On the third day, the three French men-of-war set sail for York, leaving Churchill in flames. Outward bound, one of the Company ships was sighted coming into Churchill. The French gave chase till seven in the evening, but the English captain led off through such shoal water the French desisted with a single chance volley in the direction of the fleeing fur ship.

On August 20, the Company ship lying at York observed a strange fleet some twenty miles off shore landing men on Nelson River behind York, which faced Hayes River. From plans taken at Churchill, La Perouse had learned that York was weakest to the rear. There were in the fort at that time sixty English and twelve Indians with some twenty-five cannon and twelve swivel guns on the galleries. There was a supply of fresh water inside the fort with thirty head of cattle; but a panic prevailed. All the guns were overset to prevent the French using them, and the English ship scudded for sea at nightfall.

The French meanwhile had marched across the land behind York and now presented themselves at the gates. The governor, Humphry Martin, welcomed them with a white flag in his hand. Umfreville, who gives the account of the surrender, was among the captured. His disgust knew no bounds. “The enemy’s ships lay at least twenty miles from the factory in a boisterous sea,” he writes, “and could not co-operate with the troops on shore. The troops had no supplies. Cold, hunger and fatigue were hourly working in our favor. The factory was not in want of a single thing to withstand siege. The people showed no fear but the reverse. Yet the English governor surrendered without firing a gun.”

The French did not attempt to occupy the forts, which they had captured, but retired with the officers as prisoners, and with the plunder. By October the Company had received letters from the prison at Dinan Castle, France, asking for the ransom of the men. By May, the ransomed men were in London, and by June back at their posts on the bay.

Notes to Chapter XIX.—As stated elsewhere, Cocking classified the Blackfeet Confederacy as Waterfall Indians, composed of Powestic Athinuewuck, Mithco Athinuewuck, (Blood); Koskiton Wathesitock (Blackfeet); Pegonow (Piegan); Sassewuck (Sarcee). Cocking’s Journal is in the Hudson’s Bay Company House, London, and in the Canadian Archives, Ottawa.

The account of Hearne’s Voyages will be found in “Pathfinders of the West,” or in the accounts by himself, (1) the report submitted to the H. B. C., (2) his published journals in French and English, of which I used the French edition of 1799, which is later and fuller than either his report to the H. B. C. or the English book.

I find the beaver receipts of this period as follows:

A. F. (Albany Fort)21,454
M. R. (Moose)8,860
E. M. (East Main)7,626
YF. & SF. (York & Severn)37,861
C. R. (Churchill)9,400

Churchill and York, of course, included the inland trade.