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Title: The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia
   (formerly New Caledonia) [1660 to 1880]
Author: Morice, Adrien-Gabriel (1859-1938)
Date of first publication: 1904 (first edition)
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   Toronto: William Briggs, 1905 (third edition)
Date first posted: 15 September 2009
Date last updated: 15 September 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #384

This ebook was produced by:
Iona Vaughan, David T. Jones, Mark Akrigg
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net




[Illustration: Rev. A. G. Morice, O.M.I.]


_PRIMITIVE TRIBES AND PIONEER TRADERS_


THE HISTORY

OF THE

NORTHERN INTERIOR

OF

BRITISH COLUMBIA

_(FORMERLY NEW CALEDONIA)_

[1660 TO 1880]


BY

THE REV. A. G. MORICE, O.M.I.,

Honorary Member of the Philological Society of Paris, of the Natural History
Society of British Columbia, and of the Art, Historical and Scientific
Association of Vancouver; Member of the American Anthropological
Association; Corresponding Member of the Canadian
Institute, of the Historical and Scientific Society
of Manitoba, of the Geographical Society of Neufchatel
(Switzerland), and Member of the
Ethnological Committee Brit.
Ass. Adv. of Science.


_WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS_

THIRD EDITION

TORONTO

WILLIAM BRIGGS

1905


Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand nine hundred and four, by Adrian Gabriel Morice, at the
Department of Agriculture.




PREFACE.


The present volume is an enlargement of a paper the writer had
prepared on Aboriginal History, embodying facts which, on account of
the light they throw on the manners and customs of the natives in
pre-European times, he thought it well to preserve for posterity. As
he went on in his studies, he soon discovered that only a part of the
history of British Columbia had so far been written; that which is
most interesting and, from a certain point of view, most important,
has to this day never been presented to the public. Who knows, for
instance, that long before Victoria and New Westminster had been
called into existence, the province had been settled in a way, and had
possessed a regular capital--at Stuart Lake--whence a representative
of our own race ruled over reds and whites? Not one in a thousand
Canadians or even British Columbians. The record of these times and
ways of life which are irrevocably past has never been written, not to
say published, and the only author who has ever touched on some of the
events with which we will soon entertain the reader, Hubert Howe
Bancroft, is so irretrievably inaccurate in his remarks that his
treatment of the same might be considered well-nigh worthless. Nay,
two months have scarcely elapsed since there was issued in this city,
under the auspices of that same Hudson's Bay Company to which we shall
have so frequently to refer, a little pamphlet, in which we read that
"although McKenzie came west...in 1793, it was not until thirty years
later (or in 1823) that the first post was established in British
Columbia." What of the six most important forts which flourished long
before that date in the northern interior of the province, and whose
aggregate formed one of the most valuable districts under the
management of the fur-traders? Yet, if any set of individuals ought to
be familiar with the early history of British Columbia, it must surely
be the members of that trading corporation, whose immediate
predecessors discovered and kept under sway more than half of its
territory. _Ab uno disce omnes._

This apparently unaccountable ignorance shall be our excuse for
offering the present volume to the kind appreciation of Canadian and
other readers. The originality of the material of which it is mainly
composed and the novelty of the scenes it records have, in our humble
opinion, rendered it imperative that we should enter into details and
tarry on minor facts which, under other circumstances, might well have
been passed over with a brief mention. We have aimed at giving a
faithful picture of the times, persons and places of which we have
written. The reader will judge of the degree of success which our
efforts have met with.

It is hardly necessary to mention that none of the letters and other
manuscript documents we quote from was written with a view to meet the
critical eyes of modern readers. Therefore it is but fair to remark
that, out of consideration and regard for the proprieties of grammar
and orthography, we have occasionally taken slight liberties--though
as seldom as possible--with the recorded utterances of the Hudson's
Bay Company and other writers, while religiously conserving their
sense or meaning.

Had it not been for the courtesy of Mr. A. C. Murray, the gentleman in
charge of Fort St. James, on Stuart Lake, this little work could never
have been made what it is. For the generous access he gave us to all
the old papers, letters, journals, account books, and memoranda in
his keeping, we beg to return our sincerest thanks. The same is also
due to such gentlemen as the Hon. Senator R. W. Scott, Secretary of
State for Canada, who kindly put at our disposal a photograph of the
first British Columbian, Simon Fraser, whose portrait has hitherto
never appeared in print; to Messrs. R. E. Gosnell and E. Scholefield,
of Victoria, for the loan, by the former, of a volume of unpublished
letters by the pioneer traders and the blocks of some illustrations,
and for the readiness with which the latter laid open for our benefit
the well-guarded riches of the Legislative Library at the provincial
capital. Finally, the services of Archbishop Orth, of Victoria, call
likewise for public acknowledgment, as do also those of Messrs. A. P.
McInnes, of Alexandria; G. Hamilton, an old Hudson's Bay Company
officer; James Bain, D.C.L., the obliging Librarian of Toronto, and
last, though not least, Bernard McEvoy, the well-known poet and
journalist, who so kindly lent us his valued aid in seeing the work
through the press.

          Vancouver, B.C., February 12th, 1904.


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In deference to the wishes of not a few readers, the portrait of the
author accompanies this new edition. The very few important misprints
in the book have also been corrected and some slight additions made,
and it is hoped that these little improvements will merit therefor a
continuation, if not an increase, of the marked favor with which it
has been received by the reading public.

          November, 1904.




PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.


This should be considered an important year in the annals of British
Columbia. With the close of this summer, exactly a century will have
elapsed since the first permanent settlement within the limits of the
Province was established by a representative of our race in the
howling wilderness, where the nomadic Dn then reigned master of all
he surveyed. That auspicious circumstance has brought to our mind the
propriety of rendering this work, which records the origins of our
flourishing country, as complete and final in form as we could
possibly make it. With this end in view, it has undergone a thorough
overhauling, which has, however, resulted less in changes and
alterations than in useful additions. Besides occasionally noting some
further errors of previous writers--a step in which the kind reader
will see nothing but a hint at additional _raisons d'tre_ for the
book--we have added copious footnotes for the scholar and three
appendices intended to throw further light on as many points of
history, while a more detailed Index will, we imagine, meet with the
approbation of the student and even of the general reader.

This work did not appear before the middle of June, 1904; and the fact
that a third edition of it is needed within a year after its original
publication makes it a pleasant duty for the author to thank the
public in general, and the Canadian press in particular, for their
practical appreciation of its usefulness and the indulgence of their
judgment on its merits. May their kindness to book and author never
grow less!

          July, 1905.




CONTENTS.

Introduction.                                                          PAGE

_The Country and Its Aborigines._--Boundaries--Flora--Lakes and
streams--Fish and game--Various native tribes--Manners and
customs of the same--Their probable origin--Original seat of the
Babines                                                                    1

Chapter I.

_Earliest Historical Times._--Na[']kwoel and his iron axe--Lost
and found--Quick with his bow--His son killed by his wives--Prompt
retribution--A great patriarch--Chinlac and its sad fate--Spitted
through the ribs--A raid on the Chilcotins--Battling with spear
and armor--Why Khalhpan could not dance                                    9

Chapter II.

_Still Pre-European Times._--A new chieftain--A dishonorable
adventure--Stuart River massacre--K[']wah tries to avenge it--A
successful attack--Between "two fires"--Hostile reception of the
victors--K[']wah becomes a gambler--Blood pays for an insult--Firearms
first heard of--The Beavers oppress the Sekanais--The latter retaliate    20

Chapter III.

_Discovery by Alexander Mackenzie._--The fur-trade in the
east--Alexander Mackenzie--He crosses the Rockies--Liquor in great
demand-He ascends the Parsnip River--First intercourse with the
Carriers--Dread on both sides--An exciting episode--Panic and
discouragement--A blind man opens the eyes of the adventurers--All's
well that ends well                                                       33

Chapter IV.

_First Foundations._--Mackenzie turns litterateur--Simon Fraser--First
view of Stuart Lake--Fraser prepares his great expedition--Difficulties
from nature and from men--A well named river--The
Fraser--Ready, ye warriors!--Surprise and consternation--First
trading--Lake Stuart--Its aborigines--Errors of Bancroft and
others                                                                    50

Chapter V.

_Founding and Exploring._--Erecting a new fort--The pioneers
starve--And then complain of their abundance--Fraser Lake--A large
bill--Reinforcements --Fort George founded--Disagreeing authors all
in the wrong--Fraser's trip to the seacoast--"Awful and forbidding
appearance" of the river--Native ladders for a trail along an
abyss--The river not the Columbia--Bancroft unfair to Fraser             67

Chapter VI.

_Stuart and Harmon at Stuart Lake._--Stuart succeeds Simon
Fraser--Harmon comes to Stuart Lake--The first drunken orgy--[']Kwah is
chastised--Cremation of a Carrier--Harmon and McDougall go to
Babine--Received with a display of war clubs and axes--The very
first mail within British Columbia--Stuart's shortcomings--Massacres
and murders--Conflict between the rival companies--Amalgamation
of the latter                                                            84

Chapter VII.

_The Hudson's Bay Company in New Caledonia._--The Company's
Charter--Its organization--The servants and their grades--The
clerks and the apprentices--A privileged class--Original status--A
new Deed Poll--An American proud of his title--Lord paramount--Hudson's
Bay Company forts--The Company's influence detrimental
to the moral welfare of the Indians--Fire-water and
vendettas                                                               102

Chapter VIII.

_William Connolly Succeeds Stuart._--Governor Simpson--Forts Alexander
and Chilcotin are founded--Bancroft mistaken--Warlike
Indians--Fort Babine erected--Bancroft wrong again--Poor Mary!--Douglas
comes upon the scene--He acts as Connolly's fisherman--Did
he found Fort Connolly?--Difficult times--Furs, furs--A buffoon
causes a war                                                            120

Chapter IX.

_An Episode and its Consequences._--A fanciful account of the
occurrence--The heroical rle attributed to the wrong party--The real
facts--"The man he killed was eaten by the dogs; by the dogs he must
be eaten"--The aggressor on the defensive--Dr. Bryce's
mistakes--Bancroft's dramatized version of the affair--The Governor
at Stuart Lake--How the Company had the last word--But Douglas had
to leave                                                                139

Chapter X.

_Connolly and Dease at Stuart Lake._--Greed for furs--Fisher has
recourse to tricks to get them--Lively correspondence--The original
Tte Jaune Cache--Fifteen dogs on the tables--An alert in the
woods--Dease arrives at Stuart Lake--Why Connolly was relieved of his
post--Opposition traders on the Skeena--A clerk on strike--John McLean
at Stuart Lake--First burial among the Carriers                         153

Chapter XI.

_Peter S. Ogden takes Charge of the Country._--Ogden's antecedents--His
characteristics--The trickster tricked--Resources of the different
posts--Salmon--The engags--Hard on evil-doers--A boorish officer and
a clerk in a tight place--A philippic--Caught in his own net            171

Chapter XII.

_The Country and its Resources._--A new route established--Salmon
and staple food--How that fish is caught--Articles of trade--Odd
items--Canoes and guns                                                  186

Chapter XIII.

_Peter S. Ogden Governs._--An undesirable post--Anderson's census--Its
inaccuracies--[']Kwah falls sick--And dies--Ogden asserts his
authority--The wails of a culprit--A quick-tempered officer--Uprisings
among the natives--A deserter causes trouble--Campbell's
expedition                                                              193

Chapter XIV.

_Among the Babines._-A new fort wanted--Domestic troubles of the
officer in charge--McBean is removed--His instructions to his
successor--Morwick pays his imprudence with his life--The avenging
expedition--Treachery wins--Cameron despondent--A double murder
and its consequences--Even D. McLean is apprehensive                    208

Chapter XV.

_First Catholic Missions._--Canadian priests on the Columbia--Ogden
asks for contributions towards their maintenance--Father Demers
goes to Stuart Lake--His description of the voyage--Missionary
work--Degraded Indians--Among the Shushwaps--Father Nobili--The
devil apes the Almighty--False prophets                                 224

Chapter XVI.

_Manson's Tribulations._--Manson succeeds Ogden--How McIntosh
died--Desertions more and more numerous--The officers leave one
after the other--An unfaithful man--The manager is disgusted--The
terrible Waccan--His manifold services--A deserter caught--Anderson's
new route is tried--And found wanting                                   241

Chapter XVII.

_Alexis Blanger and His Avenger._--An unnatural joy--Alexis is cast
away--One of his tricks--More misdemeanors--A provocation--Shot
while steering--D. McLean and his principles--"Where is
Tlel"--Approval of a crime--Forced to scalp--Was that right?            260

Chapter XVIII.

_"Club Law" in New Caledonia._--The personnel of the district--Manson
dissatisfied--Pack-trains under difficulties--A curt officer--Paul
Fraser is killed--Manson reproved--Trouble with the chief--Annihilation
threatened--Half-hearted reconciliation--The "Prince of
darkness"--Douglas on the Crimean War--First symptoms of
the gold craze                                                          275

Chapter XIX.

_Golden Cariboo._--First discoveries--Hill Bar--New mail facilities--The
Horsefly discovered--The Cariboo mines--Fabulous yields--An
overland party reaches the gold fields--Shipwreck and consequent
hardships--Gruesome scenes of cannibalism                               291

Chapter XX.

_Improvements and Trials._--New seekers after gold--The Cariboo
waggon road--A newspaper in the wilds--Improved conditions at
Stuart Lake--The smallpox--Traders and miners--Down on free
traders--The bottle is called into requisition                          303

Chapter XXI.

_From Chilcotin to Omineca._--The Waddington Trail--The
Chilcotins--Fourteen whites massacred--The Bentinck Arm massacre--The
causes of the rising--Punitive expeditions--D. McLean is shot--Some
of the murderers are captured--Their fate--The Western
Union Telegraph Co.--Mining in Omineca--A steamboat at Stuart
Lake                                                                    313

Chapter XXII.

_Some of the Later Pioneers._--Lively scenes near Fort St. James--Judge
P. O'Reilly--Themis at fault--G. Hamilton succeeds P. Ogden--T.
P. Dunlevy and his trading ventures--A mystified official--James
Reid--Strenuous life finally crowned with success                       324

Chapter XXIII.

_Laudetur Jesus Christus!_--First Anglican missions--Various Catholic
expeditions--Father McGuckin--Bishop D'Herbomez visits the
district--At Stuart Lake and Babine--Father Lejacq--A rebellious
medicine-man comes to grief--Danger from alien races--A mission
is established near Fort St. James--The first resident missionaries
and their flock                                                         333

Appendices                                                              345

Index                                                                   357


ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                                       PAGE

Rev. A. G. Morice, O.M.I.                                     _Frontispiece_

Map of New Caledonia                                                      1

Shaman or "Medicine Man"                                                 10

Taya, son of [']Kwah                                                     16

"Grosse-Tte," Julian, Thomas and Athanase, descendants of [']Kwah       22

Iron Dagger                                                              25

Sir Alexander Mackenzie                                                  34

Daniel W. Harmon                                                         34

Sir George Simpson                                                       34

Sir James Douglas                                                        34

A Carrier Fisherman                                                      40

Simon Fraser                                                             54

Koezi, daughter of [']Kwah                                                88

Fort St. James To-day                                                   104

Old Fort St. James                                                      114

Doubly "Carriers"                                                       160

Peter Skene Ogden                                                       172

Packing Through the Mountains                                           184

Salmon Trap                                                             188

Indian Crooked Knife                                                    191

Iron Skin Scraper                                                       191

[']Kwah's Grave                                                         196

Rocher Deboul and the Skeena River                                     208

Carrier and Carried                                                     224

John Tod                                                                236

A. C. Anderson                                                          236

Bishop Demers                                                           236

Hon. John Work                                                          236

James A. Grahame                                                        236

Fort McLeod                                                             242

"Jem" Boucher                                                           284

The Cariboo Waggon Road                                                 305

Hon. Senator James Reid                                                 332

Rev. J. M. McGuckin, O.M.I.                                             336

Stuart Lake Mission                                                     342




[Illustration: Map of New Caledonia (N Interior of B.C)]


History of the Northern Interior
of British Columbia.


INTRODUCTION.

_The Country and Its Aborigines._


New Caledonia, the country to which we wish to introduce the kind
reader, was the nucleus out of which the present province of British
Columbia was evolved. Authors disagree as to its boundaries. Thus,
while Alexander Begg, to whom we owe a "History of the North-West,"
assigns to that district rather too modest dimensions when he
states[1] that it extended only from 52 to 55 latitude
north--thereby excluding part of the Chilcotin region--his namesake,
Alexander Begg, the author of the latest "History of British
Columbia," sins the other way by stretching its southern limits as far
as Colville, in the present State of Washington.[2] Although it
included at one time Kamloops and the adjoining territory, it might
suffice for the ethnographer to call it simply the region peopled by
the Western Dn Indians; but as this statement would not probably add
much to the knowledge of most readers, we will describe it as that
immense tract of land lying between the Coast Range and the Rocky
Mountains, from 5130 to 57 of latitude north.

[Footnote 1.: "History of the North-West," p. 158.]

[Footnote 2.: "History of British Columbia," p. 12.]

This region is mostly mountainous, especially in the north, where
lines of snow-capped peaks intersect the whole country between the two
main ranges. Endless forests, mostly of coniferous trees, and deep
lakes, whose length generally exceeds considerably their breadth,
cover such spaces as are not taken up by mountains. The only level or
meadow lands of any extent within that district lie on either side of
the Chilcotin River, where excellent bunch grass affords lasting
pasturage to large herds of cattle and horses.[3]

The Douglas fir preponderates in the southern half of the country, but
cannot stand the cold prevalent north of 5440, while the three
different species of spruce which cover the northern part of the
district hardly appear within its more temperate zone. The black pine
is fairly common all over the country, and it is always indicative of
a dry, sandy, and usually level ground, just as the poplar and the
aspen betoken a moist and rather rich soil. Apart from the animals to
which they give shelter, these woods afford but very meagre resources
adapted to the wants of man. These are reduced to some varieties of
berries, prominent among which is the service berry, the fruit of the
_Amelanchier alnifolia_, which the aborigines compress into flat cakes
and keep in their larder for use in any emergency.

[Footnote 3.: H. H. Bancroft, in his "History of British Columbia,"
asserts that "the lake country from Chilcotin to Fort Fraser and
beyond is generally open" (p. 37), a statement which is far too
comprehensive. The lakes of that country, and those immediately to the
north of it, R. Greenhow gravely declares to be "frozen over more than
two-thirds of the year" ("History of Oregon and California," p. 29),
which assertion will seem strange to people who, like the present
writer, have annually navigated their waters from the middle of May to
the middle of December, practically ever since the year 1885.]

Lakes and rivers are practically numberless. The most important among
the former are: Lake Stuart, with its tributaries Lakes Rey, Soullier,
Trembl and Tatla; Lakes Babine and Augier; Lakes Morice, Dawson, and
Emerald, which are the head-waters of the Nechaco; Lakes Loring and
McAulay, whence issues the Bulkley River; Lakes French and Fraser,
Peters and Vowell, whose waters flow into the Nechaco; Lakes Cambie,
St. Mary's, McLeod, Bell, Turner, Nation, Quesnel and Chilco. The map
will show the respective position of each.

The chief streams, apart from the Fraser, are the Nechaco, which, some
sixty-five miles from its mouth, receives the Stuart, which drains the
lake of the same name, together with Lakes Tatla and Trembl, through
the Middle and the Thach Rivers; the Blackwater, a stream of minor
importance, called West River by Sir Alex. Mackenzie, who ascended its
valley on his way to the Pacific; the Quesnel, which heads in the lake
of the same name, and the Chilcotin (more properly Tsilhkhoh), which
takes its source in the lake called Chilco by the whites, and waters
the finest part of the country. Bear Lake and Babine Lake, with their
outlets, as well as the Bulkley, belong to the basin of the Skeena,
which may be said to form the north-western boundary of the district;
while the Parsnip and the Finlay, with their tributaries the Pack,
Nation, Omineca, etc., flow into the Arctic Ocean, after having forced
their way through the Rockies under the name of Peace River.

Most of these lakes and rivers contain excellent fish, two (sometimes
three or more) kinds of trout, whitefish, land-locked salmon, ling and
a multitude of carpoides and other inferior fish. A few sturgeon are
occasionally caught in Lake Stuart and outlet, but that fish is
unknown in the other basins. These sheets of water become also
annually the rendezvous of myriads of ducks, geese, and other aquatic
fowls, some of which, as the grebe, abound to such an extent that, for
a fortnight or so, they are daily taken by the hundred in a single
locality.

As to the fauna, its representatives are fairly numerous. The natives
class them into venison and fur animals. Among the former are the
moose and the cariboo, whose habitat is mostly on the mountains of the
north, while the deer, plentiful in the south, does not seem to cross
the limits of the Douglas fir. The various fur-bearing animals are the
grizzly and the black bears,[4] the beaver, foxes of different color,
though they are the offspring of the same parents; the marten and
fisher, the otter, the mink, and other game of minor value.

These, from time immemorial, have been trapped or chased by the
American representatives of the human species who call themselves
_Dn_ (men), and are divided into four main tribes. From north to
south these are: the Sekanais, on the west slope of the Rocky
Mountains and throughout the adjoining territory, almost as far as the
53rd degree of latitude; the Babines, who inhabit the shores of the
lake called after them and the Bulkley valley, though many of them
hunt also in the vicinity of Lakes French and Cambie; the Carriers,
who have villages all the way from Stuart Lake and tributaries to
Alexandria, on the Fraser; and, finally, the Chilcotins, who now
mainly occupy the valley of the river to which they have given their
name.

[Footnote 4.: The brown bears in the district belong to the same
species as the black ones.]

These tribes, though all belonging to the same ethnic group of
aborigines, differ not a little as regards language, manners, and
customs, and even physical appearance. Thus the Sekanais, for
instance, are slender and bony, with fairly delicate features, very
small eyes, and thin lips. The Carriers are stouter and more heavily
built, with coarser traits, thicker lips, and quite large eyes. The
Babines and Chilcotins are shorter than the Carriers, with broader
shoulders and, the former at least, with even thicker lips and
flattish faces. A fifth tribe, that of the Nahanais, roams through the
territory immediately to the north of the Babines and the Sekanais,
though on great occasions they usually repair to their villages at
Thalhthan and in the vicinity of the Rockies. Several of their women
are almost fair complexioned.

These four or five tribes form what we call the Western Dns. They
have all very black and straight hair, dark eyes, small hands and
feet, and a complexion of a swarthy brown, though they are, as a rule,
fairer than their heterogeneous neighbors, the Shushwaps.[5]

None of them originally had any village chiefs in our sense of the
word. Indeed, the Sekanais, who are quite nomadic and without houses
or villages, were formerly destitute of any kind of chiefs, but kept
wandering in quest of game under the nominal leadership of the older
heads of related families. As to the Babines, the Carriers, and the
Chilcotins, they possessed what they called toeneza, hereditary
"noblemen," who owned the hunting grounds and were the honorary heads
of various clans or gentes. Succession to rank or property invariably
followed the female line among the Babines and the Carriers, while
among the Chilcotins and the Sekanais heredity was, as amongst us,
always on the side of the father.

[Footnote 5.: For a fanciful classification of those tribes and a
pessimistic account of their characteristics, and of all things
British Columbian in general, we would commend D. G. F. Macdonald's
"British Columbia and Vancouver's Island," p. 126, _et seq._]

These tribes concurred in their religious ideas. They believed in a
future world, and had some confused notions of a Supreme Being who
governed the universe through the instrumentality of spirits, whose
object was to protect or injure the individual. In the first case,
they were what is now called totems or tutelary genii, and the second
were the immediate cause of disease, wherewith they were sometimes
confounded. The latter had, however, to yield to the incantations of a
certain class of men known among us as shamans,[6] who, supposedly
endowed with supernatural powers, were regarded almost as the masters
of life and death.

In case of death the bodies were buried among the Chilcotins and the
Shushwaps, burned among the Carriers, the Babines and the Western
Nahanais, but left uncared for among the Sekanais and some Nahanais,
who simply dropped thereon the brush shelter used as a temporary
residence in the course of their incessant wanderings. Only in the
cases of prominent or much beloved members of a band were the remains
placed on a rough scaffolding out of the reach of wild beasts, or
encased within the hollow or hollowed trunk of an upright tree.

Among the Carriers, the widow of a deceased warrior used to pick up
from among the ashes of the funeral pyre the few charred bones which
would escape the ravages of fire and _carry_ them on her back in a
leathern satchel--hence the name of the tribe--until the co-clansmen
of the deceased had amassed a sufficient quantity of eatables and
dressed skins to be publicly distributed among people of different
clans, in the course of an ostentatious ceremony called "potlatch," a
ceremony which prevailed among all but the Sekanais and the Eastern
Nahanais tribes.

[Footnote 6.: Or medicine-men.]

To the customs in vogue among their congeners, the Babines added that
of letting their women wear, from the time of their puberty, a labret
or plug of bone or hardwood, perhaps half an inch and more in
diameter, between the teeth and the lower lip, which was thus
distended out of all reasonable proportions. This caused the French
Canadians in the employ of the early fur-traders to call the whole
tribe Babines, or "Lippy People."

Hunting and fishing have always been practically the only means of
subsistence of the Western Dns, and their prospects in life are
generally of the most precarious character, inasmuch as hunger and
dire famine are not unknown to them, especially when the run of
salmon, which is the daily bread of all but the Sekanais, has been a
failure.

These aborigines are, for the most part, possessed of strongly
religious instincts. The Sekanais are the most honest and moral; the
Carriers the proudest and most progressive; the Chilcotins are violent
and none too scrupulous, while for loquacity and conservativeness the
Babines have few superiors.[7]

With regard to their origin, the short space at our command in this
little sketch evidently debars us from entering into anything like an
adequate discussion of that intricate question. All we are prepared to
state, after a careful survey of their languages, manners and customs,
is that: 1st, They are undoubtedly of a mixed origin; 2nd, they have
come from the north-north-west; 3rd, they had, in their early history,
commerce, perhaps through intermarriage, with peoples of Jewish
persuasion or origin.

As it is, none but the Babines have any reminiscence of a home
different from that they now occupy. If we are to credit the
Ackwilgates (or Western Babines) and their neighbors, the Kitksons, a
Tsimpsian tribe which has the same tradition, the original seat of the
whole Babine tribe would have been on a flat along the left bank of
the Bulkley, a short distance above the mouth of the Bear River.

[Footnote 7.: For the most complete account of those Indians to be
found in the earlier works we would refer to W. C. Hazlitt's "British
Columbia and Vancouver Island." His information, however, is all
second hand, and, at times, hardly reliable. As to his description of
the geographical features of the country, it is as inaccurate as could
be expected from a man writing in 1858, entirely from hearsay.]

Kitksons and Babines then lived in close proximity and intermarried
freely, when a squirrel[8] having, one day, crossed the river on top
of the weir erected for the capture of salmon, the natives, frightened
at the sight of such an ominous occurrence, and dreading the sad fate
it portended, immediately scattered in all directions. The Kitksons
went down to the Skeena, and the Babines took refuge in the shelter of
the woods, whence they subsequently emerged to settle, some on the
lake now called after them, others near the fall in the Bulkley, at
the place known to-day as Moricetown.

There they lived and thrived on the large supply of salmon which the
impediment in the stream kept at their doors, until the year 1820, or
thereabouts, when a large piece of the rocky cliff overhanging the
same river at the place now called Ackwilgate, some thirty miles
below, having fallen across the stream, this barred it so completely
that it formed a cataract of sufficient height to prevent the fish
from getting up to the Moricetown fall. Threatened with starvation,
the Western Babines went in a body, armed _cap--pie_, and forcibly
took the new terminus from its owners of Tsimpsian parentage.

In course of time, the rock, which was to give a name to the new
place--Fallen Rock--wore away to such an extent that salmon could
return to their former haunts up the river; but the Babines or
Ackwilgates have since retained possession of both fisheries.

So much for the Babines and their traditions. We now come to the real
history of their congeners, and the authentic account of their doings
immediately before, and ninety years after, the advent of that
superior race which was to revolutionize their ideas, manners and
customs, and whose not always too edifying deeds we shall also have to
record.

[Footnote 8.: The Kitksons say a double-headed squirrel.]




CHAPTER I.

_Earliest Historical Times._

1660-1765.


Na[']kwoel is the first really historical aborigine mentioned by the
Carrier Indians of Stuart Lake. His name has come down to the present
generation as that of one who was the personification of old age, and
after a careful computation based on the various data forming our
original chapter and many others not furnished here, the date of his
birth cannot be set later than the year 1660. He grew up to attain, in
course of time, the honored position of _toeneza_, or hereditary
nobleman, of the Stuart Lake sept, and he is likewise famous as having
been the first Dn who could boast the acquisition of an iron axe or
adze.

This came to him about 1730, probably by way of Tsechah, an Indian
village close to what is now Hazelton, on the Skeena. Whatever may
have been the origin of the wonderful implement,[9] it is said that,
on acquiring it, Na[']kwoel convoked his fellow-tribesmen to a great
banquet or ceremonial feast, where all the guests could admire it
hanging above them from one of the rafters of the large lodge where
they were assembled.

[Footnote 9.: From Chapters III., IV. and V. will be seen how
comparatively common were iron wares in New Caledonia at the time of
its discovery by Mackenzie and Fraser; and the fact that the latter
found, near the 49th parallel, some of them which seemed of Russian
manufacture, goes to show the ease with which such goods travelled in
pre-European times. (See Appendix B.)]

That implement was, of course, considered exceedingly valuable, and
its possession was the means of considerably enhancing the notable's
prestige among the entire Carrier tribe.

At that time it was customary for those Indians to migrate, at the
approach of every winter, to a place where firewood was plentiful
enough to supply the needs of the different families grouped around
their chiefs or _toenezas_, and to erect, for use during the cold
season, large huts of slender logs with spruce-bark roofs and doorways
covered with brush. One day, when some of Na[']kwoel's family were
cutting boughs for the entrance to his lodge, the line which fastened
his adze to its handle getting loosened, the blade suddenly dashed off
and fell among the branches already cut. After searching among these,
it became apparent that the instrument must have dropped down in the
snow, where it could not be found until the services of the
medicine-man had been resorted to.[10]

Physically, Na[']kwoel was short and very corpulent, a feature quite
rare among the western Dns. As to his psychological disposition, a
little episode is to this day related, which goes to illustrate the
man and his times.

[Footnote 10.: The native chronicler goes on to relate how that
shaman, who enjoyed a wonderful reputation even among his peers, had a
personal totem or familiar genius, in the shape of a skunk-skin, which
he wore hanging from his neck. This, during his trances, he used to
press in his hands, when it emitted a piercing scream. On the occasion
of Na[']kwoel's loss, in the midst of dancing, singing and beating of
drums, the shaman squeezed his skunk-skin, upon which it cried as if
the animal had been alive, and, detaching itself from the neck of the
medicine man, it made for the heap of boughs, wherein it plunged and
remained for a while. When it came back, it bore in its mouth the lost
adze blade!]

[Illustration: A SHAMAN OR "MEDICINE MAN."]

As he was, one winter day, on the ice of Lake Greenwood, busy cutting
up some cariboo, which friendly neighbors had killed for him,
footsteps on the frozen snow told him of the approach of a native from
Natleh, Fraser Lake. Immediately seizing his bow and arrows, Na[']kwoel
aimed his weapon at the stranger, exclaiming at the same time:

"We have decreed against intercourse with people from Natleh. What
does this fellow come here for?"

Undisturbed by the threats, which he feigned not to notice, the
stranger leisurely limped on and finally joined Na[']kwoel's
assistants, by whom he was hospitably entertained. Then, bending his
own bow, with the arrow aimed at Na[']kwoel, this accidental guest
exclaimed:

"Now, old Na[']kwoel, your pretensions are altogether too preposterous,
and you speak like a man without sense. Look at this, my arrow! Were I
so minded, I could sink it right now between your ribs."

Na[']kwoel had two sons, A[']ke[']toes and Chichanit, both of whom
wielded great influence among their co-tribesmen. Yet the former, who
is the first known to-day of a line of hereditary chiefs, the fourth
of whom died of old age some fifteen years ago, met with a tragic and,
at the same time, rather inglorious end, being done to death by his
own wives. The elder of these was called Chalh[']tas, and seems to
have been a genuine virago; while the other, known as Atte, was of a
milder disposition.

Now, A[']ke[']toes was constantly tormented by the demon of jealousy.
He loved, on that account, to isolate himself and force his partners
to share his cheerless seclusion, a step which occasioned many a
family dispute, at the end of which his groundless suspicions asserted
themselves with renewed vigor. On the other hand, he was believed to
be endowed with malefic powers, a gift the possession of which is sure
to prove fatal among the natives.

One day, as the family stayed on Long Island, at the outlet of Lake
Stuart, while the whole tribe was stationed at Tsauche, about five
miles to the south-west, on the shores of the same lake, A[']ke[']toes
had a violent altercation with Chalh[']tas, which resulted in the
latter accusing him of the death of her two children, but lately
deceased. Upon this blows ensued, when the woman, falling on him,
called upon Atte to help her kill him, under pain of being herself
done to death if she refused. Then they shamefully mutilated his
remains, which they conveyed to the mouth of a stream emptying on the
opposite side of the lake, and buried them in the sand.

Then, hiding his quiver among the rocks of the Stuart River, near the
water's edge, they hastily fled to Fraser Lake, where they declared
that, after one of their usual disputes, A[']ke[']toes had tried to put
them to death, when they had made off with his canoe, whereupon he had
pursued them in the water and gone beyond his depth. On the ground of
that story, canoes searched for days every nook of the river, where
only the missing man's quiver was found, until later on his mangled
remains were accidentally[11] unearthed, whereupon the anger of old
Na[']kwoel and of his son Chichanit knew no bounds.

Several years elapsed, when Atte, who had been but an unwilling
accomplice in the murder, tired of her exile, and resolved upon
returning to her native land and telling the whole truth. But as she
neared Stuart Lake her return was revealed to Chichanit, who sallied
out and killed her with his bow-point-a sort of spear affixed to one
end of his bow, a weapon quite common among the ancient Carriers.
Then, repenting of his act, committed just when the woman endeavored
to explain that she was innocent, he decided to spare her surviving
co-partner on condition that she would come back and allow him to take
her to+ wife in memory of his late brother. Messengers were sent who
brought her back, and thenceforth she attended upon Chichanit, as was
usual with widows preparatory to their being re-married to their late
husband's nearest kin.

[Footnote 11.: As the imagination of the natives must mix the
marvellous or extraordinary with the common and ordinary, the Indians
do not fail to say that a rainbow, one end of which plunged where the
body had been buried, was instrumental in causing its discovery.]

Meanwhile, Na[']kwoel was constantly smarting under the pain caused by
the untimely death of his eldest son. Though he was now well advanced
in years, he used to visit Chichanit's lodge and reproach Chalh[']tas
with her crime, in which case blows would generally follow words, to
all of which she had to submit with as much equanimity as her own
haughty nature would allow.

One day, when she was unravelling with a small stone knife the strips
of willow bark, the filaments of which were intended as the material
of a fish net, her father-in-law became so violent that, unable to
stand his abuse any longer, she grabbed him by the hair, and, throwing
him to the ground, stabbed him in the neck with her diminutive
implement. Fortunately for her intended victim, her knife broke in the
old man's collar-bone before it could inflict serious injury,
whereupon Na[']kwoel called for help in terms which are still recited
for the sake of their quaintness, and his son, running to his
assistance, killed the woman with his bow-point.

Na[']kwoel was now aging considerably. After many years passed in the
company of his only remaining son, he grew to be so old that,
according to tradition and the accounts of eye-witnesses, his hair,
after having been snow white, had become of a yellowish hue. He fell
into such a state of decrepitude that his knees and elbows were
covered with scaly excrescences, resembling a sort of parasitic moss.
His hearing failed him, and his eyelids drooped until he became the
very picture of old age. Basking in the sun on a rock emerging from
the shallow water, which is still shown near the outlet of Lake
Stuart, he would at times send forth loud cries, as of rage at seeing
himself so powerless against the ravages of time; then, bathing in the
tepid waters, he would exclaim, on coming out:

_"Ha! tcilhyaz nasoestloen a!"_ (Ah ! here I am, a young man again!)

Some time before his demise, he is reported to have assured people
that it was not without some design from above that he had been
permitted to live so long, and that when he should die, Na[']kal, the
mountain which rises from the eastern shore of the lake, would dance
in his honor. The natives date from his death the fall of part of a
spur thereof, which the infiltration of water detached from the main
body of the mountain.

The exact date of Na[']kwoel's death can, of course, only be guessed;
but from all accounts it cannot be far from 1765, as the old chief was
certainly more than a centenarian when he passed away. Indeed,
considering the longevity of the Indians, especially those of the old
stock, he probably lived to see his hundred and tenth birthday.[12]

About twenty years before his death a most melancholy event, which was
to cause a permanent change in the ethnographical map of the country,
had happened at the confluence of the Stuart and Nechaco Rivers. There
stood at that time a flourishing village called Chinlac, the
population of which was allied by blood and dialect to the Lower
Carriers of what is now called Stony Creek. The principal chief was a
certain Khadintel, a man who enjoyed the consideration of his
subjects, and who must have been well up in years, since he had two
wives with a large number of children.

[Footnote 12.: Taya, the late head chief of the Stuart Lake band, a
son of [']Kwah, who saw Na[']kwoel and lived for some time with him,
had hardly a grey hair at eighty. An elder brother, whom the writer
has known, was quite hale a few days before he died, aged about a
hundred years.]

For some time previous to 1745, the report had been current amongst
his people and their friends of other localities that the Chilcotins
intended to avenge on him the death of one of their notables, and,
agreeable to anticipations, a very large band of those Southern Dns
did come in due time, and in one morning practically annihilated the
whole population then present at Chinlac. A few only owed their life
to their temporary absence or to a speedy flight.

At the time of the catastrophe the head chief, Khadintel, was on a
tour of inspection of his snares, some distance down the Nechaco. He
had reached the rapid next to the confluence of the two rivers,
paddling up in a large canoe with two other men, when he suddenly
caught sight of a large number of canoes coming down stream.

"The Chilcotins!" he exclaimed. "Run up the bank and flee for your
lives. I am the one they want, and I alone ought to die."

His companions were no sooner out of sight than a volley of arrows was
whizzing around him, which he so dexterously dodged that, partly
because his life appeared charmed to his aggressors, and partly
because they thought it prudent to keep for any possible emergency the
few remaining arrows in their possession after the great expenditure
of them they had made in the morning, Khalhpan, the captain of the war
party, ordered a suspension of hostilities. Then, addressing his bold
adversary, he said:

"Khadintel, you have the reputation of being a man. If you are such,
dance for me."

Whereupon the Chinlac chief commenced the dance of a _toeneza_ on the
beach of the river, just to show that his heart was above fear and
emotion. When he had finished he warned his departing enemy that, in
the course of a few years, he would return his visit.

The spectacle which met Khadintel's eyes on his return to his village
was indeed heart-rending. On the ground, lying bathed in pools of
blood, were the bodies of his own two wives and of nearly all his
countrymen, while hanging on transversal poles resting on stout forked
sticks planted in the ground, were the bodies of the children ripped
open and spitted through the out-turned ribs in exactly the same way
as salmon drying in the sun. Two such poles were loaded from end to
end with that gruesome burden.

Aided by his two companions, Khadintel religiously burnt all the
bodies, and placed the bones which had partially escaped destruction
in leather satchels adorned with long fringes which, in the course of
time, he entrusted to the care of the surviving relatives of
Khalhpan's victims. Then he prepared the vengeance due to such an
unprovoked crime and, early in the spring of the third year after the
massacre, he found himself at the head of a large band of braves he
had gathered from among the few survivors of the Chinlac population
and the allied villages of Thachek, Nulkreh (Stony Creek) and Natleh
(Fraser Lake).

Having reached the Chilcotin valley, at a place which, from the
topographical details now furnished by the old men, must be identified
with the plain where the modern village of Anarhem stands, the
avenging party beheld from the top of the third terrace, or last of
the superposed plateaus, in the thickets of which they discreetly
passed the night, a long row of lodges, indicating a very large
population.

Khalhpan, the Chilcotin chieftain, had a younger brother known as
[']Kun[']qus, a man most powerfully built and of a very amiable
disposition. Expecting reprisals for his brother's misdeed, that
influential Chilcotin had built a palisade round his house, wherein he
lived with a wife taken from among his own tribe and a second partner,
a Carrier woman, with her little brother, whom the members of
Khalhpan's expedition had brought him from Chinlac.

[Illustration: TAYA.

(A son and second successor of [']Kwah.)]

He had just gone to prepare laths for the erection of a salmon trap,
when, early in the morning, he was surprised to hear, all of a sudden,
the uproarious clamors of the avenging party who, from different
points of vantage, were storming his village. Running home in all
haste, he gave the alarm to the sleeping population, and as he rushed
into his house he passed his Carrier wife and her brother escaping in
the direction of their attacking countrymen. He lost some time in
trying to pursue them armed with a war-club which, to defeat his
purpose, the woman had previously fastened to the wall of the lodge.

By that time, several Chilcotins had already fallen before the rage of
the Carriers, when [']Kun[']qus, aided by his first wife, hastily
donned his double armor, consisting of a device made of dried rods of
hardened amelanchier wood, over which he spread the _pesta_, a
sleeveless, tunic-like cuirass of moose-skin covered with a coat of
glued sand and gravel. Thus attired, he went out and started shooting
wildly until his supply of arrows was exhausted, keeping between his
legs, till he fell pierced by an arrow, a little son of his, whom he
loved above all his other children.

The Carriers, who now recognized him, seeing him practically
powerless, assailed him from all parts. But with a large stone dagger,
whose blade he had mounted at the end of a stick, he kept them all at
bay, so that they could hardly hurt him, inasmuch as their missiles
were of no avail against his double armor. In this predicament they
remembered the boast of a confederate, a little man of insignificant
parentage named Yoentoelh, who had previously offered to catch the big
Chilcotin for them. Bidden to make good his boast, Yoentoelh rushed at
[']Kun[']qus, leading him to use his lance, which he skilfully dodged
at the very instant that he seemed doomed to destruction, and
grasping its shaft before [']Kun[']qus could strike again, gave his
countrymen the long-sought-for opportunity. Seizing the warrior from
every available quarter, they snatched from him all the native finery
in which he was attired, a beautiful ceremonial wig adorned with
dentalium shells, a costly breastplate, and a necklace mostly of the
same material. Then, under a heavy stroke from a war-club launched on
the forepart of his head, [']Kun[']qus fell down never to rise again.
Then, falling on his helpless body with all kinds of weapons, they
made of it an unrecognizable mass of flesh.

The Carriers had now gratified their lust for vengeance. Indeed, the
destruction of Chinlac was more than avenged. There the Chilcotins had
set up two poles loaded with children's bodies, while the Carriers did
not return to their country before they had put up as a trophy three
such poles with similarly innocent victims.

Meanwhile, Khalhpan, the primary cause of the whole trouble, had been
vainly sought for by the avenging northerners. He was absent, and did
not come back until a short time after their departure. His feelings
can be imagined when he came in sight of his village, now transformed
into a solitude, peopled only by dogs howling around the mangled
remains of their masters. Taking with him a few of the fugitives he
found gloomily prowling about the field of carnage, he set out in
pursuit of the retreating Carriers.

These had just forded a river at a point where a sand-bank in the
middle cut it in two, and they were in the act of putting on their
foot-gear again, when Khalhpan was sighted on the opposite side of the
stream. Khadintel immediately advanced to meet him.

"People say that you are a man, and you would fain pass yourself off
as a terrible warrior," he said, in the best Chilcotin he could
command. "If you be such, come on, Khalhpan; come on, and retreat
not."

Whereupon the Chilcotin chief advanced as far as the sand-bank; but at
the sight of his powerlessness against such a host of enemies, he
began to cry and to turn back.

"Now, Khalhpan," insisted his triumphant foe, "when, all alone against
your people, I was cornered on the river bank and you wanted to kill
me, I danced at your bidding. If you are a man, dance now for me, as I
did for you."

But his adversary merely returned as far as the sand islet, when the
sight of the multitude facing him, and the remembrance of all his
relatives gone and of his beloved daughter, now dragged into slavery,
were too much for him. He requested his adversary to spare her life,
and broke into violent sobbing, which seeing, Khadintel, in tones full
of scorn, cried across the river:

"Khalhpan, it is upon men that we came down to avenge a great wrong. I
see that you are a woman, therefore I allow you to live. Go in peace,
and weep to your heart's content."

The affront to the Carrier tribe was thus washed out in blood, but the
destruction wrought by the Chilcotin marauders remained irreparable.
In the course of time, the few persons who had escaped the massacre of
1745 settled among their friends of Thachek and Lheitli (Fort George).
As to their own village, a bare spot on the right bank of the Stuart
River, and the several trails leading out of it, are all that now
remain of what was formerly the home of a thriving community.[13]

[Footnote 13.: After the destruction of his native village Khadintel
re-married, and by his last wife he had a daughter named Samalh[']ti,
who died in 1842 at the age of about ninety. She was then older than
another woman who died recently among the Dns leaving after her four
generations of descendants. Samalh[']ti is our authority for the date
of the Chinlac massacre.]




CHAPTER II.

_Still Pre European Times._

1765-1791.


Allied to Na[']kwoel's family was a certain Tsalekulhy, the first now
remembered of a line of hereditary chiefs, whose regular seat was
Pinche, on Lake Stuart. He was born about 1735, and he was probably a
little younger than the first A[']ke[']toes, whose sister or cousin he
must have married, since his eldest son ultimately succeeded to the
latter's name and rank. This circumstance accounts also for his own
incorporation into the Stuart Lake tribe.

Tsalekulhy seems to have been of a rather troublesome disposition,
and he must have been something of a profligate, as the first incident
in connection with which his name is mentioned does certainly not
redound to his credit. A member of the Sekanais tribe was wont to make
periodical visits to the Stuart Lake band of Indians, whom he had
befriended. One evening a commotion arose in the camp, and, while
trying to ascertain the cause of it, the stranger beheld his own
sister bleeding to death from an arrow wound received at the hand of
Tsalekulhy. What the reason of such a rash act was is not known, but
can easily be surmised. Infuriated at the sight of his dying relative,
the Sekanais shot Tsalekulhy, and made for the woods. Happily for the
latter the wound inflicted was not serious, and he soon recovered.

In his second encounter with an adversary, fate was not so favorable
to him. About the year 1780, an influential member of the Naskhu[']tin
sub-tribe happened to die near the confluence of the Blackwater River
with the Fraser, where those aborigines had but recently a village. As
the loss of the Indian was much felt, his relatives consulted the
shaman, who declared that Tsalekulhy was responsible for his death.
Bent on vengeance, his friends, in great numbers, started armed
_cap--pie_ for what is now called the Stuart River.

The natives were not at that time so sedentary as they are to-day. As
we have already seen, they shifted their winter quarters as the need
of fuel required, though, as spring opened, the ancestors of the
population now stationed near the southern end of Lake Stuart moved
generally to the mouth of Beaver Creek, some five miles to the
south-west of the outlet of that lake. There they subsisted mainly on
small fish, carp and trout, with an occasional duck or goose, until
the middle of August, when they transferred their penates exactly to
the outlet of the lake, where they set their weirs and traps. Finally,
late in September, they migrated again up the lake, and dispersed
themselves along the shores and on the several islands, where the
women caught whitefish and trout in the preserves allotted them by
hereditary right, while the men trapped the various fur-bearing
animals.

Early in the spring of 1780, or thereabouts, those Indians were camped
in three large detachments on the upper course of the Stuart River.
Their southermost party occupied a site still pointed out, slightly
above Hay Island, when a canoe came up with the alarming news,
gathered from friendly Indians, that a large force of Naskhu[']tins
was on its way up to avenge its dead. Tsalekulhy was then visiting
his swan snares, and had repeatedly been told that he was the man
especially wanted by the southerners. He therefore hastened to rejoin
his friends in the lower encampment.

Doubtful of their ability to resist the aggressors, the members of
that party decided to move up and join the other two allied bands. But
a heavy snow-storm came on, which caused a slight postponement of
their departure. This delay sealed their fate. All of a sudden, a
great outcry was raised on the top of the bank, and, before the Stuart
Lake people could take in the situation, arrows were whizzing about,
spears flying in all directions, and war-clubs stunning right and
left, amidst the most hideous yells and vociferations of the attacking
party. Two _toenezas_, or headmen, were among the assailed. Both of
them were slain and mutilated, as well as other less conspicuous
members of the band, while most of the women the Naskhu[']tins could
lay hands on were taken prisoners and enslaved. As to Tsalekulhy, the
involuntary cause of the disaster, he took to the water, and was on
the point of escaping, when he was recognized, killed and horribly
mutilated.

Such had been the swiftness of the enemy's movements, and the
consequent confusion of the assailed, that the former had but two
persons wounded during the whole affray.

Among Tsalekulhy's relatives present on the spot were four brothers,
the youngest but one of whom, a lad of possibly fifteen summers, named
Nathadilhthoelh, succeeded in swimming across the river, loaded, at
first, with a sister and a brother only a few years old, whom, to save
himself and sister, he had to let go and condemn to a watery grave. He
is the same whom we will see called _Mal-de-gorge_ in the old Hudson's
Bay Company journals. Both his elder brothers were killed before his
own eyes, and, while he bade his sister run as fast as her legs would
carry her along the border of ice clinging to the shore and announce
the sad news of their misfortunes to the next band of Indians, he
himself stood in the vicinity of the doomed camp waiting for the end
of the massacre, out of reach of hostile eyes and arrows.

[Illustration: "GROSSE-TTE," JULIAN, THOMAS AND ATHANASE. (Son,
grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson of [']Kwah.)]

Next morning three large canoes came down, and those who owed their
lives to flight and the blinding snow-storm, together with the
courageous Nathadilhthoelh, made bold to return to the scene of the
disaster, where, amidst noisy mourning, the dead bodies of the fallen,
with the exception of that of Tsalekulhy, which could not be found,
were placed on a pile of dry wood and burned.

Now, Tsalekulhy had two sons, [']Kwahh, a young man about twenty-five
years old, who had just been married, and was destined to become a
very prominent figure in the annals of Stuart Lake, and OEhulhtzoen, a
few years younger, who was as yet single. Both brothers were on a
hunting tour at the time of the massacre of their co-tribesmen.

Great was their surprise and indignation when they were told on their
return of what had happened in their absence. [']Kwah was then but a
young man, without title or claim to consideration other than that
which he owed to his father's rank, to which, according to the
Carriers' hereditary law, he could not even aspire. Yet it was
universally conceded that to him and his relative, Nathadilhthoelh,
must fall the task of avenging the victims of the Blackwater Indians.
Many were even for immediate action; but more moderate counsels
prevailed, as the old men knew well that the Naskhu[']tins, expecting
reprisals, would be on their guard. They resolved, therefore, to wait
until one or two years had elapsed without hostilities, wishing to
lead the southern Indians to suppose that their crime would remain
unpunished.

In the meantime [']Kwah went across the Rocky Mountains to get a
supply of tanned skins to make moccasins for his prospective
followers. On his return, he assembled quite a little army of braves
from the Stuart Lake and Stony Creek villages, and went on to execute
what he considered a filial duty.

But he had gone no farther than Tsinkoet or Head Lake, seven miles to
the south of Stony Creek, when dissensions or fears arose among his
people, as it was openly hinted that some of the Stony Creek Indians
related to the Naskhu[']tins intended to become traitors by giving
warning of his approach. In the face of that lack of accord among his
braves, [']Kwah turned back with regret, proclaiming before all his
irrevocable abandonment of all hostile designs on the southern
Indians.

This was, however, but a subterfuge on his part; for he had no sooner
reached his native place again than, taking with him but seven tried
men, among whom was Nathadilhthoelh, he embarked for the confluence of
the Nechaco with the Fraser, where Fort George now stands, thus
changing completely his route and rendering impossible treachery at
the hands of Indians friendly to the Naskhu[']tins. On reaching the
Fraser, the little party abandoned their canoe and continued their
journey on foot, following all the time the left bank of that river.

Summer was then well on, since when they arrived opposite the first
camp of the Naskhu[']tins, which was composed of but a few persons,
they spied them busy catching salmon. Retreating somewhat for the sake
of greater secrecy, they built a large spruce bark canoe and profited
by a dense fog to gum it, as otherwise the smoke of the fire required
to melt the gum would have given the alarm--an Indian will smell smoke
for miles. The little band of Naskhu[']tins had just feasted on a fat
bear, and were sleeping soundly when they were rudely awakened by the
outcries of [']Kwah's followers. In a large house, with a doorway at
each gable-end, lived with his brother and family a _toeneza_ known
under the name of Tsohtaih. While his brother precipitately rushed out
of the lodge, only to find death at the hands of one of his
aggressors, who pierced him with his spear, Tsohtaih made his exit
with his son by the opposite door and took to the water. He might have
made good his escape had it not been for [']Kwah himself, who noticed
the two fugitives and, seizing a canoe, set out in pursuit of them.

[Illustration: KWAH'S DAGGER]

The contest was altogether too unequal, and before Tsohtaih could swim
away any considerable distance, [']Kwah was dealing him out repeated
thrusts of an iron dagger (which is still in the possession of one of
his sons at Stuart Lake), until he had been reduced to the state of an
almost shapeless mass of flesh and blood. His son, a young man of
perhaps twenty years of age, shared his fate, while on land a child of
but a few months was seized and thrown into the river by one of the
northerners in memory of his own brother who had been similarly
treated by the Naskhu[']tins. After this exploit, [']Kwah's
"warriors," whose limited numbers did not allow him to undertake
greater deeds, as he knew that the alarm was sure to be given by the
women-folk who had escaped or been allowed to go in peace, hastily
decamped and set out to return by land to their native country.

Now it happened that the main body of the Naskhu[']tins was stationed
some distance farther down the Fraser, while still a little lower was
the camp of T[']soelkwet, a most irascible Indian, allied by family
ties to some of the victims of the Stuart River massacre. In the main
group of Indians stood the lodge of a man who was now married to one
of the women previously brought down from Tsalekulhy's ill-fated
winter quarters. That man had become much attached to his wife, who
had with her one of her little daughters sharing her enforced exile.
As the Indian was in the act of fetching from his trap the salmon
caught in the course of the night, he was horrified to find among his
fish the disfigured body of Tsohtaih, which had floated down until
stopped by the fishing weir.

Guessing what had happened, and, on second thought, fearing for the
safety of his wife, he tried to neutralize the effect of his first cry
of surprise by declaring to all questioners that there was nothing the
matter. Then he hurriedly retired to his shack, and, seizing his
war-club and dagger, he made his wife sit at his feet while he told
the curious of his discovery.

Enraged at the sight of the mangled remains of their headman, the
Naskhu[']tins immediately strove to vent their anger on the foreign
woman and her daughter; but, with all the ardor which love and despair
could inspire, her husband successfully warded off all attacks on her,
so that, unable to accomplish their purpose--inasmuch as they could
not use arrows for fear of killing their countryman--they resolved to
turn their attention to the authors of Tsohtaih's death, who were now
beating a hasty retreat.

The Naskhu[']tins had hardly left when T[']soelkwet, who had heard of
the whole affair, assembled his own relatives and set out on the
tracks of the pursuers with the avowed object of lending a helping
hand to the Stuart Lake Indians in case of a conflict. Vainly did the
outraged Naskhu[']tins endeavor to deter him from his undertaking. The
irate old man would listen to no entreaties and he equally scorned all
threats. Finding themselves unequal to the task of successfully
meeting two wide-awake enemies, attacking from opposite quarters--as
the natives generally show little bravery except in ambuscades or
against a sleeping adversary--they had to give up the pursuit.

Meanwhile [']Kwah's fellow-villagers in the north had transported
themselves a short distance above the mouth of the Thach River on
Lake Stuart, when he returned with his little party of followers, all
smeared over the face with charcoal, as became native "warriors." Upon
seeing them back the Indians there assembled seized their bows and
arrows, shooting at random in the direction of the oncomers,
brandishing towards them their spears, daggers and war-clubs, and
gratifying them with quite a noisy demonstration.

But this was only feigned hostility and the accomplishment of a sort
of traditional rite customary on such occasions. [']Kwah and his men
were in their estimation _me_, that is, legally impure, for having
shed human blood, and the unfriendly reception was intended as a
protest and a preservative against any bodily ill which might
otherwise have befallen them as a consequence of their latest deeds.

One of the headmen finally put an end to the tumult, and invited the
whole assemblage to a repast composed mainly of an immense number of
_kesoel_, or land-locked salmon, a small fish one of which each guest
took, and, in the case of some personal ailment, applied to the
diseased limb or part of the body, the _kesoel_ being considered,
under the circumstances, as possessed of particularly great curative
properties.

In the eyes of his fellows, young [']Kwah was now a man; but a man,
among the primitive Carriers and not a few of their descendants, is
not supposed to be above the gambling passion. One of his friends was
a youth whose father bore the significant name of _Utzi-lla-e[']ka_,
which may be freely translated Arrow-Heart or Keen-edged-Heart. His
natural crankiness and disposition for harboring a wrong were
proverbial. Yet he must have been an influential member of the band,
since he rejoiced in the possession of an iron axe, an implement which
was still exceedingly precious among the natives of the Stuart Lake
valley.

Taking this with him as an aid in camp-making, Arrow-Heart's son left
one day on pleasure bent for Thachek, in company with the hero of the
late Blackwater expedition. Arrived at that place, which was then a
populous village,[14] [']Kwah and his companion soon took to gambling.
Time and again luck was against them, until they lost article after
article of their wearing apparel. Reduced to a state of almost perfect
nakedness, and yet hoping against hope, Arrow-Heart's son ventured to
stake half the value of his father's axe, which likewise went over to
his opponent. Disheartened, and thinking his companion would be more
lucky, he turned over the remaining half of the implement to [']Kwah,
only to see it immediately lost.

Dejected, and in the thinnest attire, the truant couple returned to
their people, who were then camped on Stuart River, some fifty miles
below the lake from whence it flows. Maddened at the loss of his axe,
Arrow-Heart broke into reproaches against [']Kwah, whom he accused of
being the final cause of its going over to the Thachek people. To
placate the old man, who had a bad reputation and was credited with an
unwelcome familiarity with the black art of sorcery, [']Kwah, after
protesting that the fault was not his, presented him with a marmot
robe and a beautiful necklace of dentalium shells, which, however, the
irate parent of a gambler spitefully declined to accept.

[Footnote 14.: As is shown by the large number of stone arrow-heads
and other ancient weapons still found in the soil on the original site
of that village.]

Time went on without softening his hostile sentiments. [']Kwah would
offer him the first-fruits of his hunts, only to see them thrown away
with disdain. One day, when he was embarking in a small canoe in order
to follow his wife, who had just left with the family impedimenta in a
craft of her own, Arrow-Heart appeared on the bank, and in a shrill
voice addressed him thus:

"You good-for-nothing orphan, who live on the bones of the village,
why did you take my axe away from me?"

Wounded to the quick by those epithets, than which none can be more
opprobrious in the eyes of a Dn,[15] [']Kwah seized his bow and
arrows and shot his insulter through the heart. This was the signal
for his quondam partner in gambling to spring out of his lodge in hot
pursuit of the now retreating homicide, who made for the south as
swiftly as the sluggish stream and his own exertions would allow.
Finding his progress too slow by water, he landed and darted away,
keeping close to the river, where he soon overtook his wife, who was
paddling leisurely in her own canoe. Together they crossed to the
eastern side, and both started for the hunting-grounds of friendly
Sekanais, among whom they stayed a full year or more.

At length, deeming the anger and resentment of Arrow-Heart's people
sufficiently cooled down, he returned to Stuart River with a plentiful
provision of dressed skins, which he publicly distributed as an
atonement for his deed.

By that time, however, the Sekanais themselves were in no very happy
position, owing to a circumstance which none of them could have
foreseen. Aborigines of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains,[16]
they had been gradually driven into the recesses of that lofty range,
where they had acquired their name,[17] and finally to the west
thereof, by a section of their own tribe now constituted into a
distinct branch of the great Dn family, the Beaver Indians, who for
many years had been at enmity with their parent stock. Of late years
an element had forced itself into the conflict which was telling
terribly against the Sekanais proper. "Detonating bows" due to
strangers in the east, who came nobody knew whence, were playing havoc
among the less favored mountaineers, who, on several occasions, were
slaughtered like sheep in the most treacherous manner. Parties of
Beavers armed with guns would play with the fright inspired by their
weapons, and, discharging them in the midst of the unsophisticated
Sekanais, would kill them to the last.

[Footnote 15.: In the eyes of the Dns there is no condition so lowly
as that of an orphan or a widow.]

[Footnote 16.: As proved by their own language and by the following
statement of Harmon, one of the first white men who ever came in
contact with them (a statement which we had never noticed until some
time after the foregoing had been written): "They [the Sekanais] are a
small part of a tribe who, but a few years since, came from the east
side of the Rocky Mountains" ("An Account of the Indians Living West
of the Rocky Mountains," p. 265, New York reprint). Why their numbers
were so insignificant the reader will soon see. Another proof of that
author's wonderful sagacity is his remark to the effect that "the
people who are now called Si-can-nies, I suspect, at no distant
period, belonged to the tribe called Beaver Indians." (_Ibid, ibid._)]

[Footnote 17.: The true name of that tribe is _Tse[']khne_,
"People-on-the-Rocks," _i.e._, the Rocky Mountains.]

Thus it came to pass that no mountain fastnesses could afford them
shelter or anything like real security. Moreover, as fright is
contagious, the terrible deeds of the Beavers went to the ears of the
far-away Carriers, who to this day have remained persuaded of their
innate lust for carnage. So much so, indeed, that hardly a summer now
passes without some parties of the Western Dns running home with the
intelligence that bodies of Beaver Indians are lurking in the woods,
evidently bent on slaughter.

To some of our readers an explanation of this reversal of fortunes is
hardly necessary. It was but the natural result of the approach of
the Canadian traders representing the North-West Company. Fire-arms
and fire-water, the one a relative blessing and the other an
unmitigated curse, which are but too often yoked together, were now
within measurable distance of the Rocky Mountains, leaving behind them
a trail of blood and indescribable debauchery. The white man, in his
march from the east, was almost in sight, bringing in the folds of his
mantle, along with undoubted boons for the natives, the plague of
drink and consequent disorders, which was to thin their ranks to such
an alarming extent.

For a score of years or so the bulk of the Carrier tribe was to remain
free from the contamination of the new invasion; but, as we have seen,
the Sekanais, who were to meet sooner the pale-faced strangers, were
being, in the meantime, decimated by their death-dealing engines.

The last bloody encounter, wherein, as usual, the victims were all on
one side, took place near a hill between the Rockies and the Carrier's
territory, whose name is still mentioned by the natives. A party of
Beavers came on, requesting the Sekanais to tell their children not to
mind the report of their arms, which they were going to discharge for
the fun of it, when suddenly all the adult Sekanais fell bathed in
their blood.

This was the last butchery at the hands of the insolent easterners,
and it was not destined to go unavenged even before the introduction
of fire-arms among the Sekanais. The latter began to feel shy of their
congeners, who were constantly crossing the Rockies, apparently to
parade their wonderful arms, and would not so easily listen to their
protestations of friendship and peace. We are told that a band of
Beavers, having broken into a camp of Sekanais while professing the
most amicable intentions, one of the latter, who enjoyed the respect
of his tribesmen, immediately made for the woods and travelled for
some distance on the snow, cutting or bending as he went the bush
tops, with the object of drawing to his movements the attention of
bands of congenerous huntsmen possibly roaming in the vicinity. He
then returned to his original camp, where the easterners were still to
be seen, enjoying the hospitality of his own people.

Several parties of nomadic Sekanais noticed the silent signals left on
the frozen snow and through the bush, and, unable to read them to
their own satisfaction, followed the freshest tracks of the Indian to
solve the enigma. These led them to the Sekanais camp, where the
Beavers were now in an insignificant minority.

This gradual grouping of natives who could not bear them any possible
goodwill seems to have given the alarm to the strangers, who
thenceforth never went about without being armed to the teeth. One
day, when one of them was conversing with the inmates of a Sekanais
tepee, squatting on the ground with one of his feet hard on the handle
of an iron dagger, the Indian who had so cleverly brought in such a
concourse of his fellow-tribesmen professed admiration for the
beautiful weapon and asked to be allowed to examine it. But the Beaver
would not even momentarily part with it, so that the Sekanais had to
forcibly wrench it from under his foot, and, plunging it into the
stranger's breast, thereby gave the signal for the massacre which
ensued. The Beavers were taken by surprise and, unable to seek and
drop under the hammer of their guns the few grains of powder which at
that time did duty as a percussion cap, they were overcome and
annihilated by their hosts.




CHAPTER III.

_Discovery by Alexander Mackenzie._

1792-1793.


For more than a century the Hudson's Bay Company, a commercial
corporation with which the reader will in due time become better
acquainted, had been claiming the monopoly of the fur trade over the
vast basin of Hudson Bay and its tributaries, while their claim over
the western territories adjoining what was then Canada had come to be
disputed by several merchants of Montreal, on the plea that the said
territories originally belonged to French Canada and that the English
company's pretension to trade thereon was condemned by the very letter
of its own charter. This, they argued, expressly specified that the
lands handed over to the new corporation were those which were not
actually "possessed by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or
State" at the time of its formation. As individual efforts could not
have much effect on the powerful company, the chief fur-dealers of
Montreal, among whom Joseph Frobisher and Simon McTavish were the most
prominent personalities, united their interests in 1783, and
constituted themselves the North-West Fur-Trading Company.

But the new concern had hardly been brought into existence when, at
the instigation of a troublesome character, an American named Peter
Pond, a few fur-dealers among whom was a young man known as Alexander
Mackenzie, of whom we shall presently have much to say, formed
themselves into a rival corporation.

As a consequence, the fur trade for a time presented the ludicrous
spectacle of small localities enjoying the competition of three
different posts, kept by men bitterly hostile to one another. This
bitterness having resulted in the violent death of a certain John
Ross, a _bourgeois_ or partner representing the interests of the minor
North-West company at Lake Athabaska, the two Canadian concerns
coalesced in 1787, and Alexander Mackenzie was entrusted with the post
so suddenly vacated by John Ross.

Alexander Mackenzie was a Scotch Highlander, born at Stornoway, who
had come to Montreal about 1779, when he entered the service of
Gregory, Macleod & Co. Of a restless and somewhat impetuous
disposition, he was by nature inclined to be biased, and, if crossed
in his plans, he would become rather self-assertive and stubborn. But
his very defects were simply excesses of good qualities, and they
admirably fitted him for the tasks he was so gloriously to achieve.

Possessed of a fairly good education, the young man does not seem to
have taken kindly to the drudgery incident to the daily life of a
fur-trader. Adventure and the search after glory were much more
congenial to his tastes. These he successfully followed in his first
expedition down the noble stream which now bears his name. That
journey was effected during the summer of 1789, and it served only to
whet his appetite for excitement and fame. It was also a welcome
preparation for the more difficult task which remained in store for
him.

[Illustration: SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE. (See p. 34.)]

[Illustration: SIR GEORGE SIMPSON. (See p. 120.)]

[Illustration: DANIEL W. HARMON. (See p. 85.)]

[Illustration: SIR JAMES DOUGLAS. (See p. 128.)]

There had been some contention as to the probable distance from Lake
Athabaska to the Pacific Ocean, which the expeditions of adventurers
belonging to various nationalities had made fairly known. There,
according to native reports, "white men were to be seen who wore
armor," whereby were meant either the Spaniards or English, or even
the aborigines of the coast, who, as will appear further on, were
often taken for whites by the natives of the interior, and amongst
whom the use of armor was quite common. An expert had finally decided
that the distance to the _grande mer de l'ouest_, as the Pacific was
called by the French Canadians of the time, must be very great. But
this only urged Mackenzie to reach it by land.

During his expedition to the Arctic Ocean he had more than once
deplored his want of astronomical knowledge and the lack of the proper
instruments. To obtain this desideratum, he crossed over to London in
1791, there acquired the necessary information, and returned in the
spring of 1792, when he sent ahead of his expedition two men to
prepare timber for houses and palisades wherein to winter, so as to be
able to make an early start in 1793.

Mackenzie was the discoverer of New Caledonia and, therefore, of the
interior of British Columbia. Nay, as the skippers who visited the
North Pacific coast never ventured inland, he might with reason be put
down as the discoverer of the whole country. On that account, the
smallest details entered in his Journal, the aspect of the country,
and the nature of its fauna, such as they appeared to him, but more
especially his account of his first encounters with the natives are,
in our eyes, invested with an importance which could hardly be
exaggerated. Having left Fort Chippewayan on the 10th of October,
1792, he arrived ten days later at the last post established on the
Peace River, "amidst the rejoicing and firing of the people, who were
animated with the prospect of again indulging themselves in the luxury
of rum, of which they had been deprived since the beginning of May,
as it is a practice throughout the North-West neither to sell nor give
any rum to the natives during the summer,"[18] which implies that the
contrary was the case in the course of other seasons.

The very first pages of Mackenzie's Journal are valuable as giving us
an insight into the policy followed by the North-West Company with
regard to their subordinates. We therefore continue our quotation:

     "As they [the Indians, who must have been Beavers] very
     soon expressed their desire of the expected regale, I
     called them together, to the number of forty-two
     hunters or men capable of bearing arms, to offer some
     advice...and I strengthened my admonition with a nine
     gallon cask of reduced rum and a quantity of
     tobacco."[19]

Leaving the new establishment, he crossed the Rocky Mountains up to
the junction of the Parsnip and the Finlay, and, a short distance west
thereof, he met, on the former, the men he had sent to prepare his
winter quarters. With them he found an Indian chief, together with
about seventy of his men, who, from their conduct and familiarity with
fire-arms, seem to have been Beavers encroaching on Sekanais
territory.

[Footnote 18.: "Journal of a Voyage Through the North-West Continent
of America," London, 1801, pp. 125, 126.]

[Footnote 19.: _Ibid._, p. 126.]

His tent had no sooner been pitched than he summoned them together,
reproached them with their past mis-behaviour, after which he gave
each of them "about four inches of Brazil tobacco," and "presented
them with a quantity of rum," adding the somewhat nave recommendation
that they should use it with discretion! In spite of the bitter cold,
he had to wait until the 23rd of December before the house that was
being erected for him was inhabitable. He then set his men to build
five more houses for themselves, and thenceforth his life was that of
a fur-dealer, occasionally visited by the trappers, and subsisting on
the game of the country, which, happily, was quite abundant.

On the 1st of January, 1793, he was, as usual, awakened by volleys
from his men's muskets, and, in return for their good wishes, he
treated them "with plenty of spirits."[20] Five days afterwards he
mentions the firing of the Indian guns as a mark of sorrow at the
death of a member of the tribe, a circumstance which goes to prove
that fire-arms were already common in that part of the world.
Intoxicants do not seem to have been much scarcer, since he adds in a
foot-note, that when those Indians "are drinking, they frequently
present their guns to each other, when any of the parties have not
other means of procuring rum."

In April the supply of liquor was exhausted among the natives, who
sent an embassy to him to "demand rum to drink."[21] Having at first
refused to comply with their request, their threats forced him to
yield to their importunities.

[Footnote 20.: "Journal of a Voyage Through the North-West Continent
of America," London, 1801, p. 137.]

[Footnote 21.: _Ibid._, p. 150.]

At the opening of the spring he received a valued reinforcement in the
person of Alexander Mackay, who was destined to meet with a violent
death on the ship _Tonquin_, which was captured by the Coast Indians.
Finally, on the 9th of May, 1793, Mackenzie left for his perilous
expedition in a birch-bark canoe 25 feet long, 4 feet beam, and 26
inches hold. Therein he found place for 3,000 pounds of baggage and
provisions, together with a crew of nine French Canadians, whose names
are worthy to be transmitted to posterity. Besides Mackay and his
chief, there were Joseph Landry, Charles Ducette, Baptiste Bisson,
Franois Courtois, Jacques Beauchampp, and Franois Beaulieu. These
were accompanied by two Indians, who were to act as hunters and
interpreters.

Ascending the Parsnip River, the explorer met with several elk and
herds of buffalo, two noble animals which have since disappeared
forever from those quarters.[22] Then beaver succeeds to the larger
game, and Mackenzie declares that in no part of the world did he see
so much beaver work.

[Footnote 22.: The buffalo was never indigenous to the Carrier
country, and the Stuart Lake Indians call it by a Cree word; but they
knew of the elk, which went as _yezih_, a Carrier term. The Sekanais
have a native name of their own for the buffalo, which circumstance
confirms Mackenzie's account as to its originally being found west of
the Rockies. He also mentions having seen several enclosures to drive
in and capture the larger game, contrivances of which the present
writer had given a description long before he had seen Mackenzie's
Journal.

Mr. Malcolm McLeod is no doubt mistaken when, in the course of his
note xlvii to McDonald's "Peace River," he claims that Sir Alexander
Mackenzie confounds the moose with the elk. These are two very
distinct animals, the first of which (_toeni_, in Carrier) is still to
be found within the territory of our Indians, while as to the latter
(_yezih_, in Carrier), the oldest aborigines claim to have seen or
heard of specimens of it long ago on the west side of the Rocky
Mountains. That this kind of deer did really exist at one time within
reach of their arrows is shown by the fact that when they first saw a
horse they called it a domestic elk (_yezih-lhi_, elk-dog), a name it
has retained to this day. Mackenzie was also evidently of that
opinion, since on p. 205 of his Journal he distinctly mentions the
"moose, elk and reindeer." Harmon is no less explicit in his "Concise
Account of the Principal Animals which are Found in the North-Western
Part of North America." After mentioning the buffalo and the deer, he
comes to the elk, which, he says, "is about the size of a horse,"
after which he describes separately the moose and the cariboo.]

On the 9th of June he meets with the first party of undoubted
Sekanais, a body of natives who had heard of white men, but had never
seen any. They immediately took to flight, and on his sending his men
to parley with them, the latter were received with the brandishing of
spears, the display of bows and arrows, and loud vociferations.
Having succeeded in dispelling their fears, the explorer soon noticed
iron work in their possession. On inquiry he found that they got it
from people who lived up a large river (the Carriers), who in turn
procured it from others who dwelt in houses (the Coast Indians), to
whom it was furnished by men like Mackenzie himself, who travelled in
canoes large as islands on the "stinking lake," the sea. They
professed to know of no stream that emptied therein, but mentioned a
large river whose "inhabitants built houses, lived on islands, and
were a numerous and warlike people."[23] This is the first implied
reference we find in the whole field of literature to the Fraser and
the Carrier Indians.

Having persuaded one of the Sekanais to accompany them in the capacity
of guide, Mackenzie and party reached (June 12th) a lake two miles
long, which was no other than the source of the Parsnip. After a
portage of only 817 paces, they came to another lake, whence they
entered a small stream which was to try sorely their patience, and
which, for that reason, they called the "Bad River." This might be
described as a generally shallow creek with a rocky bottom, where
rapids, whirlpools, eddies, and treacherous rocks succeeded each other
with hardly any interruption. The party's canoe fared badly along this
wild river, getting broken with several holes in the bottom, when the
crew had to jump into the water, and the whole cargo was wrecked,
though afterwards recovered, with the exception of the bullets, which
were irretrievably lost.

[Footnote 23.: Mackenzie's Journal, p. 204.]

As a climax, the guide, on whom they had counted to introduce them to
the terrible Carriers, deserted on the 15th, and they were left alone
to contemplate the "Great River," which they reached in the course of
the same day, and which Mackenzie took to be the Columbia, though he
occasionally calls it _Tacoutche-Desse_, after his Eastern Dn
interpreter.[24] This, as everybody knows, was nothing else than the
large stream which nowadays goes by the name of Fraser River.

On the 19th of June his men saw, without being able to entertain them,
a small party of Carriers, who fled at their approach, and by
threatening signs with their arms (which, besides the usual bows and
arrows, consisted of spears and large knives), deterred them from
attempting anything like friendly intercourse.

On the morrow he passed a house which seemed to him so novel that he
describes it minutely, along with "a large machine...of a cylindrical
form," which was none other than a salmon basket. After meeting
several other lodges built on the same model, mostly on islands, he
cached in the ground ninety pounds of pemmican, and, on June 21st,
somewhere between what is now Quesnel and Alexandria, he came upon the
first party of Carriers with whom he could hold intercourse. His
account of his experience with them is so graphic that, in spite of
its length and owing to the importance of the occurrence to the
historian and the ethnographer, we will reproduce it almost in its
entirety. It is but fair to fully notice the risks the great explorer
ran, and the wonderful tact with which he came out of them without
injury to himself or his people.

[Footnote 24.: The Carrier name is _Lhtha-Khoh_, which is no doubt
responsible for the word Tacoutche (_tche_ means mouth) the desinence
of which (_Khoh_) is the Carrier equivalent of the Eastern Dn
_desse_, river.]

[Illustration: A CARRIER FISHERMAN.

With one of Mackenzie's "machines" in the background.]

"We perceived a small new canoe that had been drawn up to the edge of
the woods, and soon after another appeared with one man in it, which
came out of a small river. He no sooner saw us than he gave the
whoop to alarm his friends, who immediately appeared on the bank,
armed with bows and arrows and spears. They were thinly habited, and
displayed the most outrageous antics. Though they were certainly in a
state of great apprehension, they manifested by their gestures that
they were resolved to attack us if we should venture to land. I
therefore ordered the men to stop the way of the canoe, and even to
check her drifting with the current, as it would have been extreme
folly to have approached these savages before their fury had in some
degree subsided. My interpreters, who understood their language,
informed me that they threatened us with instant death if we drew nigh
the shore, and then followed their menace by discharging a volley of
arrows, some of which fell short of the canoe and others passed over
it, so that they fortunately did us no injury. As we had been carried
by the current below the spot where the Indians were, I ordered my
people to paddle to the opposite side of the river, without the least
appearance of confusion, so that they brought me abreast of them. My
interpreters, while we were within hearing, had done everything in
their power to pacify them, but in vain. We also observed that they
had sent off a canoe with two men down the river, as we concluded, to
communicate their alarm and procure assistance...."

This circumstance induced him to leave no step untried in order to
establish friendly intercourse with them before the arrival of the
expected reinforcements. So he goes on to say:

"I left the canoe and walked by myself along the beach, in order to
induce some of the natives to come to me, which I imagined they might
be disposed to do when they saw me alone without any apparent
possibility of receiving assistance from my people.... At the same
time, in order to possess the utmost security of which my situation
was susceptible, I directed one of the Indians to slip into the woods
with my gun and his own, and to conceal himself from their discovery;
he also had orders to keep as near me as possible without being seen,
and if any of the natives should venture across and attempt to shoot
me from the water, it was his instructions to lay him low; at the same
time he was particularly enjoined not to fire till I had discharged
one or both of the pistols that I carried in my belt....

"In the meantime, my other interpreter assured them
that we entertained the most friendly disposition, which I
confirmed by such signals as I conceived would be comprehended
by them. I had not, indeed, been long at my
station and my Indian in ambush behind me, when two of
the natives came off in a canoe, but stopped when they had
got within a hundred yards of me. I made signs for
them to land, and as an inducement displayed looking-glasses,
beads, and other alluring trinkets. At length, but
with every mark of extreme apprehension, they approached
the shore, stern foremost, but would not venture to land.
I now made them a present of some beads, with which
they were going to push off, when I renewed my entreaties,
and after some time prevailed on them to come ashore
and sit down by me. My hunter now thought it right to
join me, and created some alarm in my new acquaintance.
It was, however, soon removed, and I had the satisfaction
to find that he and these people perfectly understood each
other.[25]... I expressed my wish to conduct them to
our canoe, but they declined my offer; and when they saw
some of my people coming towards us they requested me
to let them return, and I was so satisfied with the progress
I had made in my intercourse with them that I did not
hesitate a moment in complying with their desire.

[Footnote 25.: Mackenzie's interpreter must have been previously acquainted with the
Carrier dialect, or the explorer is mistaken as to the ease with which his
Indian conversed with the strangers, as a Sekanais and, _a fortiori_, a Beaver
who knows but his own idiom can hardly understand a Carrier. The probability
is that each party used all he knew of the other's vocabulary, added to
the words which, with slight variations, are common to both tribes.]

"During their short stay they observed us and everything about us with
a mixture of admiration and astonishment. We could plainly distinguish
that their friends received them with great joy on their return, and
that the articles which they carried back with them were examined with
a general and eager curiosity; they also appeared to hold a
consultation, which lasted about a quarter of an hour, and the result
of which was an invitation to come over to them, which was cheerfully
accepted. Nevertheless on our landing, they betrayed evident signs of
confusion, which arose probably from the quickness of our
movements.... The two men, however, who had come with us appeared,
very naturally, to possess the greatest share of courage on the
occasion and were ready to receive us on our landing; but our demeanor
soon dispelled all their apprehensions."[26]

Having secured their confidence by gifts of trinkets and the like, he
was informed that the river on which they had embarked was long, with
a very strong current and several rapids which no man could safely
shoot. Mackenzie's new friends described their immediate neighbors,
the Shushwaps, as "a very malignant race, who lived in large
subterranean recesses," and they did their best to dissuade him from
continuing farther, if he valued his life at all. According to their
reports, the Shushwaps then possessed iron arms and utensils, which
they procured from neighbors in the west, who obtained them from
people like Mackenzie.

[Footnote 26.: "Journal," pp. 242-5.]

But he was not to be easily dissuaded. Taking along two of his new
acquaintances to secure him a favorable reception from the Indians he
would meet on his way down, he was just leaving for the south, when a
canoe was sighted which was manned by three men, one of whom cautioned
him to wait until next day, as the messengers he had noticed detaching
themselves from the main group had gone down to alarm the people, who
would certainly oppose his passage.

On the morrow he left early with his two Carrier guides, only to fall
in with another body of hostile Indians. The guide went to them, and,
"after a very vociferous discourse," one of them was persuaded to
approach them, a man who presented a "very ferocious aspect," after
which his example was followed by his companions, to the number of
seven men and ten women.

A little farther down he had a repetition of his recent encounter, and
he states that so wild and ferocious was the appearance of the Indians
that he entertained fears for the safety of the guides sent to
conciliate them. At the main village--which was afterwards to be
called Alexandria, in memory of his eventful trip--he found, among the
Carriers, a Beaver Indian and four Shushwaps, and he was not a little
astonished to be addressed in Cree by a Sekanais woman who had been
taken prisoner by a band of "Knisteneaux."

There, a map of the southern course of the river was drawn for his
benefit, to show him the madness of his enterprise, while he was told
that, after only seven days' march due west, he could obtain his
object by following a route to the "stinking lake," where the Indians
themselves used to procure brass, copper and trinkets. From that
quarter they also got iron bars eighteen inches long, which they
fashioned into axes and arrow and spear points.

As he had not more than thirty days' provisions left, he held a
consultation with his men, the result of which was that they would
return up the river to the stream (Blackwater), whose valley they
would follow by land to reach the coast.

On their way up they divided into two parties. To lighten their craft,
Mackay followed the shore on foot with the two eastern Indians and one
Carrier, who had promised to guide them to the sea. On getting to the
rendezvous they had agreed upon, Mackenzie and his crew were greeted
by a story from Mackay and the easterners, which we had better allow
the explorer to relate in his own words.

"They--Mackay and companions--informed us that they had taken refuge
in that place with the determination to sell their lives, which they
considered in the most imminent danger, as dear as possible. In a very
short time after they had left us, they met a party of Indians whom we
had known at this place, and were probably those whom we had seen to
land from their canoe. They appeared to be in a state of extreme rage,
and their bows bent with their arrows across them. The guide stopped
to ask them some questions, which my people did not understand, and
then set off with the utmost speed. Mr. Mackay, however, did not leave
him till they were both exhausted from running. When the young man
came up, he then said that some treacherous design was meditated
against them...but refused to name the enemy. The guide then conducted
them through very bad ways, as fast as they could run and, when he was
desired to slacken his pace, he answered that they might follow him in
any manner they pleased, but that he was impatient to get to his
family, in order to prepare shoes and other necessaries for his
journey. They did not, however, think it prudent to quit him, and he
would not stop till ten at night.

"On passing a track that was but lately made, they began to be
ferociously alarmed, and on inquiring of the guide where they were, he
pretended not to understand them. They then all lay down, exhausted
with fatigue, and without any kind of covering; they were cold, wet
and hungry, but dared not light a fire from the apprehension of an
enemy. This comfortless spot they left at dawn of day and, on their
arrival at the lodges, found them deserted, the property of the
Indians being scattered about as if abandoned forever.

"The guide then made two or three trips into the woods, calling aloud
and bellowing like a madman. At length he set off in the same
direction as they came, and had not since appeared. To heighten their
misery, as they did not find us at the place appointed, they concluded
that we were all destroyed, and had already formed their plans to take
to the woods and cross in as direct line as they could to the waters
of the Peace River, a scheme which could only be suggested by
despair."[27]

At this recital, a general panic seized those around Mackenzie, and,
unloading everything except six packages, which he left to the care of
four men, the leader was prevailed upon to return to the camp of the
previous night, which was more propitious for defence. There he saw to
it that the party's arms were in good order, filled each man's flask
with powder, and distributed one hundred bullets, while some of the
men were employed in melting down shot to make more.

While they were busy with these warlike preparations, an Indian landed
where they stood, who, on perceiving them, bolted away with the threat
that he would hasten and join his friends, who would come and kill the
intruders.

[Footnote 27.: "Journal," pp. 263-4.]

They passed an uneasy night and kept strict watch over their
surroundings. Early next day they returned to Mackay, who complained
that his men were discontented and wanted to go home. Indeed, while
Mackenzie was taking observations at noon they went so far as to load,
of their own accord, his canoe to return east. Feigning not to notice
dissatisfaction, he let them go by water while he followed over land.

Here a little incident still added to their apprehensions. His men had
already got to an Indian house, there to pass the night, when, by
inadvertence, he let go an arrow, which, to his alarm, struck the
lodge they had just entered. That was too much for their strained
nerves. They thought themselves attacked by the mysterious Carriers,
and the explanation their chief gave them of the accident served only
to increase their fears. The arrow was without any head, and yet it
had penetrated more than an inch a hard, dry log.[28] Why remain in
the power of a people possessed of such means of destruction?
moralized his crew.

About midnight a rustling noise was heard in the woods which created a
general panic, while their dog remained in a state of nervous
restlessness until two, when the sentinel informed Mackenzie that he
saw something like a human form creeping along on all-fours. This
ultimately proved to be a blind old man, who was welcome as a means of
clearing up the mystery which had attended the Indians' actions for
the last few days. He explained that, shortly after they had passed on
their way to the sea coast, natives had arrived from up the river who
had declared them to be perfidious enemies; and their unexpected
return so soon after they had proclaimed that they were going to
follow the river to its mouth had confirmed those rumors and created a
panic of which he had been one of the victims, since, unable to follow
them, he had been left to his fate.

[Footnote 28.: "I have been assured, by one of the most respectable
Factors, that he has seen an Indian pierce an inch plank with an
unbarbed arrow, shot from his bow, the mere wooden point passing
through and protruding on the other side" ("Journal of the
[Protestant] Bishop of Montreal," p. 97).]

At these words Mackenzie must have remembered with dismay the pleasure
he had taken in firing off his gun to show the extent of his power,
and the unspeakable fright they had manifested on hearing its report.
This circumstance had now turned against him, and he and his men were
in the ludicrous position of people haunted by the apprehension of
those whom fear had driven away from them.

The next day, which was the 28th of June, was employed in making a new
canoe, and on the 29th they were agreeably surprised at beholding
their Carrier guide, with a companion, making for their camp. He
declared that he had spent his time in search of his missing family,
who had fled like the others.

On Tuesday, 2nd July, 1793, the whole party reached the mouth of the
Blackwater, where Mackenzie harangued his men, declaring his firm and
irrevocable resolution to go west, even though he might be left alone.
Then he made another cache, left his canoe on a scaffolding, and
handing each of his white companions a pack of some ninety pounds,
with a gun and ammunition--the Indians grumbling with only half that
weight--he directed his steps in their company towards the village of
the Nas-khu[']tins, which was then eleven miles distant from the mouth
of the Blackwater River, on a lake called Poencho.

There he found, as usual, several articles of European manufacture,
among which he mentions a lance resembling a sergeant's halberd, which
had lately come from the sea coast. Taking care to send two couriers
in advance to predispose people in his favor, he proceeded west, and
in the course of a few days he met a woman from the coast all
bedecked in ornaments of various kinds.

After crossing two mountains the whole party came upon an arm of the
sea, now Bentinck Inlet, among troublesome Indians, where the
indefatigable explorer wrote on a rock, "Alexander Mackenzie, from
Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred
and ninety-three."

In another month, August 24th, the intrepid voyagers were safely back
at Fort Chippewayan.[29]

[Footnote 29.: While some authors are evidently unfair to S. Fraser,
who was the first British Columbian of note, others, like the writer
of a sketch of the Hudson's Bay Company, in a booklet on the "History
of the SS. _Beaver_," are hardly just to the memory of Alexander
Mackenzie when they state that "Simon Fraser...appears to have been
the first white man to cross the Canadian Rockies in charge of an
expedition" (p. 6). That same author is scarcely more accurate when he
writes, immediately after the above astonishing statement, that Fraser
discovered, in 1806-07, the river that bears his name. (See Chapter
V.) On the other hand, Dr. A. Rattray unduly antedates Mackenzie's
discoveries in the west when he says that "the Rocky Mountains formed
an impassable barrier until Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them in
1790"; and that author is furthermore inaccurate in stating that the
Scotch explorer traced "the Peace River and the head-waters of the
Fraser River to their source" ("Vancouver Island and British
Columbia," p. 7), which he did in neither case. Nay, most authors seem
more or less at sea when it is a question of early British Columbia
chronology. One would hardly believe that a writer with such a
reputation for historical accuracy and critical acumen as R. Greenhow
enjoys, in spite of the too evident anti-British complexion of his
writings, could have stated in his "History of Oregon and California"
(p. 264), that the Fraser was never traced to its mouth before 1812,
instead of 1808, as we will see in the course of this work. The same
author, referring (_ibid._, p. 290) to the foundation of the _third_
N. W. Co. fort west of the mountains, writes (accentuating the
appositeness of his remark by the use of italics): "This was the
_first_ settlement or post of any kind made by British subjects west
of the Rocky Mountains!" (See footnotes to pp. 54 and 65 of the
present work.)]




CHAPTER IV.

_First Foundations._

1794-1806.


Not unaware of the importance of his discoveries, Alexander Mackenzie
resolved to publish his Journal, and, after preparing it for the
printer, he visited Scotland, only to return to Canada in 1795 without
having accomplished his object. Thenceforth he was to stay in
Montreal, there to act in the capacity of a partner of the North-West
Company. Just then his services were badly wanted, for in that very
year several partners having seceded from the Canadian concern, owing
to the autocratic ways of its chief, Simon McTavish, they set up a
rival corporation, which soon became known as the X Y Company. With
the love of independence which characterized Mackenzie, he was only
too inclined to join the seceders. Yet he was persuaded to stay
another three years with the North-Westers.

In 1799, however, he finally severed his connection with them, crossed
over to England, published in 1801 his "Voyages," and was knighted by
George III.

Sir Alexander's services to geography and ethnography were very
valuable, and well deserved the recognition they received. His journey
to the Pacific, especially, was an exceedingly dangerous venture, and
the fact that he emerged without bloodshed from his many difficulties
speaks volumes for his tact and prudence. His observations on the
manners and customs of the people he encountered betray an able and
evenly balanced mind. We could almost wish that the chronicler had
been more particular about place names and topographical matters in
general, as it is with the extremest difficulty that a person, however
well acquainted with the territory he explored, can follow him.
Moreover, while he notes the passing of several unimportant streams
flowing into the Parsnip River and elsewhere, we look in vain in his
journal for any mention of such large rivers as the Pack, or McLeod,
whose waters differ so much from those of the Parsnip, into which it
empties itself, and even the Nechaco, which is as important as the
Peace west of the Rockies.[30]

From a purely literary standpoint, his Journal, though revised by his
cousin, Roderick Mackenzie, stands open to criticism. Again, its
author does not seem to have been blessed with anything like a keen
ear, nor any aptitude for native languages. On pages 257-8 of his
volume he gives us brief vocabularies of the "Nagailer or Chin
Indians," and of the "Atnah or Carrier Indians," which are
philologically worthless. Moreover, his so-called Carrier vocabulary
is made up of Shushwap words, while its "Nagailer" counterpart is
intended to reproduce words which, in the mouth of his informants,
were evidently Carrier.

In the course of that same year (1801), the explorer returned to
Canada, and, freed from the bonds which had so far kept him with the
McTavish concern, threw himself body and soul into the X Y Company, of
which he became the directing spirit.

[Footnote 30.: In his own Journal, Fraser occasionally notes some of
these omissions, and in one instance he supposes that Sir Alexander
must have been asleep when he passed a large stream he never mentions.
Whereupon H. H. Bancroft becomes very wroth, forgetting that Mackenzie
is himself candid enough to confess that it happened to him more than
once to doze in his canoe ("Journal," p. 183).]

It does not fall within our province to describe here the heated
contentions, the bitter rivalries, the fights and the brigandage which
ensued between the opposing factions. Suffice it to say that
McTavish's death, in 1805, removed the main cause of the whole
trouble, and the following year the divided parties were reunited into
one. What we are concerned with is the territory traversed by the
indomitable Scotchman and its fate after it became known to the
traders.

The bitter struggle between the rival factions in the east forced them
to concentrate, instead of extending, their energies, and the
newly-discovered fields west of the Rocky Mountains had to wait for
the restoration of peace before anything could be done for them. Four
years after Mackenzie's voyage, in the course of 1797, a certain James
Finlay did, indeed, ascend that part of the Peace River which now
bears his name, after which he followed that explorer's route along
the Parsnip almost to its source; but that was merely travelling, and
it is safe to say that no tangible benefit thereby accrued to the fur
trade or the Indians.

As for the older Hudson's Bay Company, it was far too conservative and
too much devoid of initiative to have dreamed of establishing itself
in a distant country just revealed to the world through the exertions
of one of its natural enemies. Nay, it was only reaching the middle of
the continent when Alexander Mackenzie was visiting the Pacific
Coast.[31]

[Footnote 31.: The unaccountable ignorance of the early history of
British Columbia to which we have referred in our Preface manifests
itself in many ways. Will it be believed that the author of the sketch
of New Caledonia in the "Dictionary of Well-known British Columbians,"
an important work published at Vancouver four years ago, honestly
supposes that the Hudson's Bay Company had no precursors in the
fur-trade within the limits of the Province? He does not seem to have
ever heard of the North-West Company!]

As that gentleman was leaving, in 1792, on his memorable journey, a
youth of sixteen[32] was entering the service of the North-West
Company, who was to be the man of whom his employers would avail
themselves to reap the first-fruits of Mackenzie's voyage. Sir
Alexander had discovered the land; Simon Fraser was to establish the
first trading-posts therein.

Born at Bermington, on the Hudson, of a Scottish United Empire
Loyalist, a Captain Fraser, who died in prison after he had been
captured by the Americans at Burgoyne's surrender, he was taken by his
widowed mother to Upper Canada, in the vicinity of Cornwall, where he
passed his infancy. In 1792 he joined as clerk the ranks of the
North-West Company, and ten years afterwards he obtained the honorable
position of a _bourgeois_ or partner, a fact which is certainly the
best proof of his ability, and should silence the attacks of such
writers as H. H. Bancroft, who never tires of belittling him. To be
made a partner of a powerful commercial company at twenty-six is
certainly no sign of a soft brain, of lack of education, or of
administrative incapacity.

After a first appointment to Grand Portage, he was sent to Lake
Athabaska, and in 1805, new men and more abundant resources having
been added to the North-West Company by the absorption of its active
rival, the X Y Company, it was decided, at a conference held at Fort
William, the headquarters of the entire concern, to extend the
Company's activities west of the Rocky Mountains. Fraser was chosen as
the man best fitted for the purpose.

[Footnote 32.: Others wrongly say nineteen.]

In the spring of that same year (1805), one of his subordinates, James
McDougall, who was to make his mark as a popular fur-trader in the
wilds of the extreme west, had already visited the sheet of water
which empties itself into the Parsnip River and which was soon to be
called McLeod Lake. Pushing still farther west, he had even reached a
lake some fifteen miles east of the present Fort St. James, which, his
guide having told him was within Carrier territory, has remained to
this day known as Carrier Lake or Lac Porteur.

In compliance with his orders, Fraser proceeded in the autumn of the
same year to a place on the Peace, immediately east of the Rockies,
where he established a post under the name of Rocky Mountain Portage.
There he left fourteen men (two clerks and twelve servants), and went
up with six others as far as a tributary of the Parsnip, the Pack
River, which Mackenzie had overlooked, and which would have immensely
lightened the difficulties of his progress during the first half of
his voyage. This stream he entered and ascended until he came in view
of a narrow lake, seventeen miles long, which he named McLeod, in
honor of a friend in the service, Archibald Norman McLeod.

There, on a peninsula formed by a tributary (Long Lake River) and its
outlet, by latitude 5502 north, he founded the first permanent
post ever erected within what we now call British Columbia.[33] This
was to accommodate the trade with the Sekanais Indians, and for a
short time it even served as a supply house for the forts later
established among the Carriers. It has existed to this day without a
year of interruption.

Leaving three men at the new post, he returned, in November, to winter
at the Rocky Mountain House with his three remaining companions and
the fourteen men he had left there.

[Footnote 33.: Or, at all events, west of the Rocky Mountains. In a
"History of B.C., adapted for the use of Schools," O. H. Cogswell
wrongly states (p. 34) that Fort McLeod was established in 1806. Even
Nicolay supposes that Fraser did not cross the Rockies before that
date ("The Oregon Territory," p. 98).]

[Illustration: SIMON FRASER.

(From a photo by James Hawes, Cornwall, C. W., kindly furnished by
Hon. R. W. Scott.)]

The three French Canadians now stationed at Fort McLeod were pioneers
among the many fur-traders who were to toil and die on the west side
of the Rockies. They might be considered the very first resident
British Columbians. Their first immediate superior was La Malice, who
was, however, soon to be replaced by James McDougall. The trio may not
have enjoyed their enforced solitude on the shore of Lake McLeod. They
certainly do not seem to have pulled well together, and before many
months had elapsed, La Malice, who was a worthless kind of a fellow,
had left on the pretence that his men would not do their duty.

Things were going more smoothly at the parent house, immediately to
the east of the mountains, where good humor, if nothing of a less
peaceful character, was maintained by means of copious libations of
rum.

On the 28th of January, 1806, McDougall was sent on a second
expedition to McLeod Lake. Taking with him a limited store of tobacco,
beads and ammunition, he set out, accompanied by two Canadians and an
Indian, and that time he even went so far as the site of the present
Fort St. James, near the outlet of Lake Stuart, which he was the first
white man to behold. Where the imposing structures and dependencies of
that establishment now stand was then to be seen a thick forest of
spruce. One of these trees he blazed and adorned with an inscription
whereby he claimed the spot in the name of the Company he represented.
One of the few Indians he saw, a man apparently of little worth,
called Toeyen or Shaman, whom he wished to invest with some sort of
authority, he presented with a piece of red cloth, thereby securing
his good offices in a possible hour of need. This done, he returned
east.

On the 9th of February, two Canadians, Farcier and Varin, were sent to
La Malice with an assortment of axes, knives, and other articles most
in demand at McLeod Lake.

Meantime, Fraser was laying plans for his projected expedition to the
westward, and in April, 1806, he had five bales of goods made up and
carried to the western end of the portage, there to remain ready for
the early spring.

Moreover, fully realizing the importance and difficulty of that
undertaking, he was feeling his ground in advance and studying the
geography of the country he intended to endow with its first trading
establishments. His text-book was no other than the Indians, not
always quite reliable or properly understood, who occasionally called
at his place. Thus, under date of 23rd April, 1806, he records in his
Journal the arrival of natives from the Finlay River, near the source
of which he is told that there is "a large lake called Bear Lake,
where the salmon come up, and from which there is a river that falls
into another...that glides in a north-west direction.... It is in that
quarter they get their iron works and ornaments; but they represent
the navigation beyond that lake as impracticable, and say there are no
other Indians excepting a few of their relations that ever saw white
men thereabout, and to get iron works they must go far beyond it,
which they perform in long journeys on foot."

"We cannot understand what river this is," adds the chronicler, who
thereby confesses his ignorance as to the lake itself. Bancroft is not
so self-diffident. In a foot-note he peremptorily solves the problem.
"It is Babine Lake here referred to," he says.[34]

[Footnote 34.: "History of the North-West," Vol. II., p. 96.]

We are sorry to contradict so voluminous a writer, but the lake above
mentioned is simply Bear Lake, sometimes called Connolly by a few
strangers, and the river that exercises the mind of Fraser is the
Skeena. Bear Lake is within Sekanais territory, and is frequently
visited to this day by the Finlay River Indians. The source of their
supply of implements of European manufacture was merely the tribes of
Tsimpsian parentage stationed along the Skeena, who obtained them from
their congeners on the coast. The Sekanais of that early period
probably did not even know of Babine Lake, and the only inaccuracy in
their report is that relative to the proximity of Bear Lake to the
Finlay, which, as the present writer has personally ascertained, is
one hundred and eighty miles instead of "half the length of the Rocky
Mountain Portage."

This item of information seems to have preyed on Fraser's mind, and
two days later he adds, after further inquiry from new arrivals, the
unwelcome circumstance that, though that river seems to have nothing
in common with the Columbia (he means the Fraser), it is through it
that they get most of their goods, among which he mentions guns and
ammunition. One of the reasons which prompted his superiors to send
him west was to forestall the Americans, of whom they seem to have
vaguely heard in the east. It must, therefore, not have been without a
pang that he had to chronicle the fact that, according to his
informants, "white people came there in the course of the summer; but,
as they came on discovery, they had little goods. I have seen a
pistol," continues Fraser, "brass-mounted, with powder and ball, which
they say they had from them."

This was dismal intelligence indeed for a fur-trader who was just on
the point of setting out to establish new posts where he thought he
had not been preceded. Had he been better acquainted with the ways of
the Dn nation, he would have known that its members call whites
anybody who conforms to the whites. Those who traded occasionally at
Bear Lake were only Tsimpsians from the coast. Nay, the Skeena valley,
precisely on account of the monopoly claimed by the Tsimpsian
adventurers, is one of the territories of any importance within
British Columbia which has remained the longest free of any real white
man.

Before his departure for his important journey, which, after
information furnished by James McDougall, he foresaw would be long and
tedious, Fraser received, on the 27th of April, Archibald McGillivray,
who came from the east to take charge of the Rocky Mountain Fort
during his absence. Prudence suggested as early a start as possible in
May, in order to avoid the June freshets; but one of his men, the
truant La Malice, did not arrive until the 17th of that month, and a
woman he brought with him, and for whom he is said to have paid 300
sterling, caused still further delay. Fraser would have none of her in
his expedition, and La Malice refused to go without her. Finally, his
employer, short of men as he was, had to yield.

At length, after he had sent to Fort Chippewayan two canoes loaded
with furs, together with an account of his operations up to date,
Fraser left on the 20th of May, 1806. After a portage of fifteen
miles, two canoes were loaded, when it was discovered that a third was
necessary, which was entrusted to La Malice. Fraser had with him an
able lieutenant in the person of John Stuart, a young clerk, who was
to be more or less identified in after years with the fur-trade west
of the mountains. Among his crew was also a young half-breed, Jean
Baptiste Boucher, who, under the nickname of "Waccan," we will
likewise have to mention more than once in the following pages.

On the 28th of May they came upon two natives, who, though they had
never seen a white man, were possessed of guns, which they had
obtained from relatives among the Beaver Indians. At noon of the same
day, they entered the Parsnip, whose banks they were sorry to find
overflowed, so that their progress was necessarily very slow,[35] the
passage over rocks, through driftwood and rapids occasioned by the
high water, rendering their leaky canoes unwieldy and far from safe.

Nation River was passed on the 2nd of June, and three days afterwards
they encamped two miles up the Pack or McLeod River. There all the
goods which were not destined to outfit Fort McLeod were cached, when
they proceeded to the post where McDougall, now in charge, was
anxiously awaiting them. New canoes were now made and two Sekanais
engaged to introduce them to the land of the Carriers.

Ignorance of the geography of the country was to lead Fraser to repeat
the mistake already made by Alexander Mackenzie, and cause him to seek
the Fraser by way of the Parsnip and Bad Rivers, instead of through
Crooked River and what we now call Giscome Portage. We do not see
Bancroft's object in insisting that both Fraser and Mackenzie _could
not_ have gone by way of that portage, since, by their own account,
there cannot be the shadow of a doubt that they _did not_, the former
going so far as to state explicitly that, when he reached the
head-waters of the Parsnip, he was told by a Sekanais that, were he at
McLeod Lake, he could show him a shorter and better route than that he
was on.

[Footnote 35.: H. H. Bancroft, who is constantly bickering at Fraser's
shortcomings, real or imaginary, contrasts his slowness with
Mackenzie's quicker movements. Had that author lived a few years in
the north of British Columbia, he would certainly not show himself so
partial and fault-finding, as he would then know the immense
difference a week or two of warm weather will make in the state of our
rivers.]

At first Fraser was only following Mackenzie's itinerary of 1793, and
experiencing the same difficulties, increased, however, by the unusual
state of the water, resulting from the lateness of the season, the
first explorer having been fully a month in advance of Fraser, who
started from the eastern side of the Rockies, and had, moreover, to
deliver freight at Fort McLeod. Then, again, La Malice became sick to
the point of showing symptoms of delirium, and all the other men
complained of some ailment, a circumstance of which Bancroft takes
occasion to have another fling at poor Fraser, who, he seriously
asserts, should have had better men in his fort!

Arrived at the terrible Bad River, which was now swollen by the
freshets, La Malice was sufficiently recovered to make trouble and
thwart his employer by threatening to remain behind, a step which
Fraser was too kind-hearted to allow.

At ten o'clock on the 10th of June they were in sight of the Fraser,
and the next day they encamped at the confluence of the Nechaco. Up
that beautiful river the brigade encountered other enemies in the
shape of grizzly bears, two of which they chased. "One man was caught
and badly torn, the dogs coming up just in time to save his life. The
wife of one of the hunters escaped a horrible death by throwing
herself flat on her face, the enraged brute, in consequence, passing
her by in pursuit of her flying husband."[36]

The first Carriers sighted by the expedition must have been the
survivors of the Chinlac massacre recorded in our first chapter, as
they were met at the confluence of the Stuart and Nechaco Rivers,[37]
to the number of thirty men, arrayed in robes of beaver, lynx, and
marmot skins.

[Footnote 36.: Bancroft, "History of the North-West," pp. 108-9.]

[Footnote 37.: To the best of our knowledge all the authors, without a
single exception, confound the two rivers, though in reality they are
very distinct streams. The Stuart River drains Lake Stuart, in the
north, while the Nechaco, which is a most important river, issues from
Lakes Emerald, Dawson and Morice, in the west.]

The 26th of July, 1806, was a rather windy day on what the Indians
then called Lake Na[']kal, the surface of which was being ploughed
into deep furrows. The soap-berries were ripening, and most of
[']Kwah's people were camped at the mouth of Beaver Creek, to the
south-west of the present Fort St. James, when what appeared to them
two immense canoes were descried struggling against the wind, around a
point which separated them from the outlet of the lake.

Immediately great alarm arises in the crowd of natives. As such large
canoes have never plied on Carrier waters, there is hardly a doubt
that they must contain Toeyen's friends, the wonderful strangers from
"the country beyond the horizon" he had been told to expect back.
Meanwhile, the strange crafts are heading for Beaver Creek, and lo! a
song the like of which has never been heard in this part of the world
strikes the native ear. What can that mean? Might not this be a war
party, after all?

"No," declares Toeyen, who, donning his red piece of cloth as an
apron, seizes a tiny spruce bark canoe lying on the beach and
fearlessly paddles away. On, on he goes, tossed about by the great
waves, until he meets the strangers, who, recognizing him by his
badge, bid him come on board. His fellow-tribesmen, now seeing in the
distance his own little canoe floating tenantless, take fright.

"They have already killed him," they exclaim. "Ready, ye warriors;
away with the women!"

At this cry, which flies from mouth to mouth, the men seize their bows
and arrows, and the women and children seek shelter in the woods. But
the curious crafts, which, on coming nearer, prove to be large
birch-bark canoes, are now within hearing distance, and Toeyen cries
out to the men on shore to be of good cheer and have no fear, as the
strangers are animated by the most friendly dispositions. The
fugitives are hastily recalled, and Simon Fraser, with John Stuart and
his other companions, put ashore in the presence of a crowd of
wondering Carriers.

Lake Stuart was discovered, and a new province was added to the
geographical conquests of the North-West Company. To accomplish this
it had taken Fraser's party only seven days less than Mackenzie had
required to reach the seacoast from his winter quarters.[38]

On landing, Fraser's men, to impress the natives with a proper idea of
their wonderful resources, fired a volley with their guns, whereupon
the whole crowd of Carriers fell prostrate to the ground. To allay
their fears and make friends, tobacco was offered them, which, on
being tasted, was found too bitter, and thrown away. Then, to show its
use, the crew lighted their pipes, and, at the sight of the smoke
issuing from their mouths, the people began to whisper that they must
come from the land of the ghosts, since they were still full of the
fire wherewith they had been cremated. Pieces of soap were given to
the women, who, taking them to be cakes of fat, set upon crunching
them, thereby causing foam and bubbles in the mouth, which puzzled
both actors and bystanders.

All these phenomena, however, were soon explained away, leaving no
suspicion in the native mind, but a most pronounced admiration for the
foreigners and their wares. That this last impression was not quite
reciprocal is gathered from one of Fraser's letters, wherein he
describes his new acquaintances.

[Footnote 38.: It should be borne in mind that, besides starting from
the east instead of the west side of the Rockies, Fraser had to ascend
two important rivers which Mackenzie did not even see.]

"They are," he writes, "a large, indolent, thievish set of vagabonds,
of a mild disposition. They are amazing fond of goods, which
circumstance might lead to imagine that they would work well to get
what they seem to be so fond of; but then, they are independent of us,
as they get their necessaries from their neighbors, who trade with the
natives of the seacoast."[39]

Trading and bartering were started on the spot. The natives, who
received illusory substitutes for their fur coats and robes, were
instructed thenceforth to exert themselves and procure as many as
possible of the skins enumerated to them.

The first introduction over, the young founder set his men to work at
clearing the ground for a new fort at the exact spot McDougall had
marked out, just one mile to the north-west of the outlet of the large
sheet of water which, called at first Sturgeon Lake, was finally
christened Stuart Lake, as a compliment to Fraser's chief companion.

[Footnote 39.: Quoted by Bancroft, "History of the North-West," Vol.
II., p. 109.]

[Footnote 40.: _Ibid,, ibid._]

The latitude of the new place was 54 26 52, by longitude about
124 30. It stood on a bay with shallow waters, not on a peninsula,
as Bancroft says.[40] To the beauty of its surroundings even
fault-finding John McLean was to bear testimony when, forty-three
years later, he wrote the following description, which is about
accurate, though by no means adequate:

"Fort St. James, the depot of New Caledonia district, stands near the
outlet of Stuart Lake, and commands a splendid view of the surrounding
country. The lake is about fifty miles in length, and from three to
four miles in breadth, stretching away to the north and north-east for
about twenty miles. The view from the fort embraces nearly the whole
of this section of it, which is studded with beautiful islands. The
western shore is low, and indented by a number of small bays formed by
wooded points projecting into the lake, the background rising
abruptly into a ridge of hills of varied height and magnitude. On the
east the view is limited to a range of two or three miles by the
intervention of a high promontory, from which the eye glances to the
snowy summits of the Rocky Mountains in the distant background. I do
not know that I have seen anything to compare with this charming
prospect in any other part of the country; its beauties struck me even
at this season of the year, when, nature having partly assumed her
hybernal dress, everything appeared to so much greater
disadvantage."[41]

McLean hardly does justice to the beautiful mountains which rise on
either side of Lake Stuart, one of which towers 2,600 feet above the
surface of the water, while on the opposite shore another, though less
prominent, is still higher. These reminded Fraser of the absent
fatherland so often vaunted by his mother, and led him to call the
whole country New Caledonia.[42] Then, again, the lake is wider than
our author thinks. By actual measurement it is in places over six
miles broad.

[Footnote 41.: "Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's
Bay Territory," London, 1849, Vol. I., p. 241-42.... Lake Stuart lies
2,250 feet above sea level, instead of barely 1,800, as C. Horetzky
would have it ("Canada on the Pacific," p. 79), and his error is so
much the less comprehensible as that author was a land surveyor, who
had several aneroids with his party.]

[Footnote 42.: Barret-Lennard wrongly says that Capt. Cook was
responsible for that name ("Travels in British Columbia," p. 19).

While we may overlook the many geographical errors committed in
describing Fraser's progress by the few authors (Bancroft, Masson,
Bryce) who have referred to it, we must be allowed to question the
propriety of Mr. Masson's express statement to the effect that Fraser
established a fort he named New Caledonia about fifty miles from the
mouth of the Stuart River. Dr. Bryce reiterates that assertion, though
in vaguer terms, on page 142 of his own book, "The Remarkable History
of the Hudson's Bay Company." Now, there has never been a vestige of
such an establishment, and none of the oldest aborigines has ever
heard of it. Fraser's limited personnel did not warrant three
foundations without receiving reinforcements. Stuart, the very man who
is credited with having been placed in charge of that mythical post,
was in reality sent to see and report on the region of Lake Fraser.
Fraser himself writes to his partners in August, 1806: "We have
established the post [not the posts] beyond the mountains, and will
establish another in the most conventional (_sic_) place we can find
before the fall," meaning Fort Fraser. It is probable, however, that
both Masson and Bryce refer only to that place which was to be known
later as Fort St. James. In that case, both of them are wrong, the
former as to distances (Fort St. James being fully ninety miles from
the mouth of Stuart River), and the latter as to the site of the place
(said fort being not on Stuart River, but on Stuart Lake). On the
other hand, Masson can hardly be accurate in writing that Fraser
"passed the summer" at the lake called after him, since he had not yet
so much as seen it on the 3rd of September.]

Thus was the second fort established west of the mountains.[43]

It was intended as a rendezvous for the natives of the whole lake, the
exact number of whom could hardly be realized in the haste of the
first visit. Both McDougall and Fraser, seeing only one fraction of
the entire population, do not seem to have been much impressed by its
importance; but it is safe to say that they scarcely met one-quarter
of the Indians claiming the lake or its immediate vicinity as their
habitat. Yet the former states that he saw some fifty natives hovering
about the lower end of the lake. If we take these to be hunters and
heads of families, as McDougall no doubt meant it, and if we give four
children to each--a very fair average for the Carriers--the numbers of
that band must have been something like three hundred souls.

[Footnote 43.: To show how history is written in some quarters, here
is a sentence from Macfie's "Vancouver Island and British Columbia,"
p. 203: "In 1806, the _first_ fur-trading post ever established in
British Columbia was erected _a short distance_ from the great bend of
Fraser River by the officer of the _Hudson's Bay Company_ after whom
that stream was named." The italics are ours, and represent as many
egregious blunders.

Even Alex. Begg, who is generally accurate in his "History of the
North-West," evidently labors under the impression that no trading
post was erected "across the Rocky Mountains until about the year
1810" (Vol. I., p. 117), a statement which, owing to its obliging
qualificative, is elastic enough to disarm the critic. The fact that,
in the exceedingly valuable Chronological Table appended to the third
volume of his work (also p. 141, Vol. I. of the same), he duly
records with the proper dates the foundation of Forts McLeod and
Stuart, seems to imply that his ideas concerning the geographical
position of these posts were somewhat vague, inasmuch as a few lines
further he repeats his original assertion in the entry: "1810. The
North-West Company pushed across the Rocky Mountains." At that date it
already possessed four stations within that territory.

The above is almost the sum total of the references to New Caledonia
matters to be found throughout the three large volumes which form that
would-be "History of the North-West." For that reason not a few will,
no doubt, be tempted to compare it to the tragedy of Hamlet with
Hamlet left out. It is in reality a history of Central Canada, always
well-meaning and generally accurate, the work of a man whose possible
preferences of race or creed seldom interfere with what he conceives
to be his duty as an historian, an accomplishment which is shared by
very few of those who have treated of the topics covered by his work.]

But, fourteen miles farther north, at the mouth of the Pinche River,
on the same body of water, there was, and still remains, a village of
Carriers who were somewhat less numerous, though more sedentary.
Again, a very large settlement stood at the mouth of the Thach River,
the principal affluent of the lake, just opposite the site of the
present village, and another powerful clan, that of the Beavers (which
should not be confounded with the tribe of the Beaver Indians east of
the Rockies), had their homes on the same stream, at a place called
Grand Rapid, perhaps eighteen miles above. Finally, on a minor
tributary, flowing into the northern end of the lake now called the
Portage, were a few bands of Carriers, mostly fishermen, living on the
fine whitefish abounding in that quarter. All told, one thousand souls
is a conservative estimate for the Stuart Lake population at that
early period.




CHAPTER V.

_Founding and Exploring._

1806-09.


By this time Fraser must have had enough of La Malice, than whom few
people seem to have been more aptly named. So, to get rid of him and,
at the same time, further the interests of his own corporation, he
sent him, as the work on the new fort was getting well under way, with
letters, first to McDougall at Fort McLeod, and then further east to
the partners he had left at the Rocky Mountain House, whence he
directed him to take to Fort Chippewayan canoes loaded with the
equipments of the new posts up to McLeod Lake.

On the other hand, August was now drawing to a close, and as salmon
was extraordinarily slow in making its appearance, the limited
supplies he had brought from the east were soon exhausted. Berries,
with a few small fish and an occasional fowl, became the only means of
subsistence left the fort-builders. At the same time, McDougall, who,
from the better equipment of his own establishment, was supposed to be
in a position to help them, was begging the starving Fraser for some
ammunition and a hunter to keep him alive.

Therefore, to disperse his forces and thereby render their lives less
precarious, as well as with a view of keeping his promise to establish
another fort before the fall the young commander sent John Stuart with
two men over land to the south, where, about forty miles from his
present quarters,[44] he had been told was another lake with a
numerous native population. Stuart's mission was to spy out the land
and report to his chief at Chinlac, the meeting-point of the Stuart
and Nechaco Rivers.

John Stuart left on the 28th of August, and Fraser, with the remaining
men, now in really straitened circumstances, were putting the last
touches to what, in the course of time, was to become the "formidable
establishment of Fort St. James."

To take away as many mouths as possible, with a hope of feeding them
more easily with the fruits of the chase or other adventitious
resources of travel, and, at the same time, to keep his own
appointment with his clerk, the young _bourgeois_ started with three
men on the 3rd of September, leaving a certain Blais temporarily in
charge of the new post. But when chief and subordinate met again at
Chinlac, so encouraging was Stuart's report on the place he had just
visited, that Fraser resolved to repair thither in person, and, in
company with his friend, who had to turn back, he poled up the Nechaco
to the short tributary issuing from the lake, which, to return the
compliment his superior had paid him, Stuart had already called Fraser
Lake.

There the combined party erected a fort on a large bay near its
outlet.[45] Salmon then came up with a vengeance. Meal after meal, and
day after day, it formed the _pice de rsistance_ on all the tables,
so that people who had pined for its arrival were now reduced to the
necessity of complaining of its frequency in their menu.

[Footnote 44.: Bancroft ("History of British Columbia," p. 571) calls
it 25 miles, and adds: "Sixty miles south-easterly was Fort George, 80
miles north-easterly was Fort McLeod, and 100 miles north-westerly was
Fort Babine." Now, by the original trail, Fraser Lake was over 45
miles from Stuart Lake; Fort George is at least 150 miles, and old
Fort Babine was 140 miles distant.]

[Footnote 45.: Not "a Hudson's Bay station," nor "at the head of the
river" Fraser, nor "probably the first fur-trading establishment ever
opened in British Columbia," as Rattray has it.]

Fraser Lake is a quiet little sheet of water about thirteen miles long
by scarcely three at its greatest breadth. Then, as now, both ends
were the sites of a native village, and in the course of time Fort
Fraser was to become the resort of numerous Indians. Close by what is
now called Stony Creek there was the important settlement of Thachek,
to which we have already referred more than once, and another village
six miles off, on what is now Gordon Lake. Hehn Lake, the source of
the Mud River, had another flourishing settlement; while on St. Mary's
Lake, in the south, were two or three lesser villages. Finally, on
French Lake, in the west, and one of its tributaries, Peters Lake,
were colonies of Carriers, whose settlements were but a portion of
those which dotted the forest to the source of the Blackwater and the
seats of the Chilcotins in the south. So many localities which were to
become dependent on the new fort for their supplies could not but have
rendered it extremely valuable to its founders.

To while away the weary hours of building inspection, Fraser set about
exploring the surrounding country. In the course of his peregrinations
he found, at Fond du Lac, or the western village, "some spoons and a
metal pot," which attested previous intercourse with the Coast
Indians. In this connection a little incident, quite insignificant in
itself, happened, which shows that he knew how to win the sympathy of
the natives by conforming to their whims even in small matters. A
chief had died and been cremated, and a memorial post was being
erected, which contained, as usual, the few charred bones picked up
from the funeral pyre. Thereon Fraser, after a most solemn ceremony,
engraved his name, to the immense satisfaction of the warriors
assembled.

The building operations over, he left a man in charge with a few
servants, and returned with the others to his new home at Stuart Lake,
where he passed the winter.

In the fall of 1806 he sent Stuart for the goods La Malice was to have
brought by the canoes from Athabaska, only to ascertain that no canoes
had come and, therefore, no goods or provisions were available. That
was sad news indeed, yet the traders made themselves as comfortable as
possible, and, if we are to credit Bancroft, Fraser and McDougall even
took to themselves temporary wives from among the natives in their
respective vicinities.

Thus closed the second year of the incipient settlements within New
Caledonia. Fraser was at Stuart Lake, McDougall at McLeod Lake, and
Blais at Fraser Lake. As to Stuart, he spent his first winter west of
the Rockies with his immediate superior.

The main question was now that of outfitting and supplies. Fraser's
own experience had shown him the extreme difficulty of the water
route. It was his original intention "to get the goods taken across
land"[46] to the new posts. But the failure of La Malice to bring to
its destination the much wanted outfit seems to have momentarily
dissuaded him from following the leanings of his own judgment in the
matter. So we see him, in the early spring of 1807, dispatching a
canoe filled with such pelts as he had collected to ask for a new
equipment and some more men. His request was favorably received, and
in the autumn of that year two canoes, loaded with merchandise, were
sent him under the leadership of Messrs. Jules Maurice Quesnel and
Hugh Faries.

[Footnote 46.: MS. Letters, No. 8.]

Those gentlemen were also the bearers of important instructions from
headquarters. It was rumored that the Americans, under Captains Lewis
and Clarke, had reached from the south the mouth of the Columbia
River, and were rapidly annexing the country in virtue of the right of
discovery. On the other hand, it was but too evident that the Parsnip
and Bad River route was hardly practicable to supply the new forts
with their annual outfits. Much too long and difficult, it was
dangerous to the crews, and especially to the goods, which could not
reasonably be expected to reach their destination safely. The overland
route, if shorter, was much too expensive, and the native packers
hardly reliable as yet. Therefore, to forestall, if possible, the
Americans in their adventures around the mouth of the Columbia, and
eventually find a cheap route for the yearly brigade of the Canadian
trading concern, Fraser was asked to undertake, at his earliest
convenience, the careful and complete exploration by water of the
large stream which everybody took to be the Columbia.[47]

A pretty difficult task, sure enough; one which would probably not
have been set before anybody had its full extent been realized. But
Fraser was a man of courage, as even his detractors are bound to
admit; he was not the one to shirk a duty.

[Footnote 47.: As did also Alex. Begg as late as eleven years ago,
when he wrote that Fort George was established in 1807 "on the main
stream of the Columbia" ("History of the North-West," Vol. I., p.
240), and entered the following event in his Chronological Table:
"1808. Simon Fraser and John Stuart explored the Columbia."]

With the new personnel brought him by the canoes from the east, the
young superintendent of the new domain was enabled, in the fall of
1807, to erect a new post, and thereby establish the fourth link in
the chain of forts wherewith he intended to bind the country to the
interests of his employers. This time, the junction of the Nechaco
with the "Great River" he was to explore was the chosen site. The
native population thus accommodated was not to be so numerous as that
doing business with the other posts established by Fraser; but its
territory was one exceedingly rich in furs, and then the new place
might prove to be nothing but a stepping-stone towards the foundation
of another fort still farther south. Hugh Faries was the first man in
charge of the new post, which received the name of Fort George, in
honor of the then reigning monarch.

Considerable discrepancy occurs among the several authors as to the
date when Fraser set out on the expedition upon which his fame was to
rest. Masson and Bryce say that the start was effected on the 22nd of
May, 1808. The former is very obscure concerning the identity of the
place whence he left, which he says was "the mouth of the little river
he names Fraser, probably the one which bears to-day the name of
Nechaco" (a fine _little_ river, indeed!). This would mean Fort
George. Dr. Bryce is more explicit. "On May 22nd a start was made," he
writes, "from the forks,"[48] which is but another name for Fort
George. But in his "History of British Columbia," Begg says that
Fraser left Fort George on the 26th of May.

[Footnote 48.: "The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company,"
Toronto, William Briggs, 1900, p. 143.]

Now, we venture to assert that none of these historians is correct,
either as to the date or as to the locality. Though Fraser's Journal,
such as published by Mr. Masson, dates his departure on May 22nd, and
though it is evident from the context that he commenced his diary at
Fort George, his next date is "Sunday, 29th," after which all the
other dates follow consecutively, and without any hint at a mistake in
writing 29th instead of 23rd. On the other hand, it is perfectly
certain that between Fraser's 22nd and 29th day of May only a short
day's distance was covered, and there was no stop over anywhere.
Finally, local tradition is positive that he started from Stuart
Lake, his headquarters, not from Fort George, a new place, hardly fit
as yet for habitation, which lies at a distance of three days' journey
by water to the south-east. It is, therefore, but natural to infer
that he left Stuart Lake on the 22nd of May, remained one day at Fort
George, and finally departed for the unknown on Saturday, May 28th.

If the mention of the 22nd as the first date in his journal is not a
typographical error due to Mr. Masson's printers, it may be easily
explained away by the supposition that, leaving Stuart Lake on the
22nd, he entered that date, intending to commence immediately his
diary; but on remembering that the route between Stuart Lake and Fort
George was now fairly well known, he had decided to make his first
entry coincide with his departure from the latter place.

His lieutenants in this expedition were J. Stuart and J. M. Quesnel.
He had, moreover, with him nineteen voyageurs, among whom was again
the "Waccan" of his first journey, together with two Indians, the
whole party in four canoes.

Starting on his "terrific voyage," as Dr. Bryce aptly calls it, he
had, fifteen miles from Fort George, a foretaste of the difficulties
that lay in store for him, when he nearly wrecked one of his canoes
"against a precipice which forms the right bank of the river." This
was his first acquaintance with the Fort George canyon, and there he
was more lucky than the present writer, who once lost a man at that
identical spot. Next day he was shooting the Cottonwood River canyon
with his canoes, whose cargoes had previously been portaged over to
the lower end of the rapid, where he cached three bales of dried
salmon. That day he did not go farther than the mouth of the river
which, on his return, he was to call Quesnel, after his second
lieutenant.

On Monday, the 30th, horse tracks told him of the approach of a new
nation, that "very malignant race" upon which Mackenzie had turned his
back. At Soda Creek the excited Atnahs despatched couriers on
horseback to announce his approach to their friends in the south, and
in order to make his intentions perfectly clear, he is prevailed upon
to wait there a full day.[49] He employs part of his enforced leisure
in explaining the nature of the wonderful engines of destruction he
carries with him, the like of which he tells the natives they will
soon be in a position to procure from his people if they allow him to
pass. Thereupon he fires several shots, whose reports astonish them so
much that "they drop off their legs."[50]

[Footnote 49.: He mentions in this connection a _Tahowtin_ woman
married to a Shushwap, whereupon his annotator remarks, by way of
identification: "_Nate-ote-tain_, Harmon. They lived on the Nateotin
River. Cox...calls them [']_Talkotins_." It is a hard task to keep
serious in the face of these explanations. By _Nate-ote-tain_ Harmon
means _Nato-o[']tin_, people of Nato or Babine, Babines; and the
sub-tribe Fraser refers to are the _Lhtha-o[']ten_ (a contraction of
_Lhtha-khoh-[']ten_, people of the Lhthakhoh or Fraser River), whereby
are designated the southernmost Carriers. Cox's _[']Talkotins_ is a
rendering of the same word by a person who has no ear for the native
languages. A distance of at least four hundred miles separates the
_Lhtha-o[']ten_ from the nearest _Nato-o[']tin_.]

[Footnote 50.: Journal (in Masson's "Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest"), p.
160.]

After meeting large crowds of aborigines, who showed themselves rather
friendly, and who, he says, were inveterate smokers, his progress was
barred, on the 1st of June, by a new and even greater difficulty than
those so far experienced. For two miles there was a strong rapid with
"high and steep banks, which contracted the channel in many places to
forty or fifty yards." No wonder, then, if "this immense body of
water, passing through this narrow space in a turbulent manner,
forming numerous gulfs and cascades, and making a tremendous noise,
had an awful and forbidding appearance."[51] Finding the banks too
steep to allow of a portage, he launched, by way of an experiment, one
of his canoes lightly loaded and manned by his five best men, only to
see it drawn into an eddy, to be "whirled about for a considerable
time, seemingly in suspense whether to sink or swim, the men having no
power over her." Led from that dangerous vortex into the main current,
the little craft was now flying from one danger to another, until the
last cascade but one, where, in spite of every effort, the whirlpools
forced her against a rock, upon which the men were fortunate enough to
alight, thus barely escaping with their lives.

"During this distressing scene, we were on the shore looking on and
anxiously concerned; seeing our poor fellows once more safe afforded
us as much satisfaction as to themselves, and we hastened to their
assistance; but their situation rendered our approach perilous and
difficult. The bank was extremely high and steep, and we had to plunge
our daggers at intervals into the ground to check our speed, as
otherwise we were exposed to slide into the river. We cut steps in the
declivity, fastened a line to the front of the canoe, with which some
of the men ascended in order to haul it up, while the others supported
it upon their arms. In this manner our situation was most precarious;
our lives hung, as it were, upon a thread, as the failure of the line
or a false step of one of the men might have hurled the whole of us
into eternity. However, we fortunately cleared the bank before
dark."[52]

[Footnote 51.: _Ibid._, p. 163.]

[Footnote 52.: Fraser's Journal, p. 164.]

Fraser now finds further progress by water impossible. Here are some
of the inducements held out to him by land:

"As for the road by land, we could scarcely make our way with even
only our guns. I have been for a long period among the Rocky
Mountains, but have never seen anything like this country. We had to
pass where no human being should venture; yet in those places there is
a regular footpath impressed, or rather indented, upon the very rocks
by frequent travelling. Besides this, steps which are formed like a
ladder by poles hanging to one another, crossed at certain distances
with twigs, the whole suspended from the top, furnish a safe and
convenient passage to the natives down these precipices; but we, who
had not the advantage of their education and experience, were often in
imminent danger when obliged to follow their example."

The natives now seriously advised him to abandon the water route
altogether, whereupon the "courageous and conscientious man" asserts
himself when he cannot help writing: "Going to the sea by an indirect
way was not the object of the undertaking. I therefore would not
deviate."[53]

On that same day he furnishes us with the earliest written mention of
the Chilcotins when he writes: "There is a tribe of Carriers [he means
Dns] among them, who inhabit the banks of a large river which flows
to the right; they call themselves Chilk-odins."

On June 2nd he finds the river has risen eight feet in twenty-four
hours--something quite usual for that torrent-like stream--and tries
to find horses for Mr. Stuart, who has had enough of the river, and he
wastes a good part of the day in anxious suspense, as none of the
Indians seem really willing to part with their animals. His patience
is, however, rewarded on the morrow, when he gets four horses, one of
which on that same day tumbles, with his load, over a precipice and is
lost.

[Footnote 53.: Fraser's Journal, p. 165.]

One of his men employed in portaging the baggage almost met with a
similar fate one day later. Having missed the narrow path, he "got
into a most intricate and perilous situation. With a large package on
his back, he got so engaged among the rocks that he could neither move
forward nor backward, nor yet unload himself without imminent danger.
Seeing this poor fellow in such an awkward and dangerous predicament,
I crawled," writes Fraser, "not without great risk, to his assistance,
and saved his life by causing his load to drop from his back over the
precipice into the river."[54]

Continuing by water, he has hardly anything left to mention but
precipices of immense height, tremendous whirlpools, treacherous
breakers, and dashing cascades, until he is obliged to confess that
his is, indeed, a hopeless undertaking. Yet he will not give it up.
For four long days more the painful task goes on; sometimes shooting
rapids where he is cautioned to leave his canoes altogether, and then
portaging goods and craft over high hills, precipices and ravines,
with such terrible walking over the sharp stones that "a pair of shoes
[moccasins] does not last the day, and the men have their feet full of
thorns."

On the 9th of June "the channel contracts to about forty yards, and is
enclosed by two precipices of immense height, which, bending over each
other, make it narrower above than below. The water, which rolls down
this extraordinary passage in tumultuous waves and with great
velocity, had a frightful appearance. However, it being absolutely
impossible to carry the canoes by land, all hands, without hesitation,
embarked, as it were _ corps perdu_, upon the mercy of this awful
tide.... Thus skimming along as fast as lightning, the crews, cool and
determined, followed each other in awful silence, and when we arrived
at the end we stood gazing at each other in silent congratulation at
our narrow escape from total destruction."[55]

[Footnote 54.: Fraser's Journal, p. 168.]

[Footnote 55.: _Ibid._, pp. 170-71.]

In the face of such a perilous undertaking, a modern writer cannot
refrain from exclaiming: "How difficult it is to distinguish small
from great actions! Here was a man making fame for all time, and the
idea of the greatness of his work had not dawned upon him."[56]

Neither has it as yet dawned upon another who writes of Fraser's
achievement: "By this _easy_ and _pleasant_ service, he secured for
the perpetuation of his name the second largest river in this region."
The italics are ours, but as to the statement itself, it can proceed
from but one man, Hubert Howe Bancroft![57]

The natives here drew for the explorer a map of the river, which they
declared absolutely impracticable, dissuading him at the same time
from trying to follow it by land, as there was no beach, no shore, but
steep, high mountains and precipices, which they would have to ascend
and descend by means of rope ladders. Nothing daunted by these
warnings, Fraser continued with his canoe, only to find the rapids
getting worse and worse, "being a continual series of cascades
intercepted with rocks and bounded by precipices."

[Footnote 56.: "History of the Hudson's Bay Company," by G. Bryce, p.
145.]

[Footnote 57.: "History of the North-West Coast," Vol. II., p. 119.
The same author ungenerously adverts to the fact that Mackenzie had
seen part o the Upper Fraser before that stream was explored and
identified as quite distinct from the Columbia, and indirectly
contests the right of Fraser to name it. The Mackenzie River is but
the lower course of a long stream which is called Finlay near its
source, and then Peace, Athabaska, and Slave. Would anybody pretend
that no white man had seen and navigated any of these parts of the
same river before 1789? Should we then conclude that the Mackenzie is
misnamed?]

On the 10th of June, finding further progress physically impossible,
he had to confess himself conquered by nature, which confronted him
with difficulties increased a hundred-fold by the high stage of the
water. Therefore, on Sunday, June 11th, leaving his canoes by the
stream, he buried in the ground such articles as could not be carried
along, and started on foot with his men, loaded with eighty-pound
packs, hoping for better luck in keeping at a distance from the
surging waters.

It is not within the scope of this work to follow him through the many
hardships he had still to undergo at the hands of nature and of men,
especially as he is now within sight of the Thompson River, and
consequently on the limits of New Caledonia. Yet, for the sake of any
possible antiquarian who may happen to read these lines, we cannot
omit to mention his reference to the Askettihs,[58] a nation "dressed
in their coats of mail," which at first received him with a volley of
arrows. Their village, he writes, "is a fortification of one hundred
feet by twenty-four, surrounded by palisades eighteen feet high,
slanting inward, and lined with a shorter row, which supports a shade,
covered with bark, constituting the dwellings."

As he gets nearer and nearer the tide-water he meets with increasingly
numerous European wares, among which he mentions "a copper tea kettle
and a gun of a large size, which are probably of Russian
manufacture,"[59] and, farther down, a sword of tremendous proportions
made of sheet iron. From Yale he takes to the water again, having in
one place to snatch a canoe by force from an Indian, who refuses all
sorts of payments, and who finally accompanies him, trembling and
sobbing at the thought of the terrible natives they will meet at the
mouth of the river.

This Simon Fraser finally reaches, and our hero does not return before
he has set his eyes on the Gulf of Georgia,[60] and ascertained that
the river he has explored empties itself into the Ocean, about four
degrees of latitude north of the mouth of the Columbia.

[Footnote 58.: Presumably the Lillooet Indians.]

[Footnote 59.: Journal, p. 178.]

[Footnote 60.: By which circumstance will be seen how much truth there
is in the following autograph note by Malcolm McLeod to the Journal of
Sir George Simpson's famous journey across the American continent, in
the copy of the same now in the possession of the present writer:
"Simon Fraser, after whom (wrongly, I think) the river has been named,
never navigated it within over 250 miles of its mouth, nor did any of
the Nor'-West Co.; but, fearing the attempt, hauled up his canoes at
the mouth of a small stream on the left, which consequently was named
by him Canoe River."

The above is a fair sample of the attempts made by Hudson's Bay
Company men and others of Bancroft's turn of mind to depreciate Simon
Fraser's achievement. That the latter had to yield for a moment to the
tremendous difficulties opposed to his progress by water everybody
knows, and we are also free to admit that Sir Geo. Simpson did
navigate, in 1828, the very stretches of river which Fraser had
avoided twenty years earlier. But he who feels inclined to imagine
that this circumstance detracts from the latter's glory thereby only
betrays his own ignorance. Fraser's voyage took place in the month of
June, and he did not reach the sea before the beginning of July, that
is, just at the time when the river called after him is a boiling
torrent, dangerous to navigate even outside of its regular caons,
whilst Simpson's descent of the same was not effected before some time
in the autumn (9th and 10th of October), when the river is for all
purposes of navigation an altogether different stream. The reader will
easily believe this when he is told that the present writer once lost
a man by drowning while trying to shoot in plain daylight a rapid
which he afterwards passed by night without the least difficulty. The
victim of the accident was about the best canoeman to be found in the
country, but then he should not have been so foolhardy as to attempt
in June what can easily be accomplished in October.

As to the fact that S. Fraser did reach the salt water there cannot be
the shadow of a doubt. Bancroft quotes A. C. Anderson as saying: "In
1808 Fraser and Stuart started with bark canoes to descend the Fraser,
and with great difficulty and perseverance reached a point near to
where New Westminster has since been located" ("History of the
North-West Coast," Vol. II., p. 119). On the faith of that assertion
by an Hudson's Bay Company man whom we had every reason to believe
well informed, we stated in the previous editions of this work that
Fraser had "to turn back at the place where New Westminster now
stands." But an examination of his Journal leaves no room for doubt as
to his having actually reached the Pacific. Under date July 2nd he
writes: "Proceeding on for two miles we arrived at a place where the
river divided in several channels." (In Masson's "Les Bourgeois du
Nord-Ouest," Vol. I., p. 199). By this the explorer evidently means
the different arms of the Fraser which combine to form the delta just
below what is now New Westminster, inasmuch as he almost immediately
after states explicitly: "At last we came in sight of a gulf or bay of
the sea." As if to make us doubly sure about this point Fraser goes on
to say: "On the right shore we noticed a village called by the natives
Misquiam." Now this same village is still in existence under the name
of Masquiam, and the shore of its site is bathed by the salt water.]

His object was accomplished, and the world was soon to learn that the
Fraser was a totally different river from the Columbia.

And now, having reached the goal of his ambition, he could well
retrace his steps. Yet at the hour of triumph he narrowly escaped
paying with his life the penalty of his daring. Followed by a flotilla
of canoes manned by hostile Indians, as he returned to the village,
where sheer necessity had compelled him to take a canoe by force, he
found the inhabitants of that locality so excited that he feared the
worst. His people wanted to take to flight and return through the
fastnesses of unknown mountains, where those who might escape the
darts of their pursuers were sure to find death by starvation. Yet
such was the ascendancy he had acquired over them that he actually
made them swear before God to stay together and abide by his counsels.

The return journey was painful, though without remarkable incidents,
and by the 6th of August he was back at Fort George. Strange to say,
while the descent of the river had required forty days, the ascent of
the same was made within only thirty-three days.

After that "_easy_ and _pleasant_ service," Simon Fraser proceeded
east to report on his achievements, and on May 16th of the following
year (1809) he was for one day the guest at Fort Dunvegan, on the
Peace River, of the very man who was, shortly after, to continue in
the west the work he had so brilliantly commenced--we mean Daniel
Williams Harmon.

As a reward for his services Fraser was promoted, in 1811, to the
charge of the whole Red River department, which then extended as far
west as the Liard River. Due recognition of his merit was also offered
him in the shape of a knighthood, which, however, the insufficiency of
his means did not allow him to accept. In 1816 he was present at the
unfortunate affair of the Seven Oaks, when Governor Semple, of the
Hudson's Bay Company, lost his life in the conflict with the
North-West Company people; and when, shortly afterwards, Lord Selkirk
took Fort William in retaliation, Simon Fraser was one of the partners
arrested and sent to Montreal.

After the excitement of those stirring times he must have returned to
the West, for, under date March 13th, 1820, Sir John Franklin, the
ill-fated explorer of the north, mentions one "Mr. Frazer" as being
then stationed among the Chipewyans, who was probably none other than
the founder of New Caledonia.[61]

Having retired from the service about the time of the coalition of the
two companies (1821), he married the daughter of Captain Allan
McDonnell, of Matilda, Ontario, and he died at St. Andrews, in the
township of Cornwall, on the 19th of April, 1862, aged eighty-six.

Simon Fraser was a Catholic--a circumstance which goes some way to
explain Bancroft's unwarranted antipathy--and, though not a model of
perfection, he was "ambitious, energetic, with considerable
conscience, and in the main holding to honest convictions." These very
encomiums have escaped Bancroft himself, who naturally hastens to
qualify them to the extent of practically withdrawing them.[62]

[Footnote 61.: "Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea," Vol. II., p.
6.]

[Footnote 62.: "History of the North-West Coast," Vol. II., p. 89.]

Some have taken pleasure in alluding to Fraser's pretended illiteracy.
He was no scholar, not any more than Sir A. Mackenzie, or even John
Stuart, who is credited with having had a liberal education. The
unpublished letters of the trio lay no claim to elegance or even
grammatical correctness. But in the case of Fraser, the reason of his
literary shortcomings almost redounds to his glory, since it is no
other than the straits his family was reduced to by the death of its
chief, Captain Fraser, in the American prisons, where the service of
his king had led him.

Simon Fraser, though an altogether self-made man, became the founder
of New Caledonia, the explorer of the main fluvial artery of British
Columbia, and one of the first residents of that province. Less
brilliant services would entitle him to the respect of every Canadian.




CHAPTER VI.

_Stuart and Harmon at Stuart Lake._

1809-21.


Though Simon Fraser had passed three full years within New Caledonia,
establishing forts and directing their personnel, he was still
supposed to be the head of the Rocky Mountain House. To keep him any
longer in the wilderness of the extreme west would have been paramount
to a non-recognition of his achievements. Therefore, on his promotion,
his first clerk, John Stuart, was named his successor in the command
of the new district. At the same time, in August, 1809, another clerk,
A. R. McLeod, with a number of working-men, were sent to his aid.

The new commander hardly relished the title which bound him to a
country where he knew by experience that life was so difficult.
Instead of stationing himself at the fort on Stuart Lake, which was
the most central of all the new establishments, he preferred to spend
most of his time at Fort McLeod, which was then more within reach of
those commodities which seem indispensable to civilized life. Thence
he would leave with the returns of his district, which he would
personally take to Rainy Lake or Fort Chippewayan, and return with the
equipments destined to his own posts.

Then, as much later on, the staple food of all the servants was dried
salmon, and a shortness in the annual run of that fish would mean
vastly impoverished circumstances for the men and increased anxiety
for the mind of the chief officer. Now, it happened that the salmon
season of 1810 was a failure, and when Stuart crossed over to
headquarters, at Fort Chippewayan, he must have availed himself of
that circumstance to inveigh against the difficulties of his charge.
The result was a letter signed by three partners, requesting D. W.
Harmon, then at Fort Dunvegan, to go and superintend the affairs of
New Caledonia, unless he preferred to accompany Mr. Stuart as second
in command.

Harmon was then thirty-two years of age, having been born in 1778, in
the State of Vermont, whence, on the 28th of April, 1800, he had set
out for Montreal and joined the ranks of the Nor'westers. He passed
four years at Swan River, where he took to wife, after the fashion of
the traders of that time, a French Canadian half-breed girl of
fourteen, who, after she had presented him with fourteen children, is
said to have remained a handsome woman, "as straight as an arrow."
Soon thereafter he was sent to Peace River, where Stuart found him
stationed.

In pursuance of his double-edged orders, Harmon, who was a most
conscientious man, elected to go and help Stuart rather than supersede
him in his charge.[63] Therefore, on the 7th of October, 1810, he
left Dunvegan with his young family, together with Stuart, who was to
remain nominally the superintendent of the district, and three days
later he was at Fort St. John, where his men were at once set to the
task of preparing provisions to make up, at least partially, for the
deficiency of salmon in New Caledonia.

[Footnote 63: Stuart's connection with the management of New Caledonia
affairs was apparently so slight, and his title so nominal, that we
have long hesitated whether Harmon was not the _de jure_ as well as
_de facto_ ruler of the same. Two considerations strongly militate
against this supposition. First, as late as October 29th, 1814, Harmon
writes himself (Journal, p. 206, New York reprint): "I have received a
letter from Mr. John Stuart, who has arrived at McLeod Lake, desiring
me to go and superintend the affairs of Fraser's Lake, and to send Mr.
La Roque, with several of the people who are there, to this place
[Stuart Lake]," whereupon he immediately declares, as if he believed
himself under the obligation to obey, that he "shall depart" on the
morrow, a clear proof that he regarded Stuart as his superior. In the
second place, by his own implicit admission, Harmon was as yet but a
clerk in the North-West Company's service as late as 1818, while five
years before that time Stuart was a partner in the same (Cox's
"Columbia," p. 109). In common with those who had long held that rank
in the Canadian Company, he was made a Chief Factor when the latter
disappeared to make way for the Hudson's Bay Company.]

By the 1st of November the whole party had reached Fort McLeod, where
Harmon first saw the Sekanais, whose destitute condition appealed to
his kind heart. There Stuart chose to stay for the winter, with James
McDougall as clerk, and, on the 3rd of November, Harmon, accompanied
by thirteen servants, left for Stuart Lake, where he arrived in the
afternoon of the seventh.

Harmon has left us a most valuable journal of the doings and
happenings during his stay in New Caledonia, which proves him to have
been as truthful a man as he was a keen observer. From it we glean
that the new place impressed him favorably, though of the natives
themselves he seems to have acquired but a poor idea. He is, we
believe, the first author to dub the Carriers "Tacullies," a term he
translates "people who go on the water."[64] Unfortunately the natives
know of no such name in their language, though for some time they have
been calling themselves, and all American aborigines, Takhelhne, a
word the meaning of which cannot be ascertained and which is
undoubtedly of extraneous origin.

[Footnote 64: A rather fanciful translation, we must say. _Thakhelhne_
would almost have that meaning.]

Harmon had hardly made himself at home in his new post when he was
called upon to witness a scene which told him of the difference
between the East and the West. This was the cremation of a woman,
whose corpse was burnt amidst "a terrible savage noise, howling, and
crying [on the part of her near relatives] and a kind of singing [by
people of a different clan]."

On the 1st of January, 1811, he was at Fraser Lake, where he had sent
men to rebuild the fort previously burnt through the negligence of a
native girl they were bringing up. That day furnishes him with
occasion for an entry which, to us, is of a melancholy interest, in
view of the demoralizing influence of the evil whose introduction
among the natives it chronicles. We copy from his Journal:

"This being the first day of another year, our people have passed it,
according to the custom of the Canadians, in drinking and fighting.
Some of the principal Indians of this place desired us to allow them
to remain at the fort that they might see our people drink. As soon as
they began to be a little intoxicated and to quarrel among themselves,
the natives began to be apprehensive that something unpleasant might
befall them also. They therefore hid themselves under beds and
elsewhere, saying that they thought the white people had run mad, for
they appeared not to know what they were about.... It was the first
time that they had ever seen a person intoxicated."[65]

[Footnote 65.: Harmon's Journal, pp. 196-97.]

On June 16th of the same year he furnishes us with the first mention
of the Babine Indians, one of whom had come to the fort with his son
and a number of Carriers in six wooden canoes, a circumstance rather
remarkable for that early period. Questioned as to their country, they
told him of the Skeena River, which "a number of white people ascend
in barges every autumn to trade with the Indians who reside along its
shores." These traders Harmon imagines to be Americans. They were
simply Indians from the seacoast.

And now, as usual, famine stares him in the face. On August 2nd, five
dried salmon were all that remained in store for his whole
establishment. He had therefore to send up to Pinche all his
personnel--men, women and children--to gather berries as a means of
prolonging their lives until the arrival of the salmon would relieve
their distress. On the 23rd of September of the same year he relates
an incident which might have had the most serious consequences for the
safety of his growing establishment, an incident which links the past
or pre-European times with the new period, when the whites had become
the makers of history.

Our readers have not forgotten [']Kwah, the warrior, the gambler and
the slayer of his insulter. He was now a man enjoying the greatest
consideration amongst his fellow-Carriers, and his name had become
great in adjoining villages. He had succeeded a dead warrior as
A[']ke[']toes, thereby attaining the rank of a "nobleman," and he was
in most prosperous circumstances. Indeed, he was soon to rejoice in
the possession of four wives, whom he would station, each with her
offspring, at the four corners of his lodge. Yet it took two or three
years for the newcomers to notice him and realize his true position in
the tribe. Toeyen, as we have seen, was the first appointed chief in
our sense of the word. Then McDougall's mistake being seen, he was
deposed, to be replaced by another man, who, in turn, had to yield his
rank to [']Kwah.

[Illustration: KOEZI.

(One of [']Kwah's daughters.)]

The latter was still comparatively fresh in the enjoyment of his high
estate when Harmon came from the east, and it would seem as if the
arrogance proper to _parvenus_ had then been hovering about the mind
of the new chief. To show his power and influence over the whites, he
tried to force the new clerk to advance credit to a worthless
fellow, a pretension which the trader resented considerably. Words
followed words, when [']Kwah asked the obdurate Harmon:

"Have you ever been to war?"

"No," replied his interlocutor, who added that he had no wish to take
the life of a fellow-creature.

"Well, I have been to war, and I have killed a number of my enemies,"
said the savage, who then asked for a piece of cloth for his own use.

Complying with his request, Harmon saw kind after kind of stuff
sullenly refused until, unable to restrain himself any longer, he
seized a square yard-stick, wherewith he administered him a severe
wound on the head. [']Kwah then called out to his companions to take
away Harmon, who was then mercilessly pelting him, only to see his
orders disregarded by the Indians out of fear of the whites, who were
supposed to be hidden within the building.

Some time afterwards the Chief made a feast, to which he invited
Harmon. This gentleman feared some treachery; yet, unwilling to betray
his true sentiments in the face of the Indians, he accepted the
invitation. Arming himself with two pistols, in addition to the sword
he constantly carried as a North-West Company officer,[66] he went to
[']Kwah's lodge with his interpreter, who was also similarly armed.
There he met "nearly an hundred Indians assembled." In the course of
the feast, the Chief made a speech, to the effect that had he been
similarly treated by anybody else than the white man, he would have
either lost his own life or taken that of the person attacking him.
But now, he said, he considered himself as Harmon's _wife_, who had
used him in exactly the same way that he himself used his own wives
when they misbehaved. He ended by thanking him for what he had done
him, since it had given him sense.[67]

[Footnote 66.: These gentlemen also wore a red coat with large brass
buttons, knee-breeches and a three-cornered hat with panache. Cf.
"Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest," by E. Petitot, Alenon,
1887, p. 329.]

[Footnote 67.: After which Harmon records a nave remark of the dusky
Chief, which shows that he was not without realizing that the incident
might have unpleasant consequences: "Qus then told the Indians,"
writes the chronicler, "that if he ever heard of any of them laughing
at him for the beating which he had received, he would make them
repent of their mirth." "Journal," p. 177 (New York reprint, 1903).]

Whereupon Harmon moralizes: "It will be seen by this account that the
white people have a great ascendency over the Indians, for I believe
that this chief is not destitute of bravery."[68]

[Footnote 68.: _Ibid._, _ibid._]

Quite so, we will add; but his own usually righteous course and lack
of haughtiness in dealing with the natives was a good deal responsible
for the fortunate turn of affairs. Harmon might also bless his star
that, instead of a cranky, vindictive individual, such as abound in
all the tribes, he had met a sensible man, who was not above
confessing a wrong. Otherwise the issue of the conflict would
certainly not have been to his advantage.

On New Year's Day, 1812, Harmon initiates us to the great times he had
with his people and the Indians. On the previous year the latter had
simply assisted as puzzled and somewhat terrified spectators at the
baneful effects of "fire-water" on Canadians; but even pious Harmon
could be progressive. His friend McDougall had come to pass the
holidays at Stuart Lake. After dinner several of the Carrier and
Sekanais headmen were invited to do away with the remnants on the
tables and "drink a flagon or two of spirits." Fateful flagon, which
once tasted was to swell into gallons and kegs, how many hundreds--if
not thousands--of thy victims have been prematurely laid into the
grave!

On the 13th of the same month he assisted at the incineration of a man
who had been married to two women. His account of the event is
precious, and corroborates in every way what the present author has
written on the same subject after modern informants.

"The corpse was placed on a pile of dry wood," he writes, "with the
face upwards, which was painted and bare. The body was covered with a
robe made of beaver-skins, and shoes were on the feet.... His gun and
powder horn, together with every trinket which he had possessed, were
laid by his side."[69]

After the fire had been lighted, his wives, one of whom stood at the
head and the other at the feet of the corpse, kept patting it,[70]
while burning, with both hands alternately, a ceremony which was
interrupted by turns of fainting arising from the intensity of the
heat. "If they did not soon recover from these turns and commence the
operation of striking the corpse," continues the chronicler, "the men
would seize them by the little remaining hair[71] on their heads and
push them into the flames in order to compel them to do it. This
violence was especially used toward one of the wives of the deceased,
who had frequently run away from him while he was living."

Will the reader believe that over twenty years elapsed before the
whites among the naturally progressive Carriers had the courage to
interfere and become responsible for the first burial of an Indian?
Some there are, no doubt, who, in view of the inhuman cruelties
perpetrated on the widows at the cremation of corpses, would think
that an earlier intervention would have been but the accomplishment of
civilization's duty towards an inferior race.

[Footnote 69.: Harmon's Journal, p. 216 (original edition).]

[Footnote 70.: Harmon, not knowing the reason of that act, says
"striking."]

[Footnote 71.: The rest had been burnt in the course of the
"ceremony."]

Mr. McDougall was still at Stuart Lake. As that gentleman seemed to
have a special knack of procuring peaceful introductions to the savage
races--a specialty probably based on his knowledge of the Sekanais
dialect--Harmon profited by his presence to go and visit that tribe of
Babines of which he had already seen two representatives.

Starting on the 30th of January, 1812, accompanied by twelve servants
as a bodyguard and two Carriers as middle-men and interpreters, the
two friends, after seven days' travel over frozen lakes, met Indians
who had never seen a white man. On reaching their first village, the
inhabitants manifested great surprise and alarm at the sight of the
pale-faced strangers. Harmon writes in this connection:

"As their village stands on a rise of ground, near to a large lake,
they saw us coming when we were at a considerable distance from them;
and the men, women, and children came to meet us, all of whom were
armed, some with bows and arrows, and others with axes and clubs. They
offered no offence; but, by many savage gestures, they manifested a
determination to defend themselves in case they were attacked....

"The day following we proceeded on our route, and during our progress
we saw four more of their villages.... They showed us guns, cloth,
axes, blankets, iron pots, etc., which they obtained from their
neighbors, the Atens, who purchase them directly of the white
people."[72]

Then the chronicler records the fact that the population of the
villages they visited formed an aggregate of about 2,000 souls. How
melancholy, after this statement, to think that those numbers, since
the advent of the whites, should have dwindled to scarcely 250!

[Footnote 72.: Harmon's Journal, pp. 218-19 (original edition).]

To the spring of 1812 must be referred the very first long-distance
transmission of a letter within the territory of British Columbia and
beyond it. On the 6th of April six couriers arrived from Fraser Lake,
bringing a letter addressed to the manager of the North-West Company
at Stuart Lake by David Thompson, the explorer of the river that bears
his name. The letter was dated Ilk-kay-ope Falls, Columbia River,
August 28th, 1811. It had taken exactly eight months and eight days to
reach its destination, and had been carried by Indians of all the
various intervening tribes, a wonderful example of honesty and of
respect for written paper.

In the meantime the superintendent of the whole district, John Stuart,
though residing mostly at McLeod Lake, was paying occasional visits to
Stuart Lake and even to Fraser Lake. He seems to have been one of
those well-meaning men who, unconscious of their own idiosyncrasies,
make life a burden to others. We have no doubt that much of the blame
which has been laid at the doors of his former superior, Simon Fraser,
might with justice be addressed to him. Fraser has been accused of
being naturally quarrelsome, and yet Stuart managed to pass three
years and make two long and trying expeditions in his company; while,
after the explorer had been separated from him, Stuart appears as a
man who has lost his bearings, trying life with the one only to wish
for another. Some years after the time of which we write he had just
been appointed to a good post, on the east side of the mountains, when
he was already speaking of leaving on the ensuing spring, which
fickleness prompts a correspondent to write: "Such a short stay was
hardly worth his removal from the Bas de la Rivire. Upon the whole,
he is a good man; but a person would require to be possessed of the
patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon to agree with him on all
subjects."[73]

[Footnote 73.: John M. McLeod, of Fort Simpson, to John McLeod, sen.
MS. letter.]

Poor McDougall could not boast such exalted accomplishments. As,
barring the long absences caused by voyages to the east and lesser
trips to the west, they had already lived two years together, a change
was deemed in order. So Stuart came west to pass the winter with his
trusted friend, Harmon, who had now, on the bank of Lake Stuart, a
flourishing establishment employing twenty-one laboring men, one
interpreter, and five women, besides children. The North-West Company
was certainly not niggardly in its treatment of its officers and
clerks.

But Stuart's company seems to have been portentous of evil, inasmuch
as both himself and Harmon with their interpreter were almost
massacred by the Indians of Fraser Lake, whither they had gone to buy
furs and salmon. Whatever may be said of the cause of the affray,
about which Harmon is not clear, "eighty or ninety of the village
armed themselves, some with guns and the others with axes and clubs,
for the purpose of attacking" the visitors. By mild measures, however,
they succeeded in appeasing their anger.

In the latter part of that winter Harmon took a trip to his old home,
Fort Dunvegan, returning to New Caledonia in time to see Stuart
depart, in April, for the far south in quest of a water communication
to replace the overland route through Fort McLeod, which was so slow,
so expensive and admitted the introduction of so limited supplies.[74]

[Footnote 74.: It was in the course of that journey that John Stuart
was, with Messrs. John George McTavish and Jos. La Rocque,
instrumental in buying out Astor's Pacific Fur Company in the name of
his own North-West Company (16th October, 1813), a transaction which,
originally caused by the British American war of 1812, was to lead to
the foundation, shortly afterwards, of that important Fort Vancouver,
on the lower Columbia, to which we will have so frequently to refer in
the course of the present work. Not any too greatly enamoured with his
northern solitude, J. Stuart found means and ways to prolong his stay
in the south by leading in November, 1813, a trading expedition to the
interior of the Columbia district, and, when back again among the
snows of New Caledonia, his thoughts reverted to the friends he had
left under more favored climes. In a letter dated 25th April, 1815, he
gives expression to ideas concerning the latter country and its
aborigines, some of which will bear reproduction here:

"The salmon failed with us last season," he writes. "This generally
occurs every second year, and completely so every fourth year, at
which period the natives starve in every direction. They are of a
lazy, indolent disposition, and as a livelihood is rather easily
procured, seldom give themselves much trouble in hunting the beaver or
any animal of the fur kind. We have no buffalo or deer, except the
_caribou_ (reindeer); and not many even of those; so that, properly
speaking, we may say that water alone supplies the people of New
Caledonia with food.

"The natives are numerous, and live stationary in villages of the same
description as those on the lower part of the Columbia. In their looks
and manner they bear a great affinity to the Chinooks. The meaning of
their national name is 'Carriers'; but the people of each village have
a separate denomination.... The Carriers are naturally of an open and
hospitable disposition, but very violent, and subject to sudden gusts
of passion, in which much blood is often shed. However, those quarrels
are soon made up and as soon forgotten" ("Adventures on the Columbia
River," by Ross Cox, p. 193, one-vol. edition).]


During his absence the management of the affairs of the whole district
fell, as a matter of course, on Harmon's shoulders.

Had the poor man been at the same time entrusted with the task of
repressing crime and dealing out justice within the limits of New
Caledonia, his hands would have been more than full. In the space of a
single week he has to record two shocking murders, occurring one among
the Sekanais and the other nearer home, among the Carriers who traded
at his own fort. In spite of its sickening details, we think a
reproduction of that part of his Journal which bears on the double
tragedy will help us to form a correct idea of the manners and morals
prevailing among the Indians of New Caledonia in pre-Christian times:

"_Saturday_, June 12th, 1813.--A Sicauny has just arrived, who states
that a little this side of McLeod Lake, where he was encamped with his
family, an Indian of the same tribe rushed out of the woods and fired
upon them and killed his wife. Her corpse was immediately burned on
the spot.... All the savages who have had a near relation killed are
never quiet until they have revenged the death either by killing the
murderer or some person nearly related to him. This spirit of revenge
has occasioned the death of the old woman above mentioned, and she
undoubtedly deserved to die; for, the last summer, she persuaded her
husband to go and kill the cousin of her murderer, and that merely
because her own son had been drowned.

"_Sunday_, 20th.--Yesterday an Indian of this village killed another
who was on a visit from the other end of this lake, just as he was
entering his canoe to return. The former approached the latter and
gave him five stabs with a lance, and ripped open his bowels in such a
shocking manner that his entrails immediately fell upon the ground and
he, of course, immediately expired. The murderer made his escape, and
the chief of the village wrapped the corpse in a moose-skin and sent
it to his relations. Notwithstanding this conciliatory act, the people
of this place are apprehensive that the relatives of the person
murdered will make war upon them, and they will therefore set out
to-morrow to go to a considerable distance down this river, where they
will pass a greater part of the summer until harmony is restored
between the two villages.

"This murderer has a wife who is known to be a worthless woman, with
whom he supposed the person murdered had had improper intercourse, and
it was to avenge this that the act was committed. All the Carriers are
extremely jealous of their wives, while to their unmarried daughters
they cheerfully allow every liberty."[75]

[Footnote 75: Harmon's Journal, pp. 230-31 (original edition).]

Meanwhile Stuart was on the eve of returning from his fruitless search
after the much-wanted new route. He directed Harmon to Fraser Lake to
make room for himself as he intended to pass most of 1815 at Stuart
Lake. Harmon was thereby relegated to the minor post of Fraser Lake,
whence he occasionally sallied out, going once as far as Blackwater in
quest of pelts.

He had hardly been edified by the Indians of Stuart Lake. But
unchristianized savages of the same race are pretty much the same
everywhere. He perceived this when, on the 18th of June, 1815, his new
place received a visit from a band of eight Babines, who, on their
arrival, began to gamble, as was usual at that time. The strangers
being constantly winners, bad feeling was engendered, which developed
into open disputes. The restoration of the property won only prevented
a serious conflict; but a coolness between the two factions was
visible, which culminated in one of the Babines being shot just as he
embarked in his canoe. Which seeing, his fellow tribesmen hastened
their departure, but not without vowing vengeance on the murderer of
their friend.

In the spring of 1816 Harmon, having heard of the serious illness of
two of his brothers, began to feel home-sick, and would fain have
severed his connection with the North-West Company had he not been
strongly advised to the contrary by George McDougall, a younger
brother of James, the pioneer trader of Fort McLeod. Perhaps to
dissipate by travelling those yearnings after the home circle, he left
shortly after (May 8th) for Fort Chippewayan on Lake Athabaska,
returning on the 1st of September of the same year. The ensuing winter
he took a jaunt of twenty-three days on the Fraser River, where he
barely escaped being massacred with his companions.

An Iroquois with his wife and two children were less lucky, since
about the same time they were killed, while asleep, by two Carriers of
Stuart Lake on whose beaver preserves they were encroaching heedless
of protest or remonstrance. The reader will, no doubt, be surprised to
hear of Iroquois in the far west. They came in the rear of the
Canadian traders, generally as hired servants, but sometimes also as
freemen, trappers, and hunters. In the vicinity of Jasper House, on
the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, they even formed quite a
little settlement of their own.

In the spring of 1819, after a residence of eight years and a half in
New Caledonia, Harmon was off to Montreal, whence he came back to the
North-West in the course of the following year. During that trip,
which he probably intended to be final, he was accompanied by the
mother of his children, whom he then formally married, a step none of
his confrres in the service ever had the courage to take in
connection with the unions they had formed with native women.

Mr. Malcolm McLeod, in his notes on McDonald's Journal of Sir George
Simpson's voyage through northern America, calls Harmon a Chief
Factor,[76] and states expressly that he finds his name in the list of
Chief Factors and Chief Traders in the original Deed Poll issued at
the time of the coalition of the North-West and Hudson's Bay
Companies. This must be an oversight on the part of Mr. McLeod.
Harmon, who so far had been serving in the capacity of clerk,[77] was
then appointed a Chief Trader only, and his name as such appears on
the Deed Poll of 1821, being the eighth in seniority. As he is
believed to have retired almost immediately from the service, we fail
to see how he could have been promoted to a Chief Factorship.

[Footnote 76: P. 104.]

[Footnote 77: At all events he was not yet a partner in 1818.]

Daniel Williams Harmon was, as we have seen, a most conscientious man,
and, especially since September, 1813, he invariably acted as a
God-fearing gentleman, going even to the length of composing prayers
for his daily use, prescribing for himself days of fasting, and
crowning his attempts at self-improvement by doing justice to the
woman he had made his life consort. He was an affectionate father and,
generally, a very sociable man, who greatly appreciated the company of
his equals.[78]

While he was absorbed in the task of developing and consolidating,
under Stuart's presidency, the various establishments founded by
Fraser in the west, a band of French Canadian half-breeds, led by a
Cuthbert Grant, and acting in the interest of the same North-West
Company which Harmon was faithfully serving, were capturing Fort
Douglas, on the Red River, after having killed Robert Semple, the
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and twenty of his men who had
dared to come in the open and meet the invaders. This bloody affair,
which took place on the 19th of June, 1816, had evidently been
prompted by the North-West Company. Many of its active members had the
strongest objections to the settlement of the Red River valley, which
for some years had been going on under the patronage of Lord Selkirk.
That gentleman had purchased for the purpose a large tract of land
from the Hudson's Bay Company, and his interests were, on that
account, supposed to be identical with those of the Nor'westers'
deadly enemies.

[Footnote 78: As a linguist, at least as regards the Dn dialects, he
was a failure.]

As a consequence of the high-handed measures taken in these troubled
times, the seizure of forts, pelts and other property by both
contesting parties, the noble Earl had to bear the brunt of long and
costly legal battles in the Canadian courts. For the part he had taken
in the capture of Fort William he met with adverse verdicts, and when
he laid the responsibility of the Seven Oaks skirmish at the doors of
a few prominent North-West Company partners, the courts also refused
to be convinced by his arguments.[79]

These results could not but add new force to the fire of bitterness
and discontent which was secretly burning within the bosoms of the two
opposing companies and, on one side at least, keep up the thirst for
vengeance. But the death of Lord Selkirk, which occurred in April,
1820, came as a God-sent sedative to heal the wounds opened on the
Manitoban plains by the muskets of the French half-breeds. As it
became evident that neither faction would yield to the other so long
as they enjoyed a separate existence, it was agreed that a coalition
of the conflicting interests was the only means of effecting a lasting
peace. Therefore, on the 26th of March, 1821, the two corporations
coalesced under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company.

[Footnote 79: At this late date the action of the Canadian courts is
open to criticism, and we are afraid Dr. Bryce is not far from right
in his strictures on their judgments. ("History of the Hudson's Bay
Company," p. 256.) But that writer is evidently carried away by his
feelings when he speaks of Semple's fall as of a murder. A homicide,
to become murder, must be premeditated and induced by wilful malice.
Where is Bryce's evidence to show that Grant's band had come with the
object of taking away Semple's life? They considered themselves a war
party bent on taking Fort Douglas, and thus retaliating for the
capture of Fort Gibraltar. Had not the Governor sallied out with his
men, followed by a piece of cannon, his life would most probably have
been spared. Moreover, we must not forget that Grant always contended
that the first shot in the affray had been fired by the Hudson's Bay
Company people at Semple's order. At all events, he precipitated the
conflict by foolishly attempting to grasp the gun of the half-breed
messenger sent to parley with him. That Dr. Bryce does not refer to
the Indian who is said to have given the _coup de grace_ to the
wounded Governor, is shown by the fact that he connects the "murder"
of Semple with "six of the North-West partners." Lastly, he repeatedly
styles the whole unfortunate affair "the skirmish of Seven Oaks."
Useless to remark that skirmishing is not murdering. It may be noted,
in passing, that Harmon's account of the affair lays all the blame on
the Hudson's Bay Company people; but that gentleman had probably been
misinformed by parties too friendly to the North-West Company.]

According to the Deed Poll then promulgated, the yearly profits of the
new concern were to go sixty per cent. to the proprietors who
furnished the capital, and forty per cent. to the "wintering
partners," as the trading officers were then called. These were now
divided into two distinct classes, based mostly on seniority in the
service, that of the Chief Factors and that of the Chief Traders. The
forty per cent. interest in the Company's profits was subdivided into
eighty-five shares, of which a Chief Factor was to receive two and a
Chief Trader one. Twenty-five of the former class and twenty-eight of
the latter were appointed, in equal numbers, from among the officers
of the two companies residing in the country, the remaining seven
shares being allotted to various deserving persons from amongst the
employees of both concerns.

Thus ended, after thirty-eight years of bitter struggles and brilliant
achievements, a trading corporation which had been noted chiefly for
its dash, its daring, and an indomitable spirit of initiative and
combativeness which was seldom tempered by any scruples.




CHAPTER VII.

_The Hudson's Bay Company in New Caledonia._


The corporation which came thus to reap where others had sown, and was
to have such a paramount influence on the destinies of the natives of
New Caledonia, was then one hundred and sixty-one years old, having
been incorporated in 1670. On May 2nd of that year King Charles II. of
England granted his cousin, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, the
Earl of Craven and fifteen other noblemen or merchants of London, a
charter endowing their corporation with the vastest powers over the
land tributary to Hudson Bay, with a view to trade with the natives
thereof, administer justice, and exercise all the rights of a
sovereign over the said country.

It is worthy of remark that the actual originators of the exploration
which led to the formation of the Company were two Frenchmen, Radisson
and Groseillers, while its bitterest enemy and most formidable
competitor in years to come was to be a corporation which was supposed
to represent the French element in Canada.

We have not to dwell here on the long contest between the North-West
Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, nor is it necessary to recite
the rivalry, bitter struggles, and final hostilities which culminated
in the bloody affair of Seven Oaks. Indeed, we will not even attempt
an appreciation of the latter corporation's action on the country
over which it had such a lasting and jealously enforced monopoly. Our
task is humbler and more restricted in scope: What we are concerned
with is its bearing on the aborigines of New Caledonia, and the doings
of its representatives west of the Rocky Mountains. Before we proceed
with our account of successive events within that territory, a few
words on its constitution and the workings of the same from 1821 to
this day, as well as the character of the influence it exercised over
the Western Dns, will certainly not be out of place.

When, for the sake of peace and in the interest of all the parties
concerned, the North-West Company united with the Hudson's Bay
Company, there originated a new organization, in which was retained
only what seemed best in each corporation. The result was an
association which for efficiency would seem to have no possible
rivals, except the modern religious Orders of the Roman Catholic
Church, with whose government and organic conformation it has many
points of similarity. The vast extent of territory now under the
undisputed control of the Hudson's Bay Company was divided, for the
sake of trading purposes, into three principal departments, the
Northern, the Southern, and the Western, which, in their turn, were
sub-divided into districts with a leading fort or capital, where the
chief officer resided.

New Caledonia formed the most important district of the Western
Department, the other parts of which, with the exception of the
Pacific or Coast division, almost seemed to exist only to supply goods
to the posts of the northern interior. The main depot of the Company
west of the Rockies was Fort Vancouver, on the lower Columbia River.
Such forwarding and distributing quarters were presided over by Chief
Factors, or superior officers, some of whom were also in charge of the
most important trading posts. This brings us to the consideration of
the Company's personnel and its organization.

This was most elaborate, and the lines between the different classes
in the service were at all times strictly drawn. Generally speaking,
it was composed of three categories: there were the officers or
commissioned gentlemen, the clerks and the servants.

Among the latter promotion was naturally out of order, each man
pursuing the vocation his abilities or training fitted him for. Yet,
even in that lower class, there were degrees which were implicitly
recognized, the highest of which was that of interpreter. Then came,
in the order named, mechanics, guides, steersmen, bowmen or _bouts_,
fishermen, middle-men (or common boatmen), and apprentices.

Each one's wages varied according to the value of his services and the
number of years he had been in the Company's employ. The best paid
among the _engags_ or servants were the interpreters. Fifteen years
after the union of the two corporations, their salary averaged 22 per
year. One who had seen thirty-four years of service received as much
as 35, while two others had to be content with 15. Irrespective of
seniority in the ranks, the wages of the _bouts_--men who helped the
steersmen from the opposite end of the boat--were 24, and those of
the common boatmen 19.

The servants lodged in quarters distinct from those of the officers
and clerks, and every Saturday afternoon received their rations for
the ensuing week. Their fare, as will appear in the course of this
work, was of the poorest; but it is safe to remark that, except when
boating or packing, their exertions were on a par with their menu, and
they were hardly expected to yield the amount of work required of
regular laborers in civilized parts of the world.

[Illustration: FORT ST. JAMES TO-DAY.]

Employees, while getting goods at specially low prices, were strictly
forbidden to trade with the natives, and an infraction of this rule
was visited with a fine, generally of two pounds sterling.

Intermediate between the servants and the clerks were the so-called
postmasters. These, as a rule, were taken from the ranks of the
servants, and were men whose education, too defective to allow them to
aspire higher, was yet of such a character as to permit of their
keeping accounts and being in charge, at least _ad interim_, of minor
posts. As late as 1850 their wages varied between thirty and sixty
pounds sterling.

As to the second class, it was composed of the clerks and the
apprentices. The latter were young men with a fairly good education,
who entered the service with an engagement generally for five years.
At the expiration of the first year they were entitled to 20, and the
salary was augmented by 5 every subsequent year, except the two last,
when the increase was 10 per annum, unless they had not given
satisfaction. This gave them 50 for the last year of their
apprenticeship, when they could pretend to the title of clerk. These
figures are those prevalent in 1850. Twenty years earlier they were
less by 5 in every case.

Though they may then have continued to keep the accounts of a post and
do such clerical work as circumstances demanded, their new position
fitted them for the Indian trade and the charge of a regular fort.[80]
In 1836 the salary of the clerks in New Caledonia varied between 50
and 100 a year.

[Footnote 80.: A circumstance which goes to show that one did not need
to be a Chief Trader to preside over a post, as a C. W. McCain seems
to think when he writes that "a Chief Trader...was the one in charge
of a Fort." ("History of the SS. _Beaver_," p. 9.)]

The clerks, even when in a subordinate position in an important
establishment, sat at the officers' mess and, as a rule, had rooms in
the same house. They were called gentlemen, and in letters were
addressed as "Mr."

After the amalgamation of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies, a
certain Charles McKenzie, who had by a native woman a son with a good
education, received at the Red River Seminary, complains that the
successor to the two concerns would not recognize the right of such
children to promotion. "The Honorable Company are unwilling to take
natives even as apprenticed clerks," he writes somewhat bitterly, "and
the favored few they do take can never aspire to a higher status, be
their education and capacity what they may."[81]

[Footnote 81.: Quoted in Dr. Bryce's "History of the Hudson's Bay
Company," p. 175.]

Whatever may be the truth of this statement as regards the management
of the Company in the east, it certainly cannot apply to New
Caledonia. In 1836 there were in that country two half-breed clerks in
charge of forts, one of whom received a higher salary than a fellow
clerk hailing from Scotland. Nay more, the following pages will show
us the son of a native woman presiding over the whole district.

We now come to the privileged class of the commissioned gentlemen.
These formed a veritable oligarchy, and, together with the title of
Esquire, to which the clerks had no right, their names, when written
by a third party, were coupled with the grade they had reached in the
hierarchical scale. None of them received any salary, their
remuneration consisting of shares in the Company's profits, so that
their very title was a powerful incentive to exertion towards
furthering the Company's interests. Upon their promotion they were
sent a commission accompanied by a covenant, which they had to execute
in the presence of a superior officer. The burden of this was a
promise of fidelity to the Company.

And here we might as well enter into a few details unknown to the
public concerning the intimate history of this privileged class, the
inner workings of the system which established it, and the profits or
remuneration that yearly accrued to its members.

In the old Company--by contradistinction to the recast of the same in
1872--there were, as we have seen, only two grades of commissioned
officers: the Chief Factors and the Chief Traders. We remember that
the former received two shares of the Company's yearly profits, while
the latter could claim only one. But when we are told that, from the
time of the coalition to 1872, the average value of a share was 360,
we realize that even a Chief Trader met with an adequate remuneration.
Of course, this varied from time to time, and there were a few outfits
which yielded insignificant returns, or which even resulted in an
actual loss to the Company. Thus, on the trade of the first year after
the disappearance of the North-West Company, there was a loss of
upwards of forty thousand pounds sterling, which cost the wintering
partners 196 7s. 1d. per share. The following year (outfit 1822), the
returns were on their way up to the normal amount, being then 203 8s.
9d. Again, in 1869, the year before the transfer of the country to
Canada, there was a loss of thirty thousand pounds, caused entirely by
the first Riel insurrection.

Originally, certain Chief Factors and Chief Traders were allowed to
retire from the service before June 1st, 1822, and for seven years
thereafter received the benefit of their commissions. After five
years' service as commissioned officers, three Chief Factors and two
Chief Traders could withdraw annually, with the full benefit of their
respective commissions for one year and of half the amount of their
shares for the remaining six years. Vacancies to a commission were
filled by the Chief Factors voting for three different names, and the
Governor and Committee in London usually chose the men recommended by
the lesser Governor residing in the country.

In course of time a Board of Managers was formed, which had in hand
the affairs of the whole Western Department and whose seat was at Fort
Vancouver. It was composed of Chief Factors whose long and faithful
services entitled them to the rest afforded by that position, which
was more or less of a sinecure.

In 1834 a new Deed Poll was issued in place of that of 1821, which was
abrogated. One of its clauses was to the effect that, in the event of
a loss on a year's trade, the wintering partners would not be called
upon to make the same good. The number of Chief Factors was also
reduced and the number of Chief Traders raised. The new Deed Poll did
not, like the old one, make provision for a specified number of each;
so that, until its abrogation in 1871, there were seldom more than
fourteen or fifteen Chief Factors on active service, while Chief
Traders varied according to the number of shares held by officers who
had retired.

On June 1st, 1872, the Hudson's Bay Company was reorganized on a new
basis and a third Deed Poll then came into force. By that arrangement
the number of grades was increased, and to meet this change the old 40
per cent. gain coming to the commissioned officers was subdivided into
100 shares instead of 85 as before. Since that time the Company is
nominally composed of the following grades: Inspecting Chief Factors,
who originally received three of the new shares, but now get only
their travelling expenses over and above what they have a right to in
virtue of their commission; then come the Chief Factors with 2
shares, the Factors with 2, the Chief Traders with 1, and Junior
Chief Traders with 1 share.

Great dissatisfaction was expressed at the time of its adoption at the
new arrangement, which the wintering partners contended sacrificed
their rights and made light of their interests. Since its promulgation
the average value of a share has fallen from 360 to 211. Of late
years it has been the policy of the Company to discontinue the
granting of commissions and give fixed salaries to the gentlemen in
its employ.

The titles of the original Company were greatly coveted, and, at this
distance, we can well afford a discreet smile at the unveiled
satisfaction of an American who, forgetting the democratic principles
professed by all good representatives of his nationality, wrote to a
brother officer, seemingly with the blush of a flattered maiden, on
his promotion to one of them:

"I return you many thanks for your kind congratulations on my
promotion to a Tradership. I have every reason to believe that such is
the case, having a letter from Sir George Simpson informing me that my
interest as Chief Trader was to date from 1st June, 1853, and sending
me his sincere congratulations on the event. Mr. Douglas was, no
doubt, aware of it when we were at Langley. As Sir George's letter is
dated Lachine, 28th February, and passed the Cowlitz postoffice on the
11th of May, 1853, and Chief Factor Ogden addressed me as Chief Trader
McLean in a letter of the 11th of June, surely there can be scarcely a
doubt on the subject, and I must confess that it is more than I
expected. It is to your kindness that, in a great measure, I owe my
having been promoted, and, believe me, I will ever remember it."[82]

[Footnote 82.: D. McLean to D. Manson, February 6th, 1854.]

These officers, especially the Chief Factor in charge of an important
post, enjoyed the greatest consideration and were treated with every
mark of respect. As to the latter, J. W. McKay, himself an old
Hudson's Bay Company man, has written of his greatness an account
which is too graphic not to be reproduced here.

"This exalted functionary," he writes, "was lord paramount; his word
was law; he was necessarily surrounded by a halo of dignity, and his
person was sacred, so to speak. He was dressed every day in a suit of
black or dark blue, white shirt, collars to his ears, frock coat,
velvet stock and straps to the bottom of his trousers. When he went
out of doors he wore a black beaver hat worth forty shillings. When
travelling in a canoe or boat, he was lifted in and out of the craft
by the crew; he still wore his beaver hat, but it was protected by an
oiled silk cover, and over his black frock he wore a long cloak made
of Royal Stuart tartan lined with scarlet or dark blue bath coating.
The cloak had a soft Genoa velvet collar, which was fastened across by
mosaic gold clasps and chains. It had also voluminous capes.

"He carried with him an ornamental bag, technically called a
'fire-bag,' which contained his tobacco, steel and flint, touchwood,
tinderbox, and brimstone matches. In camp his tent was pitched apart
from the shelter given his crew. He had a separate fire, and the first
work of the boat's crew after landing was to pitch his tent, clear his
camp, and collect firewood sufficient for the night before they were
allowed to attend to their own wants. Salutes were fired on his
departure from the fort and on his return.

"All this ceremony was considered necessary; it had a good effect on
the Indians; it added to his dignity in the eyes of his subordinates,
but sometimes spoiled the Chief Factor. Proud indeed was the Indian
fortunate enough to be presented with the Chief Factor's cast-off
hat, however battered it might become. He donned it on all important
occasions, and in very fine weather it might constitute his entire
costume."[83]

As to trading with the Indians, this was attended to by one or more of
the clerks, aided by an interpreter, generally a half-breed. As is
well known, the unit of value was equal to that of a prime beaver-skin
of any weight, though of the full grown animal; smaller beaver,
martens and the like being quoted as so many parts of a made beaver.
Until about 1862, when flour, bacon, sugar, and tea were for the first
time introduced as articles of trade in New Caledonia, the fort stores
contained merely a few indispensable implements, such as kettles, axes
and knives, together with a limited supply of guns and ammunition,
wearing apparel, and blankets. A gratuity of ammunition was given to
each outgoing hunter.

Much has been said about the large profits realized by the Hudson's
Bay Company in the course of the last century. There can be no doubt
that, after the disappearance of its powerful rival, the North-West
Company, its returns were of the most satisfactory character, though
probably no credence should be placed in the stories of guns being
originally bartered for piles of beaver-skins reaching to the end of
the guns standing alongside of them. In New Caledonia its expenses
were enormous; yet the traders managed to make this district pay
handsomely. Discreet as the authorities are about such matters, more
than once their official letters betray their satisfaction at the turn
of affairs in that country.

[Footnote 83.: Year Book of British Columbia, p. 24 (first edition).]

In the course of 1845, business in the fur line does not seem to have
been so bright as usual; but the governor, Sir George Simpson,
consoles himself with the thought that "the district may shortly
recover its conspicuous standing with regard to profits."[84]

Sure enough, the sagacious governor was a good prophet, for three
years later Thomas Lewes writes from Colville: "You will observe from
the account current that New Caledonia has made rather handsome
returns this outfit, and an apparent gain of 6,914 12s. 11d."[85]

As to the credit and debts given to the Indians, it has been said that
the Company had recourse to that expedient to keep them in
subjection.[86] This charge cannot be substantiated as regards New
Caledonia. To the sorrow of those who had to see them paid, large
debts were indeed allowed the Indians; but the latter were mostly
responsible therefor, being at times exorbitant and almost threatening
in their demands. In fact, the credit advanced them is rather a token
of the kind-heartedness and liberality of the traders, who, until a
relatively recent date, had no competition to fear.

With regard to the re-engagement of servants dissatisfied with the
service, so much could not be said in favor of the Company, and the
writer has the best of reasons for stating that means not too
honorable were sometimes resorted to in order to make them renew their
engagement. Service, in many cases, was becoming so irksome after a
few years, especially with men placed under autocratic officers, that
the correspondence of the higher authorities is replete with requests
to such as were at the head of the different forts to use their best
endeavors to prevent the _engags_ from leaving the Company's employ.

[Footnote 84.: MS. letter to D. Manson, June 16th, 1845.]

[Footnote 85.: MS. letter to D. Manson, April 23rd, 1848.]

[Footnote 86.: See J. E. Fitzgerald's "Hudson's Bay Co. and
Vancouver's Island," p. 138.]

In fact, in the course of time, desertions and retirements became so
numerous that the Company hit upon a plan which yielded the best of
results, inasmuch as it urged the natives round the forts to work and
exertion. An unsigned letter, probably from Sir James Douglas, dated
12th of April, 1854, has the following:

"In your letter of the 2nd of October allusion is made to the
employment of Indians to make up for the deficiency of white servants,
a very proper measure, and you must provide goods for the payment of
such service."[87]

The Hudson's Bay Company's forts in New Caledonia consisted of
quadrilateral enclosures, of an area varying according to the
importance of the place, built of stout upright logs, flanked by two
bastions at the farthest angles. These were square, tower-like
buildings, furnished each with a small cannon and a stand of large
muskets. The palisade, which was from fifteen to eighteen feet high,
admitted of no chinks between its component parts, and was provided
with a large, heavy gate in front of the fort, and a smaller one on
the opposite side. The front gate had a wicket for every-day use, and
the whole was made of the most solid material. Inside of the palisade,
and contiguous thereto, ran a gallery about four feet below the top of
the same, which facilitated communication between the two bastions.

Within the enclosure were the quarters of the servants, generally a
very long building with many partitions, the store (which at Stuart
Lake was originally in the gentlemen's house), salmon shed and meat
house, residence of the officer in charge, and of his clerks, etc.

[Footnote 87.: MS. letter to D. Manson.]

What was the effect of the Hudson's Bay Company on the native
population of New Caledonia? The writer sincerely wishes he had not to
answer that question; but the close association of the two races
during the last eighty years renders imperative the consideration of
the result of

[Illustration: FORT ST. JAMES

As it stood in James Douglas's time.]

such commingling. Both written and oral information is not wanting to
force on us the conclusion that the influence of the superior race was
decidedly detrimental to the best interests of the Western Dns.

Instead of lifting the lower race up to the standard of Christianized
Europeans, the latter, in too many cases, stooped to the level of the
savages they had come to as the representatives of a wonderful
civilization. Gambling, Indian fashion dancing, face-painting,
potlatching or heathen feasting, rendering murder for murder, the lax
observance of the Lord's Day, disregard of the sanctity of the
marriage tie--nay, in two cases at least, even polygamy--were not only
countenanced, but actually practised by the Company's officers and
servants.[88] The cremation of the dead fell with time into desuetude;
but that custom was replaced by others of an equally obnoxious nature,
which the whites taught the aborigines: such as scalping, which was
quite unknown among the Western Dns, and that which has sounded the
death-knell of morality, peace, and order among the natives who have
been cursed with its introduction--we mean the drinking of
intoxicants.

[Footnote 88: The two cases of polygamy were those of officers, each
of whom was at the head of a fort. One of them, a pure white man, who
could hardly speak of the natives without dubbing them rascals and
scoundrels, co-habited simultaneously with two of their women, and
afterwards attained the rank of a Chief Trader.]

Of course, we are well aware of the gravity of our charges; but, were
it necessary, nothing could be more easy than to prove them, even by
the Company's own official documents, laconic as they usually are when
it is a question of happenings which might throw discredit on the
concern. These are naturally reticent concerning the wild orgies among
the fort employees, and the large kettlefuls of liquor which the
officers--even to the Chief Factors--caused to be distributed among
the native guests of the pagan feasts, at which they themselves did
not scruple to assist as participants; but they contain enough to tell
us of the motives to which they yielded in propagating that evil among
the aborigines.

We purposely say propagating that evil. As to its introduction into
New Caledonia, the responsibility for that fateful step undoubtedly
belongs to the North-West Company, members of which had supplied
liquor to the Western Dns even before they crossed the Rocky
Mountains to establish themselves in the west. They were so much the
more guilty, as they could not adduce the stimulating influence of
trade competition to excuse their conduct. Once introduced, it was
difficult for the new company, whose personnel remained practically
unchanged in New Caledonia, to stop the evil. Indeed, several of its
officers hardly deemed it an evil at all.

As early as 1831, William Todd, of McLeod Lake, writes to
headquarters, at Stuart Lake: "Mr. Connolly--the officer in charge of
the district--previous to his departure from here, made them [the
Sekanais Indians] very liberal promises of spirits and tobacco should
their hunt, on his arrival in the fall, be found to equal his
expectations."[89]

A year had not elapsed, when Thomas Dears, then in charge of Fort
Connolly, writes also: "Those Indians I saw were somewhat disappointed
in not receiving a gratuity of spirits. I am of opinion that if a
small quantity was allowed them, each according to his merits, it
would be a stimulant [No doubt it would.--ED.] to exertion, and, at
any rate, it would entice them to visit the fort oftener."[90]

[Footnote 89: To P. W. Dease, August 28th, 1831.]

[Footnote 90: February 5th, 1832.]

Ten years later, the officer momentarily presiding over the whole
district decides, in his official capacity, "Regarding rum to be given
to the Indians, I would recommend that the usual allowance be given
to those who pay their debts."[91]

This was evidently written in answer to a consultation regarding the
advisability of continuing the custom of furnishing intoxicants to the
natives, and said consultation must have been the result of some
occurrence which caused the local manager to question the wisdom of
following in the footsteps of his predecessors. What this occurrence
may have been can easily be guessed by any one who knows the effect
"fire-water," even taken in small quantities, has on inferior
races.[92]

The directing minds of the Company, though not realizing the extent of
the evil, made laudable efforts to check its ravages. In 1831, among
the resolutions of their Annual Council, held at Norway House, we find
one prohibiting the sale of liquor to the Indians, and regulating that
"not more than two gallons of spirituous liquors and four gallons of
wine be sold at the depots to any individual in the Company's service,
of what rank soever he may be."[93]

[Footnote 91: Paul Fraser to H. Maxwell, of Babine, March 29th, 1832
(_sic_ for 1842).]

[Footnote 92: This being so, we fail to see how one can reconcile with
the real state of affairs the following statement in an official
letter written on the 1st of February, 1837, by Governor G. Simpson to
J. H. Pelly, then at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company in London:
"Drunkenness is now...quite unknown...in the country known by the name
of New Caledonia..., the introduction and use of spirituous and other
intoxicating liquors having been strictly prohibited" (Appendix to
"Report from Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company," p. 420).
At the time when the above was penned liquor was being supplied by the
pailful to the Indians of the very capital of New Caledonia on the
occasion of their "potlaches," and we will see, p. 197 of this work,
the superintendent of the Company's affairs in the far North-West
declare, in the course of that very year 1837, that the natives of
that place "have fully sufficient [rum] already."]

[Footnote 93: Resolution 95.]

And, as the evil seemed to be growing, eight years later the same body
orders that "the brewing of beer and distilling of spirits be
interdicted at all establishments and posts belonging to the Hudson's
Bay Company."[94]

Yet, so late as 1848, D. Manson, the gentleman then in charge of the
district, speaks of a keg of rum which was regularly kept for the use
of the Sekanais Indians, and we have the best of evidence for stating
that, long after that date, intoxicants figured prominently in the
Company's transactions with the natives.[95]

King Charles's charter had given the officers of the Company "power to
judge all persons belonging to the said Governor and Company, or that
shall live under them, in all causes, whether civil or criminal,
according to the laws of this kingdom, and to execute justice
accordingly." Now, during its many years of supreme control over the
native populations, in the midst of which it had established its
posts, many unlawful acts were perpetrated and even crimes committed.
But there is not one instance on record of a person having been tried
for an offence and punished accordingly. When the victim of a foul
deed belonged to the Company's personnel, prompt action was, indeed,
invariably taken; but even then there was not the semblance of a
trial. He who had killed was killed, sometimes the innocent sharing
the fate of the guilty, exactly as was practised by the Indians
themselves, a circumstance the latter knew how to utilize to silence
the Company's employees who, for the sake of their trade, tried to put
a stop to the series of reprisals which followed. Regular arrests and
trials would, no doubt, have been sometimes difficult and well nigh
impossible; but it is safe to say that, in several cases, cool,
impartial justice might have easily enough taken the place of that
which everybody regarded as revenge and retaliation, prompted less by
the exigencies of society than by the impulse of feelings and the
thirst for blood.

[Footnote 94: Resolution 78, June 7th, 1845.]

[Footnote 95: To Sir Geo. Simpson, February 20th, 1848.]

As to the observance of Sunday, we will simply remark that the
Hudson's Bay Company in New Caledonia seems to have considered the
Lord's Day as the proper time for travelling, which in the north,
especially in winter, means packing, felling trees, cutting firewood,
sometimes in large quantities, etc. Until a comparatively late date,
Sunday trading and outfitting were also weekly occurrences in that
district.

The redeeming features of the Company's people in the north were their
undoubted honesty in dealing with the natives, the superior quality of
their goods, their humane conduct towards the poor and needy, and the
assistance they gave the first missionaries and their immediate
successors in the way of free passages in their boats and a most
generous hospitality at their forts.




CHAPTER VIII.

_Last Years of Stuart's Stay in New Caledonia.
William Connolly Succeeds Him._

1821-1828.


The person who was to harmonize the discordant elements within the new
corporation, and reconcile the Nor'westers to the loss of their
autonomy, was a young man, a mere clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company.
This was George (afterwards Sir George) Simpson. A son of the eldest
brother of Thomas Simpson's mother, he had been born in Ross-shire,
Scotland, and had engaged for eleven years in commercial pursuits,
when, in 1819, he cast his lot with the Hudson's Bay Company, which
was then battling furiously with its enterprising rival. Early the
following year he sailed from England to Montreal, whence he made for
Lake Athabaska, where he wintered.

Of a pleasing appearance and gentlemanly address, with blue eyes and
finely chiselled features, he was rather below the average in stature;
but his suavity of manners and a quiet dignity of deportment, which
never left him, stamped him as a man who was bound to make his mark in
the world. That habitual affability was only ruffled when, in the
course of his travels, he was hampered by companions whose easy-going
ways jarred on his nerves and did not allow him to live up to his
reputation of being one of the very swiftest travellers on record. He
would then urge them on with an impetuosity which is said to have
once cost him a ducking which was not on his programme. "A stalwart
French voyageur, who was a favorite with the Governor [Sir George],
was once, in crossing the Lake of the Woods, so irritated by the
Governor's unreasonable urging that he seized his tormentor, who was
small in stature, by the shoulders and dipped him into the lake,
giving vent to his feelings in an emphatic French oath."[96]

As to his administrative abilities, there can be no question. The fact
that for fully thirty-nine years--that is, until the date of his
death, which occurred in 1860--he remained the trusted Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company in America suffices by itself to prove it.

We have not to enter here into the details, or even give the outlines,
of his administration. Norway House, on Lake Winnipeg, became the
American headquarters of the Company. There, in conjunction with a few
tried Chief Factors, forming a sort of legislative assembly and
executive council combined, he used to direct the affairs of his vast
corporation, listen to complaints or requests, judge litigious cases,
review annually the interests of the many posts under his
jurisdiction, and close the whole proceedings by a series of
resolutions embodying the changes in the personnel of the
"gentlemen"--that is, the officers and clerks--for the ensuing
year.[97] Copies of said resolutions were then distributed among the
various heads of districts.

[Footnote 96: "The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company," by
G. Bryce, p. 270.]

[Footnote 97: As to the servants, they were, with regard to changes
from one place to another, under the special jurisdiction of the
manager of their district.]

In the beginning a great reduction in the number of posts was, of
course, in order, several having been established simply out of a
necessity based on competition, in the days of the two rival
corporations. These conflicting interests having never penetrated
into New Caledonia, a reduction in the number of forts there was not
necessary. On the contrary, with the increase in the personnel
resulting from the abandonment of many establishments in the east,
expansion and multiplication of posts became the order of the day.

We have seen the pioneer traders for a number of years painfully
transporting their supplies overland from the east through Fort
McLeod. This necessitated long voyages, in the course of which the
goods had to cross the continent and be packed by men along difficult
portages, chief among which were the Rocky Mountain Portage and that
between McLeod Lake and Stuart Lake, a distance of at least eighty
miles. To obviate these difficulties John Stuart had gone in search of
a water communication between the Fraser and the Columbia, failing to
find which he suggested the advisability of getting the New Caledonia
outfits from the Columbia, but _via_ Okanagan and the newly founded
establishment at Kamloops. As the lower Fraser was unavailable for the
purpose, it had to be avoided, and horses were to pack the goods
between the Columbia and the terminus of navigation on the former
stream. This arrangement necessitated the establishment of a dpt, or
warehouse, to receive the goods and store them for safe keeping
pending the arrival of the canoes from Stuart Lake. Hence the
erection, in 1821, of a new fort on the Fraser, just at the place
where Sir Alexander Mackenzie turned back, in memory of whom the new
post was called Alexandria.

In the course of time this became an important establishment, which
was not only a depot for the northern posts, but a sort of embryo
granary which supplied them with the limited quantity of wheat that
could be raised in its immediate vicinity.[98] Moreover (and this was
perhaps the argument that had the most weight in the eyes of the
Company), it accommodated a large number of Indians who, unhappily,
adding to their innate immorality the vices of the whites, especially
the abuse of intoxicants), were soon to decrease rapidly. To-day their
once populous village and adjacent settlements are practically a
desert; but even ten years after the erection of the fort the native
population in that quarter must still have been numerous, since on the
list of Indians to whom credit had been advanced by the gentleman in
charge, on February 12th, 1831, the writer has found the names of one
hundred and sixty-nine hunters. This would give a minimum of six
hundred souls. The amount of their debts varied between one-half and
twenty-one "skins," or twenty-one times the value of a "made beaver."

The preceding year (1830) that post had received, among other pelts,
1,832 beaver-skins, to which must be added 22 beaver robes, 8 large
dressed beavers, 1 small dressed beaver, and 50 bear-skins.

Somewhat later an outpost of Alexandria was established on a tributary
of the Chilcotin River, which, after many trials and varying fortunes,
had to be abandoned, owing to its isolation and consequent
expensiveness, but especially on account of the troublesome
disposition of the natives who frequented it.

[Footnote 98: The first Fort Alexandria stood on the left side of the
Fraser.]

[Footnote 99: R. E. Gosnell, Victoria, B.C., 1897, p. 73.]

The author of that most valuable work, the Year Book of British
Columbia,[99] follows Bancroft, who states expressly that Fort
Chilcotin was established "about the same time" as Alexandria.[100] To
anyone familiar with the geography of the country and the innate
restiveness of the Chilcotin Indians, such a statement calls for
confirmation. That Bancroft is mistaken as to the date of the
foundation of that fort (which cannot be 1821, as the Year Book has it
on the faith of that author's somewhat vague assertion) is made
evident by the following statement from William Connolly's journal,
which is undated, except for the very explicit mention of the years
1825-26. It is in the handwriting of that gentleman, who had never
been in New Caledonia before the end of 1824, and written probably in
1826:

"The intelligence Mr. McDougall (George) conveys in regard to
Alexandria is not very agreeable. The Indians in that quarter, having
had some serious misunderstandings a few years ago with the
Chilcotins, the latter, in revenge, lately murdered three of the
former when they were hunting in the vicinity of the Chilcotin River,
and the others, in retaliation, perpetrated a like deed upon two young
men of the Chilcotin tribe who were amongst them. Since this occurred
all intercourse between the two tribes has been broken off, and both
being apprehensive of being attacked, the Chilcotins retreated beyond
our reach for the present, which prevented Mr. McDougall from making
them the promised visit, and the others have, since that unfortunate
affair, done nothing.

[Footnote 100: "History of the North-West," Vol. II., p. 461.]

"This event, I am afraid, will be an obstacle to the establishment of
a post on the Chilcotin River for the present."[101]

In course of time Fort Alexandria became the seat of a Chief Trader,
who had under him a clerk in charge of Fort Chilcotin. Both, however,
were under the jurisdiction of the Chief Factor at Stuart Lake.

[Footnote 101: From a fly-sheet torn off an old journal book.]

While the Hudson's Bay Company was thus implanting itself in the south
of the district, it was extending its influence in the north by means
of a new fort it was establishing on the northern shore of Babine
Lake, among the numerous Indians whom Harmon and Jas. McDougall
visited in 1812. Trading excursions had yearly brought to the doors of
those aborigines the wares of the Canadians, in competition with those
they indirectly received from the Pacific coast. With the
ever-increasing number of servants to support, it was felt that a
permanent post in that quarter would be of the greatest benefit to the
whole district, were it only as a means of procuring the salmon on
which the inmates of the different posts subsisted. The run of that
fish failing along the basin of the Fraser, recourse might be had to
that of Lake Babine, which is one of the tributaries of the Skeena.

A new post was therefore erected, in 1822, on the northern bank of
Lake Babine, in latitude 55 4. For over twenty years it bore among
the Hudson's Bay Company's people a name which, in the old papers of
the time, is variously spelt Kilmaurs, Killmars, and Kilmers. Nowadays
that place is known as Old Fort Babine.

Here we must again take exception to one of Bancroft's assertions.
This author states, in his "History of British Columbia"[102] that
"the post of Babine was built by Chief Trader Brown in 1826-27." But
in the minutes of the Council held in 1825 at the temporary Norway
House, Chief Trader William Brown is explicitly mentioned as being in
charge of that fort, with Charles Ross as clerk. At the time mentioned
by Bancroft, Fort Kilmars was already in a flourishing condition, with
P. C. Pambrun at its head. The Stuart Lake journal even records the
fact that, four men having been sent to bring the returns of that
place, these proved to be so abundant that four additional men had to
be despatched to help those originally sent.[103]

[Footnote 102: P. 58.]

[Footnote 103: Journal, April 4th, 1827.]

The year 1824 was the last which John Stuart passed as the manager of
the New Caledonia District. In the autumn of that year he was
succeeded by William Connolly,[104] an Irishman, with a half-breed
family, who crossed the Rocky Mountains with supplies and twenty-four
men, whom he had brought from Norway House.

On returning from that country, for which he does not seem to have had
too great a liking, John Stuart went over to the east side of the
mountains, and two years afterwards, (December 10th, 1826), we find
him stationed at Lesser Slave Lake. On the 5th of January, 1827, his
thoughts revert to the country of his first trials, and he writes from
Edmonton: "Most of the Crees attached to Fort Assiniboine had in
summer crossed the mountains in war excursions and, I believe, killed
some of the most valuable Indians of Western Caledonia; but this is a
conjecture."[105]

[Footnote 104: Bancroft, in his "History of British Columbia," wrongly
calls him James. In his "History of the North-West," he speaks
sometimes of a James, sometimes of a William, Connolly, and a careful
study of his text reveals the fact that the two are really one and the
same individual. On the other hand, the anonymous author of the
article "Douglas" in the "Biographical Dictionary of Well-known
British Columbians," calls the same gentleman John Connolly.]

[Footnote: 105: MS. letter to J. McLeod.]

Five years afterwards he was promoted to the command of the Mackenzie
District; but six months later he was already tired of his new
position and was speaking of retiring therefrom.[106] Yet he did not
act at once on his original intention, and stayed some time longer at
the Forks of the Mackenzie River, a step he had to regret, as we learn
from an unpublished letter he wrote to his friend John McLeod. That
communication is dated March 2nd, 1834, and reads partly as follows:

"I had a fair prospect of passing one of the most comfortable and
pleasant [seasons] I experienced in the Indian country, when a
circumstance I could neither foresee nor suspect [occurred]. Poor
unfortunate Mary, of whom, in common with me, you always had a high
opinion, fell over head and ears in love, and commenced an intrigue
that nearly terminated my life. Of this, although aware she had ceased
to treat me as her husband, I had not the smallest suspicion until 7th
February, when the poor infatuated victim of delusion retired publicly
into the bed-chamber of that vile Abenekis, the abominable Anreon,
under a written promise that he would both protect her and turn me out
of the house. But the result turned out different from [that] which
either of them expected. Shortly after I entered the room, and before
he could make use of his pistols, I suddenly seized the bravado by
both arms and ordered Mary to her own room, and the next day I sent
her to Fort Liard, where she will remain with Mr. McPherson until open
water."

[Footnote 106: March 16th, 1833.]

He then solaces his wounded feelings by stating that "the thief and
villain who seduced his 'wife' is now leaving the district." After
which he adds: "Poor Mary, I both pity and forgive her.... I cannot
again trust her.... Had she continued her former attention...until I
reached Norway House, she most certainly would have become my wife."

Inasmuch as he asserts that his love for her was gone forever, and
that he cannot now marry her, one may be pardoned for not seeing his
reasons for taking her away from the man she loved, who was as much
her husband as himself, and who was probably willing to make her his
wife. He ends by saying:

"I have now only to say that, along with the returns, I will take my
departure for England, from where it is probable I will steer for the
south of France, and in that fine climate endeavor to spin out a frame
for a few years that is nearly exhausted by excess of labor and care,
ingratitude and disappointment."

Such were his plans at the time he wrote; but again his natural
inconstancy, or perhaps circumstances over which he had no control,
caused him to alter them; for on leaving the service he settled at
Forres, in Scotland, where he died in 1846.[107]

William Connolly, whom we have already seen coming to succeed him in
the management of the Company's affairs west of the Rocky Mountains,
had originally served in the North-West Company, and he is often
honorably mentioned in the Journal of Sir John Franklin (Vols. I. and
II.). In the winter of 1819-20 he was the resident partner
representing his corporation at Cumberland House,[108] and upon the
amalgamation of the two rival companies he was made a Chief Trader,
while now (1824) his undoubted business abilities were recognized by
his being entrusted with the charge of a much larger field.

[Footnote 107: J. Stuart, who had been made a Chief Factor in 1821,
was the maternal uncle of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal.]

[Footnote 108: "Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea," Vol. I., p.
95.]

The year that he assumed command over New Caledonia there came to that
country a young man who was in after years to become the principal
maker of history within British Columbia. This was James Douglas, a
scion of the noble house of the same name. Born in 1803, on the 11th
of August, in Demerara, British Guiana,[109] of a Catholic mother, he
was educated at Lanark, Scotland, and at seventeen he entered the
service of the North-West Company at Fort William. With the petulance
which occasionally asserted itself within him, he resented the
coalition of the two companies and the practical absorption of his
own by the English concern, and he was on the point of returning to
Scotland when he was persuaded to remain in the service by John
McLoughlin, a high officer in the new corporation, who had taken a
liking for the youth.

[Footnote 109: Not in Jamaica, as most authors have it.]

John Stuart had just been relieved of the task for which he seemed to
have so little taste, and his successor was directing his steps
towards his new charge, when young Douglas was despatched to that
distant country, the bugbear of apprentices in the service. In 1825 we
find him at McLeod Lake, in company with John Tod, who had accompanied
Stuart on his last voyage to the western lands in 1823, and as he was
giving satisfaction, we see the Annual Council of the Company
recommending that he be "engaged for a term of three years from the
expiration of his contract, at 60 a year."

Owing to the late foundations, New Caledonia had about attained the
high-water mark of its prosperity, and it may serve our purpose to
glance at the personnel then stationed at the different posts. In
1825, at Stuart Lake, W. Connolly, who was appointed a Chief Factor
that very year, had command over the whole district, and was assisted
by three clerks, James McDougall, P. C. Pambrun,[110] and J. M. Yale.
The last named gentleman had momentarily left his station, Fort
George, pending an investigation into an occurrence of which we will
soon have more to say. John McDonnell was in charge of Fraser Lake
without an assistant clerk, while at McLeod Lake John Tod had with him
Jas. Douglas; at Alexandria Geo. McDougall was aided by William B.
McBean, and at Babine Chief Trader Brown had Charles Ross for a
companion.

[Footnote 110: This Pambrun (Pierre Chrysologue) had already a history
of his own. Born at Vaudreuil, in the Province of Quebec, he had
served as lieutenant in the regiment of the Canadian Voltigeurs, who
had distinguished themselves in the war against the United States.
Entering the Hudson's Bay Company soon after, he was the officer sent
with five boats to bring from Fort Qu'Appelle 600 sacks of pemmican
wherewith to victual the Red River colonists, who were threatened with
starvation through the machinations of the North-West Company; but he
was overtaken on his way down the Assiniboine by the employees of that
concern, who seized his stores and made him a prisoner (12th May,
1816) about a month before the Seven Oaks skirmish, a circumstance to
which he probably owed his life, as on the day of that bloody affair
he happened to be detained at Portage la Prairie by those who were
responsible for its occurrence.

He subsequently crossed over to New Caledonia, and, after a short stay
at headquarters, he was entrusted with the direction of Fort Kilmaurs,
where we have already seen him. A few years thereafter he migrated to
the south, and on the 18th of November, 1838, he was in charge of the
important Fort Walla-Walla, on the left bank of the Columbia, where he
received with the cordiality of a Catholic gentleman the two first
priests sent to Oregon, the Revds. F. N. Blanchet and M. Demers
("Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon," p. 47).]

Among the country produce of that early date we find the following
mentioned in the old account books of the district: Birch bark, gum
(or pitch, which sold at 1d. per pound), sturgeon oil, pemmican,
Indian rice, buffalo robes (quoted at 5s. each, while samples of an
inferior quality retailed at 2s. 6d.), snowshoes, dressed buffalo,
reindeer and moose-skins, parchment (mostly for windows), buffalo
tongues, which could be had at 6d. apiece, etc.

But to return to our new arrival, Clerk J. Douglas. His stay at Fort
McLeod was not long, and he was soon called to Stuart Lake to help in
the many branches of service incident to such an important post. In
view of the exalted functions he was to exercise in after life, it is
refreshing to read, after a lapse of eighty years, a few of the
entries in the Journal of the Stuart Lake Fort wherein he is
mentioned. Such passages, at the same time, give us an idea of the
truly strenuous life the early traders had to lead in the isolated and
undeveloped west.

One of their first cares, indeed the care that had precedence over all
others, was to find the means of subsistence for themselves and their
numerous retinue of servants. To procure fish they had started a
fishery at "Monte," or the mouth of Beaver Creek, the place across
the lake where they had met the first Indians in 1806; but the returns
of that establishment were usually so indifferent and at all times so
uncertain that the authorities at headquarters deemed it expedient to
found a second fishing station at _Petit Lac_ (or Small Lake), the
head-waters of the river that falls into the lake at the Portage,
where fish were said to be abundant. The new clerk, James Douglas, was
entrusted with the care of that fishery, as can be seen by the
following extracts from his immediate superior's Journal:

"_Saturday_, 10th November, 1827.--Received from the [old] fishery
fifty-nine whitefish, the produce of two nights. Clermont brought over
the greater part of the nets.... To-morrow Mr. Douglas, with two
fishermen, Bichon[111] and Clermont, and two men to assist them, will
proceed to Yokogh [or _Petit Lac_] to establish the fishery there.
This gentleman will not only superintend the fishery, but will also
collect the fish which the Indians may have to dispose of immediately,
for which purpose he is provided with leather [dressed skins] and
other articles of trade.

"_Sunday_, 11th.--Mr. Douglas, with five men, set out for the fishery
of Yokogh. They are well provided with nets, having eight of small
thread, three of willow, and four of Holland twine.... Most of the
dogs are also sent to the fishery.

[Footnote 111: This name is hardly decipherable in the MS.]

"_Wednesday_, 14th.--Vadeboncoeur came from the fishery and informed
me that these two days back they had not taken a sufficiency for their
consumption. I ordered them to come across to-morrow to prepare to go
and join Mr. Douglas at the other fishery."

After this we see the future knight and Governor of British Columbia
continually hauling with dog sledges the fish he had taken at his
establishment or procured from the neighboring Indians.[112] Indeed,
on the very eve of his departure from the district, he is still busy
with fish and furs, as is shown by this other passage from the same
Journal:

"January 1st, 1830.--...Mr. Douglas also returned from his trip. In
the way of furs he was more successful than had been expected, having
collected, principally among the Kuzche Indians, about 110 pounds'
weight of excellent furs, chiefly beaver and marten. But the fish
trade has entirely disappointed us, only about 1,600 having been
procured, part of which the dogs have brought to the Fort by Mr.
Douglas' men."

[Footnote 112: "Magnus esse vis? a minimo incipe" (Wilt thou be great?
learn first to be little) is an old maxim which most historians cannot
apparently imagine as applicable to Sir James Douglas. To them he was
such a great man that they seem to think he never was little, in so
far, at least, as social standing is concerned. As soon as they
introduce him upon the scene of the western province, they clothe him
with a halo of consideration which is quite disproportionate to his
age and surroundings. They show him to us as a man in authority
(forgetting that he was a mere youth at the time) gravely studying
people and situations, founding forts and practically doing at Stuart
Lake what he was destined to do at Victoria. "From the time Douglas
arrived on the Pacific coast, in 1824," writes his biographer in the
"Dictionary of Well-known British Columbians," he was practically at
the head of the Company's business, and while McLaughlin was nominally
his superior [what about Connolly?] Douglas was not only the mind
which conceived, but the hand which carried into effect all the
enterprises of the Company.... On his arrival in New Caledonia he set
himself without delay to study the conditions of the country, its
geography and hydrography, and the languages and characteristics of
the various tribes of natives with whom he would have business
dealings. He spent four [it should be six] years in the interior of
New Caledonia...and during this period he founded several forts and
had a number of encounters with the savages, in which his prudence,
address and courage made him feared and respected by the natives"--so
much feared (?) that, for the sake of personal safety, he had finally
to leave the country and his own father-in-law. Others represent him
as a Chief Factor in charge of Fort St. James at a time when he was
merely the head fisherman of the establishment. There should be
nothing derogatory to his undoubted greatness in the assertion that he
learned to obey before he could command.]

James Douglas is very generally credited with having established Fort
Connolly, on Bear Lake. Begg and others go even so far as to say that
he founded _several_ such posts within New Caledonia,[113] an
assertion which is erroneous on the face of it. That fort is conceded
to have been erected in 1826. On the other hand, Bancroft states[114]
that Douglas made, in August, 1827, a journey down the stream he
called Connolly River, a circumstance which would seem to imply that
he wintered at the new place. Indeed, some authors give the date of
the foundation of Fort Connolly as 1826-27. Without absolutely
disputing the accuracy of these statements, we will remark that, in
view of the incontrovertible facts in the possession of the writer,
those assertions give rise to some difficulties.

We have to deplore the loss of that part of the Stuart Lake Journal
which would have prevented all controversy on the subject. As it is,
the few sheets before us relating to that epoch which time has spared
are our excuse for the doubts we venture to express as to the accuracy
of the various authors regarding that point. In a manuscript document
signed by William Connolly, and dated Walla-Walla, July 18th, 1826,
Mr. Douglas is directed to "proceed to Okanagan with [the horses]
intended for New Caledonia"; and, under date March 27th, 1827, the
Stuart Lake Journal says that "Mr. Douglas arrived in the afternoon
from Alexandria, which place he left on the 19th." In the face of
these two unpublished statements we fail to see how Douglas could
have established Fort Connolly in 1826, especially as Bear Lake, in
the midst of which it stood,[115] is a place difficult of access,
which cannot well be reached from the south before July, and is
situated at the very opposite extremity of the district from that
where Alexandria stands, with a distance of over four hundred miles
intervening.

[Footnote 113: "History of British Columbia," p. 135.]

[Footnote 114: "History of the North-West," Vol. II., p. 488.]

[Footnote 115: The original Fort Connolly stood on an island.]

Yet it is certain that the fort had been erected before 1827, as we
see Connolly sending thither supplies and merchandise by dog trains as
early as March 20th of that year. But then Charles Ross, not James
Douglas, is mentioned as being in charge, as the following entry will
show:

"_Tuesday_, March 25th, 1827.--...About midday two men cast up from
Connolly's Lake with intelligence from Mr. Ross that he had got a
considerable increase to the furs he had when he wrote Mr. Connolly
last, and that he would be in want of several essential articles for
his summer trade, which, though the season is advanced and much
necessary work remains yet to be done, Mr. Connolly is determined to
supply him with. It is certainly much to be regretted that Mr. Ross
did not forward the news sooner; for, not expecting such a demand and
such an addition to the returns, Mr. Connolly had made no provision
for it, and notwithstanding there are fifteen disposable men about
this place, five only can be depended upon for any voyage; two of that
number are wanted to prepare wood for the canoes and raise bark, so
that three only remain. As for the other ten, they are such drones
that if any of them were sent, they would not be back for embarkation;
and then there is still the Babine furs to be brought here, a trip to
McLeod's Lake, and Mr. McDonnell's voyage to the Upper Forks to be
made." We are drifting from Fort Connolly, and yet always concerned
with the drudgery of life in New Caledonia. That post, therefore, was
established in 1826 for the benefit of the northern Sekanais Indians
who roam in the vicinity of the very Bear Lake whose identity had so
much exercised Fraser's mind as he was on the point of starting on his
first voyage of discovery.

The journal of the central fort has become to us so much the more
precious as its earliest part has come down to us in the shape of
unconnected fragments. This will be our excuse for reproducing the
following passages, than which no words of ours could better
illustrate the difficulties under which men and masters then labored
in that isolated country.

Chief [']Kwah, our old acquaintance of the second chapter, who was not
unknown to Harmon, as we have seen, is mentioned on almost every other
page as "old Qua," together with the quantity and quality of the furs
he brings in. One day he is shown us as making his appearance at the
fort "with a most shabby hunt, consisting of only eleven beavers."
What a good hunt that would be to-day, especially considering that the
old man's expeditions were short and frequent! It was not considered
so at that time, and "in consequence [he was] treated with the
greatest indifference." Lo! the poor Indian, whose worth and claim to
the dignity of manhood are measured by the number of animal skins he
hands the white trader, who will perhaps make thereon a profit of 500
per cent!

From the natives we pass to the servants of the "gentlemen." They do
not fare much better. Witness this little incident:

"_Monday_, 31st March, 1827.--...Ren and Dubois arrived about midday
with the furs brought by the latter as far as _Rivire au Maskeg_,
where he was found by Ren in a state of extreme debility,
originating in sickness and heightened by privations, having, since
the 25th inst., had no other nourishment than that derived from a
single dried salmon."

The old document now takes us back to Fort Connolly and initiates us
into some of the cares weighing upon the administration of the
district.

"_Friday_, 2nd November, 1827.--A further supply of ammunition, etc.,
was also packed for Connolly's Lake, to which post four or five men
are to be sent for the winter, a step which the existing scarcity of
provisions rendered indispensable, as it is only by proportioning the
burden of each post to its means of subsistence that we will be
enabled to escape the unsparing ravages of want."

Fraser Lake now comes in for a share of the chronicler's attention.

"_Monday_, 12th November, 1827.--...The best summer trade I have seen
at Fraser's Lake; but unfortunately a melancholy circumstance took
place a few days ago just nigh the fort. The Grand Sauvage being
encamped at a small lake with his family, three of the Simpson River
Indians[116] came upon him at night and, in revenge of the murder of
one of their relations, killed his wife and wounded his daughter and a
child. The woman being a near relation of Yascho and the Sycuss[117]
Indians, couriers had been sent with the intelligence, and Yascho was
at the village when Williams passed, but Mr. McDonnell had not seen
him. He was apprehensive he would be unable to prevail upon them to
remain quiet, and should they determine on going immediately to
revenge the death of their relation, it will inevitably ruin the fall
hunts and the returns will suffer, as that band are the principal
beaver hunters of Fraser's Lake."

[Footnote 116: The Skeena was originally called Simpson River by the
Hudson's Bay Company's people.]

[Footnote 117: Or Stony Creek.]

Who said that a Hudson's Bay Company man's intellectual vision was
limited to a pack of furs?

The above occurrence--which, insignificant as it may appear, finds its
place, in a work like the present, whose aim is to reflect in its
pages the particular manners of the times referred to--recalls to mind
a massacre of innocent persons which then saddened another part of the
district. A band of Sekanais had come to enjoy the hospitality of
their Carrier friends at Pinche, on Lake Stuart. It happened that an
Indian of that place, noted among his kindred for his innate
disposition to buffoonery, blackened his face, as was customary with
native "doctors," to impose on the credulity of the strangers, at whom
he stared wildly as they were returning to their eastern mountains.

The party was headed by a chief who, owing to an accident caused by
his own gun, was called _Pouce-coup_, or Thumb-cut-off, by whites and
reds alike. Unfortunately, as they were on their way back to their
hunting grounds, one of the Sekanais died after a very short illness.
Persuaded that his death was the work of the Pinche "medicine-man,"
the whole party retraced their steps, bent on revenge.

Arrived at the south end of Lake Rey, which is parallel to Lake
Stuart, the Sekanais stealthily came upon a party of Carrier women,
with a man, camped on an island. Falling on them unawares, they killed
the women and wounded the man, who, feigning death, managed to escape
on the ice; then, running for dear life on the rugged surface of the
ice, without any foot-gear or hardly any clothing, he was pursued by
the whizzing of bullets and arrows, which he so dexterously avoided
that thenceforth he was considered as possessed of no inconsiderable
supernatural powers.

Whatever may be said of J. Douglas's connection with the establishment
of Fort Connolly, one thing is certain. Early in 1828, or thereabouts,
he married, Scotch fashion, the daughter of his superior at Stuart
Lake, Nellie Connolly, a maiden of perhaps fifteen summers, who was to
be known in after life as Lady Douglas. The youth's good fortune must
have excited the secret envy of his less favored fellows. At
twenty-five, with a comely wife and the brightest prospects based on
his new connection, what more could he desire? And yet, as we shall
see presently, that very year was to be the turning-point in his life,
a year fraught with peril and pregnant with the most momentous
consequences.

We must preface our explanations with a remark. Hardly five years had
elapsed since J. M. Yale, then in charge of Fort George, having
absented himself (1823) to pay a visit to Stuart Lake, had been
stupefied to find, on his return home, the mangled bodies of his two
workmen in one of the outhouses, alongside of one of their own axes,
wherewith they had been done to death by two Fraser Lake Indians. For
his apparent neglect, Yale[118] was visited with suspension from his
charge and ordered to headquarters at Stuart Lake pending the verdict
of the Council of the Company. There we momentarily saw him, in 1825,
acting as third clerk to Mr. Connolly.

His conduct having been fully investigated and himself absolved from
any blame, he was reinstated in his functions at Fort George. The next
chapter will tell us the sequel to this affair.

[Footnote 118: After whom Fort Yale was to be called in after years.]




CHAPTER IX.

_An Episode and its Consequences._

1828-1830.


For almost forty years Sir James Douglas is the central figure in the
history of British Columbia. He was a man of many attainments and of
undoubted ability, a true leader, whose memory will ever live as that
of the first successful Governor of that province. His bust, which
adorns the faade of the magnificent Parliament buildings at Victoria,
as well as the obelisk erected in his honor in front of the imposing
pile, tell of the appreciative gratitude of the people of the Pacific
Coast.

Yet there is certainly no presumption in assuming that not one in a
thousand Canadians is aware of the fact that to the Indian Chief of
Stuart Lake, a man whom the Hudson's Bay Company Journal of that
period delights in belittling, James Douglas owed his life and,
indirectly, his subsequent promotion to all the honors in the gift of
the Company, as well as his nomination to the post of representative
of Queen Victoria on the Pacific Coast. A word from "old Qua," that
lowly native to whom he used to show the cold shoulder when his hunt
had not been up to expectations, would have cut short his incipient
career and sent his ghost to the present abode of his ancestors.

Dr. Bryce, in his "Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company,"
relates the incident, partly after McLean, and manages to crowd so
many inaccuracies into his record of the same and his references to
New Caledonia in general, that we think it not irrelevant to enter
into some details concerning that most fateful episode in Sir James's
early life. We will begin by Dr. Bryce's version of the event:

"Douglas had as his headquarters Fort St. James, near the outlet of
Stuart Lake, _i.e._, just west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains,"
he writes on page 398. "He determined to enforce law and do away with
the disorder which prevailed in the district. An Indian, who some time
before had murdered one of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company,
had been allowed to go at large. Judgment being long deferred, the
murderer thought himself likely to be unmolested, and visited Stuart
Lake. Douglas, learning of his presence, with a weak garrison seized
the criminal and visited vengeance on him. The Indians were incensed,
but knowing that they had to deal with a doughty Douglas, employed
stratagem in their reprisals. The old Chief came very humbly to the
fort and, knocking at the gate, was given admittance. He talked the
affair over with Douglas, and the matter seemed in a fair way to be
settled when another knock was heard at the gate. The Chief stated
that it was his brother who sought to be admitted. The gate was
opened, when in rushed the whole of the Nisqually tribe. McLean
vividly describes the scene which ensued:

"'The men of the fort were overpowered ere they had time to stand on
their defence. Douglas, however, seized a wall-piece that was mounted
in the hall, and was about to discharge it on the crowd that was
pouring in upon him, when the Chief seized him by the hands and held
him fast. For an instant his life was in the utmost peril, surrounded
by thirty or forty Indians, their knives drawn, and brandishing them
over his head with frantic gestures, and calling out to the Chief,
"Shall we strike? Shall we strike?"

"'The Chief hesitated, and at this critical moment the interpreter's
wife (daughter of an old trader, James McDougall) stepped forward, and
by her presence of mind saved him and the establishment.

"'Observing one of the inferior chiefs, who had always professed the
greatest friendship for the whites, standing in the crowd, she
addressed herself to him, exclaiming, "What, you a friend of the
whites, and not say a word in their behalf at such a time like this!
Speak! You know the murderer deserved to die. According to your own
laws the deed was just. It was blood for blood. The white men are not
dogs; they love their own kindred as well as you. Why should they not
avenge their murder?"

"'The moment the heroine's voice was heard the tumult subsided; her
boldness struck the savages with awe. The chief she addressed, acting
on her suggestion, interfered, and being seconded by the old Chief,
who had no serious intention of injuring the whites, and was satisfied
with showing them that they were fairly in his power, Douglas and his
men were set at liberty; and an amicable conference having taken
place, the Indians departed, much elated with the issue of their
enterprise.'"

Now this is very pathetic and even smacks slightly of the drama; but
the bare, cold facts are somewhat different, if we are to believe
eye-witnesses--one of whom is still living near the writer--and the
many Indians, children or contemporaries of eye-witnesses, who all
agree in the following details.

For some reason, the nature of which cannot now be ascertained, two
young men had killed two of the Company's servants, as we have seen at
the end of the preceding chapter. One of them had already paid the
penalty of his crime by being secretly slain by the Company's people,
who had burned his remains in such a way as to suggest an accident as
the cause of his death.[119] Several years elapsed when, in the summer
of 1828, his survivor, Tzoelhnolle, hazarded a visit to the Stuart
Lake Indians. These, however, he found to be absent to a man, and of
the women-folk left in the camp only one is mentioned, who had but
lately been delivered of a child. Mr. Connolly was likewise away,
having gone down to Alexandria to take up the outfit for the following
year, so that Mr. Douglas was left temporarily in charge of the place.

On being told of the presence of Tzoelhnolle, that gentleman
immediately took with him a few of the fort men, armed with hoes and
other garden implements, and made for the untenanted lodges of the
Indians.

Apprised of his coming by the sick woman, Tzoelhnolle, who could
easily have escaped by flight, stupidly chose to hide himself under a
pile of skins and other household impedimenta, where he was found and
brought to Douglas, who, seizing him by the hair, asked for his name.
The now terrified young man answered that he was called Noel.

[Footnote 119: Bancroft says that he had been killed by the Blackfeet!
How awkward of him to have gone hundreds of miles expressly to be
killed by Indians of whom none of the Carriers even so much as knew
the name!]

"You lie!" exclaimed Douglas, who fired at him with his blunderbuss;
but owing to the efforts of the youth to free himself from his grasp
the ball went wide of the mark, whereupon, with hoes and the remnants
of a camp-fire near by, his assistants stunned the Indian and reduced
his lifeless body to the condition of a shapeless jelly. Then, by
order of Douglas, they passed a stout rope around his neck and
proceeded to drag him in the direction of the fort. "The man he
killed was eaten by the dogs; by the dogs he must be eaten," declared
the inexorable clerk.

Several days, perhaps some weeks, afterwards, [']Kwah returned with
his followers. Tzoelhnolle's father also came from Fraser Lake. The
Chief was indignant at the treatment meted out to the young man, who
was a distant relative of his, and urged, no doubt, by the entreaties
of his desolate father, he resolved to give a good lesson to the young
clerk.

Followed by a large number of his people, he boldly went into the
Indian hall, which at that time was also the trading-room, within the
dwelling-house of Connolly and his clerks, and was greeted by Douglas,
who, expecting trouble, had previously taken the precaution of having
one of the little cannons mounted in the bastions brought into the
hall. At the sight of the excited crowd he seized the wall-piece, but
was immediately taken hold of by [']Kwah and others, who began to
reproach him with his cruelty to his victim and demand compensation
therefor.

Naturally, quite a commotion arose as a consequence. The fort
employees came from all parts to their master's rescue, but soon
realized their own powerlessness against such numbers of natives. One
of them, however, had the presence of mind to go for the other
cannon,[120] which was rudely snatched from him by the crowd, which
Nancy Boucher, the interpreter's wife, managed to keep outside.

[Footnote 120: These small pieces were mounted with a stout handle
like a rocket.]

Meanwhile Douglas's young wife bravely came in from her sleeping
apartments and took from Tzoelhnolle's father a dagger, which,
however, she had soon to return to its owner. On the other hand,
Tloeng, [']Kwah's nephew and presumptive heir, was pointing to
Douglas's breast the Chief's own poniard, the same wherewith the
latter had fought the Naskhu[']tins, and kept impatiently asking his
uncle:

"Shall I strike? Shall I strike? Say the word and I stab him."

Which hearing, the women, screaming and crying, implored the Chief to
have pity on the white man, promising all kinds of gifts if they
spared his life. Nathadilhthoelh joined his advice to their entreaties
and reminded his relative of the consideration with which he had so
far been treated by the Company, and strongly counselled him not to
allow any bloodshed. Then the two ladies, running upstairs, began to
throw[121] in the midst of the crowd tobacco, handkerchiefs, pieces of
attire, and other goods, which served for a time to divert the
attention of the natives from the now fairly cowed Douglas. Then
[']Kwah, who never had any real intention to kill the clerk, signified
his acceptance of the gifts as a compensation for Tzoelhnolle's death,
and bade his followers quietly return to their homes, as the "incident
was closed."

The above is a careful digest of all the accounts of the affair by
disinterested native and surviving Hudson's Bay Company parties, and
the writer has no doubt as to its perfect correctness. Let us now
return to Dr. Bryce's version of the same and scrutinize some of his
statements.

In the first place, his misapprehension regarding the position of
Stuart Lake is so much the more inexcusable, as a glance at any map of
British Columbia would have shown him that that locality is not "just
west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains." As a matter of fact, Fort
St. James, on that body of water, lies almost two hundred miles west
of the nearest peak within that range.

[Footnote 121: To throw to is, to a Carrier Indian, synonymous with to
present, to give as a mark of deference; and the action of the ladies,
by recalling the "potlatches" then in vogue, was well calculated to
placate the invaders.]

That Dr. Bryce is irretrievably mixed about the true location of his
hero's residence is apparent from the fact that, two pages farther on,
he speaks of the above incident as Douglas's adventure "in the Rocky
Mountains," and again refers to his "stay in this part of the
mountains."[122]

According to that writer, Douglas's motive in acting as he did was his
wish to "enforce law." The reader knows by this time the real amount
of legality there was in the execution of an untried individual, of
whose identity he was not even sure. Indeed, so hasty and imprudent
was his conduct in that connection that it eventually led to his
recall from New Caledonia, where his life had become anything but
secure. Hence, Dr. Bryce is hardly in order when he speaks of the
"judgment having been deferred." As we already know, the Hudson's Bay
Company in New Caledonia never held anything like a juridical trial.

As to the would-be stratagem resorted to by the Indians, none of the
survivors or their immediate descendants ever heard of it. Such
crookedness and premeditation are altogether repugnant to excited
aborigines, even though they have to "deal with a doughty Douglas." We
beg to assure the reverend gentleman that [']Kwah and his people were
very little familiar with their intended victim's pedigree. To them he
was but a poor young man in such straitened circumstances that he
consented to attend to the most menial of occupations, fishing for a
living, which they themselves left to their women.

[Footnote 122: p. 400.]

But where the Winnipeg writer's remarks verge on the ludicrous is when
he unhesitatingly declares that "the whole of the Nisqually tribe"
rushed on to Douglas. We would like to know by what miracle of
bilocation that tribe, whose habitat is in the State of Washington,
over eight hundred miles to the south of Stuart Lake, should have
suddenly appeared at Fort St. James, even to oblige [']Kwah against
the doughty Douglas. Evidently Bryce might improve his geographical
notions, or else he is very careless in transcribing names.[123]

"This story has been harped in variations by almost as many authors as
have given us gunpowder plots." This is from H. H. Bancroft,[124] who
furnishes us himself with a dramatized version of the incident, which
he bases on J. Tod, an excellent authority, to be sure, but one who
was at least eighty miles away at the time of its occurrence.
Moreover, we make bold to doubt whether that trader ever went to the
length of stating that one of the Fort George murderers was killed by
the Blackfeet. According to Bancroft, Douglas, in search of the
survivor, "found his eye in close proximity to an arrow-point"; and
yet he admits that the Indian was hidden under "a pile of camp
equipage," a rather uncomfortable position, we should say, to bend his
bow, the hard and powerful Carrier bow so much dreaded by Mackenzie's
men. Bancroft speaks of no stratagem, but describes the fort gates as
suddenly invaded by two hundred savages with blackened faces, who
finally bind Douglas hand and foot and carry him away to the mess
room, where they lay him at full length upon the table. None of the
Indians has heard of such an indignity as having been inflicted on the
young clerk.

[Footnote 123: His ethnographical notions concerning the aborigines he
mentions are hardly more satisfactory. He still speaks of the Indians
north of the Crees as the "Tinne," a misnomer to which the present
writer has time and again called attention in publications within the
Doctor's reach. A page farther on he states, that "to the Selish or
Flatheads belong many of the tribes of the Lower Fraser River, while
the Shushwaps hold the country on the Columbia and Okanagan Rivers"
(p. 433). It is quite refreshing to learn that the Shushwaps are
distinct from the Selish. To be exact, Dr. Bryce should also have
stated that all, not many, of the tribes of the Lower Fraser (and many
more on Vancouver Island and the opposite mainland of the United
States) belong to the Selish group of aborigines. Again, we would like
to know what are that author's authorities for his statement that the
Shushwaps' habitat is "on the Columbia and Okanagan Rivers." (See
Appendix C.)]

[Footnote 124: "History of the North-West," Vol. II., p. 475.]

Even John McLean cannot be relied on when he relates that occurrence.
He himself admits that its particulars were furnished him long after
the event by Waccan, the interpreter; but at the time of the affray,
J. B. Boucher, _dit_ Waccan, was one hundred and forty miles away, on
a "war expedition" to avenge the murder by the Babines of his
half-brother,[125] Duncan Livingston. That half-breed, who had been
from his youth a trusted servant of the Company, was then married to
J. McDougall's daughter, and the fact that he was McLean's informant
accounts for the heroic rle that author attributes to [Waccan] the
interpreter's wife, a rle which was in reality played by Douglas's
recently wedded spouse.[126]

[Footnote 125: McLean wrongly says "adopted brother."]

[Footnote 126: Fearing for the legality of his marriage, Douglas was
no sooner within reach of a clergyman than he sought to be re-married
by a Rev. Mr. Beaver. At that early date the higher authorities of the
Hudson's Bay Company had not as yet legislated on the subject; but in
1845 the Council held at Norway House on the 7th of June decreed
(Resolution 85) that "in the absence of a clergyman, Chief Factors
only solemnize marriages, and that no person be permitted to take a
wife at any establishment without the sanction of the gentleman in
charge of the district."]

After the humiliating experience above related, Mr. Douglas and his
confederates of Fort St. James must have been in sad need of some
restraining influence to keep them in the path of prudence and
moderation while dealing with the Indians. This most providentially
came to them in the shape of no less a personage than the Governor of
the freshly reorganized Company, Mr. (afterwards Sir George) Simpson.
That gentleman was himself but a young man so far as years go; but his
official position and incumbent responsibilities, combined with his
natural tact, made him a man of good counsel and worthy of his
inferiors' deference.

Shortly after his accession to his high position, he decided upon a
tour of inspection of the different posts retained after the
amalgamation of the two companies, so as to be the better able to pass
judgment on possible difficulties and proffer advice or take measures
based on personal knowledge of the men and places. Starting on July
12th, 1828, from York Factory, on Hudson Bay, his party entered the
Peace River region after the incredibly short time of a little over a
month; yet he not only inspected most thoroughly all the forts lying
along his route, but even had conferences with the natives and others
to ascertain their needs and wishes and gratify them with an
occasional bit of fatherly advice or even of discreet reprimand, as
the case might be.

By the 17th of September, 1828, he was in sight of Lake Stuart. The
Governor was a man of rare sense and penetration, who realized that to
inferior minds externals and the paraphernalia of state are adjuncts
conducive to an easier acquiescence in orders and direction.[127] Fort
St. James was the emporium of New Caledonia, the capital of an immense
district new to the Hudson's Bay Company. Therefore, it was resolved
to impress its inhabitants, and especially the natives in its
vicinity, with a sense of the importance of the new corporation
through the honors paid its head.

[Footnote 127: At times he would even go further and resort to
expedients which smacked somewhat of trickery, in order to enhance his
prestige in the eyes of simple folk. Thus, in the course of his famous
journey across the continent, he had a dog to the neck of which he had
attached a diminutive music-box in such a way that, once started, its
performance seemed to be due to the animal's throat. To this day
Governor Simpson is remembered by the Carrier Indians as the "Great
Chief whose dog sings," and none of them ever entertained the least
doubt concerning the musical abilities of his dog.]

As they neared the lake, which could be seen from a gentle elevation
some distance back of the fort, they unfurled the British ensign,
which was handed to the guide marching at the head of the procession.
Then, preceded by the band, consisting of buglers and bagpipers, came
the Governor on horseback, supported behind by Doctor Hamlyn and Chief
Factor McDonald, also mounted; twenty men packing burdens next formed
the line; then one horse loaded, and, lastly, Mr. McGillivray with his
wife and family closed the rear.[128]

Arriving in view of the fort itself, the bugles sounded, a gun was
fired, and the bagpipes struck up one of the favorite marches of the
clans. Clerk Douglas, in the absence of his superior, now daily
expected from Fort Alexandria, replied with cannon and musketry, after
which he advanced in front of the fort to receive the distinguished
visitor. After the mutual exchange of civilities, pipers and buglers
entered the enclosure, and marching along the inside gallery
contiguous to the palisade, paraded in full view of hundreds of
wondering natives.

Two hours later a large canoe was sighted in the south-west, and
amidst a renewal of military display, William Connolly returned to his
post in company with a few employees. Next day the other canoes came
up, bringing the outfits and the remainder of the fort's men, under
the command of J. M. Yale.

[Footnote 128: "A Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to Pacific," pp.
24-25.]

In the face of all this pomp and apparent bravado, joined to the
remarkable coincidence of the Chief Factor's return with his own
party, the poor bewildered natives may well be excused for having
supposed that the newcomers had no object in mind but to avenge the
affront offered their Company in the person of Mr. Douglas.[129] The
invitation to a conference with the "Great Chief" was not calculated
to dispel that impression. Yet it was accepted by the native
population, and nobody had reason to regret his having yielded to the
stranger's advances, since presents and friendly advice took the place
of the violent scene the Indians had expected, and for which they had
fully prepared themselves.

[Footnote 129: The Governor's party consisted of at least thirty
grown-up persons, and after Connolly's return the force disposable at
the fort cannot have been less than sixty men.]

The chronicler of Simpson's doings and sayings during his
journey--Archibald McDonald--says in his journal that "the chief that
headed the party which entered the fort in the summer was pointed at
with marked contempt, and it was only Mr. Douglas's intercession and
forgiveness that saved him from further indignities," a not improper
step on the part of the Governor and a generous conduct much to the
honor of the young clerk, if truthfully recorded. We would, however,
be more ready to give credence to either statement was not McDonald to
add immediately after his mention of Mr. Simpson's superb contempt for
the culprit, that "at the close of the harangue, the chief had a glass
of rum, a little tobacco, and a shake of the hand from the 'Great
Chief'"[130]--a rather novel way of showing scorn, we should say. As
to Mr. Douglas's magnanimous forgiveness, we shall see presently in
what it consisted.

After the Governor's departure for the coast, the directing minds at
Fort St. James seem to have been fretting more or less at the thought
of the humiliating part that gentleman and confederates had been
forced to play in their encounter with [']Kwah and his people.
Evidently they were bent on having the last word.

[Footnote 130: "Peace River," p. 28.]

Even at that early date, and probably more then than ever, the
recurrence of a New Year was the occasion of great gala at all the
Hudson's Bay Company's posts in New Caledonia. As the clock struck
twelve at night, the servants would fire a volley with their muskets,
and go in a body to pay their respects and offer their best wishes to
the _bourgeois_, who would treat them to a good share of the cup that
inebriates. In the forenoon it was the Indians' turn. Head chief and
petty chiefs would lead their people to the fort, and, after a
handshake with the presiding officer, the former would be presented
with a whole suit of clothes and other commodities (in return wherefor
they were expected to help the traders with their influence during the
incoming year), while the others would receive minor gifts
proportionate to the rank and dignity of the recipient. But the most
appreciated of the favors conferred on that day was probably the share
in the good Hudson's Bay Company's rum, which set everybody aglow, and
eager for the dance which followed, when it did not occasion even more
lively and less friendly scenes.

On New Year's Day, 1829, six months after the above-mentioned
differences, the Company's authorities at Stuart Lake were
extraordinarily generous in their distribution of spirits among the
Indians, so much so that all the leading men in their midst got
helplessly drunk, when, at a signal, all the women and such of the men
as were not wanted were driven out of the fort, and the _engags_,
falling on the prostrate forms of the leaders, gave them such a
drubbing as probably no Indian had ever received before. The head
chief only was spared. It was felt that to touch [']Kwah would make
matters altogether too disagreeable in the near future. His nephew
Tloeng also managed somehow to crawl out of the lion's den.

The others were not a little surprised to find themselves bruised and
swollen all over on regaining possession of their senses. Bad blood
ensued, the natives became sullen, and it became evident that
Douglas's life would be more secure on the banks of the Columbia than
in the wilds of New Caledonia.

None of the authors who have mentioned the Douglas episode relate this
finale. It is undoubtedly to this last incident that the mysterious
remark refers that "there are other interesting circumstances
connected with this affair," which the author found pencilled on the
copy of McLean's book in the Parliamentary Library, at Victoria,
British Columbia.

James Douglas managed to stay one year after the above recited
occurrences. Then, "conformably to the orders of the Council,"[131] he
bade farewell to Stuart Lake on the 30th of January, 1830,[132]
leaving behind him his wife, with a sick infant daughter, who died on
the 2nd of March of the same year. Two months later (5th May), Mrs.
Douglas set out to join her husband, who in the course of five years
was to rise to the coveted position of Chief Factor.

[Footnote 131: Fort St. James Journal.]

[Footnote 132: All the authors have so far wrongly stated that he
retired therefrom in 1828, and it may also be remarked that, although
Alex. Begg seems to have been more or less acquainted with the Journal
of Sir Geo. Simpson's voyage, to which he refers at the end of his
"History of the North-West," he chronicles that event under the date
1822, instead of 1828 (_Ibid._, Vol. II., p. 483).]




CHAPTER X.

_Connolly and Dease at Stuart Lake._

1829-32.


To the outsider, one of the mysteries of the fur-trade is the
voracious appetite of the Hudson's Bay Company for furs, such as
manifested by its journals. The native hunters are no sooner back with
their packs of pelts than, presto! they are hurried off to their
hunting-grounds again. Should they wish to enjoy a little rest at
home, the most opprobrious epithets--wretches, good-for-nothing
scoundrels, lazy rascals, and the like--rain on their devoted heads
from the pens of the chroniclers. Had there been a danger of the
precious skins finding another destination than the warehouses of the
Company, such eagerness would be intelligible; but for years and years
that corporation enjoyed the strictest monopoly within New Caledonia,
and the uncontrollable avidity of its representatives there could have
but one result: the utter extermination of the fur-bearing animals
especially the beaver, towards which that region is now fast
approaching. American aborigines are noted for their improvidence.
Must we lay the same charge at the doors of the Hudson's Bay Company?
A person not a fur-trader would be tempted to answer affirmatively.

Year in and year out, the Stuart Lake Journal is made up of the
recital of the furs received from the natives. This is but natural.
What to us seems extravagant is the desolation of the chroniclers
when there remain hunters in their vicinity, and the loud exclamations
of disappointment when a party's hunt has been a failure. Scorn and
reproaches then seem the order of the day, just as jubilation and
grateful encomiums attend the reception of the more successful
trappers. Here is an example of the latter:

"14th December, 1829.--...Chatlustas' little party brought in their
hunts, which form collectively a very valuable and exceedingly
respectable quantity of furs, consisting of eighty-two beaver skins,
four otters, three marten, a cat [lynx], and a few [musk-] rats. The
beaver is of the finest quality and very nicely dressed.

"The old man, who so far had been so lazy, having so highly
distinguished himself by this display of energy, was in consequence
treated with a becoming degree of civility and received a capot as a
mark of Mr. Connolly's satisfaction. His son-in-law was gratified with
a pair of cloth leggings, and his son with a breech-cloth. Then, to
crown the whole, a quart of French rum was added for the general
benefit, and with this they marched off in high glee."

This same avidity for furs at times prompted even little jealousies
between the managers of the different posts, which at this late date
we can afford to enjoy. At least one man has come down to us as a
victim of that foible. His name was Alexander Fisher, and at the time
of which we write he had just succeeded George McDougall in the charge
of Alexandria. His neighbor in the south was Samuel Black, who was,
some years later, to meet with a tragic death at the hands of his own
Indians at Fort Kamloops.

Fisher was one of those men who seem weighed down with personal
wrongs, real or imaginary, and who do not feel at ease unless they
have somebody to fulminate against. Black, on the other hand, to judge
from his private correspondence, must have been a good-natured man,
who saw life through rose-colored glasses and had not a little sense
of the ludicrous, as we infer from the following communication, which
we are inclined to regard in the light of a satire on his
correspondent's well-known foibles. He writes to Fisher on the 29th of
October, 1832:

"Lolo and three men leave this place to-day to make the usual round of
the natives about the Canoe,[133] from thence across to North River,
along Fraser River as far as the Canoe or thereabouts. Lolo has orders
to trade all the salmon he can, and to send word to you to send for
them for the use of your post.[134] He may trade about two thousand,
_i.e._, if the pass of fall salmon has been as abundant about Canoe as
at Fountain, he may trade more; but will send you some mark, besides
the number of horses to be sent by you for the fish. Lolo may trade
about the Canoe for the benefit of your post....

"Lolo tells me of the many tricks wherewith you deceive the Indians,
such as making holy water in wash handbasins, dressing up your cook to
make him hold it, walking about the house with a whitewash brush in
your hand with many mumblings and magical words, sprinkling the
natives in said holy water, telling them that if they do not come to
your place to dance and bring their furs with them this fall, they
will be swallowed up like another Sodom into a fiery furnace or
boiling caldron...thereby frightening the Indians from walking on
God's earth and going about their usual occupations. However, as some
of these poor devils may have resisted such an imposition on their
understanding which you practise in order to get their furs, Lolo
makes his usual tour among the natives belonging to this district,
being instructed by no means or pretence whatever to interfere in any
way or trade a single skin from any Indian that has been accustomed to
frequent your post. At the same time he is to get information as to
the truth of the reports concerning your proceedings, and when he
returns and gives me the necessary proofs of so infamous tricks as
aforesaid, I shall, for the remainder of the season, act accordingly
for the general interest of the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, not to
get the Indians' furs for one year, but for always, and in order to
establish the respectability of the Company...and make truth triumph
against jugglery, tricks and profanations of God's holy rites and
sacraments...."

[Footnote 133: Canoe River.]

[Footnote 134: Two years before Fisher had himself asked for four
thousand salmon from Black.]

Fisher was prompt in his reply, of which we regret to have but the
first part before us. On the morrow of the receipt of Black's letter
he wrote from Alexandria:

"I have to acknowledge the receipt of your epistle of the 29th October
on 6th November, per Lolo, your interpreter. Under the mask or mantle
of obliging me with salmon, which you suppose is wanted for this
post...you direct your men and interpreter to continue to ruin the
trade of this district and run through the natives of this
establishment.

"In my letter of the 5th October I took the liberty to request you to
keep your men, women and children at your own establishment or within
its limits. A month thereafter, day for day, your interpreter (Lolo)
is again at the post or fort of Alexandria, which amply bears me out
in my statements that your threats of opposition have been put into
practice long ago and are still continued.

"There was no need of this salmon, as you knew well, having sent a
supply to me of 12 th. [12,000] prior to this finesse of yours; but I
shall send for them, to save this property from being lost to the
Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, Lolo having left them in the hands of
the Indians. I regret to find myself situated as I am (your neighbor);
for it is evident you wish to get me or yourself into trouble. I have
with great caution avoided you...."

Here Fisher's correspondence breaks off, and we feel we lose something
by the disappearance of the sheet or sheets of paper containing his
reply to Black's accusations of jugglery, etc., were it only the
occasion of a good smile at the expense of the poor rapacious trader,
who was in dead earnest, whatever may have been Black's real
intentions or meaning.

Rapacious is a strong word, but Fisher's propensity for drawing unto
himself by hook and crook undoubtedly warrants it. He was bent on
appropriating the trade of others, though he was soon to complain
again to headquarters at Stuart Lake of encroachments on his own
territory, and though we shall see him vituperating a subordinate for
appropriating one of his own men. Indeed, the Stuart Lake Journal for
1830 discreetly charges him with keeping by himself fifteen steel
traps, instead of sending them up to headquarters, as directed by Mr.
Connolly.

We have mentioned above George McDougall's departure from Alexandria.
In 1827 he had accompanied the New Caledonia packet bound for the east
through Tte Jaune Cache, then freshly discovered, which was to become
famous in the annals of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rockies.
From that time forth the Company was to send yearly two expeditions
outside of the New Caledonia limits. One, composed of four or five
canoes, which, with increasing prosperity and consequent wants, were
soon to be discarded for as many boats, was despatched to Alexandria,
there to meet the pack-trains, consisting of two hundred or two
hundred and fifty horses from the Columbia, through Okanagan and
Kamloops, loaded with the equipment of all the northern posts. The
other party was sent east to Jasper House through Tte Jaune Cache, a
route which in later years was abandoned for the Peace River Pass. The
object of that expedition was to get a supply of leather, _i.e._,
dressed moose or cariboo skins, which, scarce in the west, Indians and
_engags_ needed to make moccasins, bags, ropes, pieces of attire,
etc.

The original Tte Jaune Cache, also called Leather Pass from the above
mentioned circumstance, was at the first forks of the Fraser with the
Rocky Mountains, at a place where an important branch comes from the
north. A yellow-haired trapper (_tte jaune_ being the French for
yellow head) was responsible for its name, as that Indian, who was an
Iroquois, used to cache or put up in a temporary store or shelter the
furs he had procured in those mountain fastnesses. The scenery in the
pass is "grand and striking beyond description. At the bottom of a
narrow rocky gorge, whose sides were clothed with dark pines, or,
higher still, with light green shrubs, the boiling, impetuous Fraser
dashed along. On every side the snowy heads of mighty hills crowded
round, whilst immediately behind us, a giant among giants and
immeasurably supreme, rose Robson's Peak. This magnificent mountain is
of conical form, glacier-clothed, and rugged."[135]

In the near vicinity of the pass roams a band of Shushwap Indians who,
owing to the perfect seclusion of their quarters, were still, at a
comparatively late date, destitute of most of the comforts of
civilization. When Viscount Milton passed there in 1863 "they were
clothed merely in a shirt and marmot robe, their legs and feet were
naked, and their long black hair the only covering to their heads.

[Footnote 135: "The North-West Passage by Land," Viscount Milton and
W. B. Cheadle, pp. 252-3.]

Those Shushwaps of the Rocky Mountains inhabit the country in the
neighborhood of Jasper's House, and so far as Tte Jaune Cache on the
western slope."[136]

The route and distance of that pass, with which almost every Hudson's
Bay Company employee within New Caledonia was for a long time so
familiar, is best illustrated by a memorandum of Geo. McDougall's own
trip, which lies before us:

"On the 18th of March, 1827," he writes," I left Stuart Lake with a
New Caledonia packet, to cross the Rocky Mountains by Tte Jaune
Cache. From Stuart Lake I took five days to get to the Forks, or where
Fort George now is. I remained there one day (say 23rd), writing and
repairing sleds, etc. On the 24th we again started, proceeding up the
Fraser River on the ice. The seventh day (March 30th), we got to Tte
Jaune Cache, where we lost one day looking for Indians, to get
provisions from them, but could not find them. On the 1st of April we
left Tte Jaune Cache, but from having only temporary snowshoes, that
could hardly support us on the snow, our guide, the Gauche, being so
bad with...disease, could not keep up with us, which caused us
frequently to lose our way, and owing to the quantity of snow, with
the very soft weather we had when crossing the Portage, we only
reached Jasper's House on the morning of the 18th of April, 1827."

[Footnote 136: "The North-West Passage by Land," Viscount Milton and
W. B. Cheadle, pp. 252-3.]

Having taken a holiday hunting buffalo in the neighborhood of Fort
Carlton, McDougall returned to Stuart Lake after the usual
vicissitudes of a long journey. There he was sorry to find his brother
James in a deplorable state of health, but felt some satisfaction in
having brought him "his woman. She will be a good nurse for him," he
wrote, after his return to Alexandria, where he was pleased to see
that "hostilities had ceased between his own Carriers and the
Chilcotins." But he had to remark that "sheer starvation had caused
the death of many among our Alexandria Indians."[137]

This unfortunate state of affairs appears to have been chronic in that
quarter, as we see from the following statements by Mr. Connolly,
which add a little to our knowledge of the relations then existing
between Black and Fisher.

"_Sunday_, 7th of November, 1830.--...I am sorry to learn that the
fishery below has been so unproductive that the Indians had not been
able to secure a sufficiency of provisions to meet their own wants,
and that with much difficulty only 2,598 salmon have been obtained for
the use of the men of the establishment. This quantity, added to the
old stock, formed a total of 10,298 salmon; but that number appears so
insufficient to Mr. Fisher that he had sent to Kamloops for 4,000
more, which Mr. Black very kindly furnished him, although his own
prospects of obtaining a stock adequate to the consummation of his
post were by no means certain.

[Footnote 137: MS. letter, March 8th, 1828.]

"In consequence of quarrels between the Indians who inhabit the banks
of the Fraser River, called Atnahs [Shushwaps], and their neighbors
farther down, the former entirely neglected their fisheries, and they
are now all assembled at the rapid without possessing any means of
subsisting. Such an assemblage of starved wretches so near the
establishment gives us very just grounds of apprehension that they
will fall upon our horses before the winter is over, but I hope that
we will have the means of preventing them from carrying their
depredations to any extent."

[Illustration: DOUBLY "CARRIERS."]

Times were more cheerful at Stuart Lake. Would the reader like to
learn how New Year's Day was spent there in 1830? It was kept not on
the first but on the 14th of January, though the first of the month
did not fall on Sunday. Might not the reason of that postponement have
been that the whites at the fort were apprehensive of some kind of
retaliation by the Indians on the anniversary of their own
chastisement? What we know for certain is that the fort employees did
not lose anything by having waited for their traditional holiday. Even
the Journal man himself is navely proud of the good things that were
spread at their mess. Let the reader rather judge for himself.

"14th of January, 1830.--This day was celebrated the return of the New
Year, and nothing was heard but the sounds of mirth and jollity.
Feasting, carousing, dancing and singing were the order of the day.
The means of feasting were, all things considered, very ample, the men
having received among them no less than fifteen dogs, thirty-four
pounds of flour, one and a half quart of salt, and one pound of
pepper. They were also gratified with the customary allowance of one
pint of rum per man."

Ten days later other cares succeed, for the manager of the district,
the carousals of New Year's Day. He becomes anxious about the fate of
the new establishment at Chilcotin, which, on the 23rd of February, it
is decided to abandon, a step which must have been countermanded at
the last moment, as we see, some time after, the occupant of the place
struggling against the ill-will of the natives.

Nearer home the Journal of the "capital" records the thousand and one
little incidents whose aggregate forms what we call life. To-day it is
Gagnon who is sent to burn some wood in order to make soap, which
doing he allows the fire to spread, whereupon a general conflagration
ensues in the woods behind the fort. On the morrow the blacksmith is
shown us in the act of making an auger--not so bad for such a place.
Next day, news of an alarming character is communicated by the
Indians. The Mal-de-gorge--by which significant sobriquet is
designated Nathadilhthoelh, the quondam youth who swam across Stuart
River with a brother and a sister on his back--sends word that one of
his people has fired at and seriously wounded one of several strange
Indians who were skulking about their camp in the woods, an incident
which causes the whole party to come home, to the great consternation
of the authorities at the fort, who for some time endeavor vainly to
coax the natives into returning to their hunting-grounds. Knowing that
the deed will be avenged by the foreigners, probably now lurking in
wait for their prey, nobody seems in a hurry to listen to the
expostulations from the traders.

Then an event of a greater magnitude is recorded. It is the arrival,
on the 12th of November, 1830, of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease, who
comes to succeed W. Connolly as manager of the whole district. But a
few years before Dease was a Chief Trader, who conducted the material
part of the Franklin Expedition from 1825 to 1827, and in the latter
year he was in the far south in charge of the Flathead post. On the
13th of August, 1828, Gov. Simpson sent him, in the course of his
famous journey overland, a Chief Factor's commission as a reward for
his share in the above mentioned expedition.[138]

[Footnote 138: Dease had been made a Chief Trader in 1821. In his "Fur
Hunters," Vol. II., p. 2, A. Ross mentions (under date 1823) an
officer of that grade whom he calls _John_ Warren Dease, though this
can be no other than our new manager.]

John McLean, who lived with him for a short time, says that he was one
of the kindest and most considerate of men, a certificate of good
character which is so much the more precious, as the man who worded
it was little accustomed to bestow such encomiums on H. B. C. people.

The change in the management of the district seems to have been so
sudden and unexpected that we may not be much astray in supposing that
Connolly's retirement was not altogether voluntary on his part. What
may have been the reasons of his superiors in withdrawing, not to say
dismissing, him from his post? It cannot be that they were
dissatisfied with his management of the business interests confided to
him, for never were these in so flourishing a condition. For this
assertion we have the best of authorities, that of Governor Simpson
himself. In a private letter addressed, in 1847, to one of Connolly's
successors, the Governor writes that, in spite of the satisfactory
state of affairs in New Caledonia," there is still...much room for
amendment to bring it up to the palmy days of Connolly, from which
time it has been gradually declining."[139]

[Footnote 139: MS. letter from Norway House to D. Manson, July 1st.
Simpson admits that "this decline in the returns is due chiefly to the
gradual exhaustion of the country," a statement which fully bears us
out in our initial remarks.]

On the other hand, that gentleman never hints in his journal, which is
quite detailed and full of notes of a personal nature, at any reason
for being dissatisfied with his post until he suddenly chronicles the
fact that Mr. Chief Factor Dease, who "has been appointed to New
Caledonia," is to arrive on the morrow. We can suggest but one
explanation. The part Connolly had taken in avenging, on New Year's
Day, 1829, the affront offered his son-in-law, had come to the ears of
the Governor and Council, who must have also learned of the
restlessness it had caused among the natives. The time necessary to
receive the intelligence of the true state of affairs and take the
proper measures in consequence thereof had just elapsed when Dease
made his appearance at Fort St. James, unheralded by anybody but
himself[140] only one day before his arrival.

That this is not a wild conjecture is shown by the fact that the
resentment of the Stuart Lake Indians was known far and wide, and
Francis Ermatinger, writing from Kamloops to J. McLeod at Norway
House, the headquarters of the Company in America, had but lately
said: "From New Caledonia we have had no communication through the
winter, owing perhaps to the natives being still irreconciled to the
death of the two murderers killed there in summer."[141]

Be this as it may, W. Connolly stayed a few months more at Fort St.
James, apparently to familiarize his successor with the routine of his
new position. In July, 1831, he was gone, never again to return. He
seems to have been a most painstaking man, bent on succeeding by any
means, fair or foul, in his search after pelts. He was certainly not
sparing of intoxicants to the native trappers whenever luck had
favored them.

[Footnote 140: Through a letter he wrote Connolly.]

[Footnote 141: MS. letter, dated March 14th, 1829.]

Dease and Connolly probably went down together, the one to take up the
outfit for the new fiscal year, and the other on his way to more
civilized quarters. Thomas Dears, a senior clerk, had been left
momentarily in charge of the district. In the account he sends his new
superior of what had transpired at headquarters since his departure,
Dears first mentions a great feast given by Chief [']Kwah, to witness
which numerous Indians had gathered from all parts. For the sake of
personal security he had kept all his men in the fort, and though he
speaks of the whole affair as having passed off quietly, he is obliged
to add, as a reminder of the danger of such gatherings:

"On the Indians of Fond du Lac embarking...old Qua abruptly left his
lodge with his bow and arrows. The Indians of Fond du Lac seeing him
sally forth, they immediately put themselves on the defensive. At this
moment a quarrel commenced in the fort between a Siccane and another
Indian. They put a stop to the former quarrel, and by a little
persuasion on our part, and as they did not seem very keen for battle,
harmony was restored."[141]

Another particular which seems to have made more impression on the
mind of Dease's lieutenant at Stuart Lake is the danger of a possible
competition in the fur-trade from an unexpected quarter, as evidenced
by the goods brought back by his Indians from a feast at the "Upper
Forks."

"It is reported by the Indians," he adds, "that they can get blankets
at one beaver the point, shirts one, guns four, and so on.... From the
assortment of articles, I think they must have seen Europeans
frequently, that is to say, those of the Coast. Probably some vessel
has remained some time among them. Anethlash, an Indian chief of the
Coast, who was present at the Upper Forks' feast, told Yosecha's party
that he intended paying them a visit with property for sale, and
wished them to keep a few beavers on hand."

[Footnote 141: MS. letter, July, 1831.]

Then, to his evident chagrin, he has to remark that some of the Fraser
Lake Indians have already gone there to trade. Reverting to happenings
nearer home, he says that a party of six Babines had come to the
portage between their lake and Lake Stuart to kill some of the Indians
there. But he had been informed that, after stabbing a young man, they
let themselves be appeased by the presents offered them, upon which
happy termination Dears somewhat navely comments: "On hearing this
it gave me satisfaction, for had they succeeded in their horrid
intentions it would have prevented many from hunting."

A month later, August 16th, Dears speaks of an epidemic breaking out
among [']Kwah's recent guests, and hints at further difficulties in
other quarters.

"Mr. Roussain," he writes, "in his official letter to me (which I
enclose for your perusal) says that Whoenke wishes to kill Wastiyaps.
This I am of opinion that gentleman must have learnt from Whoenke's
enemies, and from the information I have had and the general opinion
here, I think he has not a few, and I presume it is only a report
started by them to create a variance between the whites and him."[142]

That same month, from a very different quarter, came a bit of
information which illustrates one of the minor difficulties against
which the traders had to contend. The Sekanais of Finlay River had
complained to William Todd, then stationed at Fort McLeod, that so far
they had been supplied with an entirely inadequate quantity of
ammunition, which at that time was given free; but the fact soon
became apparent that what had been sent them of that article the
previous fall would have lasted throughout the winter had they not
been so imprudent as to gamble it away with a party of Indians they
met at the Rocky Mountain Portage. To them "they lost not only every
load of powder, but likewise every other article of use with which
they had been previously furnished, which was the cause of their
suffering much in the course of the winter."[143]

[Footnote 142: Roussain was a Canadian then in charge of Fort Babine,
who wrote, in a beautiful hand, excellent French, disfigured by
unbecoming misspellings. In that connection we may state here that all
the Hudson's Bay Company officers of that time were as much familiar
with French as with English.]

[Footnote 143: MS. letter from W. Todd to P. W. Dease, August 28th,
1831.]

This same clerk, Thomas Dears, was, on Mr. Dease's return, entrusted
with the charge of Fort Connolly, a change he does not seem to have
relished overmuch, though he was more than pleased with the Sekanais
who traded with him. But in such an isolated place in the far north,
where he had six feet of snow at his very door, he thought a person
was entitled to a remuneration commensurate with the inconveniences
under which he labored. So, in a letter to Dease,[144] he remarked
that if his salary was not increased to 100 he would leave the
country in the autumn of 1833. His threat does not seem to have had
the result anticipated, for this is about the last we hear of him in
the mass of correspondence before us.

Another departure (this time probably a dismissal) was soon to leave a
second place vacant at the opposite extremity of the district. The
horses used in packing the outfits from the Columbia River to
Alexandria were generally left to winter at the latter place, though
some were at times sent to Fort Kamloops, where the cold was not so
severe nor the snow so deep. Others passed the winter at Fraser Lake,
and as early in the season as February (1832) several had already died
of disease or of accident. In announcing this to his superior at
Stuart Lake, their keeper, a certain D. McKenzie, tried to console him
with the remark that "my philosophy teaches me to believe that there
is a fate in these casualties, and all good Calvinists give belief to
predestination."[145] One would hardly have expected to find a
fur-trader talking theology in the wilds of New Caledonia. It seems,
however, that his principles did not appear quite sound to his
employers, who made haste to send him away to familiarize himself with
other schools of thought.

[Footnote 144: February 5th, 1832.]

[Footnote 145: MS. letter to P. W. Dease, February 20th, 1832.]

Meanwhile, in the south Black's friend, Alexander Fisher, was
constantly pondering over people's encroachments on his rights, and
importuning Dease to such an extent with his recriminations that the
latter assigned to him a band of Indians whose hunting-grounds were
intermediate between Alexandria and Kamloops, a decision of which
Fisher triumphantly notified Black by a letter dated September 14th,
1832.

A year later a clerk of many years' standing in the service came from
the east, who was, after a brief stay in the country, to embody his
impressions and give vent to his grievances in a book on the
twenty-five years he had worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. John
McLean is, among the Company's people, the only author who has ever
written, from a personal knowledge, about New Caledonia.[146] As
regards veracity, impartiality, keenness of mind in observing and
sureness of judgment, John McLean is vastly inferior to Harmon, who,
having no grudge against anybody, was not exposed to see his
statements warped by the influence of personal feeling.

We will permit ourselves to quote but one instance of McLean's
unreliability. Contrasting the Carriers' religious notions with those
of the Ojibways, he says: "The Tekelly [he means the Carrier] says:
'The toad hears me!'"[147] for an oath; while those Indians' sole
formula in such cases was, in McLean's time, "The Being-on-high hears
me." He asserts that they have no idea of a soul, no words to express
the name of the Deity, of the spirit, or of the soul.[148] Yet from
time immemorial they have called the Deity _Yuttoere_, a spirit _ni_,
and as for the idea of the soul, they have no less than three words to
express it, according to the standpoint of the speaker, who may
consider it as animating the body, as hovering about and thus
presaging death, or as separated from the body in after life. Had
McLean so many terms at his command to render a single idea?

[Footnote 146: We do not mention Chief Factor A. McDonald's "Peace
River," which is merely the journal of Governor Simpson's voyage, nor
Harmon's book, because its author was a North-West Company man. (See
Appendix D.)]

[Footnote 147: "Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's
Bay Territory," Vol. II., p. 265.]

[Footnote 148: _Ibid._, _ibid._]

McLean arrived at Stuart Lake in the fall of 1833. He soon had a
reminder of the insecurity of life in the far west in the shape of
trouble, which he says arose out of the drowning of seven or eight
Indians on their way to Alexandria; but so involved is his account of
the consequences of the accident that it is next to impossible to
locate the disturbance which ensued. Both Stuart Lake and Fort
Alexandria are mentioned, and after one has read our author, the
impression left on the mind is that it occurred in neither of those
places.

Of the returns which Dease took down to Fort Vancouver in the summer
of 1834, McLean writes that they "might be valued at 11,000. The
outfit, together with the servants' wages and incidental expenses,
amounted to about 3,000, leaving the Company a clear profit of
8,000," which was probably correct enough, though the animus of the
whole book seems to be more or less that of a philippic against the
Hudson's Bay Company.

During Dease's absence the mantle of authority fell on his shoulders,
and he improves his opportunity to decry the management of the post as
regards the fare, which he declares, with every appearance of truth,
was "scarcely fit for dogs."[149]

[Footnote 149: "Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's
Bay Territory," Vol. II., p. 250.]

In the course of that summer (1834) a native, who had sometimes acted
as interpreter, died after a few hours of agony, resulting from his
having been caught in a bear-trap he had made, and which he was so
imprudent as to test himself. His body was the first to be interred
among the Carriers, and for that change of method in disposing of the
dead we must credit the Company's people, who introduced it in pity to
the unfortunate widows, who were exposed to the cruellest tortures at
the burning of the body.

The year 1834 put an end to Peter Warren Dease's stay at Stuart Lake.
Between 1837 and 1839 he was engaged, together with Thomas Simpson, a
young relative of the governor, in the Arctic exploration, for which
he was offered a knighthood, which he declined. Then, according to
Malcolm McLeod,[150] the Imperial Government tendered him a pension of
a hundred pounds sterling, and on his retirement from the Hudson's Bay
Company he settled (in 1842) in the vicinity of Montreal.

As to William Connolly, who so abruptly left Stuart Lake in 1831, in
spite of his successful labors on behalf of his employers, he was not
destined to meet with so much good fortune. Yet the last echo of his
after life which has come down to us has a somewhat joyous ring about
it. "Mr. Connolly does not write me," we read in a letter from Chief
Factor A. McDonald to John McLeod, "but I believe that, so far from
his being in a dying state last spring, he was about taking to himself
a better half...at Tadousac."[151] He was still living in the course
of 1848, since in a private letter from Sir George to the gentleman
then in command of Fort St. James we read: "Connolly will scarcely
believe that it is possible to collect so many furs in one season in
his old and favorite district."[152] Finally he settled at Montreal,
and at one time was even elected mayor of that city.

[Footnote 150: "Peace River," etc., "Notes," p. 76.]

[Footnote 151: MS. letter, dated February 20th, 1833.]

[Footnote 152: MS. letter, June 24th, 1848.]




CHAPTER XI.

_Peter Skene Ogden Takes Charge of the Country._

1834.


In the course of 1834 arrived at Stuart Lake a man who for many years
was to exercise a potent influence over the whole country. This was
Peter Skene Ogden.[153]

The man who was to cut such a prominent figure in the annals of New
Caledonia was a son of Chief Justice Isaac Ogden, of Montreal, and was
descended from an old and honorable Scotch family. Though he was ever
reticent about his age, one can safely assert that he was born in
1794. From the characteristics he evinced at a time when his natural
abilities had won him an enviable place in the Hudson's Bay Company,
it may be gathered that his youth was not passed without storms or, at
least, incidents of a more or less innocent complexion.

[Footnote 153: The Skenes belong to an old family, which owes its name
to an incident which is said to have happened as far back as 1010. As
Malcom II. was returning from the defeat of the Danes, he was saved
from a ravenous wolf by a youth, who killed it with his dagger. Hence
the name Skene, a modern derivation of the original _Sgian_, which
means dagger. Some authors, and even Ogden's own clerks, spelt it
Skeen.]

At seventeen he entered the service of the North-West Company, where
he, no doubt, expected to find the adventurous scenes in harmony with
his own restless temperament. The Utah and Shoshone countries had the
first-fruits of his labors as a fur-trader, and California received
also occasional visits from him. As early as 1820 a manuscript memoir
by John McLeod speaks of him as of a man already vested with some
authority in the service of his corporation. Four years later he was
at Flathead Post, in the Snake District, where he stayed until 1831.
In April of that year a party of experienced traders was despatched to
the North Pacific Coast, somewhere near the mouth of the Naas River,
to divert into the direction of the Canadian concern a share of the
fur-trade, which so far had been mostly in the hands of the Russians.
While Captain Simpson was operating by water, Ogden had charge of the
land party. The expedition was a success in so far as the reception it
received was concerned; but owing to the high prices a keen
competition forced them to pay, they lost 1,600 on the 3,000 odd
skins they got.

In 1834 P. S. Ogden was sent to the capital of New Caledonia, where he
was to give the full measure of his administrative abilities. At the
same time a Chief Factor-ship put on his efforts the seal of his
superiors' official approval. He had been a Chief Trader since 1821.

P. S. Ogden was of middle stature, and has remained famous among the
Carriers for his great obesity. Indeed, when he first appeared in
their midst, the old men could not help recalling Na[']kwoel, who
forms the subject of our first chapter, and they maintained that the
newcomer must be a reincarnation of their own patriarch. Lively and
yet dignified with his subordinates, imperious though kind-hearted, he
was generous while remaining a vigilant guardian of his corporation's
interests. On the other hand, it may as well be confessed that he was
subject, like most men of his time and position, to those human
weaknesses to which all lack of social restraint exposed him. Yet he
was fairly faithful to a native woman he had taken unto himself (and
perhaps married) before he was promoted to his new dignity.

[Illustration: PETER SKENE OGDEN.

(From an oil painting.)]

In private life, and especially with his friends, one of his chief
characteristics was his inveterate penchant for tricks and
good-natured malice. Even in his later years, when stationed on the
Columbia, nothing would delight him so much as to befool those he
cared for. Was a passing missionary, for instance, to warn him that he
was in dead earnest and must absolutely leave by the next boat? Ogden
would promise that his wishes would be complied with; but in the
meantime he would see to it that boat and crew were noiselessly off an
hour or so before the appointed time. The poor Father had to put up as
best he could with the old man's huge satisfaction at contemplating
his guest's look of disappointment, and stay a fortnight longer under
the Company's roof.

Sometimes, however, he found his peer among his intended victims.
Witness a certain Father Chirouse, who is reported to have more than
once outwitted him. Father Chirouse was a wily old soul, who was one
day shopping with a little servant in Ogden's store while the manager
was momentarily called away. The missionary coveted some rather
expensive articles which the size of his purse did not allow him to
purchase. Nothing daunted by the smallness of his means, he boldly
ordered the boy to put up the goods into parcels, which he left in a
conspicuous place.

After he had taken leave of his friend, his parcels were noticed on
the counter by Ogden, who, recalling his tricky client:

"Just like you, Father Chirouse," he shouted; "look at the parcels you
forgot."

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Ogden, I took all my things away."

"I tell you you did not."

"Excuse me, but really--"

"No excuse; you are absent-minded, as usual. Take your parcels away."

"Really, I am sure they are not mine."

"They are, I tell you," insisted the imperious old man, who was bound
to have the last word.

"Do you mean to say that--"

"I mean that I want you to take your things away."

"But--"

"Take them, I say, and if they are not yours--"

"They are not."

"Well, then, I give them to you."

This was all the wily missionary wanted. Without further ado he
pocketed the goods he had not paid for, and the trickster was tricked.

Chief Factor Ogden was above all a fur-trader, and, though he must be
credited with the honor of having practically introduced farming into
the district, he felt very little sympathy for any other branch of
business, and he had absolutely no patience with pursuits the object
of which could not be counted in skins or pounds sterling. He had
hardly been five years at his new post when, the interests of his
charge having taken him on a visit to Vancouver, he thus summarized
the news in a letter to John McLeod:

"Our profits will exceed ten thousand pounds.... Among the many good
things their Honors from Fenchurch Street sent us last summer was a
clergyman--and with him his wife--the Rev. Mr. Beaver, a very
appropriate name for the fur-trade.... But this is not all. There are
also five more gentlemen, as follows: two in quest of flowers, two
killing all the birds in the Columbia, and one after rocks and stones.
All these bucks come with letters from the President of the United
States, and you know it would not be good policy not to treat them
politely. They are a perfect nuisance."[154]

Another piece of news contained in the same epistle was that David
Douglas had fallen into a bull pit and been gored to death. David
Douglas was the botanist after whom the Douglas fir is now called. We
have also, for the first time, the mention of a name which will occur
frequently under our pen in the following chapters. "A young man,"
writes Ogden, "a young man, by name Maclean--his father was killed in
Red River--is in the Snake country." This single line gives us a clue
to the innate dispositions of the future New Caledonian. His father
had died a violent death; he was himself to meet with a similar fate,
and most of his children were to die on the gallows--a doomed family,
indeed, and their end goes a long way to determine the nature of their
acts.

But for the present we are concerned only with P. S. Ogden and his new
field of action.

At the time when that gentleman assumed the command of New Caledonia,
that country counted eight forts--St. James, on Lake Stuart; Babine,
Fraser, and McLeod on the lakes of the same names; George and
Alexandria on the Fraser, and Chilcotin in the valley of the Chilco
River, to which was soon to be added Fort Thompson, as the embryo of
what is now Kamloops was then called.

[Footnote 154: MS. letter, dated February 25th, 1837.]

Fort McLeod, having no natural resources of its own, had to be
entirely supplied with provisions, whereby we mean dried salmon, which
was then, and remained until a very late date, the staple food of the
Company's employees. In return therefor, the Sekanais trading at that
post dressed not a few moose and cariboo skins, which they sold out to
the man in charge of the fort, who in turn sent them to headquarters,
Stuart Lake, though the main supply of leather had to come from
across the mountains. An idea of the hardships which attended the
journeys to Forts Dunvegan or Jasper, where, as we have seen, the
leather expeditions annually repaired, can be gathered from the fact
that each member of the caravan was sometimes provided with eight
pairs of mocassins, while the man in charge of the party received an
additional supply of a score of the same to be used in case of an
emergency.[155] All of these were intended for use during the trip.

Fort Alexandria was the northern terminus of the land route yearly
followed by the Company's pack-trains, bringing from the south the
equipments of the various New Caledonia posts. The task of the animals
used for that important work was a most arduous one, and the letters
of the managers of Alexandria are replete with references to the large
number of horses which died on the way or at their winter-quarters,
occurrences of which the authorities at Fort Vancouver, on the
Columbia, professed at times to be unable to account for.

Fort Babine was famous for the quantity of salmon it yielded. From the
point of view of a trader it was a place of but secondary importance,
many of the Indians there taking their pelts to the Skeena River for
barter with the native adventurers from the Coast. Another article
which was derived from that post was a sort of putrid salmon grease,
to smell which is nowadays sufficient to disgust any civilized
nostril. Yet in those days it was relished by aborigines and Hudson's
Bay Company servants alike. Owing to the usual abundance of salmon at
Babine, the sleigh dogs of the Stuart Lake establishment were also
generally sent to pass the summer there.

[Footnote 155: MS. letter from J. Boucher to P. Fraser, August 29th,
1847.]

As to Fort St. James, it was, of course, the great emporium where
converged every product of the country. Thence these were distributed
among the different posts by the officer in command of the district.
This gentleman was shown every mark of respect; his word was law
throughout New Caledonia, and he was assisted by a corps of clerks and
a large retinue of servants, who were kept for a double purpose; they
were intended as a bodyguard and a sort of local militia in case of
trouble with the natives, and at the same time they were expected to
do all the menial work for which they had been hired--work of a cook,
of a farm laborer, a boatman, a fisherman, a blacksmith, etc.

These, in case of a scarcity of provisions--a circumstance of rather
frequent occurrence--were shifted from place to place, according to
the economical conditions prevailing at the different posts. The
danger of starvation was not unknown in New Caledonia, nor was it
restricted to that district or to P. S. Ogden's time. As late as 1855
that gentleman's son, writing of a trip made in quest of leather to
the Peace River forts, says: "The district was in a starving state,
people being obliged to eat dogs and horses which died from bad
treatment. It was with the greatest difficulty that I succeeded in
getting back with my party, for when I reached Dunvegan there was not
an ounce of provisions in the fort, and my men were obliged to go to
bed supperless. Our sinews for the district were all eaten by the
Dunvegan men previous to my reaching there."[156]

[Footnote 156: MS. letter to D. Manson, September 2nd, 1855.]

In the course of 1836 the following was the expenditure of provisions
in the different posts under P. S. Ogden's jurisdiction: 67,510
salmon; 11,941 of the smaller fish, plus 781 sturgeon and 346 trout;
2,160 rabbits; 153 ducks, 10 lynxes, 8 marmots, 3 porcupines, 1 swan,
and...14 dogs. Horseflesh, though not mentioned in 1836, was
nevertheless recognized as an article of diet, and in the Company's
book a column is reserved thereto. It was not until 1845 that the
General Council forbade its use on the employees' tables.[157]

Fort Connolly, being situated within the territory of the Sekanais
Indians, who live almost exclusively on venison, consumed in that same
year 450 pounds of fresh meat, while the only other post which enjoyed
a like luxury was Fort St. James, which is credited with an
expenditure of thirty-two pounds of that article in one year among
over thirty mouths.

With the exception of potatoes, of which a small quantity was grown
near each post, especially at Fort Fraser, all food of a farinaceous
nature, such as flour, rice, and beans, as well as bacon, tea, and
sugar, was unknown to the servants of the Company then and for many
years after Ogden's time, though the gentlemen (that is, the officers
and clerks) were as well provided with these items as the extreme
difficulties of the communications would allow. Even such luxuries as
Madeira and port wines, together with an assortment of liquors,
appeared at the mess of the latter.[158]

Dried salmon and cold water took the place of all this in the
servants' quarters, and used to hardships as these generally were,
more than once their stomachs proved rebellious against a regime of so
primitive a character. This even led sometimes to serious
consequences, as we see from a passage from a letter by D. E. Cameron,
of Fort Babine: "Poor Couturier expired on the night of the 4th
inst.," he writes. "He began to fall off and waste away ever since my
return, from the effect, I firmly believe, which salmon has on some
constitutions, as in the cases of J. B. Desmarais and Thibeault last
year."[159]

[Footnote 157: Resolution 78.]

[Footnote 158: In 1836 the allowance of spirits for the district was
twenty-three gallons of Madeira, as many of port, and 12-1/8 gallons
of brandy.]

[Footnote 159: To D. Manson, March 6th, 1845.]

No wonder, then, if there was a general tendency to retire from the
service after one's time had expired, and if some of the employees had
not even the patience to wait so long, but deserted. If captured, they
were as a rule mulcted in a fine of two pounds sterling (a sum which
was then divided among those who had been instrumental in apprehending
them), unless the local officers preferred to administer them a good
flogging, as invariably happened in cases of larceny and other petty
misdemeanors.

Such desertions were always reprehensible, and at times they greatly
embarrassed those in charge of forts. "The scamp Martin, whom I had
engaged to carry out this letter and the accounts, has gambled off all
his clothing, and will not now come near the fort," writes McLean from
Alexandria, "and I am obliged to postpone sending them till I can
procure another courier."[160] Hence the harshness of the measures
sometimes adopted, and the threats of even severer ones occasionally
resorted to, as when it was reported through the district that a
deserter, Jos. Jacques by name, was going to be sent, hands and feet
in irons, to far-off Montreal, to serve as an example to the other
servants.

In the course of 1836 thirty _engags_ went out of New Caledonia, as
against twenty-six who came in. Most of these were French Canadians,
half-breeds, or Iroquois. In every case they were duly hired by the
signing of a legal paper in French, and then sent from Norway House to
the district through Tte Jaune Cache, where they were met by a party
of New Caledonians from Fort George.

[Footnote 160: To the same, January 4th, 1855.]

The _engags_ were mostly single men, many of whom, once in the
country, contracted unions, open or secret, with native women; but
there were times when a man left a wife in the East and his prolonged
absence too often had a demoralizing effect, as when the wife of a
native did not hesitate to form a _liaison_, as Gov. Simpson
delicately puts it, referring to an Iroquois who would not stay in the
service unless his lawful wife was brought him from Canada.[161]

From all accounts there must have been, in P. S. Ogden's time, some
thirty such men employed at Stuart Lake alone. To them, as to the
Indians around and the subordinate officers in charge of the lesser
posts, he was the embodiment of authority. He felt it himself, and
acted accordingly. In contentious cases he was a judge and an arbiter,
and his decisions were generally on the side of justice, even though
the corporation he represented had to suffer thereby. Larance, one of
his employees, had used a canoe without the permission of its native
owner. "It would be as well," he writes immediately, "to make
inquiries, so that the Indians may be paid for the same."[162]

Though at times rather brusque, he was on the whole considerate
towards his subalterns, and feeling the weight of his responsibility,
he more than once insisted on prudence when dealing with obstreperous
aborigines. "The desertion of the men at the fort when in danger of
being attacked," he wrote to Chief Traders Todd and Manson, "is a most
convincing proof of the little reliance which is to be placed on them,
and should be a warning to all that in our dealings with the natives
great care and every precaution should be taken to avoid coming to
acts of violence. From the latter we have nothing to gain; on the
contrary, everything to lose."[163]

[Footnote 161: MS. letter from Red River settlement to D. Manson, June
15th, 1844.]

[Footnote 162: MS. letter to J. McIntosh, October 20th, 1837.]

[Footnote 163: October 22nd, 1845.]

He was impartial, and did not hesitate to lay the blame on his own men
when they did not treat the Indians fairly, and he adds, in the course
of the same circular: "It is evident to me that to the dastardly
conduct of Mr. McB. is to be attributed the violent conduct of the
natives."

This same impartiality impels him to visit murder with terrible
vengeance. The tragic end of his friend, Chief Factor Black, of Fort
Thompson, who is not unknown to our readers,[164] fills him with
horror, and he takes occasion of the event to recommend anew the
greatest caution and prudence to his subordinate officers. "No
particulars regarding this horrid murder have yet reached me," he
writes immediately, "but still sufficient to call on me to warn you,
gentlemen, how cautious and how guarded we ought to be on all
occasions with Indians, and this most melancholy event, independently
of long experience, teaches us never to place any trust or confidence
in them. We are well aware that in this country our lives are
constantly exposed, and in regulating our treatment of Indians neither
too much severity nor leniency will answer; but a medium between both
is the most advisable."[165]

[Footnote 164: Black fell at Kamloops, shot, in 1841, by the nephew of
the Shushwap Chief whose death he thus sought, Indian fashion, to
avenge.]

[Footnote 165: Circular to the officers of the district.]

With this concern for his men's welfare and safety we might perhaps
contrast the conduct of a contemporary with whom we are already well
acquainted--we mean Chief Trader Alex. Fisher. That gentleman, who was
then fifty-three years of age, was in command at Alexandria, and,
though under Ogden's jurisdiction, exercised some kind of authority
over Fort Chilcotin, which was then in the hands of a young half-breed
called John McIntosh. Owing to the turbulent, and at times violent,
disposition of the natives the latter had to trade with, his position
was fraught with peril, a fact of which the older man, safe in his
post among friendly aborigines, does not seem to have been fully
aware, or, if he was, his conduct towards McIntosh lays him open to
the charge of unbecoming selfishness. In a very prolix communication,
he wrote, under date of 11th June, 1837:

"Your letter of the 9th inst., in answer to mine of the 6th June by
the Indian paid to carry an express to you purposely to obtain my man
Chartier from you, I received yesterday evening, and I must confess
that I do not find in that letter a single reason or the least
necessity for detaining a man who is not attached to your own
establishment and deprive me of his services when most wanted, much
less to occasion you to break your word and not comply with my
orders.... One moment's reflection would have told you that surely
your story of the bull, the cow, the calf, the poisonous roots, the
drowning of an Indian, the intention to murder a white man for the
sake of revenge, etc., had nothing to do with the detention of my
man...."

Anybody, however so little acquainted with the psychic conformation of
the native mind, would have been of a different opinion. In case of an
accidental death among their kin, the first move of the Indians is to
soothe their wounded feelings by seeking the death of others,
especially of strangers. Hence McIntosh's position was certainly very
precarious, and in that light it is hard to understand the following
from Fisher:

"I should be very sorry that the Company should lose any of its
servants for the sake of a pack of paltry small furs that you are not
sure to get, and put such a valuable district in difficulties when
there is not the least necessity to do so; for if the report is a true
one, that the natives intend to kill Baptiste [Lapierre] when he
returns to Tluzkuz, the reinforcement of my man Chartier is nothing to
contend against a camp of Indians...."

Then, to show the enormity of his correspondent's fault, Fisher
enters into an enumeration of the various jobs to do at Alexandria.

"Chartier could have worked at the buildings," he continues, "for in a
short time hence there will be plenty of other things to attend to,
weeding and hoeing potatoes, twenty bags of flour to grind, salmon
fishing weirs to attend to, pickets of the fort to cut, hay to make,
etc.... The idea of your breaking through the rules and regulations
and not complying with my orders to you, exposing your men perhaps to
be butchered by the natives without even asking my advice on the
subject!... The whole is ill-becoming of you."

Despite this eloquent philippic, fear for his personal safety, and the
instinctive tendency to self-preservation innate in every living
being, seem to have been stronger in McIntosh than even the sense of
that unquestioning obedience which was inculcated in every employee of
the Company; for we see him pleading against the compliance with
orders, something quite unusual in the service.

"I would send you Chartier," he answers, "but really, my dear sir, I
don't half like to remain here alone. Tapage is still unwell and not
to be depended on; he might get worse."[166]

But Fisher was unmoved, and replied at once in even less uncertain
accents: "I request that my man be sent to me immediately on receipt
of this letter, without any pretence for keeping him or for any
consideration whatever."

Then he adds, somewhat curtly: "You seem to be an unfortunate man to
transact business with.[167] What! with Tapage you cannot take care of
your fort for a couple of weeks or ten or twelve days, until the
arrival of your people from Tluzkuz! How did Baptiste Lapierre do,
who kept that place for a whole season only with his wife and an
Indian boy?"

[Footnote 166: Letter dated June 14th, 1837.]

[Footnote 167: If the dear old man had only had a little experience of
the sweets of life among the Chilcotins!]

On behalf of poor McIntosh we would beg to answer that troubled times,
such as usually follow a tragic death among the natives, are something
quite different from the normal state of affairs when the latter, as a
rule, are, unless maltreated, rather friendly to the whites. And then
Lapierre, as his name indicates, was of French Canadian extraction,
and people of that race have always had the knack of accommodating
themselves to circumstances. Instead of showing that haughtiness
towards inferiors which is only too common among representatives of
the Anglo-Saxon race, they would rather stoop to conquer and thus make
friends instead of enemies. Moreover, Lapierre had been thirty-four
years in the Company's employ; he was inured to danger, and could well
afford to brave it.

Alex. Fisher, in spite of his professed objection to exposing the
lives of the Company's servants for the sake of a paltry pack of furs,
does not seem to have for a moment entertained these considerations,
but ended his recriminations by saying:

"You certainly do not mean what you say, nor have you a regiment to
keep up that place, nor can I dispense with the services of my man for
that purpose; so I send for him. And now I warn you that you must not,
on any consideration, leave your post to come here or elsewhere until
I find means to relieve you from your charge."[168]

[Footnote 168: Alexandria, June 14th, 1837.]

Tluzkuz (Lhus[']koez) is the name of a small lake near the source of
the Blackwater River, where the Hudson's Bay Company was then
endeavoring to establish a post, which, however, did not become
permanent until a few years afterwards, but was soon abandoned,
probably because its returns did not warrant the expenditures it
occasioned.[169]

[Illustration: PACKING THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS.]

That John McIntosh may have been justified in his fears for his
personal safety in the midst of the naturally restive Chilcotins was
shown by the fate he met later at the hands of the peaceful Sekanais.
He was imprudent enough to boast that he would avenge, with his
powerful "medicine" or magic, an insult he had received through the
unwarranted familiarities of a lad with one of his wives, and it was
but natural that the poor benighted Sekanais should have taken the
scourge, which soon thereafter decimated their ranks, as the result of
McIntosh's threat. At all events, his inconsiderate language cost him
his life.

Such has always been the Indians' explanation of the unfortunate
occurrence and of its causes, and the writer admits that he felt
somewhat doubtful as to their veracity until he came on the following
passage of a letter from Governor Simpson: "I notice what you say
about the cause of the late John McIntosh's death, which, from all I
can collect, arose in a great degree from his own want of sense in
unnecessarily provoking the natives by threats of bad medicine, and
other injudicious conduct, for which he was long conspicuous."[170]

[Footnote 169: C. G. Nicolay, writing in 1846, counts Fort
Lhus[']koez--which he calls Fluscuss and gravely locates "near the
Russian territory"--as being still in existence at that time ("The
Oregon Territory," p. 172). Ballantyne ("Hudson Bay," p. 56) spells
the name Fluzcuz. The geographical notions of the former author are
extremely hazy. Thus, while in one part of his little work (p. 98) he
would have us believe that Fraser Lake is the source of the Fraser, in
another (p. 172) he places "Forts St. James, McLeod, Conolly and
Babine about the head-waters of Frazer's and Peace Rivers."]

[Footnote 170: To D. Manson, July 1st, 1847.]




CHAPTER XII.

_The Country and Its Resources._


Meanwhile, the ruler of New Caledonia was seeking ways and means of
increasing the returns and diminishing the expenses of the various
posts under his sway. The following entry in the journal he kept at
Fort St. James tells us of the interest he took in every detail which
tended to those ends:

"January 31st, 1840.--Cold. Mr. Anderson arrived from Fort George
to-day. He did not come by Nantlais [Natleh or Fraser Lake], but by
Nakasley [Na[']kaztli or Stuart] River, a far shorter route, and one
we shall in future follow--a great saving of time and provisions. Mr.
Anderson brought the accounts from Alexandria as well as those from
Fort George, and I am happy to remark that both have a considerable
excess on their returns. I had scarcely penned my letters when Gagnon
arrived from Alexandria with the Vancouver express. Mr. Todd has not
accompanied it. All quiet on the Columbia."

In the course of 1841, the Thompson River District was added to New
Caledonia. This necessitating a greater expenditure of provisions, we
see Peter S. Ogden applying to the gentleman in charge of Fort Babine
for at least thirty thousand salmon, the dearth of that fish having
been exceptionally great during that year at his own place.

Lakes Babine and Connolly belong to the basin of the Skeena, while all
the other posts, with the exception of that on McLeod Lake, whose
waters are tributary to the Mackenzie, are situated within the valley
of the Fraser. This was a most fortunate circumstance, for the salmon
failing in one of the larger rivers and tributaries, its run was not
necessarily small in the other. Owing to the great importance of that
fish at that time in the eyes of the Company, and ever since, as the
principal means of subsistence of the natives, a few words on the
chief methods of procuring it will not be out of place.

In the first place, one should bear in mind that the salmon
exclusively referred to in these pages is the so-called sockeye or red
salmon (_Oncorrhincus nerka_). It is exceedingly gregarious in habits,
and this peculiarity is taken occasion of by the natives to facilitate
its capture.

Whenever this is practicable, as at Stuart, Babine, and Fraser Lakes,
the Kamstkadals' method of salmon fishing is followed. This consists
in staking across the whole width of the river and leaving for the
fish only narrow passages--ending sometimes in long funnel-like
baskets, sometimes in cylindrical traps of trellis-work--from which
escape is impossible. By daytime the fish will generally keep clear of
these traps, and congregate slightly below the weir, which prevents
their progress upstream or into the lake; but at night they sometimes
pack themselves in the box-shaped contrivances ready for their capture
in such large numbers that it requires two strong men to lift these
preparatory to their being emptied in their canoe.

But the Fraser and the Nechaco are much too deep and swift to allow of
a weir being built across their raging waters. All the fisherman can
do is erect a sort of lattice-work projecting a few feet only from the
shore, and connect therewith, at the bottom of the water, a
toboggan-like basket with an opening near its curved end. The fish
passes through this into an uncovered conduit leading into a large
latticed reservoir, where it is caught.

The apparatus becomes more intelligible by a glance at the
accompanying figure, wherein we have a sectional view of the whole.
The lines marked _a_ and _b_ show respectively the bottom and the
surface of the water. "The upper part of the entrance basket _c_ is
flat, and serves at the same time as a bed for the canal _d_, which is
formed by the addition of two long hurdles _e_ on either side of the
main or lower basket top. The salmon having entered at _c_, soon finds
its way upstream blocked at _f_, where the basket is rather narrow;
but as its instinct is decidedly against the wisdom of a backward
course, so soon as it becomes aware of the free passage prepared at
_g_, therein it runs and thence to the trap _h_ laid out for its
capture. _I_ stands for one of the stakes which hold up the trap or
reservoir, while they secure the whole structure against the action of
the current."[171]

[Footnote 171: "Notes on the Western Dns," Trans. Can. Inst., Vol.
IV., p. 89.]

[Illustration]

"To preserve their salmon, the Carriers and Chilcotins have recourse
to the well-known method of drying. After the head has been cut off,
they open and clean the fish, after which they expose it for a day or
two to the rays of the sun. The spine and vertebr are then extracted,
together with the flesh adhering thereto, which is destined for the
dogs' larder or used as bait when trapping. The fish is next gashed
inside with a sharp knife as a precaution against putrefaction, and
two wooden splinters having been driven through the flesh so as to
keep its inside constantly open, it is dried beneath rough sheds by
the action of the sun and air, aided by the fire and smoke
underneath."[172]

Now that we are acquainted with Peter S. Ogden's personnel, its means
of subsistence, and the way these are procured, we might as well peep
discreetly into his account books and satisfy ourselves as to the
amount of property there is in his different posts.

In 1836 he received, among other goods, the following articles from
the Saskatchewan District: 500 large and 55 small dressed moose-skins,
3 large and 22 small dressed buffalo-skins, 25 moose parchment skins,
and 30 pounds of sinews.

The dressed moose-skins were intended mostly for the manufacture of
foot-gear, and their large number--considering that he had still 468
in stock and that he had also obtained 2 elk and 10 chevreau skins
from Colville--is an irrefragable proof of the large native population
then in his district. The sinews were, and continue to be, shredded
into thread, with which leather is sewn, while the parchment skins
were destined to serve as window panes and be made up into horse-bags
and the like.

Among the articles in use at the different forts we notice the
following, which would now be looked upon almost as curiosities: 1
blunderbuss; 7 hand grenades; 15 muskets and bayonets, four of which
are described as worn out; 9 horse pistols, only four of which are in
good order; 2 silk hat covers, 1 box wafers, 7 canoe awls, 1 drill
bow, 1 bark canoe, 1 candle mould, 3 spears, and 2 carts.

[Footnote 172: "Notes on the Western Dns," Trans. Can. Inst., Vol.
IV., p. 29.]

It is worthy of remark that Ogden's inventory, though still mentioning
one bark canoe, also enumerates six wooden canoes. As we have already
seen, but very few years before that gentleman's advent to the country
the latter were quite unknown in New Caledonia, the only crafts then
used by the Company being the canoes made of birch bark by its
Iroquois _engags_, while the natives themselves mostly adhered to the
spruce-bark skiffs their fathers had used in pre-European times. So
late as the autumn of 1848 we read in a letter from Thomas Charles, of
Fort George, that "two men who deserted from Nantlais cast up" there,
and the significant fact is added that they travelled in a wooden
canoe, which would seem to indicate that such embarkations were even
then rare enough in that quarter to make it worth the while to mention
their material.[173]

Among the articles for sale we find in the invoice of goods supplied
New Caledonia from Vancouver for the outfit of 1836: Indian awls, used
in making bark canoes or sewing leather; a great assortment of beads
of all descriptions; three different kinds of belts; 412 blankets,
which show that the "potlatch" was not unknown at that date; a large
quantity of all sorts of _capots_, fine overcoats with cape and
sometimes hood, a superior article; 7 dozen cock feathers; a goodly
number of "Indian guns," accompanied by a full supply of best
gunflints; a few gross gunworms; a good many plain brass finger rings;
12 rolls Canadian twist and 1 bale carrot tobacco; 2 pounds vermilion;
an assortment of quills and penknives; and, last but not least, five
kegs of rum.

[Footnote 173: Letter to D. Manson, October 30th, 1848.]

We have mentioned gunflints. At the time of which we write the guns in
connection with which they were used were still a luxury which only a
few of the New Caledonia Indians could afford to buy. So late as the
autumn of 1845 no other kind of fire-arm was known to them, as we see
Al. Anderson, of Fort Alexandria, forwarding to Stuart Lake an
assortment of one hundred and fifty gunflints. Nay, in 1851 (and much
later) the Hudson's Bay Company were still selling gunflints to the
Indians.

[Illustration: INDIAN CROOKED KNIFE.]

Since we have undertaken to review the resources of the land during
the first years of Ogden's reign, we should not forget those items
which are quoted as country-made articles or country produce. The
former comprise five varieties of axes, two sorts of ice chisels (the
implement used by the Indians to break through the old or newly formed
ice, to cut the holes where they set their beaver nets or go for their
morning supply of water), some crooked knives, the drawing-knives of
the Western Dns, a few skin scrapers, a large number of beaver
traps, and even some door hinges.

[Illustration: IRON SKIN SCRAPER.]

The nature of these implements should not lead us to form too high an
opinion of the skilled labor then available in New Caledonia. The next
chapter will enlighten us on the quality of some of those which were
put in the hands of the Indians, even when they had been made at the
very capital of the entire Western Department.

The country produce was reduced to a quantity of dressed skins and a
few unimportant articles, mostly of leather, bags, mocassins, etc.
Such resource as salmon was common, in varying degrees, to all the
establishments, save that of McLeod Lake. As that fish is unknown
through the basin of the Arctic Ocean, of which that lake is a distant
tributary, the Indians trading there have to rely chiefly on the
success of their hunts and the quantity of venison their chases may
yield. This wanting, famine and starvation stare them in the face,
unless they happen to be in the vicinity of a fort, when they can (or
formerly could) generally count on the generosity of the officer in
charge.




CHAPTER XIII.

_Peter Skene Ogden Governs._

1834-44.


On assuming the reins of the government of New Caledonia, Peter S.
Ogden sent John McLean, the future author, to Fort George, a post
which was then presided over by a Mr. Linton, to whom was assigned the
charge of Fort Chilcotin, a very undesirable place. Yet the poor man
was doomed to an even worse fate. In descending the Fraser on his way
to Alexandria, in the fall of 1834, his canoe was upset by the
drifting ice, and he was drowned with his whole party, consisting of
his wife and three children, together with his interpreter, with his
wife and child.

To that unenviable post John McIntosh was now sent, only to beg soon
for an early withdrawal therefrom. However, he was induced to remain
there for a while, and as one of the consequences he had with A.
Fisher the little unpleasantness we have already chronicled. As years
went on short lulls occurred in the Chilcotins' waywardness, which
caused Ogden to write, in December, 1836, that the country was
improving.

As could have been expected, this satisfactory state of affairs was
not to last, and one year later Ogden was deploring, in a letter to A.
Fisher, the chronic state of disaffection in that quarter. "The
disaffected state of the natives towards our establishment at
Chilcotin," he wrote, "has been, and continues to be, since my first
coming to the district, a source of trouble and anxiety to myself and
must be even to you. I have no authority vested in me to abandon a
post in the district, and in my next communication to Governor Simpson
I shall enter more fully in the subject."[174]

Another point, possibly of less importance, but to us even more
instructive in view of the light it throws on the treatment of the
Indians at that time, was touched upon by him in a letter to his
immediate superior at Vancouver. "In regard to our axes of last year,"
he wrote to Chief Factor John McLoughlin, the head of the Pacific
Department, "I beg leave to call your attention to the careless manner
they are made, the edges being nearly half an inch thick and many of
them not tempered, occasioning loud complaints by the natives all over
the district."[175]

Little incidents, which are apparently of no importance whatever, will
oftentimes serve to illustrate the straits consequent on isolation and
the lack of communications with the civilized world. On the 27th of
December the manager of the post, which was soon to be called Fort St.
James, in honor of Sir James Douglas, was writing to Al. C. Anderson:
"I forward you a pit saw file, and in doing so distress this place...I
am much disappointed in seeing that you could not have assisted us
with the loan of a couple of dogs, as it would have enabled us to have
made but one trip to Bear's Lake. We, on all occasions, do all in our
power to assist our neighbors."[176]

[Footnote 174: MS. letter, April 20th, 1837.]

[Footnote 175: MS. letter, February 27th, 1837.]

[Footnote 176: MS. letter, December 27th, 1836.]

It is in that year (1836) that Fort Alexandria was removed from the
east to the west side of the Fraser, and that, to attract the trade of
the Babine Indians, Ogden decided to move Fort Kilmars down to the
northern end of Babine Lake. At that time the village near what is now
called the Old Fort comprised one hundred and fifty inhabitants.

To A. C. Anderson is due the first detailed--we dare not say
correct--statement of the native population within New Caledonia. Ever
since the advent of the whites the number of the aborigines had been
decreasing to such an extent that whole villages had been almost
blotted out of existence. John McLean, while acknowledging the fact,
asks in his book: "But what can be the cause of it? Here there has
been no rum nor smallpox,"[177] by which statement the reader can
gauge that author's reliability. Influenza and measles, added to the
effects of strong drink and intercourse with unhealthy whites, were
assuredly to blame for that state of affairs.

[Footnote 177: "Twenty-five Years' Service in the H. B. Territory,"
Vol. II., p. 296.]

By Anderson's census, the native population stood as follows in 1839:

                  Men.  Women.  Children.  Total.
Fort McLeod         49    40       113      202
Fort St. James      62    79       147      288
Fort Fraser         98    87       100      285
Fort George         75    50        62      187
Fort Alexandria    292   233       232      747
Fort Chilcotin     224   132       244      600
Fort Connolly       28    30        87      137
Fort Babine         69    47        65      181
                                          -----
Grand total                               2,627

These figures call for a few remarks. In the first place, the present
writer's long experience in enumerating natives, who are always more
or less nomadic, has taught him that a good many omissions can hardly
be avoided. The 747 inhabitants assigned to the establishment of
Alexandria (comprising the native population of Quesnel and
Blackwater) are to-day represented by less than 150 souls. That part
of the district has always been the most exposed to the allurements of
vice and liquor. As to the Babines, Anderson was evidently vastly in
error, since we have seen that the population of one of the four
villages on Babine Lake amounted to 150 souls. Nay, when the present
writer first came in contact with them, they still numbered
considerably over 300 souls, without counting those of Rocher Deboul
and Moricetown (not enumerated by Anderson), whose numbers, added to
those of the Lake Babine, must have formed a total of upwards of 600
persons. Likewise, a census taken six years after that of Anderson,
that is, when the population must have decreased, gave Fort George no
less than 160 children, 30 widows and orphans, and 84 hunters, 20 of
whom were single, and five had two wives--a detail which betrays the
Company's lack of influence for good over the natives. These later
figures would give us a total of 343 souls in 1845, as against
Anderson's 187 for 1839.

Finally, Anderson's estimate for Stuart Lake falls also far short of
the mark. Even at the present day the population inhabiting the shores
of that lake, and whose territory is the equivalent of that of the 288
Indians he mentions, numbers no less than 346 souls. Nay more, as late
as the year 1856, the authorities of the Hudson's Bay Company
estimated at 12,000 the total native population of New Caledonia.[178]

[Footnote 178: "Select Committee H. B. Co.," p. 367. See also footnote
on p. 335 of the present work.]

[Illustration: [']KWAH'S GRAVE.

With a grandson and great-grandson standing by.]

And now, he who was undoubtedly the most conspicuous figure among all
these aborigines, our old friend [']Kwah, was soon to be gathered to
his fathers. So far back as 1836 we see him ailing more or less, and
yet he would not relax from his usual duties, which seem to have been,
in addition to hunting and trapping, the giving of and assisting at
native feasts, and being the husband of four women. Indeed, one of his
foibles was his remarkable uxoriousness, which in his days of sickness
hardly stood him in good stead, since, as the chronicler of the fort
quaintly remarks, the old man was sometimes in need of medicine for
"having indulged rather freely with the ladys."[179]

The old Chief seems to have been an obliging neighbor to the fort
people. Besides his furs, he would bring them whole beavers--meat and
skin--and quarters of bear or cariboo. During the fishing season Ogden
and [']Kwah must have made a sort of compact, which allowed the former
the use of the dusky chieftain's fishing traps when he was absent. In
return, the Company sometimes gratified him with a turnip or an onion
from its garden. "Qua sent a whole beaver by a young man," we read in
its Journal; "at the same time he requested a turnip to refresh
himself after his trip down the river."[180]

[Footnote 179: Journal, March 2nd, 1839.]

[Footnote 180: _Ibid._, September 14th, 1837.]

Indeed, the Chief Factor and [']Kwah seem to have been, in some
respects, almost on the same footing in the establishment, and more
than once the fort chronicler records the visits he paid to the
gentlemen. On the 16th of November, 1837, he gave one of his feasts to
the united population of several villages, and, as usual, invited
Ogden, who for once chose to decline the honor, but sent, as a
substitute, a small quantity of flour, corn and sugar. The wily trader
seems to have that day forgotten the gift which was the most
appreciated by the banqueters, that without which no feast was
complete; but he was soon reminded of it, a circumstance which
prompted the remark, that "the Indians are anxious to obtain rum; but
they have fully sufficient already, and I have refused them this.
Promises are very fair now; but when the feast is over they will lose
sight of all, and pass the remainder of the winter gambling. This was
the case last year, and will consequently be the same again this
time."[181]

Four days after this feast "Old Qua" is reported dangerously sick, an
unwelcome piece of news to the fort people, since "this unfortunately
prevents the Indians from starting" for their hunting-grounds. Three
days later the Journal speaks of lamentations by day and night in
anticipation of the Chief's demise, which is expected at any moment.
The worst of it is that "not one will start" hunting. Indeed, the
anxious traders plainly wish for his death, which "would cause a
general move among them [the Indians], as a feast must be made,"[182]
and furs gathered to pay for it. Two days later "Old Qua" is in a
lingering state, hanging, as it were, between life and death. "I do
most heartily wish," writes Ogden, "that some speedy change would take
place; for, in the interim, all are idle around him, nor will one
attempt to stir until a change takes place."

This change did take place, and it was for the better. The old Chief
recovered enough to be able to attend again to his hunts as usual,
though he was never strong again. His death occurred in the spring of
1840.

[Footnote 181: Journal, November 18th, 1837.]

[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, November 27th, 1837.]

In the old representative of pre-European times, the defects proper to
his race, and partly excused by his environment, were counterbalanced
by some good qualities, inasmuch as, petulant and imperious as he was,
he knew how to acknowledge a fault, could patiently bear the taunts of
rancorous old souls, and was generous and faithful to his friends. He
was buried quite close to the outlet of the lake, where his grave can
be seen to this day. He left four wives to mourn his death, and of his
children sixteen (who grew up to man's estate) are now remembered.
Considerably more than half the present population of the two villages
near Fort St. James acknowledge him as their ancestor.

His third son--his first died in infancy--was to succeed him as head
chief of Stuart Lake tribe, a man who proved to be energetic and
deserved the name of "Prince," under which he was known to his death.

These appointments were made by the Hudson's Bay Company; for, as we
have seen in our introduction, the primitive Carriers did not know of
chiefs in our present sense of the word. The individuals thus honored
were intended to be the spokesmen of the traders to the village folk,
and help the Company in securing the departure of the hunters for
their usual expeditions, and smooth over any difficulty that might
arise between whites and reds. In return, they received certain annual
gratuities, mostly in the line of wearing apparel.

As to their usefulness, P. S. Ogden had very pronounced opinions, and
to a young clerk of a fort who wanted to create a second chief in his
village, he remarked that one was more than enough, since in New
Caledonia the institution of chiefs in our sense of the word is
practically useless. Such men, he claims, give more trouble than help;
they reign without governing.

This could certainly not be said of himself. True, he was not for
ruling with a rod of iron, and he could be considerate for the
lowliest of his men, though he visited misbehavior with sound corporal
punishment. "Francois Boucher is on his return to Fort George," he
wrote to one of his lieutenants, William Thew, then in charge of
Fraser Lake. "He has received provisions for his journey, and will, I
trust, not require any assistance. If he feels inclined to prolong his
stay beyond the usual time it will be necessary that you give him a
gentle hint about his taking his departure, as I find him rather
dilatory in his movements."[183]

But in cases of attempted insubordination or carelessness in complying
with orders, he could and would easily assert his authority. Thew, the
very man he cautioned to show some consideration to a subordinate, has
remained famous at Fraser Lake for his autocratic ways, his
uncontrollable temper, and his cruelty to his men. This led to violent
scenes, followed sometimes by desertion. We must say that in the
beginning some of those who had to complain of him were unfortunately
punished by Ogden, who was too prone to believe a gentleman against a
plebeian. One of Thew's deserters was a Canadian, Letendre by name,
whose escapade occasioned the following unpleasant correspondence.

Under date 20th October, 1840, P. S. Ogden addressed this question to
Paul Fraser, the son of the discoverer, who was then a clerk in charge
of a post:

"I have to request you to reply, per first opportunity, to the
following charge brought against you by Mr. Thew: 'With regard to
Letendre, I can only repeat what I have already stated to you, that
upon my asking him the reasons that induced him to act in such a
manner, he replied that had he not been, as it were, pushed or
encouraged by Mr. Fraser to desert, he would not of his own accord
have done so; but from the frequent conversations that took place
between him and Mr. Fraser and which the latter, according to
Letendre's account, always contrived to carry on in a way that they
should not be known to me, the latter made desertion appear so
trifling, and the necessity of adopting it so pressing, as well as
justifiable, that, as before mentioned, he was led unawares to follow
a course which he himself afterwards regretted and acknowledged as
being improper. This is the sum total of his evidence as given by
himself to me.'"

[Footnote 183: MS. letter, March 16th, 1840.]

Paul Fraser had no difficulty in clearing himself in the eyes of his
superior; but what is more interesting is the following statement
written by Thew himself at the bottom of the page containing the copy
of his accusation:

"Having by mere accident seen the above statement, wherein I am
represented as being the individual from whom the charge originated, I
consider it necessary here to deny the correctness of the above
assertion. The facts are thus: Having come here in the fall on
business, Mr. O., in the course of conversation, asked me the cause of
Letendre having deserted, in reply to which I told him the reasons
assigned by the latter when questioned by me, adding at the same time
that I could not vouch for their correctness. Mr. O. subsequently
wrote me to give him Letendre's statement in writing, which I
accordingly did. I, however, never understood that such statement
should be viewed in the light of a charge brought by me against Mr.
Fraser, for I then observed that I placed no confidence in it. It is
not to be supposed that I should have made use of it for any such
purpose. I therefore cannot refrain from observing that it was
exceedingly unfair in Mr. Ogden to make use of my name when he had no
grounds or authority for doing so."

Before he had received any answer from Fraser, Ogden showed in a long
communication to the same William Thew that he knew how to be jealous
of the rights inherent to his position in New Caledonia. After having
told him that instead of the five thousand salmon he had offered as
his maximum quota towards the maintenance of the personnel of the
whole district, he must furnish eight thousand, plus four hundred of a
poorer quality for the dogs, the Chief Factor continues:

"I have now to convey to you my displeasure for your not sending the
bull. The reason you assign, _viz._, that Brunel was employed hanging
up your salmon to dry, is a mere pretext, as Indians could have been
procured, and granting that they could not, my orders must be obeyed,
and no reasons that you may assign in the future will be considered
satisfactory. I am here to direct, and you are bound to obey. If you
again deviate from my instructions I shall be under the necessity of
having recourse to such measures as would be the reverse of
pleasant."[184]

Ogden had sent to Thew his interpreter, who was also his confidence
man. The manager of Fraser Lake took umbrage at this step, which he
construed as an attempt to obtain underhand information regarding his
own doings and sayings, a surmise which prompts his superior to add:
"I considered it necessary to send Waccan to Nantlais [Fraser
Lake].... Your surmises and opinions for my sending him have not made
the slightest impression, and your remarks are uncalled for."

[Footnote 184: Letter dated October 21st, 1840.]

He then passes to the question of Letendre's charges against Fraser,
and says: "In case this charge should prove to be founded on fact, it
will be my duty...to submit the whole to the Governor and Council.
Therefore I have to request that you forward the same statement to me
under an official cover"; whereby we see how little foundation there
is for Thew's assertion that he did not know that said statement was
to be regarded in the light of a charge against a fellow-officer.

Under the weight of that blow (which was so much the more heavy as
Ogden was little given to strike so hard in his official
correspondence), all Thew could do to relieve his wounded feelings was
to write at the end of that communication: "Part of the contents of
the above is merely a vain show of authority." After which he no
doubt felt better.

This did not prevent him from continuing to abuse his men, a
proceeding which resulted, as usual, in complaints and desertions; but
when he extended his ill-humor to the Indians who traded at his post
the latter retaliated in kind, and more than once his life was in
danger from them. Having once attacked an Indian of Stony Creek, he
was assaulted by the fellow-tribesmen of his intended victim, and he
would have been killed but for the intervention of the Chief of Fond
du Lac, who stopped hostilities. It must be this affray, to this day
well remembered by the Indians, which drew on him a letter from Peter
S. Ogden, of which we give the chief passages:

"I regret to find so serious a misunderstanding between you, Dih, and
others," he writes, "and as you call on me for my opinion on the same,
I consider it my duty to comply. You also refer me to Mr. Lane for
particulars. I see no necessity for applying to him, for I clearly see
by your own showing that you acted most imprudently. I admit the
provocation was great; but, coming from an Indian, there were other
means than the rash and imprudent one you adopted to seek redress. You
must bear in mind that if unfortunately in these quarrels blood was to
be shed, the affairs of the district would be deranged to retaliate,
and I am convinced that, had you given yourself time to reflect before
you acted, your reflection would have led you to act in a far
different manner, and could have at the same time made Dih as penitent
and humble as by your account he is at present."[185]

[Footnote 185: Letter, dated January 9th, 1841.]

Then he adduces his own personal experience to confirm the truth of
his remark:

"Nearly a similar circumstance took place between myself and the late
Old Qua, four years since," he says, "and without resorting to such
measures the effect was equally satisfactory; for I lost no standing
in the estimation of the Indians, and the old man from that day to his
death never misconducted himself. It is not only our duty, but our
interest also, so far as circumstances will admit, to avoid coming to
extremes with the Indians. Look at our numbers compared to theirs;
look at the many opportunities they may have of committing murder;
look at their treacherous character [which, however, exists only in
Ogden's mind]; look also at the weakness of our establishments in the
summer[186] and the impossibility of obtaining assistance, and then
judge for yourself if it is not more prudent to avoid quarrels than to
engage in them."

After which he reminds Thew that, "without humbling yourself in the
estimation of an Indian,...there is a certain tact in managing him,
which, in course of time, experience and reflection will teach you."

[Footnote 186: When most of the men are away on outfitting or leather
expeditions.]

In this, however, Peter S. Ogden was doomed to disappointment.
Irascible Thew was incorrigible. On some trivial pretext he shortly
after fell on one of the leading Indians of Fraser Lake, dubbed Saint
Paul by the _engags_ of the fort, and gave him such a beating that,
arming themselves with axes, the naturally peaceful villagers went in
a body to the fort, a mile distant, broke open the gates, and rushed
on the establishment, when the now fairly frightened autocrat came to
a window, and, begging for his life, threw down gifts to the mob,
promising at the same time to make Saint Paul a chief and compensate
him for the ill-treatment he had received, words which succeeded in
calming the irritation of the natives and preventing further
hostilities.

This unpleasantness, however, did not take place before some more
desertions had reminded him of his altogether too disagreeable temper.
"I remark that Baptiste Lapierre's desertion is fully confirmed,"
wrote Ogden, who was ever for punishing a wrong, however great might
have been the provocation that had led to it, "and I trust that you
have been most guarded in your instructions to Tastill in no way
whatever to offer him the slightest inducement to return, as by so
doing his punishment will not be half so great as if he had tasted the
sweets and bitterness of an Indian life, and then you may rely on it
that he will come supplicating to be taken back destitute of
everything."[187]

Again Ogden was too sanguine. He did not realize the extent of the
aversion engendered in the hearts of even the docile French Canadians
by Thew's high-handedness. A month later the deserter was still at
large. Lapierre, who seems to have been an excellent workman, was just
then badly wanted for the brigade, while Mr. Tod was as anxious to
obtain his services for the difficult post of Chilcotin. This leads
the manager of the district to delude himself into the belief that he
will soon prove to be a prodigal son, only too glad to be reinstated
into the Company's paternal establishment.

[Footnote 187: MS. letter, March 4th, 1841.]

"I am fully convinced in my own mind," he writes in April, 1841, "that
Baptiste Lapierre is now heartily tired of an Indian life, and that it
would require very little to induce him to return to his duty; but the
difficulty that appears to me to exist is what plan to adopt so as to
make it apparent that we are independent of his services."

He then speculates as to the best mode of getting hold of him.

"Proceeding to the village and taking him prisoner is one plan; but
this, with the force we have, and the risk of coming to blows with the
Indians...I feel reluctant to adopt. It is, in fact, the last
possible alternative. Sending an Indian and a man[188] with a promise
of pardon, and, after his return, representing to him his age and the
fact that this is his first fault, might answer; but here again he may
form an opinion that his services are of more consequence than they
really are. Or, again, an invitation to the fort to settle some
disputed Indian accounts for furs delivered during your absence, with
a promise that no evil is intended, might answer even better, as it
would do away with any favorable opinion he might entertain of
himself."

None of these plans was to succeed. The best solution of the problem
would have been the removal of Thew himself, a step which
circumstances rendered probably impossible. Peter S. Ogden consoled
himself with the thought that his suggestions had not had a fair
trial.[189]

The reader should not think the above quotations too long, or the
details they contain too minute, as we know of nothing better
calculated to illustrate the workings of the mind and the consummate
prudence and cunning of him who, for the time being, was the great
magnate and first representative of authority within New Caledonia.

[Footnote 188: _i.e._, one of the employees.]

[Footnote 189: April 17th, 1841.]

Before we pass to the review of happenings in other parts of Ogden's
domain, we should perhaps say a word of Robert Campbell's expedition,
in 1838, in the extreme north of British Columbia; but though some
authors make the northern frontiers of New Caledonia coincide with
those of the Russian possessions, that territory was never considered
to extend so far by those on the spot. True, Ogden was once advised
from headquarters on the Columbia to extend his trading operations
farther north; but a trip he took to Fort Connolly convinced him of
the moral impossibility of doing so. If we mention the matter at all,
it is because we remember that the population, in the midst of which
Campbell established his ill-starred post, the Nahanais tribe, was of
Dn extraction, and ethnographically one with the Carriers, the
Babines, the Sekanais, and the Chilcotins. It may suffice for our
purpose to remark that in 1838 R. Campbell, a young Hudson's Bay
Company officer hailing from the east, having crossed the Rocky
Mountains, started a post on a sheet of water called Dease Lake, four
years earlier, by its discoverer, John M. McLeod.[190] Then, having
passed over to the Stickeen River, he descended it to a point where he
fell in with Coast Indians, the Tlingit, who took him prisoner with
his companions. The whole party subsequently escaped to an Indian
bridge, which they cut behind them to avoid pursuit by the natives.
Some time later, a party of Nahanais having crossed over to Dease
Lake, Campbell and his people succeeded in getting out of the country,
when their fort was burnt by the natives.

Ogden had absolutely nothing to do with that expedition, and it may
have been of interest to him only in so far as its field of action was
the territory of the Nahanais, some of whom occasionally came to trade
with his own people at Fort Connolly.

[Footnote 190: Who came from Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, by way of
the Liard River, "with the view of controlling the western fur trade,
which was then in dispute between the Russians and the Company"
("Through the Subarctic Forest," p. 55).]




CHAPTER XIV.

_Among the Babines._


Babine Lake is a long, very deep, and generally narrow body of water.
Its length may be estimated at one hundred and five miles, while its
greatest width hardly exceeds six. In places a sounding line will find
as much as six hundred and eighty feet of water. Of an almost uniform
breadth, save for a few indentations, as far as the end of its
southern half, it then widens to the east, forming a multitude of
islands, until it sends off two narrow branches right and left in a
northerly direction, thus assuming the shape of an irregular crescent,
with horns of a very unequal length.

It is at the base of these two projections, a little to the north of
the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, that the Company first established
its fort. But this was far from the salmon fishery, which was situated
on the outlet of the lake, about thirty-five miles farther north; and
Babine Lake was then, with Fort St. James and Alexandria, the main
source of salmon supplies for the various posts of the district. So
far as 1836 we see Fort Kilmars, as the establishment on the northern
lake was then called, contributing as many as twenty-thousand pieces
towards the sustenance of the entire personnel.

Moreover, the Babines of that lake (especially those inhabiting its
northern extremity) were in the habit of trading almost exclusively
with the Tsimpsians of the Pacific Coast or their own congeners of
what was then

[Illustration: ROCHER DEBOUL AND THE SKEENA RIVER.]

called the Fallen Rock--now Ackwilgate or Rocher Deboul--at the
junction of the Bulkley with the Skeena. The Coast Indians, more
favored from a business standpoint than their brethren of the
interior, used to trade, at reasonable terms, with the skippers of the
vessels which patrolled the Coast, and, ascending the river in
numerous flotillas, bartered for furs at a fair profit, but yet lower
prices than those of the Company, the goods they had bought at home.
Every year a regular fair, in which participated thousands of Indians,
who could not always keep themselves orderly or peaceful, enlivened
the forest at the foot of the beautiful mountain (Fallen Rock) which
has given its name to the locality.

As a means of forcing back trade to its natural channel, as the
Hudson's Bay Company would have it, it was resolved to remove Fort
Kilmars, now badly in need of repairs, to the northern end of the
lake, in the very midst of the disloyal Indians, and scarcely seven
miles from the fishery. William McBean, an educated half-breed, born
in 1790 on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, was then in charge of
that post. Late in 1836 Mr. Ogden instructed him to make no further
improvements on his buildings, but to prepare material for a new fort,
to be erected at Hwo[']tat, or the end of the lake.

Work progressed very slowly, as the natives, possibly less
bloodthirsty than the Chilcotins, were even more noisy and restless.
In a letter dated October 13th of that year, McBean gives us an
insight into some of his troubles.

"When below[191] I was encamped close to Teeltzey's lodge, and about
ten o'clock at night, when a number of Indians were assembled round my
encampment, he stood at a distance, with a gun in his hand, and made a
long speech, the substance of which was that he excused himself for
having stolen my canoe; would not own that he had ever said to an
Indian he would shoot me, but that he heard I intended to shoot him,
and, if true, I was welcome to do so.

[Footnote 191: _i.e._, at the northern end of the lake.]

"I insisted that my canoe should be paid five made-beavers, to which
terms Tanewill [the Chief] agreed. Next morning I remained most of the
day there, but Teeltzey was not inclined to make speeches, nor did he
so much as show his face. They were many, but I think they were
convinced now that with all their numbers they cannot intimidate me,
nor must they think to make me run away from them when my duty calls
me there."

At home he was not without his troubles. Early in 1837 he had sent two
of his men on business to Stuart Lake, and finding that they were not
back after an absence of twenty days, he began to fear for their
safety. As he wrote to Mr. Ogden, he took occasion to mention one of
those little incidents the aggregate of which forms what we call life.

"One of my bulls," he says, "very nearly killed him [Lefvre, a
servant], and should he recover at all, he may be a long time doing no
work. Beside Lefvre, the identical bull lamed and much injured an old
Indian woman; in short, our lives were not safe with him, and being a
most unmanageable brute, I shot him."[192]

Then, fearing the consequences of his act and a possible censure by
his superior, he adds: "I am well aware that cattle have their value
in this district, but you will own that men's lives are dearer. Had I
not shot him, the Indians would." Which was quite likely.

[Footnote 192: To P. S. Ogden, February 20th, 1837.]

In his next communication he hopes to be able soon to occupy his new
fort, but that expectation was not to be realized. Work dragged on
amidst numberless difficulties from not too friendly Indians, so
that, on the 27th of September, 1838, Peter S. Ogden ventured to
inquire about the reasons for McBean's dilatoriness in occupying his
new buildings. Had the half-breed told the whole truth, he would have
confessed that the building material, though now ready, had not been
so much as lifted from the ground. Indeed, it was not until over fifty
years had elapsed that the new fort was erected with new timber.

McBean's ways, it may as well be remarked, were hardly of a winning
nature. Though of a rather religious turn of mind--since, in 1843, we
see him asking for a catechism, perhaps for his children[193]--he was
so despotic with the men under him, so wily, and at times so dubiously
honest with the natives, that he drew upon himself a most severe
reprimand from Paul Fraser, who was not remarkable himself for his
meekness, in the name of the manager of the district (momentarily
absent).

A few months afterwards, October 16th, 1842, his charge was taken away
from him, and while he was being sent to the solitude of Fort
Connolly, William Morwick, a native of the Orkney Islands, who so far
had been Ogden's cook at Stuart Lake, assumed the responsibility of
directing the place, with the title of Postmaster, the limitations of
his literary attainments not permitting him to aspire to the rank of
clerk.

[Footnote 193: He was even something of a religious fakir, making the
Indians dance previous to addressing them on religious topics.]

Whatever may be said of McBean's conduct at Babine, there is no doubt
that he was a very shrewd man, who knew well how to behave among
loud-mouthed natives such as were the Babines, even if he did not do
so. The following directions, which he handed to his successor as he
himself withdrew from his old post, fully prove it. He wrote:

"In your dealings with the Indians be calm and patient, particularly
with those of the end of the lake. Keep on good terms with the two
chiefs Kishpin and Tanewill. As the majority of your Indians are in
the habit of trading their furs with the Fallen Rock Indians, and as
we are dependent on them for salmon every fall, it would be perhaps as
well to keep them under in their demands, and so the less debts you
advance the better.... You will have in mind that the Indians I have
settled with are, on no account whatever, to have more debts until
next fall, and then provided only they have paid what they have
received."

Adverting to the insecurity of the place and the restlessness of the
natives, he goes on to counsel prudence.

"When you shall have a number of Indians with you, it would be prudent
to have your men employed about the fort, so as to be at your disposal
at a moment's warning. Allow no Indian to sleep inside of the
establishment."

Then the business man reasserts himself, and he ends his memorandum by
renewing his wise caution against giving credit too easily, saying:
"Be on your guard against some sweet-tongued fellows who, after my
departure, will no doubt endeavor to get debt from you. Tah-han is one
with many others."[194]

Unfortunately, poor Morwick was not long spared to follow these
instructions. He may have proved somewhat rash himself, and, at all
events, he had near him a man, Charles Toin, his interpreter, who, for
the lack of that patience which is so necessary while dealing with the
natives, was to precipitate matters and render his employer's probably
good intentions of no avail. From the sworn deposition of an
eye-witness, a Canadian named Bonin, and the account of trustworthy
Indians, here is what transpired at Fort Babine a month and a half
after Morwick had taken charge of the post.

[Footnote 194: Memorandum, October 16th, 1842.]

A Rocher Deboul Babine named Lkw had killed a cariboo for the
larder of the new officer, for which he wanted to be paid seven skins.
Morwick, finding this sum too high, tried to induce the Indian to
lower his price, in the course of which contention hot words were
exchanged and a forcible encounter ensued.

This was on a Saturday. On the Indian retiring, Wm. Morwick is said to
have loaded two muskets with powder and salt, and when on the morrow
Lkw proceeded to take up again his recriminations, Toin applied to
him several opprobrious names, after which, handing him one of the
guns, he provoked him to a duel. The native, however, declined the
proffered weapon, and taking hold of his knife, which was hanging from
his neck,[195] he remarked that "he was not used to fighting with
guns, but that if need be he could defend himself with his knife.
Thereupon Toin retreated a pace or two and fired the contents of his
gun upon Lkw, the wad...striking the left arm and lacerating it....
Then the Indian rushed on Toin and stabbed him twice in the arm with
his knife, as the latter was endeavoring to escape from the room,
whereupon he was taken hold of by Morwick and Bonin."[196]

Meanwhile the news was running like wild-fire through the native
village that the officer had shot Lkw. Believing the latter to be
dead, his son-in-law, whom the written deposition calls
"Grand-Visage," instigated by a woman related to the supposed victim
of the Hudson's Bay Company's manager, made for the fort, whose gate
was now securely fastened, swearing he would wash out blood with
blood.

[Footnote 95: The natives' wearing apparel formerly had no pockets.]

[Footnote 196: Condensed from the deposition of Joseph Lefvre _dit_
Bonin, taken by A. C. Anderson, April 4th, 1843.]

At that time window panes were a luxury almost unknown in New
Caledonia. Yet the sitting-room of the Babine establishment boasted
the possession of two, each of which was framed in the parchment which
otherwise closed the apertures in the walls. These being parallel to
one another, a cross-light resulted, through which, even from the
outside of the palisade, Grand-Visage could see Morwick walking to and
fro, as the pickets were but loosely stuck side by side. Taking a
steady aim through one of the interstices, he fired at him with mortal
effect, Morwick falling shot in the head.

This happened on, or very near, the 15th of January, 1843. William
Morwick was then only in his twenty-ninth year, and he had been in the
Company's employ since 1832.

That same day Charles Toin succeeded in escaping, and, making all
possible haste, came to announce the sad news to P. S. Ogden, who was
just on the eve of taking his departure for a trip to Canada, as the
East was then called. McBean, who had been summoned to Stuart Lake
prior to going to his new field of action, was immediately charged,
along with eleven other men, with the task of avenging the murder.
Then, for the sake of formality, Ogden drew up the following document,
which he addressed to McBean:

"In regard to the melancholy tidings received this morning of the
murder of Postmaster William Morwick, and from the contradictory
accounts we have received of this unfortunate event and the
uncertainty if the two men left there are alive, or if the
establishment be not destroyed, I deem it expedient, without loss of
time, that you, with the party already named, proceed to investigate
this affair and take such decisive measures as circumstances may
warrant to punish the murderer and restore peace and order. And to
obtain these desirable objects I hereby authorize you to spare no
expenses."

Ogden was very anxious to learn as soon as possible the turn affairs
would take, and deplored the necessity he was in of leaving just when
he would have preferred to await further developments; so he added:

"On your arrival there, you will, after ascertaining all the
circumstances of this melancholy affair, and all the others regarding
the affairs of the post, dispatch intelligence to me, giving strict
orders to the men to make every dispatch to reach this place, so that
your letters may reach me prior to my departure from Colville for the
east side of the mountains. J. Bte. Boucher ('Waccan') and the party
that accompany you, you are at liberty to detain for six weeks, if you
require their services. You will assume the charge of the
establishment, and I have appointed A. Blanger to act there in the
capacity of linguist [interpreter]."

Then follow the names of the men composing the party. Two of those
originally designated must have begged to be excused from the task, as
their names are erased on the document and replaced by those of two
French Canadians, written, probably after the manager's departure, in
a different hand.

The distance between the two forts was 132 miles or thereabouts; but
as they counted in their ranks the terrible Waccan, who bore a name to
conjure with among the natives, it is likely that the avenging
party--for it was none other--sped along in good style, and in a very
few days the "warriors" came in sight of their destination.

Meanwhile the fort had been all but invested by the friends of
Grand-Visage, who were bent on pillage, while he, expecting the
retribution due to his crime, had hastily built the equivalent of our
blockhouse.

This, when haste was not a factor in its construction, consisted in a
log-house, "as solid as possible under the circumstances, with a
strong log roofing, over which a square breastwork of small diameter
was built with the same material. If not taken by surprise, the
besieged shot at their assailants through loop-holes pierced in this
rude stronghold, the existence of which was concealed by fascines of
coniferous branches piled on the roof up to the top of its walls.
Similar port-holes were also cut in the walls of the house itself, for
service in case of sudden attack. As a further protection against such
a contingency, an addition with a second door was always made to the
front end of the house."[197]

Whether or not the Babine murderer's fort was built according to the
strict rules of Indian warfare, one thing is certain: the dozen
well-armed men just arrived from Stuart Lake, even though they were
now reinforced by the servants left at the Company's fort and a most
influential native, who had stood all alone, or practically so,
against the hordes of his own fellow-villagers in his attempts at
protecting the establishment, did not dare approach the outlaw's place
of refuge.

[Footnote 197: "Notes on the Western Dns," Trans. Can. Inst., Vol.
IV., p. 196.]

Seeing that he was determined to resist to the bitter end, and as they
were unwilling to risk their own lives, they decided to resort to
stratagem--some will say treachery. They sent him word that if he
would come and surrender the gun with which he had killed Morwick, and
deliver to them his daughter, the matter would be compromised, and
there would be no effusion of blood. Twice he refused to listen to
that proposition; the third time he was communicated with, the Babine
friendly to the whites submitted it himself, assuring his
co-tribesman that it was made in good faith. Upon this, after some
hesitation, Grand-Visage emerged from his hiding-place, and
accompanied by his daughter, who carried his musket, he proceeded to
the fort, where all the Company's people were assembled.

As the Indian passed by one of the bastions standing in a corner of
the palisade, two fatal shots brought him to the ground. William
Morwick's death was avenged, and the Company was satisfied.

Not so, however, with the relatives of Lkw, the victim of Toin's
aggressiveness, who now threatened to take up the gauntlet, and make
the Company pay for its employees' high-handed proceeding. Apprised of
their intentions, A. Anderson, the gentleman left in charge of the
district by Peter S. Ogden, wisely wrote McBean that, should further
hostilities ensue, or even be seriously contemplated, "it will be
prudent to avert ill-will among the Atnahs by compromising the affair
with the relatives of Lowquaw (the wounded man). In this we compromise
none of our standing with the natives, seeing that we were the
aggressors in this affair."[198]

Peace once restored, McBean went at last to take possession of his new
establishment on Bear Lake, and one Duncan E. Cameron succeeded him at
Babine.

From a passage in a letter from the manager at Fort St. James we
gather how precarious was the position of the man in charge of that
post. "From your experience now at the Babines," he wrote, "I presume
I need not tell you, while surrounded as you are by so many Indians,
to be strictly on your guard. Rest assured they are at all times most
treacherous wretches, and you cannot take too many precautions."

[Footnote 198: Letter, dated March 4th, 1843.]

This testimony to the innate depravity of the Western Dns was penned
by the old trader on Christmas Day, 1843. After a constant intercourse
with that race, lasting over twenty years, and a ceaseless study of
its character, the present writer begs leave to take exception
thereto. Of course, the ministrations of religion, the acquaintance
with the Gospel teachings and the fear of an after life, have had a
powerful influence on that nation. Nevertheless, we can boldly affirm
that most of the difficulties which ever arose between the white and
red races can be traced to mutual misunderstandings, and a
misconception of each other's characteristics. The natives did not
understand their white brothers or their ways, any more than the
latter could see the reason of so many, to them, uncalled-for
outbursts and incomprehensible actions. Language is here the great
barrier which separates races into so many antagonistic camps, each of
which lives in perpetual suspicion of its neighbor's intentions.

Before continuing our chronicle, we may as well note _en passant_
that, in the early part of 1844, McBean left the country. Officially
speaking, this was on account of ill-health. We must remember,
however, the isolation of his new post, where on one occasion he had
to wait forty-three days for the return of his messengers, who, after
having left Stuart Lake with a cargo of five hundred and eighty-four
salmon, reached him with only two hundred and sixty-seven, the
remainder having been eaten between two men and four dogs.[199] His
request for a change of climate being granted, he left New Caledonia,
nevermore to return.

[Footnote 199: Letters to P. Fraser, February 13th and March 16th. If
ill-health was McBean's real cause for retiring from the north, he
must have subsequently found a wonderfully clever doctor or suitable
climate, for he lived to a ripe old age, mostly in Oregon. On the 5th
of September, 1847, he was in charge of Fort Walla-Walla, where he
welcomed the first four Oblate missionaries who ever reached the
Pacific Coast ("Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon,"
p. 163).]

D. Cameron, his successor in his former place, scarcely felt more at
home in his post among the Babines. Haunted by the spectre of his
murdered predecessor, he soon became morose, absent-minded, and
tormented by ungovernable impulses which, in his moments of calm, led
him to fear for the consequences of a possible rash act on his part.
The following extracts from a private letter written after a year's
stay in his new post speak for themselves:

"I have asked in my official letter to be relieved of my present
charge on the 1st of January, which I beg you will take into your
consideration, as my present feelings towards my _Red Brethren_ are
none of the most amicable. At times it is only by a violent and
painful effort that I can keep my passions within the limits of
prudence. I thought at one time that I had acquired a complete command
of my worst passions; since the month of July it has been put to a
severe trial. I fear that, should any of the Indians unfortunately
attempt to be troublesome, this will lead to mischief."

He then proceeds to give the main cause of his difficulties:

"The Indians are none too well pleased because they cannot get goods
on credit as usual, notwithstanding the little they have had to enable
them to hunt so as to get them out of the way of mischief, merely for
the sake of the consequences of any violence on my part--I apprehend
none on the part of the natives. Well, with patience (I have much need
of it), if I can only manage to curb my evil propensities for a few
short months in order that I may get rid of the district, change of
place and new scenes and intercourse with the civilized part of the
western world may restore my lost equilibrium of reason--that is, if I
ever possessed it."

He then asks for Charles Favel, a half-breed employee, to replace him
pending the appointment of an abler man "to settle with these rascally
Indians," and continues, not without a point of humor: "I am at
intervals so completely lost that I fear I do not keep very correct
accounts. I cannot trust my memory any more than a jealous husband
would his wife."

He ends by an avowal too precious to be left unrecorded: "These
wretches," meaning his Indians, "will impose when they can. Well, I
cannot blame them; they are apt scholars to learn roguery from the
men" in the Company's service.[200]

In spite of his pessimism and his unsatisfactory mental condition,
Cameron managed to live more than a year longer at Babine. On his
withdrawal from that place he left the service altogether, and his
post was momentarily abandoned. During that short stay troubles and
anxieties continued to keep him in suspense and apprehension as to the
future. On March 6th, 1845, he writes to Donald Manson, who had just
succeeded P. S. Ogden in the command of Fort St. James:

"There is a great and serious commotion throughout the entire Indian
population of this quarter, owing to that rascal Tanewill killing two
Indians of this place, but belonging to a numerous sept of the Fallen
Rock Indians. The latter are making every preparation for a campaign
by withdrawing all their relatives and sending them to the Fallen
Rock. I have dispatched a messenger...asking them if there were not
ways and means of compromising the matter without any further effusion
of blood. It would be better for all parties, for in killing Tanewill
there will be no end of retaliation, and this will make matters
worse."

[Footnote 200: To D. Manson, November 11th, 1844.]

This last remark shows that he at least understood the Indian
character. He adds, with a point of bitterness:

"I was interrupted by the arrival of my messenger, and truly I am well
paid for my interference! They say it's no business of mine, and they
will act as they please, and making further allusions to the manner we
punish murderers, they are determined to kill the Chief. From Indian
accounts I have been in the necessity of keeping my men constantly
under arms for the last three weeks."

Then, as usual, the trader asserts himself:

"This affair has put an end to hunting," he says, "and the salmon
fishing will, I fear, in like manner suffer, as the natives do not go
about. It will be impossible for me to attend to your request to
transport salmon to the portage under the present excited feelings of
the natives."

Always the same story. The Chief Toenewill had lost a child, whose
death being attributed to two brothers by the native conjurer, the old
man had killed both, while the wife of one of them barely escaped
destruction at the hands of the infuriated savage. The latter, knowing
well that he who kills must be killed, had then appropriated as many
of the logs destined to the erection of the new fort at the end of the
lake as he needed, and having constructed therewith a regular
blockhouse, was quietly awaiting the course of events.

Cameron's intervention, though prompted by the kindliest disposition,
and based on the wisest foresight, was, however, premature. With the
aborigine, the first effervescence must cool down before he can listen
to reason. It is likely that that gentleman perceived his mistake and
did not despair of mending matters, for some kind of a compromise was
ultimately reached, as we learn from a later communication written by
D. McLean, his successor in the command of Fort Kilmars or Babine.
Under date of February 9th, 1846, he writes to his superior at Stuart
Lake:

"There is at present a hollow peace between the Indians of this post
and those of the Fallen Rock, but how long it may last it is hard to
say. Tannewell has paid a good deal of property to the parents of the
two Indians he killed. It is, however, reported that the Indians of
the Fallen Rock have no goodwill towards the whites, and threaten to
give us some trouble. God help me! I am little able to contend against
them with my force of three men should the rascals [most Indians were
rascals to McLean] make their appearance with evil intentions."

Happily for McLean and others, an event of the greatest importance,
the very first visit of a Catholic missionary to these far-off
quarters, took place in the summer of the same year. We seem to feel
the effect of the peaceful message brought by the first minister of
the Gospel in the following extracts from letters by McLean:

"I am happy to say that all is quiet in this quarter, and the Indians,
one and all, promise to exert themselves in the fur hunt."[201] Again:

"The Prince [the head chief of the Stuart Lake sept] has given me no
cause to be displeased with him. Indeed, I am rather obliged to him
for the manner in which he has spoken in favor of the whites to the
tribes in this quarter."[202]

[Footnote 201: To Manson, November 3rd, 1847.]

[Footnote 202: To the same, November (no date of day), 1847.]

The Stuart Lake Chief had then seen two Catholic priests, and his
advice to the Babines was one of the first-fruits of their teaching.
The influence acquired from the start by the missionaries must indeed
have operated some change in the restless dispositions of these
Indians, when even a man of McLean's stamp was forced to write the
foregoing of Indians for whom but shortly before he could not find
epithets opprobrious enough in his vocabulary, rich as it usually was
in such terms. And these good fruits of the missionaries' preaching
were not ephemeral. In October of the same year, after having noted
the arrival of starving Indians from Stuart Lake, he states that
"everything is quiet among the natives."[203] Exactly a month
thereafter he writes: "I have no great reason to complain of the
natives in my vicinity."

He then enters into a few details, which give us an insight into the
resources of his post and the hardships which attended travelling on
Babine Lake.

"I have now forwarded 30,000 salmon from this place," he goes on to
say. "Lacroix, accompanied by an Indian, left on the 15th inst. in
order to proceed to the Babines Portage with 500 pkts. of salmon and
eight of the Company's dogs with their harnesses; but owing to
tempestuous weather and the splitting of their canoe, they could not
reach their destination, and they returned here yesterday, after
having left their salmon _en cache_ at Tachette and losing six of the
dogs."[204]

Leaving McLean to the minor troubles over which he had no control, we
will now introduce to the reader those who wrought such a change for
the better in the Indians he traded with, a change he duly chronicles,
as we have seen, but without once referring to its cause.

[Footnote 203: October 22nd, 1847.]

[Footnote 204: To Manson, November 22nd, 1847.]




CHAPTER XV.

_First Catholic Missions._

1842-46.


"While many of the Company who spent their lives in service of the
Indians have given freely of their gold to the missionary cause, it is
no doubt to the noble zeal and effective teaching of the Roman
Catholic clergy, ever welcome at every post as brothers of the Cross
in a common cause, that the Christian civilization of the North
American Indian is mostly due."[205]

We might not be considered qualified to sing the praises of the
Catholic missionaries throughout Canada. Our appreciation of their
work among the natives, especially, might not appear disinterested.
But nobody will venture to question the appositeness of the above
statement who is told that it emanates from the pen of the late
Malcolm McLeod, a gentleman whose very existence from the time of his
birth practically belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. He adds:

"I am a Protestant, as my father was, but we can bear no other
testimony on this point. The priest and the trader have, in this case,
gone hand in hand, and commerce has in truth, in this instance, been
handmaid to religion."

[Footnote 205: "Peace River," etc. Notes, p. 64.]

As could have been expected, most of the financial aid granted
missions by the Hudson's Bay Company went to co-religionists of the
majority of its officers; but the spiritual needs of its numerous
servants, who were almost all Catholics, were by no means
overlooked. The priest was ever welcomed at the different forts, and
allowed to exercise his ministry among the people of his own faith.

[Illustration: CARRIER AND CARRIED.]

However, for exactly twenty years after the coalition of the rival
corporations, nothing was done to further the introduction of
Christianity into New Caledonia. This should not be taken as meaning
that the Indians never heard of a Supreme Being who rewards the just
and punishes the wicked, through the French-Canadians and civilized
Iroquois in the employ of the Company. Mr. Dease, during his short
stay at Stuart Lake, had, with indifferent success, done his best to
impart to those in his immediate vicinity at least a smattering of
Christianity. Some years later a somewhat different route, apparently
with the same goal in mind, was pursued by one of the clerks, William
McBean, with whom the reader is now well acquainted. That gentleman
has remained famous among the natives, who remember him as a sort of
lay preacher whose hybrid religion betrayed his own Cree origin, since
it consisted mostly of vague notions about the Deity and the primary
precepts of the natural law, coupled with vain observances, the main
burden of which was reduced to shouting and dancing.

About the same time (1834), but in the opposite part of the district,
a movement affecting a larger area was agitating the southern
Carriers. This can be traced to two natives of Oregon, who boasted a
semblance of education received at Red River. According to J.
McLean,[206] it spread with amazing rapidity all over the country, and
its ceremonial was likewise restricted to singing and dancing.[207]

[Footnote 206: "Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the H. B.
T.," Vol. I., p. 263.]

[Footnote 207: The writer has lately discovered, a little above Fort
George, on the Nechaco River, one of the meeting-places of those early
religionists, where could still be seen, beneath the overgrowth,
remnants of the charred human bones round which the natives would
dance in a circle, to the sound of strangely-worded hymns, accompanied
by invocations to the Trinity recalling the formula of the Sign of the
Cross.]

But more than those semi-pagan practices, the words and example of
Mrs. Ogden, an excellent Catholic, effectively prepared the way for
the missionaries. This should help Bancroft to solve the puzzle which
arises in his mind at the sight of the treatment which the savages
meted out to the first priest they saw, and whom, he remarks, they
received "with open arms, as if informed by heaven of the benefits he
should bestow; and when he left they shed tears."[208]

It happened that some families of French Canadians had retired from
the service of the Company and established themselves in the valley of
the Willamette, Oregon. In conjunction with other free Canadians
already settled in that quarter, they soon formed a population whose
spiritual wants commenced, in the course of 1838, to be attended to by
two secular priests,[209] the Revs. Norbert Blanchet and Modeste
Demers.

For a long time the position of the courageous pioneers of the Gospel
was very precarious, and their efforts among their own
fellow-countrymen hardly as successful as they might have wished. "The
conduct of the Canadians on the Columbia is far from edifying," wrote
Mr. Demers, "and it contributes not a little to retard the conversion
of the Indians, to whom they should be models."[210] What the bad
example of the whites prevented them from doing at home they gradually
thought of attempting abroad. In the course of their relations with
the officers of the Company at Fort Vancouver, the two priests heard
of the numerous Catholics living and dying without the ministrations
of religion in the far north, and the thousands of unevangelized
natives who had their habitat within what was then called the Siberia
of America. With the double object of sounding the dispositions of the
former, and of assuaging, if possible, their own extreme penury, they
appealed for help to the head of the district.

[Footnote 208: "History of the North-West," Vol. II., p. 537.]

[Footnote 209: H. H. Bancroft, who, like too many of his kind, seems
to be haunted by the bugbear of the Jesuit such as he exists only in
the Protestant mind, explicitly states that they were Jesuits ("Hist.
North-West," Vol. II., p. 536), and he accentuates his meaning by
adding: "McLoughlin is quickly converted by Blanchet, and the Jesuits
obtain the ear of the Governor." His mistake is on a par with that of
an earlier writer who called the celebrated Father De Smet "Bishop of
Oregon" ("The New El Dorado," p. 76).]

[Footnote 210: "Rapport sur les Missions du diocse de Quebec,"
Juillet 1845, p. 45.]

Peter S. Ogden answered by asking for contributions from the
well-to-do among his personnel, Catholic and Protestant. We have
before us a circular in his handwriting, which we beg to reproduce,
along with the response it received, as a feeble tribute of gratitude
to the first benefactors of the Missions of New Caledonia. Under date
November 15th, 1841, the Chief Factor wrote to the clerks under him:

"Messrs. Blanchett and Demers, the Catholic missionaries on the
Columbia, requested me, prior to taking my departure from Vancouver
last summer, to ask the inland servants of the district to contribute
towards their mission, and I have to request that you will make
application accordingly."

Then follow the names of the contributors, together with the amount
promised or handed in.

                          s. d.
William McBean          3  0  0
Louis Gagnon            2  0  0
J.-Bte Boucher (_c_)    2  0  0
J.-Bte Boucher (_d_)    1  0  0
P. Gun                  1  0  0
W. F. Lane              2  0  0
Pierre Letendre         2  0  0
William Morwick         1  0  0
P. S. Ogden             2  0  0
William Thew            1 10  0
Jos. Brunette           0 10  0
Jean Couturier          1  0  0
Paul Fraser             2  0  0
O. La Fert             2  0  0
J. Tubault [Thibault?]  1  0  0
Pierre Roy              1  0  0

After these are found four names--John McIntosh, A. Blanger, M. La
Croix and C. Toin--all in Ogden's handwriting, but without any mention
of any sum of money. As the copy of the circular preserved to this day
was addressed to J. McIntosh, then in charge of Fort Babine, it is but
natural to suppose that he sent in his subscription and those of his
men without deeming it necessary to enter their amount on the
communication just received.

The good missionaries on the shores of the Columbia must have been
elated at the sight of such generosity on the part of strangers, some
of whom did not even share their religious persuasion. So they set
upon devising ways and means of repaying the kindness of their distant
benefactors. This was, at the same time, an excellent pretext to try
and extend the reign of the Gospel among the numerous Indians in the
midst of whom the whites had thrown their lot.

The celebrated Father De Smet had just established his confrres at
some distance from Willamette. In 1842 he went to see the Canadian
missionaries at Vancouver, to consult them on the best means of
extending their field of action. It was decided that the Rev. M.
Demers would undertake to give that very year a mission to the
inhabitants of far-away New Caledonia, while Father De Smet would
return to St. Louis, and thence go to Europe to find new recruits to
help in the good work.

Thus it was that Mr. Demers became the first apostle of the interior
of what is now British Columbia,[211] the unimportant territories of
Kootenay and Okanagan only having previously been visited by Father De
Smet himself. To this day Demers' memory is held in grateful
remembrance by the Shushwaps and the Dns. Born at St. Nicolas, near
Quebec, on 11th of October, 1808, he had studied for the priesthood at
the Seminary of the latter city and been ordained on February 7th,
1836. The following year he was off for Red River, and thence, in
company of the Rev. N. Blanchet, who was to become the first
Archbishop of Oregon City, and of John Tod, an old Hudson's Bay
Company officer fresh from a visit to the east, he proceeded to
Colville and Vancouver. One of the first conquests of the new apostles
was Governor McLoughlin himself, who thenceforth was to lead the life
of a fervent Catholic, and by his example lighten not a little the
task of the two priests among his subordinates on the Columbia. "He
has ever been our protector," gratefully wrote Mr. Blanchet; "he is
the father of the orphans and of the afflicted."[212]

[Footnote 211: And we might add of the Coast as well.]

[Footnote 212: "Rapport," etc., p. 32.]

In furtherance of the plan of campaign agreed upon at Vancouver,
Father Demers joined himself, at the beginning of July, 1842, to the
caravan of the Hudson's Bay Company, which, under the personal
supervision of Mr. P. S. Ogden, had come for the yearly outfit
destined to New Caledonia. The two gentlemen seem to have enjoyed each
other's company immensely. As to the missionary himself, he was loud
in his praises of Ogden's "kind attentions and good offices, to
which," he declares, "he was exceedingly sensible, and which
powerfully tempered for him the weariness and unpleasantness of such a
long journey."[213]

The Rev. Mr. Demers was as fine a litterateur as he proved to be a
devoted priest. He has left us a sketch of a day's travelling with the
Company's brigade--as its pack-trains and flotillas were called--which
is worth reproducing.

"Such caravans," he wrote, "are composed of large crowds of men and
horses, the latter packing the baggage and merchandise destined to the
different posts of the north. That assemblage of men, horses, and
baggage unhappily renders progress slow and irksome. It is nine or ten
in the morning before everything can be made ready for a start. One
must seek out and gather the animals set loose and scattered in all
directions the previous night. After long hours of waiting, the band
is finally brought in, and the neighing of the horses, the yells of
the _engags_, the oaths forced on them by impatience, the
contestations of the inferiors and the orders of the leaders result in
a confused uproar not always flattering to scrupulous ears.

[Footnote 213: "Rapport," etc., "Lettre  Mgr. l'Evque de Quebec,"
December 20th, 1842, p. 14.]

"At length, after having partaken on the grass of a meal of dried
salmon, they load the horses, and at ten o'clock we are off. Progress
is exceedingly slow, and full of more or less disagreeable incidents.
We must face a fiery atmosphere, an enervating sun, a suffocating
dust, with sometimes a hill to climb and a ravine to cross. The first
days especially a person feels a general uneasiness, augmented by
various inconveniences arising from the uncomfortable position he has
to submit to while riding a horse already loaded with his chapel, his
bedding, his household goods, and even his cooking implements.
Fortunate is he if an untoward wind does not compel him to swallow
waves of a thick dust which prevents him from seeing two rods ahead.
A dull and monotonous sound of conversing voices is constantly humming
in your ears, which only the crossing of a creek or a river can
interrupt. Then people draw nearer one another, the horses hesitate,
the drivers shout and get angry; there are pushings, falls, and
tumblings, with wrecks, which excite general merriment, and furnish a
theme for conversation and laughter during the rest of the day.

"There is no halt until camping time, and the day's work is over by
three or four in the afternoon. Then everything is prepared for the
night, the animals are unloaded and sent out to feed, the outfit is
set in order, small groups of men insensibly form themselves in
anticipation of the forthcoming rest, the inevitable meal of dried
salmon is taken, and the sun has disappeared below the horizon."[214]

After five days' march, the entire party arrived at Okanagan Forks,
where Fr. Demers was well received by the Indians who had been visited
by Fr. De Smet the previous spring. There he baptized twenty-eight
children and went on with the pack-train until, at Kamloops (or Fort
Thompson, as the place was then called), he stood where no minister of
the Gospel had ever penetrated. Useless to say that he was received
with open arms by crowds of natives eager to contemplate at last that
"black gown" of whom they had heard so much. But the requirements of
his company prevented him from staying there more than two days,
during which he christened a number of children.

On the 12th of August he was off again, and twelve days afterwards he
reached Fort Alexandria,[215] after having conferred the sacrament of
baptism on eighty-five children whose parents he had found on his way
up. The picture the young missionary gives of that then most important
place is far from flattering.

[Footnote 214: "Rapport," etc., "Lettre  Mgr. l'Evque de Quebec,"
December 20th, 1842, pp. 14-15.]

[Footnote 215: By a strange confusion of names Demers says of Fort
Alexandria that "it owes its name to Sir Alexander Fraser, who
discovered the river" on which it stands (p. 17).]

"Its inhabitants," he writes, "know of no moral restraint. Among them
the sacred laws of marriage are more loosely considered than in any
other nation of North America. Promiscuity seems to enjoy an
uncontested right; suicide, murder, and a thousand other disorders
follow, as natural consequences, this contempt for the laws of the
family."

He goes even so far as to say that "it is not to be wondered at if
they outdo even animals by the infamy of their conduct."

That there is nothing exaggerated in this sombre picture of the
ante-missionary Carriers (to whom the whites had given all their vices
without communicating any of their virtues), is attested by John
McLean, who, little religious as he seems to have been, wrote four
years later:

"The influence of the 'men of medicine,' who strenuously withstand a
religion which exposes their delusive tricks and consequently deprives
them of their gains--together with the dreadful depravity everywhere
prevalent--renders the conversion of the Tekallies (Carriers) an
object most difficult to accomplish."[216] And farther on he assures
us that "the lewdness of the Carrier women cannot possibly be carried
to a greater excess."[217] On the other hand, Harmon had already
written that the men of that tribe quite often go without a vestige of
clothing about them, a custom which does not denote too great a
respect for modesty.

[Footnote 216: "Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's
Bay Territory," Vol. I., p. 264.]

[Footnote 217: _Ibid._, p. 300.]

Such data are precious, as affording a basis wherewith we may now
gauge correctly the extent of the transformation wrought in that race
by the Catholic missionaries. The Alexandria tribe had practically
succumbed before the onslaught of vice and intemperance ere the priest
could definitely implant himself in its midst; but the Stuart Lake,
Fraser Lake, Babine and other septs are to-day witnesses to what
religion can do even with the most corrupt societies.

But we lose sight of our pioneer missionary. On August 24th he
baptized twenty-eight children, and a week later thirty-eight, after
which he proceeded to the capital of the country by boat, always with
his friend P. S. Ogden and his entire party. At Fort George, where the
brigade arrived on the 6th of September, he met but very few people,
most of the Indians being away on their fall hunts. Only five of their
children were admitted into the Church, and ten days afterwards the
promised land was in sight, and he landed at Fort St. James.

As his stay there was to be unavoidably limited to three days, he
employed every moment in preaching, instructing, and catechizing both
whites and Indians, baptizing twelve children of the former and
thirteen of the latter. To the adult natives he taught a few prayers
and short hymns he had composed in the dialect of Alexandria, and to
help in imparting religious instruction he made use of a sort of
pictorial catechism or Bible history--due to the ingenuity of his
confrre Mr. Blanchet,[218] in 1839--wherein the principal events and
personages of the Sacred Scriptures and later chronicles were
represented.

[Footnote 218: As will be seen farther on, Macfie ascribes the
authorship of that little work to the Rev. Mr. Demers, while the
writer's copy of the same bears the name of Mr. Blanchet as being that
of its "inventor." That the latter was indeed the sole author of that
"Catholic Ladder," as it was then called, is made clear by a passage
of the "Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon," pp.
84-85.]

Commander R. C. Mayne, in his efforts to glorify at the expense of an
earlier man a missionary whose work among the Coast tribes of the
north became almost abortive as a consequence of his own contempt for
religious discipline, chooses to sneer at the graphic aids Demers had
recourse to, saying that "occasionally, too, might be seen in their
lodges pictures purporting to represent the roads to heaven and to
hell, in which there was no single suggestion of the danger of vice
and crime, but a great deal of the peril of Protestantism."[219] The
reader will know the amount of truth there is in that estimate when he
is told that the pictures of hell, of the deluge, of Cham the
accursed, of the tower of Babel, of Sodom and Gomorrha, etc., figure
prominently in that little catechism. Does our critic suppose that
such items were intended to exemplify the rewards due to the practice
of virtue? A work which is above all historical in scope could not
well pass silently over the earliest heresiarchs or the introduction
of Protestantism in the world. Yet Blanchet's epitome of sacred
history consecrates to both subjects but a very small part of its
space.[220]

[Footnote 219: "Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island,"
by Commander R. C. Mayne, R.N., London, 1862, p. 306.]

[Footnote 220: Matthew Macfie, in his work, "Vancouver Island and
British Columbia" (London, 1865, p. 208), is much more impartial when
he speaks of that little "catechism" in the following terms: "I was
much interested in being shown by Bishop De Mers a rude symbolic
Bible, devised by himself for the use of the Indian disciples of the
Roman Catholic order. It consists of a long slip of paper, on which
the principal events narrated in Scripture, from the creation of the
world to the founding of the Christian Church, are illustrated. The
progressive development of the Church of Rome from that time to the
present is also portrayed. The advantage of the arrangement is that a
large amount of general religious information is contained in a
remarkably small compass."]

On the 18th of September Father Demers sang a high mass in the
presence of all the fort employees, and on the 27th of the same month
he was back at Fort Alexandria, where he was to pass part of the
winter under A. C. Anderson's roof.

Having caused a rude log church to be commenced under native auspices,
our missionary set out again, this time for the valley of what is now
called William's Lake, where he gave to the Shushwaps a mission of
sixteen days' duration, which was blessed with the most consoling
results. After christening thirty-two children, he returned (December
4th) to Alexandria, where he had the satisfaction of celebrating mass
in the Indians' new church.

As an evidence of his desire to devote himself permanently to those
distant missionary fields, we may note here that he made the
acquisition, in the William's Lake valley, of a piece of land, on
which a modest building was soon erected.

On the 3rd of January, 1843, we see him back among his beloved
Shushwaps, who by that time had also put up a chapel, still without
windows. A Siberian winter was then raging, and the apertures in the
walls had to be hurriedly closed with pieces of rough parchment,
which, to the discomfiture of flock and pastor, were eaten up by the
dogs the very first night that they were used. The Indians were
reduced to the necessity of setting snares for the capture of the
delinquents.

Father Demers here records a little detail which graphically portrays
the avidity of the people for his ministrations. "An extraordinarily
large crowd used to encumber the chapel," he writes; "so much so that
one day I could not reach my place without passing over the shoulders
of my neophytes, and I went from the doorway to the opposite end of
the building without touching the ground."[221]

[Footnote 221: "Lettre  Mgr. l'Evque de Quebec," p. 23.]

As usual, his time not taken up by other duties was employed in
studying the Shushwap language and composing hymns and prayers for the
use of his people. As a result of his second campaign forty-one
children received the sacrament of baptism.

On the 21st of February, 1843, he bade farewell to his host, Mr.
Anderson, and, again in the company of his friend P. S. Ogden, he made
for Kamloops, where he arrived on the 1st of March. At Okanagan Forks
he finally parted with that gentleman, and on April 13th he reached
Fort Vancouver, where he found his partner, Mr. Blanchet, absorbed in
prayer.

That same year, on December 1st, a bull from the Sovereign Pontiff
erected the Vicariate Apostolic of the Columbia, with the Rev. N.
Blanchet as its first titulary. Important business calling the new
bishop to Canada, Mr. Demers was delegated to rule in his absence,
while a Jesuit Father Nobili, was assigned to the charge of the
Catholics of Vancouver. Since official cares hindered the former from
returning to his distant flock in the far north, it was agreed that
the latter should go to New Caledonia in his stead.[222]

Therefore, in June, 1845, Father Nobili left for Stuart Lake and way
points; but his first visit, though precious in the sight of the
Indians as indicative of the fact that they were not forsaken by their
new pastors, could not accomplish much for the lack of time. He stayed
five days at Fort St. James, after which he had to leave by the boats
that went to Alexandria for a supply of wheat.

[Footnote 222: On the 30th of November, 1847, Mr. Demers was himself
consecrated, at St. Paul, bishop of the newly created diocese of
Vancouver Island. From 1848 to 1852, he travelled through Eastern
Canada and part of Europe in the interest of his new field of action,
assisted at the Council of the Vatican, which he left in September,
1870; and had just time to return to Victoria, where he died on July
21st, 1871, regretted by Protestants and Catholics alike.]

[Illustration: BISHOP DEMERS.

(See p. 229.)]


[Illustration: JOHN TOD.

(See p. 129.)]


[Illustration: HON. JOHN WORK.

(See p. 275.)]


[Illustration: JAMES A. GRAHAME.

(See p. 326.)]


[Illustration: A. C. ANDERSON.

(See p. 195.)]

The following year he went back in the first weeks of autumn. As he
intended to pass part of the winter at Stuart Lake, he soon repaired
to Fort Babine, and he was the first minister of the Gospel ever seen
in that quarter. D. McLean was then in charge of the Hudson's Bay
Company's post on the lake of that name; he extended to him a cordial
hospitality during the twelve days that he remained in his vicinity.
The young priest then instructed the somewhat boisterous Indians
dwelling near the fort and at the northern end of the lake, teaching
them some prayers and a few hymns of a rather child-like character,
which he composed in their own dialect. On the 25th of October, 1846,
he baptized a large number of children and old people, to each of whom
he gave brief certificates of admission into the Church, some of which
are still treasured by the survivors. Finally, he presented the head
men of the tribe with copies of an abridged edition of Blanchet's
Pictorial Bible History, so that after his departure they might the
better keep in mind and recall to their people the message that had
been delivered unto them.

Father Nobili was of a very modest stature,[223] and seems to have
been handicapped by a rather timid disposition, a circumstance which
doubtless told against him in his dealings with the untutored savages
of the northern wilderness. The observant eye of the natives could not
but notice his extreme uneasiness on the waters of their large lakes,
whereon he hardly ventured without being girdled with an appliance
intended to keep him afloat in case of an accident.

[Footnote 223: And he is, on that account, remembered by the Indians
as the "Petit Pre," or the "Little Father."]

This exaggerated diffidence undoubtedly detracted from his usefulness
among Carriers and Babines, and when he returned to Stuart Lake he was
a full month without being able to get the ear of his people, who
happened to be busy potlatching and feasting. But soon after the 1st
of January, 1847, he made up for the lost time by a series of
instructions, schooling, and catechizing, which did not end until the
beginning of Lent, when he returned to the south by toboggan.

Thus ended the first missionary visits to the aborigines of New
Caledonia. These were but skirmishes of the vanguard of God's army,
and if the results did not prove of quite as permanent a nature as
could well have been wished, this was due partly to the very limited
time the missionaries could devote to their work, dependent as they
were on the Hudson's Bay Company for their transportation, but
especially because their efforts could not be followed up until most
of their effects had disappeared with the lapse of time.

For fully twenty-one years no representative of any church was to
continue the work of the two pioneers. In the meantime the devil was
to ape their ministrations and thereby bear an indirect testimony to
the worth of their efforts. Before we close this chapter we may as
well record the fact that after Father Nobili's departure, numerous
pseudo-priests, or would-be prophets, sprang up from all places, who,
on the strength of dreams real or pretended, claimed supernatural
powers, preached after a way, made people dance when they did not know
how to make them pray, gave new names to their adherents, and
otherwise counterfeited the work of the missionaries.

All villages of any importance, especially in the north of New
Caledonia, boasted at a time the presence of some such self-appointed
priest. The Babines were not to be outstripped in that race after
notoriety. Their champion was a certain loud-mouthed man known as
Uzakle, whose pretensions were the ultimate cause of a wonderful
religious movement among the natives of the extreme north-west, both
Tsimpsians and Dns, a commotion which can rightfully be compared to
the Messiah crazes of later days.

Among those whom Uzakle's preaching left incredulous was a middle-aged
man named [']Kwes, a member of the band settled at Rocher Deboul,
none of whom had been privileged to see Fr. Nobili. He used to deride
Uzakle's pretensions, and led a rather fast life. One evening he fell
into a violent cataleptic fit, and when, aided (?) by the juggleries
of the shaman or medicine-man, he recovered consciousness, he was
dazed and speechless. When able to express himself, he declared in an
incoherent way that "He who sits in the heavens" was punishing him for
his incredulity and the irregularity of his past conduct.

The next night a new trance rendered him long powerless, and the
services of the conjurer had again to be called into requisition.
Similar attacks of catalepsy occurred on several subsequent nights,
when it became customary for those near him to dance round his
prostrate form, thus starting a movement which was to have
far-reaching consequences. [']Kwes began to declare that he saw,
floating in the air over the heads of every one, a bodiless head with
wings[224] listening to the workings of each individual mind (_ni_),
and he plainly intimated that his own mind (_pe-ni_) was penetrating
into the inmost recesses of his credulous hearers' souls. Thenceforth,
he said, he was to be called _Peni_, and under that name he soon
became famous not only among his own congeners, but even among the
Kitksons and Coast Tsimpsians.

[Footnote 224: Clearly a reminiscence of the Catholic doctrine
concerning the Guardian Angels, though to this day his co-tribesmen
resent the idea that he may have had any knowledge of the
missionaries' teachings.]

Gradually he formulated a set of religious tenets, consisting of a
mixture of Christianity with many beliefs and practices congenial to
the native mind. He taught his followers to make the sign of the
cross, composed songs with a strong religious bias destined to
accompany heathenish dances, preached repentance and atonement for
sin, introduced an organization whose object was to watch over order
and morality, bestowed names on his adepts, in imitation, no doubt, of
the christenings by the white priest he must have heard about, united
native couples, and in every way played the part of a minister of
religion. He went even further. As the number of his followers
increased, he set upon prophesying, and declared that the future had
no secrets for him. Strange to say, all the living witnesses, white as
much as Dn and Tsimpsian, are unanimous in asserting that all his
predictions have since been fulfilled to the letter. If we are to
believe the modern survivors of his contemporaries, he went so far as
to predict the introduction of the telegraph in the country, a feat
which certainly defies any attempt at explanation.[225]

Another exploit, which might perhaps be laid to the credit of jugglery
or of some kind of hypnotism, is attested by many eye-witnesses. In
the course of his religious dances, he would introduce in his mouth
the green, unmatured fruit of the amelanchier or service-berry bush,
which, in the presence of all the spectators, would soon ripen to the
extent of yielding a copious flow of dark juice.

But even the novelty of such feats will wear out. Fortunately Peni was
a resourceful man. New trances, after several years, brought forth a
renewal of interest in his mission, and the prophet accommodated
himself to the circumstances by again changing his name into that of
Sandroesa. He died miserably at Babine, struck with apoplexy while
playing the rle of a common shaman.

[Footnote 225: See Appendix E.]




CHAPTER XVI.

_Manson's Tribulations._

1844-50.


By this time Peter Skene Ogden was at Fort Vancouver, where he had
been appointed one of the Board of Management of the Western Division,
to act in conjunction with the Chief Factors John McLoughlin and James
Douglas. On the 15th of June, 1844, Donald Manson, who had crossed the
Rocky Mountains with Connolly in the fall of 1825, was assigned to the
command of New Caledonia.[226]

[Footnote 226: According to H. H. Bancroft, Dease succeeded Connolly
only in 1831, while the latter gentleman was replaced in 1835 by
Ogden, who remained in command of New Caledonia until some time after
1848 ("History of the North-West Coast of America," _passim_). Indeed,
he positively asserts that "in 1848...Chief Factor Ogden made his
residence there," _i.e._, at Fort St. James, on Lake Stuart, a
statement which clearly implies that he then began to rule the
district from that place. Our own assertion that Ogden's rule dates
back from 1834 is based on mere circumstantial evidence, which,
uncertain as it may be, we still prefer to Bancroft's unequivocal
declarations. As to the two other dates, that author is evidently
mistaken, as is usual with him whenever it is a question of New
Caledonia history or geography. Connolly's own journal positively
states that Dease was appointed and arrived in November, 1830, though
it is known that he himself did not retire from the country before the
following year; and as to Ogden having taken up his residence at
Stuart Lake in 1848, that statement is ridiculously false. From June,
1844, all the correspondence, journals and other papers of Fort St.
James go to prove that Manson was then in charge of the district.

The above had been written for some time when we ascertained by John
McLean, who was on the spot when the changes he records took place,
that "on the 5th of May Mr. Dease took his departure from Fort
Vancouver" (p. 250), and that "in the beginning of September Mr. Ogden
arrived from Fort Vancouver" (p. 274), and as the date previously
mentioned by that author, who strictly follows the chronological order
in his account of events, is October, 1833, it is evident that Ogden's
reign at Stuart Lake must have commenced in 1834.]

With the exception of the second Ogden, Manson was the gentleman who
reigned longest at Stuart Lake, having held the reins of power fully
twelve years. At the time of his appointment he was merely a Chief
Trader, and he was not destined to ascend higher in the Company's
hierarchy. The new superintendent was a very different kind of a man
from his immediate predecessor. As energetic and as zealous for the
welfare of his employers' interests, his excitable temperament and his
frequent recourse to "club law," as Sir George Simpson was wont to dub
the kind of mitigated terrorism which obtained throughout the district
during his management and that of his immediate successor, deprived
his exertions of much of their legitimate results by alienating the
hearts of his own men and of the natives.

Another circumstance which militated against his usefulness,
especially when we consider that he came to the head of affairs after
such Chief Factors as Connolly, Dease and Ogden, is that he never
attained to the rank of those gentlemen, while he had under him no
less than three officers, Paul Fraser, Alex. C. Anderson, and, later
on, Donald McLean, who were Chief Traders like himself. Indeed, as we
shall see, the first at least, who was an able man (though not without
his failings) and a successful trader, seems to have harbored some
secret leanings towards insubordination based on thoughts of
inadequately recognized abilities. Manson could not help feeling the
awkwardness of his position. It is but justice to state that, while
doing his duty according to the dictates of his conscience, he was
officially courteous and even indulgent towards his subordinate, whom
we might almost call his rival.

His official correspondence, at all events, shows him to have been
considerate, and even at times patient, in his relations with the
gentlemen in charge of posts--and a better writer, too, than P. S.
Ogden, though by no means a faultless one--whatever he may have been
in his moments of passion and in his occasional conduct relatively to
his employees or servants.

His first care on assuming power was to avenge the death of John
McIntosh, which, according to Sir George Simpson (who based his
opinion on information due to Manson himself), "arose in a great
degree from his [McIntosh's] want of sense in provoking the natives."
The reader will soon become better acquainted with D. McLean's ideas
and the special code of justice he kept ever ready for use in
connection with the Indians on whose furs he was living. He it was
whom Manson took up from Alexandria and appointed, first to the
command of the leather party bound for Dunvegan, and then to the
charge of Fort McLeod. At the same time, having ascertained that
McIntosh's death was the act of only one Sekanais, the new ruler
directed McLean to endeavor strenuously to impress on the minds of
those he would meet the necessity of "destroying" the murderer. And as
this end could not be attained without the co-operation of the whole
tribe, he authorized his agent to offer a reward of two hundred skins
to anyone who would deliver him up to the Company.[227]

[Footnote 227: Letter, dated October 3rd, 1844.]

But his thirst for justice--or vengeance--was not to be satisfied. The
murderer of him who had boasted he would destroy his enemies with his
"bad medicine," died himself shortly after his deed of the very
disease whose appearance caused McIntosh's untimely end. That the
unfortunate affair arose merely from the wish for redress on the part
of a man who was thought to have been grievously wronged, Manson
himself had to admit when he wrote to Sir George that "no insult or
outrage whatever was offered to the family [of the deceased] or the
fort, although the widow [he means _one_ of the widows] remained there
three days after searching for the body, which had fallen from the
canoe" into the water of the lake.[228]

As an augmentation to Manson's cares, a new post, which was destined
to be short-lived, was established at that time near one of the
sources of the Blackwater River, on a small lake called Lhuz[']koez.
This was intended for the benefit of both Carriers and Chilcotins, and
its principal object was to prevent those Indians from disposing of
their pelts in favor of the free-traders on the Coast. Anderson, the
manager of Alexandria, spoke well of the prospects of the new fort,
but Manson was not so sanguine. Although he admitted that it would
undoubtedly pick up many skins which otherwise would find their way to
the Coast, he feared it would injure the trade of Forts George and
Fraser, which, in course of time, it actually did, thereby becoming
the occasion of squabbles regarding the territorial rights of the
officers in charge of the three places.

[Footnote 228: Letter, dated February 2nd, 1845.]

William Todd, a young man without experience, was first appointed to
the new post (September, 1844), to be almost immediately replaced by a
newcomer, Thomas Charles, who proved to be as careful and thrifty as
the other was careless and negligent.

And now Manson's tribulations fairly commenced. These took the shape
of desertions on the part of the servants and defections from the
service on the part of officers at the very time when the latter were
most needed. On his@ very first trip from the Columbia with the
brigade, even before he had received the official intimation of his
appointment to the command of the district, three of his men deserted,
taking along with them what they thought necessary for a long voyage
from the stock then in the boats. This untoward accident led Manson to
call for energetic measures to repress an evil which, he said, was
becoming of really too frequent occurrence. These, however, had not
then to be resorted to by the authorities on the Columbia, as the
culprits were shortly after apprehended by Anderson, of Alexandria,
who sent them back to his superior.

A year later two of his crew absconded in the vicinity of the latter
place, and when, after a harassing journey of thirteen days, the
brigade reached Fort George, four more deserted; so that Manson, who
was, as usual, commanding the flotilla, had to hire Indians to help
him man his five boats. These boats were in such plight from age and
decay that they had to be calked two or three times a day, occasioning
an expenditure of over three large kegs of gum.

At Fort George, having heard that two of his deserters were encamped a
short distance below, he despatched his companion, Wm. Porteous, with
two men, to take them back to their duties, and he had the
consolation, after a time, to see his messengers return with the
missing men, who for an excuse had only to say that they were
altogether worn out and quite incapable of sustaining further the
hardships of such a journey. Manson must have been warned to be kinder
to his men, for in announcing these desertions to the Board of
Management at Vancouver, he took particular pains to explain that
"neither of them had any excuse for deserting, as they, as well as all
the others, had been treated by [him] with the utmost kindness and
indulgence."[229]

In view of these ever-recurring desertions, based mostly on the
difficulty of ascending the Fraser with heavily loaded boats, he also
recommended that a trail be cut from Alexandria to Stuart Lake, on
which a train of one hundred and thirty horses would do in much less
time the work of the annual brigades.

Such unfaithfulness on the part of the hired men could perhaps have
passed unnoticed had it not been for the frequence of the escapades it
led to, a frequence which called for some repressive measures when the
truant employees reached the Columbia valley; but what must especially
have grieved the new manager of the district was that one after the
other the gentlemen or officers in charge of the different posts asked
to be relieved of their duties.

First, we have W. Lane, of Fort Connolly, and Cameron, of Babine, who
are anxious to leave as soon as possible. The latter even wants to
start for Canada immediately after the 1st of January, 1845, a request
which can evidently not be granted for the lack of a man to put in his
place. At headquarters Manson describes his situation and asks for
reinforcements; but, receiving no aid, he is constrained to
momentarily close the important post of Babine (February 27th, 1845).

[Footnote 229: Letter, dated September 25th, 1846.]

Then a third officer, Paul Fraser, applies for permission to go and
join the brigade at Alexandria, preparatory to leaving the country,
under the pretext that when he condescended to assume the charge of
Fort McLeod he did so at Manson's own request and to oblige him. It
seems that as Fraser was a commissioned officer, his appointment to
any post or charge was within the province of the Governor, a
circumstance of which he is duly informed by his immediate superior
in New Caledonia, who, after reminding him that he had himself nothing
to do with that appointment, adds:

"I am sorry 'tis not in my power to grant your request for permission
to meet the brigade at Alexandria next fall.... I trust you will
consider well the step you are about taking, and, for your own
interest as well as that of the concern, make up your mind to remain
until some other gentleman can be procured from the Columbia to take
your place."[230]

Fraser, in his quality of Chief Trader, had much to lose in
disregarding this advice. He consented to stay a few years longer, and
was recompensed therefor by being periodically put in command of the
whole district during the manager's absences with the brigades from
the end of April to some time in September of each year. He seemed to
enjoy these interims, perhaps hoping that they might be changed into a
permanent appointment, a conjecture which is warranted by the fact
that when writing to his immediate superior he invariably addressed
his communications to D. Manson "or the gentleman in charge of the
brigade."

After Paul Fraser it was Maxwell's turn. It would seem, however, that
a mere change of residence satisfied the latter, as we see him in the
district a few years later.

[Footnote 230: MS. letter, February 9th, 1846.]

The next to leave New Caledonia was very nearly its manager himself.
In spite of his efforts to meet the views of the Board of Management,
various causes conspired to deprive him of the fruits of his labors.
In the first place, there was a notable decrease in the returns of the
district. This did not meet with the approbation of the gentlemen at
Vancouver. Then McLean, whom we have seen dispatched on a leather
expedition, had returned too late in the fall, and, being caught by
the ice on the river, had been obliged to _cache_ his precious cargo,
a proceeding which was deemed dangerous to its safety. Again, when
Manson asked for a certain quantity of accoutrements for the horses of
the various pack-trains, his requisition had been thought
extravagantly large by P. S. Ogden, now a member of the Board, who
perhaps took this demand in the light of a reflection on his own
management of affairs while in New Caledonia, an impression which was
not removed by Manson when that gentleman formally wrote that "when he
took charge of New Caledonia affairs he found everything of this
description worn out in tatters."[231] Finally, in consequence of the
reckless conduct of young W. Todd, he could not rely on his services
to direct a fort, and therefore he declined to comply with P. S.
Ogden's instructions that his [Ogden's] son Peter be sent out to
Colville.

As a result of these adverse circumstances, Manson was relieved of his
charge and Chief Factor Lewis appointed in his place (February 20th,
1846). Ill health on the part of that gentleman had, however, forced
him so far to remain at Colville.

[Footnote 231: Letter to McLoughlin and Douglas, December 26th, 1846.]

Manson took his disgrace manfully, and, without an attempt at pleading
with his superiors, he wrote them:

"On my departure from hence with the returns in April, Mr. C. T.
Fraser will be appointed to the charge until the wishes of the Board
of Management may be known. Myself I shall always hold in readiness to
proceed wherever my services may be found necessary."

The storm, however, abated, and, after oral explanations at Vancouver,
Manson was allowed to resume his post; but escaping Charybdis he
encountered Scylla. Anxieties greater even than those he had
experienced by the defection of so many of his lieutenants, because of
the unwarranted conduct of a fifth, were in store for him on his
return to Stuart Lake.

As early as the end of 1845, William Porteous, a character whose utter
worthlessness was fully realized only after his removal from the
district, asked to be relieved of the charge of Fort Connolly, where
he had succeeded W. Lane. The isolation of the place was not evidently
to his taste, and in wishing for a change he was in order. Where he
was certainly wrong was in leaving it, as he did, of his own accord, a
step the impropriety of which his superior endeavored to impress on
his mind. It so happened that at that time Manson had absolutely
nobody to put in his place, and he pleaded so forcibly with his
subordinate that Porteous agreed to stay, on condition that he would
give him another post if he returned from Vancouver, or that he would
pledge himself to induce his successor to take a like measure in case
he was to be permanently removed from his position in the district. On
the strength of that promise, extorted when his superior was
powerless, he returned to Fort Connolly.

But he was bound to hunt for pretexts to serve him as excuses to
abandon his hated post. The Sekanais had resolved to attack his fort,
he claimed, basing his apprehensions on information he had received
from the Atnahs, information which Manson hardly believed deserving of
credit when he very pointedly remarked that "should an attack be
premeditated, the Atnahs themselves were the most likely to be the
aggressors."[232]

[Footnote 232: Letter, March 24th, 1846.]

Poor Manson had perhaps nobody but himself to blame for furnishing
Porteous with such a flimsy excuse. It was only a few weeks since he
had written him: "From Alexandria I am sorry to learn that Mr. C. T.
Tod apprehended an attack on his fort [Kamloops] by the Okanagans and
Shushwaps combined, and led by Nicola, and in consequence has applied
to Mr. Anderson for assistance, who intended to start with six men
immediately."[233]

Finally, on the 20th May, without permission or blowing of trumpets,
Porteous arrived at Stuart Lake, having again abandoned his post. His
excuse this time was that he could find no means of subsistence at
Fort Connolly, notwithstanding that he was well provided with nets and
had with him three men, two of whom were known to be expert fishermen.

In view of this second escapade, Manson reconsidered the promise he
had been obliged to make to the fickle employee, and told him that he
must return to his post or go out of the country under financial
conditions not altogether too agreeable to contemplate. The wretch
chose the former alternative. But he was no sooner back at Bear Lake
than he sent his superior a letter of recrimination, complaining of
the insufficiency of his salary, which he wanted to be increased to
100 per annum. At the same time, he informed him that he was again
coming out in the early spring.

Well might the care-worn manager write in disgust: "I am at a loss
what to do with the man, as by the time he arrives here it will be too
late to send him out with the express, and I am of the opinion that it
would be bad policy to bring him out with the brigade.... I cannot
help saying that this gentleman has given me a great deal of annoyance
and trouble since he was placed at Connolly's Lake, and has been most
lavish and extravagant with the property committed to his trust."[234]

[Footnote 233: Letter, February 9th, 1846.]

[Footnote 234: Letter to the Board of Management, February 25th,
1847.]

To add still to his troubles, Manson had to let go, on account of bad
health, Maxwell, who had lately been stationed at Fort George.

For the lack of any other excuse, the inconstant Porteous now fell
back on the extreme penury of his post, whereupon Manson wittily
remarked: "That the fish in Connolly's Lake should have vanished so
rapidly is most unaccountable to me as, during former years, fish were
always taken during the winter months, and although perhaps in no
large quantities, still this assisted in making the stock of salmon
hold out longer."[235]

His correspondent had also asked for news of his dogs, and the answer
was:

"I know of no animals of this description belonging to you at this
place, and if the dogs you allude to are those which formerly belonged
to Mr. Wm. Todd, I have to inform you that that gentleman before he
left this place made over all his dogs, say seven, to the Company, and
his account is now credited with that number."

But stubborn Porteous was bound to have his way. He again repaired to
Stuart Lake, where Manson told him to stay with his _locum tenens_, P.
Fraser, until the fall, when means would be devised to allow of his
leaving the country. And lest he might forget these instructions,
Manson notified him by writing to that effect, adding: "I consider it
proper to inform you that any contravention to, or wilful neglect of,
the orders you may receive from Mr. Fraser will subject you to the
loss, not only of your four years' wages, but also the forfeiture of
all you have in the Company's hands."[236]

[Footnote 235: Letter, dated March 3rd, 1847.]

[Footnote 236: Letter, April 18th, 1847.]

Yet Manson had been out but two days with the brigade when Porteous,
setting Mr. Fraser's authority at defiance, took an Indian and left
for Alexandria, where his quondam superior took no notice of him,
though he immediately wrote to Fraser, blaming that gentleman for
having allowed him to go. To which his lieutenant pointedly replied,
that his "keeping him by force would have, in his humble opinion, made
matters worse, as in all probability he would have induced most, if
not all, the men in his establishment to desert."[237]

Just then the truly despicable character of the man became apparent.
Two Canadian eye-witnesses laid against him several accusations to the
effect, mostly, that not only had he appropriated what pleased him of
the Company's property, but that, when he left his post, he wilfully
destroyed by fire all the doors, tables, chairs, and the floorings of
his establishment.

This was the end in New Caledonia of a character who, fortunately for
the Hudson's Bay Company, has remained without a peer in the annals of
the district. Whatever may have been their failings, the great
majority of its officers, even though of the secondary or
non-commissioned class, have been men above reproach, so far as
honesty and discipline are concerned, and almost all have displayed
the greatest zeal in serving their employers' interests. On the other
hand, it is safe to remark that, had not Manson been so short of men,
Porteous' insubordination would not have lasted so long.

While that man was thus doing his own sweet will, his superior was not
at the end of his troubles. Waccan, a typical Hudson's Bay man, was in
his turn on strike for an augmentation of his wages. And here we may
at once remark that he, at least, richly deserved such a recognition
of his many services.

We must confess to a feeling akin to remorse for having tarried so
long before doing justice to that unique character which, however, has
sometimes already forced itself to our notice under its real name of
Jean-Baptiste Boucher.

[Footnote 237: Letter, August 13th, 1847.]

Waccan, the terrible Waccan, was the Company's gendarme and chief
executioner in New Caledonia; he was the official avenger of the
killed, the policeman who was dispatched to the villages in order to
stir up the natives and send them hunting, or put a stop to the
endless gambling parties, which prevented them from exerting
themselves on behalf of the white traders. He was the general purveyor
of Fort St. James; when famine stared its inmates in the face, he was
deputed to various Indian camps, whence he never returned empty
handed. He was the faithful steward; assigned to the guard of the
salmon or fur convoys, he always saw to it that no harm came to the
one and good care was taken of the other. Nay, more, he was the
perpetual right arm of the successive managers, their _ex officio_
lieutenant, who was repeatedly entrusted with the charge of the main
fort during the absence of its official head. Chief Factors came and
Chief Factors went, but Waccan stayed under all governments. Finally,
he was by regular appointment the interpreter of the central post, and
by birth nothing else than a poor French Cree half-breed.

His standing at the fort was neither that of an officer nor that of a
servant. He had a house to himself, and enjoyed privileges denied the
latter. Jean-Baptiste Boucher, or Waccan, as he was more generally
known, was a relic of the heroic times of the district, having come to
Stuart Lake with Simon Fraser in 1806, and he had remained in the
country ever since.

He was the first white man--even half-breeds are whites to the
natives--to take a Carrier girl to wife, which he did in January,
1811. But that union was not to last, as he soon after married Nancy,
J. McDougall's daughter, by whom he subsequently had a host of
children. Thenceforth he became indispensable to the traders who
succeeded one another in the charge of New Caledonia, not only on
account of his familiarity with the language of the aborigines, but
especially owing to the wonderful ascendency he had acquired over the
latter through his indomitable fearlessness and his boldness, which at
times verged on rashness.

As early as 1827 we see him acting the part of the confidant and the
trusted steward even over full-blooded whites. Almost every other page
of the fort journal mentions his name, which in no instance that we
can remember is coupled with words of blame or disapprobation. Under
date April 3rd, 1827, we read:

"Waccan and Boisclair arrived last night from convoying the party from
Connolly's Lake. They reached Tatla on the evening of the third day,
which was excellent march, considering the weight of their loads.
Waccan on his return collected ten cats [lynxes], forty-two martens,
and one hundred and thirty hares from the Indians to be found along
the Tach River."

And further, on the 5th of November of the same year:

"This morning Waccan, accompanied by five men, left this place in a
large canoe for the Babine Portage; they have, as load, leather
intended for the Babine country. The object of sending Waccan is to
prevent any waste of salmon whilst the people are carrying it across
the portage, and at the same time to build a store at the west end of
the same."

Had that one man been at the fort at the time of the Douglas episode,
it is safe to say that things would probably have taken a quite
different turn. His was, indeed, a name to conjure with among the
natives; but at that very time he was on Babine Lake, where, in the
face of armed Indians friendly to his intended victim, he slew the
murderer of his half-brother, Duncan Livingston, who on March of the
preceding year had engaged himself to act in the capacity of
interpreter at Babine.

Later on, in old Ogden's time, we see him play repeatedly the rle of
the policeman. "Waccan having threatened to clear out of the camp the
young men who are too lazy to start themselves," we read in that
gentleman's journal, "they took the hint and three started off this
morning for Tach."[238] And again: "Waccan went to the Indian village
and stopped the gambling."[239] A day later: "The Fond du Lac Indians
took their departure; the alert of yesterday has had a good effect."

When it became a question of avenging Morwick's murder at Babine,
Waccan's name suggested itself as a matter of course, and in his
company the executioners of Ogden's justice felt safe.

And even now, when he was nearing his end, his services were called
into requisition by Paul Fraser to effect the arrest of a man, Jos.
Jacques, who had deserted his post in Mr. Manson's absence to join the
relatives of his Indian wife in the vicinity of Fraser Lake, where he
was said to be encamped. On the 18th of May, 1847, Paul Fraser wrote
from Stuart Lake to Peter Ogden at Fraser Lake:

"I was pleased to learn that the abode of Jos. Jacques, the deserter,
was so near Fraser Lake, and as you offered your services and
requested those of Waccan with a man from this place to secure him,
your wishes shall be complied with. It is indeed high time that some
measures were adopted to put a stop to the scandalous practice of
desertion now so prevalent in this district, and was Jacques taken
from among the Indians and severely punished, it would, in my opinion,
deter others from a similar conduct.[240]

[Footnote 238: Journal, January 5th, 1838.]

[Footnote 239: _Ibid._, February 21st, 1838.]

[Footnote 240: Letter, dated May 18th, 1847.]

Waccan, consulted on the subject, declared that the present was not
the proper time to apprehend the villain, and that it would be
preferable to wait until the Indians were gathered at Stella, at the
opposite end of the lake, a suggestion which was immediately acted on.
Then, on June 3rd, he left for Fraser Lake with a letter from the
temporary manager of the district, in which Ogden was cautioned to be
"much on his guard in case of treachery on the part of the natives,
who, no doubt, will attempt to assist him to escape." But then, he
added, "Boucher ('Waccan') is well acquainted with the Indians and
their country, and you could not have a more competent person to
assist you."[241]

Eight days later, Paul Fraser was agreeably surprised by the arrival
of Waccan and Jacques, "who, having been cleverly outwitted, now
professed the greatest repentance for his past conduct."

The last mention of the faithful old man we can find in the documents
at our command is dated 27th of February, 1849, a circumstance which
impugns the accuracy of a pencil note on the copy of John McLean's
book now in the library of Parliament, Victoria, to the effect that
Waccan died in the winter of 1847-48.[242] In a letter to A. C.
Anderson, Manson, after having recited the killing of the instigator
of a murder, the victim of which will form the subject of our next
chapter, goes on to state that in the unsettled condition of the lower
part of the country, in consequence of that high-handed measure, as
well as to help towards the apprehension of the real culprit, he sends
Waccan down to Alexandria.

[Footnote 241: Letter, June 2nd, 1847.]

[Footnote 242: Said note is in the handwriting of an old Hudson's Bay
Company officer, and it serves to prove that even such authorities are
not always reliable.]

"Waccan and six men leave here on the 1st of March prox. for
Alexandria," he writes. "My principal reason for sending the old man
is that he is known and respected by all the natives of the district,
and therefore I am of opinion that his appearance there in the present
state of affairs will have a very good effect."[243]

Waccan died in the spring of 1850 of the measles, an epidemic which
devastated the whole district and made a host of victims. He left
seventeen children.

Another object of anxiety for the manager of New Caledonia was the
length and difficulties of the route his pack-train had to follow
every year, and the great mortality among his horses which resulted
therefrom. A. C. Anderson, his able lieutenant in the south, was so
much the more prepared to share his uneasiness, as for many years the
care of those animals had devolved on him. Moreover, the pretensions
of the American Government made it apparent that Vancouver, the
terminus of that route, would ultimately be found to be within
American territory. Therefore, with the approbation of his superiors,
that gentleman set out to explore the country between his place,
Kamloops, and Fort Langley, on the Lower Fraser, with a view to
finding a better route.

Starting on the 15th of May, 1846, he went by way of Cache Creek and
Hat Creek, whence he passed through a gap in the hills until he
reached the Upper Fountain, when he found it impossible to follow the
Fraser. Then, striking westward by Lakes Seaton and Anderson, he made
for the south by way of Lillooet, and nine days after his departure he
fell upon the Fraser again; by five o'clock of the same day he was at
Langley.

[Footnote 243: Manson to Anderson, February 27th, 1849.]

The country traversed had been mostly rugged and hardly fit for an
important pack-train; but on his return he found somewhat better, by
way of the Cascade range, through which, groping in the dark as it
were, he had to retreat in order to try another defile, which allowed
of his proceeding to Semilkameen and Lake Nicola.

He had accomplished his task thoroughly and, as Manson wrote to Sir
Geo. Simpson, he "left nothing to desire in the shape of information.
The return route is the shortest of the two explored.... Still a doubt
as to its practicability remains."[244]

That doubt was well founded, as he discovered himself with his
pack-train in 1848. Here is what he wrote to the Board of Management
even before he had returned to Stuart Lake:

"When I last had the honor of addressing you from Langley, I gave you
an account of our proceedings up to that date, and at the same time
stated my fears as to the practicability of the new route. We have now
tested its advantages and disadvantages thoroughly, and I have no
hesitation in declaring it utterly impracticable for a large brigade
such as ours. The rugged, rocky, mountainous and thickly wooded
country which lies between Fraser River and the plains, say a distance
of about forty-three miles, and which the brigade took ten days to
pass, seven of which the horses were without food, is, in my opinion,
sufficient in itself to condemn this route. These, however, are not
the only impediments to the new road. The hosts of barbarians who are
congregated on Fraser River at that season, and among whom we have
recently passed under circumstances where neither courage, prudence
nor precaution could avail to resist surprise or guard against
treachery, is more than sufficient to deter us from again attempting
that route."[245]

[Footnote 244: Letter, February 26th, 1847.]

[Footnote 245: Kamloops, August 24th, 1848.]

In a somewhat later communication he states that, on that road, in
spite of every precaution, he lost no less than twenty-five pieces of
merchandise and seventy horses.[246] He therefore dispatched one of
his men, Peers, to minutely examine and report on Anderson's return
route, and that gentleman had the good luck to find a pass free from
most of the difficulties so far experienced.

But Manson seems to have been pursued by fate. Another kind of danger,
arising this time not from nature, was in wait for his "brigade," as
we shall see presently.

[Footnote 246: To Sir George Simpson, February 26th, 1849.]




CHAPTER XVII

_Alexis Blanger and His Avenger._


Among the Company's servants in the early forties was a young man of
pleasing appearance named Alexis Blanger, who had quite a checkered
career and was more than once a thorn in the side of his employers. As
his life, his death and its consequences throw such a flood of light
on the ways of the lonely traders in the wilds of what is now the
northern interior of British Columbia at the time we have reached in
our narrative, it is but proper that we should somewhat linger on the
data we have been able to gather relative to his passage in the
country and his tragic end.

The son of a French Canadian adventurer by a Cree woman, he never knew
his father, and is said to have given way to boisterous rejoicing on
the death of his mother, who had incurred his displeasure for having
chastised him none too leniently in consequence of some misdeed of
his. An orphan without friends, he entered the Hudson's Bay Company's
service at the early age of thirteen (he had been born in 1816), and
in due course of time he was sent to the headquarters of the New
Caledonia District. He must have had good aptitudes for languages,
since, in a relatively short time, he picked up the Carrier dialect
sufficiently well to act as interpreter at Babine, where we first see
him stationed with a salary of fifteen pounds a year.

Very friendly to the natives and rather bent on following their ways,
he was at times well beloved of his employers, though he was of a very
inconstant disposition and of doubtful morality, as were most of his
companions in the service. Married in 1837 to an Indian woman of Grand
Rapid, he soon has a falling out with his local superior, whom he
accuses of undue familiarities with his wife. This man, while
admitting his guilt, retorts by writing to P. S. Ogden, then in
command of the district: "Last fall...when you visited this post, I
begged of you to give him a set down for his improper conduct....
Also, I attribute most of the blame to Blanger's uncommon jealousy,
who repeatedly questioned, quarrelled, and beat his wife on my
account."[247]

The removal of his superior does not seem to have improved Blanger's
character, since a year later, early in December, 1838, he arrived at
Stuart Lake, having been dismissed from Babine by John McIntosh, who
had previously written flattering encomiums on his behaviour. That
officer seems to have regretted his step, taken perhaps on the spur of
the moment, for on June 13th, 1839, Mr. P. S. Ogden writes him in the
following rather stiff terms:

"Your demand for Blanger cannot be complied with. However injurious,
as you represent, it may prove to your trade, it would be equally so
in the eyes of your servants. Really, I can scarcely suppose how a
gentleman of your long experience in the fur-trade should have formed
such an erroneous opinion as to exalt such a worthless scamp.... Had
you, when Blanger just left you, or subsequently per Larance, sent me
a correct statement of his misconduct, accompanied by a request that
he should be sent back, he would now have been with you."

[Footnote 247: Letter to P. S. Ogden, Babine, March 5th, 1837.]

In spite of this rebuke, the necessity of an interpreter who was
_persona grata_ to such noisy Indians as the Babines have always
proved to be, soon asserted itself more and more pressingly, and
finally induced Mr. Ogden to reconsider his decision; but Blanger's
second stay with McIntosh was not any more satisfactory than the
first. Instead of waiting to be dismissed, the fickle young man
deserted his post, and on the 6th of January, 1842, the head of the
Company in New Caledonia had to write again:

"In regard to Alex. Blanger, I have to request you to allow him to
remain with the Indians and take not the slightest notice of him, and
when you send your after-trade here, you will devise ways and means of
sending him here, as it is my intention that he should go out and
finally rid the district of his worthless carcass."

In the spring of the same year Mr. Paul Fraser, temporarily in charge
of Stuart Lake, repeats to McBean, of Fort Connolly, Ogden's order,
with the special caution that "the man should on no account be allowed
to enter into any of the Company's establishments, or to be in any way
employed by any gentleman in the district."[248]

Unable to re-enter by the front gate, Blanger tried the back door.
Indeed, the above prohibitory words had not yet reached their
destination when he caused himself to be temporarily hired by the man,
Brasconnier, to whose care the message had been entrusted. The latter
was returning to his post, Fort Connolly, with two dog-trains loaded
with dried salmon, and, finding it more than he could do to drive both
toboggans alone, he took upon himself to engage the services of
Blanger, who was lying idle with his wife's relatives at Grand Rapid,
on Thach River.

[Footnote 248: Letter to McBean, March 2nd, 1842.]

But, as if he could not get out of mischief, he and his compeer, no
doubt to diversify their rather meagre menu, killed two of the dogs,
which were McBean's private property, and regaled themselves on their
meat. Arrived at Fort Connolly, Brasconnier told the most extravagant
story as to how they had died on the way; but Blanger ungenerously
confessed to the whole truth, whereupon his benefactor received "a
sound drubbing."[249]

Such apparently insignificant details are of use, since they reveal
some of the difficulties the Hudson's Bay Company had to contend with.
On the other hand, it is but just to remark that the poor fellows
usually fared so poorly!

Despite the renewed warnings not to employ a "deserter who left the
Company to abandon himself among the natives," as Blanger was
stigmatized at headquarters,[250] the latter must have been reinstated
in his former position of interpreter, since Mr. A. C. Anderson, the
acting superintendent of the district, having had an occasion to see
him, says of the conference he had with him: "I have spoken to Alexis
about his conduct, though I perceive in your letter you make no
complaint against him, whence I infer that he has given satisfaction
lately."[251]

He then commends the young half-breed to the care of his
correspondent, who is requested to act fairly with him, inasmuch as
his services are valuable.

[Footnote 249: McBean to P. Fraser, March 16th, 1842.]

[Footnote 250: P. Fraser to McBean, April 1st, 1842.]

[Footnote 251: Anderson to McBean, March 8th, 1843.]

In strict justice to all parties concerned, we may remark that the
wrongs may not have been exclusively on one side. McBean himself,
though apparently well educated, was but a half-breed, and the
reputation he has left in the district is not of the best. While he
was stationed at Fort Connolly he received the following rebuke, which
must have been so much the more galling to him as it occurred in the
course of an official letter:

"If reports are to be credited, your dealings with those who have been
placed under you are of so curt and tyrannical a nature as to cause
one to blush to have them recited. I am really of the opinion that
should the same come to the knowledge of the Governor and Council, or
the gentleman superintending the Company's officers on the Columbia,
the consequences would be most injurious to your reputation and future
prospects in the Company."[252]

We must bear these words in mind while we read the following charges
against Blanger, preferred five years earlier by the same McBean,
under whose orders he was at Fort Babine. These last we reproduce, not
so much to accentuate the note of natural depravity, to which he had
an undoubted right, as to give an authentic picture of the times and
the country.

Under date of March 5th, 1837, McBean wrote to his superior at Fort
St. James:

"I beg to call your attention to the following serious charges I have
to make against my interpreter, Alexis Blanger, who has been guilty
of these faults since he visited Stuart Lake:--First, as to robbery.
He robbed an Indian of his fur account, and, of course, the Company.
On the 22nd ult. an Indian called Matitzey accused Blanger of having
robbed him of a lynx caught in one of his snares, and of eight salmon
he had put _en cache_ for marten baits. Larance says he was against
taking it, but Blanger would not listen to him.... The interpreter,
finding that Larance would have nothing to do with the cooking of it,
cut the animal as it was, meat and skin, of which they both ate....
Although I paid the Indian for his skin, meat and salmon, I had much
to do to pacify him.

[Footnote 252: P. Fraser to McBean, April 1st, 1842.]

"Secondly, Blanger is accused by Lefvre [another servant] of having
stolen out of his trunk at the west end of the lake twenty-two balls
and half a powder horn of powder belonging to the Company, which I had
left in charge of Lefvre, and with which they were to guard
themselves against the natives, should they be ill-disposed, and also
a pice of soap of Lefvre's.

"Thirdly, disobedience to orders.... You told me, Sir, that Blanger
was engaged as interpreter and laborer. Upon this...I thought proper
to order him below to assist the rest of the men with the new
establishment.[253] I had to tell him three different times to be off
that morning, and he would not start until he had eaten a good portion
of putrid grease which a relative of his, an Indian, had given him;
and the day he left he encamped about five miles from here--the
distance to the north end of the lake is just a day's march. The
weather was delightful and favorable to travelling, but there he
remained the rest of the day and the whole night, risking his property
and gambling with the Indians."

McBean then proceeds to relate how, bidden by Lefvre, who was in
charge of the work, to help haul pickets for the palisade of the new
fort, he flatly refused to obey, and immediately returned to McBean's
own quarters.

Yet the indolent fellow must have subsequently profited by Anderson's
kind words, for in the course of 1844 we see him at the head of a
Hudson's Bay Company convoy, a circumstance which would seem to
indicate that he had regained to a certain extent the confidence of
his employers.

[Footnote 253: He means the fort he was endeavoring to build at the
northern end of Babine Lake.]

But the love of liberty and the Indian instinct in him were apparently
too strong to conquer. When the Stuart Lake brigade was on the point
of leaving for Alexandria, in the spring of 1848, Blanger was again
a free man living in the vicinity of Fort St. James. The adventurous
life of the boatman appealed to his taste for excitement, and he
engaged himself to steer one of the outgoing five boats under the
general supervision of D. Manson.

At that time there lived amongst the Indians of the Quesnel band a
young man named Tlhelh, who, having lost his wife, had sworn to
revenge her death on a white man. Such, at any rate, is the native
account of the cause of the rash act that was to follow; but it is to
be presumed that there was another motive guiding Tlhelh in the choice
of his victim. As early as the 3rd of March, 1843, A. C. Anderson,
writing from Stuart Lake to W. McBean, notified him that he had just
received a note from Mr. Lane, of Alexandria, stating that Natsilh and
two other Indians were said to have gone off from Stella (Alexandria)
in order to kill Blanger, who was then stationed at the opposite
extremity of the district. The fact that he was singled out for
execution by very distant Indians can be construed, without rashness,
as indicating that the miscreant had committed in that quarter another
of his usual misdeeds.[254]

Be this as it may, the Stuart Lake brigade had been for a few days on
its way back, and its boats had just been painfully poled up to the
site of the Quesnel native village, when Nadetnoerh, Tlhelh's maternal
uncle, scornfully addressing the young man, exclaimed:

"Here is the one who was to kill a white man. See how many of them
have just passed; how many did he shoot?"

[Footnote 254: The Quesnel Indians then traded at Fort Alexandria, and
were considered as belonging to that place.]

And seizing his nephew's gun, an old piece with a short barrel, he
threw it away some distance in the direction of the river, shouting at
the same time:

"There goes that good-for-nothing gun!"

Tlhelh, mortified at thus being indirectly accused of cowardice,
silently took up his arm, blackened his face with coal,[255] and
ascending the cliff close by, came in full view of the brigade, which
was already in the act of crossing the stream to avoid the angry
billows caused by the meeting of the Quesnel River with the Fraser.

All the boats, the last of which was steered by Blanger, had already
left the left bank of the latter stream, when a detonation from a
fire-arm took every boatman by surprise, a ball striking at the same
time the water by the side of the last boat.

"My! they seem to be firing at us," exclaimed Blanger, who continued
to hold fast in the water the paddle he used as a rudder.

Presently he was seen to grow pale and, sinking slowly on the Indian
next to him, he remarked that he thought he had been shot. Having
reached the other side of the river, they put ashore, when a slight
examination brought out the fact that a musket ball had traversed his
breast. After attending to his wound, and bestowing on him what little
care the circumstances permitted, Manson sent him back to Fort
Alexandria, where he died eight days afterwards.[256]

[Footnote 255: The equivalent here of the war paint of the Plain
Indians.]

[Footnote 256: Tlhelh had then the whole crowd practically at his
mercy, but never attempted to improve his opportunity, another proof
that he had some reasons for the choice of his victim.]

Thus ended the brief but eventful career of "that rascal, that
scoundrel, that good-for-nothing wretch," as his superiors never tired
of calling him. Keeping these not any too friendly dispositions in
mind, and considering that his untimely end does not seem to have been
altogether unprovoked, one might suppose that his disappearance from
the scene of the world should not have been too deeply felt. Yet a
terrible vengeance was to be taken for his slaying, and even innocent
blood was to be shed--with the approbation, we regret to say, of the
higher authorities[257] of the Hudson's Bay Company--as the price of
that "worthless carcass" of which Chief Factor Ogden had wished, some
years before, to be rid.

The man to deal out that terrible retribution was readily found in the
person of Donald McLean, who was then in charge of Alexandria. To
judge from his spelling and his ideas concerning the natives, McLean
was an American.[258] He had been born in the initial year of the
nineteenth century, and had entered the service of the Hudson's Bay
Company when in his twentieth year. A most high-handed man, he could
hardly stand opposition, and had angry altercations even with his own
superior, Donald Manson, who, as we have seen, was not himself of any
too meek disposition.[259] Nevertheless, he seems to have been capable
of repenting of a wrong when the offended party was of his own blood
and race. As to the natives, he had for them the most perfect
antipathy and treated them with the superb disdain of an American. In
fact, his very contempt for that race and the rashness which resulted
therefrom ultimately cost him his life. One of his favorite maxims
while dealing with Indians accused of a grievous misdemeanor was: Hang
first, and then call a jury to find them guilty or not guilty!

[Footnote 257: Whom we must charitably suppose to have been
misinformed.]

[Footnote 258: We must remark, however, that some think he was born in
Scotland.]

[Footnote 259: See MS. letter of McLean himself to D. Manson, dated
February 8th, 1854.]

Such was the man whom, in the month of January, 1849, we find with
Montrose McGillivray at the head of fifteen armed men sent by D.
Manson in search of Tlhelh, who had, naturally enough, taken to the
woods. Arrived at the Quesnel village, they noticed that, though this
was deserted, three huts on the opposite (or right) side of the river
seemed to be inhabited. Repairing thither, they entered one, where
they found Tlhelh's uncle with his step-daughter and babe.

"Where is Tlel?" cried out McLean through his interpreter, Jean-Marie
Boucher, as he rushed in.

"Tlhelh is not here," answered Nadetnoerh.

"Well, where is he? Tell me quick," insisted McLean.

"How can I know his whereabouts?" replied the old man; "all I know is
that he is not here."

"Then you shall be Tlel for to-day," declared the white man, who,
firing with two pistols he held concealed about him, missed the mark,
but finally shot the Indian dead with his musket.

Hearing the report of fire-arms, his son-in-law, who was just then
busy in the next house cutting with a hatchet the leg bones of a deer
he had killed the previous day, ran to his assistance, but was himself
repeatedly shot till he fell lifeless on the snow. Which seeing, his
young wife, a half-breed, with a child in her arms, sought a place of
refuge in the cabin, when a man from outside (whom the writer has
known for many years) sent her, perhaps by mistake, the contents of
his musket, large deer shot, which crushed out the head of the babe
and finally lodged itself in the mother's shoulder.

Not content with this exploit, the avenging party turned its attention
to the third hut, where dwelt a very determined old man, who, bolting
his door, defied them to come in, assuring them of the death of the
first who dared force an entrance. Unable to accomplish otherwise
their ends, they tried the roof of the hut, and McLean had already cut
a hole therein, when, peering in, he was astounded to find himself at
the end of the barrel of a gun, and had barely time to drop out of
sight when it exploded.

This ended for a time the search after Tlhelh, the real murderer, who,
despite the three deaths just chronicled--the woman survived--was
still at large.

For this unwarranted slaying of three perfect strangers, of whose
identity he was not even sure, and two of whom were most certainly
innocent, McLean received the following encomium, which his employer,
Donald Manson, did not scruple to send to Sir George Simpson and his
Council:

"I have every cause to be well satisfied with the conduct of both Mr.
McLean and Mr. McGillivray, as well as the men employed in this
important duty, for the readiness with which they undertook the task
and the promptitude displayed in executing all there was in their
power to accomplish at that time. Messrs. McLean and McGillivray while
under my command have always given me entire satisfaction, and in this
last important duty I feel much indebted for the handsome manner in
which they have executed my orders, so far as it was in their
power."[260]

[Footnote 260: MS. letter, February 26th, 1849. In view of the above
communication the reader will easily understand the reasons which
prompted the cautious qualifications noticeable in the following
statement by Sir George Simpson before the Select Committee appointed
in 1857 to consider the state of the British possessions in North
America: "I scarcely know a case, there may have been perhaps a few
cases, in which our servants have retaliated" for murders at the hands
of the natives ("Report from Select Committee on the H. B. Co.," p.
61). He declares that "the Indians are usually punished by the tribe
to which they belong" (_Ibid._), an assertion which could certainly
not be construed as applying to New Caledonia.]

From which it seems clear that employed and employer were equally
sanguinary, and that they were animated more by the thirst for
vengeance than by the wish to obtain justice for the wrong done their
corporation. That there is nothing exaggerated in our account of the
affair, the most minute detail of which is vouched for by
eye-witnesses, can be inferred from the character of the leader such
as illustrated by the following passage of an official letter to the
ruler of the district:

"The murderer of the deceased Blanger is alive," he writes under date
of March, 1850. "This I have discovered beyond a doubt, having sent J.
M. Bouch and Turcot to the spot where he had caught his stock of
salmon for the winter. A party of fifteen Taotins[261] are in search
of him, having volunteered their services and expressed their
determination to kill him. Many of the Nascotins[262] are, doubtless,
friendly towards the scoundrel, who was at their village when the
brigade passed, and while here. This I discovered by threatening death
to those who should conceal him. And most assuredly if my will was
only concerned, the black, ungrateful, bloodthirsty, treacherous, and
cowardly scoundrels [he means those on the trade with whom he lived]
should have prompt justice for it; hang first, and then call a jury to
find them guilty or not guilty."

Such summary executions must have had their critics at the time, for
he continues thus: "I wish the glib-tongued speakers and ready-penned
writers against the Company were placed for a few years in the
unchristianized Indian country. They would, I suspect, change their
sentiments. I know my own, and shall not be easily induced to change
them."

[Footnote 261: He means Lhthau[']tenne, or people of the Lhthakhoh
(Fraser River).]

[Footnote 262: More correctly, Nazkhoh[']tenne, the people of the
Nazkhoh (Blackwater River).]

That the Lhthau[']tenne or Alexandria Indians did _volunteer_ to kill
their fellow Carrier is more than can be believed by one who knows
their feelings towards their own congeners. Tradition, on the
contrary, has it that the man who made an informer by threatening
death was no sooner back at his post than, unable on account of
professional duties to absent himself for any considerable length of
time, he did not rest quiet until, by dint of cajoleries first, and
then of threats, he engaged for the pursuit of the missing man another
of his uncles, Neztel, with three other Indians.

Handing the former a gun, he promised him one hundred skins[263] if he
brought in the scalp of his own nephew, at the same time threatening
dire vengeance if he returned without it.

"Look at this gun," he is reported to have said in his usual haughty
tone; "its contents will find your heart if I see you come back
empty-handed."

The distracted old man started with his three companions on his
melancholy mission. After many fruitless attempts at finding his
tracks, they finally came upon Tlhelh's retreat. He was crouching with
his mother, in a nook of the Cottonwood River, under the shelter of a
few fallen trees covered up with brush.

At the sight of the approaching party, the outlaw sprang out and tried
twice to fire at the intruders, but his musket would not go off, which
seeing, he seized his bow and arrows, and was on the point of using
them when Neztel, who carried his gun sideways on his left arm and was
slyly getting it ready for use, exclaimed:

"Stop, my nephew; 'tis I, your uncle."

[Footnote 263: About $60.00. The natives say that he promised only
sixty skins for the deed, in which case he must have kept the balance
for himself. At any rate, he was authorized to offer one hundred skins
as a reward for the slaying of Tlhelh.]

Upon which Tlhelh somewhat relented, and the old man, turning slightly
around, discharged his gun at him with mortal effect. Tlhelh fell into
the water, and being dragged out by Neztel's companions, his scalp
was cut off; when, suddenly seized by remorse at his unnatural act,
the old man, in a moment of passing dementia, attempted the lives of
his own companions, and failing to succeed, offered himself as a
target for their guns. When finally he had been calmed down, the
entire party united in rendering the last honors to Tlhelh's remains,
which were cremated on the spot.

The natives still recount, with unhidden glee, how, on his return to
Alexandria, Neztel whipped McLean's face with the scalp of his nephew.

Such were the ideas of justice prevalent in those days throughout New
Caledonia. To punish a misdeed by untutored savages, white men, who
should have known better, turned themselves savages and paid back
tooth (or rather teeth) for tooth, the innocent sometimes sharing the
fate of the guilty. Arrest and trial as a consequence of a fault were
something utterly unknown among the lords of the lonely North.

Such summary executions were, no doubt, considered measures dictated
by the requirements of self-defence; but people will probably be found
who would wish that at least a semblance of legal proceedings had been
resorted to, had it been only to show the natives that such
punishments were demanded by the exigencies of society instead of
proceeding from a thirst for blood and revenge. As it is, the result
on the native mind was disastrous; that system simply confirmed the
Indians in the propriety of their hereditary feuds and the
rightfulness of their unending reprisals.[264]

[Footnote 264: From a judicial standpoint, Manson's conduct in this
instance was quite unwarranted, since he offered a reward for the
_head_ of the Indian who had _wounded_ Blanger, whose death he did
not learn until some time after (see letter to Ferd. Mackenzie, then
at Alexandria, October 16th, 1848).]

Moreover, in the present case, one feature of the utmost barbarity was
especially indefensible; we mean the scalping of a close relative, a
custom utterly repugnant to the feelings of the Western Dns, who
never practised it even in connection with their enemies. To the shame
of our own race be it said that, on this occasion, it was forced on
unwilling Indians by a white man who had ever ready for use against
them the epithets of scoundrels and barbarians.[265] We are well aware
that Ross Cox, on the faith of his informant, Jos. McGillivray,
relates[266] cases of scalping by the Carriers of Alexandria, which he
says took place as early as 1827. But the latter have always declared
that the gruesome practice was adventitious among them, and the fact
that their exceedingly rich language does not so much as possess a
word expressive of that act bears them out in their contention.

[Footnote 265: To add to the coloring of the picture which we endeavor
to draw of the times and of the people to whom we have introduced the
reader, we may be allowed here a remark which will bear us out in our
contention that, instead of trying to elevate the inferior race, the
representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company rather stooped to the
level of the natives. In a previous monograph ("The Western Dns,"
Proc. Can. Inst.), we have stated that, at the end of one of those
treacherous massacres which the aborigines called victory, the guilty
party--we mean the victor--would improvise a dance to the tune of a
song, the main burden of which would be the last words of his victim.
And so it came to pass that Donald Manson, the superintendent of an
immense district, a man whose duty it was to use the influence of his
position in the interest of civilization, did not scruple to
celebrate, Indian fashion, the "victory" of his subordinates.
Assembling his men and some of the natives in the large hall of his
fort, he would make them dance, and ask them as did McLean: "_Tlelh
tatqa_?" (Where is Tlelh?) To which the dancers would reply: "_Tlelh
huloerh_" (Tlelh is not here), and then whirl about amidst the
plaudits of the crowd.]

[Footnote 266: "Adventures on the Columbia River," p. 321, New York,
1832. His graphic account of the bloody differences between the Lower
Carriers and the Chilcotins should be read in connection with the
entry of Connolly's Journal, reproduced on p. 124 of the present work.
It fully corroborates our own surmise as to the date of said extract
and consequently of the establishment of Fort Chilcotin.]




CHAPTER XVIII.

_"Club Law" in New Caledonia_

1850-1856.


The year 1850 opened with the following personnel distributed
throughout New Caledonia:

Fort St. James (Stuart Lake), Chief Trader Donald Manson, assisted by a few clerks.
Fort McLeod                   Clerk Donald McLean.
Fort Fraser                     "   Ferdinand McKenzie.
Fort George                     "   Peter Ogden.
Alexandria                      "   H. N. Peers.
Babine                          "   Thomas Charles.
Fort Connolly                 Postmaster William Todd.
 "     "                          "      M. McGillivray.
Thompson's River              Chief Trader John Tod.
   "         "                Clerk George Simpson.

By this list it will be seen that the two posts of Chilcotin and
Lhuz[']koez had already been abandoned.

At the same time our old friends P. S. Ogden and James Douglas formed,
with Chief Factor John Work, what was styled the Board of Management
of the Columbia Department, and the first-named gentleman was,
besides, at the head of Fort Vancouver, while Douglas commanded at
Fort Victoria, which he had himself called into existence in 1843 on
the south end of Vancouver Island. Another ex-clerk of Stuart Lake,
James M. Yale, now a Chief Trader, had charge of Fort Langley, on the
Lower Fraser, which was that year converted into a dept for the
north, where all requisitions had thenceforth to be sent.

The personnel detailed in the above list was evidently inadequate to
the needs of the district. Ever since Connolly had left Stuart Lake,
the numbers of the "gentlemen" had been decreasing, until it had
become hardly possible to conduct properly the affairs of the country.
Good returns could not reasonably be expected from several posts,
owing to the inexperience or the carelessness of the men in charge.
Against this Manson had recriminated, but to no purpose; men could not
be spared for New Caledonia, the Siberia of the Western Department,
where ruled a man who might have been a whit meeker. Thus, for
instance, both Wm. Todd and M. McGillivray were but postmasters whose
inefficiency was well known. Indeed, the manager had several times
vowed never to trust Todd with a post again; but, with his lack of
men, what could he do? He warned the authorities on the Columbia that
he would not be responsible for the consequences, and gave the young
man an appointment. Again, F. McKenzie had been taken _in flagrante
delicto_ of negligence while in charge of Alexandria, and he had been
relieved of that post only to be entrusted with another. Peers and
Charles were promising clerks, but their years were few in number and
their experience limited. D. McLean and P. Ogden were the only
reliable men at Manson's command, to whom we might add John Tod, were
it not that the ties which bound his post to New Caledonia were
becoming lighter and lighter.

As to Paul Fraser, he was under a cloud, and on the official list we
quoted from he is designated as one of the three disposable men.
Charges of intemperance, which, by request, his immediate superior at
Stuart Lake had had to investigate, only to find them not unfounded,
added to a state of failing health which required medical aid, had
caused him to sever his connection with the northern district. In 1850
he was appointed to the command of a party of twenty-four men
composing the Saskatchewan brigade from York to Edmonton, and some
time after we see him in charge of Fort Kamloops.

In that same year, 1850, Manson himself very nearly left the district
under the plea of ill health. He had been granted a leave of absence,
and Mr. Yale had been appointed to his place. Added to the reason he
gave for his application therefor, it would seem as if there had been
a secret motive--that of disappointment at being left so long in the
rank of Chief Trader. His old friend James Douglas seems to have
understood his true feelings when he wrote him:

"I sincerely hope the state of your health will not render it
necessary for you to take advantage of the leave of absence granted by
the Council. It will, in my opinion, be fatal, for a time at least, to
your prospects of promotion in the service. I most earnestly advise
you not to leave New Caledonia until you receive your expected
step."[267]

Yielding to that friendly warning, D. Manson did not avail himself of
the favor granted him. Governor Colville thanked him for staying at
Fort St. James, and re-appointed him to the command of the whole
district, but with the significant proviso that it was "understood
that the Board of Management have the power of altering these
appointments, so as to meet the exigencies of the business."[268]

[Footnote 267: Fort Victoria, November 27th, 1850.]

[Footnote 268: York Factory, July 10th, 1851.]

Poor Manson, in spite of the sacrifice he had made in staying in his
northern wilderness, was not destined to go up that step wherewith
Douglas had baited him into keeping his post. Yet he was an able man,
and untiring in his endeavors to promote his employers' interests;
but his methods with his subordinates militated against his promotion
in the service.

We have said that Paul Fraser had been appointed to the command of an
important brigade in the east. These expeditions were at all times and
everywhere attended with hardships and even danger; but it is safe to
say that nowhere did they entail labor and difficulties as in New
Caledonia. Hard on beasts, they were far from pleasant for man. The
authorities tried route after route without ever obtaining
satisfactory results. Now that Fort Langley was the dept for the
north, they set upon carrying their goods by way of Fort Hope
Mountains, at the foot of which they erected a fort in the winter of
1848-49. But in 1850 the trail they had cut there was still so rough
that J. Douglas directed the superintendent of New Caledonia to send
men in advance of the brigade in order to render it passable to the
horses.

In spite of these precautions horses continued to die by the dozen,
and complaints became so frequent and so pointed that the authorities
in the south got tired of the subject.

"You refer to the subject of the transport horses, a certainly endless
theme," wrote a gentleman from Fort Victoria,[269] "and one which I
did not expect to hear renewed after the great trouble and expense we
have had in providing the large supply of horses, no less than 63,
sent into New Caledonia last year.... The loss of horses in the
interior for the last few years has been a subject of remark
throughout the country, and there is a very general impression that
the New Caledonia horses are both overloaded and neglected on the
journey."

[Footnote 269: Probably J. Douglas (signature wanting), April 12th,
1854.]

In cases of illness or accidents such expeditions were hardly more
pleasant for men. Witness that Iroquois, Michel Kanawokon, who was
killed by the Indians Manson had hired to take him to Fort Hope, as he
was so sick that he could not walk. The vagabonds, getting tired of
carrying him, shot him through the head.

Another and more unexpected kind of danger arising from such
expeditions had already caused an even more deplorable catastrophe. We
have seen Chief Trader P. Fraser in charge of Fort Kamloops. Paul
Fraser was a man who, conscious of his own abilities, would brook no
opposition or even mere neglect in the execution of orders. His
correspondence with the heads of the various posts in the North is a
witness to the truth of this assertion.

"You will, on receipt of this," he once wrote P. Ogden in the absence
of their common chief, "give me a reply in writing to the following:
'Why did you not forward Tappage with the Indians...as requested in my
instructions to you of the 13th July?' By the arrival of the Indians
from your quarters, I was informed that the Indians employed by the
incoming brigade had reached you some time back, and instead of
sending them hither, as you were in duty bound to do, you detained
them to work at your hay. The consequence is that the boat has been
detained and my orders disobeyed."[270]

[Footnote 270: Letter, August 13th, 1846.]

If he was so curt with his brother officers, we may well imagine what
must have been his temper while dealing with the servants. At that
time clubbing and flogging were the devices resorted to in order to
enforce obedience or punish a wrong. Now, it happened that for some
offence, the nature of which is not remembered, he gave (at Kamloops)
to one of his men, a French Canadian named Falardeau, such a brutal
beating that the poor fellow died of it. As Baptiste, an Iroquois, was
planing and bending the planks intended for the luckless man's
coffin, Fraser happened to pass by.

"What are you doing with these boards?" he asked of the Iroquois.
"Rough, unplaned boards are good enough for that rascal."

The Iroquois, surprised at such a remark under the circumstances,
stared a moment at his master; then, with the brutal frankness proper
to his race:

"Hehm! when you die you may not have even rough boards to be buried
in," observed the laborer.

Two months later Paul Fraser was on Manson's Mountain, seated in a
large tent by the side of Manson, who accompanied his brigade, and the
men were variously employed in preparing the camp when a crash was
heard, and a big tree, which a Canadian was felling, came down on the
tent, instantly killing Paul Fraser, who was reading his
correspondence. So it was that he who had grudged a decent coffin to
the victim of his own brutality had to be returned to Mother Earth
without any kind of coffin.[271]

Paul Fraser was a son of Simon, the discoverer and founder of New
Caledonia. He had been born in 1799 at Glengarry, Ontario, and was in
the service of the Hudson's Bay Company since 1828.

[Footnote 271: This must have happened late in the spring of 1852.]

His was by no means a solitary instance of cruelty to employees. Nay,
he was considered one of the most patient among the officers. Such
were the straits to which the traders in the far north were sometimes
reduced for the lack of means of subsistence, that punishment by means
of long detention could not be thought of. The club and the whip were
resorted to in all cases of misconduct, unless it was thought that the
fist of the officer well applied on the nose of the servant would
suffice. Tied up, sometimes to a ladder, the delinquent received the
number of lashes merited by his conduct.

In these executions there was at least a semblance of formality, and
the culprit could be persuaded that he received nothing but what was
demanded by the requirements of justice. What was utterly
reprehensible was the excessive violence, the uncalled for cruelty of
the officers caused by fits of passion, when the men were mercilessly
beaten with clubs or pounded upon until they were left senseless.
Things came to such a pass that Sir George Simpson had to censure
publicly such practices in an official communication addressed to Mr.
Manson.

"I am sorry to state," wrote the Governor-in-Chief, "that the service
in New Caledonia is very unpopular among the people in consequence of
reports spread of the rough treatment experienced at the hands of the
Company's officers. There is at present here a retired winterer from
your district, one Franois Lacourse, who states that he was very
severely beaten by Mr. Ogden, who knocked him down, kicked him, and
injured him so seriously that the man has since then been subject to
epileptic fits. He states that on another occasion you aimed a blow at
him with an axe, but fortunately missed him and only cut open his
coat, which he exhibited here; and he further adds that you afterwards
presented him with a suit of clothes as reparation for the injuries.

"These are the _ex parte_ statements of Lacourse and they may be in
part false; but taken in connection with other cases of late years,
they afford ample evidence of the existence of a system of 'club law'
which must not be allowed to prevail. We duly appreciate the necessity
of maintaining discipline and enforcing obedience; but that end is not
to be attained by the display of violent passion and the infliction of
severe and arbitrary punishment in hot blood. When a servant is
refractory or disobeys orders he should be allowed a full hearing, his
case examined fairly and deliberately, and, if guilty, either taken
out to the dept, put on short rations or under arrest--in fact,
almost any punishment rather than knocking about or flogging.

"I have to beg you will make the foregoing remarks known to Mr. P.
Ogden, Mr. McLean, and other officers in the district, and I trust we
may hear of no more of these disagreeable affairs."[272]

And in a post-scriptum Sir George, who, like most of the governing
minds, was fairness itself, added:

"Reverting to the case of Lacourse, we learn that he was mulcted of a
year's wages for attempting to desert and misconduct. We beg you will
distinctly understand that neither you nor any other individual
officer in the service has the power to inflict fines on the Company's
servants. If a case arise in which you think such punishment is
deserved, your duty is to report the case specially to the Board of
Management. As regards Lacourse, we have directed that the wages of
which you deprived him be placed to his credit."

Such as are naturally inclined to pity the poor and the lowly may here
find some consolation in the thought that, after all, the humble
Canadian workman may have been indirectly instrumental in preventing
high-handed Manson from getting his much-coveted Chief Factorship,
which would have doubled his income without increasing his labors.

[Footnote 272: Norway House, June 18th, 1853.]

The Governor of the Company was so intent on being understood that in
a private letter, written a day later, he again takes up the same
subject, saying:

"You must really put a check on the 'club-law' that prevails in your
district. It makes the service so unpopular that it is difficult to
induce men to join it.... We hear that McLean and Ogden use their
fists very freely, and I think you should caution them on the
subject."

No wonder, then, if the peaceful Canadians did not enjoy the company
of such pugilistic gentlemen. From Fraser Lake, John D. Manson,
himself not a model of meekness, was writing to his father at Fort St.
James:

"I spoke to Lebrun about his removal to Stuart Lake (Fort St. James).
He seems to take it very much to heart, and said that surely you would
never think of taking him back to a place where he gave thirty pounds
to get away from. He also said that he so much regretted that sum of
money that he swore an oath he would never return to remain at the
same place. His answer was a flat refusal."[273]

Thirty pounds sterling was more than the yearly wages of the best paid
laborers. Had the manager of New Caledonia again arbitrarily kept from
a man his entire salary?

We have just seen McLean and Ogden blamed by the Governor for using
their fists too freely. Manson might have taken this as a gentle hint
at his own methods, for in that respect he was perhaps the most guilty
of all the officers in his district--with the exception, however, of
McLean, who had no peer when it was a question of ungentlemanly
conduct. Indeed, so freely had Manson used his fists and feet less
than two years previously[274] that he had grievously compromised the
safety, not only of himself, but of his whole establishment. He was in
his rights at the origin of the encounter which occasioned the
trouble; but with a little tact and forbearance none of the
disagreeable results he had afterwards to deplore would have ensued.

[Footnote 273: January 14th, 1856.]

[Footnote 274: About November, 1851.]

As we have seen, [']Kwah's successor as head chief of the Stuart Lake
Indians was a third son, whom the French Canadian and other employees
had dubbed "the Prince." That man was independent and rather haughty
in his ways, and perhaps slightly aggressive in his dealings with the
white traders. Tall and powerfully built, his strong will commanded
the respect and obedience of all his subordinates. In a word, for a
Carrier Indian, he was an ideal chief.

He had now two wives, one of whom, the eldest, he would generally
leave in the village when he was called away for a short time. The
younger, a half-breed, was his inseparable companion. Ill reports came
to his ears concerning the conduct of his first wife, reports which
implicated the reputation of Jean-Marie Boucher, serving then as an
occasional interpreter. As the Prince was one day reproaching in the
public hall of the fort the half-breed for his want of propriety,
Manson came in, who, on ascertaining the cause of the altercation,
ordered the Chief out.

The latter, however, instead of meekly submitting, made for the
manager with his fist. Manson, of course, paid him back, which so
enraged the Indian that, seizing a large yard-stick, he was on the
point of using it against his adversary, when of a sudden it was
snatched away from behind in such a way as to inflict a severe wound
on his own temple, which caused him to fall unconscious at Manson's
feet. The unexpected cause of the accident was no other than John D.
Manson, who, bending on the now prostrate form of the Chief, helped
his father to give him such a pounding that he had finally to be
carried away senseless.

As soon as the Prince came to, he sent couriers to the neighboring
villages with messages asking the men to come and help him annihilate
the whites, and for three days Indians were seen pouring in from all
quarters.

[Illustration: "JEM" BOUCHER.]

By this time Manson and his people were at their wit's end. It was
already some years since the manager himself, ever confident in his
own resources, had dismantled the fort and taken down its palisade and
bastions, and now hordes of savages were to assail him! Peter Ogden, a
congenial character, was just on his way from McLeod's Lake with James
Boucher, the eldest son of the terrible Waccan, who had inherited some
of the latter's influence over the natives. A courier was immediately
dispatched to hasten their arrival.

Meantime the buildings were put as much as possible in a position to
sustain a siege, should this become necessary; the windows were
blinded, arms and ammunition were distributed and such precautions
taken as might help the whites in their critical situation.
Fortunately for the traders, other counsellors than the Prince were at
work among the now numerous bands of natives. His own elder brother,
who was secretly dissatisfied with the secondary rank he occupied in
the tribe, together with a most influential "nobleman" baptized in his
infancy by one of the missionaries, were indefatigable in their
endeavors to remind the people of the instructions of the "black-gown"
and keep down the rage of the wounded Chief.

After much parleying and repeated gifts of tobacco by the whites,
through the intermediary of J. Boucher, the Prince's stubbornness was
finally vanquished, and, secretly flattered by Manson's supplicating
attitude, he consented to go, at the head of the long file of his
followers (who kept discharging their guns as they went, to warn the
traders of what they might have done), and receive the valuable
presents publicly bestowed upon him as a compensation for the injuries
he had received.

But from that day forth there never was any great friendship between
him and the representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Chief
treasured up his sense of wounded dignity to such an extent that in
the following years he frequently made himself really disagreeable to
them. Once he went so far as to construct to himself a sort of native
fort on the banks of the Stuart River, intending thence to shoot
Manson as he left with his brigade.

Unable to harm him to any perceptible extent, the traders secretly
vented their animosity against him by calling him names in their
journal, of which here are a few entries:

"The Prince is out of temper to-day, and does not want us to hunt
along the river."[275] "The Prince of Darkness dispatched his imps to
seek for prey,"[276] which, being interpreted, means: The Chief sent
in his followers for a supply of provisions. "Prince on hand. Gave in
about seventeen martens; grumbled as usual and made himself
disagreeable."[277] "The Prince of Darkness was as disagreeable as
ever, with tremendous demand for debt."[278]

[Footnote 275: Journal, March 29th, 1865. The country adjoining Stuart
River was the Chief's hereditary domain, on which, by native law, he
had exclusive control.]

[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, February 6th, 1866.]

[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, April 7th, 1865.]

[Footnote 278: _Ibid._, September 26th, 1866.]

This covert enmity between the Chief and the Hudson's Bay Company's
representatives at Fort St. James could not be of any advantage to the
latter, inasmuch as the Indians were bound to side with the former,
and the thoughtless among them would not scruple to injure their
interests by any means in their power. "Some blackguard has stabbed
the young cow very severely," writes the chronicler under date 25th
June, 1862. "I complained to the Prince, who tried to discover the
delinquent without success." Two days later, a new cause of complaint
is recorded. "The Indians have again severely wounded another of our
animals with an arrow. If they go on at this rate there will be soon
an end to all amicable feeling between the whites and the aborigines."

While these minor happenings were taking place at the capital of New
Caledonia, measures pregnant with the most important consequences had
been inaugurated at the future capital of British Columbia, whereby
the Queen's Government in London had first taken cognizance of Fort
Victoria, on Vancouver Island, where presided James Douglas, the
quondam fisherman of Stuart Lake. On the 13th of January, 1849, the
British Government had ceded that island to the Hudson's Bay Company
on condition that within five years they establish thereon a colony of
British subjects. A first governor, Richard Blanshard, had been
appointed, who had resigned in 1851, when J. Douglas succeeded him as
the Queen's representative on the Pacific, and became the head of a
government which, though composed almost entirely of old Hudson's Bay
Company men (John Tod, Roderick Finlayson and James Cooper), was to
represent other interests than those of the fur-trade. In the
meantime, Douglas kept his place at the head of the trading concern
known as Fort Victoria and as a member of the Board of Management of
the Columbia division or Western Department.

These details, while not directly affecting affairs in distant New
Caledonia, were necessary for the perfect understanding of the present
narrative.

From the little settlement which Douglas was laboriously forming round
his fort, he watched with interest the passing of events in the Old
World, and especially the various phases of the Crimean war, which
then engrossed the attention of both hemispheres. Its most salient
features he would communicate to Manson, whose combativeness he knew
and whose delight for such information he well guessed.

"We have items of English news up to the 15th August," he once wrote
to that gentleman. "Sebastopol was still obstinately maintained by the
Russian army.... Having sent all my papers the other day to Fort
Simpson, I have none at present to send you. The next file, however,
will be reserved for your service."[279]

Pugilistic McLean came to the rescue, sending him from Fort Thompson
(where he had succeeded Paul Fraser) a few newspapers containing the
latest available intelligence concerning the war. At the same time he
proceeded to give him news of a very different character--news that
was to herald a new era for the fur-trade and the country generally.
He wrote under date of October 29th, 1855:

"Gold is abundant at Colville, and I suspect that many, if not all, of
our men will be off in that direction before long. Mr. McDonald gives
favorable accounts as to the richness of the mines, and says that
people from all quarters and of all sorts were gathering to the
diggings, Messrs. McKinley and Anderson among the number."

A month sooner Douglas himself had sounded the same note of alarm:

"I hope and trust," he said in a letter to Manson, "that the gold
fever so prevalent here will not penetrate as far as New Caledonia, at
least until next year, when you may expect trouble in abundance."[280]

[Footnote 279: October 2nd, 1855.]

[Footnote 280: September 10th, 1855.]

Yet we venture to think that this was better news to Manson than the
tales of sickness and misery that were communicated to him from Fort
Connolly and Alexandria and the extreme penury, verging on
starvation, brought in his own vicinity by the failure of the salmon
run. From the former place he was told that many Sekanais had died,
while all that the survivors near the fort could do was to crawl
about. There also the superstitious mind of the natives having full
play, the Nahanais had shot one of their own medicine-men, to whose
machinations they attributed their misfortunes.[281]

At Alexandria, where Peter Ogden had lately assumed command, the new
manager complained of the dilapidated state of his fort, declaring
that he had not even parchment skins wherewith to close his windows.
Ogden mentioned also the utter lack of provisions in his establishment
and the starving condition of the surrounding Indians, which led him
to fear for the safety of the Company's horses in his keeping.[282]

At home Manson had to feed his numerous personnel on rabbits and
turnips, a diet which, in the absence of all farinaceous foods, is
hardly adequate to the needs of a working man. Then, reverting to the
glittering reports from the south, embodying the prospects of a
possible fortune, he decided to write to that Board of Management
which persisted in denying him the Chief Factorship, to which he
thought himself so well entitled. He asked the gentlemen composing it
for a leave of absence for the outfit of 1857, reminding them that for
the last nineteen years he had held with credit a Chief Trader's
commission. At the same time he warned them that, should his request
be overlooked, he would find himself in the necessity of leaving the
service.

[Footnote 281: Wm. Todd to D. Manson, January 5th, 1856.]

[Footnote 282: To D. Manson, October 11th, 1855.]

His request was refused, a step which, after his own ultimatum, was
tantamount to a dismissal; and in the course of 1857 he left New
Caledonia never to return. After various vicissitudes, he established
himself on a farm in the Willamette country, which was ultimately
destroyed by an inundation.

Peter Ogden, the half-breed son of Peter Skene, succeeded him in the
command of the district.




CHAPTER XIX.

_Golden Cariboo._

1856-62.


It is somewhat remarkable that the precious metal which was to have
such a lasting influence on the red man's destinies within what is now
British Columbia, was first discovered by representatives of his race.
The Indians, who so far had been little else than the wards of the
Hudson's Bay Company, were themselves to sound the death-knell of that
powerful corporation's supremacy in their midst, and unconsciously,
but not less certainly, proclaim the approach of a new era, when a
contest would be established between their own forces and those of the
incoming civilization which would leave them vanquished, demoralized,
and verging on their ruin, both moral and material.

H. H. Bancroft constitutes himself the echo of a rumor according to
which Chief Trader McLean procured at Kamloops gold dust from the
natives of the Thompson River as early as 1852.[283] If this statement
be founded on fact, the discovery must have been of very little
importance, since we have seen the same man singing, at least three
years later, the praises of mines within the American territory,
without saying a word of any in his own vicinity. But it is certain
that in 1856 or 1857 gold was found in rocky crevices on the banks of
the Thompson River. McLean, having examined the grounds, sent to
Victoria for iron spoons to dig out the nuggets. These were furnished,
and he was instructed to give as much encouragement as possible to the
Indians willing to devote their time and energies to that purpose.

[Footnote 283: "History of British Columbia," p. 348.]

But lest the Hudson's Bay Company's employees should be tempted to
abandon their posts for the more exciting and generally more lucrative
occupation of mining, and to prevent the untimely breaking up of the
little settlement he was planting near Fort Victoria, Governor J.
Douglas issued a proclamation declaring that all the gold _in situ_
belonged to the Crown and forbidding all persons to "dig or disturb
the soil in search of gold until authorized in that behalf by Her
Majesty's colonial government."[284] That authorization was granted on
payment of ten shillings a month, and even then the right to exercise
that privilege was subject to such vexatious conditions that Douglas's
act was ultimately declared _ultra vires_.

In the meantime these stipulations served to momentarily restrict
mining to the native population; but the gold thus obtained, to be of
any use to its finders, had to be disposed of to the agents of the
Hudson's Bay Company, the only parties who could turn it into account,
and these, again, had to make it over to the mints, the nearest of
which was then in San Francisco. The first lot of the precious metal
to leave the limits of what is now British Columbia found its way into
that city, where it was taken in February, 1858, by the Company's
steamer _Otter_.

[Footnote 284: "History of British Columbia," p. 353.]

On its becoming noised about in the western metropolis that new and
promising diggings had been found in what was still the nameless
North, a party of some thirty prospectors left in the following March
to investigate and report on the nature of the grounds. Leaving
Victoria for the Fraser, they ascended that river up to within a
short distance of Fort Yale, where they discovered Hill's Bar, which
yielded gold in such quantities that a first band of four hundred and
fifty of their friends took passage on the steamer _Commodore_, and
left for the new Eldorado on the 20th of April. The ranks of the
adventurers were soon swollen by thousands of newcomers, who, having
first to land at Victoria, surrounded Douglas's erstwhile peaceful
quarters by a lively city of tents. At this sight, the wily Governor
increased the tax on miners to $5 per head.

In connection with the original little party of thirty or thereabouts,
an adventure is related which well illustrates the sordid eagerness of
unprincipled whites for lucre at any price, and their utter disregard
of the welfare of others.

"One day, while the party were working away with their rockers on the
bar, a boat belonging to Captain Taylor arrived with a load of
whiskey, which he was selling to the Indians for $5 worth of gold dust
per bottle. Many of them became drunk, and the white men on the bar,
fearing for their lives, offered to purchase all the whiskey he had
aboard for his own price. He declined the offer; so the miners, taking
the law into their own hands, marched down to the boat one morning
with their guns at full cock, and while a few of them stood guard over
the captain, the others broke in the heads of the casks and emptied
the whiskey into the Fraser River, giving Captain Taylor an hour to
get out of sight, which he lost no time in doing."[285]

[Footnote 285: "The Year Book of British Columbia," by R. E. Gosnell,
1897, pp. 89-90.]

This praiseworthy action, prompted less by a consideration for
principles than by the craving for personal safety (the Indians at the
place were ten to one white man), did not suit some of the natives,
who, having tasted the forbidden fruit, regretted the departure of
its dispenser, and were inclined to convert their displeasure into
overt acts of hostility. The providential arrival of Douglas, however,
saved whites and Indians from any bloodshed, and it is gratifying to
see that the Governor's remembrance of the adventure at Stuart Lake
stood him in good stead in his dealings with the Lower Fraser Salish.

A California expressman, "Billy" Ballou, having volunteered to serve
the miners in his professional capacity, the latter entrusted him with
samples of their gold, which, at that time, they obtained at the rate
of $100 to $150 a day, a step which resulted in a further increase of
their numbers.

Among the gold-seekers was a young man, Peter Dunlevy, who, unlike
most prospectors and miners, was to cast his lot with the new country
and become one of its pioneer settlers. When he came to the northern
mines, in 1858, Indians in the vicinity of Fort Yale had massacred a
number of whites, among whom was a woman. Nothing daunted by the
prophets, who were predicting him all kinds of terrible eventualities
as the unavoidable result of his rashness, young Dunlevy went up into
the very heart of the disaffected territory without meeting with any
molestation at the hands of the natives. There is nothing like being
fair and honest, and as he was wont to say many years after, "the
whites never had any trouble with the Indians until the latter got
whiskey."

After having worked on a bar some three miles above Yale, Dunlevy went
up the Fraser until he reached the mouth of the Chilcotin River.

He had been toiling there for some time with shovel and pick, when one
day he was accosted by a stalwart Indian who, after having looked
attentively at the yellow dust left in the young man's pan, remarked
that if the latter would meet him after sixteen days at a certain
spot, which he carefully indicated in a rough map improvised on the
sand, he would show him a place where the same material was abundant.
True to his word, the native, who proved to be the son of the Kamloops
Chief, introduced Dunlevy to what was to become famous as the Horsefly
mines.

In 1859 many of the miners, pressed by their ever increasing numbers
and the limitations of the original gold-fields, went up even farther,
until they reached the mouth of the Quesnel River, which they
ascended, there to find a number of rich bars. On one of them,
Snyder's Bar, as much as $1,000 worth of gold was taken by three men
in one day. On the north and south forks of the same stream good
paying bars also were discovered.

The influx of white population caused by these discoveries prompted
the foundation in that same year, 1859, of New Westminster. This
immediately became the capital of a new colony, which, absorbing New
Caledonia as far north as the Skeena River, on the one side, and the
Finlay on the other, took in Forts Yale, Hope and Langley, with the
adjoining territories to the forty-ninth parallel, under the name of
British Columbia. The original Columbia of the Hudson's Bay Company
had been found to flow in its lower course within American territory,
and the name of the new colony suggested the fiction of an equivalent
for the lost region.

We have referred to Ballou's venture. His was indeed the pioneer
express within the new colony, in the sense that he offered to convey
letters and parcels to destination with a certain amount of
regularity. As to carrying the same for a scheduled pecuniary
consideration, the Hudson's Bay Company had anticipated the American
by fourteen years. As early as June 7th, 1845, the Norway House
Council had decreed that postage on letters from strangers was
thenceforth to be charged west of the Rockies. Letters to or from the
Columbia, not exceeding half an ounce, were to be taken to destination
for a consideration of one dollar, and twenty-five cents was to be
paid for every succeeding half ounce.[286] Bearing in mind the times
and the difficulties attending travelling, these terms were at least
as reasonable as those of the new government of British Columbia,
which charged the same sum on a letter from New Westminster to Antler
Creek, a much shorter distance, and at a time when the increase in the
white population rendered communication much easier and less
dangerous.

In 1860 Keithley Creek was discovered by George Weaver and his
companions, and various other creeks were soon added to the number of
the streams which yielded a bountiful supply of the yellow metal. The
Quesnel River itself gave, in the summer of 1860, employment to some
six hundred miners, who earned from ten to twenty-five dollars per
day, and several nuggets were picked up in that region weighing from
six to eight ounces apiece. Ferguson's Bar then yielded as much as
sixty dollars a day per man.

[Footnote 286: Resolution No. 105.]

New discoveries followed one another in quick succession, until the
Cariboo mountains, which so far had known hardly any other sound than
the hoot of the owl, with the occasional stamp of the deer and the
shrill notes of the Carrier's love-song, were now alive with the thump
of the miner's pick and the rattle of his rocker. Harvey Creek, Goose
Creek, Antler Creek, and other streams which were soon to become
famous for their auriferous deposits, successively claimed the
attention of gold-seekers, until those discoveries culminated in the
finding, in 1861, of Williams Creek, the richest gold-field in the
world, which was struck by a man known as "Dutch Bill." Among the
many claims taken up on that creek several yielded from $20,000 to
$60,000 a year, and one man named Cameron did not leave the country
before he had amassed $150,000 in gold dust.[287]

The miners generally went in small parties of two or three, bound
together by the ties of partnership, while such as were possessed of
capital would constitute themselves into regular companies employing
men who worked for wages. One of these concerns once realized 180
pounds of gold as the result of one day's work,[288] while, later on,
another, the Ericson Company, took out 1,400 ounces of the precious
metal in six days,[289] and 1,926 ounces the following week. This last
amount was equivalent to at least thirty thousand dollars.

Yet many of the miners were hardly better off for their luck than mere
Hudson's Bay Company laborers, since, in their folly, they spent their
money almost as quickly as they made it. The story is well known of
the man who, having made some thirty or forty thousand dollars in the
mountains of Cariboo, wasted the whole sum in champagne, wherewith he
treated all persons present, as well as the neighbors and passers-by,
and crowned his exploit by smashing with twenty-dollar gold pieces a
costly mirror hanging in the bar-room.

[Footnote 287: H. B. Hobson, in the Year Book of British Columbia, p.
89.]

[Footnote 288: "Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska," by
Fred. Whymper, London, 1868, p. 15.]

[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, p. 16.]

Others, who deserved a better fate and were instrumental through their
discoveries in making large fortunes, died poorer than the very latest
arrivals at the diggings to which they gave their names. Witness the
discoverer of Williams Creek, the German William Dietz, who shortly
after his good luck in Cariboo was living in Victoria broken down and
dependent on charity. One of his companions, a Scotchman named Rose,
met with an even less enviable fate, having died of starvation in the
woods after attempting to record his sufferings on his tin cup, on
which he scratched a few broken words.

In the meantime others were making thousands and thousands of dollars
with their shovels and picks. Thus, a certain Cunningham realized, on
an average, nearly $2,000 a day during the whole season, and Diller's
claim produced the enormous amount of one hundred and two pounds of
gold, or almost $20,000, in one day.[290]

These and other fabulously rich finds being noised about, gave such an
impetus to the mining industry that crowds flocked from all parts to
the new diggings. Things came to such a pass that, to keep his men at
their posts, Jas. Douglas had to increase their wages by 10 a year.

The first explorers had been practically all Americans, hailing mostly
from San Francisco. The Canadians and other Britishers were slower in
availing themselves of the treasures hidden throughout the Cariboo
valleys; but once they did move in the direction of the gold-fields,
which were theirs by virtue of political arrangements, neither the
difficulties of the route they had to follow, nor its extreme length
and tediousness, could induce them to turn their backs on the promised
land. While thousands of them went to the new diggings by way of
Panama, others there were who preferred to run directly across the
continent through the great Canadian North-West plains and Rocky
Mountains. Several such parties left Quebec and Ontario in the very
first days of May, 1862, and passing through the American cities of
Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Paul, reached the Red River settlement one
after the other or in combined companies composed originally of two or
three smaller parties.

[Footnote 290: "The North-West Passage by Land," by Viscount Milton
and W. B. Cheadle, p. 362.]

For the sake of safety through the hordes of Plain Indians, they all
assembled in the vicinity of Fort Garry, deciding to proceed thence in
a body under the leadership of a Mr. Thomas McMicking. Mrs. Margaret
McNaughton, the widow of one of the young men of the party, which now
consisted of some one hundred and fifty persons, has found in the
vicissitudes of their journey overland the material of a well-written
little book,[291] from which we learn that after several adventures,
such as the desertion of their original guide--an accompaniment almost
_obbligato_ to all long expeditions throughout the wilds of British
North America--they came in view of the Rocky Mountains on the 13th of
August, soon after which they entered the great Tte Jaune or Leather
Pass, with which our readers are already well acquainted.

As they were getting short of provisions, and their animals fared even
worse in the mountain fastnesses, where no feed could be found, twenty
of the party, in order to save, if possible, the remaining oxen,
decided to try a route overland indicated to them by some Shushwap
Indians, which was to lead them to the headquarters of the Thompson
River, while the remainder, with the captain of the entire expedition,
entrusted their lives to the treacherous waters of the Fraser.

[Footnote 291: "Overland to Cariboo," Toronto, 1896.]

After various adventures and many a perilous passage, in the course of
which were drowned four of those who had preferred the swift and less
cumbersome canoe to the large unwieldy, but safer, rafts chosen by the
others, they finally reached the Quesnel River on September 11th,
1862, when they disbanded, some proceeding to the goal of their
journey, the Cariboo mines, while others scattered throughout the
country, adopting a variety of pursuits, some taking even to farming.
The smaller party also lost two men on the Thompson, and dispersed on
striking Kamloops. On the morrow of their arrival at that place, the
Irish wife of a German named Schubert, who had accompanied them from
Fort Garry, gave birth to the first white child born in that locality.

An independent band, led by Dr. Symington, which arrived at Tte Jaune
Cache eleven days after the main party, suffered great privations on
its way to the "Golden West," but was helped along by the Shushwaps of
the mountains and the Carriers of Fort George, and, making for the
south, ultimately reached Victoria.

On foot or by raft, such of the McMicking party as hailed from
Queenston had covered very nearly, if not quite, one thousand nine
hundred miles.

A fourth and somewhat later party met with such a tragical fate that
its bitter experiences seem to have deterred others from following in
its wake. It consisted of only five Canadians, namely, three brothers
called Rennie, and two men known respectively as Helstone and Wright,
who similarly repaired to Tte Jaune Cache, where they bought two
canoes for their trip down the Fraser. With a view to greater security
while shooting the rapids, they lashed these together, with the
result--which would have been easily foreseen by less inexperienced
boatmen--that their craft, becoming unmanageable in the midst of the
raging waters of the torrent, was swamped, with the loss of most of
their property. None but two of the Rennie brothers could swim ashore,
while the other three men reached a rock in the middle of the stream,
where they remained for two days and two nights without a morsel of
food and suffering severely from the cold of the opening winter.[292]

When they were at length hauled over by means of a rope thrown to them
from the shore, they were so frostbitten and exhausted that they could
proceed no farther; which seeing, the two Rennies, who had already
spent two days in working out their release from their narrow prison,
provided them with a quantity of firewood, and, having parted in their
favor with almost all that remained of their scanty provisions, they
set out on foot to seek assistance at Fort George, which was not very
far distant. But so little inured were these men to the hardships
incident to the wilds of New Caledonia[293] that it took them
twenty-eight days to cover a distance which they had expected to
traverse in six, and which an Indian could easily make in three.

Natives were then despatched from Fort George to lend assistance to
the unfortunates left behind, who were expected to have slowly
followed the two Rennie brothers, after recuperating a little from
their terrible experience on the lonely rock in the Fraser. But the
Indians soon returned, alleging the depth of the snow as an excuse for
the failure of their journey.

[Footnote 292: "Red River," by J. J. Hargrave, p. 234.]

[Footnote 293: Hardships which were still enhanced by the lack of any
trail, the daily thickening of the snow on the ground, and the
necessity they were at to look to the woods for their means of
subsistence at a time when they had lost the proper weapons to procure
the same.]

"Other Indians, however, discovered the party some time afterwards.
Helstone and Wright were still alive, but, maddened by hunger, had
killed Rennie. When they were found they had eaten all but his legs,
which they held in their hands at the time. They were covered with
blood, being engaged in tearing the raw flesh from the bones with
their teeth. The Indians attempted to light a fire for them, when the
two cannibals drew their revolvers, and looked so wild and savage that
the Indians fled and left them to their fate, not daring to return.

"The following spring a party of miners, on their way to Peace River,
were guided by Indians to the place where these men were seen by them.
The bones of two were found piled in a heap; one skull had been split
open by an axe, and many of the other bones showed the marks of teeth.
The third was missing, but was afterwards discovered a few hundred
yards from the camp. The skull had been cloven by an axe, and the
clothes stripped from the body, which was little decomposed.

"The interpretation of these signs could hardly be mistaken. The last
survivor had killed his fellow-murderer and eaten him, as shown by the
gnawed bones so carefully piled in a heap. He had, in turn, probably
been murdered by Indians, for the principal part of the dead men's
property was found in their possession."[294]

[Footnote 294: "The North-West Passage by Land," by Viscount Milton
and W. B. Cheadle, pp. 237, 238. The joint authors we quote from are
probably right in their last conjecture. In the estimation of the
primitive Dns there were in the world two classes of individuals
unworthy of life, cannibals and madmen. Though members of their family
in the east were sometimes impelled by hunger to eat even their own
relatives, perpetrators of such revolting deeds were never safe
afterwards, especially as it was then current among those tribes that
cannibalism engendered a dangerous appetite for human flesh.]




CHAPTER XX.

_Improvements and Trials._

1862-64.


Turning to less gruesome scenes, we may remark that it would be
neither just nor fair to other pioneers to suppose that the overland
strangers were the only wayfarers whom the thirst for gold led into
the inhospitable wilds of New Caledonia. That very year (1862), two
months before the McMicking expedition put in an appearance at
Quesnel, "Jem Boucher cast up [at Fort St. James] from Alexandria,
along with a party of five miners, _en route_ to Peace River."[295]
This was on the 10th of July, 1862. Exactly a month thereafter another
band of prospectors, bound for the same destination, was camping close
to Fort St. James. In the spring of the following year (1863), about
seventy gold-seekers arrived at Stuart Lake in small detachments,
among whom were two large boat-loads of miners, who, on June 2nd, came
up all the way from Victoria, bound for the Finlay or Peace River.
This last party had been not less than three months and a half on its
way up to the capital of New Caledonia.

[Footnote 295: Fort St. James Journal.]

Surely such indomitable energy and admirable perseverance deserved
some recognition in the shape of help towards greater travelling
facilities. The right man to procure these was then in the right
place. Ever since he had become governor of Vancouver Island, James
Douglas had shown himself to be a great promoter of roads. He went
even so far as to cherish the hope of connecting British Columbia with
Eastern Canada by means of a waggon road, crossing the Rockies in the
vicinity of Kootenay. This project failing, through no fault of his,
he turned his attention towards the "Golden North."

At first it was customary for the miners to outfit at Victoria, and
then make for Lake Douglas by steamer, whence they proceeded along the
Pemberton Portage and the other lakes, on which steamers also plied,
up to Lillooet. They were then forty-seven miles from Clinton. A
waggon road had just been constructed (1861) between the two places by
Gustavus Blin Wright, the great road-builder of the interior, a man of
great energy and daring plans, with whose further ventures we shall
soon become acquainted. It was then decided to connect the terminus of
this highway, Clinton, with Fort Yale, along the forbidding defiles of
the Fraser, and push through the green timber up to the great interior
as far as the Cariboo mines.

A mule trail had already been cut from Yale to Boston Bar, a distance
of twenty-five miles.[296] This was converted, in the course of
1862-63, into a regular waggon road, which was built in three sections
by as many parties. From Boston Bar to Clinton, as many as five
different contractors had the work in hand; and it is a wonder that,
with so many minds at work, the result should have been such a
uniformly perfect piece of engineering that even to-day the traveller
who lazily glides along the banks of the Fraser in the comfortable
cars of the Canadian Pacific Railway cannot help admiring the audacity
and skill displayed in its construction.

[Footnote 296: Mostly along the wall-like slopes of the meandering
gorges, at the bottom of which the furious Fraser hurries its turbid
waters to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean.]

[Illustration: THE CARIBOO WAGGON ROAD.]

Gustavus B. Wright pushed the work through the green timber and the
alkali belts up to Alexandria, which he reached in 1863, and the forty
miles intervening between that place and Quesnel Mouth were also
completed that same year. But it took two years to finish the road up
to Barkerville, in the heart of the diggings.

By this time a considerable settlement had sprung up at the confluence
of the Quesnel with the Fraser, and Barkerville--named after W.
Barker, a lucky miner--was beginning to assume the airs of a town,
with hotels where a not too clean blanket spread on the floor of a
loft did duty as a bedroom; where meals were served for a
consideration of $2.50, though they consisted generally of nothing
else than bacon and beans, unless one chose to add to the bill two
dollars for three eggs and sixteen for a bottle of champagne. As late
as 1864, potatoes sold there at ninety dollars a hundred.

Nay, more, even journalism, that now indispensable adjunct of
civilization, was not slow in penetrating within the wilds of New
Caledonia. In 1865 the "Cariboo Sentinel," a small four-page weekly,
began to appear at Barkerville, and was sold at the moderate price of
one dollar a copy. As the editor, a Mr. Wallace, was at the same time
his own compositor, pressman, advertising agent, publisher and
collector, there can be no doubt that his was a paying undertaking.

The same conditions which were the occasion of such expensive living
in the valleys of the Cariboo produced a diametrically opposite effect
in the vast territory to the north thereof, which for many years to
come was to remain beyond the control of the new powers established at
New Westminster; for even in New Caledonia proper--we mean that part
of the country peopled exclusively by aborigines--economical
conditions were beginning to undergo a change, due to the introduction
in that district of flour and rice, bacon and beans, tea and sugar for
the Indian trade, and to a limited extent for the use of the Hudson's
Bay Company employees as well. So far, only the clerks and higher
officers had known these luxuries at their mess.

To Peter Ogden, the manager of the district at Fort St. James, who had
now been promoted to a Chief Tradership, this happy innovation was
due. His co-operators in New Caledonia, in 1864, were: At Stuart Lake,
his own son, Peter Skene, with Messrs. Webster and Tebbitt; at Fort
Connolly, William Todd; at Fort George, Thomas Charles, and at Fort
McLeod, Ferdinand McKenzie, the three last gentlemen being the only
relics of Manson's personnel. At Fraser Lake ruled J. Moberly, who was
not to remain long faithful to his employers, while at Babine reigned
Gavin Hamilton, and William Manson, a son of the former
superintendent, presided at Alexandria.

It would seem as if the direction of affairs had been deemed open to
criticism or calling for inspection at headquarters, for in the spring
of that year Chief Factor Finlayson arrived at Fraser Lake in company
with Chief Trader Ogden, reaching the capital of New Caledonia on the
3rd of June, 1863. After a three days' stay there, he took passage on
one of the two boats of Davis, a man in the employ of P. Dunlevy, of
whom more remains to be said, as far as Fort George, where, on the
completion of the business which had occasioned his trip to the north,
he took a canoe for Alexandria.

By the side of the boon conferred on the country by its opening to the
commodities of civilization came a terrible curse, which, at the end
of 1862, afflicted the southern part of New Caledonia, and almost
converted it into an immense graveyard. Smallpox, brought up from the
Coast, played havoc among the Chilcotins, decimating them until almost
those parties only who were away in the mountains were left to
represent the tribe. Coming north, the plague next attacked, in
November, 1862, the Southern Carriers stationed in the valley of the
Blackwater, who, flying through the woods crazed with fever and
fright, communicated the contagion to the inhabitants of Peters Lake,
where only eight persons survived. Then it extended its ravages from
Hehn Lake, at the source of Mud River, to St. Mary's and Morice Lakes,
where the immense majority of the natives succumbed. Two small
villages still remain on St. Mary's Lake; but the scourge wiped away
those which existed on the other sheets of water.

At first corpses were hurriedly buried in the fireplaces, where the
ground was free of snow and frost. Then the survivors contented
themselves with throwing down trees on them; but soon the dead had to
be left where they fell, and the natives still relate in their
picturesque language that grouse used to do their wooing on the frozen
breasts of human corpses.

Fortunately, the very violence of the disease, added to the inclemency
of the weather, prevented its spreading farther north, as very soon
any camp attacked thereby became powerless and incapable of exertion,
even of an attempt at flight. Fraser Lake remained untouched by the
plague, and at Stuart Lake the only echo of the calamity was this
mention in the fort's Journal: "Late this evening Mr. Moberly arrived
from Fraser's Lake. He reports all well in that direction, but
apprehends that the natives there will suffer privations, and that
many of them are dying of the smallpox, thus putting those here in an
alarming state and all applying for a second vaccination."[297]

In the face of the new order of things, so suddenly thrust on the
Hudson's Bay Company, one may be tempted to ask what was its attitude.
Writers there are who declare that it was one of latent, but none the
less certain, hostility. Mining and trapping are contradictory terms,
they claim; those pursuits are mutually exclusive and radically
inimical to each other. Therefore the traders were bound to resent
the influx of the gold-seekers.

[Footnote 297: Journal, December 10th, 1862.]

This may have been the case in some parts of the country, but the
Journal of Fort St. James at any rate does not warrant us in crediting
the representatives of the Company in the north with such intolerant
views. The governing minds of the south were, indeed, apprehensive in
the beginning for the steadiness of their own men in presence of the
inducements held out by mining, and they may also have been secretly
adverse to contemplating placidly the threatened destruction of their
supremacy in the country; but their agents at the capital of New
Caledonia at least had no words derogatory to the character of the
strangers or condemnatory of their intrusion. They seemed rather to
bestow a discreet smile of condescension and half-concealed pity on
such as passed their post on their way to the ill-starred Peace River
mines.

They could even afford to hold out to them a helping hand in their
misfortunes, and at times even clerks served them in the capacity of
guides through the woods. "The miners started off this morning with
nine pack-horses and Mr. Hamilton as conductor"[298] is one of the
entries in the Journal of that time; and a week later: "Four
unfortunate miners arrived this morning from the McLeod's Lake road.
They went as far as Salmon River, and in crossing the river in a raft
they lost all their mining tools and provisions."[299] At times the
chroniclers seem even more hopeful than the miners themselves.
"Perrault arrived with all Lon's property on account of bad news from
the mines," we read under date of July 26th, 1863. "However, the mines
may turn out quite the reverse yet, as many are still prospecting down
Finlay's branch. Those returned are broken miners, many of whom never
mined, but gambled for a livelihood."

[Footnote 298: Journal, May 28th, 1863.]

[Footnote 299: _Ibid._, June 6th, 1863.]

The one thing which the Company would not tolerate, and was ever ready
to resent, was the intrusion of free traders within its preserves, and
for this few of those who have studied human nature will be prepared
to blame it. Unfortunately, the influx of miners was so closely
connected with the origin of free trade that at length the one must
have come to be looked upon with suspicion as the immediate cause of
the other. The mining wave came and went, leaving behind the
fur-trader, who, perhaps little successful in his pursuit of gold,
tried his hands at amassing furs.

Sometimes just the reverse happened. The successful miner, having
acquired a certain competency, invested it in a stock of such articles
as are mostly in demand in the Indian trade, and bartered out the same
for furs. Thus did P. Dunlevy, whom we left at Horsefly, and who
started in that line as early as 1861. The Shushwap Indians were his
first customers, and for six years Beaver Lake, to the south-east of
Soda Creek, was his headquarters.

Though he succeeded fairly well, his competition was, on account of
distance, hardly as much felt, or at least his presence as
objectionable, as that of two retired miners, Peter Toy and Ezra
Evans, accompanied at first by a third partner, who established a
store at the village of Pinche, barely thirteen miles from Fort St.
James. As a matter of course, from that day forth all the energies of
the Hudson's Bay Company's people were concentrated towards one single
object--to drive the audacious intruders out of the country. To that
effect a clerk, G. Hamilton, with two laborers left on October 15th to
erect an outpost, or guard-house, as they called it, to counterbalance
the action of the opposition traders. The site of the new post was
admirably well chosen. The hunting-grounds of all the Pinche Indians
lying to the east of Lake Stuart, they had to pass the Company's
guard-house, situated on Rey Lake, five miles to the east of Pinche,
when their furs could easily be intercepted.

So far, good and well. But here our sympathy with the old Company must
cease. Instead of confining themselves to strictly honorable means of
competition, its agents did not scruple to stoop to measures which are
every way reprehensible. Their journals are very reticent about such
methods; but there is yet at Stuart Lake an abundance of
eye-witnesses, and even one of the guilty parties, through whom their
conduct can easily be ascertained.

We read in the Fort St. James Journal, under date December 16th, 1865:
"Jem Boucher with Desmarais off to Pinche with liquor for Mr. Hamilton
and Peter Toy." Three days later the return is announced of the party,
accompanied by G. Hamilton and Jas. Bird, a kind of postmaster set
over the guard-house on Rey Lake. Two more days elapse, when it is
remarked that "Grosse-Tte," one of [']Kwah's sons, "is at the fort in
a good state of mind." And on the morrow we see that Hamilton and
Bird, who had returned to Pinche, arrived from that place with "all
the Pinche Indians in their train."

This is innocent enough. But what were the real facts? A keg of liquor
had been taken to Pinche expressly for the Indian trade. This, on
reaching its destination, was, by the addition of water, converted
into two kegs and immediately sold out to the Indians. Anybody, man or
woman, would bring a marten and receive in return a bottle of the
exhilarating beverage. The original supply soon failing, Bird was
dispatched for another keg, which went off as quickly as the first.
All the furs available being now in Hamilton's possession, he returned
to the fort with J. Boucher and Bird, followed by all the Indians,
who were endeavoring to proceed to a feast, to which they had been
invited by their tribesmen near the outlet of the lake. But such was
their state of intoxication that they could make but six miles during
the whole day. As they were camped for the night, another keg of
liquor was brought them from Fort St. James and immediately traded
out. So that when they did get to the fort, men, women and children
were, like Grosse-Tte, "in a good state of mind," though hardly able
to stand or walk.

As to Peter Toy himself, if we are to credit the natives, he never
resorted to so dishonorable means (perhaps because he never was in a
position to do so), and of course, after a time he had to give up the
contest.[300] One of his original partners, a certain W. Cust, took it
up himself at Fort George, and managed to eke out a living there for a
few years.

But perhaps the most galling to the Hudson's Bay Company of all such
ventures was when their own men profited by the knowledge acquired in
the service of the real gains realized in the fur trade to sever their
connection with the great corporation and set up themselves opposition
stores. This J. Moberly did, and others have done after him, only to
find out the error of their ways. Even at this late date, we can well
imagine the smile of satisfaction which illuminated the countenance of
the scribe as he wrote on the 16th of June, 1865: "Mr. Moberly arrived
from Fraser's Lake, who has given all his furs to the Hudson's Bay
Company, and leaves the country with a debt of about two thousand
dollars--$2,000."

[Footnote 300: That trader is the same of whom Gen. Butler speaks as
being a Cornish miner ("The Wild North Land," p. 288; "Far Out," p.
64, _et seq._).]




CHAPTER XXI.

_From Chilcotin to Omineca._

1864-1871.


So inviting were the gold-fields of Cariboo that it was thought one
could not make them too accessible. Some were for following
Mackenzie's route and cutting a trail from Bentinck Arm to the Upper
Fraser, and a party of Royal Engineers was even sent to examine and
report on it. A more numerous faction agreed with Mr. Alfred
Waddington, who, almost since the inception of the mining operations,
had protested that the advantages of a public highway through Bute
Inlet were incomparably superior. This route, he claimed, would render
that journey 175 miles shorter than by the Fraser River valley. His
intention was to establish regular steam communications between
Victoria and the head of that inlet, and thence build a waggon road up
the Humalhkhoh River, through the Chilcotin territory, whose
exceptional resources in agricultural and grazing land would thus be
opened to the settler.[301] So sanguine was he of success that, even
after the Fraser River route had been adopted, he organized a private
company and, early in 1864, sent a force of sixteen men to battle
against the innumerable difficulties presented by the Coast range of
mountains and force their way through the forbidding gorges, where
rocks thousands of feet high towering over roaring torrents, by the
side of glittering glaciers and perpetual snows, seemed a constant
menace to the lives of the road-makers.

[Footnote 301: If we are to credit Fred. Whymper, A. Waddington was
the first to publicly advocate the expediency of a transcontinental
railway to unite British Columbia with the eastern provinces. That
gentleman duly explained his scheme before the Royal Geographical
Society, and his proposition received some amount of attention in the
public press of Canada, though it was generally branded as premature.]

Yet, great as the difficulties presented by nature undoubtedly were,
those arising from the restlessness of the inhabitants of those wilds
were even more formidable, as the strangers learned at their own
expense. We have had more than once to refer to the turbulent
character of the Chilcotin Indians. So late as 1864, their appearance
and costume did not betray much contact with representatives of
European civilization, and in the absence of all missionary influence
their inner self had undoubtedly remained even more refractory to
humane ideas. A traveller thus describes a small band of them he met
at Bute Inlet:

"They had rings through their noses, were much painted, and wore the
inevitable blanket of the Coast. For the rest, there was nothing very
characteristic in their costume, some having a shirt without breeches,
some breeches without a shirt. Two of them were picturesque with their
wolf-skin robes, hair turned inwards, and the other side adorned with
fringes of tails derived from marten or squirrel."[302]

[Footnote 302: "Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska," by
Fred. Whymper, London, 1868, p. 19.]

On the 29th of April, 1864, two of these savages, hungry and tired out
after a vain ramble through the mountains, asked for something to eat
of a Jim Smith, who had been left in charge of some provisions and was
keeping the ferry on the Humalhkhoh. Their request having met with a
haughty refusal, aggravated by insulting epithets, the younger man,
enraged at such a reception at a time when he was so needy, shot his
insulter, and, hastening with his companion to a camp of Indians, told
them of the words and fate of the ferryman, and the whole band
transported themselves to the night quarters of the road-makers. Then,
very early in the morning of the 30th, they fell on the sleeping
workmen, on whom they dropped their tents, and, by firing at them and
running knives or launching axes into their bodies, killed fourteen of
them. "One of the survivors, Petersen, a Dane,...hearing the shots,
jumped out of his blankets and was immediately struck at by an Indian
with an axe; he stepped aside just to see it fall heavily on the
ground, and a few seconds after this was shot in the arm. Faint, and
bleeding copiously, he plunged into the river by, and its swift waters
carried him down half a mile over the stones and snags, bruising him
much. He managed to reach the bank, and was soon after rejoined by
Mosley, a man who had escaped almost unhurt.... The third man,
Buckley, an Irishman, who afterwards joined them, had been stabbed
repeatedly by the Chilcotins, and fell, faint from the loss of blood,
remaining unconscious for hours, and they left him, imagining he was
dead."[303]

These men, after various adventures, eventually reached the Coast,
when they repaired to Nanaimo and Victoria, where they told the
melancholy news of the fate of their companions.

[Footnote 303: "Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska," by
Fred. Whymper, London, 1868, p. 19.]

Three weeks after the Humalhkhoh massacre some men under a Mr.
McDonald, hailing from Bentinck Arm, with a pack-train of forty-two
loaded animals, met with a similar fate, only one of them escaping
unhurt, though some of them died game, as, for instance, the leader,
whose horse having been shot under him, mounted another, which was
also shot down, when he took to the bush and, standing behind a tree,
kept the Indians at bay, firing at them with his revolver until he
fell bathed in his blood.

The total number of the Chilcotins' victims was eighteen, including
the squaw of McDougall, one of the party, who had, but too late,
apprised the whites of the fate that was in store for them.

"The Indian is to-day very little understood," wrote an author almost
forty years ago. We may add, in our own name, that he has remained so
to most readers. It stands to reason that the Chilcotins, who, in
spite of their undoubted restlessness, had not once attempted the
lives of the traders at Alexandria, and even at the fort built in
their very midst, whose "garrison" was always ridiculously weak, must
have had some motive in going to such extremities. The rebuke
administered by the ferryman was but the spark which lighted the fire
of discontent which for some time had been smouldering in their
breasts. That plunder was not their aim is evident from the fact that,
eight years after the massacre, the tools and belongings of their
victims were found in the identical spots where they had been left.
The murderers' reasons were made apparent through private information
which found its way into the startled communities at Victoria and New
Westminster, only to be indignantly repudiated by A. Waddington in a
letter to the _British Colonist_.[304] That gentleman did not deny
that the trifling of the whites with the Chilcotin women was one of
the main causes of the disaster, though he gallantly exculpated his
own men from any such guilt. Then, publicly defying contradiction, he
asked:

"Is it true or not that, the year before last, Lieut. Palmer or his
sergeant, on their way through to Alexandria, broke through some
well-known Indian usage, and that Lieut. Palmer knocked down the son
of the second chief of the tribe, who resented it, and that Lieut.
Palmer then threatened to shoot him, on which the young man returned
with fifty armed Indians, bared his breast, and dared him to do so?
The Indians were too powerful, and Lieut. Palmer desisted; but surely
that affront has never been forgiven."

[Footnote 304: June 13th, 1864. Dr. Grant in his "Ocean to Ocean,"
admits (p. 326) that "provocation had been given them."]

He then states that, about the same time, the whites brought the
smallpox to Bella-Coola, whence it spread to Nakuntlun, then the
principal settlement of the Chilcotins, killing one-third of the whole
tribe.[305] "I myself saw the graves of perhaps five hundred Indians,"
declares the writer, who adds that, shortly after, two white men,
Angus McLeod and a certain Taylor, went and stealthily gathered the
blankets of the dead which had been thrown away in the bush, and were
therefore infested with smallpox, which they sold out again to the
Indians without revealing their origin, thus causing a second
visitation of the plague, which carried off the second third of the
native population, whereupon he pointedly exclaims: "Is it to be
supposed that such diabolical deeds did not arouse the hatred of the
Indians?"

But the harm was done, and the question now was to prevent a
repetition of its consequences by meting out adequate retribution to
the murderers. A reward of two hundred and fifty dollars was offered
for the apprehension of any of them; but it was evident that without
concerted action under the auspices of the colonial government itself
no satisfactory result could reasonably be expected. Therefore
military expeditions were fitted out in different places.

[Footnote 305: This is the first visitation of the plague mentioned in
our last chapter.]

On June 13th volunteers from New Westminster arrived at Victoria,
where they were joined by a goodly contingent raised in the latter
place. Governor Seymour, who had just succeeded Douglas, freshly
knighted (1863), put himself at the head of that force, and left two
days later by the _Sutlej_ for Bentinck Arm, where he took as allies
some thirty or forty of the Bella-Coola Indians. Meanwhile forty
miners from Cariboo had formed themselves into a posse under the
leadership of Judge Cox, an eccentric character, and, soon joined by
still another party headed by our old acquaintance, D. McLean, whom
the perspective of Indian slaughter had brought from his retreat on
the Bonaparte, had already transported themselves in the midst of the
hostile district before Seymour's forces came up.

Cox's party, now numbering sixty-five men, had just camped at a place
which seemed to have been occupied but lately by the Chilcotins. In
the morning of July 17th, McLean, who pooh-poohed all warnings of
danger and declared to whites and Indians that "when the Chilcotins
would see him they would bend down their heads and he would kill them
with a club," went on reconnoitring in company of a single Indian,
Jack, of Alexandria. After having crossed a prairie where they were
the observed of several pairs of unfriendly eyes, they climbed a rocky
hill, the top of which they were just nearing when Jack thought that
he heard a gun snap.

"Pshaw!" contemptuously exclaimed McLean, in answer to the Indian's
remark, "they would not shoot us. They are too much afraid of me."

He had scarcely finished the sentence when he fell dead, shot by
Anukatlh, a Chilcotin, who was never apprehended,[306] so that the
death of him who had ill-treated and slain so many natives remained
unavenged.

On the very evening of the day when he was executed--for his slayer
afterwards declared that he had killed him as a punishment for his
harshness to the Indians, but had spared Jack because he was guilty of
no crime--Seymour's volunteers effected their junction with Cox's
party, and the combined force now numbered some two hundred men.

For about a month the search after the murderers was carried on
without result. Little by little, however, the Chilcotins came to
trade with Cox's men, and near the middle of August it became noised
about that some of the suspected murderers had come to the camp of
Alexis, one of the native chiefs. Cox immediately dispatched one of
his most trusty Indians to induce them to surrender, pledging his word
of honor that, as they had acted under provocation and in ignorance of
the white men's laws, their lives would be spared, and if they would
promise henceforth to behave well they might even receive presents.

The pursuit of the murderers in the inaccessible retreats, where they
had taken refuge, independently of the great cost it entailed,[307]
was becoming more and more hopeless on account of the difficulty of
victualling the pursuers, and there was hardly any prospect of
capturing "anything but mosquitoes," as a paper of the time put it.
Hence the expediency of asking the guilty parties to surrender.

[Footnote 306: He died scarcely three years ago.]

[Footnote 307: The expedition cost the country 16,000.]

Somewhat skeptical as to the worth of the stranger's words, the
Chilcotins, eight in number, sent, on the 15th of August, "one of
their slaves to Mr. Cox's camp to ascertain the terms of surrender.
Cox packed the slave with a sack of flour and other articles, and sent
a message to the effect that they desired to make friends with them,
and invited them into the camp. About noon of the same day Tellot [the
principal man wanted], with his party, accompanied by their families,
came into camp and found to their surprise that they were surrounded
by armed men, who informed them that they were prisoners, and ordered
them to lay down their arms. All, with the exception of Tellot,
complied, but he grasped his musket by the muzzle and smashed it into
atoms against a tree, and drawing his knife dashed it on the ground,
and coolly folding his arms across his breast, invited them to shoot
him, remarking with scorn depicted on his countenance, that "'King
George' men were great liars."[308]

The eight Chilcotins were immediately taken to Quesnel, where they
underwent a regular trial. Two of them being retained by the Crown as
witnesses, five were found guilty of murder, and hanged in the
presence of a great concourse of Indians convoked (and some of them
paid) for the circumstance, while the eighth was sentenced to
imprisonment for life, but escaped on his way down.

Most of the murderers were never caught, and Waddington's road, which
in preparatory surveys and actual work had already cost $60,000, had
to be abandoned.

[Footnote 308: _The British Colonist_, September, 1864, after the New
Westminster _Columbian_. It would seem that Cox was in good faith when
he made his promises to the Chilcotins, but that these were
disregarded by the Colonial Government.]

The Carriers were more fortunate or behaved better in their first
serious encounter with the whites. Since twenty years or more it had
been felt that quicker communications between the Old and the New
Worlds than those afforded by the mail packets were very much wanted.
An American of great initiative, Cyrus Field, had repeatedly attempted
to supply that want through his then novel plan of a trans-Atlantic
cable; but nature and fate had so far baffled his efforts. Deeming
his undertaking doomed to failure, the Americans had resolved to unite
the two hemispheres by means of a telegraph line traversing the
mainland of British Columbia and the Russian possessions--now
Alaska--whence the wire would be laid down Behring Straits across to
north-eastern Asia.

To that effect some financiers formed a company called the Western
Union Telegraph Company, which had the line through British Columbia
surveyed in 1865, while the actual building work thereon commenced
only in the spring of the following year, under the direction of Mr.
Edward Conway. Colonel Bulkley was one of the directing minds of the
company, and his name was given to the important river which flows
into the Skeena some one hundred and sixty miles from its mouth.

In September, 1866, the building party had reached a point forty miles
north of the Kispiooks River, when news was received to the effect
that Cyrus Field had at length been successful in laying his cable
across the Atlantic Ocean. This, however, did not entirely stop the
proceedings. It was felt that after a time the wire might refuse to
work, as had happened on a previous occasion. Exploring went on during
the winter months until the brook now called Telegraph Creek was
reached, when it became evident that the enterprising American's
success was destined to be permanent.

The efforts of the Western Union Telegraph Company were thus rendered
abortive. The undertaking was not, however, to remain entirely without
results. We have already seen that as early as 1862-63 the mining
wave, whose centre was the mountains of Cariboo, had surged about
until it had reached the region immediately to the east of Fort St.
James, which was already beginning to be called Omineca, after one of
the tributaries of the Finlay, the Omoen River.[309] While
prospecting for the telegraph line, some of the men had heard of the
isolated mines back of Stuart Lake, which were as yet undeveloped,
and, upon the breaking up of the party, they turned their attention to
the search after the precious metal. Among them was a French Canadian
named Vital Laforce, who soon struck rich pay on a creek which is now
called after him.

The success of the new miners could not long be kept secret. Indeed,
the very mystery with which some of them tried to surround their
operations added zest to the ardor with which the Cariboo miners and
others endeavored to investigate for themselves. In a short time, the
Stuart and Skeena Rivers were dotted with boats and canoes full of
prospectors. Henceforth, in the Fort St. James' Journal, which at that
time is extremely dull and laconic, we hear of nothing but the arrival
or departure of such gentlemen as Dancing Bill, Black Jack, Dutch
Harry, Red Alick and French Franck.

The Stuart Lake route led them to Fort St. James, whence they
originally went to Lake Tatla by way of Thache and Middle Rivers. From
Tatla Lake they plunged into the endless groups of mountains at the
base of which flowed the creeks Vital, Manson, and Germansen, which
rolled their noisy waters over the yellow dust. The miners hailing
from the Skeena had to cross the Babine mountains onto the lake of the
same name, as far as a bay some thirty miles south of the fort, whence
G. B. Wright had built a waggon road, over which was carted the
freight which Pat. Hickey and others brought in large boats.

[Footnote 309: Omoene-khah, in Sekanais--_khah_ stands for river.
Bancroft sagely remarks, after an Hudson's Bay Company man, that it is
called "after a species of whortleberry growing there and forming a
staple article of food of the Indians!" Omoene-khah is a Sekanais word
which means "lake-like or sluggish river."]

This was in 1869-70. The following year the Omineca mines saw their
best days, though the country never fully justified the expectations
entertained by the miners accustomed to the fabulous yields of
Williams and other creeks. It is estimated that $400,000 was obtained
during that year by about 1,200 people. So great, indeed, were the
anticipations of some people, prominent among whom was G. B. Wright,
that, despite the formidable difficulties opposed to navigation in the
shape of bars and rapids in the rivers, a steamer--well named
_Enterprise_--was built and, after incredible hardships, brought up to
Fort St. James, in front of which she arrived on Sunday, 6th August,
1871. She was designed to ply between that place and Tatla Landing,
but once she had gone north she never returned to Stuart Lake, as a
direct trail to the diggings had just been cut, which was immediately
adopted by the miners. Mr. Edgar Dewdney was the gentleman whom the
gold-seekers had to thank for the trail leading from Stuart Lake to
Omineca. He cut it in 1871, and in the same year Captain William Moore
rendered a similar service to the same class of men by improving an
old Indian trail from Hazelton, on the Skeena, to Babine.




CHAPTER XXII.

_Some of the Later Pioneers._


In the midst of this influx of strangers, so near its doors, what
became of the Hudson's Bay Company? The old corporation fared
tolerably well, though its wards, the Indians, were getting sadly
demoralized in more ways than one. Slowly, but surely, the young town
of Quesnel was assuming the airs of a rival to the post of Fort St.
James, whose commercial supremacy was seriously threatened. The
Company had not, it is true, been slow in founding an establishment at
the new place; yet Peter Ogden did not relish the idea of seeing his
Indians go and trade at the southern post, especially when the guilty
parties were such influential men as the very Chief of the village
nearest to him, whose principal function, he thought, should have been
to keep his people loyal to the local representatives of the Company.
Some entries of his journal betray that secret jealousy, as, for
instance, the following: "Prince (the Chief) made an appearance,
seeming no better for his trip to the promised paradise of
Quesnelle."[310]

Meanwhile, things were fairly lively in his own vicinity. A saloon,
that unavoidable token of that which some call civilization, had been
erected, wherein the fort chronicle says that "grand
entertainments"--and something else--were given. To offset the usual
effects of the kind of goods plentifully supplied in said
institution, two gentlemen, Peter O'Reilly and W. H. Fitzgerald, were
acting as the representatives of the Colonial Government. In a new
country, among aborigines whose language they did not understand and
whites who only too often imagined that they were above every law
because they had crossed the limits of civilization, their path was
full of thorns, and mistakes were to be expected, especially in cases
where Indians were concerned.

[Footnote 310: July 10th, 1867.]

In the latter part of November, 1871, one of the lesser chiefs of
Babine Lake had bought a sack of flour of a Mr. Nelson, with a view to
publicly distribute its contents to his fellow-villagers. When the
whole crowd had assembled in his lodge, it was found that the sack
contained nothing else than ashes. Indignant at the mean trick played
on them, the Indians sent two of those who knew a few words of English
to recover the flour, which had been paid for. As the trader would not
accede to their demand, they helped themselves to the article they
considered theirs, after which they had their promised "potlatch."

A few days later, Judge O'Reilly happened to pass by. The white man
laid a complaint before him, and, as no interpreter could be found,
Choennih, the Indian who had taken the sack of flour, was condemned to
six months' hard labor and sent to Victoria.

Accompanied by three armed white men, two of whom preceded him in the
narrow trail, Choennih sullenly went on, wondering at the kind of
justice the white chief was dispensing, when, having managed to
disengage his hands from the irons that bound them, he sent the two
first guards rolling down a precipitous hill, where the third man soon
rejoined them. A few minutes after, he was out of sight, a free man
again.

A regular mail service was also established, in connection wherewith
R. Sylvester and a certain Brick won golden opinions for their
efficiency as public servants. The end of that same year, 1871, saw
also the first Canadian Pacific Railway survey through the district,
under the direction of Mr. Charles Horetzky.

Peter Ogden, the ruler of New Caledonia, did not live to see the glory
of those days. He died on the 9th of October, 1870, after having held
the reins of power since 1856, with the exception of the outfit of
1868-69, when James A. Grahame replaced him, as the wisdom of his
administration seemed open to question.

At the time of Ogden's demise there were in the district three
commissioned officers, namely, Messrs. H. Moffat, Wm. Manson, and
Thomas Charles. All believed that Mr. Moffat was a superior man, well
fitted to take charge of the district. The authorities of Fort Garry
thought otherwise, and Mr. Gavin Hamilton, heretofore a simple clerk,
was at once promoted to a Factorship and entrusted with the direction
of affairs; whereupon the above-mentioned gentlemen sent in their
resignation.

G. Hamilton had the advantage of being very well connected. His
grandmother was a near relative of Lord Macaulay, the historian, and
by his maternal side he was a nephew of Dr. J. Rae, the explorer,
while one of his cousins was Sir Robert Hamilton, at one time Governor
of Tasmania. He was born on January 1st, 1835, at Stromness, in the
Orkney Islands, and having signed a five years' apprenticeship to the
Hudson's Bay Company, he sailed for America on the 17th of August,
1852, and landed at Victoria in January of the following year.

His first station was Fort Langley, where he served under J. M. Yale,
"a fine specimen of a trader, though a very diminutive man," as
Hamilton wrote many years after. From the start Hamilton knew how to
win the hearts of the natives with whom he came into contact, and
even the worst among them took kindly to him. Yet he resigned in
August, 1857, but was persuaded by Chief Trader Ogden to stay in the
service and accompany him up to Stuart Lake.

To show the wonderful fearlessness of the man, we may mention that in
1855 he saved from a burning store-house seventy or one hundred
barrels of gunpowder, with the assistance of men whom he rallied after
the first shock of fright and buoyed up until the end of the terrible
ordeal. For this feat he received a premium of 100, and his men were
also proportionately rewarded.

G. Hamilton, who had married Peter Ogden's daughter, seems to have
always taken kindly to the Indians, and this goes a long way to
explain his success among them. He was also possessed of some
knowledge of medicine, and soon became renowned for his surgical
skill, a circumstance which added not a little to his popularity among
his dusky wards.

He was moreover constantly friendly to the miners, whose goods and
working implements he would store without caring for the construction
his superiors in Victoria would put on his action. It is only natural
to suppose, however, that his kindness did not extend to his
opponents, the free traders.

One of these, P. Dunlevy, we have already seen tempting fortune among
the Shushwaps who resorted to Beaver Lake to barter their furs for the
white man's goods. Ambitious to extend his operations and augment his
gains, he dispatched, in 1870, a boat loaded with sundry articles for
the Indian trade up the Fraser, Nechaco and Stuart Rivers. Three years
later, yearning for even greater laurels, he inaugurated his annual
trips through the Peace River district, passing through the McLeod
Lake region, which had never known the sweets of commercial
competition. To further his ends, he established a post at Giscome
Portage, a section of land named after a man he had for some time in
his employ as cook. Outposts farther down towards the Peace were
similarly established until, despite the proverbial loyalty of the
Sekanais Indians to the Hudson's Bay Company, he accumulated quite a
competency, some of which, however, he subsequently lost through no
fault of his.

For some years he had sent as his agent through the wilds of the north
a man whose nickname of "Twelve-foot Davis" was due to his having
"jumped," or irregularly acquired, a plot of land 12 feet wide which
ultimately yielded its owner $1,000 per foot. Davis's luck, however,
does not seem to have rendered him either rich or honest, since, after
having been several years in Dunlevy's employ, he went north with a
load worth $20,000, crossed therewith the Rocky Mountains, sold out
the goods to the Indians, and never returned to deliver the furs he
had received as their equivalent.

A little incident is still related by Peter Dunlevy which illustrates
both the straits sometimes forced on people whose abilities fitted
them for posts far above the estate of a miner, and the rapacity of
certain Indians who seemed determined to make the most they could of
the new circumstances thrown upon them.

After the first rush to the Omineca gold-fields, he was going up to
Manson Creek in company with E. Dewdney,[311] who then filled some
official position in connection with the colonial administration of
the district. While Dunlevy attended to the horses, Dewdney had to do
the cooking. Unfortunately, the latter was absent-minded enough to
leave, more than once, the matches of the little party so near the
fire that finally, when they arrived at Tsinkoet or Head Lake, none
of that humble, but none the less important, article was left. In this
predicament it was decided that Dunlevy was to go on until he could
find some Indians and get from them a new supply of that commodity.

[Footnote 311: Afterwards Lieut.-Governor of British Columbia.]

Arrived at the bridge erected on Stony Creek by the telegraph building
party, he was met by an Indian who, throwing up his hands in a
forbidding way, bade him pay for the use of the bridge.

"But it does not belong to you, and you did not build it," argued
Dunlevy.

"No; but I keep it in repairs," answered the native.

"How much do you want?"

"Half a dollar."

To save himself trouble and ingratiate himself with the dusky native,
from whom he expected to get the much needed matches, the white man
paid his toll. Then he asked for the object of his mission, remarking
at the same time that he was but the fore-runner of a great man, a big
_taye_, who must be well treated and was shortly to make his
appearance.

As they were parleying, Dewdney came on, but was immediately stopped
by the Indian, who required the customary payment for the right to
pass over the bridge.

"How much do you want?" queried the mystified official.

"One dollar," answered Mr. Indian.

Turning to his companion, Dewdney asked:

"How much did you pay yourself?"

"Fifty cents."

Then to the Indian:

"How is it," he said, "that you ask of me double of what that man
paid?"

"Oh! your companion is a 'cultus'[312] man, while I know that you are
a chief," answered the native.

[Footnote 312: _i.e._, common, plebeian.]

Thus it was that Dunlevy's intentionally good offices turned to the
detriment of him on behalf of whom they had been preferred. Dewdney
mildly avenged himself on his companion by representing him as a great
doctor, which little trick caused Dunlevy to be daily besieged by
crowds of natives, whom he generally cured with no more dangerous
prescriptions than copious draughts of Hamburg tea.

Even more successful than Peter Dunlevy was another pioneer whom the
gold fever likewise brought up to Cariboo, namely, James Reid, the
amiable gentleman who lately represented the interests of that
district in the Dominion Senate. Plucky and dauntless from the start,
he ascended, by dint of sheer perseverance and the exercise of sound
judgment, all the rounds of the social ladder, until he occupied the
very top of it in the country of his adoption.

Born in August, 1839, in Hull, Province of Quebec, he came, when
barely twenty-three, to Victoria, where he arrived on the 20th of
April, 1862, with P. Hickey, another pioneer who left his mark in the
annals of the district. In the fall of the same year we find him at
Quesnel, then composed of a single cabin. Thence he proceeded to the
gold-fields of Barkerville and vicinity, where for some time he found
fortune rather spare of her smiles. Living was then exceedingly
costly, and fabulous prices had to be paid for the most essential
commodities of civilized life. The late senator long remembered having
eagerly seized a damaged sack of flour, for which he paid the modest
sum of $62.50 and went away exulting over the good bargain he had
struck.

Such onerous conditions are not conducive to contentment, nor will
they lead to a prolonged stay, unless they are accompanied by a
corresponding luck in one's search after the precious metal. No
wonder, then, if shortly after we see young Reid working in the humble
capacity of assistant on a farm in the Lillooet district.

A little incident, unimportant enough in itself, exemplifies the
daring of the young man and his stubbornness against adversity, at the
same time as it gives us a clue to the reason of his ultimate success.
Out of a job owing to the return on the farm of the man he had
momentarily replaced, he was asked to help in driving from the
150-Mile House, on the waggon road, a band of cattle destined for the
miners. Reid was without a horse, and did not even possess a whip.
Nevertheless he boldly stationed himself in the very midst of the
animals, some of which were bound to be more or less vicious and
therefore dangerous to a man on foot and armed with only a stick. Yet
he did not leave his post until he reached Barkerville. So unmindful
of danger was he that he thought he had accomplished the most ordinary
task, and it was not until some years after, when he was nearly gored
to death by an unruly ox, that he realized the reasons for the
encomiums he had received at the end of his memorable drive.

Mining remained, however, his favorite pursuit. For fully seven years
he followed it without tangible results until 1868, when, feeling
unwell and broken down, he was offered and accepted the agency at
Barkerville of the Barnard Stage Company. The savings he was thus
enabled to accumulate permitted him to invest some money in a claim
which, in 1869, commenced to yield very satisfactory returns. Other
ventures followed which proved equally successful. Among these we must
mention the establishment of a store, to which he was led by a
merchant offering him at a loss certain deteriorated articles which
the latter could not sell. This line of business was entered into in
1873, and by means of judicious investments and additions to his
stock Mr. Reid easily came to possess the most complete store in
Quesnel.

In spite of his now assured prosperity he remained the same unassuming
gentleman people had but a few years before seen pursuing the most
arduous paths. When, therefore, a vacancy occurred in the Dominion
Parliament, caused by the death of the previous member for Cariboo,
Reid easily conquered the suffrages of his fellow-miners and others in
the north, and was elected in 1881. At the next general elections, the
acclamation of his constituents told of his success as a Member, and
finally, in October, 1888, his political future was assured by his
being raised to the rank of a Senator.

When he died on the 3rd of May, 1904, regretted alike by political
foes and friends, he was possessed of a snug fortune, which he had
amassed without ever catering to the appetite for strong drink
generally so prevalent in a new country, where the gentler sex is
hardly represented, and where too many see in the saloon the most
unfailing stepping-stone to prosperity. In his case, as in that of
many others, _labor improbus omnia vincit_, it is owing to sheer labor
and the display of untiring energy that his undertakings have been
crowned with success.

Returning to Stuart Lake, we may chronicle the arrival, in 1876, of a
young man belonging to an old Hudson's Bay Company family, Alexander
Campbell Murray, who was to become the superintendent of New Caledonia
at a time when the glory of that district would be mostly a thing of
the past. A. C. Murray was born in 1859 and is to-day in charge of
Fort St. James, where he follows, within a more limited territory, the
traditions of enterprise and honest activity of his predecessors.

[Illustration: HON. SENATOR JAMES REID.]




CHAPTER XXIII.

_Laudetur Jesus Christus!_

1861-1880.


While earthly goods were thus eagerly sought after, the more important
interests of the soul were not overlooked. Ever since 1861 Anglican
clergymen visited their Cariboo co-religionists every summer until the
fall of 1869, when a church was built by the same at Barkerville and
consecrated under the vocable of St. Saviour. Its first incumbent was
the Rev. Mr. Reynard, who was appointed by Bishop Hills. The former
gentleman attended at the same time to the spiritual wants of the
inhabitants of Quesnel belonging to his denomination. To judge from
the parish registers, the first years of that mission were not without
success. But the efforts of the gentlemen in charge of it were always
restricted to the white population, and to this day there has never
been a Protestant Indian within the limits of New Caledonia.

As to the Catholic missions in the district, we have already seen that
they date back from 1842, but were interrupted in 1847. With the
exception of the accidental visit of Brother Antoine, a sort of lay
reader, who passed some time at Stuart Lake in the early sixties,
nothing could be done for the northern missionary fields until 1861,
when the mainland part of the province, or that part which was then
exclusively called British Columbia (by contradistinction to
Vancouver Island, which formed a separate colony), having been
entrusted to the care of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate,[313] the Rev.
Charles Grandidier was sent to visit the Cariboo miners, as well as
the Indians of the different villages he would find on his way up.

This was no light task, as most of the journey had to be made on foot
and in the midst of all kinds of privations. Leaving Fort Hope on the
3rd of July, 1861, he went up by way of Douglas and Lillooet, where he
had some difficulty in obtaining the ear of the natives, who, though
first ministered to by a representative of his own Church, had just
been prejudiced against it by a Protestant minister. From Quesnel he
went to Antler Creek, William's Creek, etc., meeting with some
recognition among the French and Irish miners toiling there, though
his missionary services hardly obtained as satisfactory results as he
had expected. Even at Alexandria his ministrations did not seem much
in demand, but for a quite different cause. The natives, having heard
that his visit was to be of short duration, treated him with studied
coolness, thinking thus to force him into fixing his residence in
their midst. There he realized the terrible ravages of fire-water and
profligacy among the aborigines.

Three years later, the Rev. Father L. Fouquet followed in his
footsteps, though with less difficulty, as he had the advantage, as
far as Quesnel, of the newly-built waggon road. He had been instructed
to spy out the land, with a view to establish a permanent mission in
the north, and he reported favorably on Quesnel; but the valley of the
San Jose, or William's Lake, was ultimately chosen as the most
propitious spot for that purpose. Father Fouquet's ministrations,
though not meeting with all the encouragement they deserved, seem to
have been more acceptable to the Catholic population of Cariboo.

[Footnote 313: O.M.I.; founded in 1816, at Aix, France, by C. J. E. de
Mazenod, afterwards Bishop of Marseilles. As is his wont in such
cases, Bancroft converts them all into Jesuits ("History of British
Columbia," p. 718).]

His journey was especially remarkable for having been the occasion of
the first visit of a minister of the gospel to the land of the
Chilcotins.[314] Unhappily, he could see nothing but their land, and
after four days' travelling he had to return to Alexandria without
having met one of the natives. Yet, that tribe must have heard of his
advances as, when those of its members who were responsible for the
Waddington massacre had been condemned to death, they unanimously
begged for his services previous to being executed; but the letter
containing their request--which had been entrusted to a Protestant
clergyman--reached him too late for him to act accordingly.

The glory of being the first missionary to that tribe was reserved for
the Rev. J. M. McGuckin, a young priest who was also entrusted with
the task of establishing St. Joseph's Mission, near William's Lake.
Thence he would go and stay for a number of months at Richfield, among
the Cariboo mountains, where the Catholics had erected a church, with
adjoining apartments for the priest.

In the meantime, the Indians of northern New Caledonia were clamoring
for the visit of a Catholic missionary.

[Footnote 314: In his Journal, written eleven years after the
occurrences it relates, Father J. Nobili, whom we have seen walking in
the footsteps of Rev. M. Demers, says: "The 24th October [1845], I
visited the village of the Chilcotins. The mission lasted twelve
days," etc. ("Western Missions and Missionaries," p. 514). The
substitution of Chilcotins for Babines is a remarkable slip of the
pen, which, however, can hardly mislead the careful reader, as both
the dates mentioned and the statistics produced by the missionary make
it evident that he had no intention to claim any practical
acquaintance with the Chilcotin tribe. He estimates at 1,190 the
number of the Indians who resorted to Fort Babine, and, exclusive of
the Chilcotins, whom he does not enumerate, he puts down at 4,138 the
native population of New Caledonia in 1845, quite a difference from
Anderson's total of 2,627, which comprised 600 Chilcotins.]

Left to themselves for twenty years, they had not, in spite of the
numberless irregularities which, as a matter of course, had cropped up
amongst them, forgotten their pioneer priests, Fathers Demers and
Nobili, nor had they altogether forsaken the practices and duties of a
religious life. Therefore, when, in 1867, one of their chiefs happened
to meet Rev. Fr. McGuckin at Quesnel, he could not refrain from asking
him to go and visit his people in the north. That request having been
communicated to the proper authorities at New Westminster, the answer
was that not only a priest, but the Bishop himself, would go and see
them.

That Bishop was the Rt. Rev. L. J. D'Herbomez, the first dignitary
appointed to the new Vicariate of British Columbia--comprising the
mainland part of the province of the same name--created by Pius IX. in
1863. Born in 1822 at Brillon, in the diocese of Cambrai, France, he
had entered the Order of the Oblates, and been sent in 1849 to the
Oregon missions. After a six months' voyage by way of Cape Horn,
Father D'Herbomez arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1850, and after having
occupied several responsible posts, he was finally consecrated Bishop
of Miletopolis at Victoria, on October 7th, 1864.

Pursuant to his promise, the prelate left New Westminster on April
18th, 1868, taking as a companion Father Lejacq, the gentleman who was
destined to found the second mission within New Caledonia. After a
laborious ride on horseback from Fort Yale to the new residence of
William's Lake, the Bishop stationed there his companion, taking with
him Rev. Fr. McGuckin, the gentleman who had already won golden
opinions among the Cariboo miners.

[Illustration: Rev. J. M. McGuckin O.M.I. Rector of Church of our Lady
of the Holy Rosary.]

The two missioners left Quesnel on the 12th of May, and after the
usual incidents of a spring journey through the wilds of the
north--crossing on rafts of swollen streams, loss of horses,
mosquitoes, etc.--they reached the native village near Stony Creek,
where they gave their first retreat. There the Bishop inaugurated that
part of the Oblates' missionary system which has since yielded so
satisfactory results. Instead of adding to the innate cupidity of the
natives by allowing them to see an occasion of pecuniary gains in the
visit of a priest, Bishop D'Herbomez declared to those who questioned
him about the price he was prepared to pay for the loan of the canoe
he needed to go to Stuart Lake that, after he had travelled five
hundred miles exclusively in the interest of their souls, he would be
ashamed to acknowledge them as his children if they wanted to be paid
for a service which, after all, was to benefit, not himself, but their
own co-tribesmen.

From Fraser Lake the party returned by way of Lake Dontenwill, and
after eight long days' journeying down the Nechaco and up the Stuart
River, they reached Fort St. James on the Monday after Pentecost. The
Bishop and his companion were hospitably received by Peter Ogden; but
to show the Indians that no other consideration than their own good
had prompted their voyage, they elected to establish their
headquarters in the close vicinity of the native village.

At Stuart Lake, as well as in every locality visited by the Bishop, it
was made clear to the Indians that thenceforth, in order to merit the
uninterrupted ministrations, and possibly the permanent residence, of
a priest in their midst, they would have to make serious efforts to
live up to the rules laid down for their guidance. In consequence,
polygamy was solemnly abolished never again to appear, gambling and
conjuring were severely proscribed, and the use of intoxicants
renounced by every adult kneeling to the Bishop. In consideration of
these pledges each village received a flag whereon were engraved,
round the symbol of our redemption, the significant words "Religion,
Temperance, Civilization," than which no others could better express
the aim of the missionaries. To ensure the fulfilment of those
promises, a chief with a captain or sub-chief and a few watchmen were
appointed in each locality.

On the 8th of June, 1868, the missionary party embarked for Babine,
where they found an enormous crowd just ready for the celebration of
one of their "potlatches." After instructing for three days Indians
who thought of nothing but their delayed feast, the Bishop, who
desired to be in a position to judge for himself, allowed them to go
on with their festivities, after which he cautioned them against the
features of the same he found to be the most incompatible with a
Christian life.[315]

On his way back the Bishop repeated at Fort George the religious
exercises he had given at the other places, after which he went with
his companion to the principal diggings of Cariboo, where he stayed
ten days. This sufficed to give him a most advantageous idea of the
miners and, in general, of all the settlers he met. At Richfield he
blessed a church and a bell, and the local paper did not tire of
singing the praises of the Catholic clergy so long as he was in the
midst of the Cariboo mountains. At Alexandria the party met a goodly
assemblage of Carrier and Chilcotin Indians, who profited not a little
by their preaching.

[Footnote 315: Those feasts have since been completely abolished all
over the district, as experience has shown that anything recalling to
the mind of the natives the old observances of a heathenish life was
only too calculated to take them back to the disorders they had
renounced at the time of their admission into the Church.]

The following year, 1869, it was Father Lejacq's turn. It is
impossible to follow him throughout all the vicissitudes of such a
long journey. Almost everywhere he was pleased with the reception he
met with and the respectful attention with which his instructions were
listened to. At Stuart Lake especially everybody craved the favor of
being baptized; and when it became known that only old or feeble
persons would be admitted to the sacrament of baptism, all began to
complain of some incurable disease or to ridiculously exaggerate their
age.

The dispositions of the Babines were not so edifying. Measles had but
lately played havoc among them, and Tsimpsian traders had seized that
opportunity to indispose them against the priest, who, they averred,
carried sickness and death wherever he went.

But a little incident which had taken place shortly after the Bishop's
passage in the country yielded Father Lejacq a text for a good
philippic against that and many other false notions only too current
within that tribe. A child having fallen grievously sick, a conjuror
or shaman had declared that he could easily cure him, but had been
rebuked for daring to set at naught the "great priest's" formal
prohibition of all such deviltries, whereupon he had laughed away the
parents' scruples, who had finally delivered up their little one for
the exercise thereon of his black art. In the midst of his dancing,
rattling, and howling he had suddenly fallen with his face to the
ground as if in a trance.[316] People had thought this a part of his
"ceremonies"; but when, after waiting a long time, they had ventured
to wake him up, they had felt the cold of death on his brow.

[Footnote 316: According to the original notions of the Western Dns,
disease was caused by evil spirits which entered the body, generally
as a punishment for some fault against the natural law, an
infringement of the immemorial ordinances concerning tabooed food, the
proper preparation for hunting and trapping and various concomitant
observances, and the restrictions governing the relations of the
sexes--sequestration or isolation of the women monthly and after
child-birth, and the many precautions against their legally impure
state. Still more often those evil spirits were believed to obey the
ill-will of such persons as the sorcerers, who enjoyed the greatest
influence over them. Other sorcerers or shamans were then called into
requisition in order to undo what the former had done, that is, to
exorcise the spirit out of the patient.

To that effect, amidst a tremendous tumult of drumming and singing by
his attendants, the conjuror, dressed up in the spoils of his personal
totem, rattle in hand and dancing to the time of the song, worked
himself up to such a degree of frenzy that he was supposed to have
become possessed of his own particular spirit or genius, the image of
which he directed towards the prostrate form of the patient. Then,
falling suddenly on his victim, he sucked out of his or her naked body
a diminutive reptile, a nail or other impurity, which he represented
as the materialized form of the cause of the complaint!]

Father Lejacq was the first priest to visit the Fallen Rock or
Ackwilgate, where he witnessed one of the great fairs annually held
there. The large gatherings of alien tribes consequent on those
occasions were always dangerous, and inimical to peace and order. He
soon had a proof of this. His guest asked him one day whether
everybody was not bound to pay his debts.

"Certainly," answered the missionary.

Whereupon the Indian, going to an Atna--a native of Tsimpsian
parentage--forcibly took away from him all the goods he had brought to
barter for furs, remarking:

"You owe me so many blankets; therefore, on the advice of the priest,
I take this as payment of the same."

Furious at hearing this, the Atna swore he would kill the white man,
and for some time it looked as if Father Lejacq's days were indeed
numbered. Yet he managed to stay four weeks among those Indians, many
of whom came in only after a time from their distant hunting grounds.

One morning two Atna young men, whose faces were painted, while their
hair was knotted in a tuft on top of their heads and adorned with
eagle feathers, rushed, gun in hand, into the lodge of the great chief
Telusa, which was then the missioner's headquarters. After the moments
of silence prescribed by native etiquette, they addressed his host in
these terms:

"We have come as representatives of our nation on the Naas River to
ascertain your dispositions. Our warriors, to the number of three
hundred, are camped a day's journey from here. They tell you: Will you
trade with us? We have goods. Would you prefer to fight? We have
guns."

Kularhnet, in the absence of the head chief, answered that as the man
of God was his guest nobody could think of war. Shortly after, the
whole crowd was in, trading and singing, dancing and potlatching. The
missionary vainly attempted to address the strangers on religious
topics--the Atnas are of those who have ears that they may not hear.

Father McGuckin, who had for some time been stationed at Richfield,
was to be the messenger of the good tidings in 1870. Circumstances led
him even to visit the Sekanais of Fort McLeod, who received him with
open arms and gave him the greatest consolations. Their congeners of
Bear Lake were granted the same favor, and the devoted priest, though
sick and tired out, crossed over the snow-capped mountains which lie
between the Skeena and Fort Connolly, living on marmot and dried
salmon, in order to give them an opportunity to learn of their
Redeemer and of their duties to both Creator and creature.[317]

[Footnote 317: Notwithstanding Bishop N. Blanchet's contention that
Mr. Demers, in the course of his apostolic excursions throughout New
Caledonia, went as far as Bear Lake ("Rapport sur les Missions du
Diocse de Quebec," Juillet, 1847, p. 22), that place had never been
visited by a missionary before Fr. McGuckin's voyage in 1870.]

Father Lejacq succeeded him in 1871, and it soon became evident that
the good dispositions of the natives were of a permanent character, as
in the absence of the priest they tried hard to live up to his
teachings. They faithfully kept up the organization for the
repression of vice established among them, observed the Lord's Day and
the Friday abstinence, and hardly ever failed to say their morning and
evening prayers in common. Even the Journal of the traders at the fort
is a witness to the fidelity of the natives to the chief observances
of the Church of their adoption. Here are two of its entries:

"_Good Friday_, April 15th, 1870.--A collection of Indians from all
quarters to hold out mass (?!) till Easter Sunday. Singing and praying
is now quite the order of the day in the church."

"_Easter Day._--Holy ceremonies kept by the men and Indians."

Such perseverance deserved recognition. Therefore it was resolved
that, despite the scantiness of the Bishop's resources in personnel
and pecuniary means, a mission would be established at Stuart Lake. In
consequence, early in the spring of 1873, the Rev. Fathers Lejacq and
Blanchet went up to Fort St. James, and while the former evangelized
the neighboring tribes, the latter, helped by the Indians of the lake,
erected the modest buildings and the church which to-day form the
Mission of our Lady of Good Hope, on Lake Stuart.

We will forbear praising either Father Lejacq or his work in New
Caledonia, but must be allowed a quotation or two from an author who
speaks _de visu_, and who, in his quality of Protestant clergyman,
cannot be accused of undue tendency to lyrism in a case like this. Of
the missioner himself Rev. D. Gordon writes, in his volume on
"Mountain and Prairie":

"On our way we met Pre Lejacques, the missionary of this district,
whose charge embraces the whole territory between the forks of the
Skeena and Fort McLeod, east and west, and between Fort Connolly and
Fort St. George (_sic_), north and south. After leaving the valley
of the Skeena and of the Nasse, all the Christian Indians of the
interior throughout this northern district are Roman Catholic. The
mission is under the direction of the Oblate Fathers, and the
missionaries, if all like the devoted Pre Lejacques, are 'in
journeyings often and in labors abundant'"[318]

[Illustration: STUART LAKE MISSION.

(From a photo taken shortly after 1873.)]

Concerning the most distant portion of his flock, Mr. Gordon says that
"among our packers was the Achwilgate prince, as we called him.... It
was gratifying to notice that they had prayers each evening, one of
their own number leading their service."[319]

The Sekanais, in his opinion, "appear to be throughout this district
quiet, trustworthy and industrious."[320] As to the mission itself, he
remarks that "about a mile above the fort there is an Indian village
possessing a pretty little church, and houses which have an air of
neatness and cleanliness not always found among the Indians."[321]

The year 1880 put an end to Father Lejacq's residence in the north.
That some of his successors and their charge have not degenerated too
much from the high standard he had set up in the wilds of New
Caledonia will be shown by the following passage from a book by
another eye-witness, Henry Somers Somerset:

"Father X. is the Catholic missionary, and we had made his
acquaintance almost as soon as we arrived, and thus came in contact
with one of the most remarkable men in North-West America.

[Footnote 318: "Mountain and Prairie," p. 123.]

[Footnote 319: _Ibid._, p. 90.]

[Footnote 320: _Ibid._, p. 134.]

[Footnote 321: _Ibid._, p. 7.]

"Pre X. was, of course, a Frenchman, but his English was
irreproachable. It is something of a surprise to find a _savant_ and a
man of learning working amongst the Indians in a lonely northern
mission. But, judging by his congregation, it was evident that his
talents were not thrown away. The Carrier Indians are immeasurably
superior to their relations, the Beavers. They build log houses, and
many speak English, and read books and a monthly review in the native
tongue, printed in the syllabary which their priest has invented for
them. This is one of the many extraordinary achievements of this
prince of missionaries who not only is his own editor, compositor and
printer, but has invented a most ingenious syllabary, which is easily
learnt; so that Indians, who have no idea what writing is, have been
known to learn to read and write this language with perfect
correctness after two or three days' instruction. Of course, their
manner of life is not that of the civilized man, for their employment
remains unchanged, and they still hunt and fish like other Indians;
but they have been given many of the advantages of civilization, and
none of its evils."[322]

[Footnote 322: "The Land of the Muskeg," pp. 226-228, London,
Heinemann.]




APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

_List of the Superintendents of New Caledonia from its Origin
to this Day._


Simon Fraser            1805-09
John Stuart             1809-24
William Connolly        1824-30
Peter Warren Dease      1830-34
Peter Skene Ogden       1834-44
Donald Manson           1844-56
Peter Ogden 1          1856-68
J. A. Grahame           1868-69
Peter Ogden 2          1869-70
Gavin Hamilton          1870-79
J. M. L. Alexander      1879-86
Roderick Macfarlane     1886-89
W. E. Traill            1889-93
Alexander C. Murray 1  1893-97
W. E. Camsell           1897-98
A. C. McNab             1898-1901
A. C. Murray 2         1901--


S. Fraser retired before the coalition of the North-West and Hudson's
  Bay Companies.
J. Stuart was made a Chief Factor in 1821, the year of the coalition.
W. Connolly was made a Chief Trader in 1821 and a Chief Factor
  in 1825.
P. W. Dease was made a Chief Trader in 1821 and a Chief Factor
  in 1828.
P. S. Ogden was made a Chief Trader in 1821 and a Chief Factor
  in 1834.
D. Manson was made a Chief Trader in 1837 and was never promoted
  higher.
P. Ogden was made a Chief Trader in 1854 and died with that rank.
J. A. Grahame was made a Chief Trader in 1854, a Chief Factor in
  1861, Sub-Commissioner in 1872 and Commissioner in 1874.
G. Hamilton was promoted from a Clerkship to a Factorship in 1872.
J. M. L. Alexander was made a Junior Chief Trader in 1875 and a
  Factor in 1879.
R. Macfarlane was made a Chief Trader in 1868, a Factor in 1872 and
  a Chief Factor in 1875.
W. E. Traill was made a Junior Chief Trader in 1879 and a Chief
  Trader in 1883.

None of his successors attained a commission.

We owe these last details to an old and well informed Hudson's Bay
Company officer.




APPENDIX B.


Captain G. Dixon, wondering at the degree of perfection in the art of
carving attained by the aborigines of the North Pacific Coast whom he
visited in 1787, remarks that "this art is far from being in its
infancy; a fondness for carving and sculpture was discovered among
this people by Captain Cook; iron implements were then also in use,"
before any contact with the whites. And he adds that "it must
doubtless be a considerable time ago" that iron was introduced on that
coast ("A Voyage to the North-West Coast of America," pp. 243-44).
When, in 1741, Behring first reached the mainland of America, he found
among the inhabitants of the Fox or Eastern Aleutian Islands "long
iron knives, apparently their own manufacture" ("Ten Months among the
Tents of the Tuski," p. 9). It is open to question whether iron was
then really indigenous to that quarter; it is much more likely that
the supply of it was derived from the Russian merchants of Eastern
Siberia. As early as 1648 a trading expedition consisting of seven
vessels, four of which seem to have been lost and perhaps drifted to
the coast of America, reached the Gulf of Anadyr, opposite the mouth
of the Yukon. Now, as the natives of the coast of Eastern Siberia had
from time immemorial intercourse with America, directly by way of
Behring Strait, or through the Aleutian aborigines, "who seem to
migrate from island to island, and many to the mainland of America"
("Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski," pp. 9-10), it becomes
evident that there is nothing extraordinary in the fact that in 1730
an iron axe should have found its way to the basin of Lake Stuart,
some 200 miles from the North Pacific Coast.

The American aborigines are proverbially nomadic, and, but a few years
ago, the present writer had a good instance of the possibility of
barter between natives from the remotest points in the circumstance
that, on Wrangell Island, in Alaska, he found a couple of Indians from
the distant Mackenzie side by side with a survivor of the Chinook
nation, whose seat was on the banks of the Lower Columbia, perhaps
2,000 miles from the original home of the two Dns.




APPENDIX C.


Unsatisfactory as the Rev. Dr. Bryce's treatment of New Caledonia
affairs undoubtedly is, his handling of matters Catholic or French is
even worse. Personal preferences and religious bias should never be
allowed to influence a serious historian's assertions. One may
inadvertently fall into errors of fact or even of judgment; but nobody
should attempt to write history who is prejudiced against any of the
parties he would have to speak of. Now, when the necessities of his
narrative lead him to treat of the stand Riel and the Red River
half-breeds took against the high-handed and blundering
representatives of Eastern Canada, whose acts were afterwards publicly
disavowed by their own superiors at Ottawa, that author's equanimity
is so shaken that he sees among the French Catholic element nothing
but rebels, plotters and conspirators--"foreign priests with
Jesuitical cunning," p. 461; "fledgling Fenian priests, [priestly]
princes of plotters," p. 466; "violent and dastardly [priests]," p.
467; "ecclesiastics...who had no love for Britain, no love for Canada,
no love for any country, no love for society, no love for peace," p.
460--in a word, missionaries who, though admired by others for having
consecrated their lives to the welfare of Indians and half-breeds, are
to our author on a par with anarchists and outlaws.

He seems so blinded by prejudice that he sees priests where there are
no priests and Jesuits where there are no Jesuits. O'Donoghue did,
indeed, study with a view to taking orders, but he was never promoted
to the priesthood. As to poor Father Lestanc, he never was anything
but an Oblate missionary, though Bryce seriously writes that he "has
generally been credited with belonging to the Jesuit Order" p. 466.
Then, again, what does he mean by a "Fenian priest"? The Fenians,
belonging to a secret society, fall under the ban of the Church. Does
our Doctor suppose for a moment that what is forbidden to the laity is
allowed to the clergy? Just the reverse is true in some cases. A
Fenian priest is as rare a bird as a white crow. It is a matter of
regret that the fear of rendering himself ridiculous did not stay his
pen before it was too late.

Then, again, according to that writer, these hated ecclesiastics
formed "a greedy and foreign cabal planning to seize the country," p.
461. But just one page before he had stated that they "had no love for
any country." Why, then, should they have been so eager to seize a
country they detested?

This part of Dr. Bryce's book bristles with contradictory and
illogical assertions, most of which the lack of space prevents us from
noticing. To one point only shall we venture to draw the reader's
attention. At the risk of startling writers of Dr. Bryce's school, we
dare say that, in our humble opinion, there never was anything like a
Red River Rebellion. A rebel is "one who opposes the lawful government
to which he owes allegiance." Now, against whom did Riel and the
majority of the Red River settlers rise in 1869? Not against Great
Britain, since our author has himself to admit that they at least
pretended to remain loyal to that country. With the exception of
O'Donoghue and a mere handful of politicians, they would not change
their allegiance, and all those "foreign priests" of whom Bryce speaks
so disparagingly were strongly in favor of retaining the British
connection, in the same way as the French Canadian clergy of 1776
saved Canada from the revolted American colonies by their staunch
loyalty to the British flag. Then against whom did Riel and his people
rise? Against Eastern Canada, as everybody knows. But did they owe
allegiance to Canada? Not in the least. Bryce himself admits (p. 464)
that when McDougall, the man sent by the eastern provinces to
represent them on the banks of the Red River, issued his famous
proclamation authorizing a recourse to arms against Riel and his
friends, the transfer of the country to the newly formed Dominion had
not as yet been accomplished. Therefore it is plain as daylight that
Riel and his people in their first uprising were not rebels, and that
consequently there never was anything like a Red River Rebellion.

The settlers of the Red River valley were then in about the same
position as the Newfoundland colonists of to-day. Let Dr. Bryce
suppose for an instant that he is one of the latter. People come to
his country sent by Quebec, who form "an irritating, selfish and
aggressive expedition, taking possession of the land before it has
been transferred...and assuming the air of conquerors" ("History of
the Hudson's Bay Company," p. 459) "giving harsh treatment" to the
native settlers, surveying the land and cutting roads exactly as they
please in spite of the protests of the islanders, who feel themselves
threatened with being dispossessed of their farms. Suppose that those
loud-mouthed French Canadians declare that whether Mr. Bryce and his
fellow pioneers like it or not, their country is going to be annexed
to a newly formed political body, that the English language is to be
proscribed in favor of the French, which will be forced on them, and
that their children will soon have to attend Catholic schools, though
their conscience is strongly against them. How will the good Doctor
feel? Probably the same as the original settlers of Manitoba did when
they were similarly treated by the Ontario people who represented the
newly fledged Ottawa Government. That their apprehensions were not
groundless later events have only too fully demonstrated.

As to the Rev. Dr. Bryce's aspersions on Fathers Lestanc and Ritchot
and the Roman Catholic clergy in general, they are unworthy of a man
of his calling. We are prepared for the amount of truthfulness there
is in his charges when he makes of the one a Jesuit who never was a
Jesuit and of the other a Frenchman though he was born and raised in
Canada. Conscious of our own familiarity with that phase of Canadian
history, we simply oppose our word to his and declare that all those
gentlemen were ever loyal to the British connection and acted most
honorably during the whole crisis. Any fair-minded person who wants to
be enlightened on the events of 1869-70 has only to read the late
Archbishop Tach's admirable "Page of the History of the Schools in
Manitoba," a most moderate and well documented brochure printed at Dr.
Bryce's very door. We wonder how it is that a writer who, in his list
of references, gives several times the title of the same book bearing
on his subject should have so persistently ignored that most important
pamphlet. He should not be afraid to refer to the original and
official sources of information it contains.




APPENDIX D.


Exception has been taken to this statement by a party well informed on
North-West American matters, on the ground that a little book called
"Traits of American Indian Life and Character, by a Fur Trader," must
swell by at least one the number of H. B. Co. authors who wrote from
personal experience about New Caledonia. But, after months of patient
study and unceasing enquiries, we can only repeat what we remarked
after a hasty examination of the volume, viz.: that the strength of
our assertion remains unimpaired, because, though evidently inspired
to a great extent by a New Caledonian, who could have been none other
than P. S. Ogden, the book was certainly not written by that
gentleman.

It was recognized that Ogden's rich fund of information on the native
tribes with which he had associated should not be allowed to perish
with him, and, as early as 1845, J. Dunn wrote in his "Oregon
Territory" (p.196): "I should very much like to see issued from the
press the 'Memoirs of the eccentric Peter Skein Ogden.'" Now,
intrinsic evidence is not wanting which betrays an undeniable
connection between Ogden and the scenes which the author is supposed
to relate from personal experience. The former's antecedents prior to
his advent into New Caledonia entirely tally, as to dates and places,
with the life the latter admits to have led before he went there. We
have referred to the great friendship existing between Ogden and S.
Black, of Kamloops. But the author of the book expressly states, under
circumstances which unmistakably point to Ogden as being the speaker,
if not the writer: "Black" (for which name the B---- of the book
evidently stands, as is shown by the tragic death of the person
referred to) "was one of my oldest and worthiest friends." P. S. Ogden
first saw Stuart Lake in 1834, the very same year when the first
departure from the traditional custom of burning the dead took place
among the Carriers, a custom which, as was to be expected, disappeared
only by degrees. Now, in 1835, the author is exceedingly curious to
witness the cremation of a corpse at Stuart Lake, an experience which
he plainly intimates was then new to him. Moreover, all the
information in the book bearing on happenings in New Caledonia after
1834 is as reliable as that on events taking place in the same country
prior to that date is inaccurate. Needless to insist on this point.

And yet we claim that P. S. Ogden was not the author of that book. In
the first place, that gentleman, though well educated, was naturally
averse to literary work. His letters, of which we have read hundreds,
are made up of stereotyped formulas and wearisome verbal repetitions.
Nobody who turns from their stilted and often incorrect style to the
elegant English of the "Traits of American Indian Life" will dream for
a moment that the same hand could have penned both. Turning to the
subject matter of the little volume itself, the reasons for rejecting
the hypothesis of Ogden's authorship grow even more cogent. Anybody
acquainted with that gentleman's practical good sense and his honesty
of purpose will refuse to believe that he could have unnecessarily
consented to stultify himself by ridiculous contradictions, mendacious
assertions, and attempts at claiming for himself honors which every
New Caledonian then knew perfectly well belonged to another. Yet this
is what we find in the book under discussion. Though published only in
1853, that volume, or rather its framework, was prepared in 1838,
since the would-be author says (p. 57): "Six years ago, being the
spring of 1832, I was stationed...at the newly formed settlement of
Fort Simpson, at the mouth of the Nass River." P. S. Ogden did indeed
go there in 1831; but note now the contradictions of the scribe. "Ten
or twelve years ago," he writes, meaning therefore 1826 or 1828, "I
was stationed at Fort Killmaurs, in the Babine country" (p. 71). We
turn to p. 22 of the book and read: "In the year 1823 I was appointed
to the command of an expedition destined to operate southward of the
Columbia. During the six succeeding years I was employed in the
perilous and disagreeable duty involved in this adventure." Was that
pretended author at the same time "in the Babine country" and
"southward of the Columbia"? Nor is this all. He is mistaken by three
or five years as to the date of the foundation of Fort Kilmars, and
claims to have made a journey to a place now called Moricetown, where
Ogden most certainly never was, while the trader who first visited it
just as undoubtedly never wrote a book. On the way to that village he
locates a native hamlet at the outlet of Babine Lake, which is fully
15 miles therefrom; he follows for a time a river which does not
exist, etc. But here is the climax. He writes (p. 72): "It had been my
lot to superintend the cutting of the first stick of Fort Killmaurs."
As that post was established in 1822, it follows that when he was
"strolling on the banks of Stuart's Lake...in the autumn of 1835," it
must have been 13 years since he had first resided among the Babines,
a tribe of Indians who not only practised cremation, but had even
taught that custom to the natives of Stuart Lake. And yet, on that
autumn day of 1835, our author is irresistibly impelled by his
"curiosity excited before now by the accounts [he] had _heard_ of the
barbarities exercised on these occasions, more especially towards the
women" (p. 129), to try, at great personal risk, to witness the
burning of a body then in course of process a short distance from the
lake!

This must suffice to show that the book in question was evidently the
work of an outsider, who patched up several accounts of a country he
had never seen, prominent among which were probably P. S. Ogden's
notes or verbal information, incorrectly recorded after one of those
journeys to Canada which the exigencies of his charge annually forced
on him. Who was the obliging scribe? The firm which published the
volume now simply answers: "The MS. of the book 'Traits of American
Indian Life and Character' was received by us from the Hudson's Bay
Company on account of Duncan Finlayson, and was edited by Mr. Rich"
(Letter dated 12th Dec., 1904). D. Finlayson was brother-in-law to
Lady Simpson, and the inference deducible from the above statement
that he was indeed the party who compiled the little work under
consideration is strengthened by the fact that the "author" of the
same dedicated it to that lady "as a small tribute of affectionate
regard." But D. Finlayson never was in New Caledonia, and therefore
could not have written "from a personal knowledge."

A work whose existence would militate to a greater extent against our
original assertion is A. C. Anderson's Prize Essay (See Appendix F).
But then its scope is restricted to modern British Columbia, and it
has hardly anything to do with New Caledonia matters.




APPENDIX E.


Since the lines referring to these apparently incredible circumstances
were first printed, we came across an anecdote in an old book which we
feel so much the more inclined to reproduce by way of apology for
having recorded facts which will task the credulity of more than one
reader, as the principal witness of the occurrences mentioned in that
volume is one of our old acquaintances, W. Lane. On p. 388 of his "Ten
Months among the Tents of the Tuski" Lieut. W. H. Hooper, who was with
one of the parties sent in search of the ill-fated explorer, Sir John
Franklin, writes:

"During the time that Mr. Lane was stationed in New Caledonia he
received a visit from an aged Indian of the Carrier tribe who had been
with Sir Alexander Mackenzie in one of his trips of discovery to the
sea coast and had the reputation of being a great medicine-man. As he
had not paid a visit to the fort for several years, his appearance
excited some surprise, and he was asked why he came. He replied that
he had come to look at the fort and its inmates for the last time.
'Did you ever,' said the old man, 'hear thunder in the winter time?'
Mr. Lane replied in the negative. 'Then,' rejoined the Indian, 'when
in two moons' time you hear a clap of thunder, send to my lodge and
you will find me dead.'

"Within fifteen days of the appointed time Mr. Lane did indeed hear a
solitary burst of thunder; the nephew of the old Indian, who was the
fort interpreter, started off directly to his uncle's lodge, and on
arrival found that he had just expired. The realization of this
prophecy did not in the least surprise the rest of the Indians, who
had expressed their entire conviction of its fulfilment."

Hooper had that story from Mr. Lane himself.




APPENDIX F.

_Authorities Quoted or Consulted._

(N.B.--The following works bear more or less on some of the subjects
treated in this History. A few other books on British Columbia refer
only to the southern part of the Province or to the Pacific Coast.)


Anderson (A. C.).--

"Dominion at the West." Victoria, 1872.

Anonymous.--

"Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians." Vancouver, 1890.
"Guide to the Province of British Columbia." Victoria, 1877.
"Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon." Portland, 1878.
"Papers Relative to the Affairs of British Columbia." London, 1859-62.
_The British Colonist_ (a daily newspaper). Victoria, 1864.
"Rapport sur les Missions du Diocse de Quebec." 1845-47.
"Traits of American Indian Life and Character." London, 1853.

Ballantyne (R. M.).--

"Hudson Bay." London, 1896.
"Handbook to the New Gold Fields." London, 1858.

Bancroft (H. H.).--

"History of British Columbia." San Francisco, 1890.
"History of the North-West Coast of America." 2 vols. San Francisco, 1884.

Barrett-Lennard (Capt. C. E.).--

"Travels in British Columbia." London, 1862.

Begg (Alexander).--

"History of British Columbia from its Earliest Discovery to the Present Time." Toronto, 1894.
(A namesake).--"History of the North-West," 3 vols. Toronto, 1894.

Bryce (Rev. Dr. George).--

"The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company." Toronto, 1900.
"Holiday Rambles." Winnipeg, 1888.

Butler (Gen. Sir W.).--

"The Wild North Land." New York, 1903.
"Far Out: Rovings Retold." London, 1880.

Cogswell (O. H.).--

"History of British Columbia." Victoria, 1894.

Cornwallis (Kinahan).--

"The New El Dorado." London, 1858.

Cox (Ross).--

"Columbia River." London, 1832.

Dawson (Dr. G. M.).--

"Report on an Exploration made in 1887 in the Yukon District and Adjacent
  Northern Portion of British Columbia." London, 1898.

D'Herbomez (Bishop L. J.).--

Letter in "Missions des Oblats de Marie Immacule." Paris, 1870.

Dixon (Capt. G.).--

"A Voyage Round the World." London, 1789.

Downie (W.).--

"Hunting for Gold." San Francisco, 1893.

Dugas (Rev. G.).--

"L'Ouest Canadien." Montral, 1896.
"Le Mouvement des Mtis  la Rivire-Rouge." Montreal, 1905.

Dunn (John).--

"The Oregon Territory." Philadelphia, 1845.

Fitzgerald (J. E.).--

"Hudson's Bay Company and Vancouver's Island." London, 1849.

Fleming (Sandford).--

"England and Canada." Montreal, 1884.

Franchre (G.).--

"Narrative of a Voyage to the North-West Coast of America." New York, 1854.

Franklin (Capt. John).--

"Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea." 4 vols. London, 1829.

Gordon (Rev. D. M.).--

"Mountain and Prairie." London, 1880.

Gosnell (R. E.).--

"The Year Book of British Columbia." Victoria, 1897.

Grant (Rev. Dr. G. M.).--

"Ocean to Ocean." London, 1877.

Greenhow (R.).--

"The History of Oregon and California." London, 1844.

Hargrave (J. J.).--

"Red River." Montreal, 1871.

Harmon (D. W.).--

"A Journal of Voyages and Travels through the Continent of North
   America" (original and New York 1903 editions).
"A Concise Account of the Principal Animals which are found in the
   North-Western Part of North America" (do).
"An Account of the Indians living West of the Rocky Mountains" (do).

Hazlitt (W. Carew).--

"British Columbia and Vancouver Island." London, 1858.
"Great Gold Fields of Cariboo." London, 1862.

Hooper (Lieut. W. H.).--

"Ten Months Among the Tents of the Tuski." London, 1853.

Horetzky (Chas.).--

"Canada on the Pacific." Montreal, 1874.

Hudson's Bay Company.--

"Report from Select Committee." London, 1857.

Johnson (R. Byron).--

"Very Far West Indeed." London, 1872.

Laut (A. C.).--

"Pathfinders of the West." Toronto, 1904.

Lejacq (Rev. J. M.).--

Letters in "Missions des Oblats de Marie Immacule." Paris, 1874.

Macdonald (D. G. F.).--

"British Columbia and Vancouver Island." London, 1862.

Macfie (M.).--

"Vancouver Island and British Columbia." London, 1865.

Mackenzie (Sir Alexander).--

"Journal of a Voyage through the North-West Continent of America."
   (Original London edition and Toronto reprint.)

Martin (R. M.).--

"The Hudson's Bay Territories and Vancouver's Island." London, 1849.

Masson (L. R.).--

"Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest." 2 vols. Quebec, 1889.

Mayne (R. C.).--

"Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island." London, 1862.

McCain (Charles W.).--

"History of the S.S. _Beaver_." Vancouver, 1894.

McDonald (Archibald).--

"Peace River: A Canoe Voyage from Hudson Bay to the Pacific." Ottawa, 1872.

McGuckin (Rev. James).--

Letter in "Missions des Oblats de Marie Immacule." Paris, 1873.

McLean (John).--

"Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory."
   2 vols. London, 1849.

McNaughton (M.).--

"Overland to Cariboo." Toronto, 1896.

Milton (Viscount) and Cheadle (W. B.).--

"The North-West Passage by Land." London, 1865.

Montreal (Bishop of).--

Journal. London, 1849.

Morice (Rev. A. G.).--

"Au Pays de l'Ours Noir." Paris, 1897.
"Notes Archological, Industrial and Sociological on the Western
   Dns." Toronto, 1894.
"Dn Sociology." Ottawa, 1892.
"The Western Dns; their Manners and Customs." Toronto, 1890.

Nicolay (Rev. C. G.).--

"The Oregon Territory." London, 1846.

Paquet (E. T.).--

"Fragments de l'Histoire de la Paroisse de Saint-Nicolas." Lvis, 1894.

Pemberton (J. D.).--

"Facts and Figures Relating to Vancouver Island and British
   Columbia." London, 1860.

Petitot (Rev. E.).--

"Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest." Alenon, 1887.

Pike (Warburton).--

"The Barren Ground of Northern Canada." London, 1892.
"Through the Sub-Arctic Forest." London, 1896.

Rattray (Dr. Alexander).--

"Vancouver Island and British Columbia." 2 vols. London, 1862.

Rawlings (Thomas).--

"The Confederation of the British North American Provinces." London, 1865.

Robinson (H. M.).--

"The Great Fur Land." London, n. d.

Ross (A.).--

"Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia
   River." London, 1849.
"The Fur Hunters of the Far West." 2 vols. London, 1855.
"The Red River Settlement." London, 1856.

Simpson (Sir Geo.).--

"Narrative of a Journey Round the World." London, 1847.

Simpson (T.).--

"Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of
   America." London, 1843.

Smet (Rev. P. J. De).--

"Western Missions and Missionaries." New York, n. d.

Somerset (H. S.).--

"The Land of the Muskeg." London, 1895.

Tach (Archbishop A.).--

"A Page of the History of the Schools in Manitoba." Winnipeg, 1893.
"Esquisse sur le Nord-Ouest." Montreal, 1901.
"The North-West Difficulty." London, 1874.

Tach (J. C.).--

"Forestiers et Voyageurs." Montreal, 1884.

Turner-Turner (J.).--

"Three Years' Hunting and Trapping in America and in the Great
   North-West." London, 1888.

Twiss (Travers).--

"The Oregon Question." London, 1846.

Wade (M. S.).--

"The Land of Heart's Desire." Kamloops, 1905.

Whymper (F.).--

"Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska." London, 1868.

Willson (Beckles).--

"The Great Company." 2 vols. Toronto, 1900.




INDEX.


Ackwilgates, 7.

Ackwilgate village, 209.

A[']ke[']toes, 11;
  killed, 12.

Aleutians, 346.

Alexandria, Fort, its site reached by Mackenzie, 44;
  established, 122;
  terminus of the land route, 176;
  occupations of the servants, 183;
  moved to opposite side, 194;
  its inhabitants immoral, 232;
  dilapidated, 289.

Anarhem, village of, 16.

Anderson, A. C., mistaken as to the terminus of S. Fraser's voyage, 81;
  blamed, 194;
  takes census of the natives, 195;
  counsels moderation, 217;
  seeks a new route, 257;
  on Blanger, 263.

Anecdotes, principal:
  Na[']kwoel and the lame man, 10;
  Khadintel and Khalhpan, 15, 19;
  [']Kwah and Arrow-Heart, 29;
  [']Kwah and Harmon, 89;
  [']Kwah and Douglas, 140, _et seq._;
  Father Chirouse and P. S. Ogden, 173;
  D. McLean and Tlhelh, 269;
  Paul Fraser and the Iroquois, 280;
  D. McLean and the Chilcotins, 318;
  P. Dunlevy and E. Dewdney, 328;
  Father Lejacq and the Atna, 340.

Anglican clergymen, 333.

Animals in New Caledonia, 2, 4.

Anreon, 127.

Armor, at Lillooet, 17;
  on the Pacific, 35.

Arrow-Heart, 28;
  killed, 29.

Articles in use, queer, 189;
  of home manufacture, 191.

Askettihs, 79.

Astor, John Jacob, 94.

Atte, 11;
  killed, 12.

Atnahs, 51;
  and Fraser, 74;
  great smokers, 74;
  in trouble, 160;
  cause trouble, 340;
  trade with Babines, 343.

Authorities, list of, 353.

Axe, first iron, 9;
  lost and found, 10;
  greatly prized, 28;
  first brought by the whites, 55;
  home made, 194.


Babine, Fort, founded, 125;
  a great place for salmon, 176;
  its site, 208;
  its removal decided on, 209;
  insecure, 212, 217;
  abandoned, 220;
  not founded by P. S. Ogden, 351.
  See Kilmars.

Babine Indians, their habitat and characteristics, 4;
  origin of their name, 6;
  their own origin, 7;
  first mentioned in literature, 87;
  gamble and dispute, 97;
  bent on massacre, 165, 166;
  enumerated, 196;
  trade with Coast Indians, 208;
  their doings, 212, _et seq._;
  said to be treacherous, 217;
  displeased, 219;
  restless, 220;
  take the law in their own hands, 325;
  their number in 1845, 335;
  their new religion appreciated, 335.

Babine Lake, 2, 3;
  first sighted by Europeans, 92;
  its appearance, 208;
  yields plenty of salmon, 223.

Bad River, 39.

Bagpipes, 149.

Ballou, W., 294.

Bancroft, H. H., inaccurate as to the character of the country, 2;
  unfair, 53;
  mistaken, 56;
  unjust to Fraser, 59;
  unnecessarily punctilious, 59;
  too bickering, 60;
  mistaken as to the topography of fort on Stuart Lake, 64;
  inaccurate as to distances, 68;
  ungenerous, 78;
  on Fraser, 82;
  wrong as to date of the erection of Fort Chilcotin, 124, and Fort Babine, 125;
  gives a fanciful account of the Douglas episode, 146;
  mistaken relatively to the status of first missionaries, 226;
  inaccurate concerning dates, 241;
  wrong regarding the etymology of a name, 322, and as to the O.M.I., 334.

Barkerville, 306, 331.

Barret-Lennard, Capt. C. E., mistaken, 64.

Baskets, salmon, 40, 187.

Bear Lake, 3;
  first mentioned in literature, 56;
  its position, 134.

Bears, brown, 4;
  grizzly, 60.

Beaver, abundant, 38.

Beaver Creek, 21, 131.

Beaver Indians, 30;
  they oppress the Sekanais, 31;
  encroach on their territory, 36.

Beaver, Rev. Mr., 147, 174.

Begg, A., on the limits of New Caledonia, 1;
  wrong with regard to the establishment of the first New Caledonia post, 65;
  concerning the identity of the river discovered by S. Fraser, 71;
  as to the founding of posts by Douglas, 133;
  and as to the date of Gov. Simpson's voyage to New Caledonia, 152.

Blanger, Alexis, 215;
  his origin, 260;
  dismissed from Babine, 261;
  reinstated, 262;
  deserts his post, 262;
  a free man, 266;
  his life in danger, 266;
  shot, 267;
  his death avenged, 269, _et seq._

Bella-Coola, 317.

Bentinck Inlet, 49, 313.

Berries, 2, 67, 88.

Bible History, 233.

Bird, James, 311.

Black, S., and Fisher, 154;
  is murdered, 181.

Blackwater Indians. See Naskhutins.

Blackwater River, 3;
  reached by Mackenzie, 48;
  fort established, 244.

Blais, at Stuart Lake, 68;
  at Fraser Lake, 70.

Blanchet, Rev. George, 342.

Blanchet, Rev. Norbert, 130, 226;
  composes a pictorial catechism, 233;
  elected Bishop, 236;
  wrong as to the terminus of Fr. Demers' missions, 341.

Blanshard, R., Governor, 287.

Boucher, J. B. See Waccan.

Boucher, Jem., helps Manson, 285;
  and liquor, 311.

Boucher, J. M., 284.

Bows and arrows, 27, 39;
  penetrating power, 47.

Brasconnier, 262, 263.

Bridge, Indian, cut down, 207.

Brigades, described, 230.

British Columbia, organized, 295.

British Columbians, first, 55.

Brown, W., 125.

Bryce, Dr. Geo., wrong as to topography, 64;
  one of his statements contested, 72;
  inaccurate in his phraseology, 100;
  relates the Douglas episode, 140;
  mistaken as to facts, geography and ethnology, 144, _et seq._;
  unfair concerning Red River matters, 347, _et seq._

Buckley, 315.

Buffalo, 38, 159.

Bugles, 149.

Bulkley, Col., 321.

Bulkley River, 3, 321.

Bull, unmanageable, 210.

Burial among the Carriers, first, 170.

Burning of the dead, 6;
  of a chief, 69;
  of a woman, 87;
  of a man with two wives, 91;
  in the woods, 96;
  and P. S. Ogden, 351.

Bute Inlet, 313.

Butler, Gen., 312.


Cable, Atlantic, 321.

Cameron, D. E., on dried salmon, 178;
  at Babine, 217;
  uneasy, 219;
  tries mediation, 220;
  and fails, 221.

Campbell, R., 206.

Canadian colony in Oregon, 226.

Canadian courts, 99.

Canadian miners, 298;
  drowned, 299.

Canadians, French, liked by the natives, 184;
  conduct not edifying, 226.

Cannibalism, acts of, 301.

Cannibals, not secure among the Dns, 302.

Cannon at the H. B. Co. forts, 113, 143, 149.

Canoes, large birch-bark, 37;
  spruce-bark, 61;
  wooden, 190;
  wrecked, 39, 80, 193, 223;
  stolen, 210.

Cariboo, deer, 4, 10, 213.

Cariboo mines, 296, _et seq._

"Cariboo Sentinel," 306.

Carrier Indians, their habitat and characteristics, 4;
  reason of their name, 6;
  originally more nomadic, 21;
  first seen by Mackenzie, 40;
  they spurn his overtures, 41;
  first intercourse with the whites, 43;
  their wearing apparel, 60;
  they receive Fraser at Stuart Lake, 61;
  described by Fraser, 62;
  violent, 95;
  jealous, 96;
  first union of one
  of their women with a white man, 253;
  well behaved, 320;
  their pagan practices abolished, 338;
  superior Indians, 344. See also Alexandria, etc.

Carrier Lake, 54.

Catholic clergy, saves Canada to England, 348;
  loyal, 349. See Missions, Missionaries.

Census, 195;
  inaccurate, 196;
  partial, by Father Nobili, 335.

Chalh[']tas, 11;
  killed, 13.

Charles, T., on deserters, 190;
  thrifty, 244.

Chartier, wanted by Fisher, 182.

Cheadle, W. B. See Milton.

Chichanit, 11.

Chiefs, formerly unknown, 5;
  appointed by the N. W. Co., 55, 88;
  by the H. B. Co., 199.

Chilcotin Indians, 4;
  make war on the Carriers, 15;
  first mentioned in literature, 76;
  unfriendly to the whites, 194;
  visited by smallpox, 307;
  massacre the whites on the Humalhkhoh, 315, on Bentinck Arm, 315, 316;
  five hanged, 320.

Chilcotin, Fort, erected, 122;
  depends from Alexandria, 181.

Chilcotin River, 2, 3.

Children shamefully treated, 16, 18.

Chinlac, 14;
  destroyed, 19;
  passed by Fraser, 60;
  made a rendezvous, 68.

Chippewayan, Fort, 35, 49.

Chirouse, Father, 173.

Choennih, 325.

Chronology, pre-European, 19.

Clerks, of the H. B. Co., 105.

Clubbing, 279, 280;
  condemned, 281.

Cogswell, O. H., mistaken, 54.

Columbia River, 71;
  terminus of brigades, 122, 158, 167.

"Commodore," steamer, 293.

Connolly, Fort, by whom established, 133;
  when established, 133, _et seq._;
  its diet, 178.

Connolly, W., 126;
  appointed Chief Factor, 129;
  communicates with J. Douglas, 133;
  meets Sir George Simpson, 149;
  rewards successful hunter, 154;
  retires from the district, 164;
  his after life, 170.

Conway, Edward, 321.

Cook, Captain, 64.

Courts, Canadian, 99.

Cox, Judge, 318;
  makes promises to Chilcotin murderers, 319;
  his pledge ignored, 320.

Cox, Ross, renders wrongly a tribal name, 74;
  on scalping, 274.

Credit, 112;
  forbidden, 219.

Cremation of the dead, 6. See Burning.

Crimean War, 287, 288.

Cunningham, miner, 298.

Cust, W., 312.


Dances, 15, 226.

Davis, "Twelve-Foot," 328.

Dawson Lake, 2.

Dead, disposal of the, 6. See Burial, Burning.

Dears, T., on liquor, 116;
  on Stuart Lake happenings, 165;
  on his salary, 167.

Dease Lake, a short lived post, 207.

Dease, P. W., 162;
  retires, 170;
  instructs the natives, 225.

Demers, Rev. M., 130, 226;
  undertakes the New Caledonia missions, 227;
  his early years, 229;
  starts for the North, 229;
  describes a caravan, 230;
  baptizes children, 231, _et seq._;
  mistaken as to origin of a name, 231;
  he works at Stuart Lake, 233;
  back at Alexandria and William's Lake, 235;
  returns to Kamloops, 236;
  made a bishop, 236.

Dns, Western, their habitat, 4, 5;
  social organization, 5;
  customs, 6;
  means of subsistence, 7;
  moral characteristics, 7;
  origin, 7;
  not "Tinne," 146;
  troublesome in cases of accidents, 182;
  not treacherous, 218;
  degraded, 232;
  did not practise scalping, 274;
  and cannibalism, 302;
  nomadic, 346.
  See also Babines, Carriers, Chilcotins, Nahanais, Naskhutins, Sekanais.

Desertions, 179;
  at Fraser Lake, 190;
  in Thew's time, 200, 205;
  from the brigade, 245;
  from Fraser Lake again, 255;
  of Blanger, 262.

Desmarais, J. B., 178.

Dewdney, E., 323, and Dunlevy, 328.

D'Herbomez, Bishop, 336;
  visits New Caledonia, 337.

Dietz, W., 297.

Diller's claim, 298.

Dixon, Captain George, on iron implements, 346.

Douglas, David, 175.

Douglas, James, born, 128;
  his salary, 129;
  head fisherman at Stuart Lake, 131;
  sometimes in low social positions, 132;
  collects fish and furs, 133;
  visits Alexandria, 133;
  marries, 138;
  his greatness, 139;
  his life in danger, 140, 141;
  fires at Tzoelhnolle, 142;
  is apprehended by [']Kwah, 143;
  married before a clergyman, 147;
  receives the Governor, 149;
  retires from Stuart Lake, 152;
  founds Victoria, 275;
  becomes Governor of Vancouver Island, 287;
  his correspondence, 288;
  imposes onerous burdens on the miners, 292;
  goes to the mines, 294;
  increases the wages of the H. B. Co. employees, 298;
  a promoter of roads, 304.

Douglas, Lady, 138;
  intercedes for her husband, 143.

Drunkenness, first case of, 87.

Dunlevy, P., 294;
  reaches Horsefly River, 295;
  becomes fur-trader, 310;
  goes north, 327, _et seq._

Dunn, J., quoted from, 350.

Dunvegan, Fort, 99, 176.


Elk in New Caledonia, 38.

_Engags_, 104, 151, 179. See Servants.

"Enterprise," steamer, 323.

Ermatinger, F., 164.

Errors. See Mistakes.

European wares in early times, at Stuart Lake, 9;
  among the Naskhutins, 44-48;
  on the Findlay, 56, _et seq._;
  at Fond du Lac, 69;
  on the Lower Fraser, 79;
  at an early date on N. W. Coast of America, 346.

Evans, Ezra, 310.

Expeditions, stores and leather, 157;
  leather, 176;
  of R. Campbell, 206, 207;
  military, 318.

Expenditure, 177.

Express, 294;
  rates, 296;
  to the north, 325.


Factors, Chief, 98, 107, 108;
  inspecting, 108;
  in charge of important posts, 110, 177.

Factors, 109.

Fair, large annual, 209, 340.

Falardeau, ill-treated, 279.

Fallen Rock, 8, 209;
  first visited by a missionary, 340.

Fare, poor, 169, 289;
  costly at the mines, 306;
  gets better in the north, 306.

Faries, Hugh, arrives in New Caledonia, 70;
  first man in charge of Fort George, 72.

Farming introduced, 174.

Fauna, 4.

Favel, Charles, 220.

Feasts, 6. See Potlatch.

Field, Cyrus, 320;
  successful, 321.

Finlay, James, 52.

Finlay River, 3, 36.

Finlayson, Duncan, author, 352.

Finlayson, Rod., 287;
  visits Stuart Lake, 307.

Fir, Douglas, 2.

Firearms, 30, 31.

Fisher, Al., 154;
  corresponds with S. Black, 156;
  rapacious, 157;
  annoying, 168;
  in command of Alexandria, 181;
  reproves McIntosh, 182;
  intransigeant, 183.

Fisheries, 131;
  unproductive, 131, 132;
  salmon, 187.

Fitzgerald, W. H., 325.

Flints, gun, 190.

Flogging, 279, 280;
  condemned, 281.

Flour, first traded to the natives, 111, 306;
  ground at Alexandria, 183;
  given as a bait, 319;
  costly, 330.

Fond du Lac, 69, 165, 203, 255.

Forts, H. B. Co., 113;
  of the aborigines, 216.

Fouquet, Rev. L., 334;
  wanted by the Chilcotin murderers, 335.

Fraser, Fort, built, 69;
  burnt, 87.

Fraser Lake, 3;
  discovered, 68;
  and vicinity described, 69.

Fraser, Paul, on liquor, 116;
  accused by Thew, 200;
  an able man, 242;
  kept against his will, 247;
  momentarily in charge of the district, 248;
  on desertion, 255;
  reprimands McBean, 264;
  under a cloud, 276;
  autocratic, 279;
  killed, 280.

Fraser River, reached by Mackenzie, 40;
  mistaken for the Columbia, 71;
  explored by Fraser, 73;
  differentiated from the Columbia, 79.

Fraser, Simon, born, 53;
  establishes Rocky Mountain Portage House, 54;
  prepares for his voyage west, 56;
  starts on his trip, 58;
  reaches Stuart Lake, 61;
  quoted from, 62;
  caters to the whims of the natives, 69;
  passes his first winter at Stuart Lake, 70;
  starts to explore the Fraser, 73;
  describes that river, 74;
  meets with frightful experiences, 75, _et seq._;
  reaches the salt water, 79;
  confronted by new dangers, 80;
  promoted, 81;
  dies, 82.

French Lake, 3, 69.

Frobisher, Jos., 33.

Furs, received at Alexandria, 123;
  collected by James Douglas, 132;
  avidity for, 153;
  good hunts recompensed, 154;
  procured by means of tricks, 155.


Gambling, 28, 265, 310.

George, Fort, established, 71;
  native population, 196;
  reached by Demers, 233.

Giscome Portage, 59, 328.

Gold, first discovered, 288;
  on the Thompson, 291;
  first exported, 292;
  fabulous sums realized, 296, 297, 298.

Gordon Lake, 69.

Gordon, Rev. D., quoted from, 342.

Gosnell, R. E., misled by Bancroft, 123.

Grahame, J. A., 326.

Grandidier, Father, 334.

Grand Rapid, 66.

"Grand Visage," kills Morwick, 214;
  builds to himself a fort, 216;
  is decoyed and killed, 217.

Grant, Cuthbert, 99, 100.

Grant, Dr. G. M., on the Chilcotin massacre, 316.

Greenhow, R., mistaken as to the climate of New Caledonia, 2;
  regarding the dates of the discovery of the Fraser and of the
  establishment of the first N. C. fort, 49.

Groseillers, M. C., 102.

Grosse-Tte, 311.

Guns, introduced, 30;
  in early use, 37;
  fired off to impress the natives, 48;
  in New Caledonia before the whites, 57;
  displayed by Fraser's men, 62;
  and himself, 74;
  on the Lower Fraser, 79;
  flint, to a late date, 191.


Half-breeds, on the war-path in Red River, 99;
  often promoted in the H. B. Co., 106.

Hamilton, Gavin, 307;
  opposes free traders, 310;
  and liquor, 311;
  succeeds P. Ogden, 326;
  a favorite with the natives, 327.

Hargrave, J. J., quoted, 301.

Harmon, D. W., quoted from, 30, 38, 92;
  goes to New Caledonia, 85;
  his journal, 86;
  chastises [']Kwah, 89;
  goes to Babine, 92;
  then to Fraser Lake, 92, 94;
  returns east, 97;
  a religious man, 99.

Hazelton, 9.

Hazlitt, W. C., and his book, 7.

Hehn Lake, 69.

Hickey, P., 322, 330.

Hill's Bar discovered, 293.

Hooper, Lieut. W. H., on iron implements, 346;
  on the prophetic power of the shamans, 352.

Hope, Fort, established, 278.

Horetzky, Ch., mistake of, with regard to the altitude of Lake Stuart, 64;
  directing survey C.P.R., 326.

Horsefly mines, 295.

Horses, first mentioned, 73;
  over a precipice, 76;
  loss of, 167;
  wintering at Alexandria, 176;
  eaten, 177;
  lost while convoying, 259, 278.

Hotels, primitive, 306.

Houses of the Carriers, 40.

Hudson's Bay Company, 33;
  slow, 52;
  its origin, 102;
  an efficient corporation, 103;
  its personnel, 104;
  officers, 106;
  its moral influence on the wrong side, 115;
  countenances vendettas, 115;
  redeeming traits, 119;
  governed by Sir Geo. Simpson, 121;
  abuses the Stuart Lake Indians, 151;
  loses, 172;
  appoints chiefs, 199;
  favors the missions, 224;
  practises vendettas, 270;
  not intolerant, 309;
  except with free traders, 310;
  keeping its own in spite of the miners, 324.

Humalhkhoh River, 313, 315.


Incantations, 6, 10, 339, 340.

Indians, see Carriers, Dns, etc.;
  injure H. B. Co.'s property, 286, 287;
  massacre the whites, 294;
  described by traveller, 314.

Influenza, 195.

Interpreters, 38, 104.

Inventory of the district, 189.

Iron goods, see European wares;
  long known on the N. W. Coast of America, 346.

Iroquois, 95;
  trapper, 158;
  _engags_, 179, 190;
  killed, 279.


Jacques, Joseph, deserts, 255;
  captured, 256.

Jasper House, 98;
  reached, 159;
  destitute of provisions, 177.

Journal, Stuart Lake, on murders, 95;
  on occupations of James Douglas, 130;
  part of it lost, 133;
  on Fort Connolly, 134;
  on murder of woman and child, 136;
  on salmon, 160;
  on a new route, 186;
  on smallpox, 308;
  on the mines, 309;
  the queer names it records, 322.


Kamloops, visited by Father Demers, 231;
  threatened by the natives, 249.

Kanawokon, 279.

Keithley Creek, 296.

Kesoel, 27.

Khadintel, 14;
  dances, 15;
  avenges Chinlac massacre, 16, _et seq._;
  remarries, 19.

Khalhpan, 15, 16;
  bewails his fate, 18;
  is laughed at, 19.

Kilmars, Fort. See Babine, Fort.

Kitksons, 7.

Knives, ancient, 13. See European wares.

Kularhnet, Chief, 341.

[']Kun[']qus, 16;
  falls in battle, 18.

[']Kwah, 23;
  prepares for war, 24;
  kills Tsohtaih, 25;
  reception of his followers, 27;
  gambles, 28;
  kills Arrow-Heart, 29;
  appointed chief, 88;
  chastised by Harmon, 89;
  hunts, 134;
  invades Fort St. James, 143;
  meets the Governor, 150;
  gives a feast, 164;
  threatens strangers, 165;
  becomes sick, 196;
  a good neighbor, 197;
  dies, 198;
  pacified by P. S. Ogden, 204.

[']Kwes, Indian prophet, 239.


Labrets, 6.

Lacourse, Francois, ill-treated, 281.

Ladder, primitive, 76.

Laforce, Vital, 322.

Lakes, 2, 3.

La Malice, 55;
  causes trouble, 58;
  sick and unruly, 60;
  sent off, 67;
  fails to bring the goods, 70.

Lane, W., 246;
  tells the story of a shaman, 352.

Langley, Fort, a southern depot, 276;
  in charge of J. M. Yale, 326.

Languages, native, 41;
  different, 42;
  recorded, 51.

Lapierre, Baptiste, deserts, 205;
  his capture discussed, 206.

Larance, in bad company, 264.

La Roque, 85;
  in Oregon, 94.

Leather Pass, 158.

Lebrun, abhors Stuart Lake, 283.

Lefvre, injured, 210.

Lejacq, Father J. M., 336;
  at Rocher Dboul, 340;
  revisits the district, 342;
  founds Stuart Lake Mission, 342;
  appreciated by a Protestant, 343.

Lkw, fired at, 213.

Lestanc, Father, not a Jesuit, 347.

Letendre, deserts, 200.

Lewes, T., on New Caledonia profits, 112;
  appointed to Stuart Lake, 248.

Lewis and Clarke, 71.

Lhus[']koez, Fort, 182, 184;
  founded, 244.

Linton, drowned, 193.

Liquor among the Indians, 31, 36, 37;
  first tasted by N.C. aborigines, 90;
  the H. B. Co. continues to supply it, 116;
  restrictions by the same, 117;
  wilfully abused of, 151;
  as a premium on good hunts, 154;
  refused by P. S. Ogden, 197;
  on the Fraser, 293;
  on Lake Stuart, 311.

Livingston, D., 147;
  his death avenged, 254.

Log church erected, 235.

Lolo, interpreter, 155.

Loring, Lake, 3.

Lynx, 60, 254, 264.


Macaulay, Lord, 326.

Macdonald, D. G. F., on the Western Dns, 5.

Macfie, M., mistaken, 65;
  on Demers' Bible History, 234.

Mackay, Alexander, 37;
  meets with a stirring experience, 45.

Mackenzie, A., 34;
  starts for the West, 35;
  meets first party of Sekanais, 38, 39;
  quoted from, 40, 45;
  his first intercourse with the Carriers, 40, _et seq_.;
  reaches the sea, 49;
  secedes from the North-West Company, 50;
  his "Voyages," 50, and philological shortcomings, 51.

Mail, first, 92, 295;
  rates, 296;
  regular service established, 325. See Express.

Mal-de-Gorge, 22. See Nathadilhthoelh.

Manson, Donald, favors liquor for the Indians, 118;
  succeeds P. S. Ogden, 241;
  his character, 242;
  his difficulties, 244, _et seq._;
  to P. Fraser, 247;
  is relieved of his charge, 248;
  on a troublesome officer, 250;
  remonstrates with him, 251;
  on Anderson's route, 258;
  praises McLean, 270;
  celebrates the success of a vendetta affair, 274;
  handicapped by an inadequate personnel, 276;
  re-appointed to the district, 277;
  reproved, 281;
  assails the Prince, 284;
  resigns conditionally, 289.

Manson, J. D., 283;
  assails the Prince, 284.

Manson, William, 307.

Marriage, orders about, 147.

Massacre, Chinlac, 15, _et seq._;
  Stuart River, 22;
  of Naskhu[']tins, 25;
  of Sekanais, 31;
  of Beavers, 32;
  Seven Oaks, 99;
  Humalhkhoh, 315;
  Bentinck Arm, 316;
  their causes, 316, 317.

Masson, Sen. L. R., wrong as to the topography of Fort St. James, 64;
  another of his statements contested, 72;
  mistaken concerning the identity of native tribes, 74.

Maxwell, 247;
  retires from the country, 250.

Mayne, Commander R. C., on Demers' Bible History, 234.

McAulay, Lake, 3.

McBean, W. B., 129;
  born, 209;
  has a difference with a Babine, 209;
  despotic, 211;
  sent to Fort Connolly, 211;
  instructs his successors, 212;
  retires to Oregon, 218;
  as a lay preacher, 225;
  is reprimanded, 264;
  complains of Blanger, 264, 265.

McCain, C. W., mistaken, 49, 105.

McDonald, killed, 316.

McDonald, Archibald, arrives at Stuart Lake, 149;
  his statement regarding [']Kwah discredited, 150;
  on W. Connolly, 170.

McDonnell, Capt. Allan, 82.

McDonnell, J., 129, 136.

McDougall, George, 94;
  at Alexandria, 124;
  goes to Tte Jaune Cache, 157;
  his account of his trip, 159.

McDougall, Hon. Wm., 348.

McDougall, James, 53;
  returns to McLeod Lake, 55;
  his first winter at McLeod Lake, 70;
  at Stuart Lake, 90;
  goes to Babine, 92;
  clerk at Stuart Lake, 129;
  sick, 159.

McGillivray, Archibald, 58.

McGillivray, Montrose, 268, 270.

McGuckin, Father J. M., 335;
  visits the Sekanais, 341.

McIntosh, John, at Fort Chilcotin, 181;
  killed, 185;
  for cause, 243.

McKay, J. W., on the Chief Factors, 110.

McKenzie, Ch., complains, 106.

McKenzie, D., and his Calvinistic ideas, 167.

McKenzie, Ferdinand, 276, 307.

McLean, Donald, on his Chief Tradership, 109;
  first spoken of, 175;
  on desertions, 179;
  reports improved conditions at Babine, 221, 222;
  his characteristics, 268;
  kills Nadetnoerh and others, 269;
  is praised, 270;
  on the Indians, 271;
  he forces a native to scalp, 272;
  succeeds P. Fraser, 288;
  retired on the Bonaparte, 318;
  is killed, 319.

McLean, John, relates the Douglas episode, 140, 141;
  inaccurate, 147;
  mistaken as to the native language, 168;
  at Stuart Lake, 169;
  goes to Fort George, 193;
  on the morals of the Carriers, 232.

McLeod, Angus, 317.

McLeod, Fort, established, 54;
  head-quarters of the district, 84;
  its resources, 175.

McLeod, John M., quoted, 93.

McLeod, John, written to, 93, 170.

McLeod Lake, 2;
  discovered, 53.

McLeod, Malcolm, on the elk, 38;
  unjust to S. Fraser, 79;
  as to Harmon's status, 98.

McLoughlin, John, 128;
  converted, 226, 229;
  charitable, 229.

McMicking, Thomas, 299.

McNaughton, Mrs., 299.

McTavish, S., 33, 50, 51, 52.

McTavish, John George, 94.

Measles, 195, 257.

Medicine-men, 6;
  their way of exercising their art, 10, 339, 340;
  pretended, 137;
  come to grief, 339;
  wonderful prediction of one fulfilled, 352.

Milton, Viscount, quoted from, 158, 159;
  on rich claims, 298;
  on a case of cannibalism, 302.

Miners, first regular party of, 292;
  take the law into their own hands, 293;
  extravagant with their money, 297;
  at Fort St. James, 303;
  their original route to the north, 304. See Prospectors.

Mines. See Cariboo, Omineca.

Mining, discouraged by J. Douglas, 292;
  in Cariboo, 296, _et seq._

Mission founded, at William's Lake, 335;
  at Stuart Lake, 342.

Missionaries, good work of, 222, 224;
  well received, 226;
  appreciated by non-Catholics, 342, 343.

Missions, Catholic, 224, _et seq._;
  333 _et seq._;
  Anglican, 333.

Mistakes, of Bancroft, 2;
  of Greenhow, 2;
  of Macdonald, 5;
  of McLeod, 38;
  of Mackenzie as to language, 42;
  of McCain and Rattray, 49;
  of Greenhow regarding two different points, 49;
  of Mackenzie, in his vocabularies, 51;
  of a biographical dictionary, 52;
  of historians concerning Fraser's age, 53;
  of Nicolay relative to a date, 54;
  of Bancroft as to Bear Lake, 56;
  of Barret-Lennard concerning the origin of a name, 64;
  of Bancroft, Bryce and Masson as to geography, 64;
  of Horetzky with regard to the altitude of Lake Stuart, 64;
  of Macfie and of Begg, 65;
  of Bancroft anent distances, 68;
  of Rattray on three different points, 68;
  of Begg concerning the identity of the Fraser, 71;
  of McLeod, 79;
  of Anderson with regard to the terminus of S. Fraser's voyage, 81;
  of McCain relative to the status of a Chief Trader, 105;
  of Bancroft as to the date of the erection of Fort Chilcotin, 124,
     and Fort Kilmars, 125;
  of a dictionary concerning J. Douglas, 131;
  of Bryce as to the Douglas episode, geography and ethnology, 144, _et seq._;
  of Bancroft relative to the Douglas episode, 146;
  of authors as to the date of J. Douglas's departure, 152;
  of Begg with regard to the date of Gov. Simpson's voyage to New Caledonia, 152;
  of Al. Ross, 162;
  of John McLean regarding the religious ideas of the Carriers, 168;
  of Nicolay relative to the geography of New Caledonia, 185;
  of Bancroft as to the status of the first missionaries, 226;
  of Cornwallis concerning Fr. De Smet, 226;
  of Father Demers anent a name, 231;
  of Bancroft as to dates, 241;
  as to the date of Waccan's death, 256;
  of Bancroft relative to the etymology of a name, 322;
  of Father Nobili concerning the Chilcotins, 335;
  of Dr. Bryce concerning Red River matters, 347, _et seq._;
  of Bishop Blanchet with regard to the terminus of Father Demers' missions, 341;
  of an anonymous author relative to New Caledonia matters, 349, _et seq._

Moberly, J., 307;
  arrives at Stuart Lake, 308;
  is bought out, 312.

Monopoly, 153.

Montreal, 33, 50, 120, 170, 179.

Moore, Capt. Wm., 323.

Moose, 38.

Morice Lake, 2;
  and smallpox, 308.

Moricetown, 8;
  population of, 196;
  first visited, 351.

Morwick, W., appointed to Fort Babine, 211;
  has a difference with an Indian, 213;
  is killed, 214.

Mosley, 315.

Murders, 95;
  of Iroquois, 97;
  of Chilcotins and Carriers, 124;
  of a woman and child, 135;
  of women, 136;
  of employees at Fort George, 137;
  of two Indians, 220;
  of Blanger, 267;
  of innocent persons by D. McLean, 269;
  of Tlhelh by his uncle, 272;
  of white men by the Chilcotins, 315, 316.

Murray, A. C., 332.

Mutiny among Mackenzie's crew, 46.


Naas River post, 172.

Nadetnoerh, incites to murder, 266;
  is killed, 269.

Nagailer Indians, 51.

Nahanais Indians, 5;
  visited by R. Campbell, 207;
  shoot a medicine-man, 289.

Na[']kwoel, 9;
  is put down, 11;
  aging, 13;
  dies, 14.

Naskhu[']tins, 21;
  go to war, 22;
  massacred, 25;
  their chief village visited by Mackenzie, 48;
  friendly towards a murderer, 271.

Nathadilhthoelh, saves his sister, 22;
  intercedes for J. Douglas, 144;
  his camp attacked, 162.

Nation Lake, 3.

Nation River, 3;
  passed by Fraser, 59.

Nechaco River, 3;
  unnoticed by Mackenzie, 51.

Nelson, trader, 325.

Nets, ancient fish, 13, 131.

New Caledonia, 1;
  physical aspect, 2;
  flora, 2;
  lakes, 2, 3;
  rivers, 3;
  origin of the name, 64;
  its status in connection with the H. B. Co., 103;
  everything in tatters, 248.

Newspaper in Cariboo, 306.

New Westminster, its site passed by Fraser, 81;
  founded, 295.

New Year's Day, 37;
  drinking, 87, 90;
  festivities described, 150, 151;
  feasting, 161.

Neztel, 272;
  kills his nephew, 272.

Nicolay, Rev. C. G., inaccurate regarding a date, 54;
  and geography, 185.

Nobili, Father, 236;
  shy, 237;
  on the native population, 335.

Noblemen, native, 5;
  killed, 22.

North-West Fur Trading Company, 33;
  coalesces with the H. B. Co., 101.

Norway House, American head-quarters for the H. B. Co., 121, 179.


Oblates, founded, 334;
  their missionary system, 336.

O'Donoghue, 347.

Officers of the H. B. Co., 107;
  generally conscientious, 252.

Ogden, Peter, blamed by Paul Fraser, 279;
  at Alexandria, 289;
  succeeds Manson, 290;
  dies, 326.

Ogden, Peter Skene, his parentage, 171;
  goes to Naas River and to Stuart Lake, 172;
  his characteristics, 172, 173;
  with missionaries, 173;
  on the Indians, 180;
  on the murder of S. Black, 181;
  inclined to kindness, 200;
  reproves Thew, 202;
  on tact with the natives, 204;
  gives instructions regarding the avenging of Morwick's death, 214, 215;
  on the Dns, 217;
  favors the missions, 227;
  on Blanger, 261;
  the inspirer, not the author, of an anonymous book, 350, 351.

Okanagan Forks, 231, 236.

Omineca mines, 322, _et seq._

Omineca River, 3;
  etymology of the name, 322.

O'Reilly, P., 325.

Origin of the Dns, 7.

"Otter," steamer, 292.


Pacific Fur Co., 94.

Pack River, 3;
  ascended by Fraser, 54.

Palmer, Lieut., high-handed, 317.

Pambrun, P. C., at Fort Kilmars, 125;
  his history, 129, 130;
  at Stuart Lake, 129.

Parchment for window panes, 130, 214, 289.

Parsnip River, 3;
  its source reached by Mackenzie, 39;
  ascended by Finlay, 52, and by Fraser, 54.

Peace River, 52;
  mines, 309.

Peni, 239;
  works wonders, 240.

Personnel in New Caledonia, under S. Fraser, 70;
  under Connolly, 129;
  under P. S. Ogden, 175;
  under Manson, 275;
  under P. Ogden, 307.

Petersen, 315.

"Pesta," an armor, 17.

Peters Lake, 3, 69.

Pike, Warburton, quoted, 207.

Pinche Indians debauched, 311, 312.

Pinche River, 66.

Pine, black, 2.

Poll, Deed, of the united Companies, 101;
  new, 108.

Polygamy, 115;
  at Fort George, 196.

Pond, P., 33.

Population, native, on Lake Stuart, 65;
  on Babine Lake, 92;
  around Alexandria, 123;
  of the whole district, 195;
  decreasing, 195;
  in the north, 335.

Porteous, William, 245;
  dissatisfied with Fort Connolly, 249;
  escapes to Stuart Lake, 250;
  departs from the country, 251.

Postmasters, 105, 211.

Potatoes, grown at Fort Fraser, 178;
  costly at the mines, 306.

Potlatch, 6;
  countenanced by the H. B. Co.'s people, 115;
  given by [']Kwah, 164, 197.

Pouce-coup, 137.

Priests, see Missionaries;
  counterfeit, 238;
  cannot be Fenians, 347.

Prince, the, at Babine, 222;
  assailed by Manson, 284;
  threatens Fort St. James, 285;
  makes himself disagreeable, 286;
  trades at Quesnel, 324.

Produce, country, 192.

Profits of the H. B. Co., 111, 112;
  according to McLean, 169;
  in P. S. Ogden's time, 174.

Prophets, false, 238, 240;
  true, 352.

Prospectors, gold, go overland to Cariboo, 298, _et seq._;
 eat one another, 301.

Provisions, costly, 306, 330.


Quesnel, J. M., arrives in New Caledonia, 70;
  accompanies Frazer, 73.

Quesnel River, 3;
  as a mining field, 295, 296.

Quesnel, village, 269;
  flourishing, 306;
  as a trading post, 317.


Radisson, P. E., 102.

Rae, Dr. J., explorer, 326.

Railway, transcontinental, 313.

Rattray, Dr. A., 49, 68.

Red River troubles, earlier, 99, 107;
  later, 347, 348.

Reid, Sen. Jas., 330;
  his strenuous life, 331;
  his final success, 332.

Religion of the natives, 5, 225;
  in later times, 238.

Religious excitements, 225, 239.

Rennie brothers, their awful experiences, 300, _et seq._

Rey Lake, 2.

Reynard, Rev. Mr., 333.

Riel Rising not a rebellion, 348.

Rising of the natives, against J. Douglas, 140, _et seq._;
  against Thew, 203, 204;
  against Manson, 285;
  of Riel against Canada, 348.

Rites, propitiatory, 27.

Rivalries between trading Companies, 52, 102;
  between local traders, 154.

Rivers, 2.

Road, waggon, 304, 305, 313, 322.

Rocher Dboul, 209, 239.

Rocky Mountain Portage, 54.

Rose, miner, 298.

Ross, Alexander, mistaken, 162.

Ross, Charles, 125;
  at Fort Connolly, 134.

Ross, John, killed, 34.

Roussain, Mr., 166.

Route, convoy, 70;
  a new one sought, 71;
  another adopted, 122;
  still another proposed, 246;
  a different one sought, 257, which is found unsatisfactory, 258;
  another still, 278;
  to the Cariboo mines, 304, 313;
  to Omineca, 322.

Russians early equip a trading expedition, 346;
  furnish iron to the natives of America, 346.


Salmon, abundant at Stuart Lake, 68;
  staple food of the natives, 95;
  sent by S. Black, 155;
  its bad effects on some constitutions, 178;
  the way to catch it, 187;
  from Babine Lake, 223.

Saloon at Stuart Lake, 324.

Samalh[']ti, 19.

Scalping, 115;
  ordered by an H. B. Co. officer, 272;
  Tlhelh scalped, 273;
  repugnant to the Western Dns, 274.

Schubert, 300.

Sekanais Indians, 4;
  their original habitat, 29;
  oppressed by the Beavers, 30, _et seq._;
  they retaliate, 32;
  great gamblers, 166;
  first visited by the missionary, 333;
  good Christians, 342.

Selkirk, Lord, 99.

Semple, Gov., killed, 99, 100.

Servants of the H. B. Co., 104;
  re-engaged with difficulty, 112;
  desert, 179;
  their morals, 179.

Seven Oaks, skirmish, 99.

Seymour, Gov., 318.

Shamans, 6. See Medicine-men.

Shares of the H. B. Co., 107.

Shushwaps, 43;
  found among Carriers, 44;
  vocabulary of their language, 51.

Simpson River, or Skeena, 136.

Simpson, Sir Geo., 80;
  winters at Lake Athabaska, 120;
  an able man, 148;
  visits Stuart Lake, 149;
  on McIntosh's murder, 185;
  reproves Manson, 281, 282.

Simpson, Thomas, 170.

Skeena Valley, 57;
  long unvisited by whites, 58.

Skenes, the, 171.

Skins received, 189.

Smallpox, 307;
  at Bella-Coola, 317.

Smet, Father De, 226, 228.

Smith, Jim, ferryman, 314.

Snyder's Bar, 295.

Soap, eaten, 62;
  made at Stuart Lake, 161.

Soda Creek, 74.

Somerset, H. S., quoted from, 343.

Sorcery, 28.

Soullier, Lake, 2.

Spaniards, 35.

Spirits, first introduced at Fraser Lake, 87;
  allowed the officers, 178. See Liquor.

Squirrel, causes emigration, 8.

Starvation, at Fort St. James, 67, 88;
  in the Red River colony, 129;
  in the woods, 135;
  on the Peace River, 177.

Steamer at Stuart Lake, 323.

Stickeen River, descended by R. Campbell, 207.

St. James, Fort, its site first visited, 55;
  founded, 63;
  personnel, 94;
  the great northern emporium, 176;
  reached by Father Demers, 233.

St. James' Journal, Fort, on murders, 95. See Journal.

St. Louis, 229.

St. Mary's Lake, 3, 69;
  visited by smallpox, 308.

Stony Creek, 69.

Strathcona, Lord, 128.

Stuart, John, 58;
  passes his first winter in New Caledonia, 70;
  rides by the Fraser, 76;
  succeeds Fraser, 84;
  his connection with the District, 85;
  characteristics, 93;
  goes in search of a new route, 94;
  buys out the Pacific Fur Co., 94;
  on the resources and the aborigines of New Caledonia, 95;
  retires from the district, 126;
  unhappy in his domestic life, 127;
  dies, 128.

Stuart Lake, 2;
  discovered, 62;
  described, 63, 64;
  its altitude, 64;
  its population, 196.

Stuart River, 3.

Sturgeon, 3.

Subscriptions, for mission work, 227, 228.

Sunday work, 119.

Superintendents of New Caledonia, 345.

"Sutlej," steamship, 318.

Syllabary invented for the Indians, 344.

Symington, Dr., 300.


Tach, Archbishop A., 349.

Tanewill, Chief, 210, 212.

Tatla Lake, 2.

Tax on miners, 293.

Taya, Chief, 14.

Taylor propagates smallpox, 317.

Taylor, Capt., and whiskey, 293.

Telegraph line, predicted, 240;
  built, 321.

Tte Jaune Cache, 157;
  the route of the newcomers, 179;
  reached by overland party of miners, 299.

Thachek village, 16, 19;
  populous, 28, 69.

Thach River, 66.

Thalhthan village, 5.

Thew, W., 199;
  accuses Paul Fraser, 200;
  takes exception to P. S. Ogden's statements, 201;
  is reproved, 202;
  causes discontent, 203.

Thompson, David, explorer, 93.

Thompson River District, 186.

Titles in the H. B. Co., 107;
  sought after, 109.

Tlhelh, 266;
  shoots Blanger, 267;
  is killed by his uncle, 272.

Tloeng, threatens Douglas, 143;
  escapes from Fort St. James, 151.

Tluzkuz. See Lhus[']koez.

Tobacco, 36;
  wondered at, 62;
  among the Shushwaps, 74.

Tod, John, 129, 276;
  a member of Douglas's first Government, 287.

Todd, William, on liquor for the Indians, 116;
  appointed to a new post, 244.

Toeneza, 5. See Noblemen.

Toeyen, 55;
  goes to meet Fraser, 61;
  deposed, 88.

Toin, Charles, causes trouble, 212;
  escapes to Stuart Lake, 214.

"Tonquin" ship, captured, 37.

Toy, Peter, 310.

Trade, articles of, 55, 111;
  native produce, 130;
  in P. S. Ogden's time, 190.

Traders, free, 309;
  disliked, 310. See Toy, P.

Traders, Chief, 98, 107, 108;
  Junior Chief, 109;
  two of them simultaneously in New Caledonia, 242.

Trading, 57;
  with the sea coast Indians, 63;
  how it was done at the forts, 111;
  profitable, 112;
  prosperous at Babine, 125;
  on the Skeena, 165;
  and bartering, 175;
  for liquor, 311.

Trains, dog, 133, 194.

Traps, salmon, 187, 188;
  bear, 169.

Trembl Lake, 2.

Trials, judicial, unknown in New Caledonia, 118, 145, 273.

Tsalekulhy, 20;
  killed, 22.

Tsechah, 9. See Fallen Rock.

Tsimpsians, traders, 57, 88;
  serious competitors, 165;
  with the Babines, 176, 209.

Tsinkoet Lake, 24.

T[']soelkwet, 25, 26.

Tsohtaih, 25;
  his body gives the alarm, 26.

Turner Lake, 3.

Tzoelhnolle, James Douglas's victim, 142.


Utzi-lla-e[']ka, 27.

Uzakle, Indian prophet, 238. See Peni.


Vancouver, Fort, 103, 194, 227.

Vancouver Island, ceded to the Hudson's Bay Company, 287.

Vendettas, countenanced by the H. B. Co., 118;
  at Babine, 221. See Wars.

Vicariate Apostolic of the Columbia, erected, 236.

Victoria becomes the capital of Vancouver Island, 287.

Vowell Lake, 3.

Voyageurs with Mackenzie, 38.


Waccan, 58;
  accompanies Fraser, 73;
  on the war-path, 147;
  goes to avenge Morwick's murder, 215;
  his status in the Company, 253;
  gets married, 253;
  his services, 254;
  as a policeman, 255;
  captures a deserter, 256;
  is sent to Alexandria, 256;
  dies, 257.

Waddington, Alfred, and his road, 313;
  on the causes of the Chilcotin massacre, 316.

Waggon road, to Canada, 304. See Road.

Wallace, editor, 306.

Walla Walla, Fort, 130, 133, 218.

War, 15, _et seq._;
  22, 23, _et seq._;
  Crimean, 287, 288.

Weaver, Geo., 296.

Western Union Telegraph Co., 321.

Wheat, raised at Alexandria, 122;
  ground by hand, 183.

Whitefish, 66.

Whymper, Fred., quoted, 313-315.

Wig, ceremonial, 18.

William, Fort, 53, 128.

Williams Creek, 296.

Williams Lake Mission established, 335.

Window panes, parchment, 130, 214;
  eaten by dogs, 235.

Woman purchased, 58.

Work, John, 275.

Wright, G. B., roadmaker, 304, 322.


X. Y. Company, 50, 51, 53.


Yale, Fort, its site reached by S. Fraser, 79;
   its Indians massacre the whites, 294.

Yale, J. M., at Stuart Lake, 129;
  suspended, 138;
  meets the Governor, 149;
  a good trader, 326.

Yoentoelh, 17.

Yokogh, 131.


Transcriber's Note:

Some minor spelling errors have been corrected silently, and grammar,
punctuation, spelling and vocabulary of the time has been preserved to
the maximum extent consistent with readability.


The following changes have been made:

1. Table of Contents--chapter XVII--typo 'disdemeanors' corrected
   to 'misdemeanors'

2. List of Illustrations--page reference for [']Kwah's Grave
   corrected to 196

3. page 43--footnote marker added to text, referencing Footnote 26

4. page 66--missing words 'mouth of the' inserted

5. page 80--replaced 'canons' with 'caons'

6. page 95--corrected error 'McLeod's Lake' to 'McLeod Lake'




[End of _The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia_
by A. G. Morice]
