Map of Mackenzie River and the YukonMAP OF MACKENZIE RIVER AND THE YUKON.Click here for larger map
MAP OF MACKENZIE RIVER AND THE YUKON.Click here for larger map
Northward the course of the fur traders' empire has continually made its way. Leaving Great Slave Lake four years before the close of the eighteenth century, along the course of Alexander Mackenzie's earlier exploration, Duncan Livingston,a North-West Company trader, built the first fort on the river eighty miles north of the lake. Three years later the trader, his three French-Canadian voyageurs and Indian interpreter, were basely killed by the Eskimos on the Lower Mackenzie River. A year or two afterward a party of fur traders, under John Clark, started on an expedition of exploration and retaliation down the river, but again the fury of the Eskimos was roused. In truth, had it not been for a storm of fair wind which favoured them, the traders would not have escaped with their lives.
Very early in the present century, Fort Simpson, the former and present headquarters of the extensive Mackenzie River district, was built, and very soon after its establishment the prominent trader, and afterwards Chief Factor, George Keith, is found in charge of it. It is still the great trading and Church of England Mission centre of the vast region reaching to the Arctic Sea.
During the first half of the century, Big Island, at the point where the Mackenzie River leaves Great Slave Lake, was, on account of its good supply of white fish, the wintering station for the supernumerary district servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. Though this point is still visited for fishing in the autumn, yet in later years the trade of this post has been transferred to another built near the Roman Catholic Mission at Fort Providence, forty miles farther down the river. On Hay River, near the point of departure of the Mackenzie River from the lake, several forts have been built from time to time and abandoned, among them a Fort George referred to by the old traders. The eastern end of the lake, known as Fond du Lac, became celebrated, as we have already seen, in connection with the Arctic explorers, Sir George Back and Dr. Richard King, for here they built Fort Reliance and wintered, going in the spring to explore the Great Fish River. In after years, on account of the district being the resort for the herds of cariboo, Fort Reliance was rebuilt, and was for a time kept up as an outpost of Fort Resolution for collecting furs and "country provisions." It may be re-occupied soon on account of the discoveries of gold and copper in the region.
Journeying down the Mackenzie River, we learn that therewas a fur traders' post of the Montreal merchants sixty miles north of Fort Simpson. In all probability this was but one of several posts that were from time to time occupied in that locality. At the beginning of the century the North-West Company pushed on further north, and had a trading post on the shore of Great Bear Lake, but almost immediately on its erection they were met here by their rivals, the X Y Company. At this point, reached by going up the Bear River from its junction with the Mackenzie on the south-west arm of the lake, Chief Factor Peter Dease built Fort Franklin for the use of the great Arctic explorer, after whom he named the fort.
FORT NORMAN, ON THE MACKENZIE.
To explore new ground was a burning desire in the breasts of the Nor'-Westers. Immediately in the year of their reunion with the X Y Company, the united North-West Company established a post on the Mackenzie River, sixty miles north of the mouth of Bear River. Indeed, the mouth of Bear River on the Mackenzie seems to have suggested itself as a suitable point for a post to be built, for in 1810 Fort Norman had been first placed there. For some reason the post was moved thirty or forty miles higher up the river, but a jam of ice having occurred in the spring of 1851, the fort was mainly swept away by the high water, though the occupants and all the goods were saved. In the same year the mouth of the Bear River came into favour again, and Fort Norman was built at that point. After this time the fort was moved once or twice, but was finally placed in its present commanding position. It was in quite recent times that, under Chief Factor Camsell's direction, a station half-way between Fort Norman and Fort Simpson was fixed and the name of Fort Wrigley given to it.
FORT GOOD HOPE.
Not only did the impulse of union between the North-West and X Y Companies reach Bear River, but in the same year, at a point on the Mackenzie River beyond the high perpendicular cliffs known as "The Ramparts," some two hundred milesfurther north than Fort Norman, was Fort Good Hope erected. Here it remained for nearly a score of years as the farthest north outpost of the fur trade, but after the union of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies it was moved a hundred miles southward on the river and erected on Manitoulin Island. After some years (1836) an ice jam of a serious kind took place, and though the inmates escaped in a York boat, yet the fort was completely destroyed by the rushing waters of the angry Mackenzie. The fort was soon rebuilt, but in its present beautiful situation on the eastern bank of the river, opposite the old site on Manitoulin Island.
During Governor Simpson's time the extension of trade took place toward the mouth of the Mackenzie River. A trader, John Bell, who not only faced the hardships of the region within the Arctic Circle, but also gained a good name in connection with Sir John Richardson's expedition in search of Franklin, built the first post on Peel's River, which runs into the delta of Mackenzie River. Bell, in 1846, descended the Rat River, and first of British explorers set eyes on the Lower Yukon.
In the following year the Hudson's Bay Company established La Pierre's House in the heart of the Rocky Mountains toward the Arctic Sea, and Chief Trader Murray built and occupied the first Fort Yukon. This fort the Hudson's Bay Company held for twenty-two years, until the territory of Alaska passed into the hands of the people of the United States. Rampart House was built by the Hudson's Bay Company within British territory. Both Rampart House and La Pierre's House were abandoned a few years ago as unprofitable. A similar fate befell Fort Anderson, two degrees north of the Arctic Circle, built for the Eastern Eskimos on the Anderson River, discovered in 1857 by Chief Factor R. MacFarlane, a few years before the transfer of the territory of the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada. No doubt the withdrawal from Fort Anderson was hastened by the terribly fatal epidemic of scarlatina which prevailed all over the Mackenzie River district in the autumn and early winter of 1865. More than eleven hundred Indians and Eskimos, out of the four thousand estimated population, perished. The loss of the hunters caused by this disease, andthe difficulties of overland transport, led to the abandonment of this out-of-the-way post.
THE LIARD RIVER.
The conflict of the North-West and X Y Companies led to the most extraordinary exploration that Rupert's Land and the Indian territories have witnessed. At the time when the Mackenzie River, at the beginning of the century, was being searched and occupied, a fort known as The Forks was established at the junction of the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers. This fort, called, after the union of the Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies, Fort simpson, became the base of operations for the exploration of the Liard River. We have followed the course of trade by which the Mackenzie itself was placed under tribute; it may be well also to look at the occupation of the Liard, the most rapid and terrible of all the great eastern streams that dash down from the heart of the Rocky Mountains.
The first post to be established on this stream was Fort Liard, not far below the junction of the western with the east branch of the river. There was an old fort between Fort Liard and Fort Simpson, but Fort Liard, which is still occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, began almost with the century, and a few years afterwards was under the experienced trader, George Keith. Probably, at an equally early date, Fort Nelson, on the eastern branch of the river, was established. In the second decade of the century, Alexander Henry, the officer in charge, and all of his people were murdered by the Indians. The post was for many years abandoned, but was rebuilt in 1865, and is still a trading post.
It was probably shortly after the union of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies that Fort Halkett, far up the western branch of the river, was erected. After forty or fifty years of occupation, Fort Halkett was abandoned, but a small post called Toad River was built some time afterward, half way between its site and that of Fort Liard. In 1834, Chief Trader John M. McLeod, not the McLeod whose journal we have quoted, pushed up past the dangerous rapids and boiling whirlpools, and among rugged cliffs and precipices of theRocky Mountains, discovered Dease River and Dease Lake from which the river flows.
Robert Campbell, an intrepid Scottish officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1838, succeeded in doing what his predecessors had been unable to accomplish, viz. to establish a trading-post on Dease Lake. In the summer of the same year Campbell crossed to the Pacific Slope and reached the head waters of the Stikine River.
In opening his new post Campbell awakened the hostility of the coast Indians. He and his men became so reduced in supplies that they subsisted for some time on the skin thongs of their moccasins and snow shoes and on the parchment windows of their huts, boiled to supply the one meal a day which kept them alive. In the end Campbell was compelled to leave his station on the Dease Lake, and the fort was burnt by the Indians.
DISCOVERY OF THE UPPER YUKON.
Under orders from Governor Simpson, Campbell, in 1840, undertook the exploration that has made his name famous. This was to ascend the northern branch of the wild and dangerous Liard River. For this purpose he left the mountain post, Fort Halkett, and passing through the great gorge arrived at Lake Frances, where he gave the promontory which divides the lake the name "Simpson's Tower." Leaving the Lake and ascending one of its tributaries, called by him Finlayson's River, he reached the interesting reservoir of Finlayson's Lake, of which, at high water, one part of the sheet runs west to the Pacific Ocean and the other to the Arctic Sea. With seven trusty companions he crossed the height of land and saw the high cliffs of the splendid river, which he called "Pelly Banks," in honour of the then London Governor of the Company. The Company would have called it Campbell's River, but the explorer refused the honour. Going down the stream a few miles on a raft, Campbell then turned back, and reached Fort Halkett after an absence of four months.
Highly complimented by Governor Simpson, Campbell, under orders, in the next year built a fort at Lake Frances, andin a short time another establishment at Pelly Banks. Descending the river, the explorer met at the junction of the Lewis and Pelly Banks a band of Indians, who would not allow him to proceed further, and indeed plotted to destroy him and his men. Eight years after his discovery of Pelly Banks, Campbell started on his great expedition, which was crowned with success. Reaching again the junction of the Pelly and Lewis Rivers, he erected a post, naming it Fort Selkirk, although it was long locally known as Campbell's Fort. Two years after the building of Fort Selkirk, Campbell, journeying in all from the height of land for twelve hundred miles, reached Fort Yukon, where, as we have seen, Trader Murray was in charge. Making a circuit around by the Porcupine River and ascending the Mackenzie River, Campbell surprised his friends at Fort Simpson by coming up the river to Fort Simpson.
In 1852, a thievish band of coast Indians called the Chilkats plundered Fort Selkirk and shortly afterward destroyed it. Its ruins remain to this day, and the site is now taken up by the Canadian Government as a station on the way to the Yukon gold-fields.
Campbell went home to London, mapped out with the aid of Arrowsmith the country he had found, and gave names to its rivers and other features. A few years ago an officer of the United States army, Lieutenant Schwatka, sought to rob Campbell of his fame, and attempted to rename the important points of the region. Campbell's merit and modesty entitle him to the highest recognition.
The trading posts of the great region we are describing have been variously grouped into districts. Previous to the union of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies, from Athabasca north and west was known as the "Athabasca-Mackenzie Department," their returns all being kept in one account. This northern department was long under the superintendency of Chief Factor Edward Smith.
A new district was, some time after the transfer of the Indian territories to Canada, formed and named "Peace River." The management has changed from time to time, Fort Dunvegan, for example, for a period the headquarters of the Peace Riverdistrict, having lost its pre-eminence and been transferred to be under the chief officer on Lesser Slave Lake.
The vast inland water stretches of which we have spoken have been the chief means of communication throughout the whole country. Without these there could have been little fur trade. The distances are bewildering. The writer remembers seeing Bishop Bompas, who had left the far distant Fort Yukon to go to England, and who by canoe, York boat, dog train, snow shoe, and waggon, had been nine months on the journey before he reached Winnipeg.
The first northern inland steamer in these remote retreats was theGraham(1882), built by the Company at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, by Captain John M. Smith. Three years later the same captain built the screw-propellerWrigley, at Fort Smith, on the Slave River; and a few years afterward, this indefatigable builder launched at Athabasca landing the stern-wheelerAthabasca, for the water stretches of the Upper Athabasca River.
How remarkable the record of adventure, trade, rivalry, bloodshed, hardship, and successful effort, from the time, more than a century ago, when Peter Pond started out on his seemingly desperate undertaking!
ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
Extension of trade in New Caledonia—The Western Department—Fort Vancouver built—Governor's residence and Bachelor's Hall—Fort Colville—James Douglas, a man of note—A dignified official—An Indian rising—A brave woman—The fertile Columbia Valley—Finlayson, a man of action—Russian fur traders—Treaty of Alaska—Lease of Alaska to the Hudson's Bay Company—Fort Langley—The great farm—Black at Kamloops—Fur trader v. botanist—"No soul above a beaver's skin"—A tragic death—Chief Nicola's eloquence—A murderer's fate.
Thegreat exploration early in the century secured the Pacific Slope very largely to the North-West Company. Several of their most energetic agents, as the names of the rivers running into the Pacific Ocean show, had made a deep impression on the region even as far south as the mouth of the Columbia River. On the union of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies, Governor Simpson threw as much energy into the development of trade in the country on the western side of the Rocky Mountains as if he had been a thorough-going Nor'-Wester.
In his administration from ocean to ocean he divided the trading territory into four departments, viz. Montreal, the Southern, the Northern, and the Western. In each of these there were four factors, and these were, in the Western or Rocky Mountain department, subject to one chief. Under the chief factor the gradation was chief trader, chief clerk, apprenticed clerk, postmaster, interpreter, voyageur, and labourer.
This fuller organization and the cessation of strife resulted in a great increase of the trade of the Hudson's Bay Company on the coast as well as the east side of the Rocky Mountains. Theold fort of Astoria, which was afterwards known as Fort George, was found too far from the mountains for the convenience of the fur traders. Accordingly in 1824-5, a new fort was erected on the north side of the Columbia River, six miles above its junction with the Willamette River. The new fort was called Fort Vancouver, and was built on a prairie slope about one mile back from the river, but it was afterwards moved nearer the river bank. The new site was very convenient for carrying on the overland traffic to Puget Sound. This fort was occupied for twenty-three years, until international difficulties rendered its removal necessary.
Fort Vancouver was of considerable size, its stockade measuring 750 ft. in length and 600 ft. in breadth. The Governor's residence, Bachelor's Hall, and numerous other buildings made up a considerable establishment. About the fort a farm was under cultivation to the extent of fifteen hundred acres, and a large number of cattle, sheep, and horses were bred upon it and supplied the trade carried on with the Russians in the Far North.
Farther up the Columbia River, where the Walla Walla River emptied in, a fort was constructed in 1818. The material for this fort was brought a considerable distance, and being in the neighbourhood of troublesome tribes of Indians, care was taken to make the fort strong and defensible.
Still further up the Columbia River and near the mountains, an important post, Fort Colville, was built. This fort became the depôt for all the trade done on the Columbia River; and from this point the brigade which had been organized at Fort Vancouver made its last call before undertaking the steep mountain climb which was necessary in order that by the middle of March it might reach Norway House and be reported at the great summer meeting of the fur traders' council there. This task needed a trusty leader, and for many years Chief Factor, afterward Sir James, Douglas became the man on whom Governor and Council depended to do this service.
The mention of the name of James Douglas brings before us the greatest and most notable man developed by the fur trade of the Pacific slope. The history of this leaderwas for fifty years after the coalition of the Companies in 1821, the history of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific.
Sir James DouglasSIR JAMES DOUGLAS.
SIR JAMES DOUGLAS.
Born near the beginning of the century, a scion of the noble house of Douglas, young Douglas emigrated to Canada, entered the North-West Company, learned French as if by magic, and though little more than a lad, at once had heavy responsibilities thrown upon him. He was enterprising and determined, with a judicious mixture of prudence. He had capital business talents and an adaptability that stood him in good stead in dealing with Indians. The veteran Chief Factor, McLoughlin, who had served his term in the Nor'-Wester service about Lake Superior and Lake Nepigon, was appointed to the charge of the Pacific or Western District. He discerned the genius of his young subordinate, and with the permission of the directors in London, after a short interval, took Douglas west of the mountains to the scene of his future successes. The friendship between these chiefs of the Pacific Coast was thus early begun, and they together did much to mould the British interests on the Pacific Coast into a comely shape.
While McLoughlin crossed at once to the Columbia and took charge of Fort Vancouver, he directed Douglas to go north to New Caledonia, or what is now Northern British Columbia, to learn the details of the fur trade of the mountains. Douglas threw himself heartily into every part of his work. He not only learned the Indian languages, and used them to advantage in the advancement of the fur trade, but studied successfully the physical features of the country and became an authority on the Pacific Slope which proved of greatest value to the Company and the country for many a day.
Douglas had as his headquarters Fort St. James, near the outlet of Stuart Lake, i.e. just west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains. He determined to enforce law and do away with the disorder which prevailed in the district. An Indian, who some time before had murdered one of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, had been allowed to go at large. Judgment being long deferred, the murderer thought himself likely to be unmolested, and visited Stuart Lake. Douglas, learning of his presence, with a weak garrison seizedthe criminal and visited vengeance on him. The Indians were incensed, but knowing that they had to deal with a doughty Douglas, employed stratagem in their reprisals. The old chief came very humbly to the fort and, knocking at the gate, was given admittance. He talked the affair over with Douglas, and the matter seemed in a fair way to be settled when another knock was heard at the gate. The chief stated that it was his brother who sought to be admitted. The gate was opened, when in rushed the whole of the Nisqually tribe. McLean vividly describes the scene which ensued: "The men of the fort were overpowered ere they had time to stand on their defence. Douglas, however, seized a wall-piece that was mounted in the hall, and was about to discharge it on the crowd that was pouring in upon him, when the chief seized him by the hands and held him fast. For an instant his life was in the utmost peril, surrounded by thirty or forty Indians, their knives drawn, and brandishing them over his head with frantic gestures, and calling out to the chief, "Shall we strike? Shall we strike?"
The chief hesitated, and at this critical moment the interpreter's wife (daughter of an old trader, James McDougall) stepped forward, and by her presence of mind saved him and the establishment.
"Observing one of the inferior chiefs, who had always professed the greatest friendship for the whites, standing in the crowd, she addressed herself to him, exclaiming, 'What! you a friend of the whites, and not say a word in their behalf at such a time as this! Speak! You know the murderer deserved to die; according to your own laws the deed was just; it is blood for blood. The white men are not dogs; they love their own kindred as well as you; why should they not avenge their murder?'"
The moment the heroine's voice was heard the tumult subsided; her boldness struck the savages with awe. The chief she addressed, acting on her suggestion, interfered, and being seconded by the old chief, who had no serious intention of injuring the whites, and was satisfied with showing them that they were fairly in his power, Douglas and his men were set at liberty, and an amicable conference having taken place,the Indians departed much elated with the issue of their enterprise.
Douglas spent his four years in the interior in a most interesting and energetic life. The experience there gained was invaluable in his after career as a fur trader. In 1826, at Bear Lake, at the head of a branch of the River Skeena, he built a fort, which he named Fort Connolly, in honour of his superior officer, the chief of the Pacific department. Other forts in this region date their origin to Douglas's short stay in this part of the mountains. Douglas also had an "affair of the heart" while at Fort St. James. Young and impressionable, he fell in love with Nellie, the daughter of Mr. Connolly, a young "daughter of the country," aged sixteen. She became his wife and survived him as Lady Douglas.
His life of adventure in the Rocky Mountains came to an end by the summons of Chief Factor McLoughlin to appear at Fort Vancouver, the chief point of the Company's trade on the Pacific slope. In two years more the rising young officer became chief trader, and three years afterward he had reached the high dignity of chief factor. His chief work was to establish forts, superintend the trade in its different departments, and inspect the forts at least annually. His vigilance and energy were surprising. He became so noted that it was said of him: "He was one of the most enterprising and inquisitive of men, famous for his intimate acquaintance with every service of the coast."
Though James Douglas rose by well marked tokens of leadership to the chief place on the Pacific Coast, yet the men associated with him were a worthy and able band. His friend, Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin, who had been his patron, was a man of excellent ability. McLoughlin was of a sympathetic and friendly disposition, and took an interest in the settlement of the fertile valley of the Columbia. His course seems to have been disapproved of by the London Committee of the Company, and his place was given to Douglas, after which he spent his life in Oregon. His work and influence cannot, however, be disregarded. He passed through many adventures and dangers. He was fond of show, and had amanner which might well recommend him to Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief.
From a trader's journal we learn: "McLoughlin and his suite would sometimes accompany the south-bound expeditions from Fort Vancouver, in regal state, for fifty or one hundred miles up the Willamette, when he would dismiss them with his blessing and return to the fort. He did not often travel, and seldom far; but on these occasions he indulged his men rather than himself in some little variety.... It pleased Mrs. McLoughlin thus to break the monotony of her fort life. Upon a gaily-caparisoned steed, with silver trappings and strings of bells on bridle reins and saddle skirt, sat the lady of Fort Vancouver, herself arrayed in brilliant colours and wearing a smile which might cause to blush and hang its head the broadest, warmest, and most fragrant sunflower. By her side, also gorgeously attired, rode her lord, king of the Columbia, and every inch a king, attended by a train of trappers, under a chief trader, each upon his best behaviour."
But a group of men, notable and competent, gathered around these two leaders of the fur trade on the Pacific Coast. These comprised Roderick Finlayson, John Work, A. C. Anderson, W. F. Tolmie, John Tod, S. Black, and others. These men, in charge of important posts, were local magnates, and really, gathered together in council, determined the policy of the Company along the whole coast.
In 1827 the spirit of extension of the trading operations took possession of the Hudson's Bay Company. In that year the officers at Fort Vancouver saw arrive from the Thames the schoonerCadboro, seventy-two tons burthen. She became as celebrated on the Pacific Coast as any prominent fur trader could have become. It was said of this good ship, "She saw buried every human body brought by her from England, save one, John Spence, ship carpenter." Her arrival at this time was the occasion for an expedition to occupy the Lower Fraser with a trading post. John McMillan commanded the expedition of twenty-five men. Leaving Fort Vancouver in boats, and, after descending the Columbia for a distance, crossing the country to Puget's Sound, they met theCadboro, which had gone upon her route. Transported to the mouth of the FraserRiver, which empties into the Gulf of Georgia, they, with some difficulty, ascended the river and planted Fort Langley, where in the first season of trade a fair quantity of beaver was purchased, and a good supply of deer and elk meat was brought in by the hunters. The founding of Fort Langley meant virtually the taking hold of what we now know as the mainland of British Columbia.
The reaching out in trade was not favoured by the Indians of the Columbia. Two years after the founding of Fort Langley, a Hudson's Bay Company ship from London, theWilliam and Ann, was wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia River. The survivors were murdered by the Indians, and the cargo was seized and secreted by the savage wreckers. Chief Factor McLoughlin sent to the Indians, demanding the restoration of the stolen articles. An old broom was all that was brought to the fort, and this was done in a spirit of derision. The schoonerVancouver—the first ship of that name—(150 tons burthen), built on the coast, was wrecked five years after, and became a total loss.
In the same year as the wreck of theWilliam and Ann, it was strongly impressed upon the traders that a sawmill should be erected to supply the material for building new vessels. Chief Factor McLoughlin determined to push this on. He chose as a site a point on the Willamette River, a tributary of the Columbia from the south, where Oregon city now stands. He began a farm in connection with the mill, and in a year or two undertook the construction of the mill race by blasting in the rock, and erected cottages for his men and new settlers. The Indians, displeased with the signs of permanent residence, burnt McLoughlin's huts. It is said it was this enterprise that turned the Hudson's Bay Company Committee in London against the veteran trader. Years afterwards, Edward Ellice, the fur-trade magnate residing in England, said, "Dr. McLoughlin was rather an amphibious and independent personage. He was a very able man, and, I believe, a very good man; but he had a fancy that he would like to have interests in both countries, both in United States and in English territory.... While he remained with the Hudson's Bay Company he was an excellent servant."
Among the traders far up in the interior, in command of Fort Kamloops, which was at the junction of the North and South Thompson, was a Scotchman named Samuel Black. There came as a visitor to his fort a man of science and a countryman of his own. This man was David Douglas. He was an enthusiast in the search for plants and birds. He was indefatigable as a naturalist, did much service to the botany of Western America, and has his name preserved in the characteristic tree of the Pacific slope—the Douglas Fir. Douglas, on visiting Black, was very firm in the expression of his opinions against the Company, saying, "The Hudson's Bay Company is simply a mercenary corporation; there is not an officer in it with a soul above a beaver's skin." Black's Caledonian blood was roused, for he was a leading spirit among the traders, having on the union of the Companies been presented with a ring with the inscription on it, "To the most worthy of the worthy Nor'-Westers." He challenged the botanist to a duel. The scientist deferred the meeting till the morning, but early next day Black tapped at the parchment window of the room where Douglas was sleeping, crying, "Mister Douglas, are ye ready?" Douglas disregarded the invitation. David Douglas some time after visited Hawaii, where, in examining the snares for catching wild cattle, he fell into the pit, and was trampled to death by a wild bullock.
The death of Samuel Black was tragic. In 1841, Tranquille, a chief of the Shushwaps, who dwelt near Kamloops, died. The friends of the chief blamed the magic or "evil medicine" of the white man for his death. A nephew of Tranquille waited his opportunity and shot Chief Trader Black. The Hudson's Bay Company was aroused to most vigorous action. A writer says: "The murderer escaped. The news spread rapidly to the neighbouring posts. The natives were scarcely less disturbed than the white men. The act was abhorred, even by the friends and relatives of Tranquille. Anderson was at Nisqually at the time. Old John Tod came over from Fort Alexandria, McLean from Fort Colville, and McKinley and Ermatinger from Fort Okanagan. From Fort Vancouver McLoughlin sent men.... Cameron was to assist Tod in taking charge of Kamloops. All traffic was stopped.
"Tod informed the assembled Shushwaps that the murderer must be delivered up. The address of Nicola, chief of the Okanagans, gives a fine example of Indian eloquence. He said: 'The winter is cold. On all the hills around the deer are plenty; and yet I hear your children crying for food. Why is this? You ask for powder and ball, they refuse you with a scowl. Why do the white men let your children starve? Look there! Beneath yon mound of earth lies him who was your friend, your father. The powder and ball he gave you that you might get food for your famishing wives and children, you turned against him. Great heavens! And are the Shushwaps such cowards, dastardly to shoot their benefactor in the back while his face was turned? Yes, alas, you have killed your father! A mountain has fallen! The earth is shaken! The sun is darkened! My heart is sad. I cannot look at myself in the glass. I cannot look at you, my neighbours and friends. He is dead, and we poor Indians shall never see his like again. He was just and generous. His heart was larger than yonder mountain, and clearer than the waters of the lake. Warriors do not weep, but sore is my breast, and our wives shall wail for him. Wherefore did you kill him? But you did not. You loved him. And now you must not rest until you have brought to justice his murderer.'
"The old man was so rigid in expression that his whole frame and features seemed turned to stone.
"Archibald McKinley said, 'Never shall I forget it; it was the grandest speech I ever heard.'
"The murderer was soon secured and placed in irons, but in crossing a river he succeeded in upsetting the boat in the sight of Nicola and his assembled Indians. The murderer floated down the stream, but died, his death song hushed by the crack of rifles from the shore."
Thus by courage and prudence, alas! not without the sacrifice of valuable lives, was the power of the Hudson's Bay Company and the prestige of Great Britain established on the Pacific Coast.
FROM OREGON TO VANCOUVER ISLAND.
Fort Vancouver on American soil—Chief Factor Douglas chooses a new site—Young McLoughlin killed—Liquor selling prohibited—Dealing with the Songhies—A Jesuit father—Fort Victoria—Finlayson's skill—Chinook jargon—The brothers Ermatinger—A fur-trading Junius—"Fifty-four, forty, or fight"—Oregon Treaty—Hudson's Bay Company indemnified—The waggon road—A colony established—First governor—Gold fever—British Columbia—Fort Simpson—Hudson's Bay Company in the interior—The forts—A group of worthies—Service to Britain—The coast become Canadian.
TheColumbia River grew to be a source of wealth to the Hudson's Bay Company. Its farming facilities were great, and its products afforded a large store for supplying the Russian settlements of Alaska. But as on the Red River, so here the influx of agricultural settlers sounded a note of warning to the fur trader that his day was soon to pass away. With the purpose of securing the northern trade, Fort Langley had been built on the Fraser River. The arrival of Sir George Simpson on the coast on his journey round the world was the occasion of the Company taking a most important step in order to hold the trade of Alaska.
In the year following Sir George's visit, Chief Factor Douglas crossed Puget Sound and examined the southern extremity of Vancouver Island as to its suitability for the erection of a new fort to take the place in due time of Fort Vancouver. Douglas found an excellent site, close beside the splendid harbour of Esquimalt, and reported to the assembled council of chief factors and traders at Fort Vancouver that the advantages afforded by the site, especially that of its contiguity to the sea, would place the new fort, for all their purposes, in a much betterposition than Fort Vancouver. The enterprise was accordingly determined on for the next season.
A tragic incident took place at this time on the Pacific Coast, which tended to make the policy of expansion adopted appear to be a wise and reasonable one. This was the violent death of a young trader, the son of Chief Trader McLoughlin, at Fort Taku on the coast of Alaska, in the territory leased from the Russians by the Hudson's Bay Company. The murder was the result of a drunken dispute among the Indians, in which, accidentally, young McLoughlin had been shot.
Sir George Simpson had just returned to the fort from his visit to the Sandwich Islands, and was startled at seeing the Russian and British ships, with flags at half-mast, on account of the young trader's death. The Indians, on the arrival of the Governor, expressed the greatest penitence, but the stern Lycurgus could not be appeased, and this calamity, along with one of a similar kind, which had shortly before occurred on the Stikine River, led Sir George Simpson and the Russian Governor Etholin to come to an agreement to discontinue at once the sale of spirituous liquor in trading with the Indians. The Indians for a time resorted to every device, such as withholding their furs unless liquor was given them, but the traders were unyielding, and the trade on the coast became safer and more profitable on account of the disuse of strong drink.
The decision to build a new fort having been reached in the next spring, the moving spirit of the trade on the coast, James Douglas, with fifteen men, fully supplied with food and necessary implements, crossed in theBeaverfrom Nisqually, like another Eneas leaving his untenable city behind to build a new Troy elsewhere. On the next day, March 13th, the vessel came to anchor opposite the new site.
A graphic writer has given us the description of the beautiful spot: "The view landwards was enchanting. Before them lay a vast body of land, upon which no white man then stood. Not a human habitation was in sight; not a beast, scarcely a bird. Even the gentle murmur of the voiceless wood was drowned by the gentle beating of the surf upon the shore. There was something specially charming, bewitching in the place. Though wholly natural it did not seem so. It was notat all like pure art, but it was as though nature and art had combined to map out and make one of the most pleasing prospects in the world."
The visitor looking at the City of Victoria in British Columbia to-day will say that the description is in no way overdrawn. Not only is the site one of the most charming on the earth, but as the spectator turns about he is entranced with the view on the mainland, of Mount Olympia, so named by that doughty captain, John Meares, more than fifty years before the founding of this fort.
The place had been already chosen for a village and fortification by the resident tribe, the Songhies, and went by the Indian name of Camosun. The Indian village was a mile distant from the entrance to the harbour. When theBeavercame to anchor, a gun was fired, which caused a commotion among the natives, who were afraid to draw near the intruding vessel. Next morning, however, the sea was alive with canoes of the Songhies.
The trader immediately landed, chose the site for his post, and found at a short distance tall and straight cedar-trees, which afforded material for the stockades of the fort. Douglas explained to the Indians the purpose of his coming, and held up to them bright visions of the beautiful things he would bring them to exchange for their furs. He also employed the Indians in obtaining for him the cedar posts needed for his palisades.
The trader showed his usual tact in employing a most potent means of gaining an influence over the savages by bringing the Jesuit Father Balduc, who had been upon the island before and was known to the natives. Gathering the three tribes of the south of the island, the Songhies, Clallams, and Cowichins, into a great rustic chapel which had been prepared, Father Balduc held an impressive religious service, and shortly after visited a settlement of the Skagits, a thousand strong, and there too, in a building erected for public worship, performed the important religious rites of his Church before the wondering savages.
It was the intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to make the new fort at Camosun, which they first called Fort Albert,and afterwards Fort Victoria—the name now borne by the city, the chief trading depôt on the coast.
Fort Victoria, B.C.FORT VICTORIA, B.C.
FORT VICTORIA, B.C.
As soon as the buildings were well under way, Chief Factor Douglas sailed northward along the coast to re-arrange the trade. Fort Simpson, which was on the mainland, some fifteen degrees north of the new fort and situated between the Portland Canal and the mouth of the Skeena River, was to be retained as necessary for the Alaska trade, but the promising officer, Roderick Finlayson, a young Scotchman, who had shown his skill and honesty in the northern post, was removed from it and given an important place in the new establishment. Living a useful and blameless life, he was allowed to see the new fort become before his death a considerable city. Charles Ross, the master of Fort McLoughlin, being senior to Finlayson, was for the time being placed in charge of the new venture. The three minor forts, Taku, Stikine, and McLoughlin, were now closed, and the policy of consolidation led to Fort Victoria at once rising into importance.
On the return of the chief factor from his northern expedition, with all the employés and stores from the deserted posts, the work at Fort Victoria went on apace. The energetic master had now at his disposal fifty good men, and while some were engaged at the buildings—either store-houses or dwellings—others built the defences. Two bastions of solid block work were erected, thirty feet high, and these were connected by palisades or stockades of posts twenty feet high, driven into the earth side by side. The natives encamped alongside the new work, looked on with interest, but as they had not their wives and children with them, the traders viewed them with suspicion. On account of the watchfulness of the builders, the Indians, beyond a few acts of petty theft, did not interfere with the newcomers in their enterprise.
Three months saw the main features of the fort completed. On entering the western gate of the fort, to the right was to be seen a cottage-shaped building, the post office, then the smithy; further along the walls were the large store-house, carpenter's shop, men's dormitory, and the boarding-house for the raw recruits. Along the east wall were the chapel, chaplain's house, then the officers' dining-room, and cook-houseattached. Along the north wall was a double row of store-houses for furs and goods, and behind them the gunpowder magazine. In the north-west corner was the cottage residence of the chief factor and his family.
The defences of the fort were important, consisting of two bastions on the western angles, and these contained six or eight nine-pounders. The south tower was the real fort from which salutes were fired; the north tower was a prison; and near the western or front gate stood the belfry erection and on its top the flag-staff. Such was the first Fort Albert or Victoria.
Victoria rapidly grew into notice, and in due time Roderick Finlayson, the man of adaptation and force, on the death of his superior officer became chief factor in charge. The writer met the aged fur trader years after he had retired from active service, and spent with him some hours of cheerful discourse. Large and commanding in form, Finlayson had the marks of governing ability about him. He lacked the adroitness of McLoughlin, the instability of Tod, and the genius of Douglas, but he was a typical Scotchman, steady, patient, and trustworthy. Like an old patriarch, he spent his last days in Victoria, keeping a large extent of vacant city property in a common. Urged again and again to sell it when it had become valuable, the sturdy pioneer replied that he "needed it to pasture his 'coo.'"
One of the things most striking in all the early traders was their ability to master language. Many of the officers of the Company were able to speak four languages. On the Pacific Coast, on account of the many Indian tongues differing much from each other, there grew up a language of commerce, known as the Chinook jargon. It was a most remarkable phenomenon; it is still largely in use. The tribe most familiar to the traders at the beginning of the century was the Chinooks. English-speaking, French, and United States traders met with them, and along with them the Kanakas, or Sandwich Island workmen, with many bands of coast Indians.
A trade has developed upon the Pacific Coast, the Chinook jargon has grown, and now numbers some five hundred words. Of these, nearly half were Chinook in origin, a number werefrom other Indian languages, almost a hundred were French, and less than seventy English, while several were doubtful. The then leading elements among the traders were known in the jargon as respectively, Pasai-ooks, French, a corruption of Français; King Chautchman (King George man), English; and Boston, American. The following will show the origin and meaning of a few words, showing changes made in consonants which the Indians cannot pronounce.
Songs, hymns, sermons, and translations of portions of the Bible are made in the jargon, and used by missionaries and teachers. Several dictionaries of the dialect have been published.
Among the out-standing men who were contemporaries upon the Pacific Coast of Finlayson were the two brothers Ermatinger. Already it has been stated that they were nephews of the famous old trader of Sault Ste. Marie. Their father had preferred England to Canada, and had gone thither. His two sons, Edward and Francis, were, as early as 1818, apprenticed by their father to the Hudson's Bay Company and sent on the Company's ship to Rupert's Land, by way of York Factory. Edward, whose autobiographical sketch, hitherto unpublished, lies before us, tells us that he spent ten years in the fur trade, being engaged at York Factory, Oxford House, Red River, and on the Columbia River. Desirous of returning to the service after he had gone back to Canada, he had received an appointment to Rupert's Land again from Governor Simpson. This was cancelled by the Governor onaccount of a grievous quarrel with old Charles, the young trader's uncle, on a sea voyage with the Governor to Britain. For many years, however, Edward Ermatinger lived at St. Thomas, Ontario, where his son, the respected Judge Ermatinger, still resides. The old gentleman became a great authority on Hudson's Bay affairs, and received many letters from the traders, especially, it would seem, from those who had grievances against the Company or against its strong-willed Governor.
Francis Ermatinger, the other brother, spent between thirty and forty years in the Far West, especially on the Pacific Coast. An unpublished journal of Francis Ermatinger lies before us. It is a clear and vivid account of an expedition to revenge the death of a trader, Alexander Mackenzie, and four men who had been basely murdered (1828) by the tribe of Clallam Indians. The party, under Chief Factor Alexander McLeod, attacked one band of Indians and severely punished them; then from the shipCadboroon the coast, a bombardment of the Indian village took place, in which many of the tribe of the murderers were killed, but whether the criminals suffered was never known.
That Francis Ermatinger was one of the most hardy, determined, and capable of the traders is shown by a remarkable Journey made by him, under orders from Sir George Simpson on his famous journey round the world. Ermatinger had left Fort Vancouver in charge of a party of trappers to visit the interior of California. Sir George, having heard of him in the upper waters of one of the rivers of the coast, ordered him to meet him at Monterey. This Ermatinger undertook to do, and after a terrific journey, crossing snowy chains of mountains, fierce torrents in a country full of pitfalls, reached the imperious Governor. Ermatinger had assumed the disguise of a Spanish caballero, and was recognized by his superior officer with some difficulty. Ermatinger wrote numerous letters to his brothers in Canada, which contained details of the hard but exciting life he was leading.
Most unique and peculiar of all the traders on the Pacific Coast was John Tod, who first appeared as a trader in the Selkirk settlement and wrote a number of the Hargrave letters.In 1823 he was sent by Governor Simpson, it is said, to New Caledonia as to the penal settlement of the fur traders, but the young Scotchman cheerfully accepted his appointment. He became the most noted letter-writer of the Pacific Coast, indeed he might be called the prince of controversialists among the traders. There lies before the writer a bundle of long letters written over a number of years by Tod to Edward Ermatinger. Tod, probably for the sake of argument, advocated loose views as to the validity of the Scriptures, disbelief of many of the cardinal Christian doctrines, and in general claimed the greatest latitude of belief. It is very interesting to see how the solemn-minded and orthodox Ermatinger strives to lead him into the true way. Tod certainly had little effect upon his faithful correspondent, and shows the greatest regard for his admonitions.
The time of Sir George Simpson's visit to the coast on his journey round the world was one of much agitation as to the boundary line between the British and United States possessions on the Pacific Coast. By the treaty of 1825 Russia and Britain had come to an agreement that the Russian strip along the coast should reach southward only to 54 deg. 40´ N. lat. The United States mentioned its claim to the coast as far north as the Russian boundary. However preposterous it may seem, yet it was maintained by the advocates of the Monroe doctrine that Great Britain had no share of the coast at all. The urgency of the American claim became so great that the popular mind seemed disposed to favour contesting this claim with arms. Thus originated the famous saying, "Fifty-four, forty, or fight." The Hudson's Bay Company was closely associated with the dispute, the more that Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River might be south of the boundary line, though their action of building Fort Victoria was shown to be a wise and timely step. At length in 1846 the treaty between Great Britain and the United States was made and the boundary line established. The Oregon Treaty, known in some quarters as the Ashburton Treaty, provided that the 49th parallel of latitude should on the mainland be the boundary, thus handing over Fort Vancouver, Walla Walla, Colville, Nisqually, and Okanagan to the United States, and takingthem from their rightful owners, the Hudson's Bay Company. Article two of the great treaty, however, stated that the Company should enjoy free navigation of the Columbia River, while the third article provided that the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company and all other British subjects on the south side of the boundary line should be respected.
The decision in regard to the boundary led to changes in the Hudson's Bay Company establishments. Dr. McLoughlin, having lost the confidence of the Company, threw in his lot with his United States home, and retired in the year of the treaty to Oregon City, where he died a few years after. His name is remembered as that of an impulsive, good-hearted, somewhat rash, but always well-meaning man.
Though Fort Victoria became the depôt for the coast of the trade of the Company, Fort Vancouver, with a reduced staff, was maintained for a number of years by the Company. While under charge of Chief Trader Wark, a part of the fields belonging to the Company at Fort Vancouver were in a most high-handed manner seized by the United States for military purposes. The senior officer, Mr. Grahame, on his return from an absence, protested against the invasion. In June, 1860, however, the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from the Columbia. The great herd of wild cattle which had grown up on the Columbia were disposed of by the Company to a merchant of Oregon. The Company thus retired to the British side of the boundary line during the three years closing with 1860.
Steps were taken by the Hudson's Bay Company to obtain compensation from the United States authorities. A long and wearisome investigation took place; witnesses were called and great diversity of opinion prevailed as to the value of the interest of the Company in its forts. The Hudson's Bay Company claimed indemnity amounting to the sum of 2,000,000 dols. Witnesses for the United States gave one-tenth of that amount as a fair value. Compensation of a moderate kind was at length made to the Company by the United States.
On its withdrawal from Oregon the Hudson's Bay Company decided on opening up communication with the interior of the mainland up the Fraser River. This was a task of no small magnitude, on account of the rugged and forbidding banks ofthis great river. A. Caulfield Anderson, an officer who had been in the Company's service for some fourteen years before the date of the Oregon Treaty and was in charge of a post on the Fraser River, was given the duty of finding the road to the interior. He was successful in tracing a road from Fort Langley to Kamloops. The Indians offered opposition to Anderson, but he succeeded in spite of all hindrances, and though other routes were sought for and suggested, yet Anderson's road by way of the present town of Hope and Lake Nicola to Kamloops afterwards became one great waggon road to the interior. No sooner had the boundary line been fixed than agitation arose to prepare the territory north of the line for a possible influx of agriculturists or miners and also to maintain the coast true to British connection. The Hudson's Bay Company applied to the British Government for a grant of Vancouver Island, which they held under a lease good for twelve years more. Mr. Gladstone opposed the application, but considering it the best thing to be done in the circumstances, the Government made the grant (1847) to the Company under certain conditions. The Company agreed to colonize the island, to sell the lands at moderate rates to settlers, and to apply nine-tenths of the receipts toward public improvements. The Company entered heartily into the project, issued a prospectus for settlers, and hoped in five years to have a considerable colony established on the Island.
Steps were taken by the British Government to organize the new colony. The head of the Government applied to the Governor of the Company to name a Governor. Chief Factor Douglas was suggested, but probably thinking an independent man would be more suitable, the Government gave the appointment to a man of respectability, Richard Blanshard, in the end of 1849.
The new Governor arrived, but no preparations had been made for his reception. No salary was provided for his maintenance, and the attitude of the Hudson's Bay Company officially at Fort Victoria was decidedly lacking in heartiness. Governor Blanshard's position was nothing more than an empty show. He issued orders and proclamations which were disregarded. He visited Fort Rupert, which had been foundedby the Company on the north-east angle of the island, and there held an investigation of a murder of three sailors by the Newitty Indians. Governor Blanshard spent much of his time writing pessimistic reports of the country to Britain, and after a residence of a year and a half returned to England, thoroughly soured on account of his treatment by the officers of the Company.
The colonization of Vancouver Island proved very slow. A company of miners for Nanaimo, and another of farmers from Sooke, near Victoria, came, but during Governor Blanshard's rule only onebonâ-fidesale of land was made, and five years after the cession to the Company there were less than five hundred colonists. Chief Factor Douglas succeeded to the governorship and threw his accustomed energy into his administration. The cry of monopoly, ever a popular one, was raised, and inasmuch as the colony was not increasing sufficiently to satisfy the Imperial Government, the great Committee of the House of Commons of 1857 was appointed to examine the whole relation of the Company to Rupert's Land and the Indian territories. The result of the inquiry was that it was decided to relieve the Hudson's Bay Company of the charge of Vancouver Island at the time of expiry of their lease. The Hudson's Bay Company thus withdrew on the Pacific Coast to the position of a private trading company, though Sir James Douglas, who was knighted in 1863, continued Governor of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island, with the added responsibility of the territory on the mainland.
At this juncture the gold discovery in the mainland called much attention to the country. Thousands of miners rushed at once to the British possessions on the Pacific Coast. Fort Victoria, from being a lonely traders' post, grew as if by magic into a city. Thousands of miners betook themselves to the Fraser River, and sought the inland gold-fields. All this compelled a more complete organization than the mere oversight of the mainland by Governor Douglas in his capacity as head of the fur trade. Accordingly the British Government determined to relieve the Hudson's Bay Company of responsibility for the mainland, which they held under a licence soon to expire, and to erect New Caledonia and the Indian territoriesof the coast into a separate Crown Colony under the name of British Columbia. In Lord Lytton's dispatches to Governor Douglas, to whom the governorship of both of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia was offered, the condition is plainly stated that he would be required to sever his connection with the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and to be independent of all local interests. Here we leave Sir James Douglas immersed in his public duties of governing the two colonies, which in time became one province under the name of British Columbia, thus giving up the guidance of the fur-trading stations for whose up-building he had striven for fifty years.
The posts of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific Coast in 1857 were:—
PRO GLORIA DEI.
A vast region—First spiritual adviser—Alocum tenens—Two French Canadian priests—St. Boniface founded—Missionary zeal in Mackenzie River district—Red River parishes—The great Archbishop Taché—John West—Archdeacon Cochrane, the founder—John McCallum—Bishop Anderson—English Missionary Societies—Archbishop Machray—Indian Missions—John Black, the Presbyterian apostle—Methodist Missions on Lake Winnipeg—The Cree syllabic—Chaplain Staines—Bishop Cridge—Missionary Duncan—Metlakahtla—Roman Catholic coast missions—Church of England bishop—Diocese of New Westminster—Dr. Evans—Robert Jamieson—Education.
WhereverBritish influence has gone throughout the world the Christian faith of the British people has followed. It is true, for one hundred and fifty years the ships to Hudson Bay crossed regularly to the forts on the Bay, and beyond certain suggestions as to service to the employés, no recognition of religion took place on Hudson Bay, and no Christian clergyman or missionary visitor found his way thither. The Company was primarily a trading company, its forts were far apart, and there were few men at any one point.
The first heralds of the Cross, indeed, to reach Rupert's Land were the French priests who accompanied Verendrye, though they seem to have made no settlements in the territory. It is said that after the conquest of Canada, when the French traders had withdrawn from the North-West, except a few traditions in one of the tribes, no trace of Christianity was left behind.
The first clergyman to arrive in Rupert's Land was in connection with Lord Selkirk's colony in 1811. A party of Lord Selkirk's first colonists having come from Sligo, the founder sent one Father Bourke to accompany the party to Red River.The wintering at York Factory seems to have developed some unsatisfactory traits in the spiritual adviser, and he did not proceed further than the shore of the Bay, but returned to his native land.
The necessity of providing certain spiritual oversight for his Scottish colonists occupied Lord Selkirk's mind. In 1815 James Sutherland, an elder authorized by the Church of Scotland to baptize and marry, arrived with one of the bands of colonists at Red River. The first point in the agreement between Lord Selkirk and his colonists was "to have the services of a minister of their own church." This was Lord Selkirk's wish, and Mr. Sutherland was sent aslocum tenens. For three years this devout man performed the duties of his sacred office, until in the conflict between the rival Companies he was forcibly taken away to Canada by the North-West Company.
Lord Selkirk entered into correspondence with the Roman Catholic authorities in Lower Canada as to their appointing priests to take charge of the French and De Meurons of his colony. We have already seen in the sketch of John McLeod that two French priests, Joseph Norbert Provencher and Sévère Dumoulin, proceeded to the North-West and took up a position on the east side of Red River nearly opposite the site of the demolished Fort Gibraltar. On account of the preponderance of the German-speaking De Meurons, the settlement was called St. Boniface, after the German patron saint. Though these pioneer priests endured hardships and poverty, they energetically undertook their work, and maintained a school in which, shortly after, we are told, there were scholars in the "Humanities."
With great zeal the Roman Catholic Church has carried its missions to the Indians, even to distant Athabasca and Mackenzie River. In 1822 the Priest Provencher was made a bishop under the title of Bishop of Juliopolis (in partibus infidelium). His jurisdiction included Rupert's Land and the North-West or Indian territories. Besides the work among the Indians, the Bishop organized the French settlements along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers into parishes. In addition to St. Boniface, some of these were St. Norbert, St. FrançoisXavier, St. Charles, St. Vital, and the like, until, at the close of the Hudson's Bay Company's rule in 1869, there were nine French parishes.
The Indian missions have been largely carried on by a Society of the Roman Catholic Church known as the Oblate Fathers. A sisterhood of the Grey Nuns have also taken a strong hold of the North-West.
In the year 1844 a young French priest named Alexandre Antonin Taché came to the North-West and led the way in carrying the faith among the Indians of the Mackenzie River. A most interesting work of Father Taché, called "Vingt Années de Missions," gives the life and trials of this devoted missionary. In a few years the young priest was appointed coadjutor of Bishop Provencher, and on the death of that prelate in 1853, young Monseigneur Taché succeeded to the see under the name of the Bishop of St. Boniface. Bishop Taché became a notable man of the Red River settlement. He was a man of much breadth of view, kindliness of manner, and of great religious zeal. As an educational and public man, he wielded, during the whole time of the Hudson's Bay Company's later régime, a potent influence. A year or two after the elevation of Bishop Taché to the vacant place of Bishop Provencher, Bishop Grandin was appointed a bishop of the interior and took up his abode at Ile à la Crosse. The Roman Catholic Church has done much in bringing many wild tribes under the civilizing influence of Christianity.
Though Lord Selkirk was compelled to betake himself to France in 1820 in search of health, he did not forget his promise to his Scottish colonists on Red River. He entrusted the task of procuring a clergyman for them to Mr. John Pritchard, who, we have seen, had entered the service of his Lordship. Pritchard, acting under the direction of the committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, seems to have taken a course that Lord Selkirk would hardly have approved. To some extent disregarding the promise made to the Scottish settlers, either the agent or the committee applied to the Church Missionary Society to appoint a chaplain for the Hudson's Bay Company at Red River.
The choice made was a most judicious one, being that ofRev. John West, who wrote a very readable book on his experiences, in which the condition of the settlement, along with an account of his missionary labours, are described. A little volume, written by Miss Tucker, under the name of "The Rainbow of the North," also gives an interesting account of the founding of the Protestant faith in the settlement.
Mr. West arrived in Red River settlement in October, 1820, and at once began his labours by holding services in Fort Garry. For a time he was fully occupied in marrying many who had formerly lived as man and wife, though already married after the Indian fashion, and in baptizing the children. He at once opened a school. Mr. West made an exploratory journey five or six hundred miles westward, visiting Indian tribes. In 1823 he erected the first Protestant place of worship on the Red River, and in the same year was joined by Rev. David Jones, who was left in charge when Mr. West returned to England.
Two years afterwards Rev. William Cochrane and his wife arrived at Red River. Mr. Cochrane, afterward Archdeacon Cochrane, was a man of striking personality, and to him has been given the credit of laying the foundation of the Church of England in the Red River settlement. The Indians to the north of the settlement on Red River were visited and yielded readily to the solicitations of the missionaries. Early among these self-denying Indian missionaries was the Rev. A., afterwards Archdeacon, Cowley. Churches were erected in the parishes that were set apart in the same way as the French parishes; St. John's, St. Paul's, St. Andrew's, St. Clement's, St. James, Headingly, and the like, to the number of ten, were each provided with church and school.
Rev. Mr. Jones did not neglect the educational interests of his wide charge. Having become convinced of the necessity of establishing a boarding-school to meet the wants of the scattered families of Rupert's Land, Mr. Jones brought out Mr. John McCallum, a student of King's College, Aberdeen, who had found his way to London. Coming to Red River in 1833, McCallum began the school which has since become St. John's College. At first this school was under the Church Missionary Society, but a decade after its foundingit was conducted by McCallum himself, with an allowance from the Company.
In 1844 an episcopal visit was made to Red River by the first Protestant Bishop who could reach the remote spot. This was Dr. Mountain, Bishop of Montreal. He published a small work giving an account of his visit. Many confirmations took place by the Bishop, and Mr. Cowley was made a priest. John McCallum had taken such a hold upon the Selkirk settlers that it was deemed advisable to ordain him, and for several years he carried on the school along with the incumbency of the parish church. McCallum only lived for five years after the Bishop's visit.
In 1838 James Leith, a wealthy chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, bequeathed in his will twelve thousand pounds to be expended for the benefit of the Indian missions in Rupert's Land. Leith's family bitterly opposed this disposition of their patrimony, but the Master of the Rolls, hearing that the Hudson's Bay Company was willing to add three hundred pounds annually to the interest accruing from the Leith bequest, gave the decision against them, and thus secured an income to the see of seven hundred pounds a year. In 1849 the diocese of Rupert's Land was established by the Crown, and Rev. David Anderson, of Oxford University, was consecrated first Bishop of Rupert's Land. In the autumn of the same year Bishop Anderson arrived at Red River, by way of York Factory, and his first public duty was to conduct the funeral of the lamented John McCallum. After an incumbency of fifteen years Bishop Anderson returned to England and resigned the bishopric.
In 1865 Dr. Robert Machray arrived at Red River, having been consecrated Bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under Bishop Anderson the college successfully begun by McCallum languished, for the Bishop seemed more intent on mission work than education. In the year after his arrival, Bishop Machray revived the institution under the name of St. John's College. It was of much service to the colony.