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44 - Canada- The Empire of the North by Agnes C. Laut · Canada- The Empire of the North

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Speaker 1: Section forty three of Canada The Empire of the North.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Lyndaree Nielsen, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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Speaker 1: The Empire of the North by Agnes Sea Lot from
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Speaker 1: eighteen twelve to eighteen forty six, Part three. Before the
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Speaker 1: Massacre of Seven Oaks, Colin Robertson had gone down to
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Speaker 1: Hudson Bay in High Dungeon with Semple, intending to take
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Speaker 1: ship for England, but the fall of ice drive prevented
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Speaker 1: one ship from leaving the bay, and Robertson was stranded
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Speaker 1: at Moose Factory for the winter, whither couriers brought him
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Speaker 1: word of the Seven Oaks tragedy and Selkirk's victory at
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Speaker 1: Fort William. Taking an Indian for guide, Robertson set out
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Speaker 1: on snow shoes from Montreal, following the old Ottawa Trail
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Speaker 1: traversed by Radison and Yberville long ago. Montreal he found
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Speaker 1: in a state of turmoil, almost verging on riot, over
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Speaker 1: the imprisonment of the Northwest Partners, whom Selkirk had sent
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Speaker 1: east Nightly, the goals were illuminated as for festivals. Nightly
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Speaker 1: sound of wandering musicians came from the cell windows, where
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Speaker 1: loyal friends were serenading the imprisoned partners. They were released,
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Speaker 1: of course, and acquitted from the charge of responsibility for
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Speaker 1: the massacre of seven Oaks. Presently, Robertson finds himself behind
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Speaker 1: the bars for his part in destroying Fort Gibraltar and
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Speaker 1: arresting Duncan Cameron. He too was acquitted, and he tells
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Speaker 1: us frankly that a private arrangement has been made beforehand
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Speaker 1: with the presiding judge. Probably, if the Norwesters had been
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Speaker 1: as frank, the same influence would explain their acquittal. Robertson
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Speaker 1: found himself free just about the time Lord Selkirk came
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Speaker 1: back from Red River by way of the Mississippi. In
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Speaker 1: order to avoid those careful plans for his welfare on
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Speaker 1: the part of the Norwesters at the quiet places along
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Speaker 1: Winnipeg River, the Governor of Canada had notified members of
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Speaker 1: both companies unofficially that the English government advised the rivals
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Speaker 1: to find some basis of union, which practically meant that
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Speaker 1: if the investigations under way were pushed to extremes. Both
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Speaker 1: sides might find themselves in awkward plight, but the fight
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Speaker 1: had gone beyond the period of pure commercialism. It was
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Speaker 1: now a matter of deadly personal hate between man and man,
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Speaker 1: which I am sorry to say has been carried down
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Speaker 1: by the descendants of the old fighters almost to the
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Speaker 1: present day. Each side hoped to drive the other to bankruptcy,
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Speaker 1: and the last throes of the deadly struggle were to
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Speaker 1: be in Athabaska, the richest fur field. While Selkirk is
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Speaker 1: fighting his cause in the courts, he gives Robertson carte
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Speaker 1: blanc to gather two hundred more French voyagers and proceed
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Speaker 1: to Athabaska. Midsummer of eighteen nineteen finds the stalwart Robertson
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Speaker 1: crossing Lake Winnipeg to ascend the Saskatchewan. At the mouth
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Speaker 1: of the Saskatchewan is a miserable remnant of terrified men
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Speaker 1: from the last Athabaska expedition is added to Robertson's party,
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Speaker 1: and John Clark, read death and destruction against the Northwesters,
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Speaker 1: goes along as lieutenant to Robertson. Everywhere are signs of
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Speaker 1: the lawless conditions of the fur trade. Not an Indian
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Speaker 1: dare speak to a Hudson's Bay man on pain of
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Speaker 1: horsewhipping instead of canoes gliding up and down the Saskatchewan
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Speaker 1: like birds of passage, reign of silence and solitude of
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Speaker 1: the dead. Though Robertson bids his voyagers sing and fire
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Speaker 1: off muskets as signals for trade, not a soul comes
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Speaker 1: down to the river banks till the fleet of advancing
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Speaker 1: traders is well away from the Saskatchewan and half way
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Speaker 1: across the height of land towards the Athabasca. The amazement
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Speaker 1: of the Northwesters at Fort Chippewan in Athabasca, when Robertson
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Speaker 1: pulled ashore at the conglomeration of huts known as Fort Wedderburn,
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Speaker 1: may be guessed two or three of the partners ran
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Speaker 1: down to the shore and called out that they would
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Speaker 1: like to parley. But John Clark, filled with memory of
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Speaker 1: a former outrage and rocking the canoe in his furry
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Speaker 1: so that it almost upset, met the overtures with a
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Speaker 1: volley of Stenorian abuse that sent the Northwesters scampering and
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Speaker 1: set Robertson laughing till the tears ran down his cheeks.
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Speaker 1: The change of spirit on part of the Northwesters was
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Speaker 1: easily explained. The most of their men were absent on
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Speaker 1: the hunting field. In a few weeks, Robertson had his
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Speaker 1: huts in order and had dispatched his trappers down to
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Speaker 1: Slave Lake and westward up Peace River. Then in October
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Speaker 1: came more Northwest partners from Montreal. The Northwesters were stronger
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Speaker 1: now and not so peacefully inclined. Nightly, the French bullies,
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Speaker 1: well plied with whiskey, would come across to the Hudson's
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Speaker 1: Bay fort, bawling out challenge to fight, but Robertson held
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Speaker 1: his men in hand and kept his powder dry. Early
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Speaker 1: on the morning of October eleventh, Robertson's valet roused him
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Speaker 1: from bed with word that a man had been accidentally
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Speaker 1: shot slipping a pistol in his pocket, and all unsuspicious
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Speaker 1: of trickery, Robertson dashed out. It happened that the most
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Speaker 1: of his men were at a slight distance from his fort.
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Speaker 1: Before they could rally to his rescue, he was knocked down, disarmed,
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Speaker 1: surrounded by Norwesters, thrown into a boat and carried back
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Speaker 1: to their fort. A captive in vain, he stormed almost
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Speaker 1: apopolectic with rage, and tried to send back Indian messengers
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Speaker 1: to his men. The Northwest laughed at him good naturedly,
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Speaker 1: and regulated him to quarters in one room of a
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Speaker 1: long hut, where soul furnishings were a birth bed and
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Speaker 1: a fireplace without a floor. Robertson's only possessions in captivity
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Speaker 1: were the clothes on his back, a jackknife, a small pencil,
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Speaker 1: and a note book. But he probably consoled himself that
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Speaker 1: his men were now on guard, and outnumbering the Northwesters
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Speaker 1: two to one, could hold the ground for the Hudson's
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Speaker 1: Bay that winter. As time passed, the captive Robertson began
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Speaker 1: to rack his brains how to communicate with his men.
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Speaker 1: It was a drinking age, and the fur traders had
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Speaker 1: the reputation of capacity to drink any other class of
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Speaker 1: men off their legs. Robertson feigned an unholy thirst. Wrapping
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Speaker 1: for his guard, he requested that messages might be sent
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Speaker 1: across to the h Hudson's Bay fort for a keg
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Speaker 1: of liquor. It can be guessed how readily the Northwesters complied,
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Speaker 1: but Robertson took good care when the guard was absent
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Speaker 1: and the door locked, to pour out most of the
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Speaker 1: whisky on the earth floor. Then, taking SIPs of paper
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Speaker 1: from his note book, he cut them in strips the
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Speaker 1: width of a spool. On these he wrote cipher and
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Speaker 1: mysterious instructions which only his men could understand, giving full
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Speaker 1: information of the Northwester's movements, bidding his people hold their
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Speaker 1: own and ordering them to send messages down to the
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Speaker 1: new Hudson's Bay governor at Red River, William Williams to
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Speaker 1: place his de Moron soldiers in ambush along the Grand
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Speaker 1: Rapids of the Saskatchewan to catch the Northwest partners on
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Speaker 1: their way to Montreal next spring. These slips of paper
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Speaker 1: he rolled up tight as a spool and hammered into
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Speaker 1: the bunghole of the barrel. Then he plastered clay all
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Speaker 1: over to hide the paper, and bade the guard carry
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Speaker 1: this keg of whiskey back to the h B C Fort,
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Speaker 1: for it was musty. Robertson complained, Let the men rinse
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Speaker 1: out the keg and put in a fresh supply all
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Speaker 1: that winter. Robertson, the Hudson's Bay man captive in the
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Speaker 1: Norwester's fort sent weekly commands to his men by means
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Speaker 1: of the whiskey kegs. But in the spring his trick
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Speaker 1: was discovered and the angry Norwesters decided he was too
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Speaker 1: clever a man to be kept on the field. They
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Speaker 1: would ship him out of the country when their furs
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Speaker 1: were sent east. On the way east, he succeeded in
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Speaker 1: escaping at Cumberland House. Waiting only a few hours, he
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Speaker 1: launched out in his canoe and followed on the trail
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Speaker 1: of the Northwest Partners on down to see what would
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Speaker 1: happen At Grand Rapids, where the Saskatchewan flows into Lake Winnipeg.
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Speaker 1: A jubilant shout from a canoe turning a bend in
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Speaker 1: the river presently announced the news all the Northwest Partners captured.
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Speaker 1: When Robertson came to Grand Rapids, he found Governor Williams
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Speaker 1: and the de Murons in possession. Cannon pointed across the river.
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Speaker 1: Below the Rapids, the Northwest Partners were prisoners in a hut.
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Speaker 1: The voyagers were allowed to go on down to Montreal
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Speaker 1: with the Firs. This last act in the Great Struggle
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Speaker 1: ended tragically enough. What was to be done with the
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Speaker 1: captured partners. They could not be sent to Eastern Canada,
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Speaker 1: pending investigations for the union of the companies. Governor Williams
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Speaker 1: sent them to York Factory, Hudson's Bay. Whence some took
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Speaker 1: ship to England. Others set out overland on snow shoes
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Speaker 1: for Canada. But in the scuffle at Grand Rapids, Frobishire,
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Speaker 1: one of the oldest partners, with a reputation of great
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Speaker 1: cruelty in his treatment of Hudson's Bay men, had been
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Speaker 1: violently clubbed on the head with a gun. From that
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Speaker 1: moment he became a raving maniac, and the Hudson's Bay
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Speaker 1: people did not know what to do with such a captive.
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Speaker 1: He must not be permitted to go home to England.
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Speaker 1: His condition was too terrible evidence against them, so they
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Speaker 1: kept him prisoner in the outhouses of York Factory, with
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Speaker 1: two faithful Norwestern half breeds as personal attendants. One dark,
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Speaker 1: cold night towards the first of October, Forbisher succeeded in
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Speaker 1: escaping through the broken bars of his cell window. A
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Speaker 1: leap took him over the pickets. By chance an old
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Speaker 1: canoe lay on Hayes River. With this he began to
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Speaker 1: ascend stream for the interior, paddling wildly, laughing wildly, raving
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Speaker 1: and singing. The two half breeds knew that a voyage
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Speaker 1: to the interior at this season without snow shoes, food,
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Speaker 1: or heavy clothing meant certain death, but they followed their
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Speaker 1: master faithfully as black slaves. Wherever night found them, they
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Speaker 1: turned the canoe upside down and slept under it. Fish
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Speaker 1: lines supplied food, and the deserted hut of some hunter
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Speaker 1: occasionally gave them shelter for the night. Winter set in
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Speaker 1: early the ice edging of the river cut the birsh canoe.
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Speaker 1: Abandoning it, they went forward on foot from York Fort
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Speaker 1: Hudson Bay, the nearest northwest post, was seven hundred miles.
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Speaker 1: By the end of October, they had not gone half
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Speaker 1: the distance. Then came one of those changes so frequent
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Speaker 1: in northern climes, a sunbursts of warm weather following the
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Speaker 1: first early winter, turning all frozen fields to swimming marshes,
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Speaker 1: and the travelers had no canoe. By this time, Frobisher
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Speaker 1: was too weak to walk as his body failed, His
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Speaker 1: mind rallied, and he begged the two half breeds to
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Speaker 1: go on without him. As delay meant the death of
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Speaker 1: all three, but the Faithful Fellows carried him by turns
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Speaker 1: on their backs. They themselves were now so emaciated they
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Speaker 1: were making but a few miles a day. Their moccasins
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Speaker 1: had been worn to tatters, and all three looked more
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Speaker 1: like skeletons than living men. Then the third week of November,
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Speaker 1: Frobisher could go no farther, and the servant's strength failed.
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Speaker 1: Building a fire in a sheltered place for their master,
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Speaker 1: the two faithful Fellows left Frobisher somewhere west of Lake Winnipeg.
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Speaker 1: Two days later, they crept in to a Northwest post
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Speaker 1: two week to speak, and handed the Northwesters a note
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Speaker 1: scrawled by Frobisher asking them to send a rescue party.
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Speaker 1: Frobisher was found lying across the ashes of the fire.
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Speaker 1: Life was extinct. In eighteen twenty, the Union of the
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Speaker 1: Companies put an end to the ruinous and criminal struggle
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Speaker 1: George Simpson. Afterwards, Knighted, who had been sent to look
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Speaker 1: over matters in Athabasca, is appointed governor, and Nicholas Garry,
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Speaker 1: one of the London Directors, comes out to appoint the
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Speaker 1: officers of the United Companies to their new districts. The
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Speaker 1: scene is one for artists. Brush the last meeting of
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Speaker 1: the partners at Fort William, Hudson's Bay Men and Northwesters
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Speaker 1: such deadly enemies they would not speak, sitting in the
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Speaker 1: great dining hall, glowering at each other across tables. Simpson
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Speaker 1: at one end of the tables, pompously dressed in ruffles
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Speaker 1: and satin coat and silk breeches, vainly endeavoring to keep
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Speaker 1: up suave conversation. Nicholas Gary at the other end of
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Speaker 1: the table, also very pompous and smooth, but with a
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Speaker 1: look on his face as if he were sitting above
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Speaker 1: a powdermine. The Highland pipers, dressed in tartans, standing at
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Speaker 1: each end of the hall, filling the room with the
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Speaker 1: drone and skirl of the bagpipes. By the union of
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Speaker 1: the companies, both sides avoided proving their rights in the
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Speaker 1: law courts. Most important of all, the Hudson's Bay Company
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Speaker 1: escaped proving its charter valid, for the charter applied only
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Speaker 1: to Hudson Bay and adjacent lands not occupied by other
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Speaker 1: Christian powers, but on the union taking place, the British
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Speaker 1: government granted to the new Hudson's Bay Company license of
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Speaker 1: exclusive monopoly to all the Indian territory, meaning one Hudson
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Speaker 1: Bay Country, two the interior, three New Caledonia, as well
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Speaker 1: as Oregon. In fact, the Union left the fur traders
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Speaker 1: ten times more strongly in trench than before. By this
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Speaker 1: new arrangement, Doctor John McLachlan was appointed new Chief Factor
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Speaker 1: of the western territories known as Oregon and New Caledonia
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Speaker 1: when the War of eighteen twelve closed treaty provided that
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Speaker 1: Oregon should be opened to the joint occupancy of English
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Speaker 1: and American traders till the matter of the Western boundary
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Speaker 1: could be finally settled. Oregon roughly included all territory between
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Speaker 1: the Columbia and the Spanish fort at San Francisco, namely Washington, Oregon,
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Speaker 1: Northern California, Idaho, Utah, Novva, parts of Montana, and Wyoming.
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Speaker 1: It was cheaper to send provisions round by sea to
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Speaker 1: the Fur posts of New Caledonia in modern British Columbia,
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Speaker 1: then across the continent by way of the Saskatchewan, so
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Speaker 1: mcglaluklan's district also included all the territory as far as
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Speaker 1: the Russian possessions in Alaska. This part of the Hudson's
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Speaker 1: Bay Company's history belongs to the United States rather than Canada,
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Speaker 1: but it is interesting to remember that just as the
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Speaker 1: French fur traders explored the Mississippi far south as the
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Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico, so English fur traders first explored the
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Speaker 1: Western States far south as New Spain. This western field
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Speaker 1: was perhaps the most picturesque of all the Hudson's Bay
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Speaker 1: Company's possessions. Fort Vancouver, nineteen miles inland from the sea
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Speaker 1: on the Columbia, was the capital of this trans Montagne kingdom,
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Speaker 1: and yearly till eighteen forty six, the fur brigades set
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Speaker 1: out from Fort Vancouver, two or three hundred strong by pack,
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Speaker 1: horse and canoe. Well known officers became regular leaders of
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Speaker 1: the different brigades. There was Ross, who led the Rocky
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Speaker 1: Mountain Brigade inland across the Divide to the Buffalo Ranges
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Speaker 1: of Montana. There was Ogden, son of the Chief Justice
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Speaker 1: in Montreal, who led the Southern Brigade up Snake River
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Speaker 1: to Salt Lake and the Nevada Desert and Humboldt River
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Speaker 1: and Mount Shasta, all of which regions except Salt Lake.
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Speaker 1: He was first to discover there was Tom Mackay, son
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Speaker 1: of the Mackay who had crossed to the Pacific. With Mackenzie,
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Speaker 1: who dressed as a Spanish cavalier, led the pack horse
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Speaker 1: brigades down the coast, past the Rogue River, Indians and
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Speaker 1: the Clamath Lakes to San Francisco, where doctor Glen Ray
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Speaker 1: had opened a fort for the Hudson's Bay Company. Then
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Speaker 1: there was the new Caledonia Brigade, two hundred strong, was
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Speaker 1: set out from Fort Vancouver up the Columbia in canoes
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Speaker 1: to the scream of the bagpipes. Through the rocky canyons
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Speaker 1: of the river. Close to the boundary, shift was made
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Speaker 1: from canoe to pack horse, and leaving the Columbia, the
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Speaker 1: brigade struck up the Okanagan Valley to Kamloops, bound for
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Speaker 1: the bridled trail up the Fraser River. This brigade, in
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Speaker 1: later days was under Douglas who became the Knighted Governor
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Speaker 1: of British Columbia. Tricked out in Gay Ribbons, the long
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Speaker 1: file of pack ponies two hundred with riders two hundred
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Speaker 1: more with packs moved slowly along the forest trail with
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Speaker 1: a drone as of bees humming in midsummer, So well
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Speaker 1: did ponies know the way that riders often fell asleep
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Speaker 1: to be suddenly jarred awake by the horses jamming against
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Speaker 1: a tree, or running under a low branch to bush
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Speaker 1: riders off, or hurdle jumping over a windfall. Each of
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Speaker 1: these brigades had has its own story, and each story
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Speaker 1: would fill a book. For instance, Glen Ray at San
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Speaker 1: Francisco has a difficult mission. The company has a plan
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Speaker 1: to take over the debts of Mexico to British capitalists
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Speaker 1: and exchange them for California. Glen Ray is sent to
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Speaker 1: watch matters, but he commits the blunder of furnishing arms
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Speaker 1: to the losing side of a revolution. The debt for
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Speaker 1: arms remains unpaid. Glen Ray suicides, and the company withdraws
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Speaker 1: from California. Presently come American settlers and missionaries over the mountains.
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Speaker 1: The American government delays settling that treaty of joint occupancy,
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Speaker 1: for the more American settlers that come, the stronger will
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Speaker 1: be the American claim to the territory. McLaughlin helps the
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Speaker 1: settlers who would have starved without his aid, and McLaughlin
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Speaker 1: receives such sharp censure from his company for this that
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Speaker 1: he resigns. When the American settlers set up a provisional government,
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Speaker 1: the foolish cry is raised fifty four forty or fight,
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Speaker 1: which means the Americans claim all the way up to Alaska,
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Speaker 1: and for this there is no warrant, either through their
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Speaker 1: own occupation or discovery. The boundary is compromised by the
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Speaker 1: Treaty of Oregon in eighteen forty six. At the forty
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Speaker 1: ninth parallel, when settlers come, fur bearing animals leave. Long ago,
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Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay Company had foreseen the end and moved
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Speaker 1: the capital of its Pacific empire up to Victoria. A
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Speaker 1: string of fur posts extends up the Fraser River to
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Speaker 1: New Caledonia. End of section forty three. Recording by Lynda
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Speaker 1: Maree Nielsen, Vancouver, b c.