36. HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, The.* This great trading company has been in opera tion under its present charter for two and one third centuries. Its charter, which is a very generous one, was given by easy-going Charles II. The company owes its origin to the adven tures in the New World of two French Hu guenots, Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart (afterward Sieur de Groseilliers, or familiarly Gooseberre). It is claimed that in 1662 these daring spirits reached James • The charter of this company is given to the -Gov ernor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay." Prom this it has been usual to employ the title "Hudson's Bay Company," using the form of the name of Hudson, the discoverer. e bay itself, as in the case of Hudson River. has name spelt by the geographers without the apos trophe and s.
Bay, the southern lobe of Hudson Bay. This is entirely improbable, as in that year they are known to have been in Lac des mulles Lacs, now northern Minnesota. (See the discussion on this matter in the author's
The second period of Hudson's Bay Com pany history is that involving the local opposi tion in England to the traders. Between the treaties of Ryswick (1697) and Utrecht (1713), the menaces of the French destroyed the fur trade, but after the latter treaty, from which time the bay has remained continuously En lish, the affairs of the company improved. This roused the envy of a number of merchants, a leader among them being an Irish gentleman named Arthur Dobbs. He advocated an expedi tion to explore the Northwest Passage, raised by subscription a large sum to send out a ship to rival the company, and though his expedition did not accomplish much, yet the Hudson's Bay Company was disturbed, was put on its mettle, and the struggle as recorded in the government bluebook of 1749 became very interesting. A more serious movement, however, began in French Canada. The charter of the .company gave it the trade of all the lands and streams within ((Hudson's Streights,° with one most important limitation, namely, except those ((which are not now actually possessed by any of our subjects, or by the subjects of any other Christian prince or state?' Long before the Hudson's Bay Company penetrated Rupert's Land, the French ascended the Great Lakes, and 20 or 30 years before the English had reached the Saskatchewan River from Hudson Bay explored the river system of Rupert's Land and came in sight of the Rocky Moun tains. This feat was accomplished by Sieur de la Verendrye, who in 1738 caused a fort to be erected on the site of the present city of Winni peg, and took possession of the country for the King of France. The conquest of Canada by Wolfe put an end to this French occupation, but as later discussions show left it a part of Canada. Soon after the conquest of Canada, however, a critical movement took place in the effort of the Hudson's Bay Company to pene trate the interior from the bay, on whose shores for nearly a century it had lain in slumber. This advance was under the leadership of one of the captains of exploration, Samuel Hearne, a Hudson's Bay Company officer, sometimes called the aldungo Park of Canada?) Hearne discovered the Coppermine River and followed it to its mouth on the Arctic Sea. He, too, first of white men saw Great Slave Lake. But, also, shortly after the transfer of Canada from France to England, Scottish traders from Montreal began to ascend the waterways of Canada, and to pass from Lake Superior on to Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River, the very centre of Rupert's Land. Alexander Henry (1760), Thomas Curry, James Finlay and the brothers Frobisher, traders from Montreal, led the way and reached the Saskat chewan. Hearne from Hudson Bay heard of the Canadian traders having built a fort at Sturgeon Lake, and two years later (1774) ac cepted the gage of battle, and built Fort Cumberland alongside of his rivals on the Saskatchewan. The war of the giants had now begun, and for well-nigh 50 years it raged with increasing rancor and bitterness. Out of the movement of the Scottish merchants named, from Montreal, grew the union of traders (1783-84) known as the Northwest Company. Its leading traders were Frobisher, Mackenzie, McLeod, McGillivray, Grant, Cameron and greatest of all Simon McTavish — familiarly called aLe premier,° and the founder of the Northwest Company. The magnates of this
great company Washington Irving has charac terized as the ((Lords of the Lakes and Their trade was enormous and extended to the coast of the Pacific Ocean itself. Toward the end of the century (179t5-99) one year's produc tion of furs was 106,000 beavers, 32 martens, 11,800 mink, 17,000 musquash — counting alto gether 184,000 skins. At this time the North west Company employed, besides officers and partners, 50 higher clerks, 71 interpreters and clerks, 1,200 canoemen and 35 guides. But the Hudson's Bay Company was not to be beaten. They were able to carry goods from the sea coast of Hudson Bay to the inland parts of Rupert's Land earlier in the season, even in the Red River districts, than the Noe-Westers were able to do by the long river and lake route from Montreal. They duplicated all the forts of the Northwest Company. The confusion be came worse confounded when the Northwest Company divided (1796) into two rival fac tions, the rebels forming themselves into the °New Northwest Company* or °Alexander Mackenzie and Company,* more familiarly, however, known as the °KY,* the name being from the letters of the alphabet following the initials of the old company N.W. The young company was intensely active, and about this time, but only for a short period, the introduc tion of dangerous amounts of strong drink took place among the Indians. After eight years of unprofitable trade the two sections were reunited as the °Northwest Company.* Early in the 19th century a new problem arose. A Scottish nobleman, the Earl of Sel kirk, obtained control of the stock of the Hud son's Bay Company and proceeded to settle up the fertile lands along the Red River, bringing his colonists chiefly from Scotland by way df Hudson Bay. This invasion of the fur-country (1812-15) by farmers the Nor'-Westers strongly resented. They several times drove out, or in veigled away many of the Highland settlers, who were beginning to till the soil within two or three miles of the site of the present city of Winnipeg. Two forts represented the oppos ing parties — Fort Gibraltar, the Northwest Company fort — Fort Douglas, the Lord Sel kirk stronghold. The descendants of the Nor Wester French voyageurs, whose mothers were Indian women, were now becoming numerous and went by the name of Metis (Half-breeds) or Bois-Brides (Charcoal faces). They were chiefly in the employ of the Montreal Company, while the servants of the Hudson's Bay Com pany, largely Orkneymen, were called by their opponents °Les Orcanais.)> Attacks on the forts were begun by the hostile factions, and in 1816 Governor Semple and 20 of his officers were killed by the Bois-Brides, and Fort Doug las was captured. In the next year Lord Sel kirk arrived supported by a band of several hundreds of discharged mercenary soldiers who had fought in the War of 1812-15 in eastern Canada. These his lordship had hired and with their aid Fort Douglas was retaken and the colonists re-established in their farms. About the year 1811 John Jacob Astor of New York engaged a number of men who had been in the Northwest Company and with these estab lished Astoria, a trading post, on the Columbia River. This movement took place by way of the Cape Horn route and the rendezvous was in what was known as the Oregon region. The Nor'-Westers taking advantage of the state of war between Great Britain and the United States seized Astoria and employed the greater number of the Astorians in their posts in New Caledonia, as the region of British Columbia was then called. The conflicts of the various companies in different parts of Rupert's Land, the Mackenzie .River district and New Cale donia well-nigh destroyed the fur trade. Now arose a man who was to be the pacificator and leader of all the fur-traders. This was a young Scottish clerk in the Hudson's Bay Company— George Simpson (see SIMPSON, Sfit GEORGE). On the union of the worn-out companies in 1821, Simpson was made chief officer and in time he became °Eznperor* of the fur company. For 40 years he built up the united company, and spent a portion of his time at Fort Garry, the chief point in Rupert's Land, as it was also the capital of Assiniboia, as the Selkirk colony was legally called. In Assiniboia a community of 12,000 grew up, 5,000 Metis, 5,000 English speaking or locally called Scotch half-breeds, and some 2,000 whites. Not only in this chief settlement, but from Labrador in the Atlantic Ocean to Vancouver Island on the Pacific did the little despot rule. Great forts were scat tered over this wide domain, such as Fort Victoria on the Pacific shore, Fort Simpson in the Mackenzie River district Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, Fort Edmonton on the Saskatchewan River, old Fort Cumberland on the same river, Norway House on Lake Winni peg, York Factory and Fort Churchill on Hud son Bay, Fort William on Lake Superior, Sault Marie, arie, between Lakes Huron and Su perior, the King's post on the lower Saint Law rence River, and Rigolette in extreme Lab rador. From Lachine, his residence, Sir George Simpson dictated law throughout this vast ex tent of country, and compelled order and industry. The company quoting its charter rights was from the first repressive in dealing in its territory with traders other than its own. The usual metaphor for describing Rupert's Land was that it was °surrounded by a Chinese wall.* After a revolt of the Metis in 1849 this largely ceased to be the case. The company always retained the confidence of the Indians, and with practically no police or mili tary maintained a fair state of law and order. The fertile plains of Rupert's Land were visited by several exploratory expeditions shortly after the middle of the 19th century. Some of these were that of Palliser and Hector, 1857, of H. Y. Hind in the same year and of Milton and Cheadle a few years afterward. A famous par liamentary investigation took place in London in the year of Palliser's expedition. Canada was at this time becoming alive to the import rance of the Northwest. Negotiations took place between the British and Canadiangovern ments which culminated in 1868-70 in the vir tual decision that Rupert's Land, and the North ern and Western territories which were leased to the Hudson's Bay Company, should become Canadian. Unskilful dealing on the part of the Dominion government with the people of Red River Settlement led, however, to the Riel re bellion, 1869-70. A military expedition of British troops and Canadian volunteers was sent by the old fur traders' route to Red River but the rebels disappeared before the arrival of the troops. In 1870 the sum of $1,500,000 was paid by Canada to the Hudson's Bay Company to satisfy its claims, the new province of Manitoba was formed by the Canadian Parliament, and thenceforward the West as far as the Rocky Mountains became a part of Canada. Several years afterward British Columbia came into the Dominion as a province.