|
In the year 1811, the
bitter struggle between the Hudson Bay Company on the one hand, and the
North-West and X.Y. Companies on the other, was brought to a climax by
an attempt to form the Red River settlement. Thomas Douglas, Earl of
Selkirk, obtained, in that year from the Hudson Bay Company, a grant of
land extending from Lake Winnipeg to the height of land supposed to
separate the waters running into the Hudson Bay from those of the
Missouri and Mississippi. [See Ballantyne: Hudson’s Bay p. 99;
Alexander Ross: The Red River Settlement, pp. 8, 9; and Jos. J.
Hargrave, F.R.G.S.: Red River, p. 70. J.C. Hamilton: The
Prairie Province, p. 194.] Of the troubles which ensued it is
somewhat difficult to give an impartial account, the story of the
skirmishing and bloodshed which ensued having been fully and rather
acrimoniously narrated by those interested on both sides. As the
belligerents were almost all of Scottish birth, it will be necessary to
enter into the controversy at some length, but, so far as possible
without bias, or prepossession. Certainly the perfervidum ingenium
Scotorum, of which George Buchanan spoke, never glowed at a whiter
heat than in these untoward events.
The central figure in
this historical tableau is, of course, Lord Selkirk, and concerning his
motives and course of action, an angry war of words has been waged even
down to our own day. To his friends and partizans he appears as a
disinterested, self-sacrificing patriot, having but one purpose in view—the
elevation and advancement of his Highland fellow-countrymen; whilst his
enemies are in the habit of portraying him as a crafty, self-seeking and
unscrupulous adventurer. The North-Western episode in his career was the
only stirring period in an otherwise uneventful life, too early brought
to a close. The few facts recorded about him may be briefly given here.
[See Morgan: Sketches of Celebrated Canadians and persons
connected with Canada, p. 272.] Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk,
Lieutenant of the Stewartry of Kircudbright, was the youngest of five
sons—all of whom attained adult age—of Dunbar, the fourth Earl, who
died in 1799. Thomas was born in 1774, and in 1807 married a Miss
Colville—a lady who became the mother of one son and two daughters,
and was with him during all his wanderings. That he was a man of great
vigour of mind, and indomitable energy and perseverance, is clear both
from his life and writings. He is stated to have been exceedingly gentle
and affable in his manners, and whatever other virtues may be denied
him, he certainly was not wanting in goodness of heart. In 1805, his
Lordship’s attention had been called to the wretched condition of the
Highlanders, and the result was a work which reached a second edition in
the following year, entitled "Observations on the Present State of
the Highlands." His active mind was at once set to work upon a
scheme by which the pitiful, and almost degraded 1ot of the Gaelic race
might be ameliorated; and he was soon convinced that the remedy he
sought was to be found in emigration. He was a large shareholder in the
Hudson Bay Company, and as many Highlanders had already been induced to
enter its service, he conceived the idea of forming a Highland colony in
some fertile district of the North-West. With him to form a plan was to
take immediate steps toward its realization, and he therefore, after
inquiry and deliberation, entered into negotiations with the Company for
the purchase of the district he secured in 1811. "About this
time," writes Mr. Hargrave, [Red River, pp. 72, 73.] a
compulsory exodus of the inhabitants of the mountainous regions in the
County of Sutherland was in progress. The history of the expulsion of a
vast number of the poorer tenantry from the estates of the Duchess of
Sutherland, in which they and their ancestors had vegetated in much
idleness, semi-barbarism and contentment, from a traditionary era, to
make way for the working of the sterner realities of the system of land
management which prevails on great estates in this prosaic nineteenth
century, is to this day fresh in the recollection of the remaining
population of the extreme north of Scotland. The pain with which the
homeless exiles saw the roofs which had sheltered them through life,
removed from the bare walls of their deserted habitations by the
merciless edict of irresistible power, has been retained in the memory
of the peasants of the north, and doubtless, the adventures of many of
the expatriated ones, after their entrance on the untried vicissitudes
of life in other lands are known, and held in interest by the children
of their kindred in the country whence they came.
It was from these evicted
peasants, whose abodes in Sutherlandshire Lord Selkirk had visited, that
he chiefly recruited what has been called "the first brigade"
of his Red River colonists. In the autumn of 1811 they reached the
shores of Hudson Bay, and wintered, in a season of exceptional severity,
at Churchill, one of the Company’s posts on the western coast, in
latitude 58°55" N. When the spring of 1812 opened, the emigrants
proceeded inland to their destination on the Red River, where they
arrived, after much suffering, only to be called on to face danger in
another form. Lord Selkirk had taken the precaution to submit the
validity of his title to the highest legal opinion in England, and it
was pronounced unimpeachable by Sir Samuel Romilly, Scarlett, Holroyd,
and other eminent counsel. [The opinion is given in full as Appendix A
in the "Statement respecting the Earl of Selkirk’s Settlement
upon the Red River, in North America," &c. London: John
Murray, 1817. For the loan of this work and others, as well as some
interesting MS. letters of Lord Selkirk and the Hudson Bay Macdonells,
the writer has to express his thanks to Wm. J. Macdonell, Esq., French
Consul at Toronto.] In accordance with his stipulations, his Lordship
ultimately concluded a treaty with the Chief and warriors of the
Chippeway or Saulteaux and Cree nations, by which the Indian
claims upon the settlement were extinguished. [The full text will be
found in Ross’s Red River Settlement, p. 10, and is noteworthy
because it probably formed the model for the compacts entered into, of
late years, with the Indians.] Mr. Ross states that the Saulteaux had no
claim there at all, being aliens and intruders, since the Crees and
Assiniboines "are and have been since the memory of man, the
rightful owners and inhabitants of this part of the country." Lord
Selkirk probably desired only to provide for the security of his colony,
and was prepared to make terms with all Indian claimants; still, the
jealousy of the Crees led to some disagreeable squabbles. The Highland
settlers, with some few Norwegians and French, who drop out of the story
thereafter, arrived at headquarters, the nucleus of the new settlement
on the Red River near its junction with the Assiniboine, in the summer
of 1812. This spot, which Lord Selkirk named Kildonan, in compliment to
the Sutherlandshire colonists, stands on the fiftieth parallel of north
latitude, and as will be seen immediately it at once became the centre
of a deadly struggle between the rival companies.
That the North-West
Company had valid grounds for suspecting mischief from the colonization
of the Red River district seems clear. Their factors and servants met
there face to face with those of the Hudson Bay Company, and the
interests of Lord Selkirk and the latter were undeniably identical. It
was therefore not unnatural that the Canadians should view with
apprehension the establishment of a settlement, supplied with means of
defence and claiming full control over a region stretching from Lakes
Winnipegoos, Winnipeg, and the smaller chain to the eastward, far beyond
what was afterwards settled to be the United States boundary line by the
Convention of 1818. They were thus shut out from the great prairies of
the west, and their hunters could only repair thither by sufferance.
Instead of isolated posts, forts, or factories, they were threatened
with an organized government, established, as they believed, for the
sole purpose of ruining their trade in furs. The statement of Lord
Selkirk that he had no end in view but the welfare of his countrymen and
of the Indians, and the permanent foundation of a British Province over
against the growing and aggressive Republic to the south, the North-West
Company regarded as a blind to conceal the insidious purpose which
really lay beneath. It was in vain that the Earl protested the purity of
his motives, pointed out the fact that the buffalo and most of the
fur-bearing animals had disappeared from the district, and displayed the
preparations he had made for bona fide settlement. [Lord Selkirk,
to his "Memorial to the Duke of Richmond, K.G., Governor General of
Canada," &c., bearing date October 1818, says, - "By the
terms of the conveyance, your memorialist was bound to settle a
specified number of families on the tract of land conveyed to him; and
your memorialist as well as all persons holding land under him were
debarred from interfering in the trade. Notwithstanding this
restriction, your memorialist was early apprized that any plan for
settling the country would be opposed with the most determined hostility
by the North-West Company of Montreal; and threats were held out by the
principal partners of that association in London, that they would excite
the native Indians to destroy the settlement." p. 3. For this
"memorial," printed in Montreal (1819), the writer is also
indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.J. Macdonell.] The North-West Company
at once repudiated the authority of Lord Selkirk and his Governor, Miles
Macdonell, formerly as Captain in the Queen’s Rangers, who came out in
charge of "the first brigade" of Highlanders. They denied that
the Hudson Bay Company had any jurisdiction in the Red River country, or
that if they had, their jurisdiction could be delegated to any
individual or corporation. As already mentioned, Lord Selkirk had taken
care to fortify himself with legal advice; to use his own words in the
"Memorial," he "had previously consulted several of the
most eminent counsel in London, who concurred in opinion that the title
was unquestionably valid; and he has good reason to believe that a
similar opinion has been expressed to his Majesty’s Government by the
Attorney and Solicitor-General of England." [It is proper to
observe, however, that the opinion of counsel did not extend to the
disputed questions of civil and criminal jurisdiction delegated to Lord
Selkirk; still they are virtually covered by the right of the Company to
appoint officers for the purpose, and Mr. Miles Macdonell received his
appointment from the Hudson Bay authorities directly, and was therefore
legally the Governor of Assiniboia. See the "statement" before
quoted p. 2. Ross’s Red River Settlement, p. 25. Hargraves Red
River, p. 74.] Acting on the assurances thus given of his authority,
Lord Selkirk, in order to be on the safe side, named Mr. Miles Macdonell
the Company’s Governor in the district as superintendent of the
settlement. Obviously, therefore; whatever constituted governmental
authority there was in Assinoboia vested in him, and commanded obedience
until the Charter of the Hudson Bay Company was pronounced invalid by
due process of law. Certainly the North-West Company had no claims to
any jurisdiction, civil or criminal, either by charter or statute. It
was simply a voluntary association of merchants—a co-partnership with
nothing to back it but the capital, energy and enterprise of its
members. [Sir Alexander Mackenzie, himself a North-Wester, frankly
writes in his General Biography of the Fur Trade (p. xx.): -
"It assumed the title of the North-West Company, and was no more
than an association of commercial men, agreeing among themselves to
carry on the fur trade, unconnected with any other business, though many
of the partners engaged, had extensive concerns altogether foreign to
it."] It would therefore seem to have been the duty of its
proprietors and servants to bow at once to any regularly constituted
executive which had a prima facia claim to authority under the
crown.
But it was exactly here
that the North-West Company was met with an embarrassing selection
between two alternatives. If the civil and military authority of the
Hudson Bay Company and its agents, and grantees were admitted even for a
season, all the mischief they had to fear might be wrought. The great
objection entertained by the Canadian fur-traders was not so much to the
legal status of the colony as to its formation in any shape,
particularly under the auspices of the Hudson Bay Company. According to
the "Statement," published on Lord Selkirk’s side (pp.
7-10), the proprietory of the North-West Company protested against any
attempt at colonization, first on the sentimental ground that the
settlers would be placed "out of the reach of all those aids and
comforts which are derived from civil society, and secondly, because
colonization is at all times unfavourable to the fur-trade." The
pamphlets published by the North-West Company appear to admit that this
second objection was after all, the one which influenced them. In the "Narrative
of Transactions in the Red River Country," written by Mr.
Alexander Macdonell, and published in 1819, although reference is made
to Lord Selkirk’s "real, though concealed purpose to transfer to
himself, on the premeditated ruin of the North-West Company, the
monopoly of their trade," stress is laid upon the incompatibility
of agricultural settlement with fur-trading. Mr. Miles Macdonell’s
descriptions of the sufferings of the party that landed at Churchill in
1811, are enlarged upon, and the hope expressed that people will, in
future, be deterred "from completing the measure of human misery,
by embarking in this wretched and hopeless (!) speculation of Lord
Selkirk’s." But the only serious objection to the settlement is
very plainly set forth in these words—where the writer is speaking of
a Royal Proclamation of fifty years before—"a Proclamation issued
under the full conviction of the evils which must always attend any
attempt to reconcile the interests of the agriculturist with the
feelings and jealousies of the Indian Hunters. These must retire from
the country, which it is necessary should be occupied by the
farmer; and it will be sufficient time (i.e. when Lord Selkirk’s title
should be adjudicated upon) to entertain the question of policy. How far
it may be desirable to force agricultural establishments in the Indian
country, west of Lake Superior, when the wild, unproductive lands of
Upper Canada, are cultivated and settled?" [Preface, pp.
xxiii. Xix. This volume with other documents relating to these troubles
as well as some valuable additional information in MSS., have been
kindly lent to the writer by Messrs. Allan and Alexander Macdonell,
Esqrs., near relatives of the North-West proprietor who wrote the
"Narrative."] It is scarcely necessary to point out more
directly the answers of the North-West proprietary; at worst they
only did what the earlier monopoly strove earnestly to effect during the
major part of the century—keep out the settler, retard the march of
British civilization, and maintain, in all its primaeval wildness, their
vast game-preserve in the North-West.
It must be remembered in
justice to the North-West Company, that its trade had been built up in
the face of determined opposition from the Hudson Bay Company, and that,
at every step of their progress, the Montreal traders had been dogged
and obstructed by the jealousy of their rivals. Although it was no doubt
true, as Mr. Alexander Macdonell avers, that in 1809, all was peace at
the points where the outposts of the companies met, there was far from
being any cordial friendship, and there had previously been some seasons
of bitter contention. Lord Selkirk’s advent did not altogether come
like a peal of thunder from an azure sky. But it unquestionably gave
definite point to the conflict, and brought the trade struggle to a
rugged crisis. A glance at the map prefixed to the "Narrative"
already quoted, will give some idea of the awkward and threatening
predicament in which the proprietors of the North-West Company found
themselves suddenly placed by the arrival of the settlers. Throughout
the entire region conveyed to Lord Selkirk in the Hudson Bay territory,
the Montreal association had established posts already upon every river
and lake. Commencing at its N.W. angle in Lat. 52° N., and above it
from Swan Lake to Red River, on the Swan, Qu’Appelle, Souris, and
Assiniboine Rivers, they had a chain of not less than a dozen posts;
there was Fort Dauphin, the old French station on the lake of that name;
at the N.E. angle of the Selkirk tract, the Company had two forts on
each side of Lake Winnipeg; the entire country from Fort William by the
Rainy Lake and the Lake of the Woods was in its hands, and so was the
whole course of the Red River from the frontier to its mouth. The Hudson
Bay Company held only one fort of any importance, Fort Douglas, situated
within a short distance of the North-West Company’s post of Fort
Gibraltar, at the Forks, i.e. at the confluence of the Red and
Assiniboine Rivers, where the city of Winnipeg now stands. In short, the
whole region thus made over to an individual by a parchment deed had for
more than a quarter of a century been the field in which the enterprise
of the Scots of Montreal had been displayed and from which its reward
had been garnered in; and, therefore, it was not at all astonishing that
they should resent the intrusion of the strangers, and resolve to expel
them, if possible, from a territory they had come to consider as their
own, by possession and prescription. It was not in the nature of man,
especially of that sturdy, energetic and. high-spirited type of humanity
which had scoured the western wilds, with true Scottish enterprise to
the Arctic and the Pacific, to submit to what they regarded, justly or
unjustly, as a conspiracy against their rights and privileges.
On the other hand, there
is not the slightest ground for crediting the allegations made in
hot-blood against the honour and veracity of Lord Selkirk. Upon a calm
review, of the story as told on each side, it seems impossible to
hold the Earl guilty of any worse offence than that of too great
eagerness in prematurely pressing forward an enterprise purely honest
and philanthropic, so far as he was concerned. [See an admirable summing
up of the case for and against his Lordship in Ross’s Red River
Settlement, pp. 16-20.] His sympathy with the woes of the
Highlanders was, beyond all question, deep, hearty and sincere, and it
must have been no ordinary love of his fellows which induced him, to
take his faithful and affectionate wife from the comforts of home
civilization, and travel along with her to the far-distant prairies of
the west, solely to be with his poorer countrymen to advise them, to
stimulate, to admonish, and to encourage. All his writings, public and
private, breathe the same spirit of broad humanity and brotherly
kindness; and so far as appears, although he was too high-spirited to
submit to insult, he was not implacable in his resentments. When his
task was at length accomplished, he only retired, whilst yet in his
prime, to yield up his life under a milder sky. He died at Pau, in the
south of France, aged forty-six, in the year 1820. [In a letter, dated
from Montreal, Dec. 1st, 1815, lent to the writer by Mr. W.J.
Madconell, his Lordship gives ample proof both of his shrewd
intelligence in choosing his settlers, and his willingness to share all
their hardships and dangers. A sentence or two must suffice: - "I
propose early next spring to go up with these people myself, which may
serve as an answer to any one who apprehends danger from the Indians; I
think these men will be satisfied when they know that they will be
exposed to no danger, but such as I must share with them." MS.
Letter addressed to Mr. Wm. Johnson Macdonell.] To this slight view
of the Earl’s character, may be added the fact that, so early as 1803,
his Lordship figured as a promoter of Highland colonization. In that
year, "he carried over to Prince Edward Island an important colony
of 800 Highlanders. He made the necessary arrangements with so much
judgment that the settlers soon; became very prosperous, and with the
friends who have since joined them, now (1840) amount to upwards of
4,000." [An Historical and Descriptive account of British
America, by Hugh Murray, F.R.S.E. (American Edition, 1855), vol ii.
p. 95.]
It is somewhat difficult
to disentangle the truth from the contradictory accounts given by the
rival interests of the struggle which ensued after the landing of Lord
Selkirk’s settlers. It may be remarked here that most of the modern
writers on Red River history take part with his Lordship, and therefore,
it may be as well to give their version of the story first. Mr. Miles
Macdonell, Governor of Assiniboia, arrived, as already stated, at the
Forks, in 1812, with his "first brigade," and they were at
once met by unmistakable signs of hostility. How far these menaces were
carried, or who the parties were that threatened the settlers, is not
very clear. Ballantyne states that the Indians were friendly; Hargrave
alleges that they were hostile; and Ross seems to be of opinion that
many of them were disguised servants of the North-West Company. [Ballantyne:
Hudson’s Bay, p. 99. Hargrave: Red River, p. 74. Ross: Red
River Settlement, p. 21. From the last-mentioned author the
following may be quoted: "But a few hours had passed over their
heads in the land of their adoption when an array of armed men, of
grotesque mould, painted, disfigured, and dressed in the savage costume
of the country, warned them that they were unwelcome visitors. These
created warriors, for the most part, were employees of the North-West
Company, and as their peremptory mandate to depart was soon aggravated
by the fear of perishing, through want of food, it was resolved to seek
refuge at Peebles, seventy miles distant, whither a straggling party,
whom they first took to be Indians, promised to conduct them. Lord
Selkirk, in his "Memorial" to the Duke of Richmond (p. 4) does
not hesitate to affirm that these troubles were caused by the North-West
Company, who succeeded in an attempt "to excite the jealousy of the
Indians."] Well-nigh overcome with fatigue and starvation, they
consented to accept their enemies as a convoy, and to remove to Pembina.
Some, childish practical jokes were played upon them en route, but
no real harm done, and they reached Pembina in safety. Here the new
settlers lived in huts or tents during the winter, their food being the
product of the chase. The Indians proved friendly, and when, in May
1813, the settlers again set out for the colony, they left their red
friends with regret, convinced that they would not be hostile to white
strangers, if left to themselves. In 1813, the Kildonan settlement
contained one hundred persons. In June, 1814, fifty more arrived, and in
the following September, they amounted to two hundred. From the
commencement of the winter of 1814-15 the colony was unmolested; the
Indians became friendly, but the Métis, Bois Brules, or French
half-breeds, were sullen and disobliging. According to the
"Statement" already quoted, attempts had been made during all
this time "to instigate the natives against the settlers," but
as that plan did not succeed, more incisive measures were adopted. The
growth of the settlement, and the anticipated arrival of eighty or
ninety additional emigrants from the Highlands precipitated matters. In
the summer of 1814, an annual meeting was held of the North-West Company’s
partners at Fort William, at which it was resolved to destroy the
Selkirk settlement, Messrs. Duncan Cameron and Alexander Macdonell being
specially detailed to put the scheme in execution. [The following
letter, written by Mr. Alex. Macdonell to a gentleman in Montreal, is
quoted in the "Statement" p. 11: - "You see myself and
our mutual friend, Mr. Cameron, so far on our way to commence open
hostilities against the enemy in Red River. Much is expected from us, if
we believe some – perhaps too much. One thing is certain, that we will
do our best to defend what we consider to be our rights in the interior.
Something serious will undoubtedly take place. Nothing but the complete
downfall of the colony will satisfy some, by fair or foul means – a
most desirable end if it can be accomplished. So here is at them with
all my heart and energy." Mr. Alex. Macdonell’s version of the
whole affair will be given presently.] They arrived in due time at the
Forks, and es tablished themselves at Fort Gibraltar, which was the
North-West Company’s post there. Mr. Cameron is represented as the
active spirit in the movement—as ingratiating himself with the
Highlanders, talking Gaelic with them, and exciting their apprehensions
by false stories of Indian hostility. He is also charged with calling
himself a captain in the Voyageur Corps which had been disbanded two
years before. The proposition was made on behalf of the North-West
Company, to give the settlers a free passage to Canada (generally to
Montreal), a twelvemonths’ provisions gratis for themselves and their
families, an allotment of two hundred acres of land, and every other
encouragement they could hope for. [Statement, p. 16. Lord
Selkirk’s Memorial, p. 5.] This strategy proved, to a
considerable extent, successful, but the colony still remained, although
depleted in population. Lord Selkirk had provided some small pieces of
artillery and other arms, in case of attack, and the first step was to
obtain possession of these. Accordingly Mr. Cameron sent a peremptory
missive ordering them as "Captain, Voyageur Corps," to be
surrendered. [This missive, addressed to Mr. Archibald Macdonald, acting
in the absence of Mr. Miles Macdonell, ran thus: "As your
field-pieces have already been employed to disturb the peace of His
Majesty’s loyal subjects in this quarter, and even to stop up the King’s
highway, I have authorized the settlers to take possession of them, and
to bring them over here, not with a view to make any hostile use of
them, but merely to put them out of harm’s way. Therefore, I expect
that you will not be so wanting to yourself as to attempt any unclean
resistance, as no one wishes to do you or any of your people any
harm." Statement, p. 19.] Failing this, an armed party,
which had been lying in ambush, rushed into the Governor’s House,
whilst the fortnightly allowance of provisions was being served out,
seized the guns, and carried them off in triumph to the North-West
depôt. This was the signal for open rupture between the settlers who
had resolved to remain, and those who had closed with the offers
of the North-West Company, and the latter went off with the Government
muskets, the arms Lord Selkirk had provided, and his implements of
husbandry At this time Mr. Miles Macdonell returned, and was met by a
warrant issued on the information of one of the partners of the Company,
Mr. Norman McLeod, charging him with feloniously taking a quantity of
provisions, the Company’s property. The Governor refused to
acknowledge its validity, and events began to assume a serious turn. Mr.
Alexander Macdonell brought down a number of Cree Indians, and these,
with the half-breeds and North-West servants, prepared an attack. Most
of the settlers abandoned the colony and formed a camp down the river.
On Sunday, June 11th (Statement, p. 25), muskets were served out
of the stores to the Company’s servants, and soon after the force
fired from a neighbburing wood, upon passers-by. The surrender of Mr.
Miles Macdonell was demanded, and he, to save the effusion of blood,
voluntarily surrendered, and was carried off to Montreal to be tried,
although no trial ever took place. Finally, towards the end of June,
1815, the colony was completely broken up, and the remaining settlers
escorted by friendly Indians to a trading-post of the Hudson Bay Company
at the other end of Lake Winnipeg. On the following day the North-West
Company’s servants "fired the houses, the mill and other
buildings, and burned them to the ground." A large portion of the
"Statement" is taken up with evidence that, although the
Company attempted to throw the blame of this raid exclusively upon the
Indians, it was planned, executed, and afterwards applauded, and its
chief agents rewarded by them. To this statement of the Red River case
may be added a few additional points urged by Mr. Ross. [Red River
Settlement, pp. 24-29.] He alleges that the ire of the North-West
Company was excited by a proclamation, issued by Governor Miles
Macdonell in 1814, which forbade the appropriation of provisions of all
sorts for any use but that of the colonists. This, it is urged, was
necessary as a precaution against famine, and was provoked by the
treatment the emigrants had received at Churchill. From that moment,
pillage and violence were the order of the day on both sides;
"provisions were taken and retaken," and affairs went from bad
to worse, until the struggle culminated in the destruction of the infant
colony after a series of encounters in which several persons were
wounded, Mr. Warren killed, and Governor Macdonell made prisoner.
It is now time to turn to
the other side of the story, as it is detailed by Mr. Alexander
Macdonell in his "Narrative." He asserts that Lord Selkirk and
his coadjutors were from the first hostile to the North-West company,
and fellow conspirators, with the Hudson Bay Company against it. So far
from its being true that he and his fellow-partners were unkind to the
settlers, Mr. Macdonell says that he pitied the poor people who had
passed such a severe season of cold and want, and supplied them with
provisions from the stores. He declares that Mr. Miles Macdonell was not
satisfied with what he saw at the Forks, and that he voluntarily made
choice of Pembina as his head-quarters; that he assisted his namesake
with advice as to the erection of buildings; and frequently supplied his
people with provisions from the stores. He affirms further, that,
so far from inciting the Indians, who were enraged at what they
considered the intrusion of the settlers, he endeavoured to appease
them. The movement to Pembina Mr. Macdonell represents as a necessity,
however the colonists found it impossible to subsist at the Forks. He
charges Mr. Miles Macdonell with trading, though one François Delorme,
in peltries with the natives, "contrary to his own repeated and
voluntary professions of not interfering with the Fur Trade. [To this
the author adds: "I mention this circumstance, not because we had
any right to object to Lord Selkirk’s agents carrying on the fur trade
although they might have abstained from opposing us at the particular
place and moment when we were straining every nerve to feed, protect and
support the wretched emigrants who had been deluded by the falsehoods
published in Great Britain, to leave their homes on this desperate
undertaking, but because I have heard it stated that his Lordship views
were completely and entirely unconnected with objects of trade; whereas
they have always appeared to us in the country, from the measures
adopted since his Lordship’s connection with the Hudson Bay Company,
as the principal inducement that led to that connection. – Narrative,
&c. pp. 11,12.]
Mr. Miles Macdonell is
there accused of base ingratitude. So soon as the winter was at an end,
the Governor is represented as trying to pick a quarrel with the
company, because he knew they were embroiled with the Americans, and
also because he thought he could now be independent of their assistance.
After the removal from the Forks in May, both Mr. Alexander Macdonell
and the Hon. William McGillivray continued to aid the colonists in every
way. In 1814, news having arrived of the capture of the British fleet on
Lake Erie in September of the previous year, Mr. Miles Macdonell,
according to the "Narrative," aimed a deadly blow at the
Company by the proclamation already mentioned. The traders were alarmed
at the prospect of being cut off from Canada by the Americans, and this
step on the part of the Governor increased their embarrassment. At the
same time he is charged with seducing some of the North-West clicks,
notably one Aulay McAulay, who told the men under him the Governor was
appointed by a great lord, and that if he ordered it, the settlers had a
right to demand the Company’s provisions. There were spies in every
fort, and the Governor is charged with the design of seizing all the
Company’s stores and provisions. He is charged further with planting
his cannon on the river, with a view of intercepting and plundering two
bateaux laden with provisions. Not content with that he obstructed the
highroad, took as prisoners Canadian hunters and half-breeds quietly
pursuing their ordinary avocations. And so on runs the
"Narrative" of Mr. Alexander Macdonell over a long list of
grievances and outrages it is not necessary to give in detail.
The dispersion of the
Colony in 1815, the author of the brochure lays entirely at the
door of the Governor. He affirms that on the 10th of June—and this was
only the last of many similar unprovoked attacks—a party of
Half-breeds returning to their camp were assailed wantonly by the
colonists and Hudson Bay Company’s servants. They replied by firing a
volley, and were only kept from perpetrating a general massacre, by Mr.
Alexander Macdonell’s expostulations. He solemnly denies that either
he or Mr. Donald Cameron had anything to do with the attack. He admits
that some of Mr. Cameron’s men dug a closer ditch round the
settlement; but that was only to protect those detailed to serve the
warrant on Mr. Miles Macdonell, from the fire of the colonists. His
conclusion, so far as the affair of 1815 is concerned, seems to be
briefly condensed in one paragraph (p. 39):—"The burning of some
buildings afterwards, and the dispersion of the few settlers who
remained, were entirely the acts of the injured and irritated
Half-breeds, who now considered the colony as hostile to their
tranquillity."
To return now to the
statement issued by the Selkirk party. So soon as quiet was restored,
the settlers who had removed to Lake Winnipeg, with a dogged persistence
characteristic of their race, made their way back to their lands and
made preparations for re-establishing the colony. During the previous
year vague rumours had reached Lord Selkirk of impending danger to the
settlement from the Indians. He immediately set out to support the
settlers by his presence, and had reached New York, when he received
intelligence of "the dispersion of the colonists and the
destruction of the settlement." On his Lordship’s arrival at
Montreal, he ascertained that the Indians had not been at the bottom of
the troubles; he found that those settlers who had confided in the
promises of the North-West Company had been deceived; and learning that
the other settlers had returned to Kildonan, he despatched a letter
promising his presence and assistance. His messenger, however, was
waylaid and robbed of his papers. The Earl’s next step was to
endeavour to procure from Sir Gordon Drummond, the Administrator of the
Government of Canada from 1811 to 1816, a small military force for the
protection of the colony, but without success. In the spring of 1816,
affairs having again assumed a threatening aspect, a second application
was made with no better result. [A lengthy correspondence took place
between the Earl and his Excellency which will be found in the Statement,
pp. 53-57.] The Administrator appears to have thought, probably with
justice, that there had been faults on both sides, and he was backed by
Lord Bathurst, the Colonial Secretary, in refusing to interpose. Lord
Selkirk protested that the outrages had not been "mutual," as
had been alleged, "but all on one side," and urged upon the
authorities the imminent danger there was of bloodshed; but in vain. Sir
Gordon Drummond disbelieved the Earl’s version of the story, made
light of his apprehensions, and plainly took the Company’s part. [In a
letter to the Montreal partners, his Secretary, Col. Harvey was
instructed to say that his queries had been "answered in such a way
by Mr. McGillivrary in such a manner as would have removed from his
Excellency’s mind all traces of any impression unfavourable to the
honourable character, and liberal principles of the North-West Company,
had any such impression existed," pp. 55,56. The Hon. Mr.
MdGillivray was at this time a member of the Lower Canada Executive
Council – a sworn adviser of Sir Gordon, and in his confidence.]
The indefatigable founder
of Red River settlement being thus thrown upon his own resources, at
once began to collect an efficient band of settlers, with a view, at the
same time, "of materially adding to its strength and
security," he en-listed in its service, and supplied with arms,
about a hundred disbanded officers and soldiers who had served in the
American war. He had only reached the Sault Ste. Marie with his men,
when his advance party fell back with the intelligence that a massacre
had taken place, and that the settlement was, for the second time,
broken up. Under the protection of the Hudson Bay Company, the settlers
had been brought back a distance of three hundred miles from the north
end of Lake Winnipeg to Kildonan. At this juncture a fresh body of
Highlanders arrived by way of Hudson Bay, and, as Mr. Ross remarks, [Red
River Settlement, p. 32.] "gloomy and portentous was the
prospect before them. The smoky ruins, the ashes scarcely yet cold, were
all that remained to mark the progress of their unfortunate
predecessors, and from the general appearance of things around them,
they had but little reason to expect a better fate." The arrival of
this new batch of immigrants, as well as the return of the old settlers,
naturally re-kindled the strife of the former year. The colonists were
allowed no rest; in place of quietly settling upon the lands allotted,
they were harassed and driven to Pembina, to prairie lands on the
Missouri, or to the shores of the great lakes. Still a remnant clung,
with desperate pertinacity to the Red River, and it seemed necessary to
take strong measures to dislodge them. If the "statement" is
to be believed, the complicity of the North-West proprietors and
servants in these untoward events is clear. [The following passage in a
letter written by Mr. Alex. Macdonald from river Qu’Appelle to Mr.
Duncan Cameron at the Forks in quoted; it bears date 13th of
March, 1816: "I remark with pleasure the hostile proceedings of our
neighbours, I say pleasure, because the more they do, the more justice
we will have on our side. A storm is gathering in the North ready to
burst on the rascals who deserve it; little do they know their
situation. Last year was but a joke. The nation under their leaders are
coming forward to clear their native soil of intruders and assassins.
Glorious news from Athabasca," p. 71. The "glorious news"
was an unfounded rumour that a band of Hudson Bay Company’s traders in
Athabasca, had almost perished from starvation, and had been compelled
to resort to cannibalism. p. 72.] In spite of all their protestations to
the contrary, it is quite evident that all the dependents of this
Company rejoiced at the assembling of the Bois Brules, and that
some of them instigated it. One clerk, Cuthbert Grant, himself a
Half-breed, wrote, "The Half-breeds of Fort des Prairies and
English River are all to be here in the spring, it is to be hoped we
shall come off with flying colours, and never see any of them again in
the Colonizing way at Red River" (p. 73). The affidavits of
Painbrun and Blondeau (Append. p. xxxiii. and xliv.), if they are not
rank perjury, distinctly fasten the charge of collecting the Half-breeds
upon Alexander Macdonell, Norman McLeod, Alexander Mackenzie, John
Duncan Campbell, and John Macdonald of the North-West Company. The first
named on the other hand, pronounces these affidavits absolutely false
and accuses Lord Selkirk of being guilty of subornation of
perjury.
Governor Semple, of the
Hudson Bay Company, arrived at Red River in the spring of 1816. In
April, he sent Mr. Pambrun to the Hudson Bay post on the Qu’Appelle;
when he arrived, he found the "Brulés" collected in force at
the adjacent fort of the North-West Company. On the 12th of May, whilst
proceeding down the river with a large quantity of furs and pemican, the
property was seized and the crews made prisoners, as Pambrun affirms, by
the order of Mr. Alex. .Macdonell—an order which he did not hesitate
to avow. The same party, reinforced by others, in all about seventy, set
out to attack Red River; and on the 20th of June a messenger came in
from its leader, Cuthbert Grant, "who reported that his party had
killed Governor Semple with five of his officers, and sixteen of his
people; upon which Macdonell, Seraphim Lamar, and all the other office
shouted with joy." [The writer of the "Statement" (p. 79)
goes on to say: "Macdonell then went to the rest of the men who had
remained with him, and announced to them the news in language (as sworn
to by Mr. Pambrun) which we will not attempt to translate: "Sacre
nom de Dieu! Bonnes nouvelles! Vingt-deux Anglois de tues!" –
"Good news, twenty-two English killed."] The unfortunate
Governor was on the point of returning from Red River to York Factory
when he met his death. He had received information of the intended
assault from two Cree Indians who had escaped from the attacking party,
and took some precautions against a surprise. On the 19th of June,
according to Mr. Pritchard, who escaped, tidings were brought of the
approach of the half-breeds. The Governor presuming, naturally, that
they were about to attack the settlement, said, "We must go out and
meet these people; let twenty men follow me." Finding the
half-breeds more numerous than he had supposed them to be, he ordered
out a field-piece. The enemy on horseback, had their "faces painted
in the most hideous manner, and in the dresses of Indian warriors, they
came forward and surrounded us in the form of a half-moon."
[Pritchard’s testimony in the "Statement," p. 82.
83.] Both parties were now on what was known as Frog Plain, between Fort
Douglas and Kildonan. Governor Semple called out, "What do you
want?" The answer was, "We want our fort!" to which the
Governor rejoined, "Go to your fort." Both Boucher, the
half-breed spokesman, and Mr. Semple were close together by this time,
and Pritchard failed to catch what followed. The Governor, however, laid
his hand on Boucher’s arm, and immediately shots were fired on both
sides, though which began the murderous work seems indeterminable.
"With the exception of myself," says Pritchard, "no
quarter was given to any of us. The knife, axe or ball, put a period to
the existence of the wounded; and on the bodies of the dead were
practised all those horrible barbarities which characterize the inhuman
heart of the savage. The amiable and mild Mr. Semple, lying on his side
(his thigh was broken), and supporting his head upon his hand" (p.
84), asked Mr. Cuthbert Grant to try and get him to the fort, as he was
not mortally wounded. The unfortunate gentleman was left in charge of a
Canadian, who afterwards told how an Indian came up and shot the
Governor through the breast. Out of a band of twenty-eight, twenty-one
were killed and one wounded. It is unnecessary to attempt an analysis of
the trials which subsequently took place at York, now Toronto, in
October and November, 1818. Paul Brown and F. F. Boucher were indicted
for murder, John Siveright, Alexander Mackenzie, Hugh McGillis, John
Macdonald, John McLaughlin, and Simon Fraser as accessories, and, John
Cooper and Hugh Bannerman for stealing field-pieces, the property of the
Earl of Selkirk. All the prisoners were acquitted by the juries which
tried their respective cases. Finally, at a Court of Oyer and Terminer
held at Quebec, by Chief Justice Sewell, on the 26th October, 1819,
appointed for the investigation of cases from the Indian
Territories," Arch. McLeod, Simon Fraser, James Leith, Alex.
Macdonell, Hugh McGillis, Arch. McLellan, and John Siveright, of the
North-West Company, "who were under accusation by the Earl of
Selkirk, as private prosecutor, for great crimes and offences"
appeared and demanded a trial, "which they could not obtain because
the private prosecutor was not ready." [Report of the
Proceedings, &c., from minutes taken in Court. Montreal, 1819.]
Mr. Alexander Macdonell,
in his Narrative, points triumphantly to the result of the York
trials, and urges the prompt acquittal of all the prisoners as strong
proof that the Company and its servants were not to blame. These
proceedings were certainly conducted with great patience and the
strictest regard to justice, and the juries could hardly have come to
any other verdicts considering the mass of conflicting evidence laid
before them. Only one thing seems certain, amidst a maze of bewildering
uncertainty, and that is that the French half-breeds, at all events, had
very little regard for the sanctity of an oath. There was a great deal
of false swearing, doubtless, on both sides; and an impartial reader can
hardly fail to come to the conclusion that both sides were grievously in
the wrong from the first. A large number of exceedingly arbitrary acts
are charged against Mr. Miles Macdonell and his party in the Narrative,
and their mode of administering such governmental and judicial
powers as they claimed to possess was, beyond question, harsh and
arbitrary at times. Still the apology offered in the Preface of the Narrative
is, to some extent, serviceable for the one party as well as the
other. With regard to the closing scene, Mr. Alexander Macdonell stoutly
denies the party encountered so unhappily by Governor Semple had any
hostile design. He states Cuthbert Grant’s party of half-breeds were
detailed by him to convey provisions to a point twelve miles or more
below the Colony (p. 75). His instructions were to proceed down Red
River to Passage, a place nine or ten miles above the settlement, to
secrete the canoes, load the carts with the provisions, and proceed by
land to their destination. They were to behave "in an orderly and
peaceful manner, avoiding if possible, being discovered or seen by the
Hudson Bay people and settlers; to keep at as great a distance as
possible from Forts Gibraltar and Douglas; to avoid the settlement in
like manner, and upon no account to molest any of the settlers" (p.
76). Mr Macdonell affirms, and points to the evidence on the trials in
proof, that his injunctions were strictly obeyed by Grant and the party,
and the detour they actually made is indicated on a map of the
district. He maintains that the unhappy events of the 19th of June were
occasioned by an unprovoked and unlooked for attack upon Cuthbert Grant
and his people by Mr. Semple and his followers. He adds that "His
Majesty’s Commissioner, who lately visited Red River, has ascertained
by his inquiries and examinations, who were the aggressors and
assailants on that deplorable occasion." [Mr. Alex. Macdonell,
without directly noticing the charge advanced by Mr. Pambrun against
himself personally (Statement, p. 79) quoted in a previous note,
admits that an exclamation of surprise something like that alleged may
have been uttered, but it must have been one of surprise, not of
exultation (Narrative, p. 78). The "bonnes nouvelles,"
good news however, drop out; and singularly enough, Mr. Macdonell says
nothing about the letters alleged to have been written before the
conflict.] It would be useless as well as unprofitable, to attempt to
reconcile these conflicting accounts or strike a balance between them.
Mr. Ross states that, "in the country where the murders took place,
there has never been a shadow of doubt, but rather a full and clear
knowledge of the fact that the North-West Company did unquestionably
fire the first shot, and almost all the shots that were fired,"
[Red River Settlement, pp. 36, 37.] but that is, after all, a question
of comparatively little importance. Both parties were no doubt excited
beyond control, and the fatal issue was not foreseen or even desired by
either of them. Governor Semple’s advance, with so small a force, was
certainly imprudent, although it serves to show that he never conceived
the sanguinary design attributed to him. The North-West Company were
unquestionably hostile to the colony, and that for reasons solid and
substantial enough, apart from the notion that settlement was merely a
mask to cover rivalry in the fur-trade. Colonization and the fur-trade,
as the partner saw plainly, could not co-exist in the same region, and
the North-Westers only inaugurated the policy afterwards adopted by the
Hudson Bay Company all over the North-West. Moreover, some
natural jealousy was excited at seeing an organized government, the
title of which was disputed, set up under the auspices of the rival
monopoly in territory which the North-West Company had hitherto regarded
as peculiarly their own. It would appear that the rule of the first
Governor was not of a mild and conciliating type, and that, on both
sides, there was an amount of irritability and an uncomprising temper
which boded ill for the peace and prosperity of the country. Causes of
quarrel naturally arose day after day; charges and recriminations were
exchanged; then followed arbitrary arrests, the seizure of property, and
the obstruction of business and travel, until the climax was, reached in
the lamentable catastrophe of June, 1816. It would not be just to scan
too closely, or gauge by too rigid a standard the moral character of the
agents in these turbulent scenes. Removed far from the comforts, as well
as the discipline of civilized life, both the trader and the colonist
are entitled to indulgent consideration. The toil, suffering and
hardship which made their daily lot, were stern tutors in whose
curriculum the milder arts of civilization found no place. In daily
contact with savages, and the hardly less untrustworthy half-breeds, it
was inevitable that they should be affected by the rough and unruly
freedom of their environment. Between the parties, there was probably
not much to choose; the burden of responsibility for the unhappy
struggle of these early years can not be adjusted by the men of to-day,
and they may be well content to forget the errors of those early
pioneers in admiration for the invincible energy and perseverance which
distinguished those hardy Scots on both sides, and secured for the
Empire that broad and priceless Dominion which stretches from sea to
sea.
It only remains to gather
the threads of the narrative up to the final pacification. The
commissioner whose report is appealed to so triumphantly by Mr. Alex.
Macdonell, was the Hon. Wm. B. Coltman, who like Mr. McGillivray, the
North-West partner, was a member of the Executive Council of Lower
Canada. [Major Fletcher, Police Magistrate and Chairman of Quarter
Sessions at Quebec, was also of the Commission; but he either did not go
up to the North-West, or was a cipher. All the references in Lord
Selkirk’s Memorial are to Coltman, and, as already seen, Mr. Alex.
Macdonell speaks of "one Commissioner only."] A report from
that source could be regarded as satisfactory by the colonists, and it
is not surprising to find in the ‘Memorial’ by Lord Selkirk,
some severe strictures upon "His Majesty’s Commissioner." He
is charged with starting the theory that the acts of the half-breeds
were only "venial irregularities," and not "robberies,
felonies and murders, in the usual acceptation of these words." [Memorial,
pp. 62-68.] It was not antecedently probable that a colleague of Mr.
McGillivray who was himself concerned on one side should find sufficient
evidence to lay blame upon the other side; but his report is
necessarily less satisfactory on that account, and by no means entitled
to the weight Mr. Alex. Macdonell accords it.
Lord Selkirk had lost his
"mercenaries" at the Sault Ste. Marie; but after sending a
strong report of the massacre to Sir J. C. Sherbrooke, the Governor of
Lower Canada, he at once made his way to Red River. A calm,
comparativelv speaking, had succeeded the storm; but the affairs of the
colony were in a deplorable condition. The immigrants had been almost
constantly in a state of migration from the settlement to Pembina,
to the Missouri, or to Norway House, and other forts or factories of the
Hudson Bay Company and back again. His lordship, it seems, set himself
to the task of restoring order. He called a meeting of the people,
"on the west bank of Red River, some two miles below Fort Garry,
and in consideration of the losses, hardships, and misfortunes they had
from time to time suffered, he made them several concessions."
Those who had lost all received fresh grants of land and immediate
relief. Buildings were erected, including a mill, and an edifice which
served the double purpose of church and school-house. Roads, bridges,
&c., were settled, and seed-grain distributed to the necessitous.
Having thus started the colony, which had cost him so much in means, as
well as anxiety, once more on the path of progress, Lord Selkirk took
his final leave of it, and retired as we have seen to die in a foreign
land.
The settlers who had
crops upon their land met with the bounteous return which nature yields
in that fertile region; but, unfortunately, too little seed had been
sown, and, as winter approached, rather than consume all, and ruin their
prospects for the next year, many of the colonists again left for
Pembina to live by the chase. There they suffered hardship in another
shape, but they returned again to their old homes in the spring. The
year 1818 was an unfortunate one, in all respects. "Food was
scarce, their hitherto precarious dependence on fish, herbs and roots,
became hopeless, for all those failed; and their misfortunes were
crowned by an act of lawless violence on the part of the North-West
people, who forcibly carried off Mr. Sutherland to Canada. [Ross, p. 47.
Mr Sutherland had been ordained an Elder of the Presbyterian Church in
Scotland, and, in the absence of a settled pastor had been specially
licensed to celebrate marriages, administer the sacraments and officiate
at burials. His abduction, therefore, was not only an outrage, but a
very serious deprivation to the colony.] Still agriculture began to
progress henceforward. In July, 1818, however, just when the crops were
ripening to the harvest, a c1oud of grasshoppers appeared from the west,
darkening the air; in one night "crops, gardens, and every green
herb in the settlement had perished with the exception of a few ears of
barley, gleaned in the women’s aprons. This sudden and unexpected
disaster was more than they could bear. The unfortunate emigrants,
looking up towards heaven, wept." [Ibid. p. 48.] There was
nothing for it but to return with heavy hearts to Pembina and pass the
winter there as best they could. Early in the spring of 1819, the hardy
and persevering Scots left their families behind and returned to sow
their land. They had no seed save the scanty supply saved by the women.
Again their hopes were blasted, this time by the swarms produced from
the larva deposited in the previous year. By the latter end of June the
country was covered with them, for, "they were produced in masses
two, three, and, in some places near water, four inches deep; The water
was poisoned with them. Along the river they were to be found in heaps,
like sea-weeds, and might be shovelled with a spade. [Ibid. p.
49.]
Again the land was
desolated, and the settlers were forced to return to the precarious life
of Pembina. There they resolved to provide seed. Wheat in abundance at
all events and men were dispatched to Prairie du Chien on the
Mississippi to obtain it. They returned with 250 bushels, and, then,
making their way back in flat-boats to the colony; the settlers finally
found rest there in June, 1820. "From that day to this,"
writes Mr. Ross, in spite of the grasshoppers and other evils, Red River
has not been without seed for grain. The troubles of the colonists were
not yet over, but a sufficiently ample sketch of their trials and
struggles has been given to enable us to judge what the Scot can do, and
endure, and has effected in the heart of the American continent. Should
any one be disposed to make light of the dogged perseverance, the
exhaustless energy, the long-suffering patience and thrift of the Scot,
one has only to refer him to the history of Red River settlement.
Meanwhile the fur
companies went on in their ruinous career of competition and rivalry
until they had between them almost ruined the trade, and brought the
treasuries to bankruptcy. What with plots and counter-plots with the
Indians, the stirring up of the half-breeds to rapine and insolence, and
the constant overlapping of their operations, these corporations had
made the fur trade so precarious, that it had ceased to be profitable.
The Hudson Bay Company pointed to its charter, and stigmatized the
North-Westers as poachers, or at least interlopers upon their domain.
The Montreal Company on the other hand denied the validity of the
Charter, and pleaded that so far it had been virtually voided by
non-user. It may be observed that it had periodically been a matter of
dispute whether the granting of such a charter came within the Royal
Prerogative. The Company, at its inception, had evidently supposed that
it required parliamentary sanction, since an Act, which was never
renewed, had been passed, confirming Charles’ grant for seven years
and no longer. In 1749, a bold attempt was made in the House of Commons
to destroy the monopoly on the ground that the Company had failed to
attempt the discovery of a North-West passage, but the motion did not
prevail. [Hugh Murray: British America, Vol. III., p. 186.] Still
the North-West Company had certainly a right to dispute the validity of
so sweeping a grant, and the contest then began was continued down to
the purchase of the Company’s exclusive rights in 1870. Meanwhile,
everything was in a state of confusion and uncertainty, and both
Companies were almost on the verge of bankruptcy, when, by a lucky
inspiration, the plan of amalgamation was devised and put into execution
in 1821.
|
