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DARK DAYS AND THE MAN
FOR THE TIME
SOMETIMES the names
of men intimately associated or diametrically opposed to one another
are continually appearing together before us. It was so in the case
of the two men, Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Lord Selkirk, whose
careers we have been following. Of two whose lives afford a striking
example of friendship it was said, "in their death they were not
divided." It may be similarly remarked in regard to these two
notable opponents. Mackenzie's book gave the impulse to Lord
Selkirk's movement ; Mackenzie's company gave the clue to Lord
Selkirk for his scheme; Mackenzie was the chief opponent in the
Hudson's Bay Company to the sale of territory to Lord Selkirk for
his colony; under Mackenzie's silent but powerful opposition, the
chief obstacles were thrown in the way of His Lordship's
colonization project; and now within a month of each other the two
antagonists were called away from earth's trials and rivalries, Sir
Alexander dying on his way home from London, March 12th, 1820; and
Lord Selkirk passing away twenty-seven days later, on April 8th, far
from home, seeking; health in a foreign land.
which brothers had
been divided, and chief friends thrown into hostile camps. He had
seen that breach closed and those wounds completely healed.
Fifteen or sixteen
years had passed since that time, and Ellice advocated, under the
circumstances similar to those of the earlier date, that the two
great companies which had been fighting a battle royal should lay
down their arms and be friends. He urged strongly the plea of
self-interest. Both companies were reduced to the verge of
bankruptcy. He pointed out that there was great extravagance in the
conduct of trade. Two rival traders, outbidding each other, gave
more for the furs than they were worth, simply to gain the victory
over each other. Often two traders were stationed where the catch of
furs was limited, and both establishments at the close of the year
showed a serious shortage. The necessity of watching rivals, of
ascertaining their plans, and of counterworking opposing movements
caused a great loss of time, and so a loss of money and of prestige.
The Indians were
irritated by the varying standard of values in trade caused by
unhealthy competition, and their relatives, the half-breeds, were in
sympathy with them, while the half-breeds of the plains, mostly
French and belonging to the North-West Company, were an excitable
element at any time, ready to break the peace and create trouble in
the country.
Thus jealousy,
overtrading, loss of time, too great an extension of agencies, and
carelessness of management had, even before Lord Selkirk came upon
the scene, led to a loss of money and to the decay of the companies.
It was said that it was the low rate to which the stock of the
Hudson's Bay Company had fallen that induced Lord Selkirk to buy
into the company for the purpose of furthering his emigration
scheme.
The massacre of a
British officer and his staff to the number of upwards of twenty,
cultivated and useful men, by a half-breed band on the plains of
Rupert's Land, where for a century and a half the Hudson's Bay
Company had ruled, and where for fifty years the shrewd Scottish
sense of the Montreal traders had prevented more than an occasional
death by violence, startled the imperial government into activity.
Lord Bathurst, hearing of Edward Ellice's plan, sent for the
peacemaker, heard his views, and adopted the method suggested. He
promised to unite the companies by statute if they could but make a
financial adjustment between themselves.
The propounder of the
plan, encouraged by the promise given by the government, undertook
amid numberless prophecies of failure to bring together the hostile
elements. Mr. Ellice gives an account of his difficult work in the
evidence taken before the Parliamentary Committee of the British
House of Commons in 1857.
The agreement,
reached after much discussion, was entered into on March 26th, 1821.
It provided that the two companies should share equally the profits
of trade for twenty-one years, each company furnishing an equal
amount of capital. The whole stock was divided into one hundred
shares, forty of which were to be distributed among the wintering
partners, as the traders actually engaged in Rupert's Land were
called.
In order to preserve
the rights of both parties the new Act provided for the appointment
and specified the duties of new officials. The governor and
directors of the new Hudson's Bay Company were given power to
appoint district governors, who were to preside at meetings of chief
factors, and three chief factors were necessary to constitute a
council. Twenty-five chief factors and twenty-eight chief traders
were provided for, to be taken alternately from the two companies.
The forty shares to be divided among the wintering partners were
divided into eighty-five parts, and to each chief trader was given a
one-eighty-fifth share, while each chief factor owned two
eighty-fifths. The remaining seven shares were divided among old and
deserving members of both companies. The Act provided for a license
to be given to the company to trade in the territories outside the
original Hudson's Bay Company's territory as far west as the Rocky
Mountains, but did not include the Pacific slope. The license
granted was to be renewed every twenty-one years.
The Act which
accomplished the union, which was often called the coalition, was
passed on July 2nd, 1821. Provision was made for trying minor
offences by local magistrates, but criminal cases involving capital
punishment and civil suits of over £200, were to be brought for
trial before the courts of Upper Canada.
But the real work of
reconciliation was not to be accomplished by passing equitable Acts
of parliament, or by bestowing fair salaries upon the partners. It
needed a man of the right stamp to unify and moderate the opposing
members. What qualifications should such a. roan have? He needed to
be young and independent, not having strong affiliations with either
party, and yet a man of intellect, of position, and of attractive
manner to hold the respect of shrewd, experienced factors and
traders. He must be of British rather than Canadian antecedents in
order that the older company might be satisfied, and yet preferably
a man of Scottish origin to gain the confidence of the strong Celtic
element which largely made up the North-West Company of Montreal. To
have visited the fur country was a necessity, and yet not to have
there lost his business habits as so many of the older traders who
had lived long at the remoter posts had done. A man, he must be, of
quick perception, affable manners, patient temper, good judgment,
and of natural astuteness. Was such a catalogue of virtues and
habits to be found in any one man? It seemed very unlikely.
In the year before
the coalition a young man had been sent from the London office of
the Hudson's Bay Company in Fenchurch Street by Andrew Colville,
Lord Selkirk's brother-in-law, to watch over the fur-trading
interests of the Hudson's Bay Company in far-distant Athabaska,
where shrewdness and decision were needed, if anywhere. This was
George Simpson. His birth might have been urged against him, but
subtle minds might prove that it gave him an advantage in the trying
and thankless position to which he was called. It has been shown
that William the Conqueror, the Duke of Monmouth, and others who had
the bar sinister across their escutcheons, developed enormous powers
of pluck and determination. So it was with George Simpson, who was
the uncle of Thomas Simpson, the Arctic explorer. His strong, clear
intellect, high animal spirits, well-knit, broad-chested frame,
compact height—five feet and seven inches---plausible tongue, and
affable disposition—all these with, perhaps, the added consciousness
that he must depend entirely on his own exertions, made him a man
surprisingly fitted for the work of directing the great enterprise
in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company.
He had come to the
fur country in 1820, and in that year arrived on Lake Athabaska with
fifteen loaded canoes. Like Sir James Douglas on the other side of
the Rocky Mountains, Simpson seemed to grasp the situation at once,
and his resource and courage were shown immediately. He reached out
as far as Peace River. Whether he ever visited Great Slave Lake is
not known. His account of his winter spent in Athabaska is
interesting "At some seasons both whites and Indians live in
wasteful abundance on venison, buffalo meat, fish and game of all
kinds, while, at other times, they are reduced to the last degree of
hunger, often passing several days without food. In the year 1820
our provisions fell short at the establishment, and, on two or three
occasions I went for two or three whole days and nights without
having a single morsel to swallow, but then, again, I was one of a
party of eleven men and one woman which discussed at one sitting
meal no less than three ducks and twenty-two geese." Thus was
concentrated in one season an experience valuable to the future
governor.
The young governor
immediately braced himself to his great work. The union of Hudson's
Bay Company traders with Nor'-Westers changed the centre of gravity
of the trade, and Norway House on the north side of Lake Winnipeg
took the place of Grand Portage or Fort William where the Nor'-Westers
were wont to assemble. In later years Governor Simpson was accused
of being arbitrary and dictatorial, but at the early meetings held
at Norway Douse he won golden opinions for his affability and
fairness. The work of every district was reported on and the
new governor at once, by his diplomacy and shrewdness, took his
place among these wily old traders of the west, able to baffle
Indian cunning and deceit, and showing himself a thorough leader of
men.
As we shall see he
was imperious on the route. He was as "furious as Jehu" in his
driving, but it was men, not horses, he impelled to swift action.
The story was prevalent a generation ago on Red River that on one of
his voyages, in crossing the Lake of the Woods, the impetuous
governor was urging forward his favourite French voyageur with such
unreason that the stalwart boatman, it is said, seized his tormentor
by the shoulder, and plunged him into the lake, to draw him out
quickly, vet and dripping, suiting his action with an emphatic oath.
With great rapidity
and yet with business tact Governor Simpson reduced to order the
chaotic affairs of the two companies. Learning from the assembled
chief factors at Norway House the nature of the trade at every
point, a radical policy was pursued of cutting down establishments,
withdrawing from unremunerative points, distributing the money
influence to better advantage, conciliating the hostile and
encouraging the discouraged. In every corner of the wide region of
Rupert's Land as well as in the valleys and shores of British
Columbia, was felt the power of this predominating personality, from
the very moment of his laying his hand upon the helm.
Complaints no doubt
were heard from time to time, some of the older officers left the
company, many gave vent to bitter feelings. A good writer among the
traders, Ferdinand Wentzler, wrote in 1824: "The North-West is now
beginning to be ruled with a rod of iron." It was natural that there
should be discontented ones, but this adverse opinion serves to show
that Governor Simpson was a living, energizing fact in the
wide-spread affairs of the company. We shall follow this man of iron
will and shrewd diplomatic faculty through the hazes of business in
which he distinguished himself for nearly forty years, while he
upheld the dignity and usefulness of the high office to which he had
been called. |
