Rupert House, Rupert River, James Bay, as it is To-day.
A letter to the Secretary of State, dated Sept. 25, 1675, relates: “This day came The Shaftsbury Pink ffrom Hudson Baye. Capt. Shopard, ye capt. tiles me thay found a franch Jesuit thare that did endeavor to convert ye Indians & persuad them not to trade with ye English, for wh. reason they have brought him away with them.... Capt. Gillam we expect to-morrow.”
Later: “This day is arrived Capt. Gillam. I was on board of him and he tells me they were forced to winter there and spend all their Provisions. They have left only four men to keep possession of the place. I see the French Jesuit is a little ould man.”
CHAPTER VIII
1670-1870
“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
Just where the world’s traffic converges to that roaring maelstrom in front of the Royal Exchange, London—on Lime Street, off Leadenhall Street—stands an unpretentious gray stone building, the home of a power that has held unbroken sway over the wilds of America for two-and-a-half centuries. It is the last of those old companies granted to royal favorites of European courts for the partitioning of America.
To be sure, when Charles II signed away sole rights of trade and possession to all countries bordering on the passage supposed to lead from the Atlantic to the South Sea, he had not the faintest notion that he was giving to “the Gentlemen Adventurers of England Trading on Hudson’s Bay,” three-quarters of a new continent. Prince Rupert, Albermarle, Shaftsbury, the Carteretts and half a dozen others had helped him back to his throne, and with a Stuart’s good-natured belief that the world was made for the king’s pleasure, he promptly proceeded to carve up his possessions for his friends. Only one limitation was specified in the charter of 1670—the lands must be those not already claimed by any Christian power.