The New Caledonia brigades set out by canoe—huge, long, cedar-lined craft manned by fifty or even ninety men. These brigades were decked out gayest of all. Flags flew at the prow of each craft. Voyageurs adorned themselves with coloured sashes and headbands, with tinkling bells attached to the buckskin fringe of trouser-leg. Where the rivers narrowed to dark and shadowy canyons, the bagpipes would skirl out some Highland air, or the French voyageurs would strike up some song of the habitant, paddling and chanting in perfect rhythm, and sometimes beating time with their paddles on the gunwales. Leaders of the canoe brigades understood well the art of never permitting fear to enter the souls of their voyageurs. Where the route might be exposed to Indian raid, a regale of rum would be dealt out; and the captain would keep the men paddling so hard there was no time for thought of danger.
In course of time the northern brigades no longer attempted to ascend the entire way to the interior of New Caledonia by boat. Boats and canoes would be left on the Columbia at Fort Colville or at Fort Okanagan (both south of the present international boundary), and the rest of the trail would be pursued bypack-horse. Kamloops became the great half-way house of these north-bound brigades; and horses were left there to pasture on the high, dry plains, while fresh horses were taken to ascend the mountain trails. Fort St James on Stuart Lake became the chief post of New Caledonia. Here ruled young James Douglas, who had married the daughter of the chief factor William Connolly. Ordinarily, the fort on the blue alpine lake lay asleep like an August day; but on the occasion of a visit by the governor or the approach of a brigade, the drowsy post became a thing of life. Boom of cannon, firing of rifles, and skirling of bagpipes welcomed the long cavalcade. The captain of the brigade as he entered the fort usually wore a high and pompous beaver hat, a velvet cloak lined with red silk, and knee-breeches with elaborate Spanish embossed-leather leggings. All this show was, of course, for the purpose of impressing the Indians. Whether impressed or not, the Indians always counted the days to the wild riot of feasting and boat-races and dog-races and horse-races that marked the arrival or departure of a brigade.
New Caledonia, as we know, is now a part of Canada; but why does not the Union Jack float over the great region beyond the Rockiesto the south—south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the 49th parallel? Over all this territory British fur lords once held sway. California was in the limp fingers of Mexico, but the British traders were operating there, and had ample opportunity to secure it by purchase long before it passed to the United States in 1848. Sir George Simpson, the resident governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, advised the company to purchase it, but the directors in London could not see furs in the suggestion. Simpson would have gone further, and reached out the company's long arm to the islands of the Pacific and negotiated with the natives for permission to build a fort in Hawaii. James Douglas was for buying all Alaska from the Russians; but to the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company Alaska seemed as remote and as worthless as Siberia, so they contented themselves with leasing a narrow strip along the shore. Thus California, Alaska, and Hawaii might easily have become British territory; but the opportunity was lost, and they went to the United States. So, too, did the fine territory of Oregon, out of which three states were afterwards added to the American Union. But the history of Oregon is confused in a maze ofpolitics, into which we cannot enter here. As we have seen, Bruno Heceta, acting for Spain, was the first mariner to sight the Columbia, and the American, Robert Gray, was the first to enter its mouth, thus proving Heceta's conjecture of a great river. Then for Great Britain came Vancouver and Broughton; then the Americans, Lewis and Clark and the Astorians; and finally Thompson, the British Nor'wester and the first man to explore the great river from its source to the sea. Then during the War of 1812 the American post on the Columbia passed to the North-West Company of Montreal; and if it had not been for the 'joint occupancy' agreement between Great Britain and the United States in 1818, Oregon would undoubtedly have remained British. But with the 'joint occupancy' arrangement leaving sovereignty in dispute, M'Loughlin of Oregon knew well that in the end sovereignty would be established, as always, by settlement.
First came Jedediah Smith, the American fur trader, overland. He was robbed to the shirt on his back by Indians at the Umpqua river. There and then came the great choice to M'Loughlin—should he save the life of rivals, or leave them to be murdered byIndians? He sent Tom Mackay to the Umpqua, punished the robber Indians, secured the pilfered furs, and paid the American for them. Then came American missionaries overland—the Lees and Whitman. Then came Wyeth, the trader and colonizer from Boston. The company fought Wyeth's trade and bought him out; but when the turbulent Indians crowded round the 'White Eagle,' chief of Fort Vancouver, asking, 'Shall we kill—shall we kill the "Bostonnais"?' M'Loughlin struck the chief plotter down, drove the others from the fort, and had it noised about among the tribes that if any one struck the white 'Bostonnais,' M'Loughlin would strike him. At the same time, M'Loughlin earnestly desired that the territory should remain British. In 1838, at a council of the directors in London, he personally urged the sending of a garrison of British soldiers, and that the government should take control of Oregon in order to establish British rights. His suggestions received little consideration. Had not the company single-handed held all Rupert's Land for almost two hundred years? Had they not triumphed over all rivals? They would do so here.
But by 1843 immigrants were pouring overthe mountains by the thousands. Washington Irving'sAstoriaandCaptain Bonneville, and the political cry of 'Fifty-four forty or fight'—which meant American possession of all south of Alaska—had roused the attention of the people of the United States to the merits of Oregon, and caused them to make extravagant claims. Long before the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which established the 49th parallel as the boundary, M'Loughlin had foreseen what was coming. The movement from the east had become a tide. The immigrants who came over the Oregon Trail in 1843 were starving, almost naked, and without a roof. Again the Indians crowded about M'Loughlin. 'Shall we kill? Shall we kill?' they asked. M'Loughlin took the rough American overlanders into his fort, fed them, advanced them provisions on credit, and sent them to settle on the Willamette. Some of them showed their ingratitude later by denouncing M'Loughlin as 'an aristocrat and a tyrant.' The settlers established a provisional government in 1844, and joined in the rallying-cry of 'Fifty-four forty or fight.' This, as M'Loughlin well knew, was the beginning of the end. His friends among the colonists begged him to subscribe to the provisionalgovernment in order that they might protect his fort from some of their number who threatened to 'burn it about his ears.' He had appealed to the British government for protection, but no answer had come; and at length, after a hard struggle and many misgivings, he cast in his lot with the Americans. Two years later, in 1846, he retired from the service of the company and went to live among the settlers. He died at Oregon City on the Willamette in 1857.
As early as June 1842 M'Loughlin had sent Douglas prospecting in Vancouver Island, which was north of the immediate zone of dispute, for a site on which to erect a new post. The Indian village of Camosun, the Cordoba of the old Spanish charts, stood on the site of the present city of Victoria. Here was fresh water; here was a good harbour; here was shelter from outside gales. Across the sea lay islands ever green in a climate always mild and salubrious. Fifteen men left old Fort Vancouver with Douglas in March 1843 in the company's ship theBeaver, and anchored at Vancouver Island, just outside Camosun Bay. With Douglas went the Jesuit missionary, Father Bolduc, who on March 19celebrated the first Mass ever said on Vancouver Island, and afterwards baptized Indians till he was fairly exhausted. In three days Douglas had a well dug and timbers squared. For every forty pickets erected by the Indians he gave them a blanket. By September stockades and houses had been completed, and as many as fifty men had come to live at the new fort, to which the name Victoria was finally given. Victoria became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific. It was unique as a fortified post, in that it was built without the driving of a single nail, wooden pegs being used instead.
The fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Victoria, B.C. From a photograph by Savannah.The fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Victoria, B.C.From a photograph by Savannah.
The fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Victoria, B.C. From a photograph by Savannah.The fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Victoria, B.C.From a photograph by Savannah.
By 1849 the discovery of gold in California was bringing a rush of overlanders. There had been rumours of the discovery of precious metals on the Fraser and in East Kootenay. The company became alarmed; and Sir John Pelly, the governor in England, and Sir George Simpson, the governor in America, went to the British government with the disquieting question: What is to hinder American colonists rolling north of the boundary and establishing right of possession there as they did on the Columbia? By no stretch of its charter could the Hudson's Bay Companyclaim feudal rights west of the Rockies. What, my Lord Grey asks, would the company advise the British government to do to avert this danger from a tide of democracy rolling north? Why, of course, answers Sir John Pelly, proclaim Vancouver Island a British colony and give the company a grant of the territory and the company will colonize it with British subjects. The proposal was laid before parliament. It would be of no profit to follow the debate that ensued in the House of Commons, which was chiefly 'words without knowledge darkening counsel.' The request was officially granted in January 1849; and Richard Blanshard, a barrister of London, was dispatched as governor of the new colony. But as he had neither salary nor subjects, he went back to England in disgust in 1851, and James Douglas of the Hudson's Bay Company reigned in his stead.
But fate again played the unexpected part, and rang down the curtain on the fur lords of the Pacific coast. A few years previously Douglas had seen M'Loughlin compelled to choose between loyalty to his company and loyalty to humanity. A choice between his country and his company was now unexpectedly thrust on the reticent, careful,masterful Douglas. In 1856 gold was discovered in the form of large nuggets on the Fraser and the Thompson, and adventurers poured into the country—20,000 in a single year. Douglas foresaw that this meant British empire on the Pacific and that the supremacy of the fur traders was about to pass away. The British government bought back Vancouver Island, and proclaimed the new colony of British Columbia on the mainland. Douglas retired from the company's service and was appointed governor of both colonies. In 1866 they were united under one government.
The stampede of treasure-seekers up the Fraser is another story. When the new colony on the mainland came into being, and the Hudson's Bay Company fell from the rank of a feudal overlord to that of a private trader, the pioneer days of the Pacific became a thing of the past.
The bibliography of the Pacific is enormous. There is, indeed, a record of discovery and exploration on the Pacific coast almost as large as that of New France or New England. Only a few of the principal books can be mentioned here; but in most of these will be found good bibliographies which will point the reader to original sources, if he wishes to pursue the subject.
ON DRAKE.Drake and the Tudor Navy, in two volumes, by Julian Corbett (1898);Sir Francis Drake, by the same author (1800), in the 'English Men of Action' series;The World Encompassed, by Francis Fletcher (1628). See also the article on Drake in theDictionary of National Biography.
ON VITUS BERING AND THE RUSSIANS.Peter the Great, by Williams (1859);Peter the Great, by Motley (1877); Coxe'sDiscoveries of the Russians(1781); Lauridsen'sVitus Bering(1885); Laut'sVikings of the Pacific(1905).
ON COOK AND VANCOUVER. Cook'sVoyage to the Pacific Ocean(1784); Ledyard'sJournal of Cook's Last Voyage(1783); Sir Walter Besant'sCaptain Cook(1890), in the 'English Men of Action' series; Kitson'sCaptain James Cook, the Circumnavigator(1907); Vancouver'sVoyage ofDiscovery to the North Pacific Ocean(1798). See also the articles on Cook and Vancouver in theDictionary of National Biography.
ON THE EXPLORATIONS OF MACKENZIE, FRASER, AND THOMPSON. Mackenzie'sVoyages(1801); Burpee'sSearch for the Western Sea(1908);Fur Traders of the Far West, by Alexander Ross (1855); Laut'sConquest of the Great Northwest(1908);Canada and its Provinces, vol. iv (1914).
ON THE FUR TRADERS BEYOND THE ROCKIES. Morice'sHistory of the Northern Interior of British Columbia(1904);Sir James Douglas, by Coats and Gosnell (1908), in the 'Makers of Canada' series;Canada and its Provinces, vol. xxi (1914); Bancroft'sHistory of the Northwest Coast(1884), and hisHistory of Oregon(1888); Lyman'sHistory of Oregon(1903). For an exhaustive statement of the Oregon Boundary Question, see the article, 'Boundary Disputes and Treaties,' by James White, inCanada and its Provinces, vol. viii.
Alaska, discovered,20-2; Russian régime inaugurated in,44.
Aleutian Islands, discovery of,22-9,37; the hunt for furs on,33-44.
Aleuts, their hard lot at the hands of Russian fur traders,34-9; take their revenge,39-43.
Anian, strait of,8,9-10.
Astor, John Jacob, forms the Pacific Fur Company,99,100,106.
Astoria, the fur-post on the Columbia,108,110; sold to the North-West Company,113,115,118.
Astorians. See Pacific Fur Company.
Baranoff, a Russian trader on the Pacific Coast,74.
Barkley, Captain, locates Strait of Juan de Fuca,57,59.
Bering, Vitus, his first expedition to the North Pacific,13-15; his second expedition,15-33,45; his death,28,46,52.
Blanshard, Richard, governor of Vancouver Island,130.
Bolduc, Father, with Douglas on Vancouver Island,128-9.
Boston, its interest in the Pacific Coast,55,59; and settlement in Oregon,126.
Bostonnais, the ubiquitous,54-55,116.
Britain. See Great Britain.
British Columbia, first forts built in,87,89,90; the fear of American aggression,129,131; proclaimed a British colony,131. See New Caledonia.
Broughton, Lieut. Robert, with Vancouver's expedition to the Pacific Coast,70.
Carrier Indians, the,77-8,82,83,88,92,94-6,98.
Chinese, their interest in sea-otter furs,31-2.
Chirikoff, Lieut., explores the North Pacific,18,30.
Clark, William, his mission to the Pacific Coast,86,87,90,108,125.
Clayoquot Sound,60; the tragedy at,110-12.
Clerke, Captain Charles, in command of Cook's expedition,52.
Columbia river,53,56,92,97; discovered by Gray,67,86; missed, then claimed, by Vancouver,66,69-70; Astor's mission to,99; descended by Thompson,104-9.
Cook, Captain James, his quest of a north-east passage from the Pacific,45-9; his tragic death,49-52.
Cossacks, their harsh treatment of the Aleuts,34-9; pay the penalty,39-43.
Delisle de la Croyère, with Bering's second expedition,17,18.
Douglas, James, his Oregon brigade,117,123,124; governor of Vancouver Island,128-30; of British Columbia,131.
Douglas, Captain William, a Pacific Coast trader,57-8,59,61.
Drake, Sir Francis, with Hawkins at Vera Cruz,1-2; his raid on Panama,3; his raiding expedition to the Pacific,3-8; his attempt to find a north-east passage,8-10.
Drusenin, Alexis, clubbed to death by Aleuts,39-40.
East India Company, its foreign commerce,11-12.
Elisa, Spanish explorer on the Pacific Coast,60-1,62,64.
Elizabeth, Queen, honours Drake,4,9.
England,9. See Great Britain.
Fort Chipewyan,72,73,88.
Fort Defence,60; the Indian raid on,61.
Fort George,90,98,113.
Fort M'Leod, the first fur-post in British Columbia,87,100.
Fort St James, chief post of New Caledonia,89,90,123.
Fort Vancouver,108,118.
Fraser, Simon,80; his explorations in New Caledonia,87,88-90,104; his descent of the Fraser,90-8.
Fraser river,63-4,67; Mackenzie on,81-2; descended by Fraser,90-7; discovery of gold on,129,131.
Fuca, Juan de, his north-east passage from the Pacific,12. See Juan de Fuca.
Galiano, Don Dionisio, explores the Pacific Coast,64,67-8.
Gamaland, the mythical continent,12,14-15,17,18.
Ghent, treaty of, and the Pacific Coast,115-16.
'Golden Hind,' the first English ship to sail the Pacific,4-9.
Gray, Captain Robert, his expedition to the Pacific Coast,55,56,57-60,61-2; discovers the Columbia,67,69-70,74,125.
Great Britain, her interest in the Pacific Coast,53-4,113,115,123-4; the Nootka Affair,65-6; her exploring expeditions under Cook and Vancouver,46,66-7; her 'joint occupancy' agreement with the United States,115-16,125,127-8; proclaims colony of British Columbia,129-31.
Hanna, Captain, trades on the Pacific Coast,58,59.
Haro, Gonzales de, at Nootka,60.
Hawkins, Sir John, his reception at Vera Cruz,1-2.
Hearne, Samuel, explorer,45.
Heceta, Bruno, his River of the West,52,56,58,62,67,125.
Hudson's Bay Company, the,45,53; interested in the Pacific fur trade,71; its jurisdiction over Oregon,116-123; its short-sighted policy,124,126-8; founds a colony on Vancouver Island,128-31.
Indians of the Pacific Coast, and Cook,47-8; and Gray,56,61-2; and Mackenzie,83,84-5; and Fraser,88,96-8; and the Astorians,110-12; and M'Loughlin,117,119,125-6,127; and the Oregon brigades,121,123; and Douglas,128-9. See Aleuts and Carrier Indians.
Juan de Fuca, strait of,12; the search for,17,45,47,53,56; located by Barkley,57.
Kamchatka,13; and the fur trade on the Aleutians,31-9,49. See Petropavlovsk.
Kendrick, Captain John, his trading expedition to the Pacific Coast,55,56,57-60.
Kootenay Indians, the,102,103.
La Pérouse, a French explorer on the Pacific Coast,58.
Lewis, Meriwether, his overland expedition to the Pacific,86,87,90,108,125.
Lewis, an Astorian, his plucky end,111-12.
M'Dougall, Duncan, at Astoria,108,112.
M'Dougall, James, his explorations,87-8.
M'Gillivray, Duncan, accompanies Thompson in exploring expedition,102-3.
Mackay, Alexander, with Mackenzie's Pacific expedition,73,76,79; joins the Astorians,99,109; massacred at Clayoquot,110-11.
Mackay, Thomas, his Oregon brigade,117,119-21,126.
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander,53,71-2; his Pacific expedition,72-3; his journey up the Peace and Fraser,73-82; reaches the Pacific,83-5,86.
M'Loughlin, Dr John, ruler in Oregon,116-19,128; his great choice and desire,125-128; his death,128.
Maquinna, a Pacific Coast chief,68,69.
Martinez, Don Joseph, his high-handed action at Nootka,59.
Meares, Captain John, a trader on the Pacific Coast,57-8,59.
Mexico, pilots of, their explorations on the Pacific Coast,62-5.