| PART I | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| PAGE | |
| Henry Hudson’s First Voyage | [3] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| Hudson’s Second Voyage | [16] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Hudson’s Third Voyage | [26] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Hudson’s Fourth Voyage | [49] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| The Adventures of the Danes on Hudson Bay—Jens Munck’s Crew | [72] |
| PART II | |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| Radisson, the Pathfinder, Discovers Hudson Bay and Founds the Company of Gentlemen Adventurers | [97] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| The Adventures of the First Voyage—Radisson Driven Back Organizes the Hudson’s Bay Company and Writes his Journals of Four Voyages—The Charter and the First Shareholders—Adventures of Radisson on the Bay—The Coming of the French and the Quarrel | [111] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| “Gentlemen Adventurers of England”—Lords of the Outer Marches—Two Centuries of Company Rule—Secret Oaths—The Use of Whiskey—The Matrimonial Offices—The Part the Company Played in the Game of International Juggling—How Trade and Voyages Were Conducted | [132] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| If Radisson Can Do Without the Adventurers, the Adventurers Cannot Do Without Radisson—The Eruption of the French on the Bay—The Beginning of the Raiders | [162] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| The Adventurers Furious at Radisson, Find it Cheaper to Have him as a Friend than Enemy and Invite him Back—The Real Reason Why Radisson Returned—The Treachery of Statecraft—Young Chouart Outraged, Nurses his Wrath and Gayly Comes on the Scene Monsieur Péré—Scout and Spy | [180] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| Wherein the Reasons for Young Chouart Groseiller’s Mysterious Message to Our Good Friend “Péré” are Explained—The Forest Rovers of New France Raid the Bay by Sea and Land—Two Ships Sunk—Péré, the Spy, Seized and Sent to England | [198] |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville Sweeps the Bay | [211] |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| D’Iberville Sweeps the Bay (continued) | [228] |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| What Became of Radisson?—New Facts on the Last Days of the Famous Pathfinder | [256] |
| PART III | |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| The First Attempts of the Adventurers to Explore—Henry Kelsey Penetrates as far as the Valley of the Saskatchewan—Sanford and Arrington, Known as “Red Cap,” Found Henley House Inland from Albany—Beset from Without, the Company is also Beset from Within—Petitions Against the Charter—Increase of Capital—Restoration of the Bay from France | [277] |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| Old Captain Knight, Beset by Gold Fever, Hears the Call of the North—The Straits and Bay—The First Harvest of the Sea at Dead Man’s Island—Castaways for Three Years—The Company, Beset by Gold Fever, Increases its Stock—Pays Ten Per Cent. on Twice Trebled Capital—Coming of Spies Again | [298] |
| CHAPTER XVII | |
| The Company’s Prosperity Arouses Opposition—Arthur Dobbs and the Northwest Passage and the Attack on the Charter—No Northwest Passage is Found, but the French Spur the English to Renewed Activity | [320] |
| CHAPTER XVIII | |
| The March Across the Continent Begins—The Company Sends a Man to the Blackfeet of the South Saskatchewan—Anthony Hendry is the First Englishman to Penetrate to the Saskatchewan—The First Englishman to Winter West of Lake Winnipeg—He Meets the Sioux and the Blackfeet and Invites them to the Bay | [334] |
| CHAPTER XIX | |
| Extension of Trade toward Labrador, Quebec and Rockies—Hearne Finds the Athabasca Country and Founds Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan—Cocking Proceeds to the Blackfeet—Howse Finds the Pass in Rockies | [355] |
| CHAPTER XX | |
| “The Coming of the Pedlars”—A New Race of Wood-rovers Throngs to the Northwest—Bandits of the Wilds War Among Themselves—Tales of Border Warfare, Wassail and Grandeur—The New Northwest Company Challenges the Authority and Feudalism of the Hudson’s Bay Company | [389] |
ADDENDA
| PAGE | |
| Map of Hudson’s First and Second Voyages | [22] |
| Map of Hudson’s Third Voyage—Hudson River | [46] |
| Map showing Hudson’s and Munck’s Voyages | [408] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Collier’s Famous Picture of Hudson’s Last Hours | [Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| Prince Rupert | [10] |
| James II, Duke of York | [26] |
| New Amsterdam or New York from an Old Print of 1660 | [34] |
| Albany from an Old Print | [34] |
| The Duke of Marlborough | [42] |
| Le Moyne d’Iberville | [58] |
| Iberville’s Ship Run Aground Off Nelson in a Hurricane | [74] |
| Churchill Harbor as Drawn by Munck | [82] |
| Le Moyne d’Iberville’s French Rangers and Canadian Wood-runners Besieging Fort Nelson | [90] |
| Bienville | [106] |
| Photograph of the Copy of Radisson’s Voyage | [114] |
| Rupert House | [130] |
| Copy of Robson’s Drawing of York Harbor | [170] |
| Silver Fox Skins | [178] |
| Montagu House | [202] |
| Petition of the H. B. C. Signed by Churchill, or Marlborough | [218] |
| Terms of Surrender Between Le Moyne d’Iberville and Governor Walsh at York Fort | [234] |
| Radisson’s House | [258] |
| Fort Rae, on Great Slave Lake | [362] |
| Traders Leaving Athabasca Landing | [378] |
FOREWORD
It HAS become almost a truism to say that no complete account of the Hudson’s Bay Adventurers has yet been written. I have often wondered if the people who repeated that statement knew what they meant. The empire of the fur trade Adventurers was not confined to Rupert’s Land, as specified by their charter. Lords of the Outer Marches, these gay Gentlemen Adventurers setting sail over the seas of the Unknown, Soldiers of Fortune with a laugh for life or death carving a path through the wilderness—were not to be checked by the mere fiction of limits set by a charter. They followed the rivers of their bay south to the height of land, and looking over it saw the unoccupied territory of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi. It was American territory; but what did that matter? Over they marched and took possession in Minnesota and the two Dakotas and Montana. This region was reached by way of Albany River. Then they followed the Saskatchewan up and looked over its height of land. To the north were MacKenzie River and the Yukon; to the west, the Fraser and the Columbia. By no feat of imagination could the charter be stretched to these regions. Canadian merchants were on the field in MacKenzie River. Russians claimed Alaska. Americans claimed Oregon down as far as the Spanish Settlements; but these things did not matter. The Hudson’s Bay Adventurers went over the barriers of mountains and statecraft, and founding their fur empire of wildwood rovers, took toll of the wilderness in cargoes of precious furs outvaluing all the taxes ever collected by a conqueror. All this was not enough. South of the Columbia was an unknown region the size of half Europe—California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho. The wildwood rovers of the Hudson’s Bay Adventurers swept south in pack-horse brigades of two- and three-hundreds from the Columbia to Monterey. Where Utah railroads now run, their trappers found the trail. Where gold seekers toiled to death across Nevada deserts, Hudson’s Bay trappers had long before marched in dusty caravans sweeping the wilderness of beaver. Where San Francisco stands to-day, the English Adventurers once owned a thousand-acre farm. By a bold stroke of statecraft, they had hoped to buy up Mexico’s bad debts and trade those debts for proprietary rights in California. The story of why they failed is theme for novelist or poet rather than historian. Suffice to say, their Southern Brigades, disguised as Spanish horsemen, often went south as far as Monterey. Yet more! The Hudson’s Bay Adventurers had a station half way across the Pacific in Hawaii.
In all, how large was their fur empire? Larger, by actual measurement, much larger, than Europe. Now what person would risk reputation by saying no complete account had yet been written of all Europe? The thing is so manifestly impossible, it is absurd. Not one complete account, but hundreds of volumes on different episodes will go to the making of such a complete history. So is it of the vast area ruled by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The time will come when each district will demand as separate treatment as a Germany, or a France or an Italy in its history. All that can be attempted in one volume or one series of volumes is the portrayal of a single movement, or a single episode, or a single character. In this account, I have attempted to tell the story of the Company only as adventurer, pathfinder, empire-builder, from Rupert’s Land to California—feudal lord beaten off the field by democracy. Where the empire-builder merges with the colonizer and pioneer, I have stopped in each case. In Manitoba, the passing of the Company was marked by the Riel Rebellion; in British Columbia, by the mad gold stampede; in Oregon, by the terrible Whitman massacres; in California, by the fall of Spanish power. All these are dramas in themselves worthy of poet or novelist; but they are not germane to the Adventurers. Therefore, they are not given here. Who takes up the story where I leave off, must hang the narrative on these pegs.
Another intentional omission. From the time the Adventurers wrote off £100,000 loss for search of the North-West Passage, Arctic Exploration has no part in this story. In itself, it is an enthralling story; but to give even the most scrappy reference to it here would necessitate crowding out essential parts of the Adventurers’ record—such as McLoughlin’s transmontane empire, or the account of the South Bound Brigades. Therefore, latter day Arctic work has no mention here. For the same reason, I have been compelled to omit the dramatic story of the early missions. These merit a book to themselves.