CHAPTER XVII
1740-1770
THE COMPANY’S PROSPERITY AROUSES OPPOSITION—ARTHUR DOBBS AND THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE AND THE ATTACK ON THE CHARTER—NO NORTHWEST PASSAGE IS FOUND BUT THE FRENCH SPUR THE ENGLISH TO RENEWED ACTIVITY
Forfifty years, the Company had been paying dividends that never went lower than 7 per cent. and generally averaged 10. These dividends were on capital that had been twice trebled. The yearly fur sales yielded from £20,000 to £30,000 to the Adventurers—twice and three times the original capital, which—it must be remembered—was not all subscribed in cash. French hunters had been penetrating America from the St. Lawrence. Bering had discovered Alaska on the west for Russia. La Vérendrye had discovered the great inland plains between the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, for France. It was just beginning to dawn on men’s minds what a vast domain lay between the plantations of the Atlantic seaboard and the Western Sea. It was inevitable that men should ask themselveswhether Charles II. had any right to deed away forever that vast domain to those court favorites and their heirs known as the Hudson’s Bay Company. To be sure, Parliament had confirmed the charter when the Stuart House fell; but the charter had been confirmed for only seven years. Those seven years had long since expired, and the original stock of the fur company had passed from the heirs of the original grantees to new men—stock speculators and investors. With the exception of royalty, there was not a single stockholder of the Hudson’s Bay Company by 1740, who was an heir of the original men named in the original charter. Men asked themselves—had these stockholders any right to hold monopoly against all other traders over a western domain the size of half Europe? The charter had been granted in the first place as a reward for efforts to find passage to the South Sea. What had the Company done to find a passage to the Pacific? Sent Knight and his fifty men hunting gold sands in the North, where they perished; and dispatched half a dozen little sloops north of Chesterfield Inlet to hunt whales. This had the Adventurers done to earn their charter, and ever since sat snugly at home drawing dividends on twice-trebled capital equal to 90 per cent. on the original stock, intrenched behind the comfortable feudal notion that it wasthe manifest design of an All Wise Providence to create this world for the benefit of the few who can get on top and exploit the many to the profit of the aforesaid few.
We, whose modern democracy is working ten-fold worse injustice by favors to the few against the many, must have a care how we throw stones at that old notion. Feudalism in the history of the race—had its place. It was the system by which the bravest man led the clan and ruled because he was fittest to rule as well as to protect. Of all those rivals now yelping enviously at the Company’s privileges—which could point to an ancestor, who had been willing to brave the perils of a first essay to Hudson Bay? We have seen how even yet the Company could obtain servants only by dint of promising bounties and wives and dowries; how the men under command of the first navigators balked and reared and mutinied at the slightest risk; how—in spite of all we can say against feudalism—it was the spirit of feudalism, the spirit of the exclusive favored few, that faced the first risks and bought success by willing, reckless death, and later fought like demons to hold the bay against France.
It was one Arthur Dobbs, a gentleman and scholar, who voiced the general sentiment rising against theprivileges of the Company. Dobbs had been bitten by that strange mania which had lured so many and was yet to lure more brave seamen to their death. He was sure there was a Northwest Passage. Granted that; and the sins of the fur traders became enormities. Either they had not earned their charter by searching the Northwest Passage, or if they had found it, they had kept the discovery a secret through jealousy of their trade. Dobbs induced the Admiralty to set aside two vessels for the search. Then he persuaded Captain Middleton, who had for twenty years navigated Hudson Bay, to resign the service of the Company and lead the government expedition of 1741-2.
Around this expedition raged a maelstrom of ill feeling and false accusations and lies. The Company were jealous of their trade and almost instantly instructed their Governing Committee to take secret means to prevent this expedition causing encroachment on their rights. This only aroused the fury of the Admiralty. The Company were given to understand that if they did not do all they could to facilitate Middleton’s search, they might lose their charter. On this, the Company ordered their factors on the bay to afford Middleton every aid, but judging from the factors’ conduct, it may be surmised that secret instructions of another nature were sent out.
When Middleton came to Churchill in July onThe Furnace BombandDiscovery, he found buoys cut, harbor lights out and a governor mad as a hornet, who forbade the searchers to land, or have any intercourse with the Indians. Taking two Indians as guides, Middleton proceeded north as far as 66°—in the region of Rowe’s Welcome beyond Chesterfield Inlet. Here, he was utterly blocked by the ice, and the expedition returned to England a failure.
It was at this point the furor arose. It was charged that the Company had bribed Middleton with £5,000 not to find a passage; that he had sailed east instead of west; that he had cast the two Indian guides adrift at Marble Island with scant means of reaching the main shore alive; and that while wintering in Churchill he had been heard to say, “That the Company need not be uneasy, for if he did find a passage, no one on earth would be a bit the wiser.” The quarrel, which set England by the ears for ten years and caused a harvest of bitter pamphlets that would fill a small library—need not be dealt with here.
Middleton knew there was no passage for commercial purpose. That the Admiralty accepted his verdict may be inferred from the fact that he was permanently appointed in the king’s service; butDobbs was not satisfied. He hurled baseless charges at Middleton, waged relentless pamphlet war against the Company and showered petitions on Parliament. Parliament was persuaded to offer a reward of £20,000 to any one finding a passage to the Pacific. Dobbs then formed an opposition company, opened subscriptions for a capital of £10,000 in one hundred shares of £100 each for a second expedition, and petitioned the king for a grant of all lands found adjacent to the waters discovered,with the rights of exclusive trade. Exclusive trade!There—the secret was out—the cloven hoof! It was not because they had not earned their charter, that the Adventurers had been assailed; but because rivals, themselves, wanted rights to exclusive trade. To these petitions, the Company showered back counter-memorials; and memorials of special privileges becoming the fashion, other merchants of London, in 1752, asked for the grant of all Labrador; to which the Company again registered its counter-memorial.
The furor materialized in two things: the expedition of the Dobbs Company to find the Northwest Passage in 1746-47, and the Parliamentary Inquiry, in 1748-49, to look into the rights and workings of the Adventurers’ charter.
The Dobbsgalley, under Captain Moore was one hundred and eighty tons;The California, CaptainSmith, one hundred and forty tons; and to the crews of both, rewards for the discovery of the Passage to the South Sea were to be given ranging from £500 for the captains to £200 to be divided among the sailors. Henry Ellis went as agent for the Dobbs Company. The name ofThe Californiawas indicative of where these argonauts hoped to sail. Oddly enough, that Captain Middleton, whom the Dobbs forces had so mercilessly belabored—accompanied the explorers some distance westward from the Orkneys onThe Sharkas convoy against French pirates. After leaving Middleton, one of the vessels suffered an experience that very nearly finished Arthur Dobbs’ enterprise. “Nothing had occurred,” writes Ellis, “till the 21st of June, at night, when a terrible fire broke out in the great cabin ofThe Dobbs, and quickly made progress to the powder room, where there were not less than thirty-six or forty barrels of powder besides other combustibles. It is impossible to express the consternation. Every one on board had every reason to expect that moment was their last. You might hear all varieties of sea-eloquence, cries, prayers, curses, scolding, mingled together. Water was passed along by those who still preserved their reason, but the crew were for hoisting out the boats. Lashings were cut, but none had patience to hoist them out. The ship was headto wind, the sails shaking and making a noise like thunder, then running right before the wind and rolling, every one on deck waiting for the blast to put an end to our fears.”
The fire was put out before it reached the powder, but one can guess the scare dampened the ardor of the crew. Very little ice was met in Hudson Straits and by August 19, the vessels were at Marble Island. The season was too late to go on north, so the ships sailed to winter at York (Nelson) on Hayes River. Here, the usual quarrels took place with the Hudson’s Bay people—buoys and flag signals being cut down as the ships ran through the shoals of Five-Fathom Hole, five miles up Hayes River. A fort called Montague House was built for the winter on the south side, the main house being a two-story log-barracks, the outbuildings, a sort of lean-to, or wooden wigwam banked up with snow, where the crews could have quarters. The harbor was frozen over by October 8. Heavy fur clothing was then donned for the winter, but in spite of precautions against scurvy—exercise, the use of spruce beer, outdoor life—four men died from the disease before ice cleared from Hayes River in June.
It need not be told here that no passage was found. As the boats advanced farther and farther north of Rowe’s Welcome toward Fox Channel, the hopelessnessof the quest became apparent. Before them lay an ice world, “As gloomy a prospect,” writes Ellis, “as ever astonished mortal eyes. The ragged rocks seemed to hang above our heads. In some places there were falls of water dashing from cliff to cliff. From others, hung icicles like the pipes of a vast organ. But the most overwhelming things were the shattered crags at our feet, which appeared to have burst from the mountains through the power of the frost—amazing relics of the wreck of nature.” In October of 1747, the ships were back on the Thames.
If Dobbs’ Expedition had found a Northwest Passage, the history of the Adventurers would close here. With the merchants of London a unit against the charter and the Admiralty open to persuasion from either side, there can be no doubt that the discovery of a way to China through Hudson Bay would have sounded the death knell of the Company. But the Dobbs Expedition was a failure. The Company’s course was vindicated, and when the Parliamentary Committee of 1748-49 met, affairs werejudiciouslyand I must believeintentionally steeredaway from the real question—the validity of the charter—to such side issues as the Northwest Passage, the state of the Indians, whether the countrycould be inhabited or not, questions—it will be noticed—on which no one was competent to give evidence but the Company itself. Among other evidence, there was quietly laid on the table the journals of one Joseph La France, a French wood-rover who had come overland from Michilimackinac to Hudson Bay. This record showed that France was already on the field in the West. La Vérendrye and his sons were on their way to the Rockies. Three forts were already built on the Assiniboine. Such evidence could have only one influence on Parliament. If Parliament took away the charter from the Company—declared, in fact, that the charter was not legal—who would hold the vast domain against France? The question of the abstract right did not come up at all. Does it ever in international affairs? The question was one for diplomacy, and diplomacy won. It was better for England that the Adventurers should remain in undisturbed possession; and the Company retained its charter.
Meanwhile, that activity among the French fur traders stirred up the old Company as all the home agitation could not. Each of the forts, Churchill farthest north, York on Hayes River, Albany, and Henley House up Albany River, Moose (Rupert laydismantled these years) and Richmond Fort on the east side of the bay, were strengthened by additions to the garrisons of from thirty to fifty men. Each of the four frigates sent out by the Company had a crew of fifty men, among whom was one young sailor, Samuel Hearne, of whom more anon. Every year took out more cannon for the forts, more builders for Churchill, now a stone-walled fort strong as Quebec. Joseph Isbister, who had been governor at Albany and made some inland voyages from Churchill, was permanently appointed, from 1770, as agent at Quebec to watch what rival fur traders were doing; and when he died, Hugh Findlay succeeded him. A new house was rushed up on Severn River in 1756, to attract those Indians of Manitoba where the French were established. Lest other merchants should petition for Labrador, the Slude River Station was moved to Richmond Fort and Captain Coates appointed to survey the whole east coast of Hudson Bay, for which labor he was given a present of £80. Poor Coates! This was in 1750. Within a year, he is hauled up for illicit trade and dismissed ignominiously from the service; whereat he suicides from disgrace. Eight years later, Richmond Fort is closed at a loss of £20,000, but it has shut the mouths of other petitioners for Labrador.
It is in 1757, too, that the Company inauguratesits pension system—withholding 5 per cent. of wages for a fund. As if Joseph La France’s journal had not been alarming enough, there comes overland to Nelson, in 1759, that Jan Ba’tiste Larlée, a spy whom the English engage and vote a wig (£1 5s) “to keep him loyal.”
At Henley House up Albany River, pushing trade to attract the Indians away from the French, is that Andrew Graham, whose diary gives such a picture of the period. Richard Norton of Churchill is long since dead. Of his half-breed sons educated in England, William has become a captain; Moses, from being sailor under Middleton, wins distinction as explorer of Chesterfield Inlet and rises to become governor at Churchill. Among the recruits of the increasing garrisons are names famous in the West—Bannister’s and Spencer’s and Flett’s. By way of encouraging zeal, the Company, in 1770, increases salaries for chief traders to £130 a year, for captains to £12 a month with a gratuity of £100 if they have no wreck. Each chief trader is to have added to his salary three shillings for every twenty beaver sent home from his department; each captain, one shilling sixpence for every twenty beaver brought safely to England. As these bounties amounted to £108 and £150 a year, they more than doubled salaries. I am sorry to say that at this period,brandy began to be plied freely. French power had fallen at Quebec in 1759. French traders were scattered through the wilds—birds of passage, free as air, lawless as birds, too, who lured the Indians from the English by the use of liquor. If an English trader ventured among Indians, who knew the customs of the French, and did not proffer a keg of watered brandy, he was apt to be forthwith douched “baptized”—the Indians called it.
But the greatest activity displayed by the English at this time was inland from the bay. If Joseph La France could come overland from Lake Superior, English traders could be sent inland. Andrew Graham is ordered to keep his men at Severn and Albany moving up stream. One Isaac Butt is paid £14 for his voyaging, and in 1756 the Company votes £20 to Anthony Hendry for his remarkable voyage from York to the Forks of the Saskatchewan—the first Englishman to visit this now famous region. Hendry’s voyage merits a detailed account in the next chapter.
Notes to Chapter XVII.—The list of governors at this period is: Sir Bibye Lake, 1712-1743; Benjamin Pitt, 1743-1746, when he died; Thomas Knapp, 1746-1750; Sir Atwell Lake, 1750-1760; Sir William Baker, 1760-1770; Bibye Lake, Jr., 1770-1782.The controversy between the Company and Dobbs fills volumes. Ellis and Dobbs need not be taken seriously. They were for the time maniacs on the subject of a passage that had no existence except in their own fancy. Robson is different.Having been a builder at Churchill, he knew the ground, yet we find him uttering such absurd charges as that the Company purposely sent Governor Knight to his death and were glad “that the troublesome fellow was out of the way.” This is both malicious and ignorant, for as Robson knew, the Northwest Passage played a very secondary part in Knight’s fatal voyage. The Company just as much as Knight was infatuated with the lure of gold-dust. Perhaps, it will some day prove not so foolish an infatuation. Gold placers have been found in Klondike. Indian legend says they also exist in the ices of the East.The Parliamentary Report for 1749 is an excellent example of investigating “off the beat.” The only thing of value in the report is Joseph La France’s Journal. It is valuable not as a voyage—for this trip was well tracked from the days of Radisson and Iberville—but as a description of the French posts on the Saskatchewan, which Hendry visited—Pachegoia or Pasquia or the Pas and Bourbon—and as helping to identify the Indians, whom Hendry met.La Vérendrye voyages are not given here, because not relative to the subject. His life will be found in “Pathfinders of the West.”The Canadian Archives give Hendry’s name as Hendey. It is spelt Hendry in the H. B. C. minutes.In 1746 the warehouse on Lime Street was purchased for £550. This year, too, comes a letter to the Company from Captain Lee of Virginia, warning that a French pirate of two hundred and fifty men, which captured him, is on the lookout for the fur ships.Sharpe was the lawyer who engineered the Parliamentary Inquiry of 1749. I find his charges in the Minutes £250 and £505.John Potts was the trader of Richmond, when Coates was captain.In 1766, Samuel Hearne’s name appears as on the pay roll ofThe Prince Rupert.Whale fisheries were now flourishing on the bay, for which each captain received a bounty of 25 per cent. on net proceeds.In 1769, the Company issued as standard of trade 3 marten, 1 beaver; 2 fox, 3 beaver; gray fox, 4 beaver; white fox, ½ beaver; 1 otter, 1 beaver.
Notes to Chapter XVII.—The list of governors at this period is: Sir Bibye Lake, 1712-1743; Benjamin Pitt, 1743-1746, when he died; Thomas Knapp, 1746-1750; Sir Atwell Lake, 1750-1760; Sir William Baker, 1760-1770; Bibye Lake, Jr., 1770-1782.
The controversy between the Company and Dobbs fills volumes. Ellis and Dobbs need not be taken seriously. They were for the time maniacs on the subject of a passage that had no existence except in their own fancy. Robson is different.
Having been a builder at Churchill, he knew the ground, yet we find him uttering such absurd charges as that the Company purposely sent Governor Knight to his death and were glad “that the troublesome fellow was out of the way.” This is both malicious and ignorant, for as Robson knew, the Northwest Passage played a very secondary part in Knight’s fatal voyage. The Company just as much as Knight was infatuated with the lure of gold-dust. Perhaps, it will some day prove not so foolish an infatuation. Gold placers have been found in Klondike. Indian legend says they also exist in the ices of the East.
The Parliamentary Report for 1749 is an excellent example of investigating “off the beat.” The only thing of value in the report is Joseph La France’s Journal. It is valuable not as a voyage—for this trip was well tracked from the days of Radisson and Iberville—but as a description of the French posts on the Saskatchewan, which Hendry visited—Pachegoia or Pasquia or the Pas and Bourbon—and as helping to identify the Indians, whom Hendry met.
La Vérendrye voyages are not given here, because not relative to the subject. His life will be found in “Pathfinders of the West.”
The Canadian Archives give Hendry’s name as Hendey. It is spelt Hendry in the H. B. C. minutes.
In 1746 the warehouse on Lime Street was purchased for £550. This year, too, comes a letter to the Company from Captain Lee of Virginia, warning that a French pirate of two hundred and fifty men, which captured him, is on the lookout for the fur ships.
Sharpe was the lawyer who engineered the Parliamentary Inquiry of 1749. I find his charges in the Minutes £250 and £505.
John Potts was the trader of Richmond, when Coates was captain.
In 1766, Samuel Hearne’s name appears as on the pay roll ofThe Prince Rupert.
Whale fisheries were now flourishing on the bay, for which each captain received a bounty of 25 per cent. on net proceeds.
In 1769, the Company issued as standard of trade 3 marten, 1 beaver; 2 fox, 3 beaver; gray fox, 4 beaver; white fox, ½ beaver; 1 otter, 1 beaver.