Canada To-day and To-morrow

by Arthur E. Copping

United as one company, the fur traders flourished exceedingly, and came in time to exercise authority, not merely throughout the present Dominion, but over territory since absorbed into the American Republic, besides extending their sway to Alaska and across the ocean to the Sandwich Islands—a tolerably large area to be exploited in the interests of the iron box of Fenchurch Street. The coming of human settlers to disturb the furry quadrupeds was, of course, a calamity to be prevented, or at any rate delayed, by all the power and statecraft at the company’s command. But the tide of democracy could not for ever be resisted, and the pelt-collectors’ title to a huge empire melted before the hard facts of American, British and Russian occupation.

The company was not so foolish as to take up arms in defence of its flimsy rights. Its policy was to hinder human encroachment as long as possible, and then bow to the inevitable. By 1835 its spheres of influence had sadly dwindled, and its titles to territorial possession were becoming more and more shadowy. The governor and his committee perceived the necessity for doing something to arrest the decay of their power and prestige. So it was the strange fate of the Red River colony to be bought back by the Hudson’s Bay Company, for a sum of £84,000, from the heirs of Lord Selkirk. In that colony the fur traders now established an autocratic government that aimed primarily at the vigorous suppression of all private trade in pelts. It was not long before the settlers were gasping for freedom. Vainly they demanded the representative government that had been secured under the American flag by their comrades in Minnesota. At the opening of the second half of the nineteenth century, indeed, the fate of the Red River settlement—the pioneer colony of the West—hung in the balance. Would it, like Oregon, join the Union? In that critical situation, an independent element of unrest was provided by the growing discontent of the Half-Breeds. For long years past, the fur traders—and more particularly the French Nor’-Westers—had intermarried with the Indians, and brought into existence that numerous, pathetic people, who inherited the conflicting traditions of two races.

In view of growing unrest in the Red River settlement, the Home Government instituted a Parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the Hudson’s Bay Company. That inquiry seemed to effect nothing. But, hey presto! a change came over the position immediately afterwards. In 1863 a syndicate of capitalists, known as the International Financial Association, bought up the Hudson’s Bay Company for £1,500,000, and turned over the concern to new shareholders in a new Hudson’s Bay Company on a footing of increased capital. The tension was relieved; for public interests were represented by a wisely-controlled force working in the background. With the confederation in 1867 of Canada East, Canada West, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the creation of the Dominion of Canada commenced. The newly established Federal Government promptly arrived at an understanding whereby the Hudson’s Bay Company relinquished any rights of territorial administration it may anywhere have possessed; and in 1870 the Red River colony became the Province of Manitoba and an invaluable part of the Dominion of Canada.

But before suffering the Company to pass out of this narrative, I must satisfy the reader’s curiosity concerning the terms it secured. It received a money payment of £300,000; it was granted one-twentieth of the arable land in the country over which, at the date of the arrangement, it held dominion; and its title to all land on which its forts stood was confirmed. Probably the shareholders have never regretted the bargain made on their behalf. “How valuable one-twentieth of the arable land was to prove,” says Agnes Laut, “the company itself did not realise till recent days, and what wealth it gained from the cession of land where its forts stood may be guessed from the fact that at Fort Garry (Winnipeg) this land comprises five hundred acres of what are now city lots at metropolitan values.” Moreover, I understand that the business of collecting furs is still a lucrative one; while visitors to Canada will not fail to notice, in all the great cities, the magnificent general stores of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

OLD FORT GARRY, WINNIPEG

NEW UNION STATION, WINNIPEG

One regrettable fact has to be noted in connection with the creation of the Province of Manitoba. The anxious and bewildered Half-Breeds, fearing their interests were in peril, rose in rebellion under Louis Riel, the trouble not being repressed until Colonel (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley crossed the continent with an armed force. The growth of Manitoba under representative government has been one of the most inspiring achievements of modern times; but the history of that province merges at this point into the history of Western Canada, to which it had become the open door.

Western Canada provided the Federal Government with several problems, of which the most pressing concerned the status of the roving bands of Indians. In the States, civilisation was driving back the natives with fire and sword. In Canada, recourse was had to milder and more effective methods. But in one respect the Yankees and the Canadians acted in concert. They joined in a war of extermination against the buffalo. Of the number of those animals roaming the prairie, it is difficult for anybody nowadays to form a conception. One traveller recorded that he rode for twenty-five miles through an unbroken herd, which he estimated to include one million animals. In the States, “Buffalo Bill” (Colonel Cody) took an active part in the work of extermination. He is credited with shooting forty-eight of the poor creatures in fifty minutes. In a period of some eighteen months—when he was under contract to supply all the meat needed by the huge army of men engaged in constructing the Kansas Pacific Railway—he accounted for 4,280 buffaloes. On both sides of the international boundary line, the country was swept clean of these fine beasts. I have seen places on the prairie white with an accumulation of their bones, whereof the weathered relics may still be found.