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

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  Speaker 1: Section number forty two 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 Lyndammee Nielsen, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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  Speaker 1: The Empire of the North by Agnes C. Lot from
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twelve to eighteen forty six. Part two. Word of
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  Speaker 1: the two hundred settlers having been moved from Red River
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  Speaker 1: by the Northwesters, of mcdall's forcible expulsion and of the
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  Speaker 1: dispersion of the rest of the colony had of course
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  Speaker 1: been sent to Selkirk and his agents in both Montreal
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  Speaker 1: and London. Swift retaliation is prepared. Colin Robertson, who speaks
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  Speaker 1: French like a Canadian and knows all the Northwest voyagers
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  Speaker 1: of the Saint Lawrence, is sent to gather up two
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  Speaker 1: hundred French boatmen under the very noses of the Northwesters
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  Speaker 1: at Montreal. With these, Robertson is to invade the far
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  Speaker 1: famed Athabasca. Whence come the best firs, the very heart
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  Speaker 1: of the Northwesters stamping ground. Robert Semple is appointed governor
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  Speaker 1: of the colony on red River, with instructions to resist
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  Speaker 1: aggressions of the Northwesters, even to the point of a
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  Speaker 1: shock that may be felt from Montreal to Athabasca. Selkirk
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  Speaker 1: himself comes to Canada to interview the Governor general about
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  Speaker 1: military forces to protect his colony. Robertson, with his two
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  Speaker 1: hundred voyagers for Athabasca, follows the old Ottawa trail of
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  Speaker 1: the French explorers from the Saint Lawrence to the Great
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  Speaker 1: Lakes and from the Great Lakes to Red River by
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  Speaker 1: way of Maniche Lake. Whom does he find on the
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  Speaker 1: shores of the lake but Selkirk's dispersed colonists, ordering John Clark,
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  Speaker 1: an old campaigner of Astor's company on the Columbia, to
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  Speaker 1: lead the two hundred French voyagers on up to Athabasca.
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  Speaker 1: Calin Robertson rallies the colonists together and leads them back
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  Speaker 1: to Red River for the winter of eighteen fifteen to
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen. Feeling sure that he had destroyed Selkirk's scheme
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  Speaker 1: root and branch, Cameron has remained at Fort Gibraltar with
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  Speaker 1: only a few men. When back to the field comes Robertson, stormy, capable, robust,
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  Speaker 1: red blooded, fearless, breathing vengeance on Selkirk's foes. By the
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  Speaker 1: spring of eighteen sixteen, the tables have been turned with
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  Speaker 1: a vengeance. Cameron the Northwester has been seized and sent
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  Speaker 1: to Hudson Bay to be excp spelled from the country.
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  Speaker 1: Fort Gibraltar has been pulled down and the timbers used
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  Speaker 1: to strengthen Fort Douglas, whose pointed cannon command all passage
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  Speaker 1: up and down Red River. It was hardly to be
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  Speaker 1: supposed that the haughty Northwesters would submit to expulsion without
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  Speaker 1: a blow. From Athabasca, from New Caledonia, from Cuappel, they
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  Speaker 1: rally their doughtiest fighters under Cuthbert Grant, the half breed
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  Speaker 1: plain Ranger from Montreal and Fort William come spurring the
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  Speaker 1: leading partners with one hundred and seventy French Canadian bullies
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  Speaker 1: and a brass cannon concealed under oilcloth in a long boat.
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  Speaker 1: The object of the plain Rangers is to meet the
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  Speaker 1: upcoming partners with supplies for the year. But is that
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  Speaker 1: any reason for the riders who are striking eastward from
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  Speaker 1: Assinaboine to Red Rigs, decking themselves out in war paint
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  Speaker 1: and stripping like savages before battle. The object of the
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  Speaker 1: partners is to meet the Plain rangers on Red River.
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  Speaker 1: But is that any reason for bringing a cannon concealed
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  Speaker 1: under oilcloth all the way from Lake Superior? Or do
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  Speaker 1: men fighting a life and death struggle for the thing
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  Speaker 1: the world calls success ever, acknowledge Plain motives within themselves
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  Speaker 1: at all? Is it not rather the blind, brute instinct
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  Speaker 1: of self protection? Forefend what may listen? White men? Beware,
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  Speaker 1: Beware the cree. Chief Peguists warns Governor Semple. What means
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  Speaker 1: the spectacle of white brothers who preach peace preparing for
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  Speaker 1: war over a few beaver pelts? Chief Peguists cannot understand,
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  Speaker 1: except this is the way of white men. And now,
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  Speaker 1: unluckily for Governor Semple, he quarrels with his adviser, Colin Robertson. Robertson,
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  Speaker 1: from his early training in Northwest Ranks, reads the signs
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  Speaker 1: and is for striking a blow before the enemy can
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  Speaker 1: strike him. Semple is still talking peace. Robertson leaves Red
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  Speaker 1: River in disgust and departs for Hudson Bay to take
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  Speaker 1: ship for England. The Plain rangers, it may be explained,
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  Speaker 1: have uttered the wild threat that if they can catch Robertson,
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  Speaker 1: they will advantage the destruction of Fort Gibraltar by skinning
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  Speaker 1: him alive and feeding him to the dogs. Also, it
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  Speaker 1: is well known nor resters of Copel have muttered angry
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  Speaker 1: prophecies about the ground being drenched with the blood of colonists.
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  Speaker 1: Still Simple talks peace, which is a good thing in
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  Speaker 1: its place. But this isn't the place, My governor, My governor, please,
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  Speaker 1: an old hunter of the Hudson's Bay with simple, Are
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  Speaker 1: you not afraid the half breeds are gathering to kill you?
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  Speaker 1: Simple laughs? Pshaw, he has law on his side. Law?
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  Speaker 1: What is law? The old hunter of the lawless wilds
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  Speaker 1: doesn't know that word. The word doesn't come as far
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  Speaker 1: west as the pay's dawn. Hate. It is sunset of
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  Speaker 1: June eighteenth, eighteen sixteen. Old Chief Pegis comes again to
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  Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay fort on Red River, Governor of the Gardeners.
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  Speaker 1: He so lonely warns, Governor of the land workers and gardeners. Listen.
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  Speaker 1: Not much does he add, after the fashion of his race,
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  Speaker 1: only this, let me bring my warriors to protect you.
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  Speaker 1: Simple laughs. At such fears. It is sunset of June nineteenth.
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  Speaker 1: A soft west wind has set the prairie grass rippling
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  Speaker 1: like a green sea between the fort and the sun
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  Speaker 1: hanging low at the western skyline. A boy on the
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  Speaker 1: lookout above one of the bastion towers of Fort Douglas
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  Speaker 1: suddenly shouts, the half breeds are coming. Sample ascends a
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  Speaker 1: tower and looks through a field glass. There is a
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  Speaker 1: line of sixty or seventy horsemen, all armed, not coming
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  Speaker 1: to the fort, but moving diagonally across from the Assiniboine
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  Speaker 1: to the red towards the colony, and then north towards
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  Speaker 1: the colony. Is wildest clamor, people in ox carts, people
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  Speaker 1: on horseback, people on foot, stampeding for the shelter of
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  Speaker 1: the fort. And up to this moment, absolutely nothing has
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  Speaker 1: occurred to create this terror. Let twenty men follow me,
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  Speaker 1: orders Sample, and he marches out, followed by twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: armed men. And as they wade through the waste high
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  Speaker 1: hay fields, they meet the fleeing calmness. Keep your back
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  Speaker 1: to the river, shouts one calumnist conveying his family. They
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  Speaker 1: are painted governor. Don't let them surround you, Semple sends
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  Speaker 1: back to the fort for a cannon to be trundled out.
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  Speaker 1: Young Lieutenant Holt's gun goes off by mistake. Semple turns
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  Speaker 1: on him with fury and bids him have a care.
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  Speaker 1: There is to be no firing. The half breeds have
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  Speaker 1: turned from their trail and are coming forward at a gallop.
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  Speaker 1: There's Grant, the Plain ranger. Governor, let me shoot him,
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  Speaker 1: pleads one Hudson's bay man. God, have mercy on our souls,
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  Speaker 1: mutters one of the calumnists, counting the foe. But we
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  Speaker 1: are all dead men. All the world knows the rest.
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  Speaker 1: At the knoll where grew some trees, a spot now
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  Speaker 1: known in Winnipeg on No North Main Street as seven Oaks,
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  Speaker 1: Grant the Ranger sent a half breed Bouchet forward to Parley.
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  Speaker 1: What do you want, the man? Simple, We want our fort.
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  Speaker 1: Go to your fort, then, Rascal, you have destroyed our fort.
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  Speaker 1: Dare you speak so to me? Arrest him? Bouchet slips
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  Speaker 1: from his saddle. The Plain Rangers think he has been
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  Speaker 1: shot instantaneously from both sides crashes musketry fire. Simple falls
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  Speaker 1: with a broken thigh. Before Grant can control his murderous
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  Speaker 1: crew or obtain aid for the wounded governor. A scamp
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  Speaker 1: of a half breed has slashed the fallen man to death.
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  Speaker 1: Two or three Hudson's Bay Men escape through the long
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  Speaker 1: grass and swim across the Red River. Two or three
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  Speaker 1: more save themselves by instant surrender. For the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the twenty seven they lie where they have fallen. They
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  Speaker 1: are stripped, mutilated, cut to pieces. Only one nor Rest
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  Speaker 1: is killed, only one wounded. Later, in order to save
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  Speaker 1: the lives of the settlers, Fort Douglas is surrendered for
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  Speaker 1: a second time. The Calmnists are dispersed before going down
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  Speaker 1: Red River in flat boats. Two of the Hudson's Bay
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  Speaker 1: people go out with Chief Pegis by night and bury
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  Speaker 1: the dead, but they have no time to dig deep grays,
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  Speaker 1: and a few days later the wolves have ripped up
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  Speaker 1: the bodies. Near Lake Winnipeg, the fleeing Calumnists meet the
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  Speaker 1: Northwest Partners with one hundred and seventy men. No need
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  Speaker 1: to announce what the spectacle of the terrified colonists means.
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  Speaker 1: A wild whoop rents the air. Thank Providence, it was
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  Speaker 1: all over before we came, writes one defotee Norwester, For
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  Speaker 1: we intended to storm the fort. Both crews the Northwesters
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  Speaker 1: interrogate the settlers. Semple's private papers are seized. Also, two
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  Speaker 1: Hudson's Bay men who took part in the Seven Oaks
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  Speaker 1: fight are arrested, to be carried on down to Northwest
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  Speaker 1: headquarters on Lake Superior. Then the settlers go on to
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  Speaker 1: Lake Winnipeg. At the various camping places on the way
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  Speaker 1: down to Fort William, those two Hudson Bay prisoners overhear
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  Speaker 1: strange threats. It is night on the Lake of the Woods.
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  Speaker 1: Voices of Northwest partners sound through the dark. They are
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  Speaker 1: talking of Selkirk coming to the rescue of his people
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  Speaker 1: with an armed force, says the wild voice of a
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  Speaker 1: Northwester whose brother had been killed by a Hudson bayman
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  Speaker 1: some years before. There are fine quiet places along Winnipeg River.
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  Speaker 1: If he comes this way, then scraps of a conversation.
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  Speaker 1: Then the half breeds could capture him when he is asleep.
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  Speaker 1: Then words too low to be heard, Then they could
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  Speaker 1: have the Indians shoot him. Then, in voice of authority,
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  Speaker 1: restraining the wild folly of a bloodthirst for vengeance. Things
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  Speaker 1: have gone too far, but we can throw the blame
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  Speaker 1: on the Indians. The wild words of a man gone
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  Speaker 1: mad for revenge must not be taken as a policy
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  Speaker 1: of a great commercial company. Meantime, where in Selkirk he
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  Speaker 1: had arrived in Montreal, secret courier whose advances I had
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  Speaker 1: told elsewhere, had carried him word of the dangers impending
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  Speaker 1: over his colony. He at once appealed to the Governor
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  Speaker 1: General for a military force to protect the settlers. But
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  Speaker 1: it must be recalled. How Upper and Lower Canada were
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  Speaker 1: to be governed under the Act of seventeen ninety one.
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  Speaker 1: There were to be the Governor, the Legislative Council appointed
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  Speaker 1: by the Crown, and the Representative Assembly. The Legislative Council
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  Speaker 1: was entirely dominated by the Northwest Company. Of the different
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  Speaker 1: Quebec courts, there was scarcely a judge who was not
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  Speaker 1: interested directly or indirectly in the Northwest Company. Lord Selkirk
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  Speaker 1: could obtain no aid which would conflict with that company's policy.
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  Speaker 1: Then Selkirk petitioned the Governor that, in view of the
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  Speaker 1: threats against himself, he might be granted the commission of
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  Speaker 1: a Justice of the Peace and permission to take a
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  Speaker 1: personal bodyguard at his own cost. To the west. These
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  Speaker 1: requests the governor granted. Thereupon, Selkirk gathers up some two
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  Speaker 1: hundred of the d Muron and d Watteville Regiments mercenaries
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  Speaker 1: disbanded after the War of Ai teen twelve, and sets
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  Speaker 1: out for the west. Not aware that Robertson has left
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  Speaker 1: Red River, he sends him word to keep the colonists
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  Speaker 1: together and to expect help by way of the States
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  Speaker 1: from the Sault, in order to avoid touching the Northwester's
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  Speaker 1: post at Fort William. The courier with this message is
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  Speaker 1: waylaid by the Northwesters, but Selkirk himself, preceded by his
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  Speaker 1: former governor Myles mac donnell, has gone only as far
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  Speaker 1: as Assault. When word comes back of the Seven Oaks massacre,
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  Speaker 1: what to do now he can obtain no justice in
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  Speaker 1: Eastern Canada. Two Justices of the Peace at the Salt
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  Speaker 1: refuse to be involved in the quarrel by accompanying him.
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  Speaker 1: Selkirk goes on without them, accompanied by the two hundred
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  Speaker 1: hired soldiers, But instead of proceeding to Red River by Minnesota,
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  Speaker 1: as he had first play, he strikes straight for Fort William,
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  Speaker 1: the headquarters of the Northwesters. He arrives at the fort
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  Speaker 1: August twelfth, only a few days after the Northwest partners
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  Speaker 1: had come down from the scene of the massacre at
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  Speaker 1: Red River. Cannon are planted opposite Fort William. Things have
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  Speaker 1: gone too far. The Northwesters capitulate without a stroke. Then,
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  Speaker 1: as justice of the peace, my Lord Selkirk arrests all
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  Speaker 1: the partners but one and sends them east to stand
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  Speaker 1: trial for the massacre of seven oaks. The one partner
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  Speaker 1: not sent east was a fuddled old drunkard, long since
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  Speaker 1: retired from active work. This man now executes a deed
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  Speaker 1: of sale to my Lord Selkirk for Fort William and
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  Speaker 1: its firs. The man was so intoxicated that he could
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  Speaker 1: not write, so the afore time Governor Myles mac donell
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  Speaker 1: writes out the bargain, which one could wish so great
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  Speaker 1: a philanthropist as Selkirk had not touched with tongs. Before
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  Speaker 1: midwinter of eighteen seventeen had passed. The Demuron soldiers have
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  Speaker 1: crossed Minnesota and gone down Red River to Fort Douglas.
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  Speaker 1: One stormy night they scale the wall and bundle the
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  Speaker 1: Northwest sirps out bag and baggage. July eighteen seventeen comes
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  Speaker 1: Selkirk himself to the promised land. There is no record
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  Speaker 1: that I have been able to find of his thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on first nearing the ground for which so much blood
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  Speaker 1: had been shed, and for which he himself was yet
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  Speaker 1: to suffer much. But one can venture to say that
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  Speaker 1: his most daring hope did not grasp the empire that
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  Speaker 1: was to grow from the seed he had planted. He
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  Speaker 1: meets the Indians entreaty for their lands. He greets his
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  Speaker 1: calmness in the open one sunny August day, speaking personally
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  Speaker 1: to each and deating over to them land free of
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  Speaker 1: all charge. This land I give you for your church,
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  Speaker 1: he said, standing on the ground which the cathedral now occupies.
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  Speaker 1: That plot shall be for your school, pointing across the gully,
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  Speaker 1: and in memory of your native land, let the parish
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  Speaker 1: be called Kildonnan. Of the trials and counter trials between
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  Speaker 1: the two companies, there is not space to tell here.
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  Speaker 1: Selkirk was forced to pay heavy damages for his course
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  Speaker 1: at Fort William, but the courts of Eastern Canada record
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  Speaker 1: not a single conviction against the Norwesters for the massacre
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  Speaker 1: of seven oaks. Selkirk retired shattered in health to Europe,
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  Speaker 1: where he died in eighteen twenty. The same year passed
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  Speaker 1: away Alexander Mackenzie, his old time rival. The truth is
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  Speaker 1: each company had gone too far and was on the
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  Speaker 1: verge of ruin. From Athabaska came the Firs that prevented bankruptcy,
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  Speaker 1: and whichever company could drive the other from Athabaska could
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  Speaker 1: practically force its rival to ruin or union. When Colin
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  Speaker 1: Robertson had rallied the dispersed colonists from Lake Winnipeg, he
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  Speaker 1: had left John Clark to conduct the two hundred Canadian
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  Speaker 1: voyagers to Athabasca for the Hudson's Bay Company. Clark had
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  Speaker 1: been a Norwester before he joined Aster, and was a
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  Speaker 1: born fighter idolized by the Indians. So confident was he
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  Speaker 1: of a success now that he galloped his canoes up
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  Speaker 1: the Saskatchewan without pause to gather provisions. Once on the
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  Speaker 1: ground of Athabasca Lake, he divided his party into two
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  Speaker 1: or three bands and sent them foraging to the norway
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  Speaker 1: Wester's forts and hunting grounds up Peace River, down Slave Lake.
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  Speaker 1: At Athabasca itself. Weakened by division and without food to
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  Speaker 1: keep together, his men fell easy prey to the wily Northwesters.
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  Speaker 1: Of those on Slave Lake eighteen dived from starvation. Those
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  Speaker 1: on Peace River were captured and literally whipped out of
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  Speaker 1: the country, signing oas never to return. Those at Athabasca,
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  Speaker 1: being leading officers, were held prisoners. Meanwhile, the Hudson's Bay
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  Speaker 1: Company is defeated at Seven Oaks and victorious at Fort William.
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  Speaker 1: The Northwesters at Athabasca were keen to keep the frightened
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  Speaker 1: Indians of the North ignorant that Selkirk had triumphed at
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  Speaker 1: Fort William, But the news traveled over the two thousand
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  Speaker 1: miles of prairie in that strange hunter fashion known as
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  Speaker 1: Moccasin telegram, and the story is told how the captured
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  Speaker 1: Hudson's Bay officers let the secret out for the benefit
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  Speaker 1: of the Indians, now afraid to carry their hunt to
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  Speaker 1: a Hudson's Bay. Man. Revels and all night carousals marked
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  Speaker 1: the winter with the triumphant Norwesters of Athabasca Lake. Often
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  Speaker 1: when while drinking songs were ringing in the Nor'ster's dining hall,
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  Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay men would be brought in to furnish
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  Speaker 1: a butt for their merciless victors. One night, when the
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  Speaker 1: hall was full of Indians, one of the Northwest Bullies
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  Speaker 1: began to brawl out a song in celebration of the
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  Speaker 1: Seven Oaks affair. The h b C came up a hill,
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  Speaker 1: and up a hill they came. The h b C
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  Speaker 1: came up a hill, but down they went again. Tired
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  Speaker 1: of their rude horse play, one of the Hudson's Bay
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  Speaker 1: officers spoke up, yey never asked me for a song.
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  Speaker 1: I have a varse o me and compassion. Then, to
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  Speaker 1: the utter amaze of the drunken listeners and astonishment of
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  Speaker 1: the Indians, the game old officer trolled off this stave.
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  Speaker 1: But Selkirk brave went up a hill and two Fort
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  Speaker 1: Williams came. When in he popped and out from the dance.
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  Speaker 1: He could not be driven again. The thunderstruck. Norwester leapt
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  Speaker 1: to his feet with a yell, A hundred guineas for
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  Speaker 1: the name of the man who brought the news here,
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  Speaker 1: A hundred guineas for twelve lines of me encompassion. Extravagant
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  Speaker 1: Sir returned the Canny Scott from accounts held by the
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  Speaker 1: Hudson's Bay Company's Montreal lawyers. It is seen that Clark's
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  Speaker 1: expedition cost the company twenty thousand pounds. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: forty two. Recording by Lyndamree Nielsen, Vancouver b C.