The Great Company Part 17

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRADING WITH THE INDIANS.]

Before the era of the standard of trade, it was customary at all the forts, as it was at one or two long afterwards, for remuneration for the furs of the savages to be left at the chief factor's discretion.

Many things conspired to alter the values from season to season, and even from day to day, but no cause was so potent as the contiguous rivalry of the French. When the French were close at hand in the vicinity of Fort Nelson, as they were from 1686 to 1693, the price of beaver would fluctuate with surprising rapidity. It should be borne in mind that the western country at this period, and for long afterwards, was frequented by roving, adventurous parties of _coureurs des bois_, whose activity in trade tended to injure the Company's business. Even an enactment prescribing death for all persons trading in the interior of the country without a license, had proved insufficient to abate their numbers or their activity.

[Sidenote: Activity of "coureurs des bois."]

The Hudson's Bay Company seem to have some cognizance of this state of affairs, and were wont to put down much of the depredations it suffered at the hands of the French to the unkempt mult.i.tude of bushrangers. In one doc.u.ment it describes them as "vagrants," and La Chesnaye, who had been the leading spirit of the Quebec Company, was ready to impute to them much of the woes of the fur-trade, as well as the greater part of the unpleasant rivalries which had overtaken the French and their neighbours. One day it would be carried like wild-fire amongst the tribe who had come to barter, that the French were giving a pound of powder for a beaver; that a gun could be bought from the English for twelve beaver. In an instant there was a stampede outside the respective premises, and a rush would be made for the rival establishment. Fifty miles for a single pound of powder was nothing to these Indians, who had often journeyed two whole months in the depth of winter, endured every species of toil and hards.h.i.+p in order to bring down a small bundle of peltries; nor when he presented himself at the trader's window was the Indian by any means sure what his goods would bring. He delivered his bundles first, and the trader appraised them and gave what he saw fit. If a series of wild cries and bodily contortions ensued, the trader was made aware that the Indian was dissatisfied with his bargain, and the furs were again pa.s.sed back through the aperture. This was merely a form; for rarely did the native make a practical repentance of his bargain, however unsatisfactory it might appear to him. It is true the Indian was constant in his complaint that too little was given for his furs; but no matter what the price had been this would have been the case. Apart from dissatisfaction being an ineradicable trait in the Indian character, the contemplation of the sufferings and privations he had undergone to acquire his string of beads, his blanket, or his hatchet, must have aroused in him all his fund of pessimism.

In 1676 the value of the merchandise exported did not exceed 650 sterling. The value of the furs imported was close upon 19,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A "COUREUR DES BOIS."]

[Sidenote: Prices paid for furs.]

In 1678 the first standard was approved of by the Company on the advice of one of its governors, Sargeant, but it does not appear to have been acted upon for some years. The actual tariff was not fixed and settled to apply to any but Albany fort, and a standard was not filed at the Council of Trade until 1695. It originally covered forty-seven articles, later increased to sixty-three, and so remained for more than half a century. At first, as has been noted in an earlier chapter, the aborigines were content with beads and toys, and no doubt the bulk of the supplies furnished them might have continued for a much longer period to consist of these baubles and petty luxuries had not the policy of the Company been to enrich the Indians (and themselves) with the arms and implements of the chase. Gradually the wants of the savages became wider, so that by the time, early in the eighteenth century, the French had penetrated into the far western country, these wants comprised many of the articles in common use amongst civilized people. The standard of trade alluded to was intended to cover the relative values at each of the Company's four factories. Yet the discrepancy existing between prices at the respective establishments was small. In 1718 a blanket, for example, would fetch six beavers at Albany and Moose, and seven at York and Churchill. In nearly every case higher prices were to be got from the tribes dealing at York and Churchill than from those at the other and more easterly settlements, often amounting to as much as thirty-three per cent. This was ill.u.s.trated in the case of s.h.i.+rts, for which three beavers were given in the West Main, and only a single beaver at East Main. The Company took fifteen beavers for a gun; whereas, when Verandrye appeared, he was willing to accept as small a number as eight. Ten beavers for a gun was the usual price demanded by the French. It may be observed that a distinguis.h.i.+ng feature of the French trade in compet.i.tion with the Company was that they dealt almost exclusively in light furs, taking all of that variety they could procure, the Indians bringing to the Company's settlements all the heavier furs, which the French refused at any price, owing to the difficulty of land transportation. These difficulties, in the case of the larger furs, were so great that it is related that upon innumerable occasions the savages themselves, when weakened by hunger, used to throw overboard all but mink, marten and ermine skins rather than undergo the painful labour of incessant portages.

It must not be inferred, however, that the factors ever adhered strictly in practice to the standard prescribed and regulated from time to time by the Company. The standard was often privately doubled, where it could be done prudently, so that where the Company directed one skin to be taken for such or such an article, two were taken. The additional profit went into the hands of the chief factor, and a smaller share to the two traders, without the cognizance of the Company, and was called the overplus trade.

[Sidenote: Stationary character of the Company's trade.]

Occasionally, far seeing, active spirits amongst its servants strove to break through the policy of conservatism which distinguished its members; but where they succeeded it was only for a short period; and the commerce of the corporation soon reverted to its ancient boundaries. But this apparent att.i.tude is capable of explanation. The Company were cognizant, almost from the first, that the trade they pursued was capable of great extension. One finds in the minute-books, during more than forty years from the time of Radisson and Groseilliers, partner after partner arising in his place to enquire why the commerce, vastly profitable though it was, remained stationary instead of increasing.

"Why are new tribes not brought down? Why do not our factors seek new sources of commerce?" A motion directing the chief factor to pursue a more active policy was often put and carried. But still the trade returns, year after year, remained as before. Scarce a season pa.s.sed without exhortations to its servants to increase the trade. "Use more diligence," "prosecute discoveries," "draw down distant tribes," form the burden of many letters.

"We perceive," writes the Company's secretary in 1685 to Sargeant, "that our servants are unwilling to travel up into the country by reason of danger and want of encouragement. The danger, we judge, is not more now than formerly; and for their encouragement we shall plentifully reward them, when we find they deserve it by bringing down Indians to our factories, of which you may a.s.sure them. We judge Robert Sandford a fit person to travel, having the linguae and understanding the trade of the country; and upon a promise of Mr.

Young (one of our Adventurers) that he should travel, for which reason we have advanced his wages to 30 per annum, and Mr. Arrington, called in the Bay, Red-Cap, whom we have again entertained in our service; as also John Vincent, both which we do also judge fit persons for you to send up into the country to bring down trade." To this the Governor replied that Sandford was by no means disposed to accept the terms their Honours proposed, but rather chose to go home. "Neither he nor any of your servants will travel up the country, although your Honours have earnestly desired it, and I pressed it upon those proposals you have hinted."

[Sidenote: Character of the Company's Factors.]

I have already shown why the Company's wishes in this respect were not fruitful; that the character of the men in the Company's employ was not yet adapted to the work in hand. Its servants were not easily induced to imperil their lives; they gained little in valour or hardihood from their surroundings. They were shut up in the forts, as sailors are shut up in a s.h.i.+p, scarcely ever venturing out in winter, and hardly ever holding converse with a savage in his wild state. In vain, for the most part, were such men stirred to enterprise; and so this choice and habit of seclusion grew into a rule with the Company's employees; and the discipline common to the s.h.i.+p, or to contracted bodies, became more and more stringent. The Company's policy was nearly always dictated by the advice of their factors, but it can be shown that these were not always wise, dreading equally the prospect of leading an expedition into the interior, and the prestige which might ensue if it were entrusted to a subordinate.

A discipline ludicrous when contrasted with the popular impression regarding the fur-trader's career, was maintained in the early days.

It was the discipline of the quarter-deck, and surprised many of the youth who had entered the Company's employ expecting a life of pleasure and indulgence. Many of the governors were resembled, Bridgar and Bailey being surly, violent men, and were, indeed, often chosen for these qualities by the Company at home.

It is singular but true, that in the days of our ancestors a choleric temper was considered an unfailing index of the masterful man. In both branches of the King's service, on sea and on land, there seemed to have been no surer sign of a man's ability to govern and lead, than spleen and tyranny; and many an officer owed his promotion and won the regard of the Admiralty and the War Office by his perpetual exhibition of the traits and vices of the martinet. One of the Company's governors, Duffell, was wont to order ten lashes to his men on the smallest provocation. Another named Stanton, the governor at Moose Factory, declared he would whip any man, even to the traders, without trial if he chose; and this declaration he more than once put into practice. The whipping of two men, Edward Bate and Adam Farquhar, at Moose Factory, almost occasioned a mutiny there. The death of one Robert Pilgrim, from a blow administered by the chief factor, created a scandal some years later in the century. It was the practice of the early governors to strike the Indians when they lost their own tempers or for petty offences.

[Sidenote: Life at the Company's factories.]

It is diverting to compare nineteenth century life at the factories, on its religious, moral and intellectual side, to what obtained in the early days. In Governor Stanton's time, out of thirty-six men only six were able to read. There was neither clergyman nor divine wors.h.i.+p. The men pa.s.sed their time in eating and sleeping. Occasionally, Indian squaws were smuggled into the fort, at the peril of the governor's displeasure, for immoral purposes. The displeasure of the governor was not, however, excited on the grounds of morality, for it was nearly always the case that the governor had a concubine residing on the premises or near at hand; and it was observed in 1749 by a servant of thirty years' standing in the Company's employ, that at each fort most of the half-breed children in the country claimed paternity of the one or other of the factors of the Company.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EARLY RIVER PIONEER.]

To return to the question of the extension of trade, there were from time to time governors and servants who evinced a zeal and love for adventure which contrasted favourably with that of their fellows.

Their exploits, however, when compared with those of the hardier race of French-Canadian bushrangers were tame enough. In 1673 Governor Bailey summoned all the servants of the fort to appear before him, and informed them that it was the Company's wish that some amongst them should volunteer to find out a site for a new fort. Three young men presented themselves, two of whom afterwards became governors of the Company. The names of these three were William Bond, Thomas Moore and George Geyer. Some years later Bond was drowned in the Bay; but his two companions continued for some years to set an example which was never followed; and of which they seem finally to have repented.

Indeed, almost without exception, once a fort was built the servants seem to have clung closely to it; and it was not until the year 1688 that a really brave, adventurous figure, bearing considerable resemblance to the bushrangers of the past, and the explorers of the future, emerges into light.

[Sidenote: Kelsey's Voyage.]

Henry Kelsey, a lad barely eighteen years of age, was the forerunner of all the hardy British pioneers of the ensuing century. He is described as active, "delighting much in Indians' company; being never better pleased than when he is travelling amongst them." Young as he was, Kelsey volunteered to find out a site for a fort on Churchill River. No record exists of this voyage; but a couple of years later he repeated it, and himself kept a detailed diary of his tour.

In this journal the explorer states that he received his supplies on the 5th of July, 1691. He sent the a.s.siniboines ten days before him, and set out for Dering's Point to seek the remainder of their tribe.

At this place it was the custom for the Indians to a.s.semble when they went down the coast on trading expeditions. Kelsey soon overtook them, and accompanied them to the country of the Naywatamee Poets, the journey consuming fifty-nine days. He travelled first by water seventy-one miles from Dering's Point, and there beached his canoes and continued by land a distance of three hundred and sixteen miles, pa.s.sing through a wooded country. At the end of this came prairie lands for forty-six miles, intersected by a small shallow river scarcely a hundred yards wide. Crossing ponds, woods and champaign for eighty-one miles more, discovering many buffalo and beavers, the young explorer retraced his steps fifty-four miles, and there met the tribe of which he was in search. Kelsey did not accomplish this journey without meeting with many adventures. On one occasion the Naywatamee Poets left him asleep on the ground. During his slumber the fire burnt the moss upon which he was lying and entirely consumed the stock of his gun, for which he was obliged to improvise from a piece of wood half dry. On another occasion, he and an Indian were surprised by a couple of grisly bears. His companion made his escape to a tree, while Kelsey, his retreat cut off, hid himself in a clump of high willows.

The bears perceiving the Indian in the branches made directly for him, but Kelsey observing their action levelled his gun and killed one of the animals, the other bear bounding towards the place from which the shots came, and not finding the explorer, returned to the tree, when he was brought down by Kelsey's second shot. Good fortune attended this exploit, for it attained for the young man the name among the tribes of Miss-top-as.h.i.+sh, or "Little Giant." He returned to York Factory after this first expedition, apparelled after the manner of his Indian companions, while at his side trudged a young woman with whom he had gone through the ceremony of marriage after the Indian fas.h.i.+on. It was his wish that Mistress Kelsey should enter with her husband into the court, but this desire quickly found an opponent in the Governor, whose scruples, however, were soon undermined when the explorer flatly declined to resume his place and duties in the establishment unless his Indian wife were admitted with him.

Thus, then, it is seen that in 1691, forty years before Verandrye's voyages of discovery, this young servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, had penetrated to no slight extent into the interior. He had crossed the a.s.siniboine country, seen for the first time among the English and French the buffaloes of the plain, he had been attacked by the grisly bears which belong to the far west; and in behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company had taken possession of the lands he traversed, and secured for his masters the trade of the Indians. .h.i.therto considered hostile.

Although the Governor hoped that the encouragement noted in the case of Kelsey, together with the advance of salary, would stimulate other young men to follow his example, yet, strange to say, none came forward. The day of the Henrys, the Mackenzies, the Thompsons and the Frobishers had not yet dawned.

For many years after this the Company was in constant apprehension that its profits would be curtailed by tribal wars.

[Sidenote: Effect of Indian wars on the Company's business.]

"Keep the Indians from warring with one another, that they may have more time to look after their trade," was a frequently repeated injunction. "If you prevent them from fighting they will bring a larger quant.i.ty of furs to the Factory," they wrote on one occasion to Geyer. The Governor admitted the premise, "but," said he, "perhaps your Honours will tell me how I am going to do it." The Company devoted a whole meeting to consider the matter, and decided that nothing was easier, provided their instructions were implicitly obeyed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FAC-SIMILE OF COMPANY'S STANDARD OF TRADE.]

"Tell them what advantages they may make," they wrote; "that the more furs they bring, the more goods they will be able to purchase of us, which will enable them to live more comfortably and keep them from want in a time of scarcity. Inculcate better morals than they yet understand; tell them that it doth nothing advantage them to kill and destroy one another, that thereby they may so weaken themselves that the wild ravenous beasts may grow too numerous for them, and destroy them that survive." If Geyer delivered this message to the stern and valorous chiefs with whom he came in contact, they must have made the dome of heaven ring with scornful laughter. He was obliged to write home that fewer savages had come down than in former seasons because they expected to be attacked by their enemies. The Company then responded shortly and in a business-like manner, that if fair means would not prevail to stop these inter-tribal conflicts, that the nation beginning the next quarrel was not to be supplied for a year with powder or shot "which will expose them to their enemies, who will have the master of them and quite destroy them from the earth, them and their wives and children. This," adds the secretary, and in a spirit of true prophecy, "must work some terror amongst them."

[Sidenote: The French at Michilimackinac.]

A potent cause contributed to the lack of prosperity which marked Port Nelson under the French _regime_. It was the exploitation of the west by an army of traders and bushrangers. The new post of Michilimackinac had a.s.sumed all the importance as a fur-trading centre which had formerly belonged to Montreal. The French, too, were served by capable and zealous servants, none more so than Iberville himself, the new Governor of the Mississippi country.[38] His whole ambition continued to be centred upon driving out the English from the whole western and northern region, and destroying forever their trade and standing with the aborigines, and none more than he more ardently desired the suppression of the _coureur de bois_. "No Frenchmen," he declared, "should be allowed to follow the Indians in their hunts, as it tends to keep them hunters, as is seen in Canada; and when they are in the woods they do not desire to become tillers of the soil."

At the same time the value of the bushrangers to the French _regime_ was considerable in damaging the English on the Bay.

"It is certain," observed one of their defenders, "that if the articles required for the upper tribes be not sent to Michilimackinac, the Indians will go in search of them to Hudson's Bay, to whom they will convey all their peltries, and will detach themselves entirely from us."

The bushrangers penetrated into the wilderness and intercepted the tribes, whose loyalty to the English was not proof against liquor and trinkets served on the spot, for which otherwise they would have to proceed many weary leagues to the Bay.

The Company began to experience some alarm at the fas.h.i.+on the trade was sapped from their forts at Albany and Moose.[39] The Quebec Company was in the same plight with regard to Port Nelson.

[Sidenote: The Western Company.]

An a.s.sociation of French merchants, known as the Western Company, sprang up in the early days of the eighteenth century and many forts and factories were built in the Mississippi region. Its promoters expected great results from a new skin until now turned to little account, that of bison, great herds of which animal had been discovered roaming the western plains. M. de Juchereau, with thirty-four Canadians, established a post on the Wabash, in the name of the Western Company. Here, he writes, he collected in a short time fifteen thousand buffalo skins.

From 1697 to 1708 a series of three commandants were appointed, one of whom now administered the affairs at Fort Bourbon, which however never a.s.sumed the importance which had attached to it under the English rule.

There is one romantic episode which belongs to this period, serving to relieve by its vivid, perhaps too vivid, colouring, the long sombreness of the French _regime_. It was the visit in 1704 of an officer named Lagrange and his suite from France. In the train of this banished courtier came a number of gallant youths and fair courtesans; and for one brief season Fort Bourbon rang with laughter and revelry.

Hunting parties were undertaken every fine day; and many trophies of the chase were carried back to France. Have ever the generations of quiet English servants and Scotch clerks s.n.a.t.c.hed a glimpse, in their sleeping or waking dreams, of those mad revels, a voluptuous scene amidst an environment so sullen and sombre?

In the year 1707 Jeremie, the lieutenant, obtained permission of the Company to return to France on leave. He succeeded in obtaining at court his nomination to the post of successor to the then commandant, Delisle. After a year's absence he returned to Port Nelson, to find matters in a shocking state. No s.h.i.+ps had arrived from France, and stores and ammunition were lacking. A few days after his arrival, Delisle was taken seriously ill, and expired from the effects of cold and exposure.

For a period of six years Jeremie continued to govern Fort Bourbon, receiving his commission not from the Company but direct from the King himself, a fact of which he seems very proud.

Jeremie's tenure of office was marked by a b.l.o.o.d.y affair, which fortunately had but few parallels under either English or French occupation. Although the tribes in the neighbourhood were friendly and docile, they were still capable, upon provocation, to rival those Iroquois who were a constant source of terror to the New England settlers.

In August, 1708, Jeremie sent his lieutenant, two traders and six picked men of his garrison to hunt for provisions. They camped at nightfall near a band of savages who had long fasted and lacked powder, which, owing to its scarcity, the French did not dare give them.

[Sidenote: Indian Treachery.]