FOOTNOTE:[4]The United Empire Loyalists were those British patriots who left the United States after the Revolution.
[4]The United Empire Loyalists were those British patriots who left the United States after the Revolution.
The X Y COMPANY.
"Le Marquis" Simon McTavish unpopular—Alexander Mackenzie his rival—Enormous activity of the "Potties"—Why called X Y—Five rival posts at Souris—Sir Alexander, the silent partner—Old Lion of Montreal roused—"Posts of the King"—Schooner sent to Hudson Bay—Nor'-Westers erect two posts on Hudson Bay—Supreme folly—Old and new Nor'-Westers unite—List of partners.
Forsome years the Montreal fur companies, in their combinations and readjustments, had all the variety of the kaleidoscope. Agreements were made for a term of years, and when these had expired new leagues were formed, and in every case dissatisfied members went into opposition and kept up the heat and competition without which it is probable the fur trade would have lost, to those engaged in it, many of its charms.
In 1795 several partners had retired from the North-West Company and thrown in their lot with the famous firm that we have seen was always inclined to follow its own course—Messrs. Forsyth, Richardson and Co. For a number of years this independent Montreal firm had maintained a trade in the districts about Lake Superior. The cause of this disruption in the Company was the unpopularity, among the wintering partners especially, of the strong-willed and domineering chief in Montreal—Simon McTavish. One set of bourgeois spoke of him derisively as "Le Premier," while others with mock deference called him "Le Marquis." Sir Alexander Mackenzie had been himself a partner, had resided in the Far West, and he was regarded by all the traders in the "upper country" as their friend and advocate. Although the discontent was very great when the secession took place, yet the mere bonds of self-interest kept many within the old Company. AlexanderMackenzie most unwillingly consented to remain in the old Company, but only for three years, reserving to himself the right to retire at the end of that time.
Notwithstanding their disappointment, and possibly buoyed up with the hope of having the assistance of their former friend at a later period, the members of the X Y Company girt themselves about for the new enterprise in the next year, so that the usual date of this Company is from the year 1795. Whether it was the circumstance of its origination in dislike of "Le Premier," or whether the partners felt the need of greater activity on account of their being weaker, it must be confessed that a new era now came to the fur trade, and the opposition was carried on with a warmth much greater than had ever been known among the old companies. A casual observer can hardly help feeling that while not a member of the new Company at this date, Alexander Mackenzie was probably its active promoter behind the scenes.
The new opposition developed without delay. Striking at all the salient points, the new Company in 1797 erected its trading house at Grand Portage, somewhat more than half-a-mile from the North-West trading house and on the other side of the small stream that there falls into the Bay. A few years after, when the North-West Company moved to Kaministiquia, the X Y also erected a building within a mile of the new fort. The new Company was at some time in its history known as the New North-West Company, but was more commonly called the X Y Company. The origin of this name is accounted for as follows. On the bales which were made up for transport, it was the custom to mark the North-West Company's initials N.W. When the new Company, which was an offshoot of the old, wished to mark their bales, they simply employed the next letters of the alphabet, X Y. They are accordingly not contractions, and should not be written as such. It was the habit of members of the older Company to express their contempt for the secessionists by calling them the "Little Company" or "the Little Society." In the Athabasca country the rebellious traders were called by their opponents "Potties," probably a corruption of "Les Petits," meaning members of "La Petite Compagnie." Whenthese names were used by the French Canadian voyageurs, the X Y Company was referred to.
However disrespectfully they may have been addressed, the traders of the new Company caused great anxiety both to the North-West Company and to the Hudson's Bay Company, though they regarded themselves chiefly as rivals of the former. Pushing out into the country nearest their base of supplies on Lake Superior, they took hold of the Red River and Assiniboine region, as well as of the Red Lake country immediately south of and connected with it. The point where the Souris empties into the Assiniboine was occupied in the same year (1798) by the X Y Company. It had been a favourite resort for all classes of fur-traders, there having been no less than five opposing trading houses at this point four years before. No doubt the presence of the free-trading element such as McCracken and Jussaume, whom we find in the Souris region thus early, made it easier for smaller concerns to carry on a kind of business in which the great North-West Company would not care to be engaged.
Meanwhile dissension prevailed in the North-West Company. The smouldering feeling of dislike between "Le Marquis" and Alexander Mackenzie and the other fur-trading magnates broke out into a flame. As ex-Governor Masson says: "These three years were an uninterrupted succession of troubles, differences, and misunderstandings between these two opposing leaders." At the great gathering at the Grand Portage in 1799, Alexander Mackenzie warned the partners that he was about to quit the Company, and though the winterers begged him not to carry out his threat, yet he remained inexorable. The discussion reported to Mr. McTavish was very displeasing to him, and in the following year his usual letter to the gathering written from Montreal was curt and showed much feeling, he saying, "I feel hurt at the distrust and want of confidence that appeared throughout all your deliberations last season."
Alexander Mackenzie, immediately after the scene at Grand Portage, crossed over to England, published his "Voyages," and received his title. He then returned in 1801 to Canada. Flushed with the thought of his successes, he threw himself with great energy into the affairs of the opposing Company, theX Y, or, as it was also now called, that of "Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Company." If the competition had been warm before, it now rose to fever heat. The brigandage had scarcely any limit; combats of clerk with clerk, trapper with trapper, voyageur with voyageur, were common. Strong drink became, as never before or since, a chief instrument of the rival companies in dealing with the Indians.
A North-West Company trader, writing from Pembina, says: "Indians daily coming in by small parties; nearly 100 men here. I gave them fifteen kegs of mixed liquor, and the X Y gave in proportion; all drinking; I quarrelled with Little Shell, and dragged him out of the fort by the hair. Indians very troublesome, threatening to level my fort to the ground, and their chief making mischief. I had two narrow escapes from being stabbed by him; once in the hall and soon afterwards in the shop."
Such were the troubles of competition between the Companies. The new Company made a determined effort to compete also in the far-distant Peace River district. In October of this year two prominent partners of the new Company arrived with their following at the Peace River. One of these, Pierre de Rocheblave, was of a distinguished family, being the nephew of a French officer who had fought on theMonongahelaagainst Braddock. The other was James Leith, who also became a prominent fur-trader in later days.
Illustrating the keenness of the trade conflict, John McDonald, of Garth, also says in 1798, writing from the Upper Saskatchewan, "We had here (Fort Augustus), besides the Hudson's Bay Company, whose fort was within a musket shot of ours, the opposition on the other side of the new concern I have already mentioned, which had assumed a powerful shape under the name of the X Y Company, at the head of which was the late John Ogilvy in Montreal, and at this establishment Mr. King, an old south trader in his prime and pride as the first among bullies."
Sir Alexander Mackenzie did wonders in the management of his Company, but the old lion at Montreal, from his mountain château, showed a remarkable determination, and provided as he was with great wealth, he resolved to overcome at any pricethe opposition which he also contemptuously called the "Little Company." In 1802, he, with the skill of a great general, reconstructed his Company. He formed a combination which was to continue for twenty years. Into this he succeeded in introducing a certain amount of new blood; those clerks who had shown ability were promoted to the position of bourgeois or partners. By this progressive and statesmanlike policy, notwithstanding the energy of the X Y Company, the old Company showed all the vigour and enthusiasm of youth.
An employé of the North-West Company, Livingston, had a few years before established a post on Slave Lake. Animated with the new spirit of his superiors, he went further north still and made a discovery of silver, but on undertaking to open trade communications with the Eskimos, the trader unfortunately lost his life.
Other expeditions were sent to the Missouri and to the sources of the South Saskatchewan; it is even said that in this direction a post was established among the fierce tribes of the Bow River, west of the present town of Calgary.
Looking out for other avenues for the wonderful store of energy in the North-West Company, the partners took into consideration the development of the vast fisheries of the St. Lawrence and the interior. Simon McTavish rented the old posts of the King—meaning by these Tadoussac, Chicoutimi, Assuapmousoin, and Mistassini, reached by way of the Saguenay; and Ile Jérémie, Godbout, Mingan, Masquaro, and several others along the north shore of the Lower St. Lawrence or the Gulf. The annual rent paid for the Kings posts was 1000l.
But the greatest flight of the old fur king's ambition was to carry his operations into the forbidden country of the Hudson Bay itself. In furtherance of this policy, in 1803 the North-West Company sent a schooner of 150 tons to the shores of Hudson Bay to trade, and along with this an expedition was sent by land by way of St. John and Mistassini to co-operate in establishing stations on the Bay. By this movement two posts were founded, one at Charlton Island and the other at the mouth of the Moose River. Many of the partners werenot in favour of these expeditions planned by the strong-headed old dictator, and the venture proved a financial loss. Simon McTavish, though comparatively a young man, now thought of retiring, and purchased the seigniory of Terrebonne, proposing there to lead a life of luxury and ease, but a stronger enemy than either the X Y or Hudson's Bay Company came to break up his plans. Death summoned him away in July, 1804.
The death of Simon McTavish removed all obstacles to union between the old and new North-West Companies, and propositions were soon made to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and his friends, which resulted in a union of the two Companies. We are fortunate in having preserved to us the agreement by which the two Companies—old and new North-West Companies—were united. The partners of the old Company were given three-quarters of the stock and those of the new one-quarter. The provisions of the agreement are numerous, but chiefly deal with necessary administration. One important clause is to the effect that no business other than the fur trade, or what is necessarily depending thereon, shall be followed by the Company. No partner of the new concern is to be allowed to have any private interests at the posts outside those of the Company. By one clause the new North-West Company is protected from any expense that might arise from Simon McTavish's immense venture on the Hudson Bay. It may be interesting to give the names of the partners of the two Companies, those who were not present, from being mostly in the interior and whose names were signed by those having powers of attorney from them, being marked Att.
THE NORTH-WEST OR X Y COMPANY.
Alex. Mackenzie.Thomas Forsyth, Att.John Richardson.John Inglis, Att.James Forsyth, Att.John Mure, Att.John Forsyth.Alex. Ellice, Att.John Haldane, Att.Thomas Forsyth, Att.Late Leith, Jameson & Co. (by Trustees).John Ogilvie.P. de Rocheblane, Att.Alex. McKenzie, Att. (2).John Macdonald, Att.James Leith, Att.John Wills, Att.
OLD NORTH-WEST COMPANY.
John Finlay, Att.Duncan Cameron, Att.James Hughes, Att.Alex. McKay, Att.Hugh McGillies, Att.Alex. Henry, Jr., Att.John McGillivray, Att.James McKenzie, Att.Simon Fraser, Att.John D. Campbell, Att.D. Thompson, Att.John Thompson, Att.John Gregory.Wm. McGillivray.Duncan McGillivray, Att.Wm. Hallowell.Rod. McKenzie.Angus Shaw, Att.Dl. McKenzie, Att.Wm. McKay, Att.John McDonald, Att.Donald McTavish, Att.John McDonnell, Att.Arch. N. McLeod, Att.Alex. McDougall, Att.Chas. Chaboillez, Att.John Sayer, Att.Peter Grant, Att.Alex. Fraser, Att.Æneas Cameron, Att.
Anyone acquainted in the slightest degree with the early history of Canada will see in these lists the names of legislative councillors, members of Assembly, leaders in society, as well as of those who, in the twenty years following the signing of this agreement, by deeds of daring, exploration, and discovery, made the name of the North-West Company illustrious. These names represent likewise those who carried on that wearisome and disastrous conflict with the Hudson's Bay Company which in time would have ruined both Companies but for the happy union which took place, when the resources of each were well-nigh exhausted.
THE LORDS OF THE LAKES AND FORESTS.—I.
New route to Kaministiquia—Vivid sketch of Fort William—"Cantine Salope"—Lively Christmas week—The feasting partners—Ex-Governor Masson's good work—Four great Mackenzies—A literary bourgeois—Three handsome demoiselles—"The man in the moon"—Story of "Bras Croche"—Around Cape Horn—Astoria taken over—A hot-headed trader—Sad case of "Little Labrie"—Punch on New Year's Day—The heart of a "Vacher."
Theunion of the opposing companies from Montreal led to a great development of trade, and, as we have already seen, to important schemes of exploration.
Roderick McKenzie, the cousin of Sir Alexander, in coming down from Rainy Lake to Grand Portage, heard of a new route to Kaministiquia. We have already seen that Umfreville had found out a circuitous passage from Nepigon to Winnipeg River, but this had been considered impracticable by the fur-traders.
Accordingly, when the treaty of amity and commerce made it certain that Grand Portage had to be given up, it was regarded as a great matter when the route to Kaministiquia became known. This was discovered by Mr. Roderick McKenzie quite by accident. When coming, in 1797, to Canada on leave of absence, this trader was told by an Indian family near Rainy Lake that a little farther north there was a good route for large canoes, which was formerly used by the whites in their trading expeditions. Taking an Indian with him, McKenzie followed this course, which brought him out at the mouth of the Kaministiquia. This proved to be the old French route, for all along it traces were found of their former establishments. Strange that a route at one time so well known should be completely forgotten in forty years.
In the year 1800 the North-West Company built a fort, called the New Fort, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia, and, abandoning Grand Portage, moved their headquarters to this point in 1803. In the year after the union of the North-West and X Y Companies the name Fort William was given to this establishment, in honour of the Hon. William McGillivray, who had become the person of greatest distinction in the united North-West Company.
As giving us a glimpse of the life of "the lords of the lakes and forests," which was led at Fort William, we have a good sketch written by a trader, Gabriel Franchère, who was a French Canadian of respectable family and began life in a business place in Montreal. At this stage, says a local writer, "the fur trade was at its apogee," and Franchère was engaged by the Astor Company and went to Astoria. Returning over the mountains, he passed Fort William. His book, written in French, has been translated into English, and is creditable to the writer, who died as late as 1856 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Franchère says of Fort William, rather inaccurately, that it was built in 1805. This lively writer was much impressed by the trade carried on at this point, and gives the following vivid description:—
"Fort William has really the appearance of a fort from the palisade fifteen feet high, and also that of a pretty village from the number of buildings it encloses. In the middle of a spacious square stands a large building, elegantly built, though of wood, the middle door of which is raised five feet above the ground plot, and in the front of which runs a long gallery. In the centre of this building is a room about sixty feet long and thirty wide, decorated with several paintings, and some portraits in crayon of a number of the partners of the Company. It is in this room that the agents, the clerks, and the interpreters take their meals at different tables. At each extremity of the room are two small apartments for the partners."
"The back part of the house is occupied by the kitchen and sleeping apartments of the domestics. On each side of this building there is another of the same size, but lower; these are divided lengthwise by a corridor, and contain each twelvepretty sleeping-rooms. One of these houses is intended for the partners, the other for the clerks.
"On the east side of the Fort there is another house intended for the same purpose, and a large building in which furs are examined and where they are put up in tight bales by means of a press. Behind, and still on the same side, are found the lodges of the guides, another building for furs, and a powder magazine. This last building is of grey stone, and roofed in with tin. In the corner stands a kind of bastion or point of observation.
"On the west side is seen a range of buildings, some of which serve for stores and others for shops. There is one for dressing out the employés; one for fitting out canoes; one in which merchandise is retailed; another where strong drink, bread, lard, butter, and cheese are sold, and where refreshments are given out to arriving voyageurs. This refreshment consists of a white loaf, a half pound of butter, and a quart of rum. The voyageurs give to this liquor store the name 'Cantine Salope.'
"Behind is found still another row of buildings, one of which is used as an office or counting-house, a pretty square building well lighted; another serves as a store; and a third as a prison. The voyageurs give to the last the name 'Pot au beurre.' At the south-east corner is a stone shed roofed with tin. Farther back are the workshops of the carpenters, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, and their spacious courts or sheds for sheltering the canoes, repairing them, and constructing new ones.
"Near the gate of the Fort, which is to the south, are the dwelling-houses of the surgeon and resident clerk. Over the entrance gate a kind of guard-house has been built. As the river is deep enough at its entrance, the Company has had quays built along the Fort as a landing-place for the schooners kept on Lake Superior for transporting peltries, merchandise, and provisions from Fort William to Sault Ste. Marie, andvice versa.
"There are also on the other side of the river a number of houses, all inhabited by old French-Canadian voyageurs, worn out in the service of the North-West Company, without having become richer by it. Fort William is the principal factory of the North-West Company in the interior and a generalrendezvous of the partners. The agents of Montreal and the proprietors wintering in the north nearly all assemble here every summer and receive the returns, form expeditions, and discuss the interests of their commerce.
"The employés wintering in the north spend also a portion of the summer at Fort William. They form a great encampment to the west, outside the palisades. Those who are only engaged at Montreal to go to Fort William or to Rainy Lake, and who do not winter in the North, occupy another space on the east side. The former give to the latter the name 'mangeurs de lard.' A remarkable difference is observed between the two camps, which are composed of three or four hundred men each. That of the 'mangeurs de lard' is always very dirty and that of the winterers neat and clean."
But the fur-traders were by no means merely business men. Perhaps never were there assemblages of men who feasted more heartily when the work was done. The Christmas week was a holiday, and sometimes the jollity went to a considerable excess, which was entirely to be expected when the hard life of the voyage was taken into consideration. Whether at Fort William, or in the North-West Company's house in St. Gabriel Street, Montreal, or in later day at Lachine, the festive gatherings of the Nor'-Westers were characterized by extravagance and often by hilarious mirth. The luxuries of the East and West were gathered for these occasions, and offerings to Bacchus were neither of poor quality nor limited in extent. With Scotch story and Jacobite song, intermingled with "La Claire Fontaine" or "Malbrouck s'en va," those lively songs of French Canada, the hours of evening and night passed merrily away.
At times when they had been feasting long into the morning, the traders and clerks would sit down upon the feast-room floor, when one would take the tongs, another the shovel, another the poker, and so on. They would arrange themselves in regular order, as in a boat, and, vigorously rowing, sing a song of the voyage; and loud and long till the early streaks of the east were seen would the rout continue. When the merriment reached such a height as this, ceremony was relaxed, and voyageurs, servants, and attendants wereadmitted to witness the wild carouse of the wine-heated partners.
We are fortunate in having the daily life of the fur-traders from the Lower St. Lawrence to the very shores of the Pacific Ocean pictured for us by the partners in the "Journals" they have left behind them. Just as the daily records of the monks and others, dreary and uninteresting as many of them at times are, commemorated the events of their time in the "Saxon Chronicle" and gave the material for history, so the journals of the bourgeois, often left unpublished for a generation or two, and the works of some of those who had influence and literary ability enough to issue their stories in the form of books, supply us with the material for reproducing their times. From such sources we intend to give a few sketches of the life of that time.
We desire to express the greatest appreciation of the work of ex-Governor Masson, who is related to the McKenzie and Chaboillez families of that period, and who has published no less than fourteen journals, sketches of the time; of the painstaking writing of an American officer, Dr. Coues, who has with great care and success edited the journals of Alexander Henry, Jr., and such remains as he could obtain of David Thompson, thus supplementing the publication by Charles Lindsey, of Toronto, of an account of Thompson. We acknowledge also the patient collection of material by Tassé in his "Canadiens de L'Ouest," as well as the interesting journals of Harmon and others, which have done us good service.
VALUABLE REMINISCENCES.
The name of McKenzie (Hon. Roderick McKenzie) was one to conjure by among the fur-traders. From the fact that there were so many well-known partners and clerks of this name arose the custom, very common in the Highland communities, of giving nicknames to distinguish them. Four of the McKenzies were "Le Rouge," "Le Blanc," "Le Borgne" (one-eyed), and "Le Picoté" (pock-marked). Sir Alexander was the most notable, and after him his cousin, the Hon. Roderick, of whom we write.
This distinguished man came out as a Highland laddie fromScotland in 1784. He at once entered the service of the fur company, and made his first journey to the North-West in the next year. His voyage from Ste. Anne, on Montreal Island, up the fur-traders' route, was taken in Gregory McLeod & Co.'s service. At Grand Portage McKenzie was initiated into the mysteries of the partners. Pushed into the North-West, he soon became prominent, and built the most notable post of the upper country, Fort Chipewyan.
On his marriage he became allied to a number of the magnates of the fur company. His wife belonged to the popular family of Chaboillez, two other daughters of which were married, one to the well-known Surveyor-General of Lower Canada, Joseph Bouchette, and another to Simon McTavish, "Le Marquis."
Roderick McKenzie was a man of some literary ability and taste. He proposed at one time writing a history of the Indians of the North-West and also of the North-West Company. In order to do this, he sent circulars to leading traders, and thus receiving a number of journals, laid the foundation of the literary store from which ex-Governor Masson prepared his book on the bourgeois.
Between him and his cousin, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, an extensive correspondence was kept up. Extracts from the letters of the distinguished partner form the burden of the "Reminiscences" published by Masson. Many of the facts have been referred to in our sketch of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's voyages.
For eight long years Roderick McKenzie remained in the Indian country, and came to Canada in 1797. Some two years afterward Sir Alexander Mackenzie left the old Company and headed the X Y Company. At that time Roderick McKenzie was chosen in the place of his cousin in the North-West Company, and this for several years caused a coolness between them.
His "Reminiscences" extend to 1829, at which time he was living in Terrebonne, in Lower Canada. He became a member of the Legislative Council in Lower Canada, and he has a number of distinguished descendants. Roderick McKenzie closes his interesting "Reminiscences" with an elaborate and valuable list of the proprietors, clerks, interpreters, &c., of the North-West Company in 1799, giving their distribution in the departments, and the salary paid each. It gives us a picture of the magnitude of the operations of the North-West Company.
TALES OF THE NORTH-WEST.
Few of the Nor'-Westers aimed at collecting and preserving the folk-lore of the natives. At the request of Roderick McKenzie, George Keith, a bourgeois who spent a great part of his life very far North, viz. in the regions of Athabasca, Mackenzie River, and Great Bear Lake, sent a series of letters extending from 1807 onward for ten years embodying tales, descriptions, and the history of the Indian tribes of his district. His first description is that of the Beaver Indians, of whom he gives a vocabulary. He writes for us a number of tales of the Beaver Indians, viz. "The Indian Hercules," "Two Lost Women," "The Flood, a Tale of the Mackenzie River," and "The Man in the Moon." One letter gives a good account of the social manners and customs of the Beaver Indians, and another a somewhat complete description of the Rocky Mountains and Mackenzie River country. Descriptions of the Filthy Lake and Grand River Indians and the Long Arrowed Indians, with a few more letters with reference to the fur trade, make up the interesting collection. George Keith may be said to have wielded the "pen of a ready writer." We give his story of
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
A Tale, or Tradition, of the Beaver Indians.
"In the primitive ages of the world, there was a man and his wife who had no children. The former was very singular in his manner of living. Being an excellent hunter, he lived entirely upon the blood of the animals he killed. This circumstance displeased his wife, who secretly determined to play him a trick. Accordingly one day the husband went out hunting, and left orders with his wife to boil some blood in a kettle, so as to be ready for supper on his return. When the time of his expected return was drawing nigh, his wife pierced a vein with an awl in her left arm and drew a copious quantity of blood,which she mixed with a greater quantity of the blood of a moose deer, that he should not discover it, and prepared the whole for her husband's supper.
"Upon his return the blood was served up to him on a bark dish; but, upon putting a spoonful to his mouth, he detected the malice of his wife, and only saying that the blood did not smell good, threw the kettle with the contents about her ears.
"Night coming on, the man went to bed and told his wife to observe the moon about midnight. After the first nap, the woman, awaking, was surprised to find that her husband was absent. She arose and made a fire, and, lifting up her eyes to the moon, was astonished to see her husband, with his dog and kettle, in the body of the moon, from which he has never descended. She bitterly lamented her misfortunes during the rest of her days, always attributing them to her malicious invention of preparing her own blood for her husband's supper."
INTERESTING AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Among all the Nor'-Westers there was no one who had more of the Scottish pride of family than John McDonald, of Garth, claiming as he did to be descended from the lord of the isles. His father obtained him a commission in the British army, but he could not pass the examination on account of a blemish caused by an accident to his arm. The sobriquet, "Bras Croche" clung to him all his life as a fur trader.
Commended to Simon McTavish, the young man became his favourite, and in 1791 started for the fur country. He was placed under the experienced trader, Angus Shaw, and passed his first winter in the far-off Beaver River, north of the Saskatchewan. Next winter he visited the Grand Portage, and he tells us that for a couple of weeks he was feasting on the best of everything and the best of fish. Returning to the Saskatchewan, he took part in the building of Fort George on that river, whence, after wintering, the usual summer journey was made to Grand Portage. Here, he tells us, they "met the gentlemen from Montreal in goodfellowship." This life continued till 1795.
He shows us the state of feeling between the Companies."It may not be out of the way to mention that on New Year's Day, during the customary firing of musketry, one of our opponent's bullies purposely fired his powder through my window. I, of course, got enraged, and challenged him to single combat with our guns; this was a check upon him ever after."
Remaining in the same district, by the year 1800 he had, backed as he was by powerful influence, his sister being married to Hon. William MacGillivray, become a partner in the Company. Two years afterward he speaks of old Cuthbert Grant coming to the district, but in the spring, this officer being sick, McDonald fitted up a comfortable boat with an awning, in which Grant went to the Kaministiquia, where he died.
In 1802, McDonald returned from Fort William and determined to build another fort farther up the river to meet a new tribe, the Kootenays. This was "Rocky Mountain House." Visiting Scotland in the year after, he returned to be dispatched in 1804 to English River, where he was in competition with a Hudson's Bay Company trader. In the next year he went back to the Saskatchewan, saying that, although a very dangerous department, he preferred it. Going up the south branch of the Saskatchewan, he erected the "New Chesterfield House" at the mouth of the Red Deer River, and there met again a detachment of Hudson's Bay Company people.
In 1806 he, being unwell, spent the year chiefly in Montreal, after which he was appointed to the less exacting field of Red River. One interesting note is given us as to the Red River forts. He says, "I established a fort at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers and called it 'Gibraltar,' though there was not a rock or a stone within three miles." As we shall see afterwards, the building of this fort, which was on the site of the city of Winnipeg, had taken place in the year preceding.
With his customary energy in erecting forts, he built one a distance up the Qu'Appelle River, probably Fort Espérance. While down at Fort William in the spring, the news came to him that David Thompson was surrounded in the Rocky Mountains by Blackfoot war parties. McDonald volunteeredto go to the rescue, and with thirty chosen men, after many dangers and hardships, reached Thompson in the land of the Kootenays.
McDonald was one of the traders selected to go to Britain and thence by the shipIsaac Toddto the mouth of the Columbia to meet the Astor Fur Company. He started in company with Hon. Edward Ellice. At Rio Janeiro McDonald shipped from theIsaac Toddon board the frigatePhœbe. On the west coast of South America they called at "Juan Fernandez, Robinson Crusoe's Island." They reached the Columbia on November 30th, 1813, and in company with trader McDougall took over Astoria in King George's name, McDonald becoming senior partner at Astoria.
In April, 1814, McDonald left for home across the mountains, by way of the Saskatchewan, and in due time arrived at Fort William. He came to Sault Ste. Marie to find the fort built by the Americans, and reached Montreal amid some dangers. The last adventure mentioned in his journal was that of meeting in Terrebonne Lord Selkirk's party who were going to the North-West to oppose the Nor'-Westers.
The veteran spent his last days in the County of Glengarry, Ontario, and died in 1860, between eighty-nine and ninety years of age. His career had been a most romantic one, and he was noted for his high spirit and courage, as well as for his ceaseless energy as a trader.
TWO JOURNALS AND A DESCRIPTION.
James McKenzie, brother of Hon. Roderick McKenzie, was a graphic, though somewhat irritable writer with a good style. He has left us "A Journal from the Athabasca Country," a description of the King's posts on the Lower St. Lawrence, with a journal of a jaunt through the King's posts. This fur trader joined the North-West Company.
In 1799 he was at Fort Chipewyan. His descriptions are minute accounts of his doings at his fort. He seems to have taken much interest in his men, and he gives a pathetic account of one of these trappers called "Little Labrie." Labrie had been for six days without food, and was almost frozen to death. He says: "Little Labrie's feet are still soaking in cold water,but retain their hardness. We watched him all last night; he fainted often in the course of the night, but we always brought him to life again by the help of mulled wine. Once in particular, when he found himself very weak and sick, and thought he was dying he said, 'Adieu; je m'en vais; tout mon bien à ceux qui ont soin de moi.' 10th, about twelve o'clock, Labrie was freed from all his agonies in this world." McKenzie evidently had a kind heart.
The candid writer gives us a picture of New Year's Day, January 1st, 1890. "This morning before daybreak, the men, according to custom, fired two broadsides in honour of the New Year, and then came in to be rewarded with rum, as usual. Some of them could hardly stand alone before they went away; such was the effect of the juice of the grape on their brains. After dinner, at which everyone helped themselves so plentifully that nothing remained to the dogs, they had a bowl of punch. The expenses of this day, with fourteen men and women, are: 61-1/2 fathoms Spencer twist (tobacco), 7 flagons rum, 1 ditto wine, 1 ham, a skin's worth of dried meat, about 40 white fish, flour, sugar, &c."
McKenzie had many altercations in his trade, and seems to have been of a violent temper. He found fault with one of the X Y people, named Perroue, saying it was a shame for him to call those who came from Scotland "vachers" (cow-boys). He said he did not call all, but a few of them "vachers." "I desired him to name one in the North, and told him that the one who served him as a clerk was a 'vacher,' and had the heart of a 'vacher' since he remained with him."
McKenzie has frequent accounts of drunken brawls, from which it is easy to be seen that this period of the opposition of the two Montreal Companies was one of the most dissolute in the history of the fur traders. The fur trader's violent temper often broke out against employés and Indians alike. He had an ungovernable dislike to the Indians, regarding them simply as the off-scourings of all things, and for the voyageurs and workmen of his own Company the denunciations are so strong that his violent language was regarded as "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
THE LORDS OF THE LAKES AND FORESTS.—II.
Harmon and his book—An honest man—"Straight as an arrow"—New views—An uncouth giant—"Gaelic, English, French, and Indian oaths"—McDonnell, "Le Prêtre"—St. Andrew's Day—"Fathoms of tobacco"—Down the Assiniboine—An entertaining journal—A good editor—A too frank trader—"Gun fired ten yards away"—Herds of buffalo—Packs and pemmican—"The fourth Gospel"—Drowning of Henry—"The weather cleared up"—Lost for forty days—"Cheepe," the corpse—Larocque and the Mandans—McKenzie and his half-breed children.
A GOOD TRADER AND A GOOD BOOK.
Tothose interested in the period we are describing there is not a more attractive character than Daniel Williams Harmon, a native of Vermont, who entered the North-West Company's service in the year 1800, at the age of 22. After a number of years spent in the far West, he brought with him on a visit to New England the journal of his adventures, and this was edited and published by a Puritan minister, Daniel Haskel, of Andover, Massachusetts. Harmon and the book are both somewhat striking, though possibly neither would draw forth universal admiration. The youngest of his daughters was well known as a prominent citizen of Ottawa, and had a marked reverence for the memory of her father.
Leaving Lachine in the service of McTavish, Frobisher & Co., the young fur trader followed the usual route up the Ottawa and reached in due course Grand Portage, which he called "the general rendezvous for the fur traders." He thus describes the fort: "It is twenty-four rods by thirty, is built on the margin of the Bay, at the foot of a hill or mountain of considerable height. Within the fort there is a considerable number of dwelling-houses, shops, and stores; the houses aresurrounded by palisades, which are about eighteen inches in diameter. The other fort, which stands about 200 rods from this, belongs to the X Y Company. It is only three years since they made an establishment here, and as yet they have had but little success." Harmon was appointed to follow John McDonald, of Garth, to the Upper Saskatchewan. On the way out, however, Harmon was ordered to the Swan River district. Here he remained for four years taking a lively interest in all the parts of a trader's life. He was much on the Assiniboine, and passed the sites of Brandon, Portage la Prairie, and Winnipeg of to-day.
In October, 1805, Harmon, having gone to the Saskatchewan, took as what was called his "country wife" a French Canadian half-breed girl, aged fourteen. He states that it was the custom of the country for the trader to take a wife from the natives, live with her in the country, and then, on leaving the country, place her and her children under the care of an honest man and give a certain amount for her support. As a matter of fact, Harmon, years after, on leaving the country, took his native spouse with him, and on Lake Champlain some of his younger children were born. There were fourteen children born to him, and his North-West wife was to her last days a handsome woman, "as straight as an arrow."
During Harmon's time Athabasca had not only the X Y Company, but also a number of forts of the Hudson's Bay Company. Cumberland House was the next place of residence of the fur trader, and at this point the Hudson's Bay Company house was in charge of Peter Fidler. Harmon's journal continues with most interesting details of the fur trade, which have the charm of liveliness and novelty. Allusions are constantly made to the leading traders, McDonald, Fraser, Thompson, Quesnel, Stuart, and others known to us in our researches. In the course of time (1810) Harmon found his way over the Rocky Mountain portage and pursued the fur trade in McLeod Lake Fort and Stuart's Lake in New Caledonia, and here we find a fort called, after him, Harmon's Fort. His description of the Indians is always graphic, giving many striking customs of the aborigines. About the end of 1813 Harmon's journal is taken up with serious religiousreflections. He had been troubled with doubts as to the reality of Christianity. But after reading the Scriptures and such books as he could obtain, he tells us that a new view of things was his, and that his future life became more consistent and useful. He records us a series of the resolutions which he adopted, and they certainly indicate a high ideal on his part.
In 1816 he had really become habituated to the upper country. He gives us a glimpse of his family:—
"I now pass a short time every day, very pleasantly, in teaching my little daughter Polly to read and spell words in the English language, in which she makes good progress, though she knows not the meaning of one of them. In conversing with my children I use entirely the Cree Indian language; with their mother I more frequently employ the French. Her native tongue, however, is more familiar to her, which is the reason why our children have been taught to speak that in preference to the French language." In his journal, which at times fully shows his introspections, he gives an account of the struggle in his own mind about leaving his wife in the country, as was the custom of too many of the clerks and partners. He had instructed her in the principles of Christianity, and by these principles he was bound to her for life. After eight and a half years spent on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, Harmon arrived at Fort William, 1819, having made a journey of three thousand miles from his far-away post in New Caledonia. Montreal was soon after reached, and the Journal comes to a close.
A BUSY BOURGEOIS.
We have seen the energy and ability displayed by John McDonald, of Garth, known as "Le Bras Croch." Another trader, John McDonald, is described by Ross Cox, who spent his life largely in the Rocky Mountain region. He was known as McDonald Grand. "He was 6 ft. 4 in. in height, with broad shoulders, large bushy whiskers, and red hair, which he allowed to grow for years without the use of scissors, and which sometimes, falling over his face and shoulders, gave to his countenance a wild and uncouth appearance." He had a most uncontrollable temper, and in his rage wouldindulge in a wild medley of Gaelic, English, French, and Indian oaths.
But a third John McDonnell was found among the fur traders. He was a brother of Miles McDonnell, Lord Selkirk's first governor of the Red River Settlement. John McDonnell was a rigid Roman Catholic, and was known as "Le Prêtre" ("The Priest"), from the fact that on the voyage through the fur country he always insisted on observing the Church fasts along with his French Canadian employés. McDonnell, on leaving the service of the North-West Company, retired to Point Fortune, on the Ottawa, and there engaged in trade.
We have his journal for the years 1793-5, and it is an excellent example of what a typical fur trader's journal would be. It is minute, accurate, and very interesting. During this period he spent his time chiefly in trading up and down the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. A few extracts will show the interesting nature of his journal entries:—
Fort Espérance, Oct. 18th, 1793.—Neil McKay set out to build and winter at the Forks of the river (junction of the Qu'Appelle and Assiniboine), alongside of Mr. Peter Grant, who has made his pitch about seven leagues from here. Mr. N. McKay's effects were carried in two boats, managed by five men each. Mr. C. Grant set out for his quarters of River Tremblant, about thirty leagues from here. The dogs made a woeful howling at all the departures.
Oct. 19th.—Seventeen warriors came from the banks of the Missouri for tobacco. They slept ten nights on their way, and are emissaries from a party of Assiniboines who went to war upon the Sioux.
Oct. 20th.—The warriors traded a few skins brought upon their backs and went off ill pleased with their reception. After dark, the dogs kept up a constant barking, which induced a belief that some of the warriors were lurking about the fort for an opportunity to steal. I took a sword and pistol and went to sleep in the store. Nothing took place.
Oct. 31st.—Two of Mr. N. McKay's men came from the forts, supposing this to be All Saints' Day. Raised a flag-staff poplar, fifty feet above the ground.
Nov. 23rd.—The men were in chase of a white buffalo allday, but could not get within shot of him. Faignant killed two buffalo cows. A mild day.
Nov. 30th.—St. Andrew's Day. Hoisted the flag in honour of the titulary saint of Scotland. A beautiful day. Expected Messrs. Peter Grant and Neil McKay to dinner. They sent excuse by Bonneau.
Dec. 2nd.—Sent Mr. Peter Grant a Town and Country magazine of 1790. Poitras' wife made me nine pairs of shoes (moccasins).
Jan. 1st, 1794.—Mr. Grant gave the men two gallons of rum and three fathoms of tobacco, by the way of New Year's gift.
(It is interesting to follow McDonnell on one of his journeys down the Assiniboine.)
May 1st.—Sent off the canoes early in the morning. Mr. Grant and I set out about seven. Slept at the Forks of River Qu'Appelle.
May 4th.—Killed four buffalo cows and two calves and camped below the Fort of Mountain à La Bosse (near Virden), about two leagues.
May 5th.—Arrived at Ange's River La Souris Fort (below Brandon).
May 17th.—Passed Fort Des Trembles and Portage La Prairie.
May 20th.—Arrived at the Forks Red River (present city of Winnipeg) about noon.
May 24th.—Arrived at the Lake (Winnipeg) at 10 a.m.
May 27th.—Arrived at the Sieur's Fort (Fort Alexander at the mouth of Winnipeg River).
McDonnell also gives in his journal a number of particulars about the Cree and Assiniboine Indians, describing their religion, marriages, dress, dances, and mourning. The reader is struck with the difference in the recital by different traders of the lives lived by them. The literary faculty is much more developed in some cases than in others, and John McDonnell was evidently an observing and quick-witted man. He belonged to a U. E. Loyalist Scottish family that took a good position in the affairs of early Canada.
A FULL AND INTERESTING AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
That the first trader of the North-West whom we have described, Alexander Henry, should have been followed in the North-West fur trade by his nephew, Alexander Henry, Jr., is in itself a thing of interest; but that the younger Henry should have left us a most voluminous and entertaining journal is a much greater matter.
The copy of this journal is in the Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, and forms two large bound folio volumes of 1,642 pages. It is not the original, but is a well-approved copy made in 1824 by George Coventry, of Montreal. For many years this manuscript has been in the Parliamentary Library, and extracts have been made and printed. Recently an American writer, Dr. Coues, who has done good service in editing the notable work of Lewis and Clark, and also that of Zebulon S. Pike, has published a digest of Henry's journal and added to it very extensive notes of great value. The greatest praise is due to this author for the skill with which he has edited the journal, and all students of the period are indebted to one so well fitted to accomplish the task.
The journal opens, in 1799, with Henry on the waters of a tributary of Lake Manitoba, he having arrived from Grand Portage by the usual fur traders' route. In this place he built a trading house and spent his first winter. In the following year the trader is found on the Red River very near the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, and is engaged in establishing a post at the mouth of the Pembina River, a tributary of Red River. At this post Henry remains until 1808, going hither and thither in trading expeditions, establishing new outposts, counter-working the rival traders of the X Y Company, and paying his visits from time to time to Grand Portage.
Henry's entries are made with singular clearness and realistic force. He recites with the utmost frankness the details of drunken debauchery among the Indians, the plots of one company to outdo the other in trading with the Indians, and the tricks of trade so common at this period in the fur trade.
A few examples of his graphic descriptions may be given."At ten o'clock I came to the point of wood in which the fort was built, and just as I entered the gate at a gallop, to take the road that led to the gate, a gun was fired about ten yards from me, apparently by a person who lay in the long grass. My horse was startled and jumped on one side, snorting and prancing; but I kept my seat, calling out, 'Who is there?' No answer was returned. I instantly took my gun from my belt, and cocked her to fire, forgetting she was not loaded and I had no ammunition. I could still see the person running in the grass, and was disappointed in not having a shot at him. I again called out, 'Who is there?' 'C'est moi, bourgeois.' It proved to be one of my men, Charbonneau. I was vexed with him for causing me such consternation."
RED RIVER.
"February 28th, 1801.—Wolves and crows are very numerous, feeding on the buffalo carcasses that lie in every direction. I shot two buffalo cows, a calf, and two bulls, and got home after dark. I was choking with thirst, having chased the buffalo on snow-shoes in the heat of the day, when the snow so adheres that one is scarcely able to raise the feet. A draught of water was the sweetest beverage I ever tasted. An Indian brought in a calf of this year, which he found dead. It was well grown, and must have perished last night in the snow. This was thought extraordinary; they say it denotes an early spring.
"March 5th.—The buffalo have for some time been wandering in every direction. My men have raised and put their traps in order for the spring hunt, as the raccoons begin to come out of their winter quarters in the daytime, though they retire to the hollow trees at night. On the 8th it rained for four hours; fresh meat thawed. On the 9th we saw the first spring bird. Bald eagles we have seen the whole winter, but now they are numerous, feeding on the buffalo carcasses."
During the Red River period Henry made a notable journey in 1806 across the plains to the Mandans on the Missouri. Two years afterward he bids farewell to Red River and the Assiniboine, and goes to carry on trade in the Saskatchewan.While on the Saskatchewan, which was for three years, he was in charge of important forts, viz. Fort Vermilion, Terre Blanche, and the Rocky Mountain House. His energy and acquaintance with the prairie were well shown in his exploration of this great region, and the long journeys willingly undertaken by him. His account of the western prairies, especially of the Assiniboines, is complete and trustworthy. In fact, he rejoices in supplying us with the details of their lives and manners which we might well be spared.
A gap of two years from 1811 is found in Henry's journal, but it is resumed in 1813, the year in which he crosses the Rocky Mountains and is found in the party sent by the North-West Company to check the encroachments on the Columbia of the Astor Fur Company. His account of the voyage on the Pacific is regarded as valuable, and Dr. Coues says somewhat quaintly: "His work is so important a concordance that if Franchère, Cox, and Ross be regarded as the synoptical writers of Astoria, then Henry furnishes the fourth Gospel."
After the surrender of Astoria to the North-West Company and its occupation by the British, some of the Nor'-Westers returned. John McDonald, of Garth, as we have seen, crossed the mountains. In his journal occurs a significant entry: "Mr. la Rogue brings the melancholy intelligence that Messrs. D. McTavish, Alexander Henry, and five sailors were drowned on May 22nd last, in going out in a boat from Fort George to the vessel called theIsaac Todd." Ross Cox gives a circumstantial account of this sad accident, though, strange to say, he does not mention the name of Henry, while giving that of D. McTavish.
It is somewhat startling to us to find that Henry continued his journal up to the very day before his death, his last sentence being, "The weather cleared up."
A TRADER LOST FOR FORTY DAYS.
Lying before the writer is the copy of a letter of John Pritchard, of the X Y Company, written in 1805, giving an account of a forty days' adventure of a most thrilling kind. Pritchard was in charge of the X Y Fort at the mouth of the Souris River on the Assiniboine. He had on June 10th gonewith one of the clerks up the River Assiniboine, intending to reach Qu'Appelle Fort, a distance of 120 miles. All went well till Montagne à la Bosse was reached, where there was a trading house. Going westward, the two traders were separated in looking for the horses. Pritchard lit fires for two days, but could attract no attention. Then he realized that he was lost. Misled by the belts of timber along the different streams, he went along the Pipestone, thinking he was going towards the Assiniboine. In this he was mistaken. Painfully he crept along the river, his strength having nearly gone. Living on frogs, two hawks, and a few other birds, he says at the end of ten days, "I perceived my body completely wasted. Nothing was left me but my bones, covered with a skin thinner than paper. I was perfectly naked, my clothes having been worn in making shoes, with which I protected my bruised and bleeding feet."
Some days after, Pritchard found a nest of small eggs and lived on them. He says, "How mortifying to me to see the buffalo quenching their thirst in every lake near to which I slept, and geese and swans in abundance, whilst I was dying of hunger in this land of plenty, for want of wherewith to kill." After trying to make a hook and line to fish, and failing; after being tempted to lie down and give up life, he caught a hen grouse, which greatly strengthened him, as he cooked and ate it. He had now crossed the Souris River, thinking it to be the Assiniboine, and came upon a great plain where the prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta) grew plentifully. Pushing southward, being sustained by the bulbs of this "pomme blanche," as it is called by the French voyageurs, Pritchard came at length to Whitewater Lake, near Turtle Mountain, and here found two vacant wintering houses of the fur traders. He now was able to identify his locality and to estimate that he was sixty miles directly south of his trading post. His feet, pierced by the spear grass (Stipa spartea), were now in a dreadful condition. He found a pair of old shoes in the vacant fort and several pairs of socks.
He determined to move northward to his fort. Soon he was met by a band of Indians, who were alarmed at his worn appearance. The natives took good care of him and carriedhim, at times unconscious, to his fort, which he reached after an absence of forty days. He says, "Picture to yourself a man whose bones are scraped, not an atom of flesh remaining, then over these bones a loose skin, fine as the bladder of an animal; a beard of forty days' growth, his hair full of filth and scabs. You will then have some idea of what I was." The Hudson's Bay Company officer, McKay, from the neighbouring fort, was exceedingly kind and supplied his every want.
The Cree Indians after this adventure called Pritchard the Manitou or Great Spirit. The Assiniboines called him Cheepe—or the corpse, referring to his wan appearance. For weeks after his return the miserable trader was unable to move about, but in time recovered, and lived to a good old age on the banks of the Red River.
To the last day of his life he referred to his great deliverance, and was thoroughly of the opinion that his preservation was miraculous.
ASSINIBOINE TO MISSOURI.
We are fortunate in having two very good journals of journeys made in the early years of the century from the forts at the junction of the Souris and Assiniboine River to the Missouri River. As was described in the case of David Thompson, this was a long and tedious journey, and yet it was at one time within the plans of the North-West Company to carry their trade thither. Few of the French Canadian gentlemen entered into the North-West Company. One of these, who became noted as an Indian trader, was François Antoine Larocque, brother-in-law of Quesnel, the companion of Simon Fraser. Of the same rank as himself, and associated with him, was a trader, Charles McKenzie, who entered the North-West Company as a clerk in 1803.
The expedition to the Mandans under these gentlemen, left Fort Assiniboine on November 11th, 1804, a party in all of seven, and provided with horses, five of which carried merchandise for trade. After the usual incidents of this trying journey, the Missouri was reached.
The notable event of this journey was the meeting with the American expedition of Lewis and Clark, then on its way tocross overland to the Pacific Ocean. Larocque in his journal gives information about this expedition. Leaving Philadelphia in 1803, the expedition, consisting of upward of forty men, had taken till October to reach the Mandans on the Missouri. The purposes of the expedition of Lewis and Clark were:—
(1) To explore the territory towards the Pacific and settle the boundary line between the British and American territories.
(2) To quiet the Indians of the Missouri by conference and the bestowment of gifts.
Larocque was somewhat annoyed by the message given him by Lewis and Clark, that no flags or medals could be given by the North-West Company to the Indians in the Missouri, inasmuch as they were American Indians. Larocque had some amusement at the continual announcement by these leaders that the Indians would be protected so long as they should behave as dutiful children to the great father, the President of the United States. In the spring the party returned, after wintering on the Missouri. In 1805, during the summer, another expedition went to the Missouri; in 1806, Charles McKenzie went in February to the Mandans, and, returning, made a second journey in the same year to the Missouri. The account given by McKenzie of the journeys of 1804-6 is an exceedingly well written one, for this leader was fond of study, and, we are told, delighted especially in the history of his native land, the highlands of Scotland.
Charles McKenzie had married an Indian woman, and became thoroughly identified with the North-West. He was fond of his native children, and stood up for their recognition on the same plane as the white children. After the union of the North-West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, the English influence largely prevailed. Thinking that his son, who was well educated at the Red River Seminary, was not sufficiently recognized by the Company, McKenzie wrote bitterly, "It appears the present concern has stamped the Cain mark upon all born in this country. Neither education nor abilities serve them. The Honourable Company are unwilling to take natives, even as apprenticed clerks, and the favoured few they do take can never aspire to a higher status, be their education and capacity what they may."
McKenzie continued the fur trade until 1846, when he retired and settled on the Red River. His son, Hector McKenzie, now dead, was well known on the Red River, and accompanied one of the explorations to the far north.
Larocque did not continue long in the fur trade, but went to Montreal and embarked in business, in which he was very unsuccessful. He spent the last years of his life in retirement and close study, and died in the Grey nunnery in a Lower Canadian parish.