The Great Company Part 24

The testimony of at least one Governor is significant. "While," said he, "it is the duty of every one of the Company's servants to encourage a spirit of industry among the natives, and to use every means in their power to induce them to procure furs and other commodities for trade ... at the same time, it must be confessed that such conduct is by no means for the real benefit of the poor Indians; it being well-known that those who have the least intercourse with the factories, are by far the happiest.... It is true that there are few Indians but have once in their lives, at least, visited the fort, and the hards.h.i.+ps and dangers which most of them experienced on those occasions have left such a lasting impression on their minds, that nothing can induce them to repeat their visits."

Arriving near their journey's end, they all put ash.o.r.e; the women going into the woods to gather pine-brush for the bottom of the tents, while the leaders smoked together and arranged the procession to the factory. This settled, they re-embarked, and soon after arrived before the post of the Company; if there happened to be but one captain, his situation was in the centre of all the canoes; if more than one, they placed themselves at the wings, their canoes being distinguished by a small flag hoisted on a stick and placed astern. Arriving within two hundred yards of the palisade, they discharged their fowling pieces by way of compliment to the Governor, who returned the salute by firing off two or three small cannon. The men of the tribe seldom concerned themselves with taking out the bundles, except occasionally when the younger ones a.s.sisted the women.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TYPE OF CREE INDIAN.]

[Sidenote: Arrival at the Fort.]

The factor being now informed that the Indians had arrived, the trader was sent to introduce the leaders into the fort. Chairs were placed in the trading-room for the visitors, and pipes introduced. During the first part of the ceremony the leader puffed great clouds of smoke, but said little; but the tobacco in the bowl becoming low, he began to be more talkative. Fixing his eyes immovably on the ground, he informed the factors how many canoes he had brought, and what tribes he had seen; he enquired after the health of his hosts, and declared he is glad to see them. When this speech was concluded the Governor bade the chief and his party welcome, informing him that he had good goods and plenty, that he loved the Indians, and they might count upon his kindness to them. The pipe was then removed, and the conversation became general.

During this visit the chief was dressed out at the Company's expense.

He was furnished with a coa.r.s.e cloth coat, red or blue, lined with baize, and white regimental cuffs; a waistcoat and breeches of baize.

This suit was ornamented with orris lace. He was likewise presented with a white or checked cotton s.h.i.+rt, stockings of yarn, one red and the other blue, and tied below the knee with worsted garters; his moccasins were sometimes put on over these, but he as freely walked away in bare feet. His hat was of coa.r.s.e felt and bedecked with three ostrich feathers, of various colours. A worsted sash was fastened to its crown; a small silk handkerchief drawn about his neck, and thus attired, the chief strutted up and down delighted.

His second in command also claimed attention. He was given a coat, but not a lined one; a s.h.i.+rt and a cap such as was worn by sailors of the period. The guests once equipped, bread and prunes were forthcoming and set before the chief; and of these confections he took care to fill his pockets before they were carried out. These were followed by a two-gallon keg of brandy, pipes and tobacco for himself and followers.

It was now high time to think of returning to the camp, but this exit was not to be undertaken without further marks of the favour and esteem with which the chief was held by the Company. His conduct from the fort was effected in state. In front a halberd and ensign were borne; next came a drummer beating a march, followed by several of the factory servants bearing bread, prunes, pipes, tobacco, brandy, etc.

Behind these came the "King," "Captain," or chief, with stately tread, and erect, smoking his pipe and conversing with the factors at his side. Afterwards came the "Lieutenant," "Prince," relative or friend, who had accompanied the chief.

The tent was found ready for their reception, strewn with clean pine brush and beaver coats placed for them to sit. The brandy was deposited on the ground, and the chief gave orders for its distribution. After this the factor left, none too soon, however, for all were soon plunged into a brutal state of intoxication. "It is fifty to one," writes one trader, "but some one is killed before morning. They give loose rein to every species of disorderly tumult--all crying, fighting, and dancing."

About 1735, a party of Indians came down to trade, and the first day of their arrival, as was their invariable custom, got vilely drunk.

While thus inebriated, they fought, not noisily, but silently, in the darkness. When morning dawned, two corpses, in a fearful state of mutilation, were found stretched on the ground in pools of blood.

[Sidenote: Ceremony of the pipe.]

After this debauch, which lasted about two or three days, the sobered braves took to the calumet of peace. The stem of this pipe was three or four feet long, decorated with pieces of lace, bears' claws, eagles' talons, and the feathers of the most beautiful birds. The pipe being affixed to the stem, the factor took it in both hands, and with great gravity rose from his chair and pointed the end of the stem to the east or sunrise, and then to the zenith, and to the west, and then perpendicularly to the Nadir. After this he took three or four hearty whiffs and then presented it to the chief, and so on round the whole party, the women excepted. When the tobacco was consumed, the factor took the pipe again and twirling it three times round his head, laid it with great deliberation on the table. A great Ho! was thereupon emitted from the mouths of the a.s.semblage.[54]

This ceremony being over, a further gratuity of bread and prunes was distributed, and the chief made a speech, which one trader has reported, after this style.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN OLD CHIEF.

(_From a Photograph._)]

"You told me last year to bring many Indians to trade, which I promised to do. You see, I have not lied, here are many young men come with me; use them kindly, I say; let them trade good goods, I say. We lived hard last winter and were hungry; powder being short measure and bad, I say. Tell your servants to fill the measure, and not put their thumbs within the brim; take pity on us, take pity on us, I say.

"We paddle a long way to see you; we love the English. Let us trade good black tobacco, moist and hard twisted; let us see it before it is opened. Take pity on us, take pity on us, I say.

"The guns are bad, let us trade light guns, small in the hand and well-shaped, and locks that will not freeze in the winter, and red gun-cases. Let the young men have more than measure of tobacco, cheap pattees, thick and high.

"Give us good measure of cloth; let us see the old measure. The young men love you by coming so far to see you. Give them good goods; they like to dress and be fine; do you see?"

As soon as the chief had finished the above speech, he, with his followers, proceeded to examine the guns and tobacco; the former with a most minute attention. This over, they traded with furs promiscuously, the leader being so far indulged as to be admitted into the trading-room all the time if he desired it.

[Sidenote: Varieties of beaver.]

The beaver thus received by the chief trader and stored at the factory pending its s.h.i.+pment to England in the Company's s.h.i.+ps, was cla.s.sified into eight varieties. The first was the fat winter beaver, slain in winter, which was valued at five s.h.i.+llings and sixpence a pound. The second sort was the fat summer beaver, worth two s.h.i.+llings and ninepence. Next came in order the dry winter beaver, and the Bordeaux, both worth three s.h.i.+llings and sixpence. The dry summer beaver, not much valued, about one s.h.i.+lling and ninepence. Sixth came the coat beaver, as it was called, which brought four s.h.i.+llings and sixpence.

The Muscovite, dry beaver of a fine skin, covered with a silky hair; it was worn in Russia, where the short fur was combed away and manufactured into fabric, leaving only the hair; this fetched four and sixpence; and lastly on the list figured the Mittain beaver, which were utilized in the manufacture of mittens, being worth one s.h.i.+lling and ninepence.

It was reported that in the year 1742 the natives were so discouraged in their trade with the Company that many found the peltry hardly worth the carriage, and the finest furs sold for very little. When the tribes came to the factory in June they found the goods much higher in price, and much in excess of the standard they were accustomed to.

According to Joseph la France, a French-Canadian voyageur, they gave but a pound of gunpowder for four beavers, a fathom of tobacco for seven beavers, a pound of shot for one, an ell of coa.r.s.e cloth for fifteen, a blanket for twelve, two fish-hooks or three flints for one, a gun for twenty-five, a pistol for ten; a common hat with white lace cost seven beavers, an axe four, a bill-hook one, a gallon of brandy four, a chequered s.h.i.+rt seven; "all of which sold at a monstrous profit, even to two thousand per cent."

It was a fact, nevertheless, that notwithstanding such discouragement the two expeditions of Indians who visited York and Churchill that year brought down two hundred packs of one hundred each, that is to say twenty thousand beaver skins. As to the other Indians who arrived from another direction, they carried three hundred packs of one hundred each, which made a total of fifty thousand beavers, besides nine thousand martens.

FOOTNOTE:

[54] All this ceremony has a significance of its own. Interpreted, it said: "Whilst the sun shall visit the different parts of the world and make day and night; peace, firm friends.h.i.+p and brotherly love shall be established between the English and the Indians, and the same on the latter's part. By twirling the pipe over the head, it was further intended to imply that all persons of the two nations, whosoever they were, shall be included in the friends.h.i.+p and brotherhood, then concluded or renewed."

CHAPTER XXI.

1725-1742.

System of Licenses re-adopted by the French -- Verandrye sets out for the Pacific -- His son slain -- Disappointments -- He reaches the Rockies -- Death of Verandrye -- Forts in Rupert's Land -- Peter the Great and the Hudson's Bay Company -- Expeditions of Bering -- A North-West Pa.s.sage -- Opposition of the Company to its Discovery -- Dobbs and Middleton -- Ludicrous distrust of the Explorer -- An Anonymous Letter.

It has already been observed how fearful had grown the demoralization of the Indians, chiefly through the instrumentality and example of the _coureur des bois_. This cla.s.s seemed daily to grow more corrupt, and bade fair to throw off the last vestige of restraint and become merged in all the iniquity, natural and acquired, of the savage races. We have seen, too, how the missionaries intervened, and implored the civil authorities to inst.i.tute some sort of reform. It was at their solicitation that the Government of Canada at length decided to re-adopt the system of licenses, and to grant the privileges of exclusive trade to retired army officers, to each of whom they accorded a certain fur-bearing district by way of recompense for services rendered by him. In order that the trader might be protected against hostile a.s.sault, permission was given to establish forts in certain places suitable for their construction.

One of the French Canadian youth, whom the exploits of Iberville against the Hudson's Bay Company had fired with a spirit of emulation and who was head and shoulders above all that race of soldiers turned fur-traders, who now began to spread themselves throughout the great west--was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verandrye.

[Sidenote: Sieur de Verandrye.]

This gallant soldier and intrepid explorer, to whose memory history has as yet done but scant justice, was born at Three Rivers on the 17th of November, 1685. At an early age he embraced the profession of arms, and at twenty-four fought so valorously against Marlborough's forces at Malplaquet that, pierced by nine wounds, he was left for dead upon the field of battle. Recovering, however, he returned to the colony, and at twenty-seven married the daughter of the Seigneur d'Isle Dupas, by whom he had four sons. These sons were all destined to be a.s.sociated with their father in the subsequent explorations in Rupert's Land and the west.

At the hour when Verandrye was seized with his zeal for exploration and discovery, the Company's rivals already possessed numerous posts established by Iberville, Duluth, Frontenac and Denonville, and a host of lesser lights, in the west. Of one of these, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Nepigon, at the extreme end of Lake Superior, Verandrye had been given the command.

[Sidenote: Verandrye sets out to explore the West.]

While at this fort, a rumour had reached him of a mighty river flowing into the great ocean. Credulous of the truth of this report, borne to him by the Indians, Verandrye lost little time in communicating it to a friend, Father de Gonor, at Michilimackinac. It was shortly thereafter carried to Governor Beauharnois, who was induced, but not without much pleading, to grant Verandrye fifty men and a missionary for the purposes of exploration. But, although he had thus far succeeded, the only pecuniary aid upon which the explorer could rely was from the fur-trade. He was accordingly given a license to trade, and on the strength of this concession, certain merchants advanced him an outfit. He set out and arrived at Rainy Lake in September, 1731, traversed it, and erected a fort near the site of the present Fort Francis of a later day, to which he gave the name of St. Peter.

A year later he built another fort on the western sh.o.r.e of the Lake of the Woods, and in 1733 paddled down to the mouth of the Winnipeg River to the lake of that name. Crossing Lake Winnipeg, he ascended the a.s.siniboine River and constructed Fort Rouge.[55]

In 1738 the explorer's three sons, under their sire's instructions, made their way up the a.s.siniboine and built Fort la Reine, on the site of the present Portage la Prairie.

Well may it be said that the five years from 1733 to 1738 were years of cruel grief and disappointment for Verandrye. He had been struggling on to a realization of his dream in spite of the bitterest discouragements. One of his sons had been slain by the Sioux; he was without funds; fur-trading being with him only a subsidiary employment. His men lacking both courage and faith became unmanageable, and Verandrye addressed the most affecting letters to his monarch in France, who looked upon him and his schemes coldly.

Those merchants, who had advanced him money, loaded him with their distrust, perpetually hara.s.sed him for returns, and loudly demanded his recall, so that he was forced to stand still and engage in barter when his whole soul cried aloud for him to press on in his path and reach the Pacific.

[Sidenote: Verandrye's son reaches the Rockies.]

Verandrye divided his little party in the spring of 1742 and ascended the Souris River. Those who came to be familiar with the territory in a later day, when it was frequented by traders, might well appreciate what were the perils these pioneers encountered, and what dangers they escaped when they finally left the country of the peace--leaving Ojibways at Red River, and struck off into the land of the Sioux, a tribe then, from their ferocity to the whites, called the "tigers of the plains." But they were to go still farther. Already the eldest son of the explorer had reached the tribe of the Mandans in the Missouri, but owing to inability to obtain guides his party had been forced to return. He was again despatched by his father, this time in company with the younger son, known as the Chevalier, and two other Frenchmen into the unknown country to the west. This little band of four made a journey of several hundred miles, entering into a league with one of the nations into whose country they penetrated, to lead them to the great Western Ocean. On the first day of January, 1743, they beheld, the first amongst white men, the eastern spurs of the northern Rocky Mountains. But here the Bow Indians, their guides, deserted them, and surrounded by hostile tribes, the party was forced to return. It was in this same year that the elder Verandrye, scarred and gaunt from his long wanderings in the wilderness, presented himself at Quebec to confront his enemies and traducers. They had represented as making an enormous fortune and leading an idle life, he who could point proudly to having taken possession of the country of the Upper Missouri for Lewis XV., and who had built a score and more of forts in the unknown regions of the West.

"If 40,000 livres of debt that I have over my head," said Verandrye bitterly, "are an advantage, then I can compliment myself on being very rich, and I would have been much more so in the end, if I had continued."

His license was given to another who, however, made a poor showing by means of it, and it was not until Beauharnois's successor investigated Verandrye's claims that the explorer received some recognition at court. He was given a captaincy and the Cross of St. Lewis.

But the explorer had not waited for this. He had been pus.h.i.+ng on in his work, and in 1748 ascended the Saskatchewan. The progress of the French was marked by more forts, one in Lake Dauphin and another called Bourbon at the extremity of his discoveries. Verandrye was about to cross the Rocky Mountains when death overtook him, on the 6th of December, 1749.

The sons of Verandrye were eager to continue his work and attain at last the Pacific. But Bigot, the Intendant, was not their friend; he had other plans, and the Verandryes were deposed by favourites with not half their ability or their claims to honours and rewards. But they had paved the way and now the French were reaping the profits of the fur-trade in the North-West on a great scale.