiment such as the Pilgrim Fathers had when they
arrived at Plymouth Rock, though it was free of the glory of Penn as
he came to lay down the principle of peace to the dusky savages, and
though it lacked the political grandeur of the companies of the
United Empire Loyalists who came to Upper Canada, yet it was the
beginning of settlement upon the prairies, and is, therefore, of
genuine interest and importance.
Lord Selkirk's
indomitable perseverance had been rewarded by proving that a company
of British settlers could weather a severe winter, and ascend the
rapids and falls of the rivers running from the interior to Hudson
Bay. His hopes to be the founder of a large community were not to be
realized in his day; yet the last quarter of the nineteenth century
has shown, in the settlement of Manitoba, the prescience and wisdom
of Lord Selkirk. |
