Possessing only the plain leading facts of this affair[25], it is not easy to determine how far existing circumstances might have justified such an act of severity towards an ignorant being, who was also, perhaps, totally innocent. The reasons ought certainly to have been weighty which induced them to put the poor man to death; and I hope they will be able hereafter to reconcile the deed to God and to their own consciences.
After this time, Richmond was abandoned as a permanent establishment; and they fell into the present method of visiting this place only during the fishing season, and returning to pass the winter at East-Main Factory. Captain Turner, however, represented to the Hudson’s-Bay Company, that, in his opinion, want of perseverance was alone necessary to render Richmond a safe and permanent settlement; and that, by having people on the spot, ready to begin fishing early in the spring of the year, much greater profit would necessarily accrue to the Company. Accordingly, he received directions to take thither seven people, who were to remain at Richmond during the whole winter. In the spring of the succeeding year, the northern or Hunting Indians, who had visited Richmond in pursuit of game, came, as usual, to barter their furs at East-Main Factory; at the same time bringing the dreadful intelligence that the seven unfortunate Europeans had been murdered by the Esquimaux. The bodies of some of the settlers were afterwards found; although it be by no means certain that they were killed by the Esquimaux: such, however, is a fair presumption, as this people had before displayed a hostile disposition in the case of the boy; and the place was rifled of all the metal, of which the Esquimaux are known to be remarkably fond: add to this, that the northern Indians had long been accustomed to trade yearly at East Main, and no instance had ever been known of their behaving with treachery towards the Europeans.
On the other hand, we must allow, that the Hunting Indians and the Esquimaux live in a state of constant enmity, and, consequently, that their evil reports of each other should be cautiously received. It is also certain, that the northern Indians are as partial to spirituous liquors as the Esquimaux are to metals. Three bloody shirts, belonging to the murdered settlers, were found in the tent of a northern Indian, which he alleged to have taken from the bodies of the slain, after the Esquimaux had quitted them. Upon the whole, it remains uncertain whether the settlers at Richmond perished by the hands of the Esquimaux, or by those of the northern Indians: for my own part, I should be inclined to the former opinion. This catastrophe has effectually put a stop to any further attempts towards establishing a permanent settlement at Richmond Bay.
The following anecdote of Mr. Darby, the father of the celebrated Mrs. Mary Robinson, will shew that the Esquimaux are of a treacherous disposition, and extremely averse from any settlements being made on their coasts.
Mr. Darby had long fostered in his mind a scheme of establishing a whale fishery upon the coast of Labrador, and of civilizing the Esquimaux Indians, in order to employ them in the extensive undertaking. Hazardous and wild as this plan appeared to his wife and to his friends, Mr. Darby persevered in his resolution to prosecute it; and actually obtained the approbation and encouragement of some of the leading men at that time in power, who promoted his designs. To facilitate the execution of his plan, he deemed it necessary to reside at least two years in America. His wife felt an invincible antipathy for the sea, and, of course, heard his determination with horror. The pleadings of affection, of reason, and of prudence, were alike ineffectual, and he sailed for America.
The issue of this rash enterprise proved quite as unfortunate as it was predicted. Mr. Darby had embarked in it his whole fortune; and it failed. The noble patrons of his plan deceived him in their assurances of marine protection, and the island of promise became a scene of desolation. “The Indians rose in a body, burnt his settlement, murdered many of his people, and turned the product of their toil adrift on the merciless ocean.”—This great misfortune was followed by other commercial losses; and the family of this too enterprising man were, in consequence, reduced from a state of affluence and luxury to a very different condition[26].
Having now described the whole of the Factories established upon the sea-coast of Hudson’s Bay, it will be necessary to say something of the interior: this is so far from being unknown, that a man may with safety travel from Hudson’s Bay to Quebec, in Canada, by land. The Hudson’s-Bay Company have many small factories, or rather mart-houses, dispersed in all directions, for upwards of one thousand miles in the interior; to which the Indians bring furs, feathers, quills, &c. in exchange for cloths, blankets, ammunition, fowling-pieces, trinkets, &c. The furs thus collected are sent down the rivers, in large boats, to the factories on the sea-coast, whence they are shipped off for Europe, as before described. There is great jealousy existing between the Hudson’s-Bay traders and the Canadian Company, styled the North-West Adventurers, respecting the traffic in peltry with the Indians. As the mart-houses of the two parties meet inland, each uses all the means in its power to induce the natives to barter furs with themselves, in preference to their opponents: nay, to such a pitch have they carried their mutual animosity, that it is not long since a man in the Company’s employ actually killed a Canadian trader, in a dispute relative to the purchase of some furs from the Indians; for which offence the culprit was tried at Montreal: and as it appeared that the Canadian had given him sufficient provocation, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter.
The Indians have not failed to observe this competition, so impolitic on both parts, and they profit by it accordingly.
Each factory and mart-house has its Chief, appointed by the Company; and there is also a northern and southern Superintendant, who is directed to visit all the places of note within his district, at least once in the year. The northern department comprises Churchill, York, and Severn factories, on the coast; and the southern embraces Albany, Moose, East Main, and Richmond. To determine the interior limits of each, an imaginary line of demarcation is drawn east and west from Hudson’s Bay to the Stony Mountains.
With respect to the inhabitants of this vast desert I shall say but little, as Sir Alexander McKenzie has given a very full description of the various tribes by which it is peopled[27]. The most populous of all, perhaps, are the Cree Indians: they appear to me to be the same race described by the before-mentioned author, under the name of Knisteneaux. They occupy the country from Churchill nearly as far south as Moose, and are found scattered almost as far to the west as the Stony Mountains; but their numbers have been much diminished of late, owing to the small-pox. When this dreadful malady first reached this country, as the Indians were not aware of any remedy by which they could counteract its violence, they were accustomed to leave the person afflicted in the midst of a wood, with a sufficient stock of food for two or three days’ subsistence; and when this scanty provision was expended, the unhappy victim must have necessarily perished with hunger. The banks of the rivers, for a time, exhibited a most loathsome spectacle, of bodies which had thus fallen a sacrifice to this disorder.