Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade 9781487586119

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Spelling and the Use of Terms
1. Introduction
2. The Pedlars and the Approach of the Hudson's Bay Company 1760-88
3. The Hudson's Bay Company Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95
4. McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800
5. The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6
6. The Hudson's Bay Company Prepares to Take the Initiative 1804-14
7. Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21
8. 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2
9. Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6
10. Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department
11. The Coming of the Lumbermen
12. Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions
13. The Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50
14. Realignment with Canada 1850-65
15. Fort Timiskaming in Decline
Biographical Appendix: 'Commanders' of the Timiskaming District 1764-1883
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

ELAINE ALLAN MITCHELL has

Canadian fur trade.

published numerous articles on the

The development of the fur trade in the Timiskaming district of northern Ontario has been largely overlooked until now, mainly because of the lack of records for the period before 1821. This gap has been partially filled by the discovery of private papers in the possession of the late Colonel Angus Cameron of Nairn, S cotland. His great granduncle and grandfather, as well as other members of his family, were involved in the Timiskaming district for almost a century. These papers, plus the voluminous records of the Hudson's Bay Company, have provided the basis for the present study. Mrs Mitchell traces the history of Fort Timiskaming and its subsidiary posts from the first French establishments in the 1670s and 80s until 1870, when the Hudson's Bay territories became part of the new Dominion of Canada. She describes the exploitation of the posts by free traders from Montreal after 1763, their purchase by the North West Company in 1795, the struggle between rival Canadian and English traders before 1821, and the events following the amalgamation in 1821 of the North West and Hudson's Bay companies. She also discusses the effect on the district's fortunes of petty traders, lumbermen, missionaries, and settlers, and offers a general picture of the country and of life at the posts. This is a work that will appeal not only to historians, but to all Canadians interested in Canada's early history.

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ELAINE ALLAN MITCHELL

Fort ,.fi111iskan1ing and the Fur Trade

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto and Buffalo

© University of Toronto Press 1977 Toronto and Buffalo Reprinted 2017

Library of Congress Cataloging

in Publication Data

Mitchel, Elaine Allan, 1909Fort Tirniskarning and the fur trade. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Timiskarning- History. 2. Fort Tirniskaming, Que. 3. Fur trade -Tirniskarning. 4. Hudson's Bay Company. r. Title. F1054.T6M57 971.4'212 76-51782 ISBN 978-0-8020-2234-9 (cloth) This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Research Council of Canada, using funds provided by the Canada Council, and a grant from the Publications Fund of University of Toronto Press.

This book has been published during the sesquicentennial year of the University of Toronto

To the memory of my mother

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Contents

Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Note on Spelling and the Use of Terms xv

1 Introduction 3

2 The Pedlars and the Approach of the Hudson's Bay Company 1760-88

16

3 The Hudson's Bay Company Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95 33 4 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800

52

5 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6

64

6 The Hudson's Bay Company Prepares to Take the Initiative 1804-14

80

viii Contents

7 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21

93

8 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 114 9 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6

131

10 Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department

149

11 The Coming of the Lumbermen 158 12 Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions 174 13 The Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 187 14 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 199 15 Fort Timiskaming in Decline 219 Biographical Appendix: 'Commanders' of the Timiskaming District 1764-1883 231 Notes 249 Bibliography 279 Index 287

Preface

When we consider the amount, and variety, of fur trade material which has been accumulated during the last fifty-odd years, it is indeed re­markable that still so little should be known about the trade in a part of Canada which was both close to Montreal, the centre of the Canadian trade, and among the first to be exploited for its furs. In the days of the French, and later of the English and Scottish traders based on Montreal, the Timiskaming district (or department, as the North West Company referred to it) comprised all the hinterland of James Bay accessible by the Ottawa River and was so called because its headquarters and depot was Fort Timiskaming, on Lake Timiskaming. The Timiskarning posts were scattered from the upper Ottawa valley to the tributaries of the Moose and the Rupert, a number of them close to the sites of modern towns, and during the years when the North West and Hudson's Bay companies battled for control of the northwest trade, the same struggle went on here. But there was one significant difference; in all the expanse of country ruled by Fort Timiskaming the Hudson's Bay Company never gained more than a precarious foothold. After the coalition of the North West and Hudson's Bay companies in 1821 the Timiskaming department was divided into several smaller dis­ tricts, including one of the same name which embraced only two of the former posts, Fort Tin1iskaming and Grand Lac. Both lay south of the Height of Land, the boundary between the Hudson's Bay Company's chartered territories and the provinces of Lower and Upper Canada. Yet even the much-diminished district continued to yield substantial profits for the Hudson's Bay Company until after the middle of the century, and this despite mounting opposition from Canadian petty traders who invaded the district from the Ottawa and Lake Huron, threatening not

x Preface only the Timiskaming trade but that of the Company's more valuable inland districts. Paradoxically, Fort Timiskaming's very proximity to Montreal seems to have been partly responsible for the obscure place it occupies in the history of the Canadian trade. In the first place, the main route of the trade was westward and the Timiskaming district, although exceedingly rich in the quantity and quality of its beaver, always somewhat of a backwater. To the ambitious and daring the northwest offered greater excitement and opportunity; as William McGillivray remarked in 1798, 'our young bucks in the North are apt to think as they go further off that they are better fellows.' 1 But Timiskaming's disadvantage in this respect was matched by another equally important circumstance, namely the anxiety of successive owners to protect an all too vulnerable area from interference from Canada. Under the French, of course, the difficulty hardly arose since the Timiskaming trade, like that of the rest of the country, was controlled by a system of government licences. When Canada became British in 1763, however, the accessible hinter­ land of Montreal was immediately open to the inroads of eager petty traders, unable to command the capital for more ambitious ventures. Later, as more substantial merchants gained control of Fort Timiskam­ ing and its subsidiary posts, they drove out the lesser men, usually by cut-throat competition. Finally, in 1795 McTavish, Frobisher & Co., the North West Company's Montreal agents, acquired the posts and went to even greater lengths to defend them, buying out the petty traders along the lower Ottawa and St Maurice, or coming to other arrangements with them, and thereby erecting a barrier along the district's Canadian bor­ ders. In all this extensive area the new owners looked for advice to the wintering partner at Fort Timiskaming. Such a man might be expected to have held a position of importance in the direction of the North West Company, whose wintering partners increasingly shared in the management of the concern, but in fact the Timiskaming partner never attended the annual rendezvous at Grand Portage or Fort William and the other wintering partners knew little about the Timiskaming business. Instead the agents directed its affairs entirely from Montreal, even its outfits and returns being listed sepa­ rately from those of the 'Nw' in the yearly accounts.2 The result of this arrangement was that the Canadian trade in what later became the province of Ontario was divided in two. The Albany River posts, sup­ plied from Lake Superior and governed from Grand Portage or Fort Wil­ liam, were an integral part of the western trade but the Timiskaming de-

xi Preface partment, which included modern northeastern Ontario and much of northwestern Quebec, formed an entity of its own. After the union of 1821 the former North West Company's Timis­ kaming department was placed under the Council of the Southern De­ partment and the officers at Moose Fort immediately embarked on a policy of supplying the whole area (including the now truncated Timis­ kaming district south of the Height of Land) from the Bay, and of bring­ ing the furs down to Moose Fort instead of sending them to Montreal. Initially, their attempts proved abortive, but after McGillivrays, Thain & Co. failed in 1825 and George Simpson became acting governor of the Southern and Montreal departments in addition to the Northern, he made a much more determined effort to orient the new districts to the Bay. By doing so, he certainly hoped to save money but his principal concern was clearly to separate the region entirely from Canada; 'out of sight,' he reasoned, might in a few years' time become 'out of mind.' As far as the new Timiskaming district was concerned, geographical and lo­ gistic difficulties were eventually to defeat his plans, but qevertheless, for much longer than might have been expected, Fort Timiskaming con­ tinued to be one of the most profitable of all the Company's rich posts. Although several factors have therefore contributed to Timiskaming's long neglect in the history of the fur trade in Canada, the most impor­ tant single circumstance has undoubtedly been the scarcity of surviving records. The French trade in the area is only scantily documented and accounts of the early independent Montreal traders are equally negligi­ ble. Furthermore, in contrast to the history of the northwest trade, for which the Hudson's Bay Company's meticulous Archives have provided a solid basis after 1774 (when the English first settled inland), the depot most closely concerned with the Timiskaming department, Moose Fort, was largely unsuccessful in maintaining posts there. Consequently, with­ out some documentation from the Canadian side, the value of the Company's records for a history of Fort Timiskaming prior to the coali­ tion is limited. Unfortunately the North West Company papers disap­ peared after the failure of the Montreal agents in 1825 and relatively few of them have been recovered. In the case of Timiskaming, moreover, considering its close connections with the agents and its alienation from the northwest trade, presumably the loss has been greater than in the case of any other department. This gap has now been partially filled by valuable private papers be­ longing to the late Colonel Angus Cameron of Firhall, Nairn, Scotland. His great granduncle, 1Eneas Cameron, went to Fort Abitibi in 1788, to

xii Preface be followed at intervals during the next eighty years by other members of his family, who ultimately formed, in Dr Stewart Wallace's words, a veritable 'dynasty of Camerons'3 at Fort Timiskaming. A large collection of their papers, which shed considerable light on the Timiskaming trade both before and after the union of 1821, was preserved at Firhall by suc­ ceeding generations and, in combination with the Hudson's Bay Company's extensive records relating to Moose Fort and its dependen­ cies, has seemed to justify this study of Fort Timiskaming's role in the fur trade of Canada. Today some of Canada's richest mining properties, as well as numer­ ous power and forest developments, lie within the boundaries of the old Timiskaming district, and around them vigorous towns and cities have grown up, while the surrounding country, with its lovely lakes and riv­ ers, is becoming an increasingly popular vacation playground. It is my hope therefore that this account of Fort Timiskaming and the fur trade will not only interest fur trade enthusiasts but all those others, citizens and visitors alike, who want to know more about the area's early history. EAM

Acknowledgments

Apa1t from my deep indebtedness to the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, to Miss A.M. Johnson and her staff at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in London, England, and to my edi­ tors at the University of Toronto Press, Jean Houston and Jean Wilson, my acknowledgments are personal ones. First and foremost, to the late Dr W. Stewart Wallace, who not only led me to the Cameron Papers but encouraged me to write a history of Fort Timiskaming; then, to the late Colonel and Mrs Angus Cameron, whose generosity afforded me such a wealth of exciting and unknown material and whose friendship and hos­ pitality are warm memories; to Marjory Wilkins Campbell, who fur­ nished both advice and solace; to my nephew, Brian A. Simpson, who compiled the map material; and finally, to my husband, who waited so long.

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Note on Spelling and the Use of Terms

In general, I have followed the practice of the Hudson's Bay Company's Archives. 'Timiskaming,' however, is the modern spelling. The original French 'Te1niscamingue' later became 'Temiscaming' or 'Temiskaming,' but I have considered it preferable to use the modern spelling through­ out. Similarly, I have continued to refer to the post as 'Fort Timiskaming,' although after the coalition of 1821 it was often called 'Timiskaming House,' in line with the English practice for the inland posts. Again, for the sake of uniformity, I have used 'Moose Fort' in­ stead of 'Moose Factory.· The term 'voyagers' is employed in the Hudson's Bay Archives for the Company's canoemen, usually Orkneymen or Indians, and I have adopted it in order t.o distinguish them from the French 'voyageurs' of the North West Company. Moreover, the Archives always refer to 'Orkneymen,' never the more correct 'Orcadians.' The English form for modern Lac des Deux Montagnes, Quebec, 'Lake of Two Mountains,' appears consistently in the Archives both for the lake and the post and I have accordingly used it throughout, except for one reference to the modern lake. Surnames and other names were often spelled the way they sounded, not always correctly. William Polson's name, for instance, appears thus both in the Hudson-'s Bay Company's records and on his tombstone, although the correct spelling 'Paulson' was used in the case of his father, William Paulson, a surgeon at Moose Fort. Modern Paul­ son Bay at the head of Lake Timiskaming is named after William Pol­ son and his family. Finally, in transcribing quotations from the original documents I have followed the practice of lowering the upper case end­ ings for abbreviations, for example, 'Mr' instead of 'Mr', 'Inds' instead of 'Ind•', and so on.

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Chief Factor Robert Hamilton, commander of the Timiskaming district, 1865-8

The Cameron family at Niagara Falls, 1858: (from left to right) James Cameron (aged twelve), Chief Factor Angus Cameron's son and after­ wards Dr James Cameron of Firhall; Angus Cameron, the Chief Factor's nephew and later second president of the Bank of Toronto; his wife, Franoes Simpson Cameron, Sir George Simpson's daughter; Chief Factor Angus Cameron; Grace Cameron, sister of the younger Angus Cameron and niece of the Chief Factor

Chief Factor Angus Cameron in old age (Public Archives of Ontario)

Chief Trader Charles Stuart, commander of the Timiskaming district, 1868-72 (?) (Public Archives of Ontario)

Side view of Fort Tirniskaming about 1875, taken from the Ontario side of the narrows

Front view of Fort Timiskaming from the south, no date (Public Archives of Ontario)

Hudson's Ba y Post, Bear Island, Lake Timagami, no date (Public Archives of Ontario)

Indians at Fort Mattagami (Matawagamingue), July 1906 (Public Archives of Ontario)

Louis MacDougall, sign er of th e James Bay Indian Treaty at Fort Abitibi, 7 June 1906, and probably Alexander McDougall's grandson (Public Archives of Ontario)

Hudson's Bay canoe on Lac des Quinze (Ottawa River), 1907 (Public Archives of Ontario)

AEneas Cameron's Beaver Club medal, obverse and reverse

FORT TIMISKAMING AND THE FUR TRADE

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·1· Introduction

The fur trade dates back to the discovery of what is now Canada. The Basque, Breton, and other European fishermen who followed the explor­ ers to the Gulf of St Lawrence (and may even have preceded them) were the first to barter furs from the Indians for goods and trinkets. In the be­ ginning the pelts themselves seem to have been the principal attraction, the for being prized for its beauty, lustre, and warmth, but the trade continued to be subsidiary to the fishery and of minor importance until the last half of the sixteenth century, when the fashion of wearing large felt hats became popular and the hatmakers of Europe discovered that the barbed underfur of the beaver was particularly suited to the felting process. With the increasing demand for beaver in the hat industry the trade moved inland to the mouth of the Saguenay River. This was the most easterly of three great rivers leading directly to the lands of the hunting Indians, those nomadic, Algonkian-speaking tribes who relied on this re­ markable and ubiquitous animal for both food and clothing. The other two rivers are the St Maurice and the Ottawa, and a glance at the map of the province of Quebec will show that, although each initially flows in a different direction,. the headwaters of all three are relatively close to­ gether. It was in this central area that the early Indian fairs were held, where Indians in contact with white men on the St Lawrence traded the European goods they obtained from them for the furs which the more remote Indians brought to the rendezvous. The Montagnais of the Sa­ guenay and the St Maurice were the first to control this trade and it was possibly their possession of European weapons which accounts for the disappearance of the agricultural, Iroquois-speaking Indians of Stada­ cona and Hochelaga, the villages on the St Lawrence which Cartier vis-

4 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ited on his second voyage in 1535. Certainly when Champlain arrived on the river in 1603, he found no trace of either community. The departure, or extermination, of the agricultural Indians left the St Lawrence and Ottawa rivers open to the French and the fur trade, and in 1608 Champlain established his colony at Quebec. The need to maintain the flow of furs down these two rivers for the support of the settlement inevitably drew the governor into a military alliance with the Montagnais and their allies (the Algonkins of the upper Ottawa and the Hurons south of Georgian Bay), in opposition to the powerful Iroquois settled south of Lake Ontario. In 1613 he ascended the Ottawa as far as Lac des Allumettes with the object of promoting the trade and obtaining more information about the 'northern sea,' the existence of which he had learned through the Indians. His map of New France, made the same year, shows a tolerably accurate conception both of the relation­ ship of the Bay to the colony and the geographical configuration of James Bay, although Hudson Bay itself is poorly delineated. It has been suggested, however, that Champlain's map may have been based on one drawn from sketches brought back by Hudson's mutineers and pub­ lished in Amsterdam in 1612. 1 In 1615 Champlain again ascended the Ottawa, crossing by the Mat­ tawa River to Georgian Bay and then going south to the Huron country, where he spent the winter. It is unlikely that he learned much, if any­ thing, about the Ottawa above the Mattawa's mouth, or the extent of its penetration into what is now the interior of Quebec, but he did note that the Indians went up that river to the Saguenay to barter their furs for tobacco and that the Hurons, too, went to the Saguenay by way of Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa. It seems probable, however, that the Indi­ ans going to the Saguenay by the Ottawa used Riviere Dumaine rather than the upper Ottawa. Nevertheless, Champlain may have been the first white man to meet Indians from the vicinity of Lake Timiskaming when, during his stay among the Hurons, he received emissaries from the surrounding tribes. Although, as far as we know, there was no direct connection between the Hurons and the Timiskaming Indians, the Nip­ issing Indians, who usually spent the winter among the Huron villages, traded with the Timiskaming and Timagami Indians by way of the Sturgeon River.2 In origin, Lake Timiskaming (or Temiscamingue, as it was through­ out most of its history and still remains in the province of Quebec) is an enlargement of the Ottawa River, whose waters, after a long, meander­ ing progress westward from the Height of Land in central Quebec, turn

5 Introduction sharply south to fill a deep, glacial trough. According to most authorities the name is an Algonkian word meaning 'deep water,' or variously, 'deep and shallow water,' since the lake is very deep in some places and shal­ low close to shore. About halfway down the lake two points protrude from opposite sides, forming a channel and dividing the lake into two parts. The channel is known as 'the narrows' and it was here, on the east side of the lake in the modern province of Quebec, that Fort Temisca­ mingue stood, probably from about 1720, when the French established their second post on the lake, until the end of the nineteenth century when it was finally abandoned. The lower half of Lake Timiskaming is precambrian in structure, a long, narrow stretch of water, resembling a river for most of its length but somewhat wider immediately below the narrows. Its shoreline is characterized by hanging valleys through which creeks and small rivers flow into the lake and by sheer cliffs rising to four hundred feet above its surface; many have compared its scenery to that of the Saguenay. The upper part of the lake is cut out of softer rock and broadens considerably above the narrows. Its surface is interspersed with islands and the lower hills which surround it frequently recede a considerable distance. At the head of Lake Timiskaming the clay belt begins tentatively in the valleys of three rivers which feed it, the Blanche, the Ottawa, and the Loutre, their more favourable soil having been deposited by water filtering from glacial Lake Ojibway (which once covered much of northern Ontario and Quebec) through low sections in the Height of Land.3 Lake Timiskaming was admirably suited for a fur trade headquarters. Not only was it a large lake on one of the three principal rivers ap­ proaching James Bay from the St Lawrence, but from it rivers fanned out in all directions to the best fur country. At first the French traders used only the small Indian canoes carrying two or three men, but they soon increased the size of their canoes to cope with the volume of trade and when they did so, the strategic advantages of Lake Timiskaming must have become even more apparent. Despite the arduous and haz­ ardous series of rapids which interrupt the flow of the Ottawa between the mouth of the Mattawa and the foot of Lake Timiskaming (a dis­ tance of some thirty-four miles), the largest fur trade canoes, the so­ called Montreal canoes or canots du maitre, could navigate as far as the lake, which thus formed a natural transshipment point between the waters of the lower Ottawa and the shallower rivers above the lake. Fort Timiskaming became, in effect, a miniature Grand Portage or Fort Wil­ liam. In the shallower waters north, west, and east of Lake Timiskam-

6 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ing, again as in those above Lake Superior, only the smaller 'north' ca­ noes (canots du nord) could be used. Although fur trade historians differ slightly in their estimates of the respective sizes of Montreal and north canoes, the consensus seems to be that the Montreal canoes were approximately thirty-five feet long, four and a half to six feet wide amidships, and about thirty inches deep. They carried crews of ten and cargoes of from four to five tons, usually a hun­ dred 'pieces' of ninety pounds each. Exact figures for the north canoes, on the other hand, are seldom given, the size being quoted as half that of the Montreal canoes, carrying crews of four, five, or six, depending on the distance to be travelled, and cargoes of a ton and a half, or thirty-five 'pieces.' Fortunately we have an eyewitness account of the large canoes which went up to Lake Timiskaming towards the end of the eighteenth century from George Gladman, a Hudson's Bay officer who visited Fort Timiskaming in 1794. He reported having seen three Montreal canoes there, about thirty-six feet long, six feet wide, and two and a half deep. Their lading, he was told, was seventy bales, bags, or kegs, and they were navigated by eight men.4 Although both these figures are less than those usually cited for Montreal canoes, it may be that there was some relationship between the amount of cargo and the number of crew. Whatever their size, all fur trade canoes were built in the same way and of the same materials, the object being to produce the lightest possi­ ble craft both for speed and for ease in carrying over the interminable portages of the Laurentian Shield. Sheets of birch bark,5 a quarter of an inch thick, were sewn together with threads made from spruce roots (known as wattap). This covered a framework of lathing, held in place by cedar ribs which were bent into the shape of a bow and inserted into the edges of the gunwales. Hot pine gum was applied to the seams to make them watertight. Both bow and stern curved upwards a foot above the gunwales and were brightly painted with mystical figures, supposed by the voyageurs to help speed their passage. Every canoe carried extra supplies of birch sheeting, wattap, and gum with which to repair dam­ ages incurred along the route and great pains were taken to stow the car­ goes carefully in order to avoid unequal pressure on the frail shell.6 Nothing is known about the logistics of the French trade in Timis­ kaming but the pattern of transportation and supply adopted by the Montreal traders after 1763, presumably following the French example, was well established by 1788. As soon as the ice went out of the St Law­ rence one or two canoes were dispatched to Fort Timiskaming with extra supplies for the spring trade. The principal brigade, carrying most of the

7 Introduction goods and provisions for the following season, went up in June, arriving at the fort in time to meet the masters of the subsidiary posts who had brought their furs to the depot. The supplies were immediately un­ packed and distributed among them and they went off to their stations, the furs being loaded for the return trip to Canada. In the early days, when the Timiskaming posts were fewer in number and closer to the de­ pot, the main brigade seems to have reached the fort at the beginning of June but later, the end of the month was apparently the more usual date. Again, in September or October (or sometimes both) a single canoe would bring up anything needed or overlooked. The canoes, of course, also carried the personnel and the mail up or down, as the case might be, the men working their passage. The voyageurs who took the Montreal canoes up to Fort Timiskam­ ing were, like their fellows in the Grand Portage or Fort William bri­ gades, known as goers and comers or engages. During the time the ca­ noes remained at the depot they were required, again presumably in line with French practice, to make their 'courvees,' which varied from rein­ forcing the crews taking the supplies to the various posts to cutting wood, hulling corn, or setting nets. In Timiskaming, as in the northwest, the winterers, or hommes du nord, considered themselves superior to the engages, whom they nicknamed mangeurs de lard (pork-eaters), a deri­ sive reference to their supposedly easier life and better diet. In fact the Timiskaming goers and comers, like those for Grand Portage and Fort William, lived almost entirely on Indian corn (or dried peas) and grease, while the voyageurs above Grand Portage soon benefitted from the In­ dian pemmican of the plains, a highly nutritious mixture of dried buffalo meat, melted fat, and occasionally berries (usually saskatoons). Since there was no pemmican in the Timiskaming district, however, winterers and engages alike had to depend on corn and grease for voyaging. Sir Alexander Mackenzie has described the preparation of the corn. It was first boiled in strong alkali to remove the outer husks, then well washed and dried on stages. When the time came to use it, the corn was hulled and the kernels boiled in water for two hours over a moderate fire, the proportions being a quart of corn to a gallon of water. To this mix­ ture was added two ounces of melted suet, causing the corn to split and become a thick pudding, which was flavoured with salt.7 Whether or not the pudding was thinned to make the ubiquitous corn soup which formed an important part of the diet at the Timiskaming posts is not clear, but at least one commander at Fort Timiskaming during the 1840s so relished the dish that he had it for supper seven days a week.

8 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade The Montreal River, which flows into the lower part of Lake Timiskam­ ing from the northwest, was probably the first exit from the lake which the fur traders followed for, as far as we know, the earliest French post on the lake was built on an island (long since disappeared) in its mouth. It was this first Fort Timiskaming which the Chevalier de Troyes, lead­ ing his military expedition overland from Montreal to capture the Hudson's Bay Company's posts on James Bay, visited in 1686. The post is said to have been established in 1679 by the French Compagnie du Nord but, although projected in that year, the Compagnie was not char­ tered until 1682.s If, therefore, the post was actually built in 1679, it probably belonged to some of the men who formed the Compagnie. Sev­ eral Montrealers were among its principal partners, the most famous be­ ing Charles Le Mayne (later Baron de Longueuil), three of whose sons, Sainte-Helene, lberville, and Maricourt, were de Troyes' officers. Cer­ tainly it seems logical that Montreal traders would be among the first to push past the mouth of the Mattawa to Lake Timiskaming, for they would naturally be more interested in the possibilities of their own river than other fur traders intent on following the main route west. Just below the mouth of the Montreal River the Matabitchuan River leads southeast to Lake Timagami, while the Montreal River itself leads northwest, first to Lake Mistinikon, where the French probably had a post after 1720, and then over the Height of Land into Nighthawk Lake, the source of the Frederick House River. That river, in turn, flows into the Abitibi River, the most easterly of three large rivers which come to­ gether to form the Moose River and drain into James Bay. The Indians called both Nighthawk Lake and the Frederick House River by the same name, Piscoutagamy or Pusquachagamy, and the French claimed to have established a Fort Piscoutagamy in the area as early as 1673, the year in which the Hudson's Bay Company built Moose Fort. Fort Pis­ coutagamy was also known as Fort St Germain, presumably after the trader who built it, and some historians believe that it stood on Freder­ ick House Lake. Since the Indian name for Frederick House Lake, how­ ever, was Waratowaca,9 it is much more likely that Fort St Germain was on nearby Nighthawk (Piscoutagamy) Lake. The first extant licence to trade in Timiskaming and Abitibi reveals the anxiety of the French colonial officials to keep the Indians from go­ ing down to the English posts on James Bay. It was issued in 1683 by Governor de la Barre to a Sieur d'Argenteuil. He was probably Charles­ Joseph d'Ailleboust, to whom Frontenac had granted the Ottawa River seigniory in 1682; perhaps the St Germain who built Fort Piscoutagamy

9 Introduction was associated with him.1° The name, St Germain, occurs again a few years later in connection with de Troyes' expedition. Not only was the Chevalier's chief of scouts a St Germain but in passing the narrows of Lake Abitibi, de Troyes referred to them as the Strait of St Germain.11 If the St Germain who built Fort Piscoutagamy reached Nighthawk Lake by way of Lake Timiskaming and the Montreal River and then crossed to the western end of Lake Abitibi, as he could well have done, he may also have traversed that lake to the mouth of the Duparquet River at its eastern end, and returned to Lake Timiskaming by the route which de Troyes afterwards followed to Lake Abitibi. De Troyes left Lake Timiskaming by the Blanche and Wendigo rivers, reaching Lake Opasatica through lakes Hough, Ward, Durand, and Foudras. From Lake Opasatica he crossed the Height of Land into Lac Dasserat, Kana­ suta River, Duparquet Lake, Duparquet River, and finally Lake Abitibi. But whether or not it was St Germain who first explored this road, it is certain that the difficulties of approaching the headwaters of the Moose River by the Montreal River, a journey dreaded even by later traders, would soon have impelled the French to seek an easier and more direct road north from Lake Timiskaming. The English and Scottish traders who replaced the French in the Timiskaming area after 1763 did not use de Troyes' exit from Lake Tim­ iskaming by the Blanche but travelled east along the Ottawa (or Riviere des Quinze as it is called at that point, because of its fifteen portages) into Lac des Quinze. There they turned north through Lac Barriere and the Solitary River into Lake Opasatica, where their road converged with that of de Troyes'.12 Since these traders employed French voyageurs and generally adopted the ways of the French before them, this route was probably a later variation of de Troyes'. The later Montreal traders also went east along the Ottawa to their post on Grand Lake Victoria (for­ merly Grand Lac), where the French, too, had probably had a post. De Troyes and his men were apparently the first to establish a post on Lake Abitibi and they appear to have built it on the east side of the mouth of the Duparquet River. Unlike the rugged country around Lake Timiskaming, the lake lies in the fertile clay belt, with only a few out­ crops of rocks or glacial accumulation to vary the flat surface. 13 Although of great extent, Lake Abitibi is rarely deeper than ten feet, easily dis­ turbed even by light winds and treacherous for boats and canoes. The Indian name is supposed to mean 'the middle waters,' perhaps because of Abitibi's position between Lake Timiskaming and James Bay.1 4 After building his fort and leaving four men in it, de Troyes and his

10 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade party crossed the lake in a northwesterly direction to the Abitibi River which, in turn, led them down to the Moose River and finally to Moose Fort on its island in the mouth of that river, which they captured easily. The later Montreal traders also generally used this route between Lake Abitibi and James Bay but there were rivers flowing into the lake which they could, and did, follow to the Bay. One of these is the La Reine, emptying into the northeastem sector of the lake and leading directly to the Harricanaw River and Hannah Bay, while at the eastern end of the lake the La Sarre leads northeasterly towards the Nottaway and the Ru­ pert. The French in Timiskaming probably knew and frequented all these rivers for they traded en derouine, that is, they carried trade goods from their main stations to the Indian lands, living in temporary shel­ ters (the Hudson's Bay men referred to them as 'log tents') and securing the furs almost as soon as they were taken. This mobility gave them an enormous advantage over their English rivals on the Bay, who were con­ tent to remain where they were and wait for the Indians to come down to them. Once the French traders in the Timiskaming area had explored the whole of Lake Timiskaming and become acquainted with the geography of the country, the advantages of the site at the narrows would have be­ come obvious to them. A depot there would not only control the princi­ pal route to the Bay from Montreal but the rich fur country to the east and west. Nevertheless, the course of events prevented the French trad­ ers from settling at the narrows until about 1720. Two years after de Troyes visited the Montreal River post, it fell prey to the Iroquois and by the time they were defeated (about 1700) a glut of furs on the Euro­ pean market was forcing the French colonial officials to attempt to limit the number of furs collected by insisting that the Indians bring them down to Montreal and Three Rivers. During the period when there was no post on Lake Timiskaming the Timiskaming Indians probably traded with coureurs de bois (unlicenced traders) on Lake Nipissing or the lower Ottawa. Some historians assume that Fort Abitibi was maintained throughout these years but the evidence does not support this view. Inevitably, its supplies must have come from Montreal, for the only possible alterna­ tive, Fort St Louis (de Troyes' name for the former Moose Fort), had barely enough for itself. Moreover, in 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht re­ turned Fort St Louis, as well as the other Bay posts still in French pos­ session, to the English. While it would not have been impossible for sup­ plies to get through to Lake Abitibi from Montreal even when the

11 Introduction Iroquois threat was at its height, the French could never have counted on maintaining a post there and in the most favourable circumstances the journey was long and difficult. It is likely, too, that had Fort Abitibi remained in operation during these years, the French traders would have re-established Fort Timiskaming soon after the Iroquois defeat. Fi­ nally, the Abitibi post seems always to have been a subsidiary of Fort Timiskaming. Begon's memoir of 1725 includes it within the former lim­ its of Timiskaming and Bougainville's first list of French trading forts in 1757 describes it as dependant on Fort Timiskaming. It seems clear therefore that the Abitibi trade was also in abeyance during the years when there was no French post on Lake Timiskaming. The French built a second post on Lake Timiskaming about 1720 and what evidence we have indicates that it was at the narrows. The English and Scottish traders, who took over the French fur trade after the Seven Years' War, usually settled where their predecessors had been before them and shortly after 1763 there was an English post at the narrows. Furthermore, 'Ausbatswenanek,' the name by which Bougainville listed the post on Lake Timiskaming, is obviously a variation of 'Opatchio­ nang,' the Algonkian word for a strait. 15 Similarly, 'Woo,pa,che,won,' the name by which the Moose Fort Journals first referred to Fort Timiskam­ ing, and 'Upatchawanaw,' the name used by the first Hudson's Bay officer to visit the Fort in 1787, are variable spellings of the same Algon­ kian word. During the French regime the Timiskaming posts, like those in the rest of the country, were licensed by the Governor and Intendant and bought and sold like any other commodity. Unfortunately we know al­ most nothing about them except the lessees' names. The first was appar­ ently Paul Guillet, son of the Guillet who was at the Montreal River post when de Troyes visited it, and it was presumably he who re-estab­ lished Fort Timiskaming and Fort Abitibi about 1720. A letter written in 1733 by a Monsieur Guillet to William Bevan, the factor at Moose, is preserved in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives and appears to have come from Abitibi.16 Other lessees included Joseph de Fleury de la Gor­ gendiere, Louis Charly Saint-Ange, Nicolas Lanoullier de Boisclerc and Fran�ois-Etienne Cugnet.l7 While information about the Timiskaming posts from the French side is sparse indeed, the Hudson's Bay Company's records for the same pe­ riod are equally unrewarding. For some years after the Treaty of Utrecht restored their posts to them, the English maintained only one factory on James Bay, Fort Albany, and it was not until the southern

12 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Indians began deserting it in increasing numbers that they re-estab­ lished Moose Fort in 1730 on its island in the mouth of the Moose River. Once Moose Fort was rebuilt, the superiority of its river as an approach and anchorage for ships became apparent and the Company decided to send its annual ship there and supply Albany by sloop, instead of the other way round. Thus Moose Fort became the 'capital' of James Bay. The date of the rebuilding of Moose Fort also lends support to the argu­ ment that there was no French post on Lake Abitibi before 1720; other­ wise Albany would have felt the effects of its opposition much sooner. After 1713 the French made no further attempt to disturb the En­ glish on the Bay, contenting themselves with intercepting the Indians at their inland stations and getting their share of the furs. Indeed, inland posts were better suited to their resources for they lacked both the ships and the skilled captains necessary to maintain posts on the Bay. More­ over, their trade continued to suffer from a glut of furs in Europe. During these years the English had almost no contact with their ri­ vals in the interior, except for the few coureurs de bois who visited the Company's forts in the hope of selling their furs and thus avoiding hav­ ing them seized by the French colonial officials. The Moose Fort Journals never even mention Fort Timiskaming before 1763 and refer only once, and that indirectly, to Abitibi. 18 Yet the English factors were continually complaining that the inland Indians, even when in debt to them, carried their best furs to the French. This is not surprising; not only were the French on the spot but they paid as much for a marten skin as for a beaver, which the English traded at a ratio of three to one. Furthermore, the French would only accept choice furs, while the En­ glish traded everything the Indians brought. 19 Just how many of the later Timiskaming posts, apart from forts Tim­ iskaming and Abitibi, were established during the French period it is im­ possible to say. Langue de Terre on Lake Mistinikon, at the head of the Montreal River, and Grand Lac, on Grand Lake Victoria, had French names and may well have been former French settlements. Although Bougainville does not list them, they were possibly outposts from Fort Timiskaming. Similarly, Waswanipi, on Waswanipi Lake, northeast of Lake Abitibi, may have been a French outpost from Fort Abitibi. As early as 1761, just after the capture of Montreal, Moose Fort was alarmed by the opposition of English traders on the Nottaway River and those traders may have come from Fort Abitibi, since the new Montreal traders not only employed French servants but immediately adopted the French system of trading en derouine.

13 Introduction Before concluding this introductory chapter we must consider briefly an­ other important aspect of the Timiskaming scene, namely the Indians who traded at the Timiskaming posts.20 They appear to have belonged to four different tribes, although no strict line divided one from the other. All were nomadic and Algonkian-speaking, used birch bark ca­ noes, lived in bark or skin-covered tents which were either dome-shaped or conical, and shared similar cultures. On the whole, the area was sparsely populated and may have been so even before the white man came with his guns and diseases, for it is unlikely that there was ever a superfluity of large game animals there. The central group, trading at forts Timiskaming and Abitibi, com­ prised scattered bands spread out north and south along the Ottawa be­ tween the Mattawa River and Lake Abitibi. They were commonly called 'Algonkins,' from the name Champlain and his contemporaries applied to the Indians living on the lower river, although the French, and later Canadian, traders sometimes referred to them as Tetes des Boules. But neither the derivation of this name nor its exact meaning is clear and it seems more often to have been applied to a band of Indians living on the upper St Maurice River, generally classed as Montagnais. The Algonkins were a wholly nomadic people, having no agriculture of any kind. Quiet, timid, and harmless, with an intense inherited fear of the Iroquois, they were both few in number and dispersed over large, densely wooded areas. They were excellent hunters and fishermen and each family possessed its own hunting grounds, the limits of which, ac­ cording to a trader who spent forty years at Fort Abitibi, were 'as well known by their neighbours as the line by which farms are by Farmers in the Civilized World.'21 'So much is the right of private property respected,' Governor George Simpson was to inform the London Com­ mittee in 1836, 'that encroachment on each other's lands is of very rare occurrence, and when it does take place, from the pressure of hunger or any other cause, is invariably considered a Debt of honor and punctually discharged.'22 Moreover, much as a modern farmer rotates his crops to insure the highest yield, the Indians preserved their lands by hunting them over a period of several years. Flanking the Algonkins on the east were the Montagnais, a very large group of Indians, whose lands extended from the St Maurice to the Sa­ guenay. Although they, too, were made up of individual bands and shared the culture of the Algonkins, they were an even more primitive people. Inhabiting well wooded, mountainous country, from which they derived their French name, they were the first Indians to come into close

14 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade contact with Europeans along the St Lawrence, but they remained rela­ tively isolated to a late date. Some of the western Montagnais traded at the eastern Timiskaming posts, Grand Lac and its outposts. To the west of the central Algonkins were the Ojibwa (Chippewa), a name meaning 'people whose moccasins have puckered seams.' The members of this populous nation, inhabiting the region of the upper Great Lakes, lived, like the Algonkins, in small, migratory bands but possessed a higher culture and richer social life. Excellent hunters and fishermen, they also made use of the available vegetable foods and fruit, collecting wild rice and drying berries for the winter. They were the In­ dians who made maple sugar but whether they were able to do so before the white man came with his metal kettles is debatable. The Ojibwa traded at the western Timiskaming posts, Matawagamingue, Flying Post, and Timagami. Finally, the northern part of the Timiskaming district bordered on the lands of the widespread Cree nation, so-called from the French name for them, 'Kristeneaux.' Known locally as Swampy Crees, or Muskegon, they were the homeguard Indians of Moose Fort but some of them fre­ quented the Canadian post on Lake Waswanipi. Originally they had lived by hunting woodland caribou, moose, beaver, and bear, but the later scarcity of large game, which was at least partly due to the intro­ duction of firearms, eventually forced them, like the other Timiskaming Indians, to rely on hares in winter. Ducks and geese in spring, grouse and ptarmigan in winter, varied the diet but did not make up for the lack of large animals and when the rabbit cycle was low, the Indians suffered terribly from starvation. In the worst years the situation some­ times led to cannibalism and although the Indians in general abhorred the practice as much as the white men, it seems to have occurred often enough for Cree folklore to be full of tales of windigos, humans trans­ formed into man-eating giants by consuming human flesh. Certainly, the early traders, when out after furs, were sometimes reduced to sus­ taining themselves on the notorious tripe de roche, a rubbery lichen which was boiled up into a soup and, in the matter of country provisions, Fort Timiskaming was always regarded as 'a very poor place for the belly.'23 Yet the Timiskaming traders did their best, in times of starvation, to feed the Indians who came into the posts, even when they themselves were dangerously short of provisions, and the fact that they did so may help to determine more exactly the date when the French abandoned their Timiskaming stations. Although the traders in the northwest are

15 Introduction believed to have withdrawn about 1758, those in the Timiskaming dis­ trict may have remained in the interior until after the capture of Mont­ real two years later. During the winter of 1760-1 the Moose Fort Journal recorded the arrival of a larger than usual number of southern Indians, almost starved to death, who had been obliged to eat all their beaver and marten skins, their rabbitskin coats, and the very shoes off their feet.24 Perhaps that winter, for the first time, the inland Indians had had no French posts to which to resort.

·2· The Pedlars and the Approach of the Hudson's Bay Company 1760-88 The surrender of Quebec in 1759 brought British merchants to Canada in the wake of the army, some from the old country, others from the col­ onies to the south. Furs were the principal lure and, often in partnership with French associates, these new men rapidly revived the Canadian trade. French traders had been active in the Saskatchewan country since the days of the elder Verendrye but for a few years after 1763 the road to the northwest was barred by the Indian unrest which culmi­ nated in Pontiac's War. The upper Ottawa and James Bay area, on the other hand, was not only close to Montreal but remote from the Indian troubles, and during the 1760s the activity of Montreal traders there up­ set, almost overnight, the balance of trade which had existed between the Hudson's Bay Company and the French. Suddenly the officers at Moose Fort found their returns sharply diminished. The Moose Journals do not mention the French withdrawal from the interior until the spring of 1761, another reason for thinking that the French traders remained at their posts in the area after 1758. On 13 June, 1761, the factor at Moose Fort noted that the French had aban­ doned their forts, that the coureurs de bois were unable to get supplies from them, and that the Indians must perforce soon come down to him or to Albany to trade. But his complacency was short-lived. Only six weeks later some inland Indians arrived at Moose, accompanied by a homeguard Indian who had persuaded them to visit the Bay, and the factor discovered, to his chagrin, that they had already traded with En­ glishmen in the interior. Worse still, the Moose Indian himself had ex­ changed all his small furs with eight Englishmen on the Nottaway River and had clothed his whole family in English cloth and French shirts and coats, the latter presumably stock left at the posts by the former traders

17 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 or stored in Montreal warehouses. The English, the factor added, were, in the Indian's words, 'as thick as Muskettos.'1 The Moose Journals of the 1760s complain particularly of two posts belonging to the 'Pedlars,' as the Hudson's Bay men contemptuously re­ ferred to the independent traders in the interior. One was on the upper waters of the Moose River, presumably Fort Abitibi, and the other on the Nottaway River, perhaps Waswanipi or another outpost from Fort Abitibi.2 Especially irksome to the Moose Fort officers was the realiza­ tion that they were, in a sense, subsidizing the Canadian trade. The in­ land Indians exchanged their best furs (fine beaver and all their marten) for the lighter goods, like cloth and luxuries, which the 'Pedlars' brought, and then came down to the Fort for articles which the Canadians either found too heavy to transport (guns, powder, shot, and twine) or were un­ able to supply, like the Brazil tobacco which the Indians preferred. For these 'troublesome' goods they had only summer furs or inferior beaver to offer. Moreover, as one factor ruefully noted, the Canadians need not even go to the expense of wintering but could come up in the spring and carry off the cream of the furs before the Fort was clear of ice.3 In an effort to remedy the situation the Moose Fort officers first threatened to stop trading' and then lowered their tariff, but neither expedient proved successful and by 1770 the London Committee was urging them to ex­ plore the interior as a preliminary to building posts inland. Who were the men from Canada trading south of James Bay in the early years of British rule? Unfortunately we have very little informa­ tion about them. We do know, however, that in 1764 William Grant of Quebec (or St Roch, as he was also known, from his place of residence), an Albany merchant who had come to Canada three years before, sup­ plied Richard Dobie, a Montreal Scot, with goods for Timiskaming. Do­ bie appears to have continued trading in Timiskaming until about 1776, apparently acquiring a respectable fortune and probably consolidating the trade in his own hands. In that year, however, Moose Fort learned of a change of management at Abitibi Lake5 and the British fur trade li­ cences for 1777 show that a James Grant was trading in Timiskaming.6 James Grant was interested in the Timiskaming trade for almost twenty years. His first partner was John Porteous, with whom he was associated until 1783. In 1782 Grant and George McBeath sent canoes to Michilimackinac and McBeath may also have had a share in Timiskam­ ing. The following year Grant joined forces with Daniel Sutherland and they carried on the Timiskaming business until 1786. Other firms, Thomas Dunn of Quebec and the two partnerships of Charles Grant and

18 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade John Blackwood and of John Grant and Robert Griffin, were also con­ cerned in the Timiskaming trade during these years, although neither the nature nor the extent of their involvement is clear. Charles Grant was a connection of William Grant of Quebec and John Grant was Dobie's son-in-law. Apparently John Grant was a poor businessman and perhaps because of this, or simply from the general hazards of the trade, Grant and Griffin failed. In 1786, unable to pay debts of something over £1900, they assigned their third interest in the Timiskaming posts to Dobie. On 30 March 1787, Dobie also purchased for £2900 the rights and assets of Sutherland and Grant in Timiskaming, and those of Thomas Dunn and John Blackwood (the surviving partner of Grant and Blackwood), at the same time extinguishing the claims of Dunn and Blackwood on Suther­ land and Grant. That same day he concluded a seven-year agreement with James Grant to carry on the trade of Timiskaming and Riviere Du­ moine, Grant to be the wintering partner and himself to supply the goods and provisions. During the first three years of the contract his in­ terest was to be two-thirds and Grant's one-third; after that they would share equally.7 The year, 1787, in which Dobie resumed his interests in Timiskaming, was one of the most significant in the history of the Canadian trade for it marked the emergence of the North West Company as the dominant force in the trade. As the early 'Pedlars' had penetrated farther and far­ ther into the northwest they had come up against two major problems, the difficulty and expense of transporting increasing quantities of sup­ plies over greater distances and the need for much larger amounts of capital to conduct a rapidly expanding trade. Their augmented numbers, too, made competition bitter and often resulted in ugly quarrels (some­ times even involving murder) between rival traders settled in the same area. Recognizing these drawbacks, a number of the 'Pedlars' began to make private agreements among themselves for carrying on the trade on a temporary basis. Soon, however, the opening up of the rich Athabasca country and the exciting prospect of the apparently illimitable extension of the trade north and west made a union of interests not only more at­ tractive but imperative. In 1779 a group of traders in the interior had formed the first so-called North West Company and their association, al­ though initially small in size and on a yearly basis, grew steadily during the early 1780s until, in 1787, it absorbed its principal remaining rivals in the northwest, Gregory, McLeod & Co. Shortly afterwards, Simon

19 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 McTavish and Joseph Frobisher joined forces in Montreal to form the firm of McTavish, Frobisher & Co., which became the North West Company's agents. Another factor influencing the union of the Canadian traders in the northwest was the advance of the Hudson's Bay Company into the inte­ rior. Until the 1770s, except for sending emissaries inland to persuade the Indians to come down to the Bay to trade, the English had remained at their factories on the Bay for their French rivals, although a nuisance, had been handicapped by relatively modest resources, both in leadership and capital, and the Company had continued to secure sufficient furs to supply its markets. The new Canadian traders, however, were not only increasing in number every year but commanded considerable capital and, in the face of dwindling returns and profits, the Hudson's Bay Company was forced to adopt a policy of offence. In 1774 it built its first inland post, Cumberland House, on the Saskatchewan, and others fol­ lowed rapidly. The two companies thus aligned against each other in the northwest were entirely different in structure and organization. The Hudson's Bay Company, operating under a royal Charter which duplicated those of the English colonies in North America, claimed to be the actual proprie­ tor of much of what is now Canada. Its Board of Directors, the London Committee, secured the financing and determined the general policy, while its employees, the officers and servants in the country, carried on the trade. The Canadians, on the other hand, were a loose federation of individual traders who had agreed to join forces for a limited number of years for their mutual benefit. Their governing body was the assembly of agents and wintering partners, which met in July each year, first at Grand Portage and later at Fort William. To the rendezvous came the winterers with their furs and the agents with their supplies and the pol­ icy for the next season's business was hammered out, together with any other necessary regulations for the conduct of the concern. From 1798 on, the agents and wintering partners were equal in status and powers, a situation which worked well in good times but which, in bad, tended to divisiveness. The profits were shared every year, too, which meant that no reserves were built up, and while the democratic nature of the associ­ ation made the traders inland, in general, much more enterprising in pushing the trade than the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, the English, with their greater cohesiveness, central administration and capital funds, were in a better position, as it proved, to sustain the long­ drawn-out struggle which began in 1787.

20 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade The agreement of 1787 put the Nor'Westers in control of most of the Canadian trade in the northwest but in districts closer to Montreal, like Michipicoten and Timiskarning, the trade remained in the hands ofin­ dependent firms. There the process of centralization was delayed for a number of reasons; distances were shorter, costs lower, prospects limited in comparison with the northwest and the pressure of the Hudson's Bay Company less noticeable. Nevertheless, the situation south of James Bay was by now very different from Dobie's early days, when the 'Pedlars' in Timiskaming had traded practically without interference from the Hudson's Bay Company. Although increasingly perturbed by the decline in their returns and profits after 1763, the Hudson's Bay officers at Moose Fort had been slow to comply with the London Committee's wishes to explore the country and build inland posts. Perhaps this may have been partly due to an understandable hesitation to embark upon such a radical change of tactics, but principally it was a question of practical considerations. Not only did they suffer from a shortage of canoes, which could not be built on the Bay because of the absence of suitable birchbark, but they had neither the complement of men nor the quantity of European provi­ sions necessary for voyaging. Above all, their servants were inexperi­ enced in wilderness living and lacked the skills indispensable for travell­ ing inland. It was not until the summer of 1774, therefore, the year in which Cumberland House was established, that the Moose Council finally acceded to the Committee's repeated urgings and sent a clerk, John Thomas, with three Indians, to explore the country towards Abi­ tibi Lake, with a view to settling there. Thomas was the first Moose Fort officer to visit a Timiskaming post and, according to the custom of the service, he kept a Journal of his voyage.8 Although he did not include many place names, he reported the geographical features of the country through which he passed and they reveal that he did not follow the Abitibi River, taking instead the more direct (if less practicable) road up the French, Kiasko, and Nettogami rivers to lakes Agaskagou and Kesagami, to the latter of which he refer­ red as 'Mesackamy.' Beyond this point his Moose guide was unfamiliar with the country but Thomas was fortunate enough to fall in with an In­ dian who traded at Moose and who provided him with another guide. At the same time the Indian warned him that the journey to Lake Abitibi would take ten days and that very little game was to be had along the way, so Thomas and his men remained a few days longer on Lake Kesa­ gami to catch and dry fish for provisions.

21 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 The new guide defected two days after Thomas resumed his journey, protesting that he was afraid of starving and that he was indebted to the 'Pedlars.' Nevertheless, Thomas and his companions continued along the road they were following, 'the Mesackamy Path.' Formerly, Thomas noted, it had 'been much used but seemingly this year has not been trode by a single individual, as the Grass is grown in the Paths and theres no Tracks of any Body or Tenting places, there is Still Standing Beacons, which I imagine has been done by People in the Pedlars Interest.'9 After a few days Thomas met an Indian who sketched a map of the road ahead, and two days later the party reached a large river, travelling up it to the lake which formed its source. Thomas believed the river to be the Harricanaw but that river is much farther east and this one was probably the Turgeon, its largest tributary. It is clear from Thomas's de­ scription, however, that he was not on Turgeon Lake but on Joe Lake, the source of the Patten River, a tributary of the Turgeon. So, puzzling out Thomas's route on the modem map, one concludes that he went from Lake Kesagami to the Burntbush River, down it to the Turgeon, up the Turgeon to the Patten, thence to its source, Joe Lake, and finally, over the Height of Land into Riviere la Reine and Lake Abitibi. Thomas apparently knew that the Canadian post was on the south side of the lake, for the day after his arrival he crossed the lake in a southwesterly direction in search of it. Failing to find the 'Pedlars' there, his situation was now serious. He and his men had eaten very little for three days, they were out of powder and shot, and had only one torn net left. But during the next forty-eight hours they met friendly Indians, who gave them fish and promised to direct them to the 'Pedlars.' Leav­ ing his own Indians in camp, Thomas went with them to the Canadian post. Thomas's description of Fort Abitibi provides a colourful picture of a rough and primitive early Canadian trading station, in decided contrast to the relatively elaborate English factories on James Bay. Its occu­ pants, he recorded, were 2 French Men, one French Woman and a Childe, and an Indian Olde Man who is Master of the Settlement, in the absence of the French Master, who is gone to Montreal. his name is Pano. the Woman I understand is his Wife, they are of the Roman Catholicke Religion by the Cross over their Gate, and DIEU SEUL in Capi­ tal Letters over their Bed, which is Feathers. one of them who calls himself Pano's Brother, cou'd speak a little broken English, he tolde me he was a Native

22 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade of Montreal, that he was one Month Six Days coming from thence, that they had 27 times to carry their Canoes which they bring their things down in, some of which Carriages are verye long; he said tho they were so long coming that in 14 Days they cou'd return, as going with the Streame, he asked me several Ques­ tions relative the Country I came from, as how many Men we had, how many Carriage Guns, whether we had a Taylor, an Armourer, a Bricklayer, a Cooper, a smith a Mason &c. &c. what Wages they had, I told him we had Sixty Men, 24 Carriage Guns, that we had all the Tradesmen he mention'd. who are at 50£ p. Annum Each, that we had Cattle, Hogs and Poultry, in Plenty, and Plenty of Cabbages & other kind of Garden Stuff, He said, dat is very fine Country, he ask'd several other Questions which I cou'd not Understand, but neither ask'd me my Name nor the name of my Master, the other two did not Understand En­ glish nor any of them very little Indian, their House which put me in mind of a Barn, is Logs of Cedar notch'd at the Ends and let into Each other & about 4 lnshes [sic] Space between Each Log. which is fill'd with Loam mix'd with Hay, the Roof is of Cedar Bark, the Fire Place is of Stone & Clay, their Windows Pa­ per instead of Glass, their Warehouse a Seperate [sic] Building from their Dwell­ ing House. Built after the same manner, they are Building a New House, round these Houses they have one Row of Stockades, which are Trunnell'd, instead of Naild, Neither is there any Nails in their Buildings, they have no fastening to their Gate, nor any Locks, but one to their Warehouse, & one to the Door of the Apartments where they Lay; if the Indians were Evil minded they might shoot them in their beds, through the spaces between the Logs where the Clay has fell out, they have about a dozen small Cabbage Plants, and about the same Num­ ber of Lettuces; - they are upon the Entrance of a River call'd Woo,pa,che,won leads S. upon which River 7 Days Journey from thence going with the Stream is the settlement called Woo,pa,che,won, which is at the Entrance of a Lake as the Indians say ... the French Men ... told me Pano their Master would be back in the Fall of the Year ... Treated me with the greatest Civility & Friendship with an invitation to return another Year ... NB, the Frenchmen, in the Winter, Quit the House, and live in a Log Tent about 50 Yards below the Factory .10

It is clear from Thomas's account that the Fort Abitibi of his day was in the same general location as de Troyes', at the mouth of the Dupar­ quet River, and Woo,pa,che,won, of course, was Fort Timiskaming. Both posts probably belonged to Richard Dobie, who appears to have owned the Timiskaming posts until 1776. The master's name, Pano, was no doubt a shortened form of Panneton, since we know that a servant of that name, perhaps this former master or the brother whom Thomas met, was at Fort Abitibi in 1788. Two years after Thomas's visit, how-

23 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 ever, an Indian reported to the governor of Moose that Pano, who had been master of Abitibi for many years, had returned to Montreal with his wife and niece, delivering his charge to two Englishmen who had ac­ companied him from Montreal in the fall of 1776. The Indian also said that Englishmen had replaced all the other French masters in the district. 11 The departure of Pano and the other Frenchmen was probably the re­ sult of James Grant's taking over the Timiskaming posts from Dobie but it also reflected changes in the character of the Canadian trade. The Montreal end of the business was rapidly coming into the hands of Brit­ ish (more particularly, Scottish) merchants, who continued to arrive in the colony, and they, in turn, were bringing out young men from the old country, often relatives, to fill the positions of clerks and winterers. This was not entirely a matter of nepotism or greed for as the trade expanded and became more competitive, it required men of greater ability and ed­ ucation to manage the posts. Canadians who could meet the necessary standard were probably not affected, at least for a time, but masters like Pano would soon find themselves demoted. Demoted, not fired, however, for the owners of districts like Timiskaming, so close to Montreal, usu­ ally continued to employ such men, if only to prevent them from trading on their own account or as agents of other interlopers. After staying two nights at Fort Abitibi, Thomas rejoined his Indians and set out on his return journey, this time following the Abitibi River. He arrived at Moose Fort eight days later, having spent a hundred hours in actual travel. Estimating his average progress at three and a half miles an hour, he calculated the distance from Moose Fort to Fort Abi­ tibi to be some three hundred and fifty miles. Thomas's journey was only the first of several exploratory expeditions undertaken within the next few years from Moose and Albany, the two English factories on James Bay. Canadian pressure from the south by the Ottawa route bore most directly on the Moose trade but both facto­ ries were subject to the opposition of Canadian traders on Lake Superi­ or, who approached the headwaters of the. Moose and Albany rivers from Michipicoten. During the summers of 1775 and 1776 Edward Jar­ vis investigated the route from Albany to Michipicoten by the Missi­ naibi River, the great west branch of the Moose, and visited the Cana­ dian post there. In 1776, too, the Moose Council established Rupert House at the mouth of the Rupert River (the former site of Charles Fort, captured by de Troyes), in order to operate more effectively against the

24 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Canadian traders on the Nottaway River and Lake Nemiscau, while Thomas made another successful journey westward up the Moose. On the basis of Jarvis's and Thomas's reports the Moose Council then de­ cided to build a post on Lake Superior, first settling a halfway house on the Missinaibi River. The site chosen for the new intermediate house was about half a mile above the mouth of Wapiscagami Creek, which flows into the Missinaibi approximately a hundred and twenty miles southwest of Moose Fort. Wapiscogamy [sic] House was established there between May and Au­ gust 1777, one of three to be built inland from Moose Fort that year. Generally speaking, the Hudson's Bay Company called their inland sta­ tions 'Houses,' while the Canadians preferred the term 'Forts.' During that same summer of 1777 Thomas repeated Jarvis's feat by reaching Michipicoten from Moose, but he decided against settling on Lake Superior because of the shallows and rapids of the Michipicoten River. Instead he built a house on Missinaibi Lake, at the head of the Missinaibi River where, so local Indians assured him, he would get plenty of rabbits in winter and geese in spring. His experience proved quite the contrary. During the winter of 1777-8 starvation drove him and his men to Wapiscogamy House, of which he took command. He re­ turned to Missinaibi House for a few days in the summer of 1778 and again in 1779, when he left two servants in charge, but they abandoned the post in May 1780 because of the unfriendliness of the Indians, who afterwards burned the deserted buildings. Another Moose Fort estab­ lishment, built by George Atkinson in 1777 on the north side of Kesa­ gami Lake, was equally short-lived. There was little trade there and the cost of maintaining it, to say nothing of the difficulties of transport, led to its abandonment after a couple of years. The Moose Council had been dissatisfied with the location of Wapis­ cogamy House from the beginning but, unable to decide on a better site, built a more elaborate establishment there in 1781, at the same time changing its name to Brunswick House in honour of George III, who was also Duke of Brunswick. The London Committee was outspoken in its disapproval, being convinced that temporary and inexpensive struc­ tures, which could be given up or moved if conditions warranted, were more suited to the exigencies of the inland trade. And indeed, Brunswick House was to be no more satisfactory than the more modest Wapiscoga­ my. It was finally abandoned in 1791, after another Moose establish­ ment, built on Micabanish (modern Brunswick) Lake in 1788, had proved more popular with the Indians. Micabanish House was then re­ named New Brunswick.

25 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 All these new Moose posts were situated in what the Hudson's Bay Company regarded as its own territories. Charles n's Charter of 1670, following the pattern of other royal charters relating to the English colo­ nies in North America, had granted to the Governor and Company 'all those Seas, Streights, Bays, Rivers, Lakes, Creeks, and Sounds, in what­ ever Latitude they shall be, that lie within the Entrance of the Streights commonly called Hudson's Streights, together with all the Lands and Territories upon the Countries, Coasts and Confines of the Seas, Bays, Lakes, Rivers, Creeks and Sounds aforesaid, that are not already pos­ sessed by or granted to any of our Subjects or possessed by the Subject of any other Christian Prince or State,' such territories to be known as Rupert's Land. It had further decreed that Rupert's Land should not be 'visited, frequented or haunted, by any of the Subjects of Us, Our Heirs or Successors, contrary to the true meaning of these Presents,' and had ceded to the Company 'full Power and lawful Authority to seize upon the Persons of such English, or any other Our Subjects, which shall sail into Hudson's Bay or inhabit in any of the Countries, Islands or Territo­ ries hereby granted to the said Governor and Company, without their Leave or License,' the offenders to be sent to England and punished un­ der the law. It was on the basis of this charter, together with its own subsequent treaties with the Indians and the prior British claim to occu­ pation of the Bay, that the Company asserted its right to extend inland and insisted that Canada and Hudson Bay were separate provinces. The French, on the other hand, held that all the treaties, rights, and charters which applied to Canada, the St Lawrence, the Great Lakes and south­ wards, were equally applicable to t,he north and the 'Baie du Nord.'12 After 1763, with both regions now British, the problem of ownership of the territory inland from Hudson Bay became more acute. Although the Company's charter had been confirmed by Parliament in 1692, it had been only for a period of seven years and later attempts to renew it had failed. The Canadians pronounced it worthless or, at best, applicable only to the coast. If the upper country were no longer Indian land, they argued, then it belonged to the French by right of exploration and they were heirs of the French. The Hudson's Bay Company had no legal right to it, beyond the privilege of trade which all British subjects shared. They could settle where they liked and the Company could do nothing about it. In the face of such reasoning, the Governor and Committee found themselves in a very awkward situation. In order to assert their right to the land and dislodge their opponents, they either would have to resort

26 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade to direct action of some kind, possibly militant, or appeal to the British government to uphold their claim. Whatever course they chose, how­ ever, would bring a challenge to their charter and although publicly they defended its validity, privately they had misgivings about its chances in a court of law. Besides, they were realistic enough to recognize that they could never resort to force; the only safe and practicable solution was to oppose their rivals in every quarter by building posts inland, even set­ tling across the Height of Land, as in Lake Superior, if it should prove expedient. Brunswick House (by 1780 the only survivor of the three posts so re­ cently built inland by Moose Fort) had been established, as we have seen, to oppose the Canadians at Michipicoten and lay well outside the limits of the Timiskaming district. So it was not until 1785, when the Hudson's Bay Company settled on Frederick House Lake, that the own­ ers of Fort Timiskaming began to notice the effects of competition from James Bay. Although the Governor and Committee had been pleased with Thomas's success in reaching Lake Abitibi and had decided on building there as soon as possible, it was clear to them that, before establishing any more posts inland, their officers must become better acquainted with the country. To this end they sent Philip Turnor, the first qualified surveyor they had ever engaged, to Moose Fort. In 1781, accompanied by George Donald, a young trader with some surveying experience, Tur­ nor surveyed the road from Moose to Michipicoten and then made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Kesagami Lake, presumably to map Thomas's route to Lake Abitibi. The following May, again with Donald, he set out to survey the road by the Abitibi River. Although Turnor's Journal has not survived, his map fortunately has and J.B. Tyrrell plotted it in the volume of Turnor's journeys which he edited for the Champlain Society. Furthermore, on his return to Moose Fort Turnor left Lake Abitibi by the La Reine River and Tyrrell's de­ scription of his route not only confirms the speculations about Thomas's outward journey but fills in the missing links. After crossing the Height of Land from the La Reine, Turnor travelled down the Patten to the Turgeon, up the Burntbush, by portages and small lakes to the Katta­ wagami, again by portages to Newnham Bay on Lake Kesagami, west­ ward to Lake Agaskagou, and finally down to the Moose River by way of the Nettogami and the French rivers.13 When the Governor and Committee received Turnor's report, they

27 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 determined to lose no time in building a post on Lake Abitibi and their general letter of May 1783 entrusted the task to him. But La Perouse's daring raids on York and Churchill that summer (a French contribution to the cause of American independence) resulted in another year's delay. The English factors on James Bay, fearful for their own posts, recalled all their men from the interior, including Turnor, who had been master of Brunswick House since his return from Lake Abitibi. It was not until the summer of 1784, therefore, that he and Germain Maugenest, a Cana­ dian who had deserted to the English at Albany and had been sent to Moose Fort for the express purpose, were able to set about implementing the Committee's instructions. Even then, however, Turnor did not settle on Lake Abitibi. Warned by local Indians that venison was scarce there, he established himself at the junction of the Abitibi and Pusquachagama rivers (modern Freder­ ick House River), a strategic site in the centre of the Abitibi Indians' lands. The Moose Fort records referred to the new post as 'towards Abitibi.' But the fisheries proved inadequate and the following year Tur­ nor moved to a new site on the southeast shore of Lake Waratowaca (Frederick House Lake), building his house on the sandy ridge along which the Ontario Northland Railway and the highway from Timmins to Iroquois Falls run today. 14 The site is now marked with a plaque erected by the Historical Branch of the Public Archives of Ontario. Al­ though Frederick House (as the new post was called in honour of George m's second son) was a disappointment to the Moose Council from the beginning, being expensive to supply and collecting few furs, it was nev­ ertheless to prove a thorn in the flesh of the Canadians at Fort Timis­ kaming. Until Frederick House was established, the only Timiskaming posts known to Moose Fort, apart from the unnamed station up the Nottaway River, were Abitibi and Timiskaming. Now another post belonging to Fort Timiskaming came to the notice of the Company's servants. It was situated up the west branch of the Montreal River on Lake Mistinikon and Turnor referred to it as the Sowe,a,wa,me,ni,ca Settlement, of which Mistinikon is patently a modern version. The Canadians, however, called it Langue de Terre. On 28 December 1786, the master of this post arrived at Frederick House, accompanied by his clerk, a servant, and an Indian, to return, as he put it, the many visits which the English had paid to Canadian posts. Turnor welcomed them 'in the manner the Hon­ ble Companys Servants has often been treated by them,'1;; and they stayed four days, informing him that they intended to settle near him

28 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade during the summer. The master and clerk were brothers, of the name of McKay, born in Montreal of Scottish parents. Donald McKay, the mas­ ter, was later to command Fort Timiskaming for many years and the clerk was probably his brother Angus, although another brother, Neil, was also serving in the Timiskaming district about this time. In April 1787, the clerk came again to Frederick House and Turnor supplied him with provisions. According to Turnor's account, the broth­ ers had been 'on the Great Lake were [sic] their Company Intend to make a Settlement' and Angus McKay was now returning to Langue de Terre. He told Turnor that, having found it impracticable to bring sup­ plies to the neighbourhood of Frederick House from Langue de Terre, they were investigating the possibilities of a route from Lake Abitibi by way of the Frederick House River.1 6 Tyrrell identified 'the Great Lake' as Lake Timiskaming but it is clear that Turnor was referring to a much nearer lake, presumably Nighthawk Lake which wa&, after all, 'great' in comparison with Frederick House Lake.17 A month later Donald McKay reappeared at Frederick House, tent­ ing nearby for several days in order to prevent the Indians from trading at the English post and to secure their furs for himself. When he finally departed, he told Turnor that his company would certainly build a house that summer on Frederick House Lake or close to it. Anxious to protect his former site at the junction of the Abitibi and Frederick House rivers, Turnor immediately sent two men and an Indian to oc­ cupy it but, as it turned out, the Canadians made no settlement that year. 18 In the summer of 1787 Turnor set out to survey the route to Langue de Terre and Fort Timiskaming (which he referred to as 'Upatchawanaw'). Once more his Journal has been lost but, as partial consolation, we again have his map which Tyrrell has plotted.19 Turnor and his party ascended the Frederick House River to Nighthawk Lake, paddled across it to the mouth of the Whitefish River, up that river to the Height of Land, then by Trout River and Trout Lake to Lake Mata­ chewan and finally, up the west branch of the Montreal River to Lake Mistinikon. On the basis of Turnor's observations Tyrrell placed Langue de Terre about three miles south of the southern end of present-day Bell Island. After a short stay at the Canadian post Turnor continued his journey, descending the Montreal River to its north bend, crossing over to Lake Timiskaming by portages and small lakes, and then travelling south along its western shore to the narrows. That summer was the first of the Dobie and Grant Timiskaming ven-

29 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 ture and at Fort Timiskaming Turnor apparently met James Grant. In September, John Thomas, now governor at Moose, reported to London that 'one Grant a Partner in the Scotch Canadian Company' had offered Turnor £150 a year and eight per cent on all the trade he could procure. It was presumably the possibility of Turnor's being seduced by the Can­ adians that led Thomas to advise the Committee that he should nt be reassigned to the Moose Fort area but it is also clear that Thomas was dissatisfied with Turnor's managerial abilities.20 In any case, Turnor did not return to James Bay. Although Turnor was blamed for the poor showing of Frederick House, its returns continued to be disappointing after George Donald succeeded him as master in the autumn of 1787. In retrospect, both Thomas's and the Committee's expectations for it seem unreasonable. Brunswick House had been equally unsatisfactory, although it had the advantage over Frederick House of being situated on a river sufficiently navigable for boats, manned by European servants. On the treacherous Abitibi and Frederick House rivers only canoes were practical, thus increasing both the difficulties and the cost of transport. In the first place, canoes carried much less than boats, so more of them were required but at Moose, as we have seen, they were very scarce. Moreover the Indians alone knew how to build them and they were reluctant, or slow, to sup­ ply them. When it came to crews, too, Thomas again had to rely on the Indians, few of the European servants having learned how to handle such unsteady craft. But the Indians were capricious and not always willing to voyage and they had to be paid for work which the ordinary servants were expected to perform. Finally, there was always the fear that the Canadians in the interior might entice them from their loyalty to the Company. In addition to these particular drawbacks, Frederick House also suf­ fered from the general disadvantages to which all the Company's inland posts were subject. Many of the Orkneymen, who formed the bulk of the Company's servants, were afraid of inland travel and, according to Mau­ genest, unwilling to live, if necessary, as the 'Pedlars' did, on fish or raw oatmeal and water, but insisted on having eight months' provisions on hand before wintering.21 Furthermore, even if they acquired some wil­ derness skills during the period of their contracts, they frequently re­ turned home for good at the end, to be replaced by other inexperienced hands. Above all, men and provisions, and often goods too, were in short supply at Moose Fort.

30 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade In contrast, the Canadians, benefitting from the legacy of the French trade, had perfected the techniques of inland travel and trade. They had learned how to pack their goods most advantageously and knew the best places to procure food; they had lived with the Indians and were familiar with their language, their virtues, and their weaknesses. An Indian's honesty could generally be trusted and in ordinary circumstances he would repay his debts. Faced with competition, the Canadians used this virtue to keep him in thrall, just as they used his weakness for rum to se­ cure his furs. Governor Thomas confided to the Moose Fort private Jour­ nal that the McKays had told Turnor that they had orders to let the In­ dians 'have as much Debts as possible and to take those Debts whenever an opportunity offers.' 'The Masters of these Inland Settlements,' he continued, 'keep the Indians in such dread and awe of them that they are afraid to do otherwise than pay them their Debts and the Canadians take good care to keep them in Debt for they no sooner receive one Debt from them than they deliver them another which they won't let them refuse - it's not much to our Credit, but I believe 'tis very true that these little Houses round us send as much furrs from each out of the Country, as your great factorys have sometimes done.'22 The Committee's advice was to build inexpensively and keep the posts mobile, thus allowing the servants to meet the Canadians on their own ground and enlarge their knowledge of the country. They also sug­ gested engaging 'some expert Canadians' and supported Maugenest when he protested against Thomas's attempt to cut expenses at Bruns­ wick House by restricting his presents of military coats and other arti­ cles of clothing to the Indian leaders. 'It diminishes his Authority with the Natives,' they pointed out, '& entirely witholds a principal Induce­ ment to the natives to resort to Brunswic [sic] rather than to the Cana­ dians ... the Master should be directed to put in practice every allure­ ment to entice the Natives from our Rivals.'23 But one invidious custom they refused to countenance, namely, giving credit to the Indians. They were convinced that their standard of trade and fair dealing would ulti­ mately prevail and they attributed the disappointing results of Freder­ ick House to Turnor's lavish use of credit, constantly holding him up as an awful example. Intrinsically sound though the Committee's advice may have been, it was hardly realistic in the existing circumstances. Not only were the Company's servants not yet qualified to adopt the mobile tactics of their rivals but, in Maugenest's opinion, the salaries offered Canadians were too small to tempt them.24 As for the credit policy, although there were

31 Pedlars and Approach of the HBC 1760-88 valid arguments on both sides it is clear that if the Committee expected profits from inland posts situated in Canadian strongholds, something had to be done to attract the Indians; they were accustomed to credit and unlikely to come without it. Moreover, in the face of an improvi­ dence which each autumn left the Indian with nothing to equip himself for his winter's hunt, a reasonable amount seems to have been unavoida­ ble. Nevertheless, the question of trusting the Indians continued to be debated for years in the Company's correspondence, the Committee con­ stantly urging its abandonment and the officers contending that it could not be done. Meanwhile, no matter how rosy their position may have looked from Moose Fort, the Canadian traders in Timiskaming were having their own troubles. In addition to the advance of the Hudson's Bay Company, James Grant and his associates were being harassed by interlopers from Canada. Indeed, their competition may have been responsible for the failure of Grant & Griffin, as well as the readiness of the other Timis­ kaming interests to sell out to Dobie. Rivalry in the fur trade was outra­ geously expensive, in the standard of trade, in gifts to the Indians and in extra hands to man the posts and go out after furs. Returning to Moose Fort from Frederick House in the summer of 1788, by way of Abitibi Lake, George Donald reported on the disposition of the opposing fac­ tions and the methods they used to secure furs. 'The Canadians have had no less than five different settlements on Abitibi Lake this last Winter,' he wrote to Thomas, one of them where Angus McKie and another Winter'd is within 10 Miles of Frederick House these Settlements are in two different Interests ... each vie­ ing with the other to get the most Furrs so that its common for a Canoe of Indi­ ans to go from place to place and at Each to get a present of Rum and a quantity of goods in Debt, and in the Spring on the appearance of a Canoe comeing to Trade the Canadians put off their Canoes from their Houses and those that reach the Canoe first (or sometimes it depends on the strongest party) has the Indians Furrs and before the Rivers are open they are as active in Traveling about to seek for Indians & collect their Debts.25

In a letter to the Committee, Thomas confirmed Donald's observations. 'I have been inform'd by some of the Abbitibi Indians,' he added, that the Canadians kept them Drunk last Fall for seven days successively Ea settlement furnishing them with the Liquor gratis - and that the Furrs they

32 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade brought me had been conceal'd or the Canadians (who had been at their Tents) would have taken them from them for Debts that was due - and that they are confident some Indians that I enquired after (unless they arrive soon) are inter­ cepted by the Canadians as they not only promis'd me but them also that they would not if they could avoid it let the Canadians have their Furrs.� It is a nice question whether Thomas's attitude to Indian debts was any better than his opponents'. Even if the means the Canadians used to entice the Indians were unethical, still they had some right to the furs which would pay those debts and in trying to secure them, the Company's officers, too, laid themselves open to reproach. They could, of course, justify their actions on the ground that the Canadians were trad­ ing on lands belonging to the Company, but the truth was that competi­ tion in the fur trade was never fair and its excesses finally so notorious that monopoly was the only way out.

·3·

The Hudson's Bay Company Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95

In the spring of 1788 a new figure appeared in the Timiskaming district in the person of .,LEneas Cameron, the first of a succession of Camerons who were to be concerned in its affairs during the next hundred years. He had recently arrived in Canada from Jamaica, where he had appar­ ently been unable to find employment to his taste, and Dobie engaged him as a clerk for beleaguered Fort Abitibi, promising him that if he should decide to remain in the country (and provided James Grant were willing), he would offer him part of his own share in the post. Cameron had had no experience of the fur trade but his education and family connections, in a business where such connections meant so much, probably accounted for the generosity of Dobie's terms. He was born in northeastern Scotland about 1757, in Strathavon (pronounced, and sometimes even spelled, Stratha'an), the beautiful glen of the Avon River in upper Banffshire, near Tomintoul. His father, Alexander Cam­ eron, farmed the small holding of Iverchabet in the parish of Kirkmich­ ael, and his mother was Grace Grant of Glenlochy, a neighbouring prop­ erty in the same parish. Grace Grant was a sister of the John Grant of Glenlochy (later of Kilgraston) who was Chief Justice of Jamaica from 1783 to 1790, and of Francis Grant, a wealthy planter in the same island. Grace Grant's mother was also a Grant, of Inverlochy, another small holding in Kirkmichael, and William Grant, the eldest son of that fami­ ly, was by now well known in the Canadian fur trade as William Grant of Montreal. He and Dobie were business associates and friends but they may also have been more closely connected through Dobie's son-in-law, John Grant, the former shareholder in the Timiskaming posts. This John Grant was almost certainly related to the Jamaican Grants1 and probably to William Grant as well. In either case, Dobie and Cameron would have shared a family connection.

34 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade As for James Grant, he and Cameron cannot have been entire strang­ ers, for Grant came from the same parish of Kirkmichael as Cameron himself and William Grant. Although there is no suggestion in James Grant's letters to Cameron of any blood tie between them, perhaps he, like Cameron, was related to William Grant. Even if he were not, howev­ er, their common background would have made the new clerk all the more acceptable to James Grant . ...-'Eneas Cameron went to Fort Abitibi in the spring of 1788, where, as we have seen, opposition from Canada was particularly active. Dobie & Grant's rival was Beaubien Desrivieres of St Paul Street, Montreal, whose principal fur trade interests were at Lake of Two Mountains. The Iroquois vii I age there furnished most of the men, as well as provisions, for his Timiskaming venture and the Montreal firm of Todd, McGill & Co. seem to have supplied the goods. Desrivieres was not only interfer­ ing with the trade at all the Timiskaming posts but also in Riviere Du­ moine, a convenient approach to Grand Lac. At Abitibi his trader was a man named St Germain, while another, Coursolle, traded for him at Langue de Terre. In Riviere Dumoine he had managed to persuade one of Dobie's own engages, Joseph Godin, to enter his service and the en­ raged Dobie was not only suing Godin in the Montreal courts and hiring 'bullies' to capture him on his way down the Ottawa but resorting to every possible legal means to prevent Desrivieres from profiting from Godin's services.2 Apparently his measures were successful for in Decem­ ber 1788, Godin returned to his former employers. Ambitious, hardworking, shrewd, vigorous, and indomitable, Richard Dobie personified the freebooting days of the early Canadian trade. Be­ ginning as a 'Pedlar' in the Timiskaming area as early as 1764, he in­ vested the money he made there in becoming a merchant and supplier of others. The natural frankness of his letters to ...-'Eneas Cameron makes reading them almost like meeting him, while the deficiencies in spelling and grammar only add colour to his picturesque and uninhibited style. His principal concern during the spring and summer of 1788 was to sup­ ply the Timiskaming posts generously, thereby pressing his opponent to the limit, and he sent up nine hundred pieces (about ninety pounds each) to Fort Timiskaming. At the same time he assured Cameron that the previous year (the first of his association with James Grant) he had supplied almost two hundred more than Daniel Sutherland had done in any of the four years in which he held the posts.3 Meanwhile at Fort Timiskaming, following the practice of the Cana-

35

HBC Settles on

Lake Abitibi 1788-95

dian trade, James Grant was doing his best to entice Desrivieres' men from him and encouraging Cameron to do the same on Lake Abitibi. In October 1788, he reported to Cameron that he had received a letter from Coursolle at Langue de Terre, enclosing a list of his furs and making some proposals which he did not understand. His opponent had prom­ ised, however, to visit him during the winter and perhaps then they might come to some agreement which would 'detatch him from the old Raskal I wish you could attempt something of the kind there.'4 The winter and spring of 1789 were terrible months in Canada. The previous summer's harvest had failed and 'the hungry year' which fol­ lowed saw the price of bread soar above the purses of the poor. In his first spring letter to his colleagues in Timiskaming, Dobie sorrowfully re­ counted the pitiful conditions prevailing in the colony; despite the as­ sistance of the more fortunate, many had died of starvation. As a result, even though he had personally visited all the villages around Montreal, he had had the greatest difficulty in securing provisions for the posts and so far had accumulated only sufficient ' pease' to supply the voyageurs. In addition, he had sent men to Vermont, New Hampshire, and almost as far as Albany, but up until now they had not returned. He had suc­ ceeded however in contracting with 'a Yankee' for two hundred bushels of Indian corn, to be delivered at St John's (on Lake Champlain), al­ though he was not counting on it; 'you know nothing can be depended on from those fellows until it is in hand.'5 As a substitute for the re­ quired flour, he intended to send up two bags of biscuit and as soon as the season began, Grant and Cameron should send out fishing parties day and night. To add to Dobie's anxieties, he had learned that Desrivieres had pro­ cured about a hundred and fifty bushels of corn and sufficient flour for his posts from the Lake of Two Mountains Indians and was now trying to get his canoes off first. The earliest brigade to arrive at Fort Timis­ kaming, Dobie warned Grant and Cameron, would bring news of the scarcity of provisions and they must be careful to assure their Indians that the Fort would have plenty, especially for those who had not traded with Desrivieres. 'That old Rascal is Villian [sic] enough', he declared, 'to tell the lndains [sic] that we cannot supply them this year with a grain of provisions, & that they must all come to him, or perish for want - and you should inform your Chieftains far & near, that we shall prove Disriver [sic] has deluded them, and has utter'd to them many falshoods [sic] and abundance of ill grounded Lies.'6 Fortunately, by the time Dobie's canoes were at last able to start for Fort Timiskaming after a

36 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade late spring break-up, his emissaries had not only brought back plenty of Indian corn and grease but the 'Yankee' had kept his bargain and the Timiskaming posts were assured of abundant provisions. During the winter Dobie had also been busy enlisting the support of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir John Johnson, against the in­ roads of Desrivieres' Iroquois, whose ruthless hunting methods had ter­ rified the timid Timiskaming and Abitibi Indians. He had managed to persuade Sir John to write a reassuring letter to them and to provide suitable gifts and he now proposed to pay a ceremonial visit to the posts in May in order to present them. His letter indicates the kind of presents which pleased the Indians. For your Lords & Copper Couler'd Chieftains vizt 3 very fine & handsome Mad­ dels, 3 Laced Coats beautiful!, 3 do - Hats - do, 6 Silver Arm abands, 3 pr. of En­ glish colouers, with a Belt of wampum one end of which Sir John Johnson is to hold & the other end the Indians at Temiscamingue and abitibie is to hold you will of course inform all your lndains [sic] far and Near of this mighty pres­ ent, to which I Suppose we must add a Keg of Rum, Black Tobacco & a little Vermmilian - N.B. we must be exceeding careful! that we do not avail ourselves of any insinuations in our favor relating Trade - because the Rascal Disriver with the assistance Cunning McGill, will make matters sound in at headquarters to Sir John's prejudice - the present will be handed with a Speach f rom Sir John Johnson - the purport of which will be that the lndains have been mislaid by bad Wirds, vild Lies against us and the English in genl. - and that the Lake In­ dians and Chiefs had no Business among them and in future if any Chiefs came amongst them to frighten or [indecipherable] our Indians Some one two or three must come doun to inform Sir John, and he will give our lndains [sic] ample satisfaction. 7

As it turned out, however, Dobie did not arrive at Fort Timiskaming until the beginning of June. Perhaps ill health delayed him for, despite Cameron's urgings, he decided against proceeding as far as Fort Abitibi, pleading 'a Shattered Constitution,' already 'stretched' by the journey so far. He hoped, he told Cameron, that the Abitibi Indians would be satisfied with Sir John's gifts and speech and his own appearance at Fort Timiskaming, where he would wait for Cameron to bring down all his 'Indain [sic] kings and Queens and as many of thier Subjects ... as possi­ ble, without detriment to making packs.'8 A cassette, forwarded to Cameron that summer, provides an interest­ ing sidelight on the more personal side of fur trade life, as well as sug-

37

HBC Settles

on Lake Abitibi 1788-95

gesting that the style of living at Fort Abitibi had improved considera­ bly since Thomas's visit fourteen years before. It included 'a Highland dress, 2 pr. do Hose & Garters, 4 lb. Snuff, 4 lb. Tob0 , 2 tooth brushes, 1 Buckle do, 2 velvet stocks, 1 round, 2 pr. Sheets, 1 Ratten [Ratteen] Jacket a Present from Ro.'9 During the summer of 1789 Desrivieres' trader at Langue de Terre, Coursolle, gave up his post, handing over his goods to Dobie & Grant at a fair valuation, 10 and although St Germain continued to hold on at Abi­ tibi Lake, it is clear that by now Grant and Cameron were far more wor­ ried about the effect on their trade of the Hudson's Bay Company's op­ position at Frederick House. In October, Grant warned Cameron to watch out for the Timiskaming chief, who intended to winter near Lake Abitibi and had told some Indians that he was going to visit his old friends on Hudson Bay, and Grant's letter suggests that he and Dobie were contemplating building a post in the neighbourhood of Frederick House. In May 1790, Cameron himself visited Frederick House in the com­ pany of John Mannall, a Hudson's Bay clerk whom he had met on Lake Abitibi. William Bolland, the master of Frederick House, had sent Man­ nall to waylay Indians there but on reaching the place where he in­ tended to camp, Mannall had discovered that Cameron had been there since the beginning of March. As a result, Mannall had secured only a few furs which he traded in the night for brandy. 11 Cameron stayed two days at Frederick House, afterwards reporting to Grant that he had seen two Indian women there who belonged to Langue de Terre. During that summer St Germain finally abandoned his opposition on Lake Abitibi and from then on the owners of the Timiskaming district never had to contend with any further competition from Canada. It is true that two years later there was a brief alarm that the Montreal firms of Forsyth, Richardson & Co. and Todd, McGill & Co., who were being pushed out of the southwest trade by the Americans, might oppose the North West Company and also interfere in Timiskaming, but the threat failed to materialize. Again, although David and Peter Grant mounted an opposition to the North West Company from 1793 to 1795 and there were fears that they might also go to Timiskaming, the rumours came to nothing. After 1790, except for a random foray or two into the southern fringe of the Timiskaming district, it was a straight fight between the owners of the Timiskaming posts and the Hudson's Bay Company in which the Canadians always had the upper hand.

38 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Cameron remained in charge of Fort Abitibi for several years. About 1792 he went to Grand Lac and was succeeded at Fort Abitibi by Alex­ ander McDougall, who had been at the post at least since 1788. The Timiskaming servants at this time were mostly French, as their names reveal; Laplante, Lepine, Laframboise, Blondeau, L'Ecurier (or so they spelled it), Lalande, Lamotte, Mallet, and Sabourin, to mention a few. Some of the clerks were French, too, St Amant, Chenier, Constant, and Panneton, but the majority were Scots like Cameron and McDougall, Donald McKay, Donald Grant (known as Bonhomme), Hugh Ross, Al­ exander Gordon, and Peter Grant (James's uncle). During Cameron's tenure of Fort Abitibi Donald McKay and the two Grants were appar­ ently at Langue de Terre, Neil McKay at Grand Lac, and James Grant and Alexander Gordon at Fort Timiskaming. A man named Charles Phillips was in charge of Riviere Dumaine and remained there for many years, although he does not seem to have enjoyed the confidence of ei­ ther James Grant or Dobie. Grant referred to him as 'that raskal Phillips,' while Dobie, who pronounced him 'a Spark, of such talents that no pouer but the Devil's and his own can Solve,' was constantly en­ joining on Cameron the need to watch him and bring down his furs. 12 As far as the disposition of their servants was concerned, Dobie and Grant maintained strength wherever opposition was fiercest, keeping outposts and men equally mobile. Moreover, the Canadians travelled widely in search of furs. Alexander Gordon, for example, went from Fort Timiskaming almost to Lake Huron in the spring of 1790 and immedi­ ately after his return, set out for Wanapitei Lake and Lake Nipissing. At the latter, Denis de la Ronde was carrying on a private trade. Other places are also mentioned which we now have no means of identifying. Dobie did not go up to Fort Timiskaming in the summer of 1790, send­ ing his apologies 'to all, Kings, Queens &c' for disappointing them, but his spring letter, conveying the news of the recent London fur sales, must have heartened both Grant and Cameron. All furs, except bears, had fetched better prices than the previous year and Timiskaming fine beaver had sold for the highest price, a shilling and sixpence more than the best North West. If the new venture of selling furs direct to China were successful, their beaver would be worth much more in 1792. 'I am certain,' Dobie optimistically assured Cameron, 'when the post of Tem­ iscamingue and the posts depending thereon are all brought to frugal and Regular good Rules, no person here nor in any quarter depending on this province will have fairer prospect of gaining money than you and

39

HBC

Settles on Lake Abitibi 1 788-95

Mr Grant - the Trade here and particularly via Michimackina and De­ troit are entirely overdone, at the latter place I don't think there is more than two or three that can be trusted with sixpence.' 13 Cameron went down to Montreal that summer and the terms of a new arrangement between himself, Dobie, and James Grant appear to have been worked out, subject to an inventory of the goods and build­ ings. By the following April, however, Dobie was much less sanguine about the future of the Timiskaming trade, although apparently still convinced that if the country business were reorganized, Grant and Cameron could make money. Economy must be their watchword. 'The leading and main Spring of this important object,' Dobie explained to Cameron, 'is in my opinion, to be obtained through the following meas­ ures only, Industry, Saving, knowledge, and above all consideration to discharge all Superfluous and iddle [sic] Clerks, you and Mr Grant at your respective Posts, with five more Judicious, Honest and Saving Clerks on reasonable wages is enough, and if the Indains [sic] must Drink inundations of Rum, Consume provisions, and Tobacco &ea. &ea. they by degrees must be weeded from Consuming those very expensive articles. ' 14 Yet three days later, when Dobie dispatched the Timiskaming ac­ count to the fort, it is clear that he was a much worried man. He and Grant, he pointed out to Cameron, had 'lost emmensly' during the first three years of their partnership and although Grant insisted that it was impossible, he was satisfied that the only way to put the business on a sound basis was for them to prepare an exact list of the required sup­ plies. You and Mr Grant must draw a line to follow in management, and you may rely that line will be punctually followed here on my part - my former experience in the Post Trade clearly evince me, forty pices of Strouds (say forty Bales assorted Goods) is enough for the annual supply - you may consider the following sur­ prising tho' it is truth, 1764 I only sent up 30 pieces Strouds, and the Spring of 1765 I brought down 118 packs 90 Iivres each french wight in which there was not a single musquash, and the Beaver in quality at that time was 50 pet. better than it is now, and you will still think it more surprising few or no goods was put in at less than 75 pet. and many at a cole 100 pet. by Wm. Grant of Quebec - and during the time I had that post beaver, otters Cased Cats did not sell for more than half of last year's price, notwithstanding all those disadvantages I earned money handsomely annually, you'll say no doubt times is Changed, I allow it, but folloug. a obvious lossing Trade will be in us madness and great folly. 10

40 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade This letter of Dobie's also provides a clue to what may have been his principal reason, apart from James Grant's age and Desrivieres' opposi­ tion, for engaging JEneas Cameron and promising him a share in the business. Grant seems to have been a good trader, at home in the woods and with the Indians, but he was not, perhaps, the sort of manager which an increasingly competitive trade required. In Cameron Dobie was assured of the services of an educated man of sound business prac­ tice, on whom he could rely to keep the country side of the trade in order. Plagued with worries about Timiskaming and continued ill health, Do­ bie decided to retire from active business. A few days before Christmas 1791, he and his Montreal partner, William Badgley, dissolved their agreement and sold all their interests, including Timiskaming and Rivi­ ere Dumoine, to Grant, Campion & Co., a firm of which William Grant of Montreal was senior partner. As early as November that year Joseph Frobisher had reported to Simon McTavish in London that 'Grant & Campion have intirely finished with Dobie, Timiscaming included & they have taken in Gerrard as a Partner with them,'16 a statement which implies some previous, and perhaps considerable, connection between William Grant's firm, Dobie, and Timiskaming; exactly what it was is impossible to say. The new junior partner, however, was a young Irish­ man, Samuel Gerrard, who was to have a very successful career in Cana­ dian business, later becoming second president of the Bank of Montreal. A year after the sale of the Timiskaming posts he married Dobie's eldest granddaughter, Anne (Nancy) Grant, and as part of her dowry Dobie settled on him a thousand pounds which he had left in the hands of Grant, Campion & Co. The two men who now took over the Timiskaming posts were a dis­ tinct contrast to one another. William Grant was a substantial merchant and both he and his partner, Etienne Campion, were old 'upper country' men. Grant still voyaged to Michilimackinac and the Illinois valley and when Grant, Campion & Co. acquired the Timiskaming posts, it was he who went to Fort Timiskaming every spring to meet the Indians and ar­ range the business. But he was by now middle-aged and soon to be over­ taken by infirmities. Gerrard, on the other hand, was only twenty-five or six, with no upper country experience, but typical of the new men com­ ing to the fore in Montreal, a shrewd buyer and accountant. It was he who addressed the winterers on behalf of the firm and he also carried on a personal correspondence with Cameron.

41

HBC Settles on

Lake Abitibi 1788-95

The sale of the Timiskaming posts might presumably have put an end to Cameron's immediate chances for a share in the business but Do­ bie assured him that, if James Grant were willing, William Grant had no objection to his coming in for a third interest and would discuss the mat­ ter with him when he went up to Fort Timiskaming in the spring of 1792. William Grant also wrote to Cameron in a similar strain. Yet noth­ ing seems to have come of these promises. Probably there was some rea­ sonable obstacle to Cameron's becoming a partner, for he remained on good terms both with his new associates and with Dobie, who protested that it had been out of his power to do anything about it. In the autumn of 1793, however, when James Grant was unable to winter at Fort Tim­ iskaming because of ill health, Cameron took over the command of the Timiskaming posts and the following summer was offered a share in the business. Meanwhile the pattern of the next fifteen years, during which Timis­ kaming was to enjoy its greatest period of expansion and influence, was taking shape. Grant, Campion & Co., free of opposition from Canada and perhaps in a position to command more capital than Dobie, immedi­ ately set about establishing a post on Frederick House Lake. The Moose Council countered the move by building two new· po sts in the Timiskam­ ing district, one of them the long projected house on Lake Abitibi, and the Canadians, in their turn, then established yet another post depen­ dant on Fort Timiskaming. As early as 1787, when Donald McKay visited Turnor at his new post on Frederick House Lake, Canadian plans to settle in the neighbourhood were already in train. The failure to implement them was probably the result, first of the financial misfortunes which led to Dobie's resumption of the business, and then of the necessity for combatting Desrivieres' op­ position. In the fall of 1792, however, Isaac Constant, a clerk from Fort Abitibi, at last built a post on Devil's Island, just offshore from Freder­ ick House itself. The new post appears to have been supplied from Fort Abitib'i and the Hudson's Bay men referred to it as 'Wa,na,ta,ongar,' ap­ parently the Indian name for the island. 17 The rivals were soon at loggerheads. The English blamed Constant's bullying tactics but these were, in fact, only the standard practice of the Canadian trade in dealing with opposition. In the spring of 1793 the Canadians' were reinforced by Peter Grant from Langue de Terre and Andre Cheni�r from Fort Abitibi18 and, with such a concentration of power against them, the occupants of Frederick House found themselves I.

42 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade in an unenviable position. But James Grant, too, was worried. 'I am re­ aly at a loss what to do about that Fort Frederick,' he wrote to Cameron at Grand Lac, 'be so good as to lett me have your opinion as soon as pos­ sible even if you was to send a small Canoe.'19 The next step in Canadian strategy was revealed during the summer. While the master of Frederick House, John Mannan, was at Moose Fort conferring with Governor Thomas about the new opposition, his second in command, Robert Folster, reported to headquarters that the Canadi­ ans were busily engaged in getting goods to Fort Abitibi, with the object of making a settlement at Moose in the spring. At the same time they were continuing to exploit to the full the classic methods of opposition on Frederick House Lake. Since early July, Folster complained, they had had four men with two tents around his post, and two more on Devil's Island, to prevent the Indians, who were accustomed to trading at Fred­ erick House, from coming in. They had told him that they did not care about their own trade, since the Indians intercepted at Frederick House would go to the other Canadian posts. The Devil's Island post, Foister added, was the only Canadian house to be strongly manned; the others had only two men and a master, although they expected to have more during the winter.20 In addition to building on Frederick House Lake, the Canadians at Fort Abitibi were pressing hard on Moose by way of the Harricanaw River and now, threatened with their coming down to the Bay itself, the officers at Moose at last decided to establish a post on Lake Abitibi. As a preliminary, they instructed George Gladman, one of their most promis­ ing young clerks, to reconnoitre Lake Abitibi and then visit Fort Timis­ kaming, where they were also considering settling. Governor Thomas was particularly anxious to learn more about a large river emptying into the southern part of Lake Abitibi which, the Indians had told him, came from a lake well situated for trade and country provisions; perhaps it might be a suitable location for the new post.21 In the meantime boats, carrying provisions, would attempt to ascend the Abitibi River, while the goods would come from Frederick House. Gladman left Moose Fort in March 1794, reaching Frederick House at the beginning of April. 'Two men from FH came running over the Lake to meet us, and secure our Furrs supposing We were a Tribe of Indians,' he remarked sardonically in his Journal, 'and soon after a Canadian clerk & one of their men met us under the same mistake. '22 Thereafter he was never out of sight of the Canadians, who followed him wherever he went.

43

HBC Settles

on Lake Abitibi 1788-95

On 11 April Gladman resumed his journey, closely attended by his opponents, and arrived five days later at the entrance to Lake Abitibi. There two clerks from Fort Abitibi (one of them Donald Grant), accom­ panied by two servants, took over the watch from the Frederick House men. The ice being still in the lake, Gladman waited for it to clear, busy­ ing himself in fishing and looking for furs. On one occasion he invited Grant, whom he perceived had no meat with him, to dine on bacon and partridges, in order, he explained to his Journal, to preserve a good un­ derstanding between them, and because the Canadians had so often en­ tertained the Hudson's Bay men.23 On 26 April Gladman's party finally set off eastward across Lake Abi­ tibi, the Canadians at their heels. Two days later the lake narrowed and they 'Entered a River Went SE and arrived at the Abbittibi Settlement which consists of two small low Dwelling Houses and a wholesale and re­ tail Store, it stands on a point looking into the Lake. - Pitched my Tent on the opposite side in view of their House and about 300 yards distance.' 'There are about Twelve Trading Indians here,' Gladman continued, some have Traded, and all their Furrs are in the Canadians Possession, indeed I perceive but small hopes of getting much Trade here this Year as our Arrival is so unexpected to the Indians and the Canadians watch so closely. Two of them pitched a Guard Tent within a few yards of mine. - Went over and paid a Visit to Mr McDougall the Master of the Canadian Settlement, who received me with much Kindness, and observed that he hoped however opposite our Interests were as far as regarded Trade, We might live on Terms of Personal Civility to­ gether though he said, at the same time we must Expect when a Pack of Furrs was to be got our Zeal for our Employers would create temporary Disputes, but they would avoid Personal Animosities, which I assured him was equally oppo­ site to my Sentiments. 2•

Gladman remained on Lake Abitibi until the end of May, exploring its shores and looking for furs. The Canadians kept regular watch on his tend and followed his men everywhere. Soon he moved to their side of the river (presumably the western side since he settled about a hundred yards west of their house), so as to be in plain view of the Indians com­ ing and going to the Fort. The Canadians recalled most of their men from Frederick House, which left Mannall free to join Gladman. It was he who explored the river to which Thomas had referred, apparently the La Sarre. After ascending it to a large lake running south (Macamic

44 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Lake), on his return he met an Indian who told him that most of the eastern Indians came into the river at a small portage below the lake. Mannan therefore concluded that Lake Abitibi was the best location for the new post,2-> while Gladman pointed out that the eastern end of the lake would be preferable to the western. The three sizeable rivers which emptied into it there within a short distance of one another, he argued, would free it from ice, and thus open it for trade, much earlier in the season. Before leaving for Fort Timiskaming, Gladman set down some per­ ceptive observations on the Canadian trade at Abitibi and the prospects for the Hudson's Bay Company. Abbittibi House is a very old Establishment and the Indians about it, in general, are as much attached to them as our home Indians are to us, which would oper­ ate very much (at least for some time) against a Settlement made by us here The establishment will be very expensive and I doubt little productive for some time, for besides the above reasons, the Canadian Servants are well acquainted with the Country and more dextrous in Canoes, than the generality of our Men and will upon our Settleing here have a number of them; these they will pour out into every Quarter and effectually secure most of the Indians Trade; And it is their constant practice in this part of the Country to seize all the Peltry the Indians have, without allowing them the Liberty of Trading where they (the In­ dians) choose, and as a plausible pretence for this they constantly keep their Na­ tives in debt to them. To give a proper Check to the Canadian influence, it will be proper that our Settlement here should have Ten good men at least, and to stand an equal chance with them in going about after Indians, they should be supplied with not less than Six Months European Provisions, - they always fur­ nish their People off in these Expeditions with Victuals in profusion. - I am also surprized at the quantity of Rum they give them, which must also be done by us to secure the necessary Influence over the Natives, with these advantages I should hope our People would be successful. - For Provisions, Rabbits are very plentiful about Abbittibi Lake and Fish not scarce. - One of the Gentlemen con­ cerned in this Canada Company told me in Conversation that 'in the Year 1769 they made 75 Packs on Abbittibi Lake, but now they think themselves well paid if they procure Thirty' - This Year I do not think they made much above 2000 beaver by all I could learn; and many of the Indians I believe who used to Trade at this Place now resort either to Moose Fort or Eastmain.26

The Abitibi Indian whom Gladman had engaged to take him to Fort Timiskaming failed to turn up and he was obliged to set off on his own.

45 HBC Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95 The following day he met James Grant on a lake which, he reported, he reached by way of a small creek, where the current was with him. It is puzzling how this could be, for the route generally followed from Lake Abitibi to the Height of Land was up the Duparquet River. By whatever route Gladman reached the lake on which he met Grant, however, it would appear to have been Lake Duparquet, for Grant would be travell­ ing the usual road. Grant greeted Gladman cordially, pressing him to re­ turn to Fort Abitibi with him and then accompany him back to Fort Timiskaming but Gladman, doubtless with some regret, 'thought proper to Decline.'27 Although Grant took the Canadians, who were still following the Hudson's Bay party, back to Fort Abitibi, Gladman was unable to pre­ vail upon the few Indians he met to act as guides, even when he offered them all the goods he had. He did, however, glean some information from them and proceeded by trial and error, only once becoming sufficiently discouraged to consider giving up and waiting for Grant. As they travelled south, the Hudson's Bay men saw the face of the country change from the plenty of Lake Abitibi to a barren land of craggy moun­ tains, where they could neither snare rabbits nor catch fish, but after some thirteen days on the road, the scenery once more reverted to low, pleasant shores, covered with ash, elm, birch, and poplar trees, inter­ spersed with occasional stands of pine. Soon they came in sight of a large lake which Gladman assumed to be Lake Timiskaming and his conjec­ ture was confirmed the next morning by James Grant himself, who over­ took them in camp. Hoisting sail, they accompanied him down to the Canadian post at the narrows. From his own observations, Gladman correctly located Fort Timis­ kaming in latitude 47 ° 17'N. Beyond it, he noted, as far as he could see, the lake ran south-southeast for about four miles, then tended west­ ward, forming a river again. His description of Fort Timiskaming is the first one there is for the post and is therefore quoted in full. The Houses stand on a Point on the Et side stretching into the Lake on a high Situation, another point projects from the opposite side making a narrow Chan­ nel only ¼ Mile across, thro' which a strong Current runs to the So-ward. The Houses consist of a Wholesale and Retail Warehouse, a House for a Master and Clerks and another for Men all at right angles within Pallisadoes. Ten or Twelve Yards higher up on the Point there are two other commodious dwelling Houses one for the Master and the other Mr Grant's in which they reside, those are very neatly fitted up, with printed Cotton Curtains, the Walls neatly papered and

46 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade plaistered but all on one Floor, - besides these they have some detached Build­ ings as a Smith's Forge, (they have an Armourer constantly here who makes all the Iron work for their Trade, Barrs of Iron come up in the bottoms of their Ca­ noes without much inconvenience) also a very complete Ice House, a magazine but all in irregular situations, around these are several detached spots of Garden Ground, but the Sand is poor, & nothing appears likely to come to Perfection but Potatoes, which are uncommonly productive here, many Bushels are thrown about around their Houses, tho' they say they give great quantities to the Indi­ ans and are now feeding Hogs with them, these besides Poultry are all their live stock. - They have other Dwelling Houses for the Winter, (this situation being too bleak and open,) about half a mile behind the Point to the So-ward, of their Trade I can gather little Information, all the Furrs I saw would not amount to 1000 MBeaver, in Beaver, Otter, Cats and many musquash, but as the large Ca­ noes are returned to Montreal some time since much must have gone down by them, as all the Posts Ere that had lodged the principal part of their Collections here, there are no Indians about to form my Calculations of the Furrs collected at this particular Post. - The Land all round the Lake is high barren Rocky and has a very unfavourable appearance for Provisions, Pidgeons I understand are sometimes pretty plentiful, for about 3 Weeks in Summer, the season for them is about commencing now, there are very few Rabbits to be got, the Fish which are very scarce to be got here are Pike and Perch principally, but the chief depen­ dance of the Canadians is on the Provisions they bring up from Montreal, Indian Corn and Grease is served out regularly to the Men each Day and also some Pease, but Pork, Flour Salt &ea. they must Buy, if they want it; Pork is 3 Livres p Pound, Flour 2, Mr Cameron the Master here assured me they had not four Pounds at the End of the Year to pay to any Man in their Service. But the Clerks are exempted from any Expence, either for Food or Cloathing ... Mr Grant and Mr Cameron received us with great Civility, gave me two Apartments for myself and People. - They keep an excellent Table and entertained me with Madeira and London Bottled Porter.23

Gladman was particularly interested in the availability of country provisions on Lake Timiskaming because, if the Hudson's Bay Company settled a house there, all its supplies would have to come over the Height of Land from Moose Fort. But as far as the navigation between lakes Abitibi and Timiskaming was concerned, he judged it to be feasible, al­ though he did not think the Company could use boats; the rugged por­ tages, he pointed out, would wear out a boat's bottom before half the journey was completed. With canoes the task would be easy, especially if the water were high, since the rivers, although difficult and dangerous, were small.

4 7 HBC Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95 For obvious reasons the Fort Timiskaming which Gladman saw more nearly resembled Moose Fort than Fort Abitibi. Relatively close to Montreal, fairly easily supplied by large canoes, the depot and head­ quarters of a very extensive district, it was of necessity a comparatively elaborate establishment. Gladman's account of it, detailed though it is, arouses an appetite for more. What did Grant and Cameron look like, we wonder, and what was his impression of them? Did they wear highland dress all the time or just at dinner, or only on special occasions? What did their 'excellent table' provide and how was it served? Only a year be­ fore a more observant (or appreciative) Hudson's Bay officer had found almost every delicacy, including preserved fruits and wines, at the Pie River post on Lake Superior, with a table 'set out more like one in Eu­ rope than an Inland Trader of Hudsons Bay.'29 All we know about the Timiskaming menu is that the madeira and porter which Gladman en­ joyed were Cameron's own particular favourites, but no doubt, as far as luxuries were concerned, the Fort was comparable to other Canadian posts within a reasonable distance of Montreal. Again, one is impressed by the cordiality with which Grant and Cam­ eron welcomed a rival whose aim, after all, was to injure their trade. It was not as if, like him, they were merely employees. Presumably the hospitality which they extended to the English party owed something to the traditional code of the Highlander but basically it was incumbent on the need to be neighbourly amid harsh physical surroundings and on the delight in company, no matter whom, of men living in isolation. Despite the Canadians' ruthlessness in pursuing furs, this friendliness on their part was to persist in the Timiskaming area until Selkirk's settlement embittered the last phase of the long struggle between the two factions. Gladman spent two days at Fort Timiskaming and then set out again for Lake Abitibi, Cameron accompanying him to the head of Lake Tim­ iskaming. Although this courtesy, offered to departing guests, seems to have been a Canadian custom, in this case it may also have been aimed at insuring that he met no Indians. Probably Cameron also provided him with a guide, since his return journey took only four days. On Lake Abitibi he discovered that Robert Foister had arrived from Frederick House and was building a post on a point about two miles 'below' Fort Abitibi.a0 This seems to have been at the tip of the long peninsula, run­ ning prominently out into the lake on the east side of the Duparquet River. The Canadians, as Gladman had noted, were within the entrance to the river and apparently on the west side. After remaining one day on Lake Abitibi, Gladman left the following

48 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade morning for Moose Fort. On his arrival there he was sent as master to New Brunswick (the post built on the west side of Brunswick Lake in 1788), Foister being left in charge of the new Abitibi House. As for Lake Timiskaming, on the basis of Gladman's report the London Committee decided against settling there because of the scarcity of country provi­ sions and the difficulty of supplying it from the Bay. In addition to Abitibi House, the Moose Council established another post that same summer on 'the south branch of the Moose River,' mod­ ern Mattagami River. John Mannall built the house on the west side of Kenogamissi Lake, about five miles above its outlet. It was intended to replace Frederick House, which the Council planned to abandon because of the disastrous decline in its returns. Kenogamissi Lake House had several advantages over Frederick House and immediately proved to be more profitable. It could be supplied by boats, country provisions were better and more plentiful there, it was in the path of many of the Indi­ ans belonging to Langue de Terre, and many of the westward Indians who visited Frederick House lived in the vicinity. The Canadians lost no time in retaliating. Three months later, in Oc­ tober 1794, Donald McKay built a house on Lake Matawagamingue (now Mattagami Lake), some thirty miles southwest of the new English post. Furthermore, since the Canadians also continued to maintain their post on Devil's Island, the Moose Council was unable to give up Freder­ ick House. Unfortunately for the Hudson's Bay Company, although the estab­ lishment of Abitibi House may have helped defer the Canadian descent on Moose Fort, Gladman's warnings about the trade there were speedily realized. Securing a reasonable share of the furs in that Canadian stronghold would have been difficult in the most favourable circum­ stances but Governor Thomas never had much to spare in the way of men, goods, and provisions, and his situation worsened as the French revolutionary wars led to an acute shortage of labour in Britain and a steep rise in prices. Hands for the fur trade were equally scarce in Cana­ da, it is true, and most of the available men preferred to go to Michili­ mackinac or the northwest, but Grant, Campion & Co. was much more alive than the London Committee to the necessity of having sufficient help, besides being more willing to pay the going rates. 'You must not stick at Wages if they will Agree to remain,' William Grant adjured Cameron in August 1793, 'only endeavour to Keep it Secret the Wages you give them. '31 In Montreal, Grant himself, without much success, was

49 HBC Settles on Lake Abitibi 1788-95 offering six hundred French livres to winterers who would go to Timis­ kaming (a very high figure in James Grant's estimation). At the same time the clerk, Isaac Constant, was refusing a salary of eighteen hundred livres for Frederick House Lake, or sixteen hundred for any other Timis­ kaming post, while Andre Chenier turned down fifteen hundred. Al­ though Donald Grant engaged this year for £60 (probably Halifax cur­ rency), by 1797 both Donald McKay and Alexander Gordon were receiving £100 a year for a two-year term, with a bonus of £50 at the end of the contract. In the same year Chenier was offered but refused £100 and a servant, La Plante, after first rejecting a salary of fourteen hun­ dred livres, subsequently received seventeen hundred each for himself and his son. 32 Folster's Abitibi Journal and his letters to Governor Thomas enable us to follow the Canadians' campaign on Lake Abitibi.33 A few days after Gladman left for Moose Fort, they built a house beside the English post to keep watch on their opponents and intercept any Indians coming in to trade. Foister, in turn, put up a temporary dwelling above Fort Abi­ tibi but when he was unable to man it during the ensuing summer, James Grant's halfbreed son and another man burnt it to the ground. With usually double the number of servants, the Canadians could way­ lay the Indians in every part of the lake and in every direction from it. To add to his difficulties Foister had no canoes the first year and his boats were of little use in the creeks. Even when he managed to per­ suade the Indians to build a canoe for him, the Canadians would take it, by force if necessary, to prevent its falling into his hands. After 1794, too, all the available Moose boats were required to supply New Bruns­ wick and Kenogamissi Lake, leaving only canoes, manned by Indians, for Abitibi and Frederick House. This circumstance not only increased the cost, but also the labour, of getting up even the moderate amount of goods and provisions allotted to the two posts. Although the Governor and Committee continued to rely on the supe­ riority of the Company's goods, their optimism seems to have been ill founded. Gerrard was paying particular attention to the Timiskaming goods and both Foister and Mannan confirmed their quality. Mannall, indeed, sent a Canadian trap to Moose Fort as a sample, reporting that the Indians would not take his as long as they could get the Canadians'.34 He also refused to accept old guns from Frederick House, which Thomas tried to unload on him because, he protested, the Indians would not touch them.35 Foister was even more emphatic. 'The Canadi-

50 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ans hath Goods nearly fully equal to ours, in every Article, coarse Twine excepted and some things they better us in, especially Callico and French cotton shirts, their Deer Skins are not many, but one is worth two of ours.'36 It was James Grant who had personally selected the calico for the shirts sent to Timiskaming. Liquor for the posts was a problem for both sides during these years of war in Europe. In 1795 Grant, Campion & Co. found the price of West Indian rum so exorbitant that they sent up on trial a quantity of 'high wines' (rectified spirits) in addition to the rum supplied. The French had used brandy in the fur trade and the Hudson's Bay Company had been forced to follow suit but French brandy was expensive in England and sometimes difficult to obtain, so the Committee also sent out a raw sort of gin, not very popular with anyone, known in the upper country as 'English brandy.' Rum had come into the trade by way of the English colonies which, under the colonial system, had close commercial ties with the British West Indies. After 1763 the same laws applied to Can­ ada and since many of the merchants engaged in the Canadian trade came from Albany and New York, rum replaced brandy in the north­ west. Mannall reported to Moose that his Indians preferred the Canadians' rum to Hudson's Bay brandy and the Abitibi Indians apparently did, too. Foister requested that his brandy not be distilled (presumably he meant diluted); 'it makes it so mild', he told Thomas, 'that the Indians drink it like Water, and it does not affect the brain.'37 He also expressed astonishment at the amount of liquor the Canadians gave the Indians, declaring that it was nothing to find ten to fourteen gallons in an Indian's canoe during the summer and that Fort Abitibi had gone through fourteen pipes (a hundred and five gallons each) in one year.38 In order to strengthen the taste of the liquor being supplied and make it more pleasing to the Indians, Thomas sent a recipe to all the Moose posts in 1795. 'The Brandy is all double Rectified Spirits.' he explained. Three gallons of it will take two gallons and a half of Water to lower it to the strength of common English brandy. One of the Kegs marked thus 0, has three gallons Tincture Capsicum, a proportion of this is to be put in that you mix for the Indians to give it additional strength and heat. One pint of the Tincture itself put into ten gallons of Brandy will make it stronger to the palate, and will warm the stomach more than one gallon of spirit of Wine, it may be made stronger with the Tincture if desired, but then more Water must be added or else it will heat the mouth too much. the Person who performs this operation can al­ ways judge by the taste.39

51

HBC Settles on

Lake Abitibi 1788-95

In 1796 the Committee's general letter communicated the news that all British distilling had been suspended in an effort to save grain. En­ glish brandy could not be had at any price and the directors had accord­ ingly substituted 'molasses spirits.' But it was very expensive, they pointed out, costing four times as much as the brandy they had sent out the previous year, and the traders should extend it by experimenting with various mixtures. 40 'Among the Kegs of Rectified Spirits,' Thomas therefore advised his officers, 'you'l [sic] find one called Red cordial made according to the Instructions I have received but as it's not very palatable I have found it necessary to add a little Sugar and Pimento to that I have made for Factory use. I send you a Receipt [sic] of the pro­ portions in case you find occasion for it.'41

.4.

McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800

In December 1795, the Timiskaming posts again changed hands, when McTavish, Frobisher & Co., the Montreal agents of the North West Company, bought them from Grant, Campion & Co. Although the pur­ chase was part of a concerted effort on the agents' part to unite all the Canadian trade under their leadership, they also had special plans for Timiskaming. For a number of years the Montreal trade had been going through a period of unrest and discontent, which was aggravated by the depressing effect on its profits of the French revolutionary wars in Europe. The un­ easy situation, in turn, was eroding the predominant position which the North West Company had secured for itself in the interior by the Agree­ ment of 1787. Canadian firms, hitherto engaged in the southwest trade, not only saw their empires slipping away with the advance of American settlement but, faced with the inevitable surrender of the old French posts in that area to the American government, were turning their eyes to the northwest. The pressure on the North West Company from the outside, moreover, was matched by growing discontent within its own ranks, both the wintering partners and the younger men having become dissatisfied with their share of the profits. In 1792 the agents made certain concessions to meet the demands of the wintering partners and conciliate some of the Montreal firms. They increased the number of North West shares to admit several new winter­ ing partners and to provide two shares each for the influential southwest firms of Forsyth, Richardson & Co. and Todd, McGill & Co., which had already entered Nipigon and were threatening to go to the northwest. In addition, they gave one share each to Grant, Campion & Co. and the Henrys. Nevertheless, the following year, David and Peter Grant

53 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskarning 1795-1800 launched an opposition against the North West Company and in 1794 Daniel Sutherland, hitherto one of Simon McTavish's closest friends, joined the ranks of the disaffected. The younger men in the North West Company, too, were still unhappy about their prospects and critical of the way in which the agents were conducting the Montreal end of the business, and their cause was taken up by a new man rapidly coming to the fore among the wintering partners. Alexander Mackenzie was a young man, too, but his recent journeys to the Arctic and Pacific oceans had made his reputation and he pos­ sessed boundless ambition and a dominating personality. In 1794, on his advice and with his assistance, the agents set about negotiating another North West Company agreement in which they hoped, by generous terms, to harmonize all interests and consolidate the Canadian trade in their own hands. At first their success seemed assured and they signed the new agreement (to come into force at the end of 1798, when the 1792 agreement would expire) at the end of October 1795, Mackenzie signing for himself and several of the other wintering partners. 1 With the pur­ chase of the Timiskaming posts a month later, it looked as if the North West Company, in William Grant's words, 'have Now all the fine Beaver in Canada, except what Comes from the King's Posts.'2 The evidence is too scanty for us to be certain of the exact connection between Grant, Campion & Co. and McTavish, Frobisher & Co. prior to the sale, beyond the fact that William Grant's firm had held one share in the North West Company since 1792 and that McTavish, Fraser & Co., Simon McTavish's London house, supplied English goods for its trade at Three Rivers and Michilimackinac, as well as in Timiskaming.3 It is also clear that, as early as 1793, Grant, Campion & Co. was in credit difficulties with McTavish, Frobisher & Co. and that its indebtedness was contributing substantially to the losses of the London house.4 To be sure, the war in Europe had both enormously inflated the cost of goods and depressed the price of furs, while a small concern was bound to feel the pinch much sooner than larger and richer ones, but Grant, Campion & Co.'s troubles were principally the result of a trend in the Canadian trade which had long been appareht, namely the growing impossibility of independent firms to finance, or manage, an overextended and com­ plicated business. Another difficulty now arose; by the summer of 1794 William Gr-ant, who was in poor health, wanted to retire and McTavish, Frobisher & Co. apparently had much less confidence in his partners.5 In November that year Grant informed Simon McTavish that he had decided to dissolve

54 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade the partnership, which was coming to an end the following year,6 and about the same time Samuel Gerrard suggested to Dobie that he take on the Timiskaming posts again.7 Dobie was reluctant to do anything until he had consulted .JEneas Cameron, who was coming down to Montreal in the summer of 1795, but he insisted, and Gerrard agreed, that what­ ever happened, the Timiskaming posts must be supplied as usual. This Grant was at first unwilling to undertake, in view of the state of his health and the fact that possible purchasers might be otherwise pro­ vided for,8 but in the end he came round to Dobie's and Gerrard's view and ordered the English goods for Timiskaming from McTavish, Fraser &Co.9 As late as June 1795, Dobie was apparently still considering Gerrard's proposal but he seems to have given up the idea some time before McTavish, Frobisher & Co. became interested in buying the Timiskam­ ing posts and it may be that he was influenced by Cameron's pessimism about the trade. Indeed it is clear that both Cameron and Alexander McDougall were dissatisfied with their prospects. In the summer of 1795 McDougall went down to Montreal, determined not to return to the dis­ trict. Like most of the Canadian traders, he was apparently attracted by the greater scope and opportunities for advancement in the northwest, and rivalry for his services between McTavish, Frobisher & Co. and the Robertsons (who had been supplying the Grants' opposition) probably accounts for his being promised a share in the new North West Com­ pany agreement. Until it should come into force, he agreed with Simon McTavish to go as a clerk to the northwest for three years from 1796, meanwhile returning to Fort Abitibi for the ensuing winter. 10 As it turned out, McDougall was to spend the rest of his working life in Timis­ kaming. For his part, .JEneas Cameron was neither optimistic about the future of the Timiskaming trade nor convinced that its rewards were worth the discomforts of his station. Dobie was always advising him to be patient, to save his money and compound his interest and he would soon accu­ mulate more than he could earn in any other way. 11 Yet his dissatisfac­ tion persisted and affected Gerrard, as well as Dobie. Gerrard later confi­ ded to Cameron that he had seriously contemplated buying the Timiskaming posts on his own account but had been deterred by three considerations, the fear that he could not offer Cameron sufficient in­ ducement to remain in the country, the approach of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the departure of McDougall.12 No information about the negotiations by which McTavish, Frobisher

55 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Tirniskaming 1795-1800 & Co. finally acquired the Timiskaming posts has survived, beyond the fact that the terms of purchase were the same as Dobie & Grant's sale to Grant, Campion & Co.13 But their plans for the district are clear. When the posts came on the market, someone raised the question of using them to divert the attention of the Hudson's Bay Company from the northwest (particularly Athabasca and the rich fur-bearing country which Mackenzie had explored) by pushing the trade forward to James Bay and settling at Moose Fort. It was recognized, of course, that losses would be inevitable but they were regarded as a small price to pay for the advantages of containing the English. In the absence of any concrete evidence one can only speculate on the origins of this scheme. Within the Timiskaming district itself the begin­ ning of such a move is to be seen in the preparations of 1793 and al­ though they came to nothing, the idea was apparently never abandoned. Rumours of the Canadians' settling at Moose Fort were still reaching the Bay as late as January 1795, a few months before McTavish, Fro­ bisher & Co. bought the Tirniskaming posts. 14 William Grant confessed to Cameron that he and his partners had had 'some difficulty to accom­ plish the Sale,'15 so perhaps it was they who promoted the plan, thinking to enhance the value of their property. But there are strong reasons for suspecting that the entry of Alexander Mackenzie into the firm of McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in October 1795 was the crucial factor. At this time not only was his influence in the North West Company at its height, but he was chiefly responsible for the terms of the new agree­ ment of 1795. The prospect of a settlement at Moose Fort must have fitted in very well with the dreams which had filled Mackenzie's imagination ever since his western explorations. He was convinced that the Canadian trade could span the continent and cross the Pacific to the rich markets of China, if only the Nor'Westers could use Hudson Bay as their supply route, instead of having to rely on the long, difficult, and expensive ca­ noe journey from Montreal. His goal, it is true, was an entry through York, the gateway to the northwest, but a settlement at Moose would at least give the Canadians a bargaining position, especially if they sup­ plied it by sea. Apart then, from the more immediate aim of diverting the Hudson's Bay Company from the northwest, the wider implications of the scheme must have appealed to Mackenzie. It may be significant, too, that it was he and not William McGillivray, the senior agent at Grand Portage and Simon McTavish's nephew, who went to Fort Tirnis­ kaming in the spring of 1796 to arrange the business with JEneas Cam-

56 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade eron, and that he continued to act for McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Tim.iskaming affairs until he left the North West Company three years later. The settlement between McTavish, Frobisher & Co. and Grant, Cam­ pion & Co. included the provision of an annuity of one hundred pounds to James Grant, now entirely out of the Timiskaming business. 16 Cam­ eron agreed to continue in command of Fort Tim.iskaming and manage the district's business in return for a generous salary but Simon McTav­ ish had also promised him a share in the new agreement as soon as there was an opening and two years later he was admitted to a forty-sixth share in the North West Company, to commence in 1799. He subse­ quently sign ed the agreement on 21 October 1798, before going on leave to Scotland. In mid-June 1796, Governor John Thomas of Moose Fort learned of the sale of the Timiskaming posts to the Nor'Westers from Robert Foister, master of Abitibi House, who had heard the news from his Canadian op­ ponents at Fort Abitibi. 17 Alarmed at the prospect of an intensified cam­ paign on Lake Abitibi, Foister begged for reinforcements but the gover­ nor, although himself concerned about the weakness of the Company's position in the interior, could do very little to help him. Thomas's uneas­ iness at the new situation, too, can only have been increased by the rum­ ours (which would soon reach his ears) of Canadian plans to settle on James Bay. Of the four Moose Fort posts inland (New Brunswick in the Michipicoten sector, Frederick House, Abitibi House, and Kenogamissi Lake in the Timiskaming sector) only New Brunswick was prospering. Since 1793, however, the owners of the Michipicoten post had been op­ posing it on Kabinakagami Lake, some two days' journey west of Bruns­ wick Lake, and in July 1796, the Nor'Westers, now in possession of Mi­ chipicoten, built a post on Brunswick Lake itself, beside the English house. When therefore, Andre Chenier, the Canadian master on Bruns­ wick Lake, suggested to George Gladman, master of New Brunswick, that they both give up going after Indians, Thomas seems to have taken advantage of the approach to explore the possibilities of a general agree­ ment for regulating the trade in the Moose area. 18 Informing Folster at Abitibi House and Philip Good at Frederick House of Chenier's proposal, Thomas instructed them that, in the event of any such suggestion being made to them, they should insist on the Canadians' first proving their sincerity by withdrawing from Frederick House Lake and reducing their complement of men at Abitibi to parity

57 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800 with the Hudson's Bay Company. 19 During the winter, while Gladman was at Moose Fort discussing Chenier's proposals with the Governor and the plans for settling at Michipicoten the following summer, Roderick Chisholm, the Canadian master on Devil's Island, came to Good with a similar offer. On learning Thomas's terms however, he declared that while he could not answer for his employers, he was sure they would never abandon Frederick House Lake as long as there was a skin to be had.20 In June 1797, Thomas went inland with the Abitibi canoes, to settle some business which he believed could better be done in person than by letter, presumably an agreement with the Canadians. The lateness of the season prevented his proceeding beyond Frederick House and he was disappointed at Folster's failure to meet him there, but he did come to an arrangement with the Canadians not to intercept Indians.21 A month later the Moose Council established its long contemplated post at Michipicoten and during the summer Foister seems to have talked with McDougall for, towards the end of September, McTavish, Frobisher & Co. wrote to Cameron at Fort Timiskaming. By Mr McDougall's Letters it appears that the servants of the Hudson Bay Company are willing to Come to Some General Arrangements with us for the better Regulation of the Trade of that Country with the Natives If they are serious & have the Power it would be a very desirable object to us, not only in that Quarter but every where we meet them. Provided that it did not diminish our Returns from that they are now, what this arrangement Should be, you & the people in the Country must be the best Judge off It Seems Governor T[h)omas came as far as Frederick House last Spring in expectation of meeting with Some Person from Here & that he means to pay a visite to Abitiby next Spring perhaps with the same View If so it would be well worth your while to meet Him The post that we Established at Micabanish [New Brunswick) from Michipicoten would be no obstacle to the business It is they that en­ croached on us in that Quarter; were they to allow us the benefit of the Trade with the Indians who owe & are accustomed to Trade at Michipicotun we Should with Draw our people from Micabanish. Should you find that they are not inclined to come to Such arrangement as might prove to the Mutual advan­ tage of Both Companies, preparations ought to be made to send goods to Moose Fort.22 This readiness of the agents to come to an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company seems completely at variance w ith their ambi-

58 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade tious plans for Timiskaming in 1795, and even with a letter which McTavish had written to Cameron only a few months before. 'Lay your plans to extend the Trade towards Hudson's Bay as much as you can,' he had adjured him in May 1797, 'never mind the expence.'23 While it is true, of course, that a settlement with their rivals might the more easily achieve the agents' principal aim in buying the Timiskaming posts, namely check the English advance into the interior, it would also delay any immediate prospect of securing an entry through the Bay and their willingness now to negotiate probably owed a good deal to the way in which fur trade affairs were developing in Canada. By the autumn of 1797 it was clear that the new North West agreement had failed to sat­ isfy the ambitions of the Company's competitors. John Ogilvy, of the new firm of Parker, Gerrard & Ogilvy, of which Samuel Gerrard was a partner, had sent canoes to Fond du Lac that year, in opposition to the Nor'Westers, while Forsyth, Richardson & Co. and Todd, McGill & Co. had reneged on signing the agreement. Moreover, Forsyth, Richardson & Co. was now in the process of combining with other dissidents to launch a powerful new opposition to the North West Company. In the circumstances, an arrangement with the Hudson's Bay Company would certainly ease the agents' situation by leaving them free to devote all their energies to the more pressing threat from Canada. By the spring of 1798 the pattern of opposition was taking definite shape in Montreal and it is not surprising to find the agents even more inclined to favour an agreement with Thomas. 'We shall be very glad to hear that you have been able to settle some Arrangement with the Hudson's Bay people,' McTavish wrote to Cameron early in May, and that you wou'd have considered yourself sufficiently authorized by our letter of the 19th Septr. We have relinquished the Idea of prosecuting the Trade be­ yond Abitibi - if they agree not to encroach on your boundaries & in case they shou'd doubt your Authority - I enclose you a letter from the House,24 which can be shown to their Agent, if necessary, this is a matter we have much at heart, & if you can be spared from your Post without great injury to the Concern we beg you will take a trip to Abitibi - and you will be back in sufficient time e'er the Canoes from this can get up - as we shall not send them away till the 20th. or 22d. Instant.u

Despite the urgency of McTavish's letter, Cameron did not reach Fort Abitibi until the first of July,26 thereby missing Thomas, who had arri­ ved at Abitibi House about the middle of June and left for Kenogamissi

59 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800 Lake. On returning to Moose Fort, Thomas informed his colleague at Al­ bany that the Canadians everywhere had 'let drop hints of opposing us still further, even, to coming down to the Fort'.27 But he did not mention their desire for an agreement, although he had clearly received sufficient encouragement to try again.2s The following spring, 1799, Thomas went all the way to Michipicoten in the hope of meeting McGillivray, who would pass there on his way to Grand Portage. But although he arrived at the post early in June, he found that the agent had preceded him by a few days and gone on to the Portage. McGillivray was apparently expecting him, however, for he left a verbal message to the effect that the North West Company was pre­ pared to retire from Brunswick Lake, if the Hudson's Bay Company would give up Michipicoten.29 And Thomas's exertions were not alto­ gether wasted, for McGillivray called at Michipicoten again on his way back from the Portage and, after his arrival in Montreal, talked to Alex­ ander McDougall, who was down for the summer. The result was two letters which McGillivray dispatched to Fort Timiskaming, one ad­ dressed to Cameron and the other to Thomas. McGillivray explained to Cameron that although McDougall was in­ tent on pushing the trade towards Moose Fort the following season, the agents themselves much preferred an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company. 'The Governor of Moose was at Michipicoten last June,' he continued, & from the disappointment he seem'd to feel at not meeting me, I should sup­ pose he had some arrangement to propose in regard to the Trade, this I thought gave me the opportunity to write to him & having conversed with Mr McDoug­ ald upon the Arrangement of Posts to be made - I have wrote him a Letter which is sent open for your perusal. if it has no Effect, it can do no harm - its right that they should Know that we do not consider their Charter of any Force - the Fact is, that nothing but the fear of Laying the Trade too open, should pre­ vent us from sending Vessels immediately to the Bay - but we Know well, tho' other people will not begin, that many would follow us. Could we get quit of their interference at Abitibi & the other Posts, an arrangement might afterwards be made for Nipigon with ye Albany People. - which would prove of great ease & advantage to the NWCo.� 0

In his letter to Thomas, McGillivray expressed regret at having missed him at Michipicoten, especially since he was convinced that the trade in which they were both concerned was much in need of reguJa-

60 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade tion. No regard was being paid to the principal object of establishing posts, namely, profit, but only to a vain attempt to tire one another of the competition. Even though the Canadian posts opposing Moose Fort were the most easily and cheaply supplied of all those belonging to the North West Company, the trade there had been disappointing and he did not doubt but that the Hudson's Bay Company found itself in the same predicament. For some time the North West Company had wished for an arrangement to withdraw posts on both sides and had sent powers to Mr Cameron of Tirniskaming to treat on that basis. Until recently McTavish, Frobisher & Co. had been unaware that the Moose and Al­ bany departments were independent of one another but now they wished to propose a settlement, which should be advantageous both to Thomas and themselves. They would give up Brunswick Lake, Freder­ ick House, and Matawagamingue, if he would abandon Michipicoten, Abitibi, and Kenogamissi Lake, local arrangements being made to pre­ vent the Indians from being enticed from other posts in the area conti­ guous to each other. If Thomas approved of these proposals, McGillivray went on, he him­ self would be glad to meet any authorized person at Michipicoten at the end of May, or alternatively, Messrs Cameron and McDougall had full powers to negotiate for the North West Company at Abitibi. On the other hand, should the Hudson's Bay Company persist in pushing its trade farther into the northwest, 'we are resolved to send Goods to Moose Fort & other Parts of the Bay next Season, & if from Experience we find ourselves under any disadvantage from the long communication through which these Goods must pass, we must have recourse to a shorter & easier mode of sending the necessary supplies of merchandize for the Trade to the Bay.' He intended, McGillivray added, to make the same proposals to the Governor of Albany concerning the Nipigon posts.31 Although McGillivray's letter to Cameron clearly reveals his anxiety for a rapprochement with the Hudson's Bay Company, his confident words to Governor Thomas belied the calamitous events which had transpired that summer at Grand Portage, events so inimical to the in­ terests of the agents that one would have thought they would at least have deferred speculative and costly operations on James Bay. Not only had Parker, Gerrard & Ogilvy sent additional canoes to the northwest but the Forsyth, Richardson group (known as the XY Company from the markings on its bales but called the 'Little Company' or 'the Potties' by the Nor'Westers) had launched an opposition in force against the

61 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800 North West Company. The dismayed wintering partners blamed the agents for the strength of the opposition and when Mackenzie rose at the meeting and announced his intention of resigning his partnership in McTavish, Frobisher & Co. and in the North West Company, the resent­ ment against Simon McTavish came to a head. Matters were further ag­ gravated by the jealousy of ambitious men like Angus Shaw, who har­ boured private grievances against McTavish and ascribed McGillivray's rise in the concern more to his uncle's favour than to his own ability. The new agreement had augmented the powers of the wintering part­ ners and they now combined to oppose the plans which McGillivray put forward on behalf of the agents. Only lack of sufficient proxies to force a decision averted disaster.32 In the fall of 1799 Mackenzie went off to England without settling with the agents and Duncan McGillivray, William's younger brother, re­ placed him in McTavish, Frobisher & Co. and as joint representative with William at Grand Portage. Throughout the ensuing autumn and winter the agents used every weapon in their power to rally the loyalties of the winterers and by the spring of 1800 they had largely succeeded.33 Mackenzie's absence left the rebels without a leader, while many of the other wintering partners appear to have had second thoughts about the rights of the dispute. But although a more or less united North West Company faced its opponents at Grand Portage that summer, worse was to come. Both the XY Company and Parker, Gerrard & Ogilvy refused McGillivray's offer to buy them out and instead united with Mackenzie, who had returned to Canada in the late spring, to form the New North West Company (soon called Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Company). It seems possible that Mackenzie had it in mind to oppose his former asso­ ciates as early as the autumn of 179934 but there is no doubt that his ad­ herence stiffened the opposition's resistance to McGillivray's overtures; without his support the unsatisfactory results of their trade so far might well have disposed them to welcome a settlement. Only the currently high prices for furs, as Dobie pointed out to Cameron, permitted indul­ gence in such a mutually destructive and futile policy. McTavish had told him, he went on, that wherever the opposing forces met in the inte­ rior, both lost money, and that in spite of the fact that the Nor'Westers 'daily' discovered rich preserves of beaver, if the prices for that fur should drop to the level they had been nine or ten years before, he would be forced to abandon the trade.35 'Both parties,' Dobie commented sar­ donically a few days later, 'seemingly is bent on making the Spoon or Spoil the Horn, you'll See next year how all these matters goes.'36

62 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Despite their worries about the new opposition, however, the agents persisted doggedly throughout the winter of 1799-1800 with their prepa­ rations for a spring expedition to Moose Fort. They had already experi­ mented with sending canoes direct to Fort Abitibi and Grand Lac, with what success is not clear. The canoes used were smaller than the Mont­ real canoes which supplied Fort Timiskaming, carrying fifty pieces in­ stead of seventy with a crew of eleven.37 But again, the agents were plagued by the reluctance of voyageurs to go to Timiskaming, even at higher wages, and when the time came to engage crews for the Moose Fort expedition, they had to rely almost entirely on Iroquois. Perhaps, too, the steps which the agents had taken since 1795 to de­ fend Timiskaming's southern borders, although doubtless largely in­ spired by the prospect of opposition from Canada, were also linked to the Moose Fort scheme, for a prime requisite in its success would be the district's freedom from interference. Like Dobie and James Grant, they had speedily become disillusioned with Charles Phillips at Riviere Du­ moine. This post had been operating under a separate account f rom Timiskaming's since 1792 but in 1797 the agents again joined it to Tim­ iskaming, placing it under Cameron's management. Along the lower Ot­ tawa and up the Lievre and St Maurice rivers, moreover, they proceeded to buy out the petty traders or to purchase their goods and assets, leav­ ing them in charge of their former posts.38 Other independent traders, like La Ronde at Lake Nipissing, they agreed not to disturb, provided they did not engage Timiskaming servants or interfere with the district's trade. In 1800 La Ronde, too, agreed to hand over his Nipissing trade to the Nor'Westers, so the only loophole remaining in Timiskaming's southern defences was the series of King's Posts on the lower St Lawrence. This the agents closed the following year, when they bought the lease from the government of Lower Canada. One is nevertheless inclined to wonder why, in spite of all obstacles, the agents should have continued to press forward with their Moose Fort plans. Probably their principal concern was indeed to force a settle­ ment on the Hudson's Bay Company but secretly they may have hoped, too, to lure Mackenzie back or win over their other Canadian opponents. On the other hand, in the face of McDougall's enthusiasm for the scheme and the planning that had gone into it, perhaps they felt unable to abandon it. Certainly, quite apart from the audacity and flamboyance of the expedition, which would have appealed particularly to a man like McDougall, he does not seem to have been the sort to relinquish easily such a splendid opportunity to relieve the pressure on his own post and raise his standing in the general concern.

63 McTavish, Frobisher & Co. in Timiskaming 1795-1800 McGillivray's letter to Thomas, with his proposals for an arrangement between their respective companies, did not reach the governor until February 1800, arriving at Moose Fort by the winter express from Abi­ tibi House. Accompanying it was a letter from McDougall, who was in­ censed about a new Hudson's Bay post on Gull Lake (named Cheeask­ wacheston), which the officers at Eastmain had recently established to oppose the Canadians at Waswanipi. Obviously McGillivray had been ignorant of its existence when he made his offer, McDougall declared, but he himself would never come to terms unless it were abandoned; no excuse that Eastmain was a separate department under someone else's direction would do. If he had not received an answer by the middle of June, he would assume that the Hudson's Bay Company was not dis­ posed to make a settlement. What neither McGillivray nor McDougall seems to have realized was that Thomas had no power to negotiate such an agreement; his only re­ course was to refer the proposals to the London Committee. Although he duly acknowledged both McDougall's and McGillivray's letters, only a copy of his reply to McGillivray has survived.40 He sent the original to Gladman at New Brunswick, who personally carried it to Michipicoten, to find, like Thomas before him, that the agent had already passed on his way to Grand Portage. By the time the letter reached McGillivray there the Nor'Westers were on James Bay.41 In his letter Thomas assured McGillivray that he would forward both his and McDougall's proposals to London by the autumn ship; whatever his own opinion of them, he pointed out, he could not act without in­ structions. It was indeed unfortunate, he agreed, that he and McGilliv­ ray had missed each other the previous summer; otherwise the Board's decision could have been sent out by the ship expected this year. He would only observe, he concluded tartly, that the very stations which McGillivray now wanted him to abandon had not been settled until the Canadians interrupted the Hudson's Bay Company at Frederick House and New Brunswick.

.5.

The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6

Early in May 1800, the men and supplies for the Moose Fort adventure were ready at the end of Montreal Island and on the 9th, the Timiskam­ ing clerk, Isaac Constant, embarked with one large and six small canoes. Although some of the goods were destined for Fort Timiskaming, the bulk of them was going to Fort Abitibi, where McDougall would take charge of the expedition. The agents, however, were still hoping for a favourable reply from Thomas. 'I apprehend they will offer nothing un­ til they see the Goods there,' William McGillivray wrote to Cameron the day before the canoes left, but then we cannot think of bringing back the Goods - I should therefore sup­ pose the best mode of arranging would be to charge them for what they might have remaining at their inland Posts, article for article or value for value, & if the surplus was on our side either that they should take them at a saving price - or that an equal quantity should be return'd to us at Abitibi - you will of course give your Ideas of this to McDougall, that he may be prepar'd to meet Proposals - I am afraid it will be early for me to expect any accounts from them at Michipicoten. 1

On 12 May Duncan McGillivray, going up to Grand Portage in a light canoe, passed Constant's flotilla above the Long Sault on the Ottawa River. The next we hear of the expedition is from Lake Abitibi. On 11 June seven canoes, loaded with goods and provisions for the settlement at Moose Fort, arrived at Fort Abitibi. Folster, master of the Hudson's Bay Company's post, had gone to meet his supply canoes on the Abitibi River but on- 20 June, still four days out from Abitibi House on his re­ turn journey, he met eight large North West Company canoes bound for

65 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 the Bay.2 Finally, at midnight on the last day of the month, some Indi­ ans, who had been fishing up the Moose River, called at Moose Fort to inform the watch that several canoes of Canadians and Indians had landed at the head of Hayes Island. This island lay immediately up­ stream from Factory Island, on which Moose Fort was situated. 'As 'twas an improper time of night did not open the Gates to learn further particulars,' the Moose Journal primly observed.3 Next morning, however, Governor Thomas lost no time in boarding the yawl and going up to visit the Canadians. He found McDougall (whom he had probably met at Abitibi in 1798) with upwards of thirty men, the voyageurs being mostly Iroquois. The Nor'Westers had six large canoes and two or three small ones on the island but another two had passed him, going down to the Fort. With McDougall were two clerks, Constant and John Bell, the latter newly engaged in the North West Company and a protege of McDougall's. 4 It is easy to imagine the bustle and colour of the scene and the triumph of the Canadians. A few days later Constant returned to Montreal with the voyageurs, leaving eight men on Hayes Island. When Thomas visited the Canadi­ ans again in mid-August, they had completed a storehouse for their goods and were putting up a house for themselves. This time he invited McDougall and Bell to return with him to Moose Fort for dinner. But there was little he could do to oppose them, except to follow the usual fur trade procedures. In early September he and his men built a house on Hayes Island beside theirs and when the ship sailed for England, Thomas went with her to consult his superiors about the new emergency. 5 In London that winter Thomas embodied his opinion of McGillivray's proposals in a memorandum to the Committee. He could see no objec­ tion, he said, to giving up Michipicoten, since he doubted whether it was of any real advantage to the Company. Furthermore, because of the small number of Michipicoten Indians, the trade there, at best, could never be anything but trifling and inadequate to the expense. Again, if the Company were to abandon Abitibi House, he was confident that Frederick House could take care of the Indians living around Abitibi Lake, while those east of the lake would find the new Moose post on Hannah Bay (at the mouth of the Harricanaw River) equally conven­ ient. That post had the advantage, too, of being easier and cheaper to supply than Abitibi House. The only drawbacks to withdrawing from Abitibi Lake that he could see were the loss of the new house they had just built there and the circumstance that there were a good many Indian debts.

66 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Kenogamissi Lake, however, was quite a different matter and the Canadian proposals for it inadmissible. They had two posts in the vicini­ ty, Sowe,a,wa,me,ni,ca and Matawagamingue, and if the trade were to be put on a fair footing, they should give up Matawagamingue and the Hudson's Bay Company retain Kenogamissi. As for 'local arrange­ ments', Thomas added, he was uncertain what McGillivray meant by them, while the factor at Eastmain would be a better judge than himself about what should be done with Gull Lake (Cheeaskwacheston).6 Meanwhile George Gladman, commanding Moose Fort in Thomas's ab­ sence, was defending the trade to the best of his ability. He re-estab­ lished Old Brunswick on Wapiscagami Creek to help prevent the west­ ern Indians from falling into the clutches of the Canadians and when, in November, his opponents entrenched themselves at the mouth of the Abitibi River, he sent three men to build a small house alongside them. In May 1801, the Nor'Westers shifted their quarters from the Abitibi River to the Moose and the Hudson's Bay men followed them. 7 The Canadians also had a temporary station on Kwataboahegan Creek, which flows into the Moose River from the northwest, a little below the Factory. Throughout the spring both sides complained of interference with their trade, while the Indians informed Gladman that the Iroquois, who were returning to Hayes Island with the goods in June, intended to raze the Fort. William Bolland, the commander at Eastmain, recognized the Canadian threats for what they were, a ruse to keep the Hudson's Bay men from going after Indians, but Gladman was in no position to take chances. In order to strengthen the Fort's defences, he had iron bars fixed to the lower windows and recalled all his men from Hayes Island and the outposts he had established inland. He also took the precaution of warning McDougall not to allow his voyageurs to visit the Fort. When the Iroquois did arrive, early in June, a group of them immediately came down but although given tobacco and other small presents, they were not allowed inside.8 During the summer of 1801 the Canadians built a house at Hannah Bay, in opposition to the Hudson's Bay post there, and a small one at the mouth of Wapiscagami Creek, about a mile from Old Brunswick. At the latter Gladman could do nothing, all his spare men being occupied in the annual task of transporting the supplies to the inland posts.9 When Thomas returned in the ship towards the end of August, he was armed with powers to negotiate with the Canadians and his bar-

67 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 gaining position was soon reinforced by Bol1and's opinion that Cheeask­ wacheston was not worth supporting. On 3 September letters arrived at Moose from Abitibi House, among them one from William McGillivray, which had been lying at that post for some time. 10 The next day Thomas made his counter proposals to McDougall. The Hudson's Bay Company, he said, would abandon Gull Lake and give up Michipicoten and Abitibi if the North West Company would withdraw from Brunswick and Fred­ erick House lakes, Kenogamissi and Matawagamingue lakes to remain as they were. McGillivray, he added, was inclined to accept these terms, provided his partners were agreeable. 11 It is clear that the London Committee had been sufficiently anxious to come to terms with the Nor'Westers to concede more than Thomas considered fair but now it was McDougall's turn to plead the necessity of waiting for instructions. These might be expected later that autumn, he told Thomas. By February 1802, however, negotiations were once more at an impasse, with McDougall insisting on the original terms and Thomas unable to contemplate giving up Kenogamissi Lake, in addition to Michipicoten and Frederick House. But he confessed to Gladman, now back at New Brunswick, that unless the country became more productive or he could be assured of larger supplies of European provi­ sions, he would eventually have to comply. 12 The winter of 1801-2 was one of terrible scarcity in the country; even the Canadians suffered severely from starvation. One Nor'Wester, overcome with hunger on his way from Opasatika Lake to Michipicoten, owed his life to Henry Moze, the English master on Lake Superior, while in the case of another, who died travelling between Old Brunswick and Hayes Island, murder and cannibalism were suspected. 13 Nevertheless the Can­ adians, who everywhere had abandoned their agreements not to inter­ cept Indians were bending all their efforts towards bringing their oppo­ nents to terms, including the establishment of new posts in the interior. Only one of these was in the Timiskaming district, the rest being settled from Lake Superior in the neighbourhood of New Brunswick. In 1798 the Nor'Westers built a house on Opasatika Lake (which the Hudson's Bay men alternatively called Meashaquagamy) and two years later, another on Missinaibi Lake. 14 In 1803 Thomas finally gave up the unprofitable Michipicoten post, having the goods transferred to a lake referred to as Matagami. Since this lake was on the canoe route to Michipicoten, 'about two days' journey' southwest of Missinaibi Lake, it was perhaps modern Whitefish Lake, inland from Wawa, Ontario, a fa-

68 FortTirniskaming and the FurTrade vourite resort of freetraders after 1821. 15 Not only did the prospects for trade appear to be favourable there but Gladman also hoped to collect the Indian debts incurred at Michipicoten. 16The Nor'Westers, of course, followed the English to the lake and in 1804 the Hudson's Bay summer master there, John Robertson, deserted to them. The next spring Thomas abandoned the post, leaving the Canadians in sole possession. 17 Henry Moze had learned ofThomas's intention to withdraw f rom Mi­ chipicoten before he received instructions to transfer his goods to Mata­ garni Lake, and in the interval he made an arrangement with William McGillivray to dispose of his goods and buildings to the Nor'Westers. McGillivray, in turn, promised to withdraw from Brunswick Lake at the end of the trading season of 1804. Originally Thomas had favoured an 'advantageous and binding agreement' for Michipicoten and had em­ powered Gladman to negotiate but by now the situation had changed. In addition to the opposition of the North West Company on Opasatika and Missinaibi lakes, Gladman had to contend with a post built by the New North West Company on Sturgeon Lake, near the head of the Al­ bany River. This post, cutting off several of his best hunters, forced him to maintain an outpost on Kabinakagarni Lake and in the circumstances an agreement with the old company was of little use to him. Thomas ac­ cordingly disavowed Maze's agreement, on the ground that he had not been authorized to make it and that it was contrary to the Company's intentions. 18 Nevertheless McGillivray withdrew from Brunswick Lake in the summer of 1804, doubtless for the same reason that Thomas had given up Michipicoten, its unprofitability and general uselessness. The new post in theTimiskarning district was on Groundhog Lake, at the head of the Groundhog River, the main tributary of the Mattagarni. Donald McKay built it from Matawagarningue in the summer of 1800, with the aim of cutting off Kenogarnissi Lake from the west and presum­ ably putting more pressure on the Hudson's Bay Company to abandon it.19 The Indian name for Groundhog Lake was Kakatoosh (or Carcout­ ish) and the Hudson's Bay men referred to the new house by that name, although the Canadians called it the Flying Post.20 It was in a favourable situation for trade and John Mannall, master of Kenogamissi Lake, fre­ quently sent men to waylay the Indians at nearby 'Weenusk Lake.' Since he described Weenusk Lake as being 'at the head of the other branch of this river,' it was probably modern Horwood Lake.21 From now on we hear nothing more of the Sowe,a,wa,me,ni,ca Settlement (Langue deTerre), which JEneas Cameron presumably abandoned. During these years both companies also moved to other locations on

69 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 Lake Abitibi, although still within the same general area. In the summer of 1797 the Nor'Westers left the mouth of the Duparquet River to settle beside the Hudson's Bay post on the long point stretching out into the lake from the east side of the river's mouth.22 Two years later, in an effort to escape the vigilance of their neighbours, the Hudson's Bay men began building on a nearby island, later known as 'Good's' or 'the English' island. They completed this new post in 180023 but their privacy was short-lived. The following summer, on orders from McDougall at Hayes Island, the Nor'Westers cleared a space beside them and pro­ ceeded to build a house of their own. Although Foister protested strongly against the invasion, even fencing in the island, it made no dif­ ference to his opponents. This new Canadian house, however, appears to have been only a temporary one which they occupied sporadically, their permanent post remaining on the mainland.24

By February 1802, Simon McTavish's plans to enter Hudson Bay by sea were well advanced and it was probably this circumstance which ac­ counted for the Nor'Westers' refusal to consider anything less than their original proposals to Thomas. Although it has commonly been supposed that McTavish was cold to Mackenzie's dream of using the Bay route to the interior, fearing its effect on Montreal, and that his opposition was at least partly responsible for Mackenzie's withdrawal from the North West Company, it is clear that, far from being hostile or indifferent, McTavish had approved the James Bay venture as early as 1795, when McTavish, Frobisher & Co. bought the Timiskaming posts. It is possible, of course, that his later decision to treat with the Hudson's Bay Com­ pany on a limited basis may further have antagonized Mackenzie, al­ ready dissatisfied with his position in the Company. From the beginning, as we have seen, the Nor'Westers' plans for James Bay had envisaged the possibility of entering Hudson Bay by sea but it was doubtless the failure of the campaign so far in bringing the Hudson's Bay Company to terms which finally persuaded McTavish to embark upon it. By 1802, however, other important considerations may have influenced his decision. If the Nor'Westers failed to attempt a sea approach to the Bay, he may have argued, Mackenzie and his associates might well anticipate them, while there still remained the chance that success might win over their rivals, with or without Mackenzie. Finally, McTavish may have been alarmed by an unexpected and upsetting de-

70 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade velopment, which further confirmed the desirability of getting to the Bay first, namely, the imminent threat of interests other than the fur trade using the Bay route to the interior. Mackenzie's 'Voyages,' embodying his thesis of the importance of Hudson Bay to the Canadian trade, had recently been published in Eng­ land and was attracting a good deal of attention. A certain 'noble peer,' whose plans, in the estimation of John Fraser, McTavish's London part­ ner, were 'too absurd almost to be mention'd,' had approached Patrick Small, a former North West Company partner now living in London, for advice on forming a colony in the interior to be supplied through Hud­ son Bay. The Earl of Selkirk (for such he was) offered Small his own terms to go and share in the management. Small himself was not inter­ ested but he introduced his Lordship to Joseph Colen, the recently re­ tired chief of York Factory, who, to Fraser's astonishment, took a fa­ vourable view of the proposition.25 At the time it came to nothing for Selkirk turned his attention to Upper Canada instead, but ten years later his Red River Settlement was to upset the whole balance of the North West Company's trade and become a decisive factor in the out­ come of its struggle with the Hudson's Bay Company. Late in the fall of 1802, in a conversation with Thomas, McDougall confirmed the rumours which had already reached Moose Fort of the North West Company's intention to send a ship to Hudson Bay the fol­ lowing season. A former Hudson's Bay captain, John Richards, who had been in Canada that summer making the necessary arrangements, would command the Eddystone, a three hundred and fifty-ton vessel which had made the voyage to the Bay a number of times for the Hudson's Bay Company and was now being armed at McTavish's re­ quest. The ship would carry ample supplies, McDougall added, but in case she should be intercepted, his own requirements would come up from Montreal as usual.26 Captain Richards sailed for Quebec in the spring of 1803. At Strom­ ness in the Orkney Islands, the last port of call for the Hudson's Bay ships, he hired from forty to fifty hands, many of them previously in the Company's service. Among them was Robert Foister, late master of Abi­ tibi House. After putting in at Quebec, Richards picked up young John George McTavish at one of the King's Posts and then sailed for James Bay. McTavish, second son of the McTavish chieftain and a protege of Simon's, had just entered the North West Company as a clerk. While Richards sailed north from the St Lawrence, Angus Shaw, the North West wintering partner in charge of the King's Posts, was leading

71 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 a group of Canadians, Iroquois, and other Indians overland from Quebec to Eastmain. Towards the end of July they passed the Hudson's Bay post on Lake Neokweskau and from there Shaw sent back two of his five canoes to establish a post on Lake Mistassini.27 His Indians told the Hudson's Bay master at Neoskweskau that Captain Richards would land his goods at Charlton Island, that Alexander Fraser, another win­ tering partner, was coming overland to superintend all the operations on the Bay and that Thomas Thomas, the surgeon at Moose Fort, was join­ ing the Canadians at a salary of two hundred pounds a year. On 1 Au­ gust Shaw and his party arrived at Eastmain and after dining with Wil­ liam Bolland, the master there, went down to the mouth of the river where Thomas Fraser, a clerk from the North West Company post at Hannah Bay, had been camping for several days.28 There they waited for the Eddystone, whose guns were heard at Eastmain at the end of the month, from the direction of Charlton Island.29 The first Hudson's Bay officer to visit the Canadians on Charlton Is­ land was Charles McCormick, the surgeon at Albany, who did so as the result of a misadventure.80 He was a passenger in the Moose sloop, on his way from Albany to join the autumn ship, when gales drove the small craft to the east side of James Bay. The sloopmaster, a man named Brown, took shelter in Strutton Sound, anchoring about half a mile from the Eddystone. Captain Richards and John George McTavish came on board to greet the Hudson's Bay men and, on learning their plight, Richards promised them sufficient provisions to get them to Moose Fort as soon as the weather cleared. McTavish was equally cordial, inviting them to come on shore where, he assured them, he would be glad to see them at any time. McCormick and the others landed early next morning and walked to the Canadian camp on the north shore of the Sound. The first object to meet their eyes was a post stuck in the sand, bearing a lead plate with an inscription to the effect that Shaw had taken possession of the island for the North West Company on 1 September 1803. Beside the post stood four of the Eddystone's twelve guns.31 The Canadians had already completed the erection of a shed for their provisions and laid out the foundations of a residence. Nearby, McCor­ mick noticed three piles of iron bars and a smith making bolts and hinges on a patent forge. McTavish came out to welcome them and offered them a glass of wine. While they refreshed themselves, he boasted that the North West Company had at last fulfilled its promise to take a ship into Hudson Bay and that in a few years the trade would

72 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade be free. Charlton Island, he explained, was intended only as a depot, from which they would supply all their posts on the Bay by means of the Eddystone's longboat and yawl, both of which Richards was leaving with them. In addition, they were building a large boat to facilitate the un­ loading next year (McCormick observed its keel, stem, and stern posts lying on the sand) and they would also have a shallop, in order to make a settlement north of Albany. During the coming winter, besides their present establishments on Hayes Island and Hannah Bay, they would have three new posts, one at Rupert House under Foister, another at Great Whale River under Duncan McDougall (a nephew both of Alex­ ander McDougall and Angus Shaw), and the third, at Eastmain, under Thomas Fraser. McTavish then expatiated on the advantages of em­ ployment with the North West Company, offering to engage any of the men whose time had run out, including McCormick and Brown, the lat­ ter of whom he was anxious to secure for the expected shallop. Contrary winds detained the Hudson's Bay party until 6 October and one evening they dined with Captain Richards aboard the Eddystone. With the frankness of after dinner confidences he acknowledged 'that his coming down the Bay was a smuggling piece of Business, as his Ship was fitted out from Hull, with an intention of only going to Quebec, and that his Employers did not care if the Ship was taken or nqt and it was only to prove if the Hudson's Bay Company's Charter was good, which they had much doubts of.'32 He also warned them that the North West Company was determined to settle in every part of the �ay and that Captain Sarmon, who had accompanied him to Charlton Isla.q� and sub­ sequently returned overland with Shaw, would take a ship to York Fprt the following summer. Clearly the Nor'Westers expected the Hudson's Bay men to tak� re­ taliatory measures against them, either by seizing their ship on its way to Charlton Island or by raiding their camp there. But, except for the at­ tempt by Captain Hanwell of the Moose ship (apparently on his own in­ itiative) to capture the Eddystone in Strutton Sound, their opponents re­ frained from any reprisals. Moreover, when Hanwell took his ship to Charlton Island, not only did the Canadians defy him but his own men refused to attack them. The London Committee shared its servants' views concerning the use of force, as the general letter of 1803 amply demonstrated. Warning their factors on the Bay of the Eddystone's ap­ proach, the directors specifically cautioned them against the 'Feuds & Animosities' which might ensue, should the Company's former servants, now in the employ of the North West Company, meet the Hudson's Bay

73 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 men in the interior, and later letters were even more insistent on the ne­ cessity of avoiding disputes or any show of violence.33 Before resorting to measures to dislodge their opponents, the Gover­ nor and Committee had decided to consult the Crown's legal advisers on their rights, under the charter, to use force against interlopers in Rupert's Land. The wisdom of the step was apparent, when both the at­ torney- and solicitor-generals were of the opinion that the Hudson's Bay Company had no right to seize the goods of others and could not destroy the settlements or trading houses of British subjects.34 In other words, in the eyes of the law, the Company's charter was useless in defending its privileges. The Eddystone sailed for home on 13 October and late in the fall Alex­ ander Fraser arrived at Charlton Island by way of Rupert River. Passing the Hudson's Bay post on Lake Nemiscau at the beginning of Novem­ ber, in much distress for provisions, he had borrowed some there, prom­ ising to repay them on his way back in February. At the same time he had told his host that Folster would establish a post on the lake the fol­ lowing summer.35 Two days before Christmas, Fraser was at Hannah Bay, going on from there to Hayes Island, where he also paid Thomas a visit. Both he and John George McTavish, who called at Moose Fort a few days later, assured the governor that two North West Company ships would come to the Bay in 1804, one of them destined for York. In mid-January, however, Fraser left Hayes Island for Montreal, never to return to the Bay.36 Throughout the winter and spring of 1803-4 scurvy ravaged Fort St Andrew's, McTavish's post on Charlton Island. In early July three dan­ gerously ill men were brought to Hayes Island and the Canadians sent down to Moose Fort for the surgeon, Thomas Thomas.37 He later de­ serted to them, taking charge of the post there in place of Alexander McDougall,38 who returned to Fort Abitibi. That same summer Folster duly settled on Lake Nemiscau and the Canadians abandoned their house on Jack River (near Eastmain) in favour of a new one which McTavish built on Old Factory River. Thomas Fraser, the former mas­ ter at Jack River, spent the summer on Hayes Island and then returned to his original post on Hannah Bay. During the winter of 1804-5 the Nor'Westers had only five men on Charlton Island. Although relations between the opposing parties were frequently strained, only at Great Whale River, where Duncan McDougall was the Canadian master, did any serious incidents occur. If his will is any indi­ cation, he was personally a generous and affectionate man, but in oppo-

74 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade sition he resorted to the same abusive, nerve-wracking, and brutal tac­ tics which were later to make Samuel Black anathema to the Hudson's Bay men in Athabasca. McTavish, on the other hand, seems to have been a general favourite at Moose Fort and married, according to the custom of the country, Charlotte Thomas, one of the governor's daugh­ ters. In spite of the Nor'Westers' confident predictions, no ship came to the Bay in the summer of 1804. The Montreal canoes brought up the sup­ plies to Hayes Island, as usual, and Alexander McDougall accompanied them. The day after their arrival McDougall called on Thomas with what the governor recorded as 'some interesting news,' although he did not specify it in his Journal.39 There seems little doubt, however, that it concerned the proposals which Duncan McGillivray was making in Lon­ don that summer to the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company. Although McGillivray's first letter, dated 13 August 1804, merely ex­ pressed a desire to explore the question of regulating the trade, he actu­ ally had instructions to offer the withdrawal of the North West Company's posts on James Bay for the right of transit through York to Lake Winnipeg. As it happened, the Governor and Committee were al­ ready deliberating a similar application made by an agent of Edward Ellice's on behalf of Sir Alexander Mackenzie and the New North West Company, at the same time as Mackenzie himself was attempting through Ellice to buy controlling shares in the Hudson's Bay Company. The agent's approach to the Committee was much more direct than McGillivray's; he asked outright for permission to discuss freedom of traffic in the Bay. By various pretexts the Committee succeeded in putting off both rep­ resentations until the end of the year, by which time a new development in Canada had altered the situation. Simon McTavish died in Montreal on 6 July 1804, a comparatively young man, and his death removed the principal obstacle to the union of the two Canadian companies. Al­ though it had been obvious from the beginning that prolonged opposi­ tion would ruin both contenders, it is probable that while McTavish lived any rapprochement with Mackenzie would have been difficult, if not impossible. Perhaps we shall never know the truth about the quarrel between the two men. The most recent evidence suggests that Mackenzie may have been attempting to oust McTavish completely from the management of

75 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 the North West Company40 and, if that were so, it would go far to ex­ plain McTavish's bitterness against him and all his supporters. On the other hand, it is clear that Mackenzie, too, considered himself greatly in­ jured. In August 1800, he confessed to ..LEneas Cameron that although opposing old friends would be 'one of the severest trials' to his feelings, 'McTavish & his relatives Treatment of me is such that I may for a time forget I had Friends & even forget that which we seldom Lose Sight of, my Interest.'41 But whatever the causes of the quarrel, ever since 1800 McTavish had had to watch the great empire he had spent his youth and strength in building, increasingly threatened by Mackenzie and his associates, a number of them, like Daniel Sutherland, formerly his own personal friends, and his bitterness must have deepened with the years. William McGillivray undoubtedly sympathized with his uncle's feelings but he could never have shared them entirely. As a young man he had admired Mackenzie and the breadth of his views, and he was wise enough to real­ ize that the future of the trade was the supreme consideration. It is not surprising, therefore, that four months after he became head of the North West Company the Canadian rivals united their interests. Now, instead of two separate requests, the Hudson's Bay Committee was faced with one, a situation obviously combining both drawbacks and ad­ vantages. The negotiations in London continued for over eighteen months.42 The Canadians took the stand that they had the right, as British sub­ jects, to use the Bay route but that they preferred an amicable arrange­ ment with the Hudson's Bay Company, which would also serve both parties by keeping others out. As a concession, they offered to withdraw from James Bay, at the same time threatening to go to York, should they be so inclined. With uncertainty about the legality of their charter weakening their position, the Governor and Committee adopted the ruse of prolonging the negotiations in the hope of deferring the threat to York. The extent of their anxiety is revealed in their decision not to hold a General Court of their shareholders (at which they could have explained their dilem­ ma), because 'the critical situation of the Company in regard to the va­ lidity of the Charter would be too much exposed by publick discussion.' The delaying tactics were the policy of the Governor, Sir James Winter Lake, who was convinced that the Canadians would 'seize an Entry thro our Territories by way of York Fort, leaving the point of Right to be set­ tled as it may, and so End the Specious Pret,ence of Treating with the H.B.Co.'43

76 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Another factor briefly entered the negotiations, namely, the possibil­ ity of amalgamating the English and Canadian companies. Indeed the Nor'Westers, envisaging such?. union, had inserted a clause relating to it in their Agreement of 1804. At the crucial meeting in London on 8 May 1805, at which Thomas Forsyth represented the North West Company, 'a junction of interests dropped during the Conversation & Mr. Forsyth said on the subject that it would be a most desireable thing for the good of the trade.' 'It is a subject,' commented the director reporting the pro­ ceedings to Lake, who had been absent, 'on which we are all much of the same opinion if we had truly reputable characters to deal with. '44 At Grand Portage in the summer of 1805 Duncan McGillivray per­ suaded the Nor'Westers to offer an annual rent of two thousand pounds for the right of transit through York. He returned to London with the new concession but the Committee continued to procrastinate until finally Governor Lake was deserted by all the other directors, who were now determined to end the negotiations. In their opinion, the Hudson's Bay Company was likely to be ruined either way and they preferred to stick to their privileges.45 They had, moreover, devised a convenient for­ mula by which they hoped to disarm the Canadians, namely that they could not grant what they did not enjoy. Their letter to the Nor'Westers on 22 February 1806 pointed out that since their charter required them to carry all their trade through Hudson Strait, they were unable to make any agreement with a company whose traffic would not conform to this condition. 46 At the same time, fearing immediate reprisals, they set about considering what further steps they could take to improve and de­ fend their trade in the Bay.47 The complete anticlimax of McGillivray's reply is the first hint that the whole North West adventure in the Bay was fizzling out. Regretting that so much time had been spent in a fruitless attempt to come to an arrangement, he assured the Governor and Committee that his partners would always be disposed to entertain any proposal tending to promote the interests of both companies.48 In June that year, according to John McNab, Chief at York Fort, a Mr McKay and eight Canadians came down to York, 'purposely to explore Port Nelson River and its entrance,'49 but no North West Company supply ship appeared in the Bay during the summer and in the autumn the Canadians abandoned their posts. The progess of events in the Bay, to which we must now return, sug­ gests that the North West posts there were not worth maintaining, ei­ ther for economic or strategic reasons. Moreover, the agents had un-

77 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 doubtedly been disturbed by the Hudson's Bay Company's entry into Athabasca in 1802 and had now probably decided to employ their money and energies to better advantage in the northwest. Both their ex­ penses for, and losses on, the Bay adventure appear to have been large, although there is no way of determining them with any exactitude from the few surviving Timiskaming accounts. The Bay adventure was not listed separately until November 1803, after the Eddystone had entered the Bay, and the expenses for that year seem to have been £16085/1/3 (probably Halifax currency), while further sums of £12393/1/5 for 1804 and of £18946/2/3½ for 1806 are debited. The only returns listed are 16 packs for 1804, valued at £1313/15/-, and 6 bales furs, 16 casks feathers, and 4 casks quills for 1806, valued at £3296/15/-.50 .tEneas Cameron paid a visit to James Bay in the summer of 1805. He arrived at the Canadian post on Hayes Island about the middle of June in a light canoe manned by six Iroquois.51 Three supply canoes had pre­ ceded him, but again this year Captain Richards brought most of the goods and provisions for the Bay posts in the Beaver, a little schooner of a hundred and twenty tons, which reached Charlton Island from Quebec towards the end of August.52 Cameron had apparently come down at the agents' request to take stock of the situation and make the arrangements for the next season's trade. One of his first steps was to discharge Thomas Thomas, the for­ mer Moose surgeon, who later left for Quebec in the Beaver. The reason given was that he had failed to report to the Canadians at the time stip­ ulated in his contract, but no doubt if his services had been valuable there would have been no thought of letting him go. Cameron himself spent the summer travelling between Hayes Island and the other North West posts on the Bay and did not set off for Montreal until 10 September.53 During the winter of 1805-6 George Gladman's trade at Eastmain suf­ fered considerably from the ruthless tactics of his opponents, particu­ larly those of Duncan McDougall at Great Whale River, but at Moose Fort, Thomas was more than usually successful. 54 In the spring of 1806 no supply canoes came down the Moose River but at the end of August another Canadian schooner, the Desire, arrived at Charlton Island.55 Soon the Indians were reporting to Gladman that the Canadians were burning their houses and he immediately started for Moose Fort to in­ form Thomas that the Nor'Westers were evacuating the Eastmain coast.56

78 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade On 15 September the Desire anchored in the Moose roads and a party of Canadians went up to Hayes Island. That same evening Cameron, McTavish, and Foister came down to see Thomas. They told him that they had given up all their posts on the east side of the Bay and were prepared to do the same on the west if he would abandon some of the Moose Fort posts up the Moose River. But Thomas was not to be drawn, observing only that he had plenty of officers and that Cameron must do as he thought best. The proposal proved to be merely a final, halfhearted attempt to wring some advantage from the Bay adventure for, after breakf ast next morning, Cameron called in again on his way down to the schooner to inform Thomas that he had decided to abandon the whole coast without exception.67 Three days later McTavish and Folster came to the Fort for the last time; they were leaving the following day in the Desire for Quebec. Cameron paid his farewell visit on the 22nd, presenting Thomas with a large boat, for which he no longer had any use, while the governor recip­ rocated with a canoe. Violent winds delayed Cameron's departure for another day but on the 24th he left Hayes Island to a salute of nine guns from Moose Fort. 'Mutual Salutations of Colors flying and guns firing passed on both sides on this joyful occasion,' Thomas gleefully reported to Gladman.58 After the Nor'Westers had gone, the Hudson's Bay men proceeded to dismantle their houses, appropriating everything useful. The abandonment of the posts is not quite the end of the story of the Nor'Westers' James Bay adventure. In the fall of 1807 Governor Thomas again sailed for England, leaving John Mannall in charge of Moose Fort. Soon afterwards Mannan learned from Richard Good, Folster's successor at Abitibi House, that the Canadians were contem­ plating a return to Moose Fort. During the the winter these rumours were confirmed and it was also reported that the partners at Grand Por­ tage that summer had censured Cameron for having abandoned the Hayes Island post.59 On 22 June 1808, Thomas Fraser, now at Fort Abitibi, called on Good with the information that four large canoes had arrived at the Canadian house from Montreal, carrying supplies for re-establishing a post at Moose Fort. The final decision had been left to McDougall and that gen­ tleman now wished to know whether the Hudson's Bay Company in­ tended to give up Abitibi House; if so, he would not send the canoes to Moose. Good replied that although he himself had no instructions in the matter, it was possible that Governor Thomas might abandon Abitibi

79 The Nor'Westers on James Bay 1800-6 House when he returned to the Bay, provided that the Canadians gave up Frederick House. For a day or two the decision seems to have hung in the balance but in the end the canoes landed their goods at Fort Abitibi and returned to Fort Timiskaming.60 This incident prompts the inference that Cameron had given up the posts on the east side of the Bay under orders from the agents but that they had left the fate of the others to him. What little evidence there is suggests that he had never shared McDougall's enthusiasm for the Bay adventure and he must have been discouraged by what he saw there during the summers of 1805 and 1806. To him, it must have seemed that the experiment had failed, both in its original purpose of bringing the Hudson's Bay Company to terms and as a viable operation, and that it was better to cut the losses and strengthen the old establishments in the interior. In some respects, indeed, the French experience in the Bay had been repeated; the advantages of the Hudson's Bay Company there were simply too great to be overcome.

·6·

The Hudson's Bay Company Prepares to Take tl1e l11itiative 1804-14

The years 1804-21 were to be the last of the Canadian trade. When they began, the newly united North West Company was in the ascendant all over the country and it must have seemed impossible that the Hudson's Bay Company could ever withstand the renewed pressure of its opposi­ tion. For a few years, indeed, the Canadians' strength in the interior and their energy in pushing the trade did have disastrous effects on the En­ glish returns and profits but after 1810, when the London Committee re­ organized the country side of the business and introduced the so-called 'Retrenching System,' the Hudson's Bay men again began to gain ground in the northwest. By 1812, too, Lord Selkirk's new settlement at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, with the extensive grant of lands surrounding it, not only lay athwart the Nor'Westers' main route to the interior but by its control of the pemmican supplies, so in­ dispensable to the northwest brigades, was threatening the entire Cana­ dian system of transport and supply. In the Timiskaming district, however, the situation was quite diffe­ rent. There, prior to 1810, the Hudson's Bay Company was in full retreat and even by 1821 had made no substantial inroads into the dis­ trict. No doubt this circumstance was partly due to the fact that the London Committee tended to concentrate its resources on the north­ west, where most was at stake, but it is also clear that much of the credit for Timiskaming's successful defence belongs to its officers, whose abili­ ties and experience far outstripped those of the Hudson's Bay men op­ posing them. JEneas Cameron left Fort Timiskaming in the autumn of 1804, al­ though he may not actually have retired from the trade until two years later. He signed the North West Company Agreement of 1804 (uniting

81

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Prepares to Take the Initiative 1804-14

the old and new concerns) as a wintering partner and was on James Bay during the summers of 1805 and 1806. Moreover, Alexander McDougall, his successor as head of the Timiskaming district, did not assume com­ mand of Fort Timiskaming until the fall of 1806. It is possible, of course, that Cameron's expeditions to the Bay were special assignments, under­ taken on the agents' behalf after his retirement and that McDougall, al­ though in command of the Timiskaming district from 1804, remained at Fort Abitibi in order to be close to the Canadian posts there. The abandonment of the James Bay posts marked the end of Timiskaming's period of expansion and the district settled down to the six posts directly dependant on Fort Timiskaming, namely, Fort Abitibi, Waswanipi, Grand Lac, Frederick House, Matawagamingue, and Flying Post. About this time, too, the Montreal agents (now known as McTav­ ish, McGillivrays & Co.) also removed the Riviere Dumoine district from the supervision of the Timiskaming wintering partner. This step was doubtless the result of the union of the two Canadian companies, which eliminated any serious opposition along the lower Ottawa and with it the necessity for special precautions to guard Timiskaming's southern borders. But it may also have been related to the circumstance that, after one season at Fort Timiskaming, McDougall returned to Fort Abi­ tibi. Riviere Dumoine was too far from Lake Abitibi for him to be able to exercise any effective influence there. The reasons for McDougall's return to Fort Abitibi in 1807 are ob­ scure, although several possible explanations suggest themselves. It may be that his successor at Fort Abitibi, Donald McKay, proved unequal to the charge, for Abitibi was not only directly opposed by the English at Abitibi House but guarded the northern frontiers of the Timiskaming district and the main route south to Fort Timiskaming. It is also possi­ ble, however, that the agents (and McDougall too) soon came round to the view that his exuberant and vigorous temperament was better suited to the active life of the frontier than to the irritations and detail of the depot, or perhaps it was simply that McDougall preferred his old quar­ ters. Whatever the reasons for it, his return to Fort Abitibi would have been made easier by the fact that Cameron, although never a partner of McTavish, McGillivrays & Co., was involved with the financial side of the Montreal business until 1812 and therefore always available to the agents for advice on the affairs of Timiskaming and the lower Ottawa. With the end of the North West Company adventure in the Bay there would no longer appear to have been any need to treat the Timis­ kaming district as a special case apart from the Northwest, but McTav-

82 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ish, McGillivrays & Co. nevertheless continued to manage it directly from Montreal. Again, there is no explanation; perhaps it was just more convenient. But the arrangement had the effect of prolonging the isola­ tion of Timiskaming from the rest of the trade. The Timiskaming part­ ner never attended the summer meetings at Fort William, and the other partners continued to be largely ignorant of the district's operations; it was presumably this ignorance which led them to censure Cameron for abandoning Hayes Island. Equally, the Timiskaming partner was re­ mote both from the conviviality and later, the dissatisfactions, of the northwest wintering partners, while the proximity of Fort Timiskaming to Montreal led to the development of a warm personal relationship be­ tween the agents and the Timiskaming officers. Ties of friendship, in turn, strengthened the loyalty of those officers to the agents, a factor which was to complicate matters at the time of the union. In another sense, too, the Timiskaming district remained remote from the rest of the trade. From 1813 to 1819 Moose Fort had only one post in the Timiskaming district, Kenogamissi Lake, which was never a threat to the Canadian trade. The absence of any serious opposition meant that the district was unmarred by the deplorable violence which characterized the last years of the Canadian trade in the northwest, es­ pecially after Selkirk established his Red River Settlement in 1812. Even then, Timiskaming was slow to be infected by the hostility and bitterness prevailing elsewhere and it was only when the massacre of Seven Oaks in 1816 provoked Selkirk's capture of Fort William that the indignation of the Timiskaming officers and servants was reflected in the rapid deterioration of their friendly relations with the Hudson's Bay men in their area. The abandonment of the James Bay posts in 1806 allowed the Nor'Westers to reinforce their Timiskaming stations, particularly Fort Abitibi, the lynch-pin in their defence against the English on the Bay. In June 1807, Richard Good, master of Abitibi House, blaming his own poor returns on his shortage of men and imported provisions, com­ plained that his opponents had numbered more than fourteen during the winter. 1 Governor Thomas and the London Committee, on the other hand, were convinced that the continually declining trade at Abitibi House and Frederick House was principally the result of their servants' lack of energy in pursuing the trade. There is something to be said for both points of view. There seems lit­ tle doubt, for instance, that with a few exceptions (Gladman at New

83

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Brunswick for one) the Hudson's Bay masters in the Timiskaming area were inferior to their Canadian opponents. The Company's Orkneymen, hired at low wages, usually made docile, careful, and reliable officers and servants and the best of them were sufficiently talented and enterprising to rise to the highest positions in the country, but many were unambi­ tious and unimaginative and perhaps Moose Fort, a less critical area than the northwest, received more than its share of these. On the other hand, the Hudson's Bay men in the Timiskaming district were generally fewer in number than the Canadians and less well supplied, while they seldom remained long enough at any one post to become properly ac­ quainted with the business or the Indians. Furthermore, the Governor and Committee undoubtedly underesti­ mated the genuine improvement which twenty years' experience in the interior had made in their Orkneymen and it is highly likely that, with greater material support, the Hudson's Bay servants in the Timiskam­ ing area might very well have given a good account of themselves. The reality was as Gladman had discerned in 1794; without more men, larger amounts of imported provisions, and greater inducements than the Committee was prepared to provide, it was almost impossible to entice any number of the Timiskaming Indians from their old loyalty to the Canadians or to overcome the dissatisfied minority's fear of reprisals. In 1810, impelled by continued distrust in their servants' capabilities and the dire spectre of vanishing profits, the London Committee, under the leadership of the recently elected Andrew Wedderburn (later Wed­ derburn Colvile), introduced a new order all over the country. The 'Retrenching System,' as it was called, was aimed primarily at economy on every level but it also had its positive side. To encourage a more ag­ gressive attitude on the part of the officers and servants, it proposed to follow the Nor'Westers' example by allowing them a share in the trade and to widen the basis of recruitment to include Highlanders from the western isles and the north of Scotland. These men were expected to share the Orkneymen's virtues of hard work and thrift but be more en­ terprising in pushing the trade and less inhibited by the traditions of the service. Wedderburn was also favourably disposed to the prospect of im­ migration into the Company's territories and the formation of an agri­ cultural colony. Two years later these ideas were to materialize in Selkirk's settlement at Red River. In the interests of efficiency and closer supervision, all the Company's posts were grouped into two departments, Northern and Southern, each with its own council and superintendent. The Southern Department in-

84 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade eluded the Moose and Eastmain districts, as well as Fort Albany, and a new man, another Thomas Thomas, was appointed superintendent. He was to have no settled residence, however, moving in turn from Moose to Albany to Eastmain, to keep an eye on the whole department, while John Thomas was to remain chief at Moose Fort. It was the new superintendent who decided to settle the continuing problem of losses at Abitibi House and Frederick House. In the summer of 1811 he sent John Thomas inland to try to come to some arrangement with the Canadians for regulating the trade, and when Thomas's mis­ sion failed he determined to abandon both posts as soon as possible. As a preliminary, he proposed to move the Abitibi goods to Frederick House.2 This move had to be deferred, however, as the result of an unfortu­ nate circumstance. That autumn the Moose ship, the Prince of Wales, was unable to leave the Bay because of ice in Hudson Strait and re­ turned to winter at Charlton Island. With the crew and passengers to support and the ship to outfit for her homeward voyage the following summer, neither men nor provisions could be spared to carry out the superintendent's plans for Abitibi House. Meanwhile in January 1812 Good and McDougall came to an arrangement at Abitibi, whereby the Canadians agreed to give up their post on Devil's Island in Frederick House Lake in return for the Hudson's Bay Company's abandonment of Abitibi House, thus leaving the Canadians once more in control of Lake Abitibi and the English of Frederick House Lake.3 As it turned out, how­ ever, Frederick House, too, was doomed. During the winter of 1813 a renegade Indian massacred its occupants and most of its few Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company never re-established the post.4 After 1813 only one English post, Kenogamissi Lake, remained in operation in the Timiskaming district and its value was not much more than nomi­ nal. The amicable settlement between McDougall and Good, following so closely Thomas's failure to secure one, seems to have been prompted by a special atmosphere of warmth between the two parties at that particu­ lar moment. Faced with the unfortunate consequences of the ship's de­ tention in the Bay, the Moose Council had taken the unprecedented step of sending a packet to London, by way of Montreal and New York, and John McNab, formerly governor at York, had been put in charge of the party.5 He arrived at Abitibi House early in January 1812 to find Good unable to supply him so he immediately appealed to McDougall for help. McDougall not only entertained and provisioned the party

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handsomely but gave McNab a guide to Fort Timiskaming, as well as letters to Donald McKay at the Fort and Joseph Godin at Fort Cou­ longe, instructing them to assist him in every possible way. Arriving in Montreal, McNab again benefited from the generosity of the North West Company for the agents entertained him during his stay in town and furnished him with cash for his journey to New York and letters of introduction to their correspondents there. They also undertook to look after the two servants, Peter Spence and Thomas Knight, whom McNab was leaving in Montreal, and to send them back to Moose Fort in the spring. Spence and Knight were thus the first Hudson's Bay men to make the round trip between James Bay and Montreal. During the next few years communications between Moose and Montreal became more frequent, chiefly as a result of the continued de­ tention of ships in the Bay and the virtual state of war in the northwest, and those Hudson's Bay travellers who went to Montreal by the Ottawa (both private6 and official) always received help from the Canadians. But during these years, too, as part of the retrenching program, Southern Department men began once more to explore the interior, seeking out sites for new posts and linking up posts hitherto inaccessible to one an­ other, the Albany River posts with New Brunswick, for example, and New Brunswick with Kenogamissi Lake. These journeys, directed at ex­ panding the trade and accustoming the servants to conditions in the in­ terior, were to prove invaluable when the English could no longer look to the Canadians for aid. By 1814 the London Committee's vigorous measures in the northwest had led to substantial improvement in the Company's position and the defeat of Napoleon reopened European markets for its furs. For the Can­ adians, on the other hand, these years had been both difficult and disap­ pointing. The war with the Americans threatened their principal trans­ port and supply route by the Great Lakes and its hazards were immeasurably increased when the enemy recaptured Detroit in 1813. Indeed, this reverse so disrupted their usual arrangements that they ap­ plied for, and received, permission from the London Committee to send their returns for one year through Hudson Bay. When they were unable to take advantage of the concession, they renewed their request in 1814, but this time the Committee refused it on the ground that the emer­ gency was over. Meanwhile the Governor and Committee had been astonished to dis­ cover that their inland posts, competing directly with the Nor'Westers,

86 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade were actually operating more efficiently and profitably than their elabo­ rate establishments on the Bay, and this realization, together with more gratifying balance sheets, induced them to embark on a new program of expansion all over the country. In the case of the Southern Department, they immediately increased its size by the addition of 'Albany Inland' (Osnaburgh, Gloucester House, and Henley House) and suggested that its operations be extended eastward by exploring the interior from Little Whale River. They also looked forward to re-establishing posts on Abi­ tibi and Waswanipi lakes and to building on Lake Timiskaming. It was their opinion, too, that the superintendent could more advantageously oversee the department's affairs if he resided inland and they considered that New Brunswick, centrally located and most exposed to Canadian opposition, would be the best place. The Canadians, who had abandoned Brunswick Lake in 1804, had returned there in 1812, settling about a hundred yards from the English house,7 and they were also maintaining posts on Whitefish, Kabinakagami, Opasatika, and Missinaibi lakes, in addition to sending parties to other strategic locations in the vicinity of New Brunswick.8 Unfortunately for the Committee's plans a combination of misfor­ tunes was to postpone most of this ambitious program, with the result that the Timiskaming district was to remain relatively free of English interference during the last years of the Canadian trade. But in 1814, on orders from Moose Fort, the master of Kenogamissi Lake established an outpost beside the Canadians on Matawagamingue Lake, thus precipi­ tating a confrontation between the rivals in that area which will be dis­ cussed in the next chapter. Before going on to consider the events of the next few years at Matawa­ garningue, it may be useful to sum up briefly what is known about the Tirniskaming posts under the Canadians.9 Except for Fort Tirniskaming, and possibly Fort Abitibi during McDougall's time, they seem to have been very modest establishments, comprising only the necessary build­ ings enclosed with a palisade or fence. Invariably there were two dwell­ ing houses, one for the master and one for the men, a storehouse for dry goods and another for liquor and provisions, a barn, a canoe house, a dairy, and a potato vault. At the larger posts there would also be a store or trading room, while all the buildings would presumably be more com­ modious to accommodate a larger complement of men. In 1799 the value of the buildings in the Timiskaming department (as estimated by JEneas Cameron) stood in the North West Company Ac-

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counts for Temiscamingue at £425, but only four of the six posts were listed - Fort Timiskaming £225, Abitibi £100, Matawagamingue £75, and Grand Lac £25. Waswanipi, however, may have been included with Abitibi and the Flying Post of course was not established until 1800. In 1801 the total value of 'Forts and Buildings in Temis: Dept' was £420, the individual posts not being differentiated. But again in 1802, when separate values were once more given, the total was also reduced, to £375, specifically, Fort Timiskaming £200, Abitibi £75, Matawaga­ mingue £75, and Grand Lac £25. Again neither Waswanipi nor the Fly­ ing Post was listed but the latter may have been part of the Matawaga­ mingue estimate. In 1803 the figures remained the same but the following year saw another reduction, this time to £335, namely Fort Timiskaming £180, Matawagamingue £70, Abitibi £65, and Grand Lac £20. These estimates, however, were presumably only the book value and did not represent the cost of replacement. The various buildings, usually of squared timber, were put up by the winterers; clay was used for plastering and where chimneys were need­ ed, stone, plastered with clay, made durable and attractive ones. The dwelling houses were generally lined for greater warmth and often boasted a 'galery' (verandah), always such a pleasant feature of Lower Canadian architecture. Although Pano may have had to make do with paper windows at Fort Abitibi in 1774, glass was later used everywhere. The men made the furniture, too, the more versatile among them also acquiring the art of 'bending' sleighs and snowshoes, of building canoes, and even of tanning hides. In the late winter they cut wood for fuel and ice for summer storage, a special 'regale' (issue of liquor) being their re­ ward on completing this latter laborious and miserable task. Apparently the Canadians always cultivated gardens at their posts. Potatoes were the principal crop and were stored in kegs for winter use but barley was also grown in small quantities, as well as fresh vegeta­ bles, beans, peas, turnips, onions, carrots, lettuce, and other greens. The amount of acreage under cultivation varied at the different posts, proba­ bly in proportion to the enthusiasm of the master and the servants available. Spades and hoes were the usual implements, although the cat­ tle, both bulls and cows, were used for ploughing and hauling. In addition to the few head of cattle, whose numbers seem to have de­ pended on the supply of wild grass in the vicinity for making hay, the Canadians also kept poultry at their posts. Gladman noticed pigs at Fort Timiskaming, although they are not mentioned elsewhere. Surprisingly, he did not report seeing cattle there but Matawagamingue certainly had

88 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade them in 1814 and they are listed at all the Timiskaming posts immedi­ ately after the union. Like everything else imported, they had to be brought in by canoe but were driven along the shore whenever possible. During the summer they roamed the woods, feeding on leaves and moss, or pastured on the occasional meadows of wild hay growing at the mouths of rivers and creeks, and on the 'goose' grass at the edge of lakes. The cows gave milk all summer and some butter was made. The cattle also provided manure for the gardens and furnished the Christmas feast. But they were subject to the hazards of climate and inadequate feeding. Not only did they deteriorate greatly in size and yield less milk but they were prone to injury in the woods and if the calves were born out of doors in spring, as sometimes happened, they often perished from cold. Except for Grand Lac, where large game was plentiful even in the 1860s, the Timiskaming posts depended largely on fish and rabbits. As both became scarcer with the years, however, increasing quantities of imported provisions were required, flour, Indian corn, and grease. Gener­ ally each post possessed a dependable fall fishing station, which supplied the bulk of fish salted in kegs for winter use. But at Matawagamingue the station lay at a considerable distance, involving much labour in bringing the fish home, 10 while at the Flying Post there was apparently no such thing as a fall fishing nor good fishing at any time. 11 According to the season and the circumstances, the Canadians used nets, seines, or hook and line, and caught principally whitefish, perch, yellow pickerel, and lake trout, which they called 'sturgeon.' During the winter they fished through the ic.:-. Winter was the best time for rabbits, when their paths could easily be traced in the snow, and men were sent out camping to snare them, as well as to trade with the Indians. Partridges were also available in winter but, like the rabbits, they were very 'dry' food, re­ quiring the addition of fat to make them nourishing. In later years, how­ ever, even the men sent out after Indians had to be furnished with im­ ported food. In summer the fish usually failed and imported provisions were issued to the servants remaining at the posts. At times black bears were numer­ ous and provided a special treat for Indians and traders alike. The wild berries on which they fed were also picked and dried for winter use. The Flying Post, however, is the only one where wild rice is mentioned as an addition to the menu. 12 Wild ducks and geese appeared on the inland rivers and lakes towards the end of March and were back again in the fall, but the geese were few in number compared to those on the Bay, where they formed such a valuable part of the diet and were salted for

89 HBC Prepares to Take the Initiative 1804-14 winter use. Pigeons were plentiful at Fort Timiskaming and Fort Abiti­ bi, although they are not mentioned at the other posts. Perhaps they were off the principal migratory path but in view of the birds' vast num­ bers and wide distribution there must have been some. Certainly noth­ ing which would provide food for the pot was overlooked and at Mata­ wagamingue even loons were not despised. As far as life in the country and the conduct of the trade were concerned, every post in the Timiskaming area, large or small, English or Canadian, conformed to the same general pattern. During the au­ tumn the Indians were outfitted on credit and went off to their own lands. Some, especially those living near the post, visited it occasionally during the winter to trade a few furs and obtain supplies. Any Indian who could, also came into the post at Christmas or New Year's to share in the celebrations, which always included a feast. The head of the cow or steer was much relished by the Indians, who also shared other delica­ cies, while for the officers and men the menu might include pies made of ducks, hares, and partridges, roast beaver, apple pie, and plum pudding. Other visitors on these festive occasions were the men from the fishing stations or outposts, or from neighbouring posts, whether Canadian or English. Diversions took the form of ball games on the ice and dancing, if the numbers warranted, or sliding and shooting at a target, if they did not. Neither the Indians nor the other visitors, however, remained longer than a few days at most, except in winters when rabbits were scarce. Then the Indians congregated about the post in considerable numbers to keep themselves and their families from starving, often be­ coming 'boarders' until conditions improved. The Canadians also kept St Andrew's Day (30 November) and St George's Day (23 April) as holi­ days, with extra rations of food and drink for the men and the usual games, but these were largely domestic occasions. John McRae, a clerk at the Flying Post some years after the union, has described a typical winter's day there which could equally well serve for any of the smaller Canadian posts in Timiskaming. 'I rise about daylight,' he recorded in his Journal on 15 December 1833, and immediately prepare my breakfast. This generally consists of a pancake. It is not often I can afford to butter it, but a slice of fried pork does as well; having washed this down with two Basins of Tea, I set out to overhaul my snares, in which occupation I pass the time, until an hour, or half an hour before sunset; when I return to the house, and immediately change the habilments of the hunter for those of the cook. A few peeled potatoes boiled with a Rabbit, and a

90 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade piece of Pork, to season it, constitute my supper. I afterwards pass an hour or two, in reading, and go to bed, about eight or nine of the clock. 13

The long winter evenings of course afforded a good deal of leisure and at the larger posts there might be cards in the men's quarters after din­ ner or music, if the post boasted someone who could play the fiddle or flute, while the men who had formed connections with Indian women could enjoy the comforts of such family life as the wilderness and their duties allowed. But for the most part those who could read, must, like McRae, have turned to it to fill in the time. In this respect a number ap­ pear to have used their spare time to advantage; we have a list of books remaining in Montreal in the autumn of 1799 from a consignment sent up to Roderick McKenzie, one of the Timiskaming clerks, at his own ex­ pense. It included five volumes of Modern Europe, eight volumes of Raynal's Indies, four volumes of Campbell's Admirals, five volumes of Sully's Memoires, and five volumes of Voltaire's Works. 14 Besides their books the men had the papers and journals which the Montreal agents and their own friends in Canada were indefatigable in providing. But it was not always easy to lay hands on them, especially when exciting news had just arrived in Montreal. 'On returning to Town from Sending off the Temisg. Canoes,' Grant, Campion & Co. wrote to James Grant at Fort Timiskaming on 23 April 1793, we found our Letters from London as late as 9h [sic] February. They inform us that War had been declared that day against the French, and that England is to be joined by 60 Sail of War from Spain, 10 from Portugal, & all the fleet of the Dutch. The account of the King of France's death is confirmed - He was be­ headed on the 21st day of January at 10 o'Clock in the morning ... We are sorry that we cannot get any London Papers for you, but only one Gentn. in Town has got them, & out of his house he will not let them go.

In the Timiskaming area, too, the Canadians frequently passed on their papers to the Hudson's Bay posts and indeed the English usually re­ ceived the latest news through them, long before it could come in by the Bay. Whenever an Indian came into a post, he generally brought furs or food of some kind, game or fish, berries or maple sugar, depending on the season and his lands' resources. Unlike the northwest where the stand­ ard of trade was a beaver skin (the Hudson's Bay Company's Made Bea­ ver), in Timiskaming it was a marten, all other furs being quoted at their

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value in martens. A beaver, for instance, was worth three martens. After the furs were packed and sent off to Fort Timiskaming and Montreal came the slack time, when few men were left at the post and the Indians supported themselves by fishing and hunting, or were hired as canoemen to transport the furs from the subsidiary posts to Fort Timiskaming and bring up the supplies from the depot. As far as possible however, the Canadians discouraged them from staying about the post during the summer and were reluctant to trade the inferior summer furs, which were known in the trade as 'staged.' With the possible exception of Matawagamingue, there is very little information about the individual Timiskaming posts. Waswanipi and Grand Lac are the most elusive and, being well off the main route from Montreal to the Bay, were largely unknown even at the time, except to their own traders. Nevertheless, both seem to have been very successful posts. After the coalition of 1821 the Southern Council immediately abandoned its own recently-established posts on Gull Lake (Lac au Goeland) and Waswanipi Lake in favour of the Canadian house at Was­ wanipi, and it never settled on Grand Lac, which of course lay south of the Height of Land. In 1913 the Grand Lac post stood on the east side of Grand Lake Victoria, at the point where the Ottawa River enlarges to form this immense sheet of water, 15 and it was still appearing in that po­ sition on some maps of the province of Quebec of twenty years ago. In the absence of any information to the contrary we may assume that this strategic location, astride the path of Indians coming in from the rich fur lands to the north and east, was the site of the post from its earliest days, possibly as far back as the French regime. Even of Fort Timiskaming itself knowledge is scanty. No accounts of it from the Canadian side have survived and after Gladman's visit in 1794 it was almost thirty years before another Moose Fort officer rec­ orded his description of it. Although Chief Trader Joseph Beioley seems to have been chiefly interested in the store and dwelling house, his Jour­ nal does at least provide a last glimpse of Fort Timiskaming in Canadian hands. 'The Store appears to be about 50 feet long,' Beioley noted in June 1822, and from 24 to 30 feet wide it is very capacious and including a Garret of about 4 feet side wall, with projecting Cased Windows is 3 Stories High - The Ground Floor is in two Divisions, the smallest of which has Some Rolls of Bark and some Rundlets /Liquor or Meat Kegs apparently/ in it, - the other Division

92 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade has in it the Corn Mill - some Bags of Corn and Pease, &c -The first floor is also divided into Two Parts, - One of which is used as the Trading Room - the other appropriated as a kind of Store for the reception of the Goods. One Corner of the latter is converted into an Office or Counting House -These Divisions have each an outer Door before which a covered Platform runs the whole Length of the House, and the ascent to which is by a Staircase direct from the Yard. At the end of the Trading Room - /within doors/ a Staircase leads to the 3rd Story or Garret - which is, I observe, used as a Fur Shed. - The Dwelling House is of a singular shape being in the form of a Cross - the middle part being raised a Story above the rest, and pavilion-roofed to a Point - including the Pavilion Part it is 3 Stories high, the Roofing of the projecting Arms of the Cross is merely sloped from the middle part - and covered with Tin on 3 Sides -The Tin I am informed was the late Mr McKays own property. - Tho' the House has been erected several years it is still in an unfinished state - and it appears not to be the intention now to finish it - as they are squaring and collecting logs for build­ ing another Dwelling House. -The Store and other Houses are weather boarded and roofed with Shingle, cut to 1 foot in length and about 6 or 7 inches in width - It has a very pretty appearance - and will I understand last 20 years or more. 16

.7.

Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21

When the Southern Council gave up Abitibi House in 1812, Richard Good was sent to take charge of Kenogamissi Lake, where he had served as assistant to Philip Good before going as master to Abitibi. His annual Report for 1814 furnishes our first description of Matawagamingue and the Flying Post. 'The Canadians has two permanent posts,' he noted, viz Matowagumrney to the So-ward of this District which was Established 1794 and Kakatoosh to the Wt.ward which was Established 1800 - The Number of men usually employed at them both I may suppose at Nine - but they have no Outposts from either of them. - this Number of Men are not sufficient for work­ ing up their Supplies from Timiscamingue but is generally performd. by Indians. - The number of whom from the best enquiries I have made, amounts to forty three Men hunters, exclusive of their families that constantly resort to trade at One or Either of these Posts. - To speak for a certainty of the Quantity of Goods & Provisions they bring for these two Posts, I cannot but I think I dont exagger­ ate if I say 125 Packages, and their returns in furs from Indian Reports amounts to Thirty Bundles, consisting of Bears, Beaver Marten, Musquash, Mink, Otter & fisher amongst which the Musquash are predominant. - Their Buildings are very good at Matowagummy and consists of two dwelling Houses for the Master a Summer one and Wintering One, a dwelling House for the Men; and a Large Store for Goods & Provisions, for at this Post are lodg'd sometimes the Supplies for Kakatoosh.1

At this time the Matawagamingue post was situated on the west side of Matawagamingue (now Mattagami) Lake, on the left (north) side of the mouth of the Minisinakwa River, directly opposite a large island

94 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade which sheltered it from the east winds. (In 1830 it was moved across the river). Since 1804 its master had been Angus Cameron, the elder son of JEneas' brother James, who farmed the family holding in the parish of Kirkmichael. Angus had come to Canada in the spring of 1801. Arriving at Quebec on 13 May, he engaged as a clerk with the North West Com­ pany in Montreal on 2 June and was sent to Fort Timiskaming, where he surprised his uncle by appearing with the June canoes. After some months JEneas sent him to Matawagamingue to assist Donald McKay and when McKay went to Fort Timiskaming in 1804 Angus became master of the post. Two years later the Flying Post, too, came under the command of a promising young clerk, George McBride. McBride's father was Band­ master of the 24th Regiment and he had been sponsored by Joseph Fro­ bisher, whose daughter, Rachel, was married to Captain O'Brien of that regiment. He was one year Cameron's senior in the service, having en­ gaged as clerk with the North West Company in April 1800.2 After spending his first summer at Fort Timiskaming, he had succeeded Ro­ derick Chisholm as master of the Devil's Island post in Frederick House Lake. About 1803 he appears to have been posted to Fort Abitibi but with the rearrangement in personnel which followed JEneas Cameron's retirement he became master of the Flying Post. During the last years of the Canadian trade the centre of opposition between the two companies in the Timiskaming district shifted from Lake Abitibi to the Mattagami River sector. This was the result first, of the abandonment of Abitibi House and the massacre at Frederick House, and secondly, of the establishment in 1814 of a Hudson's Bay outpost on Matawagamingue Lake. That year Thomas Vincent, for­ merly chief at Fort Albany, had become superintendent pro tern of the Southern Department, replacing Thomas Thomas, who had gone to the Northern Department, and he was intent on implementing the London Committee's plans for carrying opposition deep into Canadian territory. Although he did not yet possess the means for establishing new posts, he proposed to extend the influence of the existing ones by means of out­ posts. It was on his orders, therefore, that Good built a house on Mata­ wagamingue Lake in the autumn of 1814, within range of a 'glass' from the Canadian house. Vincent envisaged the new outpost as ultimately the Company's principal post in the area for, in his opinion, the situa­ tion of Kenogamissi Lake had deteriorated over the years into 'one of the worst imaginable,' successive masters having allowed the Canadians to surround them without making any effort to extricate themselves.3

95 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 Vincent also instructed Good to settle at the Flying Post but it is clear that neither he nor Thomas thought much of the clerk's character or abilities, regarding him merely as a stop-gap until a better man could be found; among other failings, they objected to his 'habitual familiarity with the men, and total Ignorance of the Inland business.'4 For once there is an account, from the Canadian point of view, of the contest between the two companies, in two volumes of Angus Cameron's Matawagamingue Journal which have survived among the family pa­ pers. Since they cover not only the crucial years 1815-17, during which the Southern Council maintained its outpost on the lake, but continue until 1822, a year after the coalition of the companies, they also provide a fairly comprehensive picture of life at Matawagamingue at the time and of the operations of the trade in general. Cameron's Journal begins on 20 January 1815, on a note of indigna­ tion with the Hudson's Bay people. As Good's Journals show, their rela­ tions had formerly been friendly and mutually helpful, so Cameron's change of attitude seems attributable to the establishment of the new outpost. A letter which he wrote to Good just after Christmas 1814, how­ ever, discloses that he regarded the trespass, not as the usual opposition gambit but as a serious breach of the agreement which McDougall and Good had made in January 1812 concerning Abitibi and Frederick House lakes. At that time, according to Cameron, it had been further stipulated that neither party would encroach upon the other in the neighbourhood of Matawagamingue and Kenogamissi. In defending himself, Good denied knowledge of any agreement other than for Abitibi and Frederick House, at the same time intimating that even this bar­ gain might not be kept since the Southern Council intended to oppose the Nor'Westers at all the Timiskaming posts. In the circumstances, therefore, it was manifestly a matter of princi­ ple with Cameron, as well as a business necessity, to defeat the English on Matawagamingue Lake and he immediately resorted to every device known to the trade to keep them from securing furs; they could not stir from their house, even to catch a few fish up the river, without having the Canadians at their heels. Moreover, although he seems to have re­ garded them with a mixture of scorn and pity, scorn for their ineptitude and pity for their hardships, he never underestimated them nor missed an opportunity to outwit them. At first a disloyal English servant fur­ nished him with information which enabled him to anticipate their plans for getting furs but even after this man's activities were discovered and he was sent back to Kenogamissi Lake, Cameron was still able to

96 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade glean an occasional hint from the Englishmen's Indian wives, who called on him from time to time. At the end of January 1815 he mentioned that 'the HB Clerks Lady' had 'Stoped supper' with him but that, since she spoke little English and did not understand the local dialect, their conversation had been limited.5 Lack of a common tongue, however, did not deter the lady from turning up a few days later to complain that one of the Canadian servants had taken a hare from the English traps. To satisfy her, Cameron made the man return it, although protesting in his Journal that his opponents should have realized it was a mistake, 'the Snare paths being so i[n]termixt that a person could hardly distinguish which were theirs or mine.'6 He did not, however, admit that deliber­ ately tangling the snare paths was a favourite ploy of the opposition game, to keep track of rivals and make their job of securing food more difficult. How the English managed to exist was a puzzle to Cameron. 'I pity the poor HB men,' he confided to his Journal. 'They are in a state of Ab­ solute Starvation having no provisions at all except what they can catch in the Woods they have refused of course to a man to go after Indians which is much in our favour.' In contrast to himself and his men, who were constantly on the move to provide meat for the post, the Hudson's Bay clerk hardly ever appeared out of doors; 'I cannot conceive how he makes out to live, without hunting, considering he was so short of provi­ sions last Fall.' In March, however, Good sent up supplies from Keno­ gamissi Lake and the onset of spring brought the usual migration of ducks and geese, as well as the beginning of the fishing season. Although contemptuous of the Englishmen's skill as hunters and trappers, as fishermen Cameron was forced to concede that they were 'now in a way to live.' 'They can eat their belly Fulls, but they'll catch no furs,' he ob­ served grimly .7 Cameron tended to portray the Hudson's Bay men as dangerous in­ terlopers, against whose aggressive tactics he must always be on guard, but it is clear that his scathing description of the master of the outpost, James Kellock, more nearly reflects his personal opinion of them. 'The English Clerk,' he recorded, passes every morning before my door to visit a little bit of snare path that his wife made for him, & such a ridiculous figure I never beheld in the Indian coun­ try at any rate, altho' half famished with Hunger, upon a Huge pair of snow Shoes, that his Spindle shanks can hardly trail along, with an old Bag on his back (perhaps a Hare or two in it) and a Hatchet on one Shoulder, yet this

97 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 Phantom of a Hunter, surpasses all the Fops that ever I saw in Fopishness, Strutting with his hand in his Side, & every other Indication of the most ridicu­ lous vanity.s But although Cameron might deride his rivals, his Journal reveals that much of his success in opposing them was due to his attention to detail and his refusal to leave anything to chance. Relying neither on his years of experience in the country nor his influence with the Indians, he forestalled trouble by keeping strict track of everything. No one moved in the neighbourhood without his knowledge and no personal discomfort was too great to prevent his following a lead, however nebulous, in pur­ suit of furs. He had his reward just after the middle of May 1815 when the Hudson's Bay men 'Decamped' empty-handed, except for their own rabbit skins. Cameron diagnosed their failure as chiefly due to his own and his men's watchfulness, although he conceded that their Jack of im­ ported provisions and the desertion to him of some of the Kenogamissi Indians had also militated against them. They were talking about re­ turning in the fall, he added, but if they did so, he was resolved to estab­ lish an outpost of his own on Kenogamissi Lake.9 In his 1815 Report to the Southern Council Good endeavoured to soften the blow by claiming that a few of the Canadian Indians had not only brought him furs at Kenogamissi Lake but had promised to hide part of their next season's hunt for him. In the end, however, he had to acknowledge that 'litteraly speaking,' the Matawagamingue outpost had yielded no returns, while lack of canoes and men had prevented his set­ tling at the Flying Post. Furthermore, he warned, if Cameron carried out his threat to come down to Kenogamissi, his own returns would proba­ bly suffer, all his Indians being strongly inclined towards the Canadians. As far as he could judge from Indian reports, they had secured from thirty to forty packs at Matawagamingue this season, their success be­ ing primarily due to their usual 'superfluity of Provisions,' as well as to the Indians' attachment to them and their thorough knowledge of the country. 10 The unanimity of Cameron and Good on the importance of provisions in securing furs points up one of the most controversial issues raised by the 'Retrenching System.' The masters of the inland posts in what was now the Southern Department had always been dissatisfied with their share of imported provisions but the situation worsened after 1810, when the Governor and Committee drastically reduced the quantity of food sent to the Bay. Their position was that, with a modicum of skill

98 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade and a little extra effort, every post should be able to maintain itself on 'country provisions,' which included the wild life indigenous to the dis­ trict, domestic animals, and garden produce. For much of Rupert's Land they were probably right but in many parts of the Southern Depart­ ment, as the sparse Indian population and the starvation prevalent al­ most every winter so eloquently testify, game was uncommonly scarce. Even in favourable years for rabbits, supporting a post largely on coun­ try provisions in the Timiskaming area would leave little time for the more rewarding business of getting furs and in no circumstance could these posts have produced the kind, or quantity, of food required for tra­ velling after Indians. Soon after the Hudson's Bay men departed from Matawagamingue Lake in the spring of 1815 their outpost burned to the ground. Kellock, returning to the site in July, blamed the Canadians, at the very least for inciting its destruction, but Cameron's somewhat dubious explanation was that Indians, pitching their canoes, had left a fire burning which had spread to the house. Now his annoyance at Kellock's reappearance sent him hurrying down to Kenogamissi Lake to reconnoitre a suitable location for an outpost, and when his opponents returned to Matawaga­ mingue in late September he dispatched John Grant to build a house some two miles below Good's post. A poor summer had followed a wet spring; early frosts killed most of Cameron's garden stuffs and snow fell in mid-September. Yet, despite the prospect of a shortage of provisions, Cameron was obviously deter­ mined to put an end, once and for all, to the Hudson's Bay Company's opposition on Matawagarningue Lake. To prevent the Indians from vis­ iting the outpost during the night, he had a hut built beside it and he marked the trees along the paths they used in coming to the lake, to warn them of his opponents' presence. He also ordered his men to en­ circle the English snarepaths with their own and to roll large stones into the rapids where they expected to seine, presumably to impede their fishing. Once again the price of safety was eternal vigilance and Cam­ eron disgustedly acknowledged the trouble and vexation his rivals caused him. Cameron's temper, too, was shorter this season. Late one evening, watching the outpost through his glass, he perceived its occupants 'all in a Bustle upon their point.' Having discovered an Indian coming along the shore, th,ey were evidently pursuing him with a canoe and Cameron immediately started after them in his. Since they were half a mile ahead

99 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 of him, however, his persistence would have availed him nothing, had not the Indian taken to the woods and hidden his furs. Coming out into the open again, he pointed a gun at his pursuers, while Cameron 'laid hold of the one I thought most forward & threatened to upset his canoe, & give him a Drubbing also if ever I found him pilaging an Indian that owed them nothing.'11 Another sharp encounter occurred when Cameron's Indians went off for their winter's hunts. According to his account, his opponents fol­ lowed them, hoping to persuade them to bring furs to the outpost, but he took after them with one of his men, compelling the Englishmen to put ashore. A fight then ensued, from which his opponents retreated with bloody noses. George Budge was the Hudson's Bay master at the outpost this year and he seems to have been pessimistic about his prospects from the be­ ginning. 'The Indians here will not look at Strangers nor dare,' he re­ ported to Kenogamissi Lake in mid-October. 'There will be nothing made here this year than last, us coming here has only brought the Canadians down to K.L.'12 A few days before Christmas he wrote again in the same strain. 'There is no sign of any Trade here yet,' he told Good. 'There is a few Indians arriving at the other House, they come thro' the Woods, they take care to come openly, they keep out of our way as much as possible I cannot conjecture for what reason they wish to avoid us so much as they do. Whether it is fear of the other peo­ ple or they get better usage than they do with us I cannot say.' 13 Good's reply was soothing but not very helpful. Budge should not des­ pair but keep his men on the alert. Perhaps the influence the Canadians had upon the Indians was the reason they avoided him, but if any of them should come to the outpost, he should treat them as well as his op­ ponents did, at the same time indicating what they would get if they brought furs. No matter what excuses they gave for not bringing them, for fear of the Canadians, he should counteract by arguments of his own and perhaps, by degrees, they would visit him more frequently. 14 Unknown as yet to Good, a new misfortune had struck the English on Hudson Bay in the autumn of 1815; both the Moose and York ships had been forced by ice in Hudson Strait to winter at Charlton Island. Hear­ ing the news at Albany, of which he had just assumed command, George Gladman immediately set off for Moose, where he persuaded Joseph Beioley, now chief there, to let him carry a packet to Canada, by way of the Ottawa, to inform the Committee.15 Gladman had travelled this

100 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade route as recently as the summer of 1812, when he returned from Eng­ land to the Bay through Montreal, receiving the customary hospitality at the Timiskaming posts. This time, however, McDougall categorically refused to help and although welcoming Gladman as an old friend de­ clared that he was not at all sure he did his duty in allowing him to pro­ ceed. Gladman had therefore to find his own way to Fort Timiskaming, a journey which, as in 1794, took him fifteen days. Fortunately McKay proved more accommodating than McDougall and Gladman reached Montreal early in March 1816. After waiting on Lord Selkirk, who was in Canada on the business of his Red River Settlement, he took his bill for the provisions McKay had given him to the offices of McTavish, McGillivrays & Co. There William McGillivray received him coldly, re­ turning his note with the crushing reminder that the North West Com­ pany did not carry provisions to its posts for sale. 16 Meanwhile Beioley had sent letters from the ships to Superintendent Vincent, who was wintering at New Brunswick, and he, too, decided to send a packet to Montreal, by way of Fort Timiskaming. The road be­ tween New Brunswick and Kenogamissi Lake had recently been ex­ plored but beyond that point none of the New Brunswick servants knew the way and Vincent himself must have been only too well aware of Good's scarcity of provisions and of the possibility that, in such a Cana­ dian stronghold, he might even be unable to supply a guide. Neverthe­ less, presumably influenced by the rapidly worsening relationship be­ tween the two companies in the northwest, he instructed his packeters, George Dyer, a New Brunswick clerk, and Peter Spence, master of the Kabinakagami outpost, not to seek help from the Canadians except in case of extreme necessity, to keep the news of the ships' detention as se­ cret as possible, to use every precaution to prevent the North West agents from discovering the real object of their journey, and to apply in Montreal to the Hudson's Bay Company's agents, Maitland, Garden & Auldjo. In the circumstances, his instructions seem strangely unrealistic, as indeed they were to prove. 17 On Matawagamingue and Kenogamissi lakes the familiar winter spectre of hunger had made its appearance earlier than usual and even the Canadians were feeling the pinch. Cameron had no corn to give the Indians and was reduced to feeding his poultry with hares. In mid-Janu­ ary 1816 he received a visit from Budge, who was desperate for provi­ sions. 'He observed that he hoped I had more Humanity than to allow them to starve at my door & begged I would give him a little assistance for money or Charity,' Cameron recorded in his Journal.

101 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 I replied that the only condition upon which I could supply him was that he would immediately relinquish the opposition against me & give up the Trade en­ tirely at this Post in the NWCos favour & not till then would I be at liberty of giving him any assistance, he found these terms too hard & says he must decline compliance untill mere necessity compels him, he says by what he has experi­ enced from the Indians already that he would not give one single Beaver skin for his Prospects of Trade this year but that he would be subjecting himself to much blame by relinquishing it or agreeing to the Condition I ask So we parted for the Present. 18 The breaking point for Budge came a few weeks later with the arrival of Dyer and Spence. They had reached Kenogamissi Lake early in Feb­ ruary but had had to wait several days for Good to find them a guide to Fort Timiskaming. In the end, he had had to settle for an Indian who had never been there but agreed to make the attempt. When the packet­ ers left, Good supplied them, as he later protested, 'to the utmost I at the hazard of our lives / ,' leaving it to Budge to make up any deficiencies. 19 For Budge, of course, this was quite impossible and his only recourse was to apply to Cameron and submit to his terms. Neither then, nor lat­ er, however, did he inform Good of his surrender, merely reporting that, on their arrival at Matawagamingue, Dyer and Spence had gone imme­ diately to the Canadian house for a chart of the road, 'as Mr Cameron said they would be the better of having one as the Indian did not know one fourth of the way.' 'Mr Cameron,' Budge added, 'treated us very civ­ ily acquainting them the Road is very difficult to pass.'20 Much as the incident redounded to Cameron's personal credit, he, too, was apparently no more eager than Budge to disclose his part in the affair to his superiors and he not only omitted any reference to his meet­ ing with the packeters but his entry for 15 February, the day they left Matawagamingue Lake, implies that he had never seen them before. 'In the night,' it reads, we were Surprised by hearing an Indian drunk at the English House & we were upon the alert this morning to discover who it was It being the first time that we heard an Indian Drunk there without our knowledge - I discovered the Tracks came from Kinogamisse, and about 8 oclock AM we Saw four men with Sleas & an Indian without any Start from the English house. l pursued with Mr McKay & came up with them in the long Shetagaming [Frederick House] Carrying Place21 found them to be a Mr Dyer, Petter Spence, two men & an Indian from

102 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade HBay, bound for Montreal when I understood the nature of their Journey & errand I wished them a good Journey & left them. I dont think they will fall in with any of our Indians they seem to be much discouraged & well they may for I believe they will hardly even get to Temiscaming as none of them know the way & its exceeding bad walking at present.

This last statement may be dismissed as pure camouflage for, of course, with the information and supplies Cameron had provided, and the help which McKay also presumably gave them, Dyer and Spence reached Montreal safely. There they found Lord Selkirk, already warned by Gladman of the seriousness of the food situation in the Southern De­ partment, preparing to ship provisions to Sault Ste Marie and writing letters to Vincent, instructing him to send boats from Moose Fort to Mi­ chipicoten to pick them up. As for Cameron, on the day following Dyer and Spence's departure, he recorded in his Journal that Budge had agreed to give up his trade for that year at least, in exchange for a quan­ tity of provisions, and in subsequent entries he fitted in the news of the ships' detention and the packeters' progress towards Fort Timiskaming. Early in March, as famine continued to haunt Matawagamingue Lake, Budge was again forced to appeal to Cameron for provisions but beyond helping him to lay out a snarepath Cameron could do little to relieve his distress. At the end of the month, moreover, when Budge came once more to complain bitterly of starvation, Cameron had to turn him down altogether. The situation at Kenogamissi Lake was equally alarming. Budge told Cameron that the Hudson's Bay men there were in a misera­ ble state; one servant had died of hunger in his snarepath and the rest hardly expected to see the spring. Cameron's man at Kenogamissi Lake, John Grant, also ran short of food, sending up one of his servants to be boarded at Matawagamingue. Worse still, he was getting no furs. Cam­ eron accordingly dispatched Donald McKay, Jr to look after the out­ post, while Grant went out after Indians. 'There is no prospect of his be­ ing able to procure any thing by staying at the House,' Cameron commented ruefully, '& it will be mortifying in the Extreme should he be obliged to abandon the place without any Furs at all.'22 Spring's official arrival made little difference either to the weather or the food situation. Cameron declared that he had never seen such a backward spring; it snowed every day and the cattle were near starva­ tion, with only a dozen bundles of hay remaining. He took them across the lake and cut down birch tops for them, which they apparently rel-

103 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 ished. He was short of powder, too, and when Budge needed a kettle, Cameron agreed 'with pleasure' to exchange one for seven pounds of it.23 Then, suddenly, as so often happens in the uncertain northern spring, a spell of fine, warm weather brought ducks to the river. Cameron grum­ bled that the English frightened the birds but both parties ':Vere soon able to set nets in the river. He did not 'trouble' to watch his rivals now, relying on Budge's promise to take no furs, but he kept a sharp eye on the Indians to make sure they did not visit the English house. Learning that Canuaca, a halfbreed whom he called 'the Greatest Raskal of any of the Indians belonging to this post,' had taken an otter and ten muskrats to Budge, he banished him from the lake, ordering him off to Fort Timis­ kaming and threatening 'Severe chastisement,' if ever he repeated the offence. It seems to have made no difference to Cameron that the quan­ tity of furs was negligible or that Budge immediately sent them over to him. 24 This incident was not the only sample of Cameron's summary and dubious 'justice.' On a later occasion, hearing that 'Nitawiga the Thief was at the English house, he went over with one of his men, took the In­ dian by force and kept him prisoner for four days, only allowing him to go after he had given 'most serious promises' of good behaviour in the future. The example would serve to deter others, Cameron reasoned, and convince them that the English could not protect them.25 Yet, in neither case, it seems, did any of the other Indians object to Cameron's high­ handed measures nor intercede on the culprit's behalf. Doubtless they feared his wrath but they, too, may have regarded these particular Indi­ ans as undesirable and apparently they accepted Cameron's right to pro­ tect the furs owing to him. It is also clear, as his Journal shows, that most of them were genuinely attached to him, as he to them. Halfway through May one of the English servants, John Loutitt, de­ serted to the Canadians, protesting that he could no longer put up with the way in which he was being treated. Cameron tried to persuade him to finish his term and then leave his employers openly but Loutitt pointed out that once they got him down to Moose he could not come up again and in all probability would starve to death the following winter, as he had narrowly escaped this. Finally, 'out of pure compassion for the poor fellows miserable Situation,' Cameron went to Budge, 'who could Say little against the man for Deserting, and candidly acknowledged that he had good cause for acting as he did, & that he would not insist upon his return.'26 Budge's winter experiences had apparently crushed him completely

104 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade and his letter to Good, reporting Loutitt's desertion, betrays his bitter­ ness. There had been no trade at the outpost, he wrote, and he wished from his heart that he had never come to 'this worthless place.' Good's reply instructed him to return to Kenogamissi with his goods, hiding anything he could not bring with him; if Loutitt changed his mind, he should be taken back.27 This evidently roused Budge to an attempt to re­ cover his deserter but when he went to the Canadian house, Loutitt flatly refused to accompany him and reproached him for his treatment of him. Good's annual Report for 1816 confirmed the Matawagamingue outpost's meagre returns, while once more he attributed his own poor showing at Kenogamissi Lake to the Indians' attachment to the Canadi­ ans and his complete lack of provisions to send men to the Indians' lands. The same deficiency of provisions, to say nothing of canoes, he claimed, had similarly forced him again to postpone settling at the Fly­ ing Post. Nevertheless, although the Indians told him that country pro­ visions were even scarcer there than at Kenogamissi and he did not think Europeans could survive without imported food, he was convinced that furs were to be had and that even the Matawagamingue outpost was useful, since it embarrassed the Canadians and made their returns more expensive.28 Meanwhile, the detention of the ships and the widespread scarcity of country provisions had completely upset Vincent's program for the Southern Department and in March 1816 he advised James Clouston, master at Neoskweskau Lake, that even the established posts could only be kept up 'with the strictest attention to Economy.'29 During the win­ ter Charles McCormick, master at New Brunswick, had been forced to beg provisions from his Canadian opponents in order to forward a gov­ ernment express to Moose Fort, and writing to Beioley a few days later, he stressed the shortage of food in his area. 'If the fish do not come about soon,' he declared, 'God knows what will become of us.'30 The scarcity of country provisions continued throughout the summer of 1816. The English at Kenogamissi Lake (who, unlike Cameron, seem to have been indifferent gardeners) had no seed potatoes, the previous year's puny yield having all been served out during the winter. At the beginning of June, Good warned Vincent that, unless provisions were sent up during the summer, his men must starve or leave the service, 31 and by August, Kellock, summer master during Good's absence at Moose Fort, had to apply to John Grant for food. Grant sent him thir-

105 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 ty-six pounds of flour and fourteen of Indian corn. A week Jater a supply canoe arrived at Kenogamissi Lake but Kellock was probably still on short rations, for he does not seem to have repaid Grant until the end of September. When he then sent down 'a quantity of flour,' Grant gener­ ously refused to accept it.32 Meanwhile Donald McIntosh, the Canadian master at Michipicoten, had intercepted Selkirk's dispatches to V"'lcent and the superin­ tendent's fury at the affront made him decide to resettle the Hudson's Bay post at Michipicoten. He accordingly sent Richard Good with three men to Lake Superior, accompanied by Peter Spence, who was in­ structed to proceed to Sault Ste Marie and pick up as many of Selkirk's provisions as possible. Selkirk himself arrived at the Sault in July, on his way to Red River, to be met with the tragic news of the massacre of Seven Oaks and the dispersal of his settlers. Intent on revenge, he pro­ ceeded to Fort William where, in August, he captured the headquarters of the North West Company, taking prisoner all the personnel remain­ ing there. The following spring he went on to Red River to re-establish his colony. Changes were also taking place in the Timiskaming district that sum­ mer of 1816. McDougall retired and Thomas Fraser succeeded him as master of Fort Abitibi. Cameron spent the summer in Montreal and seems to have become a partner in the North West Company at that time. Although McBride was his senior in the service by one year, Cam­ eron was apparently the abler and his connections, of course, were im­ peccable. As the only partner in the Timiskaming district, he was now apparently its virtual head, but he remained at Matawagamingue, where presumably he was most useful, while Donald McKay continued in charge at Fort Timiskaming and McBride at the Flying Post. When Cameron returned to his post in September, he brought up with him a new clerk from Scotland, David Stewart, whom he immediately sent down to Grant at Kenogamissi Lake. Good's successor at Kenogamissi was also a Stewart, Andrew Stewart, while in October, much to Cameron's exasperation, Kellock settled in at the Matawagamingue out­ post. Although neither of the opposing parties was yet aware of it, Moose Fort's position in the autumn of 1816 was even more precarious than the previous one. Spence had had time to bring only two canoe loads of Selkirk's provisions to Michipicoten and Good had divided them be­ tween his own post and New Brunswick, so that none of them reached the Bay.33 Furthermore, not only had the arrival of the annual ships

106 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade been delayed by ice in Hudson Strait, but at the end of October news reached Moose Fort from Charlton Island that neither had been able to get out of the Bay. The disastrous situation was aggravated still more by the fact that the York ship was carrying home over a hundred passen­ gers, among them settlers from the demoralized Red River colony, and the Moose ship, forty-five. The previous season's abnormal slaughter had left Moose Fort short of cattle and although a larger than usual quantity of meat had been sent out, there was not sufficient to permit any extension of the business in the interior. Vincent had again to shelve the plans for Waswanipi and Abitibi lakes and with so many mouths to feed Beioley was forced to re­ duce allowances to a minimum in anticipation of the worst that could happen, the non-arrival of a ship in 1817.34 Peter Spence, who carried the bad news to Canada, went by way of New Brunswick and Michipicoten; because of the hostilities between the two companies, this route had now become Moose Fort's regular channel of communication with Montreal. Rabbits continued to be scarce in the vicinity of Matawagamingue Lake during the winter of 1816-17 and with no garden produce to fall back on the English were soon in difficulties. In mid-December two of the servants offered themselves to Cameron, claiming that the outpost was entirely destitute of imported food and that without his assistance they were all doomed to starve. The Hudson's Bay men both at Keno­ gamissi Lake and Matawagamingue, Cameron reported in his Journal, had been sent out hunting at the beginning of the month without any sort of European provisions whatever, most of them strangers to the country and ignorant of the method of snaring hares, the only game to be had. 'I told them,' Cameron continued, 'if they were reduced to their present distressing condition by any unforeseen accident that they would be pitied, by every human person but this not being the case, they cannot plead any acts of Humanity in their favour Since they tamely Submit to the Barbarous System of Starvation that their Savage Employers had Established for a Number of years past.' Some of them starved every year, he added, and if it were not for the Nor'Westers, more would have shared their fate.35 Cameron's unusual harshness prob­ ably reflected his increasing bitterness against Selkirk but, in the end, he gave in. Although he had no need for their services, he told the men, if it came to a matter of absolute starvation, he would try to send them down to Montreal. The day after Christmas one of the men came again, refusing to re­ turn home unless Cameron put him out. To expose him to certain death

107 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 was 'too barbarous an action' for Cameron to contemplate, so he sent Kellock word that if he would receive the deserter and guarantee to sup­ ply him with food, he would be sent back. This servant, Samuel Rowland, had gone over to the Canadians once before and was not highly regarded in the Hudson's Bay service,36 but his story of conditions at the outpost is borne out by the grim events which followed. Two Kenogamissi servants who left for Moose Fort on New Year's Day, one with his wife and child, starved to death on the way, only the woman and her baby surviving to reach the Bay. A second tragedy struck much closer home, another English servant freezing to death on his way from Matawagamingue Lake to Kenogamissi.37 Cam­ eron and his clerk, visiting some lynx snares, came upon the newly-made grave, whereupon Cameron renewed his denunciations of the Hudson's Bay Company's 'Barbarity to their people,' 'sacrificing Such a Number of lives year after year.' 'Its no better this year,' he declared, 'as among eleven men exclusive of women & children they had not provisions sufficient for two of them for the Winter.'38 Four days later Cameron had a visit from Kellock, fearful of starving before spring. His refusal to help forced the Hudson's Bay master to leave his house and take to tenting in search of hares. Two weeks later Kellock sent his wife to beg provisions but again Cameron refused; 'they deserve no favour from me at all,' he insisted. Finally, at the beginning of March, Kellock came again, claiming that death was staring him in the face and that if Cameron would not give him a few provisions, he would starve at his door. If, however, he would supply him with food for three days, he would try to reach Kenogamissi Lake. 'I told him,' Cam­ eron reported, 'that the charge of want of Humanity was not all applica­ ble to me supose [sic] he did starve, he could only Blame his own em­ ployers & that It was indifferent to me whether he went or Staid I had nothing to lose or gain by either measure.' Having had his say, Cameron then characteristically relented. 'After mature consideration,' he ex­ plained, 'I judged it best to give him provisions for three days to carry him out of the way, he made a serious promise that he would never for his part winter here for the future.'39 Kellock and his men left Matawagamingue Lake the following day and at the end of March, Andrew Stewart, the Hudson's Bay master at Kenogamissi Lake, reported to Beioley that they were catching sufficient rabbits to survive. But it was doubtful, he warned, if they would have even one skin from the outpost this year, while his own trade at Kenogamissi was likely to be considerably less.40

108 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade By late April the situation at Kenogamissi Lake had further deterio­ rated and Stewart sent two clerks and a servant up to the outpost to try their luck there. They made several appeals to Cameron for assistance but he refused anything except a meal to carry them home again. One of the clerks, Alexander Collie, wanted Cameron to give him passage to Montreal, assuring him that he had completed his contract with the Hudson's Bay Company. While Cameron reserved his decision until he could investigate Collie's story, the three Hudson's Bay men remained at the outpost, living on the fish which were beginning to run in abun­ dance. But the weather turned cold again, half a foot of snow fell early in May, and the fishing languished. Visiting from Kenogamissi Lake, Grant reported that the English there were on the verge of starvation and that Stewart had come up to get fish from his people at Matawaga­ mingue. 'He will be miserably dissapointed [sic],' was Cameron's com­ ment, 'as they are also Starving.' That same day Collie joined the Cana­ dians, Cameron 'flattering' himself that the clerk would be invaluable if the North West Company should decide 'to send to the HB Quarter.' This hint that the Canadians were considering another descent on Moose Fort was later confirmed by Beioley. An Abitibi Indian, he re­ ported to Vincent in June, had been overheard telling a Moose Indian that the Canadians would be down that way shortly.41 The Hudson's Bay men left the outpost towards the end of May and Cameron's entry for the day shows him at his most disagreeable. But his stiff-necked pride was probably the result of the news he had recently re­ ceived of Selkirk's capture of Fort William the previous summer and the subsequent death by drowning of a North West Company partner, Ken­ neth McKenzie, on his way down to Montreal as a prisoner. 'Being two days without eating,' he remarked, 'they applied to me indirectly for provisions but as the Gentleman in Charge did not think proper to come personaly & beg what he wanted they received a direct refusal. Upon publickly acknowledging their being beholden to the NWCo. for the Saving of their lives I would have given them a little provisions, but upon no other condition.'42 Despite this third disastrous season, the Southern Council apparently had no thought of abandoning Matawagamingue Lake. Indeed Joseph Turnor, in charge of Kenogamissi Lake during the summer of 1817, as­ sured Beioley that the Indians, seeing the English holding on at Mata­ wagamingue, were beginning to believe that they were there to stay and several, he was confident, would bring furs the following season.43 But an

109 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 early freeze-up prevented Turnor from getting to Matawagamingue in time to secure any autumn furs and Peter Spence, newly appointed mas­ ter of Kenogamissi Lake, sent him to winter instead at Wyaskash Lake (modem Lake Akweskwa), halfway between Kenogamissi and Ground­ hog lakes. This was a move towards the Flying Post and Spence, who was eager to settle there, was convinced that the farther the new outpost was pushed in that direction, the more productive it would be. Besides, he disdained the old idea of sitting down beside the Canadians at Mata­ wagamingue. It was preferable, he argued, to build some distance away, where the Indians would have a better chance of visiting and the Cana­ dians be put to the trouble and expense of maintaining another house.44 Surprisingly, Spence's plans to go to the Flying Post found a vocifer­ ous opponent in Vincent, who appears to have forgotten his own earlier ambitions for that area. Reiterating all his predecessors' arguments about the difficulties of maintaining inland posts, Vincent emphasized the Company's continued lack of good voyagers and active servants. Not only had the Orkneymen lost some of their former virtues of honesty, so­ briety, and carefulness but their enterprise and spirit had not improved. It was his opinion therefore that the Company should hire more Canadi­ ans who, he claimed, had not hitherto received the kind of imaginative and liberal treatment required to get the best out of them. In his view, until the Southern Council could muster an equal number of intelligent men, well acquainted with the country's resources and the Indians' hunting grounds, it could never hope to obtain a decisive advantage at any of the long established Canadian stations. Judiciously arranged out­ posts, on the other hand, risked little or nothing and if the returns were small, so too were the expenses. Furthermore, besides providing valuable experience for the Company's servants, outposts forced the Canadians either to move from an old settlement, where their gardens and familiar­ ity with the best fishing and hunting grounds gave them the upper hand, or to incur the expense of maintaining outposts of their own. 45 Although Cameron was relieved of opposition on his doorstep during the winter of 1817-18, he did not have it all his own way in the Matawaga­ mingue area. In the first place, it was spring before he learned of Turnor's presence at Wyaskash Lake and hastily built an outpost there. Then when his clerk, David Stewart, went to Pusquachagamy (Night­ hawk) Lake in April, he discovered that Kellock had been tenting in the neighbourhood all winter and had secured most of the furs.46 With the Bay ships once more in normal operation, too, the Southern Council had

110 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade been able to provide Kenogamissi Lake more generously with men and provisions. Finally, it is possible that this year Cameron himself was short-handed for he and McBride had had to send Donald McKay, Jr to build an outpost about six days' journey from the Flying Post and about three from Lake Huron. The American Fur Company from Sault Ste Marie had recently settled there and was threatening their trade. 47 To add to these troubles, hares continued to be scarce during the 1817-18 season (the result, the Indians said, of the summer's heavy rains having killed the young) and an epidemic, of whose origin and nature Cameron seems to have been ignorant, raged among the Indians. It lasted throughout the winter and Cameron twice mentioned sending out medicine and provisions to gravely ill Indians, a number of whom died. One of his favourites, 'Plume Blanc,' though ailing, was still alive in late May when Cameron went to 'the long carrying place' to bring him to the house, carrying him over every portage. Although 'Plume Blanc' sur­ vived to see another spring, he died shortly afterwards. On Canuaca, who died during the summer of 1818, Cameron wasted no sympathy. 'It's one rogue the less,' he remarked on hearing the news. In the fall of 1818 both Cameron and McBride expected the main En­ glish thrust to be made against the Flying Post and Cameron accord­ ingly sent Grant from Kenogamissi Lake to assist McBride, replacing him at the outpost with David Stewart. Cameron was also perturbed to learn that Kenogamissi Lake was again well manned and supplied; four canoes, deeply laden, were reported to have come up from Moose Fort, while his opponents were said to number some eleven men and three clerks. 'I fear much they will cause us some Trouble in the Course of the Winter,' Cameron predicted gloomily .48 But Turnor settled in at Wyas­ kash Lake and the season passed without incident. Spence was shrewd enough to perceive that the outpost Cameron had established on Wyaskash Lake was intended primarily to divert the Hudson's Bay people from the Flying Post and he still argued that they would secure more furs by going there. The Flying Post, he reported to Moose, was only about thirty-five miles from Wyaskash Lake and al­ though the Indians said the navigation was bad, they often made moun­ tains of mole hills. In addition, the soil appeared to be suitable for culti­ vation and there was grass available about the lake and up the river. True, the fishing was poor but there were plenty of sturgeon [lake trout] in the Flying Post [Groundhog] River, which was only about three miles distant. Spence also advocated settling again in the Frederick House area. The

111 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 old post, he pointed out, had been one of the best places inland for rais­ ing potatoes and barley and even if the Abitibi and Matawagamingue Indians would not visit it during the winter, they might in summer, as they had formerly done. He had changed his mind, too, about Matawa­ gamingue Lake. It might, after all, be wise to build a permanent house there, staffing it with useful servants who had some knowledge of the In­ dian tongue. 'Being an old settlement of the Northwest Company the Indians are pa[r]tial to it,' he explained. 'And Angus Cameron the pres­ ent Master has been there for many years, and got a deal of influence over the Natives.'49 This, indeed, seems to have been the crux of the matter. William McGillivray was later to describe Cameron as 'the best trader in the Southern Department'50 and nothing the Hudson's Bay Company could do in the Matawagamingue area seems to have affected his returns. While Kenogamissi Lake and its two outposts (Wyaskash and Pusqua­ chagamy) apparently maintained their small quota of the furs during these last years of the Canadian trade, two-thirds of them came from the outposts so that, in effect, the three houses together were yielding little more than the single one had formerly done.51 At the same time the available evidence suggests that Cameron's trade improved and it is a measure of the richness of the district as a whole that, as late as 1821, ac­ cording to McGillivray, the North West Company's furs from Timis­ kaming and Lake Superior were valued at £20,000.52 Undoubtedly Timiskaming's isolation from the rest of the trade and the absence of any serious opposition had a great deal to do with the ex­ cellent state of its affairs at the time of the union, in contrast to the de­ moralization in the northwest, but the character of Cameron himself and the other Timiskaming officers also entered into it. Unlike many of the wintering partners in the interior, Cameron seems to have been free from the vanity and extravagant habits to which historians have attrib­ uted a considerable share of the blame for the final defeat of the Cana­ dian company at the hands of the English. Not for him the luxuries of the table or the pomp of being carried in and out of his light canoe! He lived as frugally as his men, setting them an example by being the best gardener and trapper among them. He could turn his hand to any task and did not disdain to do so. The other Timiskaming officers, McBride, Fraser, and McKay, were apparently equally modest and diligent and altogether Timiskaming seems to have been a model district. Certainly the agents considered it so. 'I candidly allow,' Thomas Thain, the part­ ner principally concerned with Timiskaming, was to write to Cameron in

112 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade 1822, 'that your Dept has been my Hobby for many Years past, when Order & Oeconomy was the order of the day, and the most perfect confi­ dence subsisted between us & the Gentlemen in the Interior. '53 In the spring of 1819 Cameron finally gave up his now useless outpost on Kenogamissi Lake. Peter Spence retired that summer and Kellock suc­ ceeded him as master of the Hudson's Bay post. Again the Matawaga­ mingue Indians succumbed to a severe epidemic, 'a kind of Rheum and Flux,' Cameron described it. Measles and whooping cough were preva­ lent in other parts of the country but since Cameron apparently did not recognize any of the usual symptoms, it may have been a virulent form of influenza or perhaps tuberculosis. Reports of Indian deaths continued to come in, among them that of a hunter whom Cameron mourned as 'the best Indian belonging to this post.' Concern for his trade mingled with the distress he felt for his flock; dead Indians hunted no more and widows and orphans were apt to become a 'troublesome' charge on the post. In the spring of 1820 Cameron was able to withdraw Donald McKay, Jr from his outpost near Lake Huron, the Nor'Westers on that lake hav­ ing 'bought' the American clerk and incorporated his post into their dis­ trict. Then, early in June, Donald McKay, Sr died at Fort Timiskaming and McBride left the Flying Post to take charge of the depot. Cameron, in turn, assumed command of the Flying Post, in addition to Matawaga­ ming4e, putting Donald McKay, Jr there as master. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1819, Vincent had at last re-established the Cheeaskwacheston post on Gull Lake, near W aswanipi, which the Company had abandoned in 1801, although he still pleaded 'want of ex­ perienced men' as an insurmountable obstacle to returning to Lake Abitibi.54 By February 1821, however, apparently unable to withstand the continued pressure of William Williams (since 1818 the Company's Overseas Governor), he conceded that the time had now come when, by withdrawing a few competent hands from such districts as might best spare them, the long contemplated resettlement of Abitibi Lake could be made 'with a fair prospect of success.'55 Joseph Beioley was chosen to head the Hudson's Bay party which left Moose Fort late in May 1821 for Lake Abitibi. Almost a month later he was overtaken by dispatches from Vincent, announcing the coalition of the two companies.56 With what seems, in the circumstances, excessive and unwarranted arrogance, Vincent instructed Beioley to proceed to the Canadian post, to hand over the goods, stores, and provisions to the

113 Confrontation at Matawagamingue 1814-21 person in charge there and, if he seemed competent (my italics), to leave him in command and return to the Bay.57 Beioley reached Fort Abitibi on 2 July, only to find that the master, Thomas Fraser, was absent at Fort Timiskaming. Three days later, how­ ever, Fraser returned in a light canoe, bringing the information that Al­ exander McDonell, who had been appointed to take the inventory at all the Timiskaming posts, had arrived at the Fort with the June canoes. From there he was scheduled to go on to Matawagamingue the first of July and could be expected at Fort Abitibi about the 25th, travelling by way of the Frederick House carrying place.58

·8·

'No Canada Agency' 1821-2

Although historians have been almost unanimous in agreeing that it was the Hudson's Bay Company, with its royal charter, its monopoly of the Bay route, and its corporate reserves, which triumphed over the North West Company in 1821, at the time its victory was not so apparent. It is true that, because of the advantages of the charter, the whole trade was to be carried on in the name of the Hudson's Bay Company but the Nor'Westers had secured the nomination of a majority of the wintering partners, fifteen of the twenty-five new Chief Factors and seventeen of the twenty-eight Chief Traders. Each company was required to find an equal share of the capital to conduct the trade and the annual profit was to be divided into one hundred shares, forty of which were to go to the wintering partners and twenty each to the Hudson's Bay and North West companies' proprietors. By the Deed Poll of 26 March 1821, the wintering partners' shares were subdivided into eighty-five, two for each Chief Factor and one for each Chief Trader, with the remaining seven al­ lotted to retired servants. A new Committee was set up to direct the trade, comprising two representatives each of the North West agents and the Hudson's Bay Committee, under the chairmanship of the Gov­ ernor or Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. This new body, however, did not supersede the former London Committee, which remained intact, although contributing its rights and privileges to the joint concern. The country itself was to come under the management of the two councils, Northern and Southern, each headed by its Governor, but the posts of Lake of Two Mountains, Fort Coulonge, Lac des Sables, and the King's Posts (the lease of which was to expire in 1822) were left in the hands of the North West agents, known after 1821 as McGillivrays,

115 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 Thain & Co. William Williams, formerly overseas Governor, was named senior Governor and agreed to take on the Southern Department, while George Simpson, the Hudson's Bay chief in Athabasca during 1820-1, became junior Governor and Governor of the Northern Department, a post which he appears to have secured partly because of the Nor'Westers' dislike of Williams. Both Governors, however, were ex­ pected to be kept busy at York for some time and meanwhile Thomas Vincent was to carry on at Moose. In June 1821 Cameron received a personal letter from William McGil­ livray, informing him of the coalition and sketching out its probable effect on his own and Timiskaming's future. Although this letter lends no support whatever to Vincent's bland assumption that he was now in command of Fort Abitibi, it was, in fact, the result of an initial victory of the agents over the Governor and Council of the Southern Department which was not to be sustained. An arrangement had at last taken place between the two companies, McGillivray began cheerfully (probably a good deal more so than he felt), which united their interests on an equal basis. The agreement was to last for twenty years and was in many respects particularly favoura­ ble to the wintering partners but the details were too many for him to go into at the moment and this was the less necessary, since Cameron would have to come down to Montreal during the summer to receive his commission as Chief Trader. It had been impossible to include McBride and Fraser as partners in the new concern, the list having been re­ stricted to those already partners of the North West Company, but the terms for retirement were so tempting that they could look forward to attaining that status in a very short time and meanwhile, no matter what reductions were made in the interior, they would continue to re­ ceive their salaries of £150 a year. As for the Timiskaming district, no changes at all would be made and, McGillivray concluded, 'I have not a doubt but that you will be allowed to go on in your old way without any interference, taking your supplies as usual.'1 A week later the agents officially confirmed McGillivray's assurances about the Timiskaming arrangements. Both letters, according to Thomas Thain, had been drafted with the consent of Nicholas Garry, the Commissioner appointed by the Governor and Committee to act for them in Canada, and it was Thain himself who had persuaded Garry to endorse the agents' view of Timiskaming's special position. Realizing the effect the agreement would have on his 'favourite Department,' he had immediately pointed out to Garry 'the value of that Department &

116 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade the meritorious Services of the Gentlemen employed there, from whose exertions & ability the HBCo had not been able to Shew themselves for the last 15 Years.' He had also emphasized the outstanding abilities of Cameron and McBride, to whom the North West Company was princi­ pally indebted for the prosperous state of the trade and had handed him an Accounts Current of the Timiskaming district for the preceding seven years. These had finally convinced Garry that the trade should be car­ ried on 'upon the old footing without any change for some Time, until the present feeling in the Interior had subsided, & that it could be proved by calculation the Department could be supplied cheaper from Moose.'2 Early in June the representatives of the united concern assembled at Fort William and the triumph of the Bay route was signalized by the de­ cision to supply the interior by way of Hudson Bay, the stock remaining at Fort William to be run down during the next two years. But despite the opposition of the renegade wintering partners to William and Simon McGillivray, the meeting also supported most of the agents' arrange­ ments for the trade, including those for Timiskaming. In August, howev­ er, the first properly constituted Council of the Northern Department was held at Norway House and there, in William McGillivray's absence, Simon had to face alone a powerful combination of the dissident Chief Factors and Governor George Simpson, all convinced that the former North West agents were only interested in preserving their own influence in the trade. Determined to thwart them, the Council over­ ruled a number of the Fort William resolutions and dismissed Simon's plea for the special position of Timiskaming. Although Cameron's ap­ pointment to command the district was confirmed, it was resolved that in future he should take his orders from Governor Williams and his Council, instead of from Montreal. 'No Canada Agency was the Watch Word,' Thain was later to recall,'& it was represented by their Worthies that it was better to Submit to any loss, than have any thing more do do with the old Agents.'3 At least one Chief Factor present at Norway House, however, pri­ vately sympathized with the agents' position. Deploring the display of party prejudice at the meeting, Colin Robertson remarked that it was no more criminal in Simon McGillivray to do his best for his firm than it was for the Council to try to restrict the agents' influence. He agreed with Simon, too, about the Timiskaming district. The officers there, he pointed out, were not only well acquainted with the country and the trade but experienced in dealing with opposition, to which it was so

117 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 greatly exposed from Canada. If they disliked the new management or were disinclined to co-operate fully with the Governor and Council at Moose, the trade of that rich district might well fall into the hands of private adventurers.4 As it turned out, Cameron was unable to get down to Montreal during the summer of 1821 and he did not learn of the change in jurisdiction of the Timiskaming posts until the autumn, when he received a letter from Vincent. His reply to the letter, which is not extant, appears to have been detained at Kenogamissi Lake during the winter and had not yet reached Moose when Vincent wrote again, by an express which left the Bay on 1 March, requesting him to come down to the Fort during the summer. The packet also included instructions from Governor Williams concerning the Timiskaming arrangements, and a personal letter from Chief Factor Angus Bethune, the former Nor'Wester now in charge of Moose Fort. None of these letters has survived but fortunately, we have copies of Cameron's replies to all three. Although Cameron had apparently completely disregarded the infor­ mation contained in Vincent's autumn letter, it seems to have deepened his suspicions of the new regime and the ill health from which he had suffered most of the following winter did not improve his temper. His re­ ply to Vincent's second letter was accordingly both short and stiff, merely declining the invitation (my italics) to visit Moose and adding that, while it would give him much personal pleasure to meet Vincent, he doubted whether the business would permit him that satisfaction.5 To Governor Williams, whose capture of the Nor'Westers at the Grand Rapid of the Saskatchewan River in 1819 had made him anath­ ema to the Canadians, Cameron displayed an even more eavalier haut­ eur. While he was quite willing, he wrote, to forward all the Timiskam­ ing returns to Montreal and receive the supplies forwarded from there as usual, since these orders accorded with the instructions the agents had given him, the Council must realize that, in the position in which he found himself, of receiving orders from two different quarters, he could not obey any contradictory to those he had from Montreal. Certainly, he agreed, the Kenogamissi Lake post should be abandoned and he would see that the goods were transferred to Matawagamingue as soon as the trade was over, but he did not require any addition to the indent which he had already sent to Montreal, under the impression that Kenogam­ issi was to be given up, and he would not therefore complet'e the requi­ sition for goods from the Factory which William had mentioned. As for

118 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade meeting Mr Beioley at Fort Timiskaming before 25 June, it was quite impossible for him to do so. In any case, the accounts were not closed be­ fore that date and even if Beioley arrived, he would not be able to secure duplicates. He then signed himself simply 'Angus Cameron,' with no complimentary closing.6 Cameron enclosed a copy of this letter to Williams in his reply to Be­ thune and only in that more intimate communication did he offer any explanation or apology for his uncompromising stand. The agents had informed him the previous spring, he pointed out, that the Timiskaming business was to be carried on in the usual manner 'and that there was no idea entertained of introducing any Strangers to the Department.' 'Whereas it appears,' he continued, 'that the Department is placed un­ der the superintendance and Control of Gentlemen who are perfect Strangers to us and who from their Situation must be ignorant of the manner that the Business is carried on in Temiscaming.' He would be happy, he concluded, to meet Mr Beioley at Fort Timiskaming, al­ though he could not be there before 25 June. However, the gentleman in charge of the depot was perfectly competent to provide the Chief Factor with all the information he might require and if, after all, he himself should find it convenient to be at the Fort by that date, he would see him then'& give him Such answers to his Queries,' as, he hoped, would 'exempt' him from a voyage to Moose.7 At the end of March, Cameron sent copies of these letters to Montreal and the dismay there may well be imagined. The agents blamed Garry for the situation, claiming later that he had not informed them about the changes in management of the Timiskaming district, but certainly, although they could not have anticipated the violence of Cameron's re­ actions, it was up to them to see that he was warned in time to avoid any confrontation between himself and his superiors at Moose. To add to their worries, they had now learned that there was a distinct possibility that either Beioley or Alexander Christie would be sent to take over the command of Fort Timiskaming. Thain accordingly set about repairing, to the best of his ability, the damage already done, by writing a letter to Beioley and Christie jointly and two to Cameron, one official, from the House, and one private, which he dispatched to Fort Timiskaming by the June canoes. Meanwhile in May 1822, George McBride died at Fort Timiskaming after an illness of only six days. Since Cameron could not leave his post during the spring trade, he sent his clerk down to Fort Timiskaming to assist McBride's clerk, John McKay, another son of Donald, Sr. Once

119 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 the trade was over, Cameron had still to bring up the Kenogamissi goods and take the inventory at Matawagamingue. His Journal, registering stern disapproval of the Kenogamissi goods ('the refuse of many outfits,' he called them),8 reflects both his continuing disdain for his erstwhile op­ ponents and his own general malaise. On 16 June the Flying Post packs arrived at Matawagamingue and by the following day the canoes were gummed and all the preparations complete for Cameron's voyage to Fort Timiskaming. In the evening he 'gave the Indians to drink' for the last time and the next morning took his departure in a light canoe, after a residence of twenty years at the post. Reaching the Fort five days later, he was joined by Beioley on the 25th. Beioley's journey to Fort Timiskaming was an integral part of the con­ templated reorganization of the Southern Department and the inclusion within it of the former North West Company posts in Timiskaming, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. For almost sixty years, faced with in­ creasing competition from the Canadians in the interior, the officers at Moose Fort had been pursuing an expensive policy of pushing small, mo­ bile establishments farther and farther inland and encouraging the Indi­ ans to kill as many beaver as possible. Now, at last, they could rearrange the trade on a paying basis and preserve the beaver in those districts free from opposition. Economy immediately became the cry and to begin with, Williams and his Council rewrted to the usual austerity measures, eliminating re­ dundant posts, reducing salaries, and getting rid of surplus personnel by means of retirements and the non-renewal of contracts, but, like the London Committee, they were also strongly convinced that they could effect a major saving by supplying the former North West posts directly from the Bay. In contrast to the Northern Department, however, where the supreme advantage of the Bay route had long been recognized, for the upper lakes and Timiskaming it was very much open to question, particularly since the two former were easily supplied by the Great Lakes and the latter without too much difficulty by the Ottawa River. Admittedly English goods and provisions could be brought to Moose by ship much more cheaply than through Canada but the Council knew very little about the country south of the Height of Land and it re­ mained to be seen whether the transportation inland was feasible. Chief Factor Beioley's principal task, therefore, was to survey the route to Fort Timiskaming, to report on its trade, and to examine the possibility of supplying it from Moose.9

120 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Beioley left Moose on 24 May 1822, arriving at Fort Abitibi sixteen days later. There he learned of McBride's death and not anticipating Cameron's arrival at Fort Timiskaming until the latter part of June, de­ cided to remain where he was until the Abitibi furs were ready to go down to the depot. He hoped, too, that Fraser would be able to furnish more information about the district than the clerk at Fort Timiskaming, although he soon discovered that at Fort Abitibi not much was known of the business of the other posts. Leaving Abitibi on 20 June, Beioley arrived at Fort Timiskaming five days later, to be greeted by Cameron and the two clerks. The officers lost no time in getting down to business and during the three days before the arrival of the Montreal canoes, Beioley culled a miscellany of informa­ tion from Cameron, which he assiduously recorded in his Journal. One particular item of news must have impressed him with the extent to which opposition was now threatening the district, a danger of which the London Committee was already well aware. Cameron told Beioley that the American Fur Company from Sault Ste Marie, the same firm which had encroached on the Flying Post a few years before, had estab­ lished a post the previous autumn on a large lake lying southwest of Lake Timiskaming in the direction of Lake Nipissing, and that Timis­ kaming, Matawagamingue, and Nipissing Indians all visited it. This lake was obviously modern Lake Timagami. On Saturday, 29 June, excitement was high at the Fort; the Montreal canoes had arrived on that date the previous year and the weather was fine, with a fair wind. 'Generally 7 Canoes come up every Spring I am informed,' Beioley noted, 'and I believe that is the number usually ex­ pected - they carry 70 Pieces each, and are manned by 8 men; - 18 or 20 Days is the customary time they take in performing the Voyage, Mr Cameron informs me, but he says he expects they will be longer this year on acct. of the great Heigth [sic] of the water. ' 10 Perhaps it was only Scottish caution on Cameron's part for a little before noon, three guns, fired in succession, were heard and shortly afterwards three more. At half past twelve a large canoe appeared in sight, five more following it in the next half hour, the guide's canoe being among the latter. The traders from Grand Lac, Andrew McPherson and John McRae, arrived the next day with thirty-five packs, eighteen of beaver, nine of bear, one of otter, and seven of cats (lynx). Th'ese returns, Cameron as­ sured Beioley, were larger than usual. Six of the packs had come from the new outpost which McRae had established the previous year on Trout Lake, and had been traded partly from Grand Lac Indians and

121 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 partly from Indians who did not visit that post. Beioley described Trout Lake as being about six days' journey above Grand Lac; a carrying place from the Grand (Ottawa) River led into it, and the journey down from Trout Lake to Grand Lac took about four days. We have an Indian map drawn by Cameron in 1842, which shows Trout Lake to be modern Lac Stramond, cradled by the infant Ottawa and close to the Height of Land and the upper waters of the Gatineau and the St Maurice. Grand Lac had not been opposed from Lac des Sables for several years, Beioley ex­ plaiped, not since the Nor'Westers had settled a post on Lac Rond,11 but a Mr Fisher was expected in the neighbourhood the following season. Among the letters which Cameron received by the canoes were the two written by Thomas Thain. The official letter, 12 relatively short, begaµ with an apology for the unhappy position in which Cameron had b�en placed. It was all the more unfortunate, the agents regretted, since they had prevented him from coming down to Montreal the previous sum­ mer, when they could have told him about the change in management of the Timiskaming district and thus have forestalled his misunderstand­ ing with the Governor and Council of the Southern Department. Since the entire management of the trade was now under the control of the two Councils, the agents went on, Timiskaming naturally fell within the sphere of the Southern Department but they were certain that the London Committee intended to entrust the management of the posts to him, in the same way in which he had acted for the North West Company. Indeed, they did not anticipate any other ch�nges being made than that he would henceforth correspond with, and receive in­ structions from, the Southern Council, instead of themselves, and would probably be supplied from Moose, provided it were shown that it could be done almost as cheaply as from Montreal. The important thing now, the agents emphasized, was to make the union work and they had no doubt but that Cameron would see the ne­ cessity of using his influence with Fraser, McPherson, McKay, and the other Timiskaming officers to submit to the new system with cheerful­ ness and good humour. It was the duty of all in the country to banish from their minds any prejudice against the late opposition, especially since the London Committee was prepared to do ample justice to every­ one. In view of the delicate state of Cameron's health, the Committee had been pleased to grant him leave of absence for the coming winter and it now only remained for themselves to have the pleasure of seeing him in Montreal by the return of the last canoe of the season, after the Timiskaming arrangements had been completed.

122 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Thain's confidential letter, 13 on the other hand, runs to a considerable length and besides providing a valuable insight into Timiskaming affairs, reveals the strength of the forces which had pushed the agents into the coalition. As a candid (if somewhat biased) explanation of the agents' position immediately before and after the coalition, written by one of themselves, it is a unique document and needs no apology for be­ ing examined in detail. Thain's primary concern was clearly to assure Cameron that the agents had never neglected his interests, by demonstrating that the pressures for union had been overwhelming and that the final settle­ ment was the best they could achieve. Although 'good policy,' he ex­ plained, had dictated the coalition of the two companies, 'stern necessity' would in any case have compelled the agents to resort to it. In order to keep the Indians from hunting, the Hudson's Bay Company had been throwing away goods in the most lavish manner with the re­ sult that the returns had been reduced almost to nothing. In this policy the English had been encouraged by communications which had taken place between a large number of the North West wintering partners and several of the Hudson's Bay Company's confidential servants. These Nor'Westers had not only hinted at the great possibility of a division be­ tween themselves and the agents but had assured their opponents that a majority of the other partners would abandon the agents and join the Hudson's Bay Company when the present North West agreement ex­ pired in 1822. He did not pretend to say, Thain added hastily, that there had been any direct correspondence between any of the wintering part­ ners and the Hudson's Bay Committee, although there was some indica­ tion of it. But Dr McLoughlin and Mr Bethune, who went to England in the fall of 1820, had previously refused to sign the provisional agreement concluded that summer at Fort William, and their contact with the Hudson's Bay Committee in London must have reinforced expectations of a division in the Canadian ranks. The principal feature of the coalition agreement, Thain maintained, was 'equality of Intent,' except for the proportion of shares allotted to the wintering partners. Placing the management of the trade in the hands of the Governors and Councils of the Northern and Southern de­ partments was more in name than in fact, since the real power was vested in the new Committee in London on which the Canadians were guaranteed 'a due proportion of Influence.' William and Simon McGil­ livray had represented the agents during the previous winter and William was remaining in London for another year to assist the Com­ mittee 'with his Counsel & advice.'

123 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 The assignment of shares in the country had been a most difficult and vexing matter, Thain admitted. Simon McGillivray and Edward Ellice, who had acted for the North West Company agents in the London nego­ tiations, had proposed that the selection of wintering partners, to be in­ cluded as Chief Factors or Chief Traders in the new agreement, should be left to the agents, but the Hudson's Bay Committee had objected to this plan, largely, Thain suspected, as a result of the representations of McLoughlin and Bethune. Afraid of being put into the lesser category themselves, they had probably argued 'that all the Men of Talent in the Interior would have been set aside, & that none but Mr McGillivrays Favourites would have been promoted.' Because of this dispute, McGillivray and Ellice had been reduced to the necessity of appointing the senior North West wintering partners to the rank of Chief Factor, in the order of their standing in the last North West agreement, and it was considered a great favour that the Nor'Westers should have a majority of the places, the Hudson's Bay Committee at first contending that they should have half. But the Nor'Westers were hampered by having so many wintering partners, while all the Hudson's Bay people in the interior were 'merely Servants.' It was for this reason that Cameron had only received a Chief Trader­ ship, there being too many others ahead of him; certainly if the nomina­ tion had been left to the agents, he, as well as several other Chief Trad­ ers, would have changed places with present Chief Factors. It also accounted for the Hudson's Bay Committee's choice of officers. Being ig­ norant of their servants' merits, they had appointed many to both ranks who were totally unfit for either, at the same time leaving out many de­ serving men. Thain then recounted the steps he had taken on learning of the changes which the Northern Council had made in the management of the Timiskaming district. He had written immediately to the London Committee, emphasizing the danger of losing the trade if it were taken out of the hands of the present officers, and as a result of his representa­ tions the Committee had sent out instructions this very spring to the Southern Council, of which he had no reason to complain. His only fear now was that Beioley or Christie might reach Fort Timiskaming before Cameron did, or before his own letter to them could arrive, and take charge of affairs, which might lead to some disagreement between them and Cameron, but he believed Cameron's good sense would show him the necessity of sacrificing his own feelings and submitting to the new order of things for the benefit of the general concern. Even if Beioley or

124 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Christie had already assumed command, Thain pointed out, it was hardly likely they would retain it after they had read his letter and, in any case, he was sure that the Southern Council would supersede them when they received the London Committee's instructions, which had been sent to Moose via Michipicoten. In concluding his letter, Thain reviewed the Timiskaming arrange­ ments for the coming season, referring particularly to the London Committee's determination to supply the district from the Bay. He and his colleagues, he claimed, had no wish to continue to do so, if the trans­ port from Moose could be carried out almost as cheaply as from Mon­ treal. The question was, which was the most economical route? He him­ self was convinced that it was from Montreal, since the agents could eas­ ily hire the goers and comers to perform the transport during the summer, while if the Moose route were used the Company would have to engage a larger number of winterers. In all other respects, Thain repeated, he took it for granted that the whole interior management would remain in Cameron's hands, Fraser continuing as master at Fort Abitibi and McPherson at Grand Lac, with an outpost towards Riviere du Lievre to guard the frontier, a precaution which would be all the more necessary if the agents did not succeed in coming to terms with Alexander Fisher, the free trader who was threat­ ening to go to Lac Rond. Cameron himself should take charge of Fort Timiskaming ('where,' Thain interpolated, 'you ought to have been all along if it had not been from delicacy to Mr McBride') with an assistant equal to the command during his absence on leave for, whatever the de­ cision about supplying the Fort, it would always be the point of commu­ nication between the Bay and Montreal. As for Matawagamingue and the Flying Post, Thain confessed, he was at a loss what to recommend. If Cameron considered Donald McKay sufficiently competent for the command of both, well and good; if not, he should give up the management to the Southern Council. It was better for Cameron to have nothing to do with it, unless he could conduct it with credit to himself and benefit to the concern. But, he in­ sisted, Cameron must go down to Moose during the summer. Not only would he be able to advise the Council on the cheapest route for supply­ ing the district and furnish useful information about the interior man­ agement but, more important still, his becoming acquainted with the officers there would tend to smooth down the present feeling. When all the obstacles were overcome, Thain prophesied, he was sure that the Timiskaming district would maintain its character and impor-

125 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 tance. Whatever the attitude of Beioley 'or other Violent Men in the Interior' towards the former Nor'Westers, the London Committee did not share it, its sole aim being to make the most of the posts. But he must repeat that Cameron was not 'to consider any part of this long let­ ter in the shape of a Command - I merely write to you my undisguised Sentiments in the Character of an Old Friend - who has no other object in View than the General Welfare of the United Concern.' 'I believe,' he added, 'it is scarcely necessary to inform you, that you are to consider the whole of this letter as Strictly confidential and that you will not communicate its Contents to any person whatever.' The day after receiving his letters, Cameron showed Beioley the official one, remarking that it would explain his answering the Council's dispatch in the way he had done, 'which I am now sorry for, but I had been led to think differently.' 14 Meanwhile Beioley had opened Thain's letter to himself and Christie. Considering the circumstances, Thain sug­ gested, perhaps the management of the Timiskaming district should be left in Cameron's hands, at least until the Council received the Committee's letter. It had been sent from London early in May and ex­ pressed the wish that Cameron and the other officers, who had been there so long and had brought the trade to its present flourishing condi­ tion, should remain in charge and the same system be pursued as far as possible. But, of course, Thain reminded them, his comments were not intended as a command, since he had neither the power nor the author­ ity to enforce them. 1 !> A day or so later Beioley answered Thain's letter, disclaiming any in­ tention on his part or Christie's, or indeed any gentleman in the South­ ern Department, to interfere with, or attempt to take from Cameron, the interior management of the Timiskaming district. Nevertheless he expected that some gentleman from the Bay would probably be associ­ ated with Cameron in the management, more particularly for the pur­ pose of carrying out the plan to supply the district with goods from the Bay, so far as might be found practicable. 16 To close this long exchange, there only remains to be noticed Cameron's reply to a letter which Beioley had brought him from the Governor and Council of the Southern Department. As an apology, it was decidedly on his own terms. He regretted, he said, that his reaction to their instructions had surprised them, especially since they were aware that he considered himself at the time responsible only to the Montreal agents. The agents had now explained to his satisfaction the apparent contradiction between their letter to him of June 1821 and the

126 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Resolution of the Northern Council at Norway House and he now enter­ tained not the least doubt that he was bound to obey their instructions. 'At the same time,' he concluded, I beg leave to request that you will be pleased to entrust me with Such discre­ tionary powers as may enable me to conduct the internal management of the Business of this Department, in the manner which I judge may most conduce to the general Interest of the Concern. Should it be found that I am incapable of conducting the Business to your Satisfaction You will have the goodness I trust to remove me to Some other Quarter for in Temiscamingue I am determined never to remain in a Subordinate Station. 17

Once the canoes had arrived, Cameron and Beioley quickly completed the Timiskaming arrangements for the coming season. The Waswanipi post did not concern them, for the Southern Council had transferred it to Eastmain, abandoning Cheeaskwacheston and assigning George Bry­ son, the Waswanipi clerk, to Grand Lac. During Cameron's absence on leave Fraser was to command Fort Timiskaming, putting Fort Abitibi in the charge of William Polson, a former Hudson's Bay servant who, as a boy, had deserted to the Nor'Westers at Charlton Island and had been at Abitibi since 1806. McPherson and McRae were to return to Grand Lac, McRae to proceed to Abitibi, if Bryson arrived for Trout Lake. Cameron would remain at Fort Timiskaming until Fraser had settled affairs at Abitibi and then go down to Moose, by way of Matawaga­ mingue. If all went well, he should reach the Bay before 10 August and, if not detained there, could be at Fort Timiskaming again by 1 Septem­ ber, in time to meet the two Montreal canoes expected at that time.18 Beioley's report to the Southern Council on the Timiskaming district occupies the final sixteen pages of his Journal. Although it includes lengthy observations on the character and navigation of the Abitibi Riv­ er, as well as a brief summary of his journey to Fort Timiskaming, its principal significance lies in his proposals for supplying the former Tim­ iskaming posts with European goods from Moose Fort and bringing down their furs to the Bay. In the first place, Beioley recommended using the same system of transport for Matawagamingue and the Flying Post, which the Moose Council had formerly employed for Kenogamissi Lake. One or more boats, carrying goods, would meet the Matawagamingue canoes with the furs at the Long Portage in the Kenogamissi (Mattagami) River and there exchange cargoes, the boats returning to the Bay with the furs and

127 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 the canoes to Matawagamingue with the goods. Beioley was equally cer­ tain that European goods for Abitibi, Timiskaming, and Grand Lac could go up by the Abitibi River. He admitted, however, that the route was considerably more difficult because of 'the peculiar nature of the Ab­ itibi River as compared with other Branches of the Moose.' 19 For this reason it might be best to supply only 110 of the 506 pieces for these posts by that route, a number which would exactly balance the number of packs usually received from them, namely, 46 from Fort Abitibi, 32 from Fort Timiskaming, and 32 from Grand Lac. After suggesting a complicated interchange of boats and canoes which might be instituted along the Abitibi River, Beioley ended by favouring canoes all the way, provided they, and the hands to man them, could be secured cheaply at Fort Abitibi, which he considered likely. The Abitibi trade was generally completed and the packs made up by 21 June, and by that date the Timiskaming and Grand Lac returns could also be there, the journey from Grand Lac taking eight days and from Fort Timiskaming, six. On 1 August 1822, the Southern Council met at Moose, sitting for three days and reconvening again on the 7th and 9th. Despite the Lon­ don Committee's express wish to retain the old system in the Timiskam­ ing district, the Council proceeded to divide the remaining posts into two new ones, the Kenogamissi River district, comprising Matawagamingue and the Flying Post, and the Abitibi River district, embracing Fort Abi­ tibi, Fort Timiskaming, and Grand Lac. Cameron was appointed to his old station at Matawagaminque, as head of the Kenogamissi River dis­ trict, and Chief Factor Alexander Christie to the Abitibi River district, with McRae to serve as his clerk at Fort Abitibi, Fraser at Fort Timis­ kaming, McPherson at Grand Lac, and Bryson at Trout Lake. In other words, not only was the former Timiskaming district to be dismembered and its very name to disappear, but Cameron was relegated to a rela­ tively unimportant command. At the same time the Council resolved to supply both new districts with European goods from Moose for Outfit 1823 and have the 1822 furs brought down to the Bay.20 Cameron had not expected to be at Moose much before the tenth of the month, so it is unlikely that he was there while the Council was sit­ ting, but it can only have been he who was responsible for the altered schedule of Timiskaming appointments which Governor Williams in­ cluded in his autumn dispatch to the London Committee. Although the decision to divide the posts and supply them with goods from the Bay still stood, Williams announced that Cameron would direct the Fort Timiskaming and Grand Lac trade, as well as that of the Kenogamissi

128 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur 'I'rade River district, while Christie would take charge of Fort Abitibi, paying particular attention to the arrangements for the new transport. 21 Clearly Cameron had refused to accept the position assigned to him and either his obvious ability and authority had impressed the reluctant officers at Moose or, what seems more likely, they had been faced with his depar­ ture from the district, and perhaps even from the service. In this same dispatch Williams stressed his own, and his officers', con­ viction that the inland navigation was practicable. Supplying the former Timiskaming posts from Moose, they believed, would save from ten to fourteen hundred pounds annually and they intended to introduce the same system in the lakes Huron and Superior districts. That summer they had had an officer and seven men clearing the portages along the route to Michipicoten and the work would continue until winter set in. In the spring the furs from the upper lakes would be brought down. to Moose by that road. Meanwhile the Council hoped that no reservations on the Committee's part would prevent the shipment of the 1824 outfits to Moose in 1823.22 But a final word was still to come. In London, on 6 December 1822, William McGillivray submitted a long report to the Committee entitled Remarks on Supplying the Posts of Temiscamingue & Lake Huron De­ partments from Montreal or Moose Factory.2.1 He had evidently read Beioley's report, for his estimate, like Beioley's, was based on the trans­ port of 110 pieces. Aft.er analyzing the relative costs of the two routes, McGillivray con­ cluded that the proposal to supply the former Timiskaming posts with goods from Moose could not be to save expense. Setting that aside, how­ ever, there were valid grounds for supplying some of them from the Bay, for they were not only contiguous to it but situated on rivers or lakes draining into it. But of these, he was inclined to think that Fort Abitibi might be an exception, since the transport to it from Fort Timiskaming was so reasonable and the route from Moose so difficult, especially dur­ ing the period of low water which prevailed everywhere aft.er the month of June. McGillivray then went to consider each of the posts separately. Mata­ wagamingue and the Flying Post, he thought, might very well have pro­ visions, as weil as goods, from Moose, unless provisions could be more easily procured in Montreal; that was a point which experience would determine. Because of the difficulties of the Abitibi River route to which he had already alluded, he supposed that commodities like provisions,

129 'No Canada Agency' 1821-2 tobacco, iron, etc., for Fort Abitibi would be sent up from Montreal but English goods could come from Moose and the furs go down to the Bay, although he himself doubted the expediency of such an innovation. The case of Fort Timiskaming, however, was entirely different. Its proximity to Montreal and the fact that large canoes, carrying seventy pieces, could come up by the Ottawa, made it 'ridiculous to supply this Post frqm Moose in any shape,' while Grand Lac, situated about twelve days' journey east of the Fort, was easily supplied from it by canoes carrying thirty pieces and navigated by Indians. The number of canoes annua1ly required for the whole Timiskaming district under the North West Company had formerly been twelve but during the last four years these had been reduced to ten, the loading for eacp canoe being always seventy pieces. Three canoes, carrying thirty­ six pieces, served to take up the Abitibi outfit from Fort Timiskaming and the Timiskaming Indians performed the transport more cheaply than Canadians. There were five Indians to each canoe and every crew received goods to the value of £7.10 or $30, in addition to their provi­ sions, which amounted tc not quite a bag of corn and flour altogether. The trip occupied five days and cost about £20 sterling, not counting the price of the canoes. These were made in the country for about .£4 Halifax c4rrency each, not thirty-six shillings as calculated at Moose, but they served for at least two seasons.24 To supply the Lake Huron posts from Hudson Bay was equally un­ realistic, McGillivray coqcluded; it was obviously cheaper to send their outfits to Sault Ste Marie by the lakes, rather than bring them by canoe from Moose Fort. For La}{e Superior the decision could be deferred, since it would take at least two years to melt down the stock at Fort William. In the end, the London Committee compromised. Although confirm­ ing the Southern Council's arrangements for sending European goods to Fort Timiskaming from Moose in 1823 and bringing down the district's furs to the Bay, it supported McGillivray's views by allowing his firm to supply the outfit for Lake Huron. Moreover, it returned the Lake Huron district, including the Nipissing post, as well � Fort Timiskaming and Grand Lac and the Mingan seigneuries, to the Montreal agents, accord­ ing Thain, the only partner remaining in Canada, the same status as the two governors and the usual expense and travel allowances. But again, it was to be a brief triumph for McGillivrays, Thain & Co. No doubt their affairs were already hopelessly muddled but in addition, Thain seems to have been incapable of running the Montreal business

130 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade and, as early as March 1823, the London Committee was rebuking him for incompetence and extravagance in supplying the Ottawa posts.25 It only remained for the general financial collapse of 1825 to precipitate the final catastrophe.

·9· Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6

The years 1821-6 were a period of interregnum in the Southern Depart­ ment. While Governor George Simpson was successfully moulding the Northern Department to his ideas of management and economy, Gover­ nor Williams, an unsatisfactory administrator, was not only frequently at odds with his Council but apparently unable to defend his interests against the McGillivrays' influence with the London Committee. After 1823, the Lake Huron posts and the new Timiskaming district (Fort Timiskaming and Grand Lac) were returned to the Montreal agents but even the Kenogamissi River district and Fort Abitibi remained largely Canadian in character, both being provisioned from Montreal by way of Fort Timiskaming. It was not until 1826, after McGillivrays, Thain & Co. had failed and Simpson had become Governor of the Southern and Montreal departments, in addition to the Northern, that the assimila­ tion to the Company pattern of the Timiskaming, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior posts began in earnest. When Angus Cameron returned to Fort Timiskaming from Scotland towards the end of June 1823, he had already made up his mind to leave the service as soon as he should become eligible for a Chief Trader's re­ tired interest three years later. His uncle, .tEneas, had died in Montreal in September 1822, leaving him the bulk of his not inconsiderable fortune,1 and this circumstance, together with a continuing distaste for the changes in the country, seems to have prompted his decision. As his Timiskaming Journal shows, Cameron was to find life at the depot, although basically similar to that at Matawagamingue, both more sophisticated and demanding.2 When he arrived, the Indians were all assembled, waiting for the Montreal canoes. They appeared three days later and Cameron lost no time in making up the loadings for the

132 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade other posts. The following morning Fraser set off for Fort Abitibi with three canoes, manned by Timiskaming Indians and carrying forty-nine pieces for his own post, as well as the Fort's furs, which were being sent down to the Bay for the first time. Two canoes for Matawagamingue, with six pieces each, and another for Grand Lac with thirty pieces, went off in the afternoon but their crews were all Montreal men (goers and comers), every Indian belonging to the Fort having been required for the Abitibi journey. Cameron resented the expense to the depot of paying Indians for voyaging, grumbling that 'Rum, Tobacco & Provisions goes apace.'3 Accustomed to disciplined and amenable subjects, Cameron found it hard to put up with some of the Fort's Indians. 'Vagabonds,' he com­ plained, were always 'snaking about for provisions,'4 although he gave them as little as he could. He was determined to abolish the practice of giving the Indians a little rum and provisions whenever they came in, whether they brought anything or not, believing that some distinction must be made. But it could not be done, he realized, without provoking discontent and he did not want to acquire a bad name in the beginning. Cameron also disapproved of the winterers' way. The presence of 'a parcel of Strumpets about the House who prevents the men from doing their duty,' made him resolve to 'make them shift their quarters soon' but although he declared that he had never seen servants more de­ bauched, he did not interfere when they bought liquor and spent their Sundays drinking and carousing; as they did their duty, he remarked, he had no business with their morals.5 Whatever Cameron's own views in the matter, it is clear that the shortage of men left him little choice. The lower salaries and curtailed perquisites of the new regime were already affecting recruitment and all but two of the Timiskaming winterers had refused to re-engage. In Montreal the agents had been equally unsuccessful; Cameron told Christie that boys alone would accept the wages offered and only two winterers had come up. One of them he soon discharged as unfit for duty and two other 'good' men left Matawagamingue at the end of the sum­ mer. McPherson's situation at Grand Lac was particularly acute, two of his three men having been accidentally drowned, and to make things worse, both he and McRae wanted to visit Montreal.6 In the circum­ stances, Cameron was outraged at being accused of asking for 'a double set of men,' when he suggested to the Southern Council that six replace­ ments should be hired in Canada to come up that autumn, instead of the following spring. He had pointed out that they would acquire experience

133 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 and that their presence might also serve to intimidate those servants who were insisting on extravagant wages.7 The Timiskaming officers, too, were dissatisfied. Cameron impressed on Christie the importance of the Council's supporting his appeal to the London Committee for liberal salaries for McRae and John McKay, whose contracts were about to expire, but his paramount anxiety was Fraser and McPherson. Being modest and unassuming men, he was afraid they might be passed over and he pleaded that the first vacancy as Chief Trader in the Southern Department should go to Fraser.8 He was also upset that the Council, after informing him that Fraser's salary would be £175 sterling, had now reduced it to £150. Fraser had been one of several clerks who in lieu of being made a Chief Trader, had been ac­ corded a special standing and awarded £175 sterling for the year begin­ ning 1 June 1822.9 But it was not from Fraser, Cameron warned the Council, that he ex­ pected most trouble but from McPherson who, he was sure, would not accept the £120 offered him. If he left the service, he would probably set up in opposition to the Company; however ruinous it might prove, he had not much to lose and would find others to join him. Meanwhile McRae had agreed to remain on the terms the Council had suggested, namely that he would be recommended for the third class of clerks for a three years' contract at £100 without equipment, but Cameron had grave doubts whether John McKay would take the £40 offered him, con­ sidering it, after seven years' apprenticeship, much below his expectations. 10 A few months later, as an alternative to seeing McPherson leave the service, Cameron promised him his former salary of £150 Halifax cur­ rency for one year and the same for the last year of his contract but without equipment. The saving of thirty pounds could be but poor com­ pensation for the injury an opposition might do, he told the Council in June 1824, but if his concession were disapproved, 'let the Thirty Pounds be charged to my account.' 11 Governor Williams must have been relieved to be able to reply that, as the Timiskaming district now came under the Montreal agents, McPherson's salary was no longer a matter for the Southern Council and he advised Cameron to apply to the London Committee. Neverthe­ less, to his credit, he 'strenuously' supported Cameron's views in a letter to the Committee and in the end they reluctantly confirmed the arrangements . 12 In McRae's case, it was Christie who found himself compelled to dis-

134 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade obey orders. When he told the young man that the committee had re­ jected the Council's recommendations for him, on the grounds that no apprentice clerk, at the termination of his contract, could be placed higher than fourth class, with a salary of £75 a year, McRae replied that unless he received £100 for the three years ending in 1826, he would leave the service. The Council then authorized Christie to offer £75 for 1824 and 1825 and £100 for 1826, the extra £25 to be a gratuity. But McRae still refused to accept the terms and Christie finally gave in, al­ lowing him £25 'by way of gratuity' for each of the three years in dis­ pute. Reporting his arrangements to Moose Fort, Christie added that McRae wanted to visit Canada in 1826 but would return to the service for another three years, provided he were allowed £120 a year. (He got it! )1 3 Another source of irritation for Cameron was the European goods, sup­ plied this year from Moose Fort. At the end of June, when canoes arri­ ved from Fort Abitibi with part of the outfit, he complained of a number of substitutions and omissions. 'No Net Thread nor Com: strouds two principal articles for the Trade,' he noted in his Journal. 'No Soap & un­ luckily there is none here So that our clothes will rot before we get a Supply.' 14 The capots, too, were almost all perished or burnt in the dye. Cameron of course blamed the change in the source of supply for the defi­ ciencies but the following spring, when the agents again sent up the goods from Montreal, he was mortified to find that some of them were of very poor quality, the strouds being the worst ever furnished and the blankets both bad and very small. It was all the more embarrassing since he had assured the Indians that the goods would be better. 15 Even more worriesome in the summer of 1823, however, was the lack of leather; only four of the six packs ordered from Fort Coulonge had turned up, the master there (Godin) having appropriated all the rest. Without them, Cameron told Christie, the Indians would use their bea­ ver skins to make shoes. Cameron was also critical of the policy of send­ ing up all the Montreal canoes to the Fort in the spring, as had been done this year. One should be held back until the autumn so that omis­ sions in the loading could be made up. At the same time winterers could come up for all the posts and men on leave return the same season, if they were needed. They were unlikely, he observed drily, to hire a canoe at their own expense in order to do so. 16 But it is clear that Cameron's most immediate and pressing problem during his first summer at Fort Timiskaming was the scarcity of country

135 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 provisions. Although the condition was apparently always more or less characteristic of the neighbourhood of the Fort, this year it was inten­ sified by the cyclical disappearance of the rabbits. The fishing was poor, too, and the few yellow pickerel and inferior pike which the men caught were no substitute for the valuable lake trout. The calves, put out to feed for the first time towards the end of June, could find little to eat and as long as they remained with their mothers, the Fort went without milk. In July the men took some of the cattle to the mouth of the little riv­ er, just south of the Fort, where there was fine grass and a week later, al­ though the raspberries were not quite ripe, large numbers of pigeons ap­ peared. Cameron and Fraser (who was summering with him) went hunting often, bringing back pigeons, a partridge or two, and even a muskrat. They also unsuccessfully set snares for bears, although Indians brought bears' flesh to the post on several occasions. Fraser fished in the little lake behind the Fort (Lake Laperriere) and frequently hunted at the head of Lake Timiskaming, where he found pigeons and other game more plentiful. The agricultural possibilities of this favourable area did not escape Cameron's experienced eye and he sent three men to build a barn and stable there, to house the cattle in the fall. An adequate herd could never be raised at the Fort, he realized, because of the difficulty of procuring hay, but the Head of the Lake had abundance of grass and the soil might even be good enough for growing grain. Fish continued to be scarce throughout the summer and although they became more abundant during the autumn, strong winds and vio­ lent storms often made setting nets a hazardous, if not impossible, un­ dertaking. Cameron's barley crop was a failure (hardly equal to the seed sown, he reported) but the gardens yielded four hundred kegs of pota­ toes. Late in the month, despite northerly gales which forced them to tow their boats and large canoes all the way up the western shore, the men transported eight head of cattle from the little river to the 'New Farm' at the head of the lake. In spite of the roughness of the densely wooded terrain about the Fort ('the worst walking of any part that ever I travell'd,' he commented),17 Cameron went on doggedly setting rabbit snares. 'For Better Oeconomy,' he decided that he and McKay should mess apart and he gave the clerk a keg of pork, a bag of flour, 29 lbs of butter, 25 lbs of sug­ ar, 2 lbs of tea, 5 lbs of grease, and a little rice. Except for some flour and corn McKay would get no more until the spring canoes arrived. 18 St Andrew's Day (November 30) passed without the usual celebrations and

136 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade although Cameron offered no explanation, the worrying shortage of food was probably responsible. A day or so later McKay left the house to camp out with his family and snare rabbits. Loutitt, the former Hudson's Bay servant who had deserted to Cameron at Matawagamingue, was in charge of the farm at the head of the lake and visiting Fort Timiskaming in December he re­ ported that his men were catching no fish and had almost exhausted their corn. Although there were probably hares in the neighbourhood, he told Cameron, they had had no time to set snares. Cameron gave him some provisions and a bottle of rum for the Christmas holidays. The night before Loutitt returned to his station the Timiskaming chief came in with a few furs: 'his principal reason was to get some potatoes as he says that they are Starving already,' was the Journal's ominous entry. 19 From then on starving Indians continued to arrive at the Fort, their numbers increasing after Christmas and reaching a height in March and April. Some remained, hoping to survive on the potatoes and fish Cam­ eron could spare, with whatever else they could catch or trap. His Jour­ nal is full of pitying references to their sufferings. Cameron himself tra­ velled long distances in search of rabbits and he sent McKay and two Indian boys to camp at Lac a la Truite, due east of the Fort.20 The car­ penter, with another Indian, was also sent out for the same purpose. The Indians at the Head of the Lake were starving but Cameron's men there fared better than the Fort, occasionally sending down provisions, half a young bear, or fifty rabbits. Even so, Cameron and his men were near starvation and the Indians dragging out a miserable existence on pota­ toes alone; for weeks he had not had a fish to give them. The spectacle of such suffering was probably responsible for his outburst of anger on learning that a Canadian servant at the Head of the Lake had taken a woman contrary to orders. 'We have barely provisions Sufficient for our­ selves Yet this fellow,' he raged, 'would have the presumption to keep a Strumpet and feed her with his allowance. '21 In March, McKay and his mother-in-law went off to make maple sugar at Matabitchuan. Fort Timiskaming supplied most of the district with this commodity, much of it bought from the Indians, and Cameron predicted a very good year for it, the weather being remarkably fine. Soon the sowing began at the Fort and Cameron also sent two men to put in corn and potatoes at the Head of the Lake. Convinced that tur­ nips and cabbage would thrive, Cameron lamented his lack of seed, and was delighted when Fraser sent him some from Fort Abitibi. His enthu­ siasm for gardens also prompted him to have the men clear land across

137 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 the lake; plainly he intended to avoid, if possible, a repetition of the winter's harrowing experiences. Despite Cameron's gloomy predictions that starvation and the almost complete lack of hares would cut the usual returns of cats and martens in half, there was an unexpected increase in beaver and when the trade was over he had forty-five packs at the Fort. McPherson arrived with twenty-nine from Grand Lac, fourteen of them beaver; 'very handsome Returns for that place,' Cameron remarked. He was equally gratified to learn that Matawagamingue and the Flying Post between them had fifty-nine and Fort Abitibi, forty-four.22 The acute lack of hares at Fort Tirniskaming continued during the 18245 free season and it was the same story all over the James Bay country. Many of the Abitibi Indians had to leave their lands and go where they could catch fish, while a number of Matawagarningue Indians died of hunger. An Indian at the head of Lake Tirniskarning was even reported to have killed and eaten his own brother. It was little wonder that the returns fell off markedly. In his spring letter to the agents, Cameron pointed out that the decrease was chiefly in muskrats and cats, the latter having almost completely disappeared. The deficiency in martens, he ex­ plained, was due to the Indians' lack of food for hunting.2:i Nevertheless it was other, potentially more serious, problems which most concerned Cameron during the season of 1824-5. From the early 1790s until the coalition the principal opposition to the Tirniskaming district had come from Moose Fort, the North West Company's virtual monopoly of the Canadian trade having largely insured its southern bor­ ders against the inroads of petty traders from Canada. Even the New North West Company had made no attempt on the Timiskaming trade. After 1821, however, the situation was reversed; although there was now nothing to fear from the north, Fort Timiskaming had to face the in­ creasing threat of opposition from settlers pushing up the Ottawa River, most of them interested in trading furs on the side, and from free traders outfitted by Upper and Lower Canadian merchants. In July 1824, four Iroquois, led by the guide who had taken up the ex­ press canoe from Montreal with the news of the coalition, passed up Lake Tirniskaming on their way to plunder the lands of the Abitibi Indi­ ans. Cameron learned of their presence when he returned to the Fort from Montreal in September and he immediately notified the agents and Governor Williams, warning the latter that these men were reported to be only the forerunners of a much larger group coming up in 1825,

138 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade provided that the present party should find sufficient beaver to pay them for their trouble. Such an intrusion would do incalculable damage to the trade, Cameron pointed out, and he relied on the Governor and Council to take measures to stop them.24 Williams at once sent reinforcements to Fraser at Fort Abitibi but by the time they arrived, the Iroquois had long since departed for Montre­ al. Perhaps their report was unfavourable for the invasion was not re­ peated, although threats of it hung over the Timiskaming district for several years. During this time the Company, with varying success, ar­ gued the case for excluding the Iroquois from the lands of the Timiskam­ ing Indians with the Lower Canadian government. 25 While the increasing presence of free traders along Timiskaming's southern borders was a worry to Cameron, he was also disturbed by what he called 'the shamefull practice of people employed for the same concern inveigling each others Indians to themselves to the Detriment of the General concern.'26 He himself was very punctilious about such matters. In August 1823, Indians from Lake Huron ('old acquaintances of mine,' Cameron described them) had visited him at Fort Timiskam­ ing and although he had given them something for the furs they brought, he had sternly forbidden them to return, since they had credits from one of the Company's posts on that lake. Even when one of his for­ mer Matawagamingue Indians came to Fort Timiskaming with some furs, he refused him anything but a receipt to be paid at his own post. Soon after Cameron took up his duties at Fort Timiskaming in 1823, he had been chagrined to discover that the opposition against which the Fort had maintained an outpost on Wanapitei Lake during his absence had come from Lacloche, the headquarters of the Lake Huron district. Chief Factor John McBean had withdrawn his men as soon as he real­ ized the situation, Cameron told Christie, but had sent him a list of some hundred beaver in credits advanced to Timiskaming Indians, apparently expecting Cameron to collect them. 'I doubt that we cannot collect our own Debts from them,' Cameron observed sourly.27 The Timiskaming Indians were particularly attracted to Fort Cou­ longe, the nearest post on the lower Ottawa. Although Cameron ac­ knowledged that Chief Trader John Siveright, Godin's successor there, could do little to compel them to return to their own post, the Ottawa River being infested with petty traders, he nevertheless complained to the agents that Siveright was afraid to employ the only means which, in his opinion, would prevent such junkets, namely, to seize the Indians' furs and send them back to the Fort, where they would be paid for them. Should they attempt to go to the opposition, they should be punished.28

139 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 Cameron's solution, of course, reflected his long years of isolation at Matawagamingue and was quite unrealistic in terms of the lower Ot­ tawa and Lake Huron. Even if Siveright and McBean were not perhaps as assiduous as they might have been in influencing the Timiskaming Indians to return home, it is clear that, with every tavern keeper and shantyman prepared to pay more for furs and to trade liquor, their power was limited. In the circumstances, their argument that it was better for the Company to make sure of the furs seems to have been jus­ tified. During the autumn of 1825 opposition threatened both Fort Timis­ kaming and Matawagamingue in the shape of a Lake of Two Mountains trader, Clarke Ross, who had recently left the service. One of the Timis­ kaming guides and two other servants had agreed (provided they were not hired by the Company) to take him to Langue de Terre (Lake Misti­ nikon). Alexander Fisher, now in the Company's employ and master of the Lake of Two Mountains post, advised Simon McGillivray of Ross's departure from the lake early in October. Fisher was worried about Cameron's defences, pointing out that he had only six winterers in all and that the road to Grand Lac, by way of Riviere Gens-de-Terre, must also be watched in case Lac Rond traders were tempted to try their luck in that direction.29 The agents hastily engaged Ross's prospective guides as reinforce­ ments for Timiskaming and notified Cameron of the threat to his post, although by the time their letter arrived he had already learned that the disappointed Ross had only gone as far as Lac des Sables. But in any event, Cameron does not seem to have been unduly perturbed. While promising to send reinforcements to McPherson as soon as possible, he assured the agents that the Trout Lake outpost was well situated to act as a barrier to Indians straggling in the direction of Lac Rond or Riviere du Lievre. Besides, he had an understanding with Siveright that if any attempt were made to penetrate the Timiskaming district, Siveright would send up as many reinforcements as he could spare until more could be procured from MontreaJ. In addition, he could always secure the services of one or two halfbreeds from Matawagamingue, who were far superior to Canadians in combatting opposition.30 Nevertheless it must have been obvious, even to Cameron, that the Timiskaming district was every year becoming more vulnerable to the inroads of Canadian traders. By March 1826, the two Newmarket firms of Robinson Brothers and Borland and Roe had both established posts at the entrance to the French River31 and soon afterwards, Governor

140 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Williams went to Sault Ste Marie to consult with McBean about mea­ sures to defend the Lake Huron district from this new threat. Writing privately to Cameron from Matawagamingue, Christie condemned 'the miserable demoralizing trade of these petty intruders,' whose vile liquor was ruining the Indians and expressed indignation at the Upper Cana­ dian government's indiscriminate distribution of Indian presents; at Drummond Island, he protested, they were handed out to any vagrant who applied for them. Because of the Iroquois threat, he added, the Lon­ don Committee had decided to send Fort Abitibi's liquor and provisions from Moose Fort instead of Montreal, hoping that the portages between Fort Timiskaming and Abitibi would grow up and so make the road more difficult to follow. Neither he nor his fellow councillors, however, were sanguine about the efficacy of the measure against anyone disposed to make the attempt.32 In the spring of 1825 Cameron officially notified the agents of his inten­ tion to leave the service at the end of the ensuing season, requesting them to inform the London Committee. He also suggested that his suc­ cessor should pass the winter with him at the Fort, in order to become acquainted with the Indians and the way in which they were treated.33 By now, however, the agents' affairs were in chaos, requiring only the added pressure of the serious international business recession of that year to force them into bankruptcy. In August, Thain went off to Eng­ land for medical advice, afterwards being confined to a lunatic asylum and never returning to Canada. Even more tragically, William McGilliv­ ray died in London in October and Simon, discovering the confusion in which Thain had left the accounts, stopped payment. About the middle of June 1826, Cameron received the disastrous news of the failure of McGillivrays, Thain & Co. and, all his funds being in­ vested with the North West agents, was faced with the possibility of los­ ing both his uncle's money and his own. The June canoes brought him a letter from the agents' accountant, Robert Cowie, with further details of the state of their affairs, as well as worrying news about the Lachine farm he had recently bought. Cowie also touched briefly on the new arrangements for the Montreal agency. Governor Simpson of the Northern Department had been ap­ pointed to direct it and had recently been in town to take stock of the situation. Cowie had heard, too, that Governor Williams was to go and that a Chief Factor would head the Southern Council under Simpson, who was to be in charge of all the Company's concerns in the country.

141 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 Cowie was impressed with Simpson, describing hlm as a gentlemanly, active, and intelligent man who, provided he did not carry the reforming system too far, would manage very well.34 Another favourable opinion of the new Governor reached Cameron from John Siveright, the old Nor'Wester at Fort Coulonge. Simpson had passed his post in May on his way to York, and Siveright, too, had been impressed with his abilities. Lachine, he told Cameron, was to be the new headquarters for the Montreal agency and the Company had leased Mr Grant's new house there, with the intention in due time of acquiring his store as well. The Company's servants would stay there while in town on business and, in short, economy and reform were to be the order of the day.35 By the June canoes Cameron also received his first letter from Simp­ son. Written from Montreal prior to the Governor's departure for the in­ terior, it notified him that a commissioned officer from the Northern De­ partment would be appointed to succeed him and requested him to remain at the Fort until his replacement's arrival.36 But in mid-July Simpson addressed a second letter to Cameron from York, entrusting it to Chief Trader Allan McDonell, who was about to leave for Fort Timis­ kaming. He understood, Simpson wrote, that Cameron's circumstances and prospects were now greatly altered because of the failure of the agents and since it was the general opinion in the country that he would not have retired had he been aware of the state of their affairs, the Northern Council would be pleased, if he so desired, to recommend to the London Committee that he be allowed to revoke his resignation. Should he decide to stay, he was to remain in charge of Fort Timiskam­ ing, McDonell proceeding to Montreal, and if possible, he (Simpson) would like Cameron to meet him at the junction of the Ottawa and Mat­ tawa rivers about the first of October. If, on the other hand, he still wished to retire, he should give McDonell any information, advice, or assistance he might require. A few days later Simpson instructed McDonell to take charge of Lake of Two Mountains, should Cameron elect to stay on at Fort Timiskaming.37 Before leaving York for Montreal late in August, Simpson wrote to the Governor and Committee, explaining Cameron's reversal of fortune. He was one of their best traders, he emphasized, with long years of expe­ rience in the Timiskaming district and the Northern Council strongly re­ commended that he be permitted to retain his rank as Chief Trader, if he wished to remain in the service.38 Since Simpson was not personally acquainted with Cameron and knew little about the Timiskaming busi-

142 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ness, his remarks must reflect Cameron's reputation in the country and the satisfactory state of the Timiskaming accounts. Meanwhile Cameron had decided that his personal affairs were too pressing to allow him to remain at the Fort until his successor arrived but, before leaving for Montreal at the end of July, he addressed a letter to the gentleman who would replace him. If he had any idea that his de­ parture would injure the trade in any way, he said, he would not hesi­ tate to stay but the two clerks, George Ross and John McKay, were per­ fectly capable of carrying on the business and if the Governor wished he would be willing to accompany the fall canoe up to the Fort, in order to inform the new commander about the district's affairs. At the moment the Indians were orderly and contented with the management and only needed to be treated with some liberality in the beginning in order to gain their confidence.39 As it turned out, this letter was not opened by McDonell but by Gov­ ernor Simpson himself, who made an unscheduled visit to the Fort when neither Cameron nor McDonell kept the requested rendezvous at Mat­ tawa. Simpson's surprise at finding the one gone and the other still un­ heard of was probably no greater than Ross's and McKay's at the unex­ pected arrival of so exalted a personage. But even the exacting Governor could find no fault with the arrangements. Unlike the other Montreal posts, where the luxury of the officer's tables and the show of hospitality without reference to cost had displeased him, he was encouraged to dis­ cover that the Fort's complement of men was not larger than necessary, that the Indians were well behaved and that the returns that year had amounted to '60 packs Furs of very superior quality.' At the same time he did not fail to notice that the heavy cost of transport to and from Montreal was a serious drain on the profits, remarking afterwards to the Committee that many of the supplies were furnished at most extrava­ gant prices and the charges 'made up on much the same principle as Doctor's or Lawyer's Bills.'40 Before departing again for Montreal Simpson addressed a letter to McDonell, expressing disappointment and perplexity at his failure to reach the Fort. Should he still arrive, he was to take charge of the dis­ trict but he (Simpson) intended to ask Cameron to return to the Fort and if he agreed to do so, McDonell was to go down to Montreal during the winter. Meanwhile he would be well advised to follow Cameron's suggestions; 'in an exposed Frontier District like this it is of the utmost importance that the superintendent should be popular,' Simpson pointed out.41 It later transpired that McDonell had taken an unfre-

143 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 quented track from Lake Nipissing and had reached the Fort shortly after Simpson left.42 Almost immediately upon becoming Governor of the Southern Depart­ ment, Simpson had made up his mind to reorganize it according to the pattern he had so successfully introduced in the Northern Department, namely to centralize the business on the Bay and to conduct it as eco­ nomically as possible. As a first step he proposed to bring the Lake Hu­ ron district within the orbit of Moose Fort and he embodied his recom­ mendations in a dispatch to London in June 1826. The Moose and Albany Indians, he assured the Committee, were perfectly capable of transporting the Lake Huron outfit from the Bay to New Brunswick, where they could exchange cargoes with the Lake Huron people, who would bring their furs so far, by way of Michipicoten. At the same time the operations of the Montreal office should be reduced as much as pos­ sible, to enable the gentlemen there to concentrate their attention on the Ottawa River and Timiskaming districts which, being the most vul­ nerable posts to opposition, required the best management.43 At its summer meeting the Northern Council supported Simpson's views, agreeing that the proposed changes would save freight charges be­ tween England and Canada, and between Montreal and Lake Huron, as well as greatly simplifying and facilitating the business of both the Montreal and Southern departments. But by the time Simpson re­ turned to Montreal in October, he had also decided to supply the Lake Superior and Timiskaming districts from Moose. Chief Factor John Hal­ dane, a former Nor'Wester in charge of Lake Superior, opposed the change for his district, arguing that the transport from Canada by the Great Lakes was much easier than that from Moose, by Michipicoten, but his views cut no ice with the new Governor. The change was neces­ sary for several reasons, Simpson assured the Committee. Not only would it save several hundred pounds a year, centralize the business, and introduce system and uniformity into the management, but it would break off all communication between these districts and Canada. 'I am decidedly of opinion,' he concluded, 'that as much of the business as possible should pass through the Bay and that every District within reach of the Depot should have its business transacted therewith and under the Eye of the Council as abuses and irregularities invariably gen­ erate at a distance from head quarters.'44 Coming to Timiskaming, Simpson observed that the Southern Coun­ cil at one time had proposed conducting all its business from Moose Fort

144 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade and that although he did not know the circumstances which had in­ duced them to alter th�ir plans, he believed that the change should now be introduced as quickly as possible. 'In addition to the advantages of simplifying and concentrating the business and withdrawing our affairs from the prying observations of our neighbours in Canada who examine with a jealous and covetous eye every pack that passes through the country,' he pointed out, 'a saving of upwards of one thousand Pounds will annually be effected,' The number of pieces now supplied from Can­ ada for the Timiskaming district, including provisions, amounted to about three hundred and fifty and while it would be difficult to transport all these from the Bay, a hundred could be got up to Fort Abitibi by In­ dians at 'a very trifling expense,' and from there the Timiskaming Indi­ ans could take them to the other posts at an equally moderate figure. Simpson then went on to suggest that the remaining 250 pieces, con­ sisting of provisions, high wines, and tobacco, be obtained from Sault Ste Marie, 'a quarter never thought of before'. The cost would not much exceed the saving the Company would make on the price of tobacco fur­ nished from the Sault. Up until now the local officers had been ignorant of the relative positions of Fort Timiskaming and the Sault but he him­ self had gone over the ground and had not only found the distance in­ considerable but the navigation safe and good. Furthermore, he had seen no part of the country so accessible to opposition as the Timiskam­ ing district and he was surprised that so far none of any significance had been attempted.45 It was presumably on his way down from Fort Timiskaming to Mont­ real that Simpson had followed the route to Lake Nipissing which he de­ scribed in this letter. Near Fort Coulonge he had met Cameron, bringing up the remainder of the Timiskaming oufit and prepared to winter, if necessary, but otherwise to return to Montreal, after seeing the Gover­ nor. Simpson had begged Cameron to proceed to the Fort, assuring him that his interest in the trade for the current outfit would continue and that he was confident the Committee would agree to his staying on in the service, if he wished to do so. Cameron was not prepared to commit himself, however, promising Simpson that he would let him know his de­ cision during the winter.46 In January 1827 Simpson dispatched to Fort Coulonge the first train of Company sleds to make the winter journey up the Ottawa, an innova­ tion aimed at reducing the high cost of water transport. With them went a letter to Cameron and McDonell, setting forth the proposed arrange-

145 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 ments for the Timiskaming district, and requesting that one or both of them should meet him at the entrance to the Mattawa in May. He agreed with Cameron, the Governor said, that the Timiskaming serv­ ants should be changed as infrequently as possible, and he also intended raii;ing their salaries a few pounds above the Southern Department rate, since the district was more exposed to opposition, the living not so good, and the duty sometimes severe.47 By the time Simpson's letter reached Fort Timiskaming, McDonell had already left for Montreal but Cameron immediately replied that they were both of the opinion that Lake Huron could indeed provide cheaper provisions for the district than Lachine. If the Lake Huron peo­ ple could find hands to carry them to Lake Nipissing, the Timiskaming Indians could bring up everything required for the Fort and Grand Lac from there. Moreover, a direct road could be opened from Lacloche to Matawagamingue to supply the Kenogamissi River district, the voyage occupying from twelve to fifteen days at the period of high water in June. But as far as the Timiskaming furs were concerned, he could see no alternative to sending them to Montreal except to foward them to Moose, which could not be done without a good deal of extra expense. Besides, if the Timiskaming Indians were employed in carrying up pro­ visions from Lake Nipissing, there would be none left to take the furs to the Bay.48 Passing Lacloche on his way to the interior that spring, Simpson con­ sulted John McBean about the possibility of supplying the Timiskaming district with provisions from Sault Ste Marie by way of Lake Nipissing. McBean replied in August that, after making inquiries, he had received uniformly unfavourable answers about the route but that a more direct one, from Lacloche to Wanapitei Lake, seemed more promising. The navigation and portages as far as the Height of Land were good and be­ yond that point, so he had been told, the road was practicable at all times. The Timiskaming gentlemen, however, would be more competent to judge of this section, since they had had an outpost on Wanebiteby Lake during the winter of 1822-3. Like Cameron, McBean, too, suggested that the Matawagamingue people could come to Lacloche for provisions. The communication was chiefly through a very large river which emptied into Lake Huron about sixteen miles west of Lacloche (the Spanish River) and the portages, eight,een in number, were mostly all short. Moreover, the Matawaga­ mingue Indians would not need a guide since most of them already knew the way.49

146 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade But Simpson was not looking for an easier road to Matawagamingue. Labour and time meant nothing to him, so long as expenses were kept down, and the small Kenogamissi River district was one of the easiest supplied from Moose. He was well aware, too, that if the Company opened a road from Lake Huron, the petty traders in the area, mostly former halfbreed servants of the North West Company supplied by Up­ per Canadian merchants, would soon follow. Even now, without any such inducement, they were actively breaching the borders of the old Timiskaming district. Two months later McBean reported privately to Simpson that the Newmarket traders had not only penetrated to Whitefish Lake (near the modern city of Sudbury, Ontario) with a for­ midable outfit, but that the Robinsons had reached Lake Nipissing, that Borland & Roe was daily expected there and that the firm of McGilliv­ ray & Day from Lake of Two Mountains was also rumoured to be send­ ing an outfit.50 The success of Simpson's plans for the upper lakes transport depend­ ed, as even he recognized, on whether keel boats carrying fifty to sixty pieces could be employed on the shallow Michipicoten River.51 He would have preferred the type of boat in use on the Columbia River, resem­ bling the Canadian batteau, which drew little water and was light enough to be carried on the shoulders of the voyagers. But the portages of the James Bay country were too rough and swampy to permit such carriage, and the boats themselves too weak and slender to be dragged across, so he had decided on keel boats with the same capacity. He was aware that the Indians, accustomed to bark canoes, objected to boats but he apparently always took for granted their readiness to act as crews. The officers in the Southern Department were much less optimis­ tic. Governor Williams, indeed, had already communicated his reserva­ tions to the Governor and Committee. In his last dispatch from Moose in September 1826, he pointed out that, although the Factory Indians were willing to go to the Long Portages in the Kenogamissi and Moose rivers with the goods for the Kenogamissi River district and the upper lakes, they had refused to engage for the trip to Fort Abitibi. As excuse, they had pleaded their dislike of the Abitibi Indians, the length of the voyage (generally thirty-two days for the round trip), the absence from their families for so long a period and, finally, the many portages with which, they insisted, they were not strong enough to cope. On this latter point their misgivings apparently were not exaggerated. The previous year Williams had hired New Brunswick Indians to come to Moose to take up the outfit for their post but although they had managed well

147 Interregnum in the Southern Department 1821-6 enough on the way down, the return upstream had proved too much for them and they had discarded their cargo on the portages, reaching home 'in a fearfully worn out condition.'52 In 1827 Christie, now Chief Factor at Moose, also drew attention to the problem in his report on the Moose district. Of the thirty-six Indians belonging to Moose, he declared, only sixteen were suitable for the trans­ port to the Long Portages in the New Brunswick and Kenogamissi riv­ ers, the rest being old, infirm, or merely boys, incapable of undergoing such labour.53 A year later, too, when the new system of transport was instituted, he warned Simpson against attempting too much the first season.54 Yet the Governor seems to have paid little attention to the doubters, among whom was the experienced Andrew McPherson at Grand Lac. 'It seems,' McPherson commented wryly in a letter to Cam­ eron in September 1827, 'that Temiscamingue and G. Lac are to be sup­ plyd from H Bay, and River St Morris or Lac Auron if that will be the case it will not be an easy matur to get indians to voyage from Grand Lac to them places as we cannot get any to Voyage to Temiscamingue.'55 The spring canoes of 1827 brought Cameron little encouragement about his personal affairs. Cowie wrote that the agents' situation was still far from satisfactory, that some creditors were holding out and appeared likely to do so, and that Simon McGillivray, angered by their obstinacy, was threatening to take out a commission of bankruptcy. But McGilliv­ ray himself was much to blame, Cowie considered, in not furnishing the trustees with the necessary papers for closing the accounts. Up till now they had not had a single document relating to the transfer of the North West Company to the new concern and if the case were to go into chan­ cery, it was difficult to say how long a settlement might take. To add to Cameron's worries, there was more disquieting news about the Lachine farm which he had bought, after Alexander McDougall's death in 1821, from his heirs. Having learned that they were not credited in the agents' accounts with the sum Cameron had paid them, they were now opposing its being done, proposing to come on him personally. Cameron went down to Montreal in July, still intending to retire, but the McDougalls immediately instituted proceedings against him. Al­ though he was allowed to go on bail, on condition that he remain in Lower Canada, he now had little choice but to remain in the service and in the autumn Simpson sent him to replace the unsatisfactory Alexan­ der Fisher at Lake of Two Mountains.56 The Company's post there was beset with opposition and petty traders from the lake ranged up the

148 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Ottawa to the Lievre and the Dumoine, and thence by the Mattawa to Lake Nipissing. Cameron's energy, skill, and experience, Simpson hoped, would restore the Company's pre-eminence along the lower river and in doing so, lessen the growing threat to the Timiskaming district.

·10· Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department

It is clear from the events so far related that the North West Company posts which had become part of the Southern Department at the time of the union remained in an anomalous position for some years after 1821 due to a combination of circumstances, namely, the influence of the McGillivrays with the London Committee, the weakness of Governor Williams, and Angus Cameron's refusal to accept second place in his old district. During this time the foture alignment of the Lake Superior posts was left in abeyance until the goods at Fort William should be de­ pleted, while in 1823 the Lake Huron district and the new Timiskaming district (Fort Timiskaming and Grand Lac) were returned to the Mont­ real agents. Fort Abitibi, originally intended by the Southern Council to become the headquarters of a new Abitibi River district, embracing Fort Timiskaming and Grand Lac, was left dangling on its own and operating under a compromise; its furs went down to Moose Fort and it received its European goods from there but it was provisioned from Canada by way of Fort Timiskaming. A similar state of affairs prevailed in the Ken­ ogamissi River district (Matawagamingue and the Flying Post), of which Chief Factor Christie took charge in 1824. Simpson's accession as Governor of the Southern Department changed all this. In 1827, under his direction, the Council attached Fort Abitibi to the Moose district and resolved to send all its small outfit of seventy pieces from the Bay the following spring. 'rhe officers supported the Governor's view that the Canada transport was long and expensive and that breaking off the connection was desirable for other important reasons, while Simpson assured the London Committee that the Abitibi Indians and servants could easily and cheaply manage the transport. 1 In the circumstances, it is ironic to find Fraser asking Christie (now Chief

150 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Factor at Moose) to send up a halfbreed servant by the last ice to guide his Indians down to the Bay and declaring the following September that none of them was fit to take either the bow or stern of a canoe down the Abitibi River! 2 Simpson's own vague notions about Fort Abitibi may be judged by the fact that, in the spring of 1827, he appointed Chief Trader Hugh Faries to its charge in the belief that it belonged to the Kenogamissi River district.3 But he lost no time in remedying his ignorance, visiting the post that autumn on his way from Moose to Montreal. According to Fraser, his kindness, liberality, and friendliness made a favourable im­ pression on the Indians, who perhaps were reminded of the old days when the Montreal partner had come up to meet their fathers and grandfathers.4 Reporting to the Committee in the summer of 1828, Simpson asserted that the post was conducted on the lowest scale of ex­ pense and that, beyond supplying it entirely from Moose, no other alter­ ation need be made in its arrangements. The change in transport, he re­ iterated, could easily be achieved and all communication with Canada had therefore been broken off." During that same summer the new Lake Superior and Lake Huron transport came into operation but the greatly increased traffic between the Bay and Sault Ste Marie, together with the inexperience of the Lake Superior servants, both with the route and in voyaging, forced Simpson to postpone his plan to supply the Kenogamissi River district entirely from Moose. The Southern Council, however, curtailed its Canadian outfit, with a view to abolishing it entirely in 1829. Its profits, Simpson pointed out to the Committee with obvious satisfaction, had already in­ creased over a thousand pounds and if opposition from Canada could be staved off, it would 'continue to be a very snug little District yielding profits in proportion to the capital employed therein, equal to any charge in either the Northern or Southern Department.'6 Meanwhile Simpson had been proceeding with the transfer of the Timiskaming district to the Southern Department and even before leav­ ing Moose Fort for Canada in the late summer of 1827 had assured the Committee that its entire transport could be switched to the Bay the fol­ lowing spring. Such a step would not only bring its affairs under uniform regulation and save a great deal of money but it would give the Com­ pany important advantages (presumably in the matter of cheaper goods) over the petty traders on the lower Ottawa whose opposition, if extended to Timiskaming, would soon damage the value of 'that high standing district.'7

151 Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department Simpson reported again on Timiskaming matters in October and it is clear that his second visit to the Fort had only strengthened his views. In his usual ebullient fashion he described the navigation from the coast as safe and the portages, although numerous, as generally good and mostly short. The distance, he estimated, did not exceed five hundred miles, or six days' travel in July, when the days were long and the water high, while the route was no more tedious or laborious than that from York to Norway House. If Simpson were thinking of loaded canoes, his figures of course were ridiculous and even a light canoe, one would imag­ ine, would have considerable difficulty in accomplishing the journey in so short a time. To bring up the Timiskaming outfit from Moose, Simpson recom­ mended using thirty-piece canoes, manned by crews of five Timiskaming Indians and an experienced bowsman. Furthermore, in his opinion, Ork­ ney servants and confidential European clerks, with no acquaintance or connection with the district, should gradually replace the present Cana­ dian servants and clerks. The Canadians, he claimed, priding themselves on their knowledge of the country and the Indians, and fully aware of their value to any opposition, not only tended to be unruly but repre­ sented a possible source of serious danger to the Company.8 Simpson's original timetable for Timiskaming seems to have envi­ saged cutting off all communication between Canada and the Fort in the summer of 1829. As long as it remained open, he emphasized in a letter to Allan McDonell, who had succeeded Cameron in command of the dis­ trict, the Indians would look to the colony for their supplies and regard as friends any retiring servants or clerks who might join the opposition. By supplying Fort Timiskaming from the Bay, however, getting rid gradually of everyone connected with Canada and treating the Indian voyagers with kindness and liberality, the Company would attach the Indians so strongly to itself that they would consider all intruders as en­ emies. The young men who went down to Moose Fort would not only see for themselves the Company's weight and importance but would earn as much by voyaging as they did by hunting, while the fear of los­ ing such valuable employment would deter both young and old from en­ couraging strangers on their lands. Meanwhile, he suggested, McDonell should engage his Canadian servants for at least three years, specifying duty in the Southern Department generally. In this way, at a moment's notice, they could be transferred to Lake Superior or the Bayside posts and their places filled by young Orkneymen on five-year contracts.9 By July 1828, however, Simpson was forced to admit that the intro-

152 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade duction of boats on several of the inland routes from Moose, coupled with the inexperience of both Indians and servants in handling them, had made it advisable to proceed more cautiously in the matter of the Timiskaming transport. The principal difficulty in outfitting the district, he told the Committee, was the enormous quantity of provisions re­ quired. Bringing them from Sault Ste Marie (his idea, it will be remem­ bered) seemed likely to prove troublesome but there was no difficulty in shipping them direct from England to the Bay and his own experience of the inland route had convinced him that it was practicable. Moreover, the Council was now determined to break the last tie with Canada by re­ moving all the old servants and manning the district with Europeans, and even Chief Trader Angus Cameron and the principal clerks and servants, who had formerly viewed such a step as disastrous to the trade, were now its warmest advocates. 10 Again in the summer of 1829 Simpson notified London that while the Timiskaming goods would be sent up from Moose in 1830, the provisions and liquor must continue to come from Montreal for another year or two until the portages were improved and the Indians had become accus­ tomed to the labours of the voyage. He then went on to describe the na­ ture of the district and its Indians and the problems they presented for the Company. Timiskaming's reduced profits since the union, he ex­ plained, were due to its decrease in size. Although the area continued to be rich in fur-bearing animals, it was very poor in the means of subsist­ ence; there were no large animals, fish were relatively scarce, and the In­ dians had no agricultL1re. They were a timid race, having little to do with the surrounding tribes, whom they considered hostile, and hence they were more under the influence of their traders, who treated them with liberality and kindness. Being fully aware, too, that opposition would ruin their country, they did not encourage strangers. Prior to the coali­ tion they had been taught to believe that the traders and Indians on James Bay were their enemies and they still disliked Europeans, looking to Canada for support and for the satisfaction of their needs. This preju­ dice the Company was endeavouring to remove, using every argument to convince them that it was from the Bay alone that they could hope for protection, while from Canada they could expect nothing but the an­ tagonism of the Iroquois and the Nipissings and the impoverishment of their lands.11 A year later Simpson returned to the subject of the remarkable loy­ alty of the Timiskaming Indians to their Canadian traders. The Hudson's Bay Company had never been able to gain a good footing in

153 Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department the district before the union, he reminded the Committee, and although surrounded by opposition, no part of the country had yielded better re­ turns. This state of affairs was entirely the result of the influence which the original traders had gained over the Indians and it was now a very difficult matter to remove their prejudices. Only if all communication with Canada were broken off and the district centred on Moose could it finally be effected.12 The Timiskaming district reverted to the Southern Department in 1830 and a long letter from McDonell to Simpson provides a graphic descrip­ tion of the trials of that first summer. 13 On the first of June he had left Fort Timiskaming for Moose with four canoes, manned by twenty-three Indians, some of them only boys, and all of them overcome with grief at the prospect of separation from their families. The journey to Fort Abi­ tibi occupied seven days and they had remained there several more, waiting for the Grand Lac canoes, which were expected by the 10th at the latest. When they failed to turn up, McDonell, fearful that his home­ sick Indians would desert, had resumed his journey, leaving Fraser to bring on McPherson's canoes. These finally reached Fort Abitibi on the 13th in charge of George Bryson, who blamed the delay on the inefficiency of his crews and on the impossibility of obtaining sufficient hands. Yet not a servant remained inland, McDonell interpolated, ex­ cept two at Fort Timiskaming, McPherson at Grand Lac and an old man at Trout Lake, with the result that the lessees of the King's Posts had been able to waylay several Trout Lake Indians and secure a pack of val­ uable furs. The voyage from Fort Abitibi to Moose had been uneventful, all ca­ noes arriving safely and the packs in good condition. Chief Factor John George McTavish (now in charge of Moose Fort) had welcomed the Indi­ ans cordially, feasting them lavishly for nine days. When they set off again on their return journey, low water and heavily laden canoes had made the ascent of the Abitibi River a lengthy and tiring business but they had finally reached Fort Abitibi on the twenty-fifth day from Moose. Fraser, who had left the Bay ten days after them, arrived at the same time. McDonell had then hired a crew of Abitibi Indians to rein­ force the Grand Lac men, after which he had returned to Fort Timis­ kaming with his own Indians. There, to his disgruntlement, although ac­ knowledging that their treatment and payment had been satisfactory, they had refused to commit themselves for another summer, protesting that the distance was great and that their families had starved during their absence.

154 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade For his part, McDonell concluded, he was absolutely opposed to any system of transport which depended on the whims of voyagers not bound by contract or under any other constraint. The Timiskaming In­ dians had nothing to lose by the Company's displeasure as long as they could run down to Lake Nipissing or Mattawa, where they were received with open arms and got better prices for their furs, and as for the Grand Lac Indians, it was useless to think of making them voyage; they would not. It is not surprising that McDonell's gloom affected even the sanguine Governor. Although jubilant at the complete success of the Lake Huron transport that year, he confessed to the Committee that McDonell's difficulties in persuading his Indians to finish their journey made the prospects for Timiskaming uncertain; if they remained adamant, the whole 1831 outfit would have to come from Canada. Meanwhile the Company's hold on the district was becoming more precarious every year, for the Ottawa settlements, creeping closer and closer to its bor­ ders, had almost halved the distance over which petty traders had to carry their supplies, thereby removing the chief hazard for any opposi­ tion in the Timiskaming area, the scarcity of country provisions. 14 Happily for Simpson, increased rewards in the summer of 1831 brought the Timiskaming Indians round and a year later he was blithely assuring the Committee that they were now reconciled to voyaging, re­ garding it as a very profitable way of spending their summers. Neverthe­ less it is clear that even he was beginning to accept the impossibility of ever making the Timiskaming district entirely independent of Canada. Although reiterating his conviction that the new transport was far less expensive than hiring extra servants or bringing up the goods from Montreal, he admitted that since Canada could furnish the Timiskam­ ing provisions at a much cheaper rate than the Bay, they would con­ tinue to be drawn 'from thence as usual. ' 15 Indeed, an analysis of the figures provided by the Minutes of Council of the Southern Department quickly reveals that Simpson's cherished scheme of making Moose Fort the sole depot for the Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Timiskaming districts was never in sight of its goal, even in the early years when the Bay provided its highest proportion of their to­ tal outfits. In 1830, for example, 180 of the 330 pieces furnished Timis­ kaming came from Moose Fort but that same year Lake Superior re­ ceived only 220 of its 1040 from the Bay, the rest coming from Sault Ste Marie, while Lake Huron had 80 from the Bay and 650 from the Sault. 16 In other words, Simpson's innovations, while cutting off the Company's

155 Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department direct connection between Montreal and the upper lakes posts, had not isolated them from Upper Canada, where most of the opposition origi­ nated. The small amount supplied from the Bay, of course, was Euro­ pean goods which the Company could ship directly to Moose more cheaply than by way of Canada. The Southern Council appears to have met only every other year; whether by design, or because Simpson could not be present, is not clear. In 1832 its arrangements for Timiskaming were the same as for 1830; three posts with a complement of thirteen men were provided with an outfit of 330 pieces, supplied as before. 17 By 1834, however, the presence of two Penetanguishene traders on Lake Timagami had not only forced McDonell to establish an outpost there but led to his removal from the command, Angus Cameron replacing him. That same year, too, Simpson transferred the Lake Nipissing post from the Lake Huron district to Fort Timiskaming. 18 It had long been a bone of contention between the Fort and Lacloche, the one constantly complaining of trespass and the other justifying itself on grounds of the Company's general interests. Simpson hoped the change would not only resolve the conflict but strengthen Cameron's hand against the alarming inroads of opposition. With two additional posts to be supplied, Timiskaming's complement of servants rose to nineteen and its outfit to four hundred pieces, fur­ nished equally from Moose and Montreal, 19 and these arrangements were renewed in 1836. But a year later, although the number of servants remained unchanged, the outfit was increased to 540 pieces. This was apparently the result of lumbering activity about the Fort. The lumber­ men traded with the Indians and paid more for furs than the Company did and the Company, in turn, was forced to raise its tariff. Of the 540 pieces Moose supplied only 180, 300 being forwarded from Montreal and the remainder from Lake Huron, presumably for the Nipissing post. The Lake Huron servants took the Nipissing outfit in boats from Sault Ste Marie to Lacloche, where the Lake Nipissing servants and Indians picked it up in canoes.20 Why the number of pieces brought from the Bay should have been re­ duced at this point is not explained, but Cameron's long report on Tim­ iskaming affairs in April 1835 probably had a good deal to do with it. In the face of the Governor's stubborn preference for Orkney servants in Timiskaming, Cameron told Simpson bluntly that they were 'neither fit for voyaging nor running derouins' and that the transport system was not working well. Although the Indians were getting nearly three times the amount of goods they had had in 1830, they were still discontented.

156 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Moreover, since they were paid at Moose and brought their goods home with them, this enormous quantity squeezed out all but twenty Com­ pany pieces in each canoe. Worst of all, the Company's dependance on them had made them both conceited and extravagant; some insisted on embarking their wives, others their children, and all had to be fed at the Company's expense. Apart from the cost, too, they had now become so fond of European provisions that it was impossible to satisfy their de­ mands at the Fort. To remedy 'this crying shame,' Cameron proposed that two Montreal canoes, manned by sixteen men and a guide, should be sent up to the Fort by the first of June with the Canada supplies, their crews being en­ gaged to go on to the Bay. With the addition of four winterers or Indians this number would suffice to man four North canoes to carry the furs to Moose and return with the dry goods. The journey should not take more than two months and a half and if the plan were adopted for only a sea­ son or two, the Indians would become tractable and the Canadians could then be dispensed with.21 There is no evidence, however, that either Simpson or the Southern Council ever considered Cameron's suggestion and indeed, in 1843, he was still complaining that the Indians received so many goods by voyag­ ing that they did not have to depend on their hunts.22 Nevertheless, the Minutes of Council disclose that Moose Fort was increasingly being rele­ gated to a minor role in supplying Timiskaming.23 In 1839 winter trans­ port up the Ottawa was extended to Mattawa and canoes from the Fort now picked up some of the Canadian supplies there during the period of open water. Two years later, moreover, the Mattawa post, until then un­ der Fort Coulonge, was transferred to the Timiskaming district for the same reasons as Nipissing had been, namely to keep the Timiskaming Indians who visited it under Cameron's supervision and to insure that they were not enticed from home by more favourable Company tariffs. Although the extension of winter transport to Mattawa did not, of course, mean the end of all canoe traffic between Montreal and Fort Timiskaming, it did permit the more economical conveyance of the ever­ increasing bulk of heavy articles. Furthermore, in 1841, in direct contra­ diction to its former policy, the Southern Council resolved 'that a por­ tion of the Abitibbi Outfit consisting of about 60 pieces Provisions, To­ bacco & High Wines be procured from Montreal (commencing with Outfit 1842) to be lodged at Temiscamingue along with the Supplies for­ warded pr. Winter Transport for that District - the transport from thence to Abitibbi to be performed by Indian Voyageurs belonging to

157 Governor Simpson Reorganizes the Southern Department Abitibbi Post; and such part of the Indian Voyageurs Payments that are required in Flour hitherto paid at Moose Factory be in future paid at the Post of Abitibbi from Supplies to be forwarded for that purpose from Montreal via Temiscamingue.'24 Even Fort Abitibi, it seems, could no longer rely wholly on Moose for provisions, while the new arrangement provided at least a partial solution to the vexed problem of Indian goods. It only remains then to assess the success or failure of Simpson's am­ bitious plans for the Southern Department. Undoubtedly its absorption of the former Canadian posts in the upper lakes and in the old Timis­ kaming district added greatly to its scope and influence, while the posts themselves probably benefitted from a uniform and strongly centralized control. Their complete orientation to the Bay, however, depended on a scheme of transport which was neither economical nor practicable and in that respect, Simpson's plan was a failure. Nevertheless, one of its most important elements (perhaps to him the most important) was to screen the returns from the 'jealous eyes' of Canadians and there Simp­ son achieved a considerable measure of success. It is true that Lake Hu­ ron was open to petty traders long before 1821 and that his measures could do little to stem the tide in that area, but until the mining boom of the late forties ended Lake Superior's isolation that district furnished the Southern Department's richest returns, while Timiskaming re­ mained comparatively immune to opposition until the sixties. The furs of all three districts continued to go down to the Bay, while Moose, not Montreal, became the summer mecca for officers, servants, and Indians alike. As Simpson had predicted, the natives enjoyed profitable employ­ ment during the months when they were discouraged from hunting and even the Timiskaming Indians were at last won over to the Company, a development which Cameron's return to Fort Timiskaming in 1834 doubtless hastened. Finally, it is impossible not to admire the considera­ ble achievement of conveying even six hundred pieces annually, for a quarter of a century or more, along the tortuous and shallow waterways which lead from James Bay to Michipicoten and Lake Timiskaming.

•11·

The Coming of the Lumbermen

The most formidable problem confronting the Timiskaming district dur­ ing the 1830s was the growing opposition from Canada which, from merely threatening its borders at the beginning of the decade, had by 1836 reached Lake Timiskaming itself. This opposition originated in two different sources. The first wave, fanning out from the St Lawrence and the lower Ottawa towards Grand Lac, by way of the St Maurice, Lievre, Gatineau, Coulonge, and Dumoine rivers, also pressed on Fort Timis­ kaming from Lake Nipissing. Well-known firms like McGillivray & Day, Stanfield & Ross, Bernard, Pillette, and Charlebois, all active about Lake of Two Mountains, participated in this trade. But the situation was further complicated by numerous small traders, supplied by grocers and tavern keepers along the Ottawa, who visited the Indians on their lands, and by the lumbermen, pushing farther north every year, who bought or traded furs on the side. The second wave of opposition came from Upper Canada. Newmark­ et, Sandwich, and Penetanguishene merchants, among others, financed traders who ranged from Lake Simcoe to Drummond Island, north as far as Michipicoten, east to the French River and Lake Nipissing, and inland along the rivers flowing into Lake Huron. Many of these traders were North West Company halfbreeds who had grown up in the coun­ try, like Edward Sayer and Alexander McKay, who alternated between engaging with the Company for a season or two and then going into op­ position. They not only interfered with the Lake Huron trade but, from more or less permanent stations on Whitefish and Green lakes and the Mississagi River, encroached on the Kenogamissi River district and again, from Lake Nipissing pressed on Fort Timiskaming. Until he went bankrupt in 1837 a Penetang merchant, Andrew Mitchell, was the prin-

159 The Coming of the Lumbermen cipal outfitter of all the Lake Huron traders1 and the village maintained its position as the centre of the Upper Canadian trade throughout the middle years of the century, with an important fur sale of its own. It was quickly apparent to Simpson, as it had been to the Nor'Westers, that the only way to protect Timiskaming and the val­ uable inland districts was to erect a barrier between them and Canada. His first step had been to supply as many of the posts as possible from Moose and in 1831 he bought the lease of the King's Posts from Lamp­ son, Bullock & Co., thus removing the principal threat from the eastern St Lawrence. Moreover, he continually impressed on the Governor and Committee the necessity of furnishing the Ottawa and Lake Huron dis­ tricts with plenty of goods and servants, and of encouraging the Indians in those areas to hunt their lands to extinction. As the frontier became barren of furs, he pointed out, there would be less inducement for men of scanty resources to pursue the trade or push farther into the interior. On this score, however, the Governor and Committee needed no prompting, having themselves advocated the policy as early as 1822. Although Simpson believed that the Indians, if left to themselves, would prefer to trade at the Company's posts, because of the superior talents of its traders, the quality of its goods and its regular, fair, and lib­ eral dealing, he also recognized the temptations offered them by the petty traders, whose principal stock in trade was liquor. These men fol­ lowed them about constantly during the winter, frequently bilking them of their furs, while they in turn cheated the Company of the supplies ad­ vanced to them. Since, in Simpson's words, the Company's traders could not adopt the odious and disgraceful tactics of men who had no charac­ ter to lose and who were indifferent to public opinion, he had no doubt that opposition would persist "until the forbearing race becomes extinct, which must at no great distance of time be the case.'2 He had no illusions either about the efficacy of an Upper Canadian law of 1837, banning li­ quor in the trade. It would be difficult to obtain sufficient proof to con­ vict the whisky traders, he warned the Committee, and they would probably evade the law.3 It was two aggressive Penetanguishene traders, Samuel Peck and Charles Harris, who precipitated Angus Cameron's return to Fort Timis­ kaming. They usually wintered on Lake Nipissing but in 1833-4 they went to Lake Timagami, dangerously close to the Fort. Simpson had long been dissatisfied with Allan McDonell's management, particularly disapproving of his habit of buying up his opponents' furs at their valua­ tion. Since McDonell was also not in the best of health, the Governor used this excuse to remove him from the district.

160 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Cameron arrived at Fort Timiskaming in September 1834 to find that McDonell, before leaving, had succeeded in engaging Harris for the Company's service, although Peck, the dominant partner, had refused his offer.4 He therefore dispatched Harris to Lake Timagami and sent Chief Trader Richard Hardisty (his new second-in-command), with a strong force of Canadians, to Lake Nipissing, where Peck had returned, outfitted by Andrew Mitchell. When, soon afterwards, Peck offered to sell his goods to Hardisty, Cameron immediately surmised that this winter's foray was merely a ruse on Mitchell's part to make a quick profit from the Company's apparent anxiety to exclude strangers, and he turned down the offer. Instead, in the old fur trade way, he had Peck so closely watched that the trader left the district for good in the spring.5 Cameron's long letter to Simpson in April 1835 (from which I have al­ ready quoted) reveals his dismay at the extent to which the Timiskam­ ing district had deteriorated since his departure eight years before. Mincing no words, he particularly condemned the recent introduction of a pernicious custom of selling unlimited liquor to the Indians and an­ nounced his intention of abolishing it as soon as possible. But another innovation also disturbed him, the increasing tendency on the part of servants to marry the local women. In his day, he declared, servants had been forbidden to take Indian women and only one in the district, a halfbreed from the Bay, had been married. Now no less than eight of them had Indian wives. Wives, he reminded the Governor, were a bur­ den on the Company even in the most favourable districts but in a poor one like Timiskaming their effect was disastrous. With available country provisions quite inadequate to support them, their husbands had to spend all their wages maintaining them on imported food; in addition, they interfered with the men's duty, causing trouble, expense, and disor­ der. And that was not the worst of it. If ever petty traders invaded the district, their halfbreed sons would prove to be the Company's greatest enemies. The Nor'Westers had clearly recognized the serious implications for the trade of intermarriage with the Indians and indeed, in 1806, had ap­ proved a resolution forbidding the partners (including the agents) from permitting either officers or men to take Indian wives on pain of a fine of one hundred pounds currency. Two such fines were levied in 18096 al­ though, considering the number of North West Company halfbreeds in the country at the time of the coalition who bore their fathers' names, the rule was probably ineffective in the long run. In 1825, however, the Council of the Northern Department had made an effort to regularize

161 The Coming of the Lumbermen the custom, apd thereby protect both the Company and the Indian woq-ien, by forbidding any officer or servant to take a woman without binding himself to support her and her children 'on a fair and equitable principle' both during his residence in the country and after his depar­ ture from it.7 Nevertheless Cameron's attitude seems paradoxical in a man who himself appears to have had connections with three different Indian women during his years in the·country, whose fellow officers in the Com­ pany and associates in Timiskaming had almost all married Indian women, and who must have appreciated the comfort and value of an In­ dian wife. It is clear of course that his objections were to permanent, as opposed to casual, relationships and to the custom as it applied to ser­ vants, not officers. It was not only that permanent unions affected post life, while casual ones did not, but that officers (like himself) presumably had sufficient means to support their families and would also be less likely to allow their connections with Indian women to interfere with the performance of their duty or their loyalty to the Company. Servants with smaller incomes or less sense of responsibility, on the other hand, might well default on their obligations or allow their Indian wives and relations to influence their attitudes towards their jobs. But although Cameron's equivocal and rather biased stand undoubtedly reflected the situation which 4ad prevailed in Timiskaming virtually up until the time he left the Fort in 1827, it was quite unrealistic in the existing cir­ cumstances. During the years of the Canadian trade, unlike the servants on the Bay or in the northwest, who often remained many years in the country before returning home, the Timiskaming winterers, mostly French, had been close enough to Montreal to be able to marry Cana­ dian women and visit their families at reasonable intervals, and their re­ lations with Indian women had accordingly been largely on a temporary level. Now, with increasing numbers of Orkneymen serving in the dis­ trict and determined measures being taken to shut it off entirely from Canada, its social character was changing as well. Yet, in spite of Cameron's criticism of the conduct of affairs during his absence, he was forced to admit that the Timiskaming returns had grad­ ually improved over the last two decades, a result which he attributed to the Company's encouragement to the Indians to manage their lands ju­ diciously and preserve an adequate number of beaver to breed. Unfortu­ nately this custom, too, he regretted, had recently been abandoned and great pains taken to induce the Indians to destroy their beaver. Certain­ ly, if there were any real threat of interlopers penetrating into the heart

162 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade of the district, he would be the first to advise such a policy but since he could not see the least sign of serious molestation at present, he intended to pursue the old system.8 A year later Simpson was to inform the Gov­ ernor and Committee that despite the gradual increase in the district's returns, the hunting grounds of the Timiskaming and Abitibi Indians were now as rich in furs as they had been in the recollection of the oldest traders.9 Although Cameron feared no ordinary opposition, he was justifiably alarmed by the steady approach of a potentially more ominous threat; by 1836 lumbering, in the form of the McConnell family from Hull, had reached the f oot of Timiskaming Lake. The father, George McConnell, an American, with his seven sons, operated lumbering depots along the Ottawa from Deux Rivieres to Seven League Lake. The Christian names, George, Robert, Richard, Rinaldo, Benjamin, Lyman, James, and Alexander, all appear in licences of the period and in the Hudson's Bay Company's records. In the latter Rinaldo's name occurs most fre­ quently and the Hudson's Bay men also referred to him as 'the Smart Man,' but whether because his name means 'the fox,' or because he was the cleverest, is not revealed. Although lumbering, f ollowed closely as it inevitably was by civiliza­ tion and settlement, presaged the end of the Company's trade in the long run, it also spelled trouble from the beginning. Even if the lumber­ ing firms kept aloof from the trade, they used Indian labour and gener­ ally paid higher wages than the Company, whiJe their employees, far outnumbering the Company's servants, were free to come and go among the Indians, interfering with their old ways, tempting them to exchange their furs for provisions and liquor, and upsetting all the long-estab­ lished customs of the trade. But the McConnells had always traded furs on the side and when they settled on Opimika Creek, just below Lake Timiskaming, both Cameron and Simpson were convinced that their new venture was merely a cover for their designs on the Fort's trade. 10 A prime requisite for lumbering was wild hay to feed the oxen and on Lake Timiskaming the best grasslands were at the head of the lake. Cameron appears to have drawn Simpson's attention to their strategic importance, as well as to the valuable timber on nearby lie du College, for in May 1837 the Governor suggested that it might be advisable to buy the property, although he did not know whether purchase would give the Company a legitimate claim or allow it to exclude strangers. On the other hand, if the island's timber were the sole attraction, perhaps

163 The Coming of the Lumbermen ways and means might be devised for lessening its appeal. 11 Indeed Simpson's own solution, outlined in a private letter of the same day, was probably more i n earnest than in jest; 'wt. regard to the Island how would it do to girdle the Trees & make charcoal of the Timber? a Word to the Wise. Eh!'12 During the summer Simpson warned the Committee that Lake Timiskaming's fine timber would soon attract the attention of Lower Canadian lumbermen, thus posing the most dangerous threat so far to the trade of the area. Accordingly, on his way through the district in the fall he intended to try to obtain from the Indians some pasture land at the head of the lake and although he recognized that a grant of this kind would not furnish a good title, it might serve to support a claim,13 It was the lushness of this pasture land which had attracted Cameron's atten­ tion during his first year at Fort Timiskaming and had prompted him to establish a farm there for the Fort's cattle. The outpost was known as the Head of the Lake and sufficient men were maintained there to tend the herd and cut hay for winter feed, as well as to hunt and trade with the Indians. They also raised vegetables and some grain and the favour­ able soil gave them an advantage over the Fort in this respect. But the Company had apparently never come to any formal arrangement with the Indians concerning the ownership of the land and had probably never even contemplated such a step, knowing that the Indians were pleased to have an outpost in the area and themselves had no use for the land. Now, however, Simpson proposed to strengthen the Company's position at the head of the lake and shut out the McConnells by buying from the Indians all the available pasture land in the vicinity. Subsequently at Fort Timiskaming Simpson and Cameron appear to have discussed the possibility of anticipating the McConnells in a more positive way, by putting the Company itself into the lumbering business on Lake Timiskaming. Such an idea was not an entirely new departure. In the lean years before the introduction of the 'Retrenching System' the Committee, anxious to diversify their interests, had engaged Alexan­ der Christie to superintend the cutting of timber along the Moose River and on Charlton Island in an effort to take advantage of the crisis pre­ cipitated in Britain by Napoleon's blockade of the Baltic ports and the consequent loss of its principal source of timber. But inexperience in cut­ ting and preparing, and difficulties in erecting a sawmill, together with the imminent prospect of a French defeat and the renewed emphasis placed on the fur trade by Colvile and the Committee after 1810, had led to the experiment's petering out. In 1822, however, although any idea of

164 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade a market for deals in England had been abandoned, the Northern Coun­ cil had resolved to maintain the sawmill at Moose for local use14 and dur­ ing the late 1820s Simpson himself had approved Chief Factor John McLoughlin's venture in trading deals with the Sandwich Islands and the Pacific coast ports. Furthermore, after the Company had resumed the lease of the King's Posts in 1832, the officers i n the Saguenay dis­ trict, with Simpson's permission, had embarked upon a timber business in order to offset the growing intrusion of settlers into the area. The results of a Saguenay licence for 1836, however, had proved dis­ appointing and, in any event, direct confrontation with opposition was not Simpson's way if another would answer. In February 1838, there­ fore, he strongly advised Cameron that should the McConnells or any other lumbermen establish shanties in the neighbourhood of Fort Timis­ kaming, it would be best to come to an arrangement with them. Should they refuse to do so, Cameron could annoy them a good deal by taking possession of the meadows and enticing their men, as well as in other ways. Alternatively, if he should learn that the McConnells intended settling on Lake Timiskaming itself, he might encourage some more co­ operative lumberman, like McDonald at Sandy Point (on the lower Ot­ tawa), to forestall them. But in this, of course, Cameron must use his own discretion. Frankly, Simpson concluded, had the lumbering busi­ ness not been one with which the Company was totally unacquainted, he himself would have applied for a licence for Ile du College the previ­ ous year and recommended to the Governor and Committee that the Company try it. But in his opinion lumbering and the fur trade would not mix and as the Canadian government refused to sell either the island or the meadow, the Company must confine its attention to its own busi­ ness and do its best, by vigilance and good management, to protect the trade. 15 By the autumn of 1839, however, when the McConnells finally settled on Opimika Creek at the foot of Lake Timiskaming, Simpson had appar­ ently changed his mind for he immediately set about exploring the pos­ sibilities of putting the Company into the lumbering business. Before sailing for London he addressed the Governor and Committee on the subject and once there, conferred with Cameron, who was home on leave after having been made a chief factor in 1838. Cameron subsequently prepared a memorandum listing the principal requirements for estab­ lishing four shanties on Lake Timiskaming, two on the east (Lower Can­ ada) side and two on the west (Upper Canada). He also suggested that the Company provide a stock of ready-made clothing suitable for sale to

165 The Corning of the Lumbermen the shantymen and engage an experienced lumberman to superintend the business. 16 Simpson sent a copy of this memorandum to Chief Factor James Keith, head of the Lachine agency, instructing him to discuss the prepa­ rations to be made in Canada with John Siveright. Manufactured arti­ cles like utensils, anchors, cables, and clothing should be ordered from England but oxen and horses could be sent up from Fort Coulonge, while Mattawa would supply the provisions. Cameron would hire the men and apply for licences when he returned to Canada in the spring. Above all, however, Keith and Siveright must keep the enterprise a pro­ found secret. Three months later Simpson was scolding Keith for having inquired about licences at the Crown timber offices in Quebec and Toronto; it might well, he declared, give premature publicity to the Company's plans. 17 It is clear that neither Keith nor Siveright favoured the new scheme and their misgivings may have cooled Simpson's own enthusiasm, for in April 1840 he assured Keith that he and Cameron had no intention of proceeding, unless the McConnells interfered with the trade. On its own, lumbering could not pay and even if combined with the fur trade, must lose money in the present state of the market. Nevertheless, if the McConnells meddled with the Indians, the best way to get rid of them was to oppose them on their own ground. Siveright should therefore talk the matter over with Cameron on his arrival and if they decided to go ahead, it should be on an adequate scale. 18 Two days later Simpson confi­ ded privately to Cameron that, according to Keith, the McConnells had given little or no trouble so far, but that it was up to him and Siveright to determine whether or not the Company should enter the business in a large way.19 Keith's information was evidently based on early reports from Tirnis­ kaming for Cameron, returning to the Fort in mid-May, was met by the disagreeable news that, despite Fraser's vigilance, the McConnells had secured a considerable quantity of furs.20 It was presumably this devel­ opment, together with the advantage of having more men to watch the Indians, which accounted for Cameron's decision to go ahead with the plans, although he compromised on three shanties, instead of four, pro­ posing to increase the number if business justified it.21 But it is also clear that Cameron's touchy pride had been affronted by the McConnells' having warned him off his hay grounds, and Simpson agreed that their impudence was both provoking and insulting. At the same time, he gently reminded Cameron, the only object of going into the business was

166 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade to put down opposition and since it was bound to lose money, the smaller the scale, provided it were sufficient, the better. 22 Indeed, although Simpson was now committed to the venture, he still appears to have had reservations. In a letter to Keith, in the autumn of 1840, he criticized the terms of Cameron's licence, remarking somewhat acidly that he hoped it would turn out better than the Saguenay one, and two months later he consoled the pessimistic Chief Factor by ob­ serving that, since Cameron was displaying great zeal and energy and they could depend on his judgment and discretion, he believed the busi­ ness could safely be left in his hands. The important thing now was for Keith to comply with any requisitions Cameron might make so that he could not complain later that he had not been allowed to conduct it in his own way.23 Cameron had spent the summer of 1840 in Canada, hiring lumbermen and a shanty master named Armstrong, and securing a licence in By­ town. This licence, taken out in his own name, designates limits on the west side of the lake extending from the mouth of the Matabitchuan River, the northern boundary of the McConnells' limits, to the head of the lake and back two miles from the shore, with the usual privilege of making hay on the property. 24 Although the Governor jibbed at the wages being paid, he had to admit that they were the going rate. He also exhorted Cameron to see that his men were alongside the McConnells wherever they showed themselves above Mattawa and if it were neces­ sary to resort to 'bullies' (which he hoped not), Cameron should choose some 'good two-handed men.'25 Despite Keith's gloom and the Governor's own misgivings, the first season's operations were ostensibly a great success. Simpson reported triumphantly to the Governor and Committee that, up against Cameron's local knowledge and experience, as well as his possession of the best timber on the lake, the McConnells had lost so much money that they had offered to withdraw from the district altogether, provided the Company would purchase their stock in trade. He was to meet them at Mattawa on his way to the interior and if their terms were reason­ able, he thought it might be advisable to buy them out, although he would of course be guided by the information furnished him by Cam­ eron, who was also to meet him on the communication.26 From Red River in June, Simpson described his meeting with the McConnells to the Governor and Committee. Their failure in Timiskam­ ing had caused differences among the brothers, who had split up into two groups. One of these had approached Cameron with a proposal to

167 The Coming of the Lumbermen withdraw their shanties from Lake Tirniskaming, if the Company would take their entire stock and add a bonus of a thousand pounds. It might have been a good bargain, Simpson considered, if he could have bought them all off on these terms but on the other hand, it might only have en­ couraged other interlopers. He had therefore decided to rely instead on energetic competition and the expenses involved, like so many in the Montreal Department, should be regarded as necessary protection for the Company's own more valuable territories.27 Satisfied with the results of the first season's operations and confident that he now had the McConnells on the run, Cameron extended his lim­ its for the winter of 1841-2. His licence this year permitted the cutLing of thirty thousand feet of red pine on both sides of the lake and inland for three miles, on the west side from the mouth of the Matabitchuan River to the head of the lake, and on the east from a point opposite that river's mouth to the foot of ile du College.28 Yet a year later, in spite of a reduc­ tion in the British duty on foreign timber which threatened to ruin the Canadian industry, the McConnells were still hanging on. Although they had not seriously meddled with his Indians during the winter, Cameron told Simpson in September 1842, they were now talking of go­ ing to the head of the lake and should they do so might damage the Company's trade considerably. For this reason and because he already had sufficient provisions, horses, oxen, and other supplies, he intended carrying on for another season on a small scale. Cameron's licence for 1842-3 called for fifteen thousand feet of red pine to be cut on limits, three miles in depth, commencing at the head of Lake Timiskaming and extending three miles east up the Ottawa.29 The winter of 1842-3 was Cameron's last in the country and in Janu­ ary, forecasting an unfavourable trade, he finally conceded that the sooner the district was hunted to extinction, the better for the Compa­ ny. Not only had the McConnells this year been reinforced by the noto­ rious McGillivray, of McGillivray & Day, who had been among the Indi­ ans from Mattawa to the Fort ever since September, but they had offered fifty pounds a year to one of his best men to take them inland, a sore temptation to a servant earning only sixteen. Nevertheless he was convinced that it was time for the Company to get out of the lumber business; all the marketable timber in the neighbourhood of the Fort had been cut down and with the present low prices no one could operate without a loss. Even the McConnells were doing nothing.30 In February 1843, faced with a sharp decline in the timber trade, the

168 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade McConnells abandoned all their shanties between Mattawa and Fort Timiskaming, removing their cattle and implements to their farm at Deep River. But they had not lost interest in furs and were soon actively pursuing the Indians around the Fort and at the head of the lake, where they were also threatening to build. Cameron, however, assured the Governor that most of the Indians were still faithful to the Company and, if supplied with plenty of provisions at moderate prices, would re­ main so for many years to come.31 In June 1843, therefore, Simpson notified the Governor and Commit­ tee that he was giving up the Timiskaming lumbering business.32 His de­ cision was probably the result, in the main, of Cameron's advice and his imminent retirement but there is no doubt that Simpson was also dis­ turbed by the news from Quebec concerning the lamentable inadequacy of the first winter's timber. According to Keith, it appeared to be noth­ ing like the size and quality represented and unlikely to fetch half the anticipated sum. It was still unsold, Keith reported in June, having been prepared 'in the most slovenly, unmerchantable style,' for which they had to thank Cameron's conductor, Armstrong, in whom he had placed such confidence. The Company would sustain a heavy loss in the busi­ ness, Keith added piously.33 Cameron, who had been very proud of his timber, had not only to swallow his own disappointment but put up with Keith's irritating remarks about his mistaken reliance on Armstrong. A more comforting assessment, however, came from Chief Factor Duncan Finlayson, Simpson's brother-in-law. Even though the speculation had not turned out as well as Cameron had hoped, due to the decline in prices, Finlay­ son observed, still, as a protection for the trade, it had been well worth while to continue it until all the valuable timber about the Fort had been cut down. It was always desirable to incur the present trifling ex­ pense, in order to avoid the future heavy one, and especially so when the possible destruction of the rich Timiskaming trade was involved.34 With the lumber business discredited and Cameron about to retire, Simpson concentrated his efforts for the Timiskaming district in the spring of 1843 on supplying the Fort with a large stock of provisions and a set of good hands. In addition to instructing Fraser, who had been ap­ pointed to command the Fort and the district, to treat the Indians so liberally that they would have nothing to gain by changing sides, he also urged him to improve the attractiveness of his goods by selecting a few fancy articles at Moose Fort. Short of continuing the lumber business,

169 The Coming of the Lumbermen Simpson emphasized, Fraser must employ every means of protecting the trade.35 Cameron's retirement was a serious blow to the Timiskaining district. His long years of service there, spanning both the North West and Hudson's Bay companies, were probably unique in the history of the trade, while his outstanding abilities had led Simpson to allow him vir­ tually a free hand in the management. The situation was further compli­ cated by Timiskaming's increasing vulnerability to opposition from Canada and by the fact that the most promising officer in the district, Cameron's nephew, James Cameron, was not sufficiently advanced in the hierarchy for such a promotion. Furthermore, despite Fraser's years of experience at Fort Abitibi, he had not been Simpson's first choice, the Governor's original intention having been to appoint an officer from the Northern Department. Visiting the Fort in the autumn of 1843, he speedily realized that he had made a mistake. Fraser's limited abilities and secluded life at Fort Abitibi, he explained to the Governor and Com­ mittee, had unfitted him such a difficult charge; although few sur­ passea him in zeal, economy, and the management of a small post, he lacked energy and decision, as well as experience in dealing with opposi­ tion. Simpson accordingly sent Fraser back to Fort Abitibi, putting the Timiskaming district under Chief Trader John Siveright at Fort Cou­ longe, although it was to remain attached to the Southern Department and to operate under a separate account.:is During the time Simpson was at the Fort, two of the McConnell brothers came to him with another proposition. It appeared that their former equippers, William Price & Co. of Quebec, were not prepared to make the necessary advances this year but if the Company would allow them a credit of £500, they could carry on and would bind themselves to have no dealings with the Indians. One of the brothers subsequently ac­ companied Simpson to Lachine. In the end, however, dissatisfied with their security, he refused their proposal, making the excuse that it was against Company policy to buy off opposition in any form, although he was later to admit that had the McConnells adhered to their original terms, he might have made a useful arrangement with them.37 The McConnells went off in a huff and, anticipating reprisals, Simp­ son reverted to the idea of renewing lumbering operations in Timiskam­ ing. By this time it had come to seem unlikely that the British tariff changes, after all, would affect the Canadian trade substantially and hEl was confident that he could insure against serious loss by engaging an experienced lumberman to conduct the business in his own name. Such

for

170 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade a person, he remarked, would be able to pay wages according to the in­ dustry scale and not as the Company did. Meanwhile he instructed Sive­ right to do everything possible to bring the McConnells to more accepta­ ble terms, watching them so closely that they could get nothing from the Indians except at extravagant prices, not even a small canoe or their services in transport. He was, moreover, to be liberal with provisions and if the McConnells used liquor he must follow suit. At the same time he should show them every courtesy, offering them hospitality whenever they passed Fort Coulonge; such civilities cost little and would remove any asperity in their reJationship.38 A few months later, however, the Governor had evidently given up any thought of further lumbering. Writing to inform Siveright in Febru­ ary 1844 that he intended to abandon Fort Coulonge and sell the prop­ erty there, he decried any attempt to cut the timber first. 'We find from experience,' he declared, 'that we know little about the practical part of the Lumbering business; & that however profitable it may be to others, it is to us a bill of costs; notwithstanding all Mr Cameron's zeal & activi­ ty, the expences have been enormous, & the article is almost unmarketa­ ble, being the worst parcel of timber that was perhaps ever sent down the Ottawa - badly selected & badly squared. I shall not, therefore, on any consideration, meddle with that branch of business again.'39 In the circumstances, Siveright's surprise and dismay, on receiving in­ structions from the Governor in July to prepare an indent for establish­ ing one or two shanties at Fort Coulonge and two on Lake Timiskaming, may well be imagined. Whether he would go ahead with the operation, Simpson explained, depended on the final results of the Timiskaming lumbering business. If it turned out to have broken even, he would prob­ ably resume it in the winter of 1845-6, and if timber remained in de­ mand and Fort Coulonge were not sold to advantage, it might be profit­ able to cut the timber there as well.40 Ten days later Simpson informed the Governor and Committee that a parcel of the Company's timber, sent to Quebec in 1843, had yielded over .£4000 and that another cur­ rently being offered for sale was expected to bring about the same amount. While he had no exact account of the expenses, he admitted, it looked as if, in spite of the depressed state of the market and the Company's unfamiliarity with the business, the Timiskaming operations would show a fair profit. He was therefore inclined to renew them, espe­ cially since they would guarantee a large number of hands for the fur trade.41 Meanwhile Simpson himself had approached the lumberman who

171 The Coming of the Lumbermen had rafted Cameron's timber to Quebec, a man named Wilmot of Allu­ mettes Island (the Governor invariably spelled it 'Willment'), promising him a share in the business, if he would undertake operations in Lake Timiskaming on the Company's behalf. Such an arrangement would in­ sure economical management, Simpson assured Siveright, and if the Company employed Orkneymen on low wages to look after the cattle and perform similar duties, the venture might even be made to pay. It is clear, however, that Simpson's principal interest was the benefit to be expected for the fur trade.42 Keith had retired the previous year and it was to Duncan Finlayson, now Chief Factor at Lachine, that from London in November 1844 Simpson addressed his proposals for renewing the Timiskaming lumber business. A letter from Siveright, containing the news that the McCon­ nells were still maintaining their stations there and that Gilmour & Co. was investigating the head of the lake, had convinced him that effective measures must be taken to protect the Company's trade. Moreover, he was optimistic that the knowledge already gained, together with more favourable prices for timber and the advantage of having on hand a large quantity of the necessary supplies, might even make lumbering, if combined with the fur trade, profitable on a small scale.43 Meanwhile, a few days before Simpson's letter was written, Finlayson had addressed him from Montreal. The first year's experiment had lost three thousand pounds, he reported, exclusive of the Moose Fort charges, which were said to be large.44 Since inexperience had been chiefly responsible for the loss, however, future operations were likely to be less affected, but only if the conductor shared in the business instead of being given a salary. In his reply Simpson pointed out that although naturally concerned about the size of the loss, he was inclined to think it not so great as it seemed; the value of the fur trade must be taken into account, as well as the profits on sales to the lumbermen. Besides, if the complement of men at Fort Timiskaming were restricted to the usual number, the trade would certainly suffer. While the Company had for­ merly paid wages mostly in cash, extra supplies of tea, sugar, clothes, etc., on which heavy advances could be laid, should now be provided for sale to the lumbermen and Wilmot, or whoever conducted the business, would of course share in these profits. 45 In March 1845 the Governor and Committee reluctantly consented to the resumption of lumbering in Timiskaming. Although protesting their dislike for any other business than their own, and more particularly for the expensive Timiskaming venture, they conceded that the fur trade

1 72 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade alone could not support the number of men required to protect the district's trade. Yet even with the supplies already at Mattawa, it seems that Simpson was still not fully committed. Unless he could be assured of the services of Wilmot, or some other practical and well-qualified man, he told Finlayson, he would not proceed, none of the Ottawa clerks being fitted for the charge.46 In the end, an unforeseen development took the decision out of Simpson's hands. Wilmot went up to Fort Timiskaming early in June to scout for limits but on his return to Bytown discovered that John Egan & Co. had recently acquired licences to all the lands around Lake Timis­ kaming. Reporting the setback to Simpson, Finlayson remarked that Wilmot considered the Riviere Blanche area promising and had entered his name for limits there but that nothing further would be done until it was properly examined.47 In July, Siveright advised Simpson that the man whom Wilmot had sent to investigate the Blanche not only considered the timber too small but had found the river obstructed with driftwood, which would be difficult and expensive to remove,48 and a few weeks later the Governor notified Siveright that he had cancelled Wilmot's contract.49 'The provi­ sions brought up for the business is made over to the Trade,' Siveright commented wryly in a letter to Angus Cameron, now settled in Scot­ land, 'the heavy expenses for voyaging, Hay Making &c &c on that ac­ count, a dead loss to the Dist.'50 Opinion in the country was scathing; James Cameron, for one, termed the proceedings 'a completely bungled affair altogether.'51 But Simpson, as usual, managed to salvage something from the wreckage. At a chance meeting with John Egan, who was outfitting the McConnells that year, he obtained a promise that they would not interfere with the fur trade, either directly or indirectly, having already lost more than they had gained. Egan also assured Simpson that he had given positive instructions to his own men in the Tirniskaming area to discourage In­ dian visits.52 After the abortive 'demarche' of 1845 the Company returned once more to traditional methods to preserve the Timiskaming trade. Ration­ alizing the situation, Simpson pointed out to the Governor and Commit­ tee that, as long as the McConnells were the Company's only rivals, combining the lumber business with the fur trade would have given Fort Tirniskaming the advantage of a large number of men but that, with ris­ ing timber prices bringing in so many others, a single shanty was of little use. With wages so high, too, the lumbering firms would undoubtedly

1 73 The Coming of the Lumbermen try to prevent their men from being diverted by the Indian trade and, indeed, he had been able to come to an understanding on this point with the principal Timiskaming outfitters, Lemesurier, Routh & Co. Such a rapidly-expanding industry, he added shrewdly, was bound to bring down home market prices, while labour and provisions were now so ex­ pensive that notwithstanding the very large profits of the current year, the ensuing was likely to be disappointing.53 Simpson's predictions proved to be correct and for the next few years, as timber prices fell to a low ebb, the Fort's trade remained remarkably stable. Nevertheless, the lumbermen were there to stay and with the up­ turn in the market about 1850, they swarmed into the districL, pushing up towards the Height of Land. The Company had perforce to adopt new measures to increase its efficiency and to insure that the bulk of the Timiskaming furs should continue to go down to Moose Fort. These eventually included paying cash for furs, first to white traders and trap­ pers and then to Indians. The McConnells are mentioned in the Company's records well up into the sixties and in 1861 they built the first winter road into Lake Timiskaming from Lake Nipissing.54 By that time, however, as far as opposition to the Company was concerned, they were only one of many.

·12·

Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions

As civilization spread north along the Ottawa, Fort Timiskaming, the gateway to the James Bay country from Upper and Lower Canada, be­ came the centre of a spiritual kingdom not unlike its old fur trade coun­ terpart. Roman Catholic missionaries reached the lake about the same time as the lumbermen. On 14 July 1836, when the remotest Ottawa mission was no higher upriver than des Joachims, a Montreal Sulpician, Louis-Charles de Bellefeuille, arrived at the Fort, accompanied by a sec­ ular priest, Jean-Baptiste Dupuy. After saying mass (with Cameron's permission) in the Company's shed, they visited the Indian families camped on both sides of the narrows, waiting for the canoes to return from the Bay. A few days later they put up a large cross on the hill be­ hind the Fort, the site of the present Indian cemetery. 1 Although their relations with the Company people seem to have been cordial, Belle­ feuille may have protested against the regale, the old fur trade custom of giving liquor to the Indians on special occasions. Certainly he did so when he returned to Montreal, for the following spring we find Simpson, in a letter to Cameron, brusquely dismissing any possibility of abolish­ ing it. Despite the Company's own anxiety to discontinue it, he pointed out, the services of the Indians in voyaging were absolutely necessary and as long as they insisted on it, the practice could not be abandoned.2 Bellefeuille returned to Fort Timiskaming in 1837, visiting Grand Lac and Fort Abitibi as well. In October he died of typhus in Montreal and the following year Father Poire of the Quebec diocese took over the Tim­ iskaming circuit. He began to build a small chapel at the Fort in 1839, moving it two years later to a site below the cross.a He also extended his missionary journey to Trout Lake, at the same time intimating his in­ tention of going to Moose Fort and other Bay posts in 1840. It was then that Governor Simpson took a hand in the matter.

175 Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions During the French regime, despite the emphasis placed on missionary endeavour elsewhere in the country, no missions seem to have been es­ tablished in the Timiskaming area. Furthermore, there is no evidence that priests either formed part of the posts' personnel or even visited them. Certainly de Troyes' expedition of 1686 included the Jesuit, Pere Antoine Silvy, who had previously accompanied the French naval expe­ dition of 1684 to Hudson Bay and had also reached James Bay overland by the Saguenay River, while other priests, like Father Charles Albanel, who explored the Saguenay route, took a prominent part in the French advance south of the Bay. It is probable that the destruction of the Hu­ ron missions in 1648-9, the continued Iroquois threat to the lower Ot­ tawa valley until 1700, and the varying fortunes of the Timiskaming posts themselves account for the lack of missionary activity in the dis­ trict during the early years, while it seems logical to suppose that by the time Fort Timiskaming and Fort Abitibi were re-established about 1720, the northwest and southwest, with their apparently limitless opportuni­ ties for exploration and denser Indian populations, presented a more re­ warding field. In the case of the Hudson's Bay Company, on the other hand, the Governor and Committee's concern for religion in Rupert's Land was largely confined to insuring that divine services were regularly held on their ships and at the Bay forts, and that Bibles, prayer books, and books of homilies were occasionally dispatched for the use of the Eu­ ropean servants. Even for the so-called 'Homeguard' Indians, who hunted to provide food for the forts and were therefore more closely at­ tached to them than the Indians inland, conversion or civilization do not appear to have been contemplated. This was understandable, consider­ ing the current attitude of Europeans towards native peoples and the undoubted fact that the fur trade depended on the Indians' retaining their old nomadic ways.4 By the early 1800s, however, the Company's attitude towards reli­ gious instruction in its territories was changing. This was the result of two new developments, first, the increasing halfbreed population of Rupert's Land and the consequent concern of some European fathers for their children's future, and secondly, the rise of the Wesleyans and of their counterparts within the Church of England, the Evangelicals. This reform movement, with its emphasis on piety, humanitarianism, educa­ tion, and missions, both among Great Britain's poor and the native peo­ ples of her colonies, affected every stratum of society. In 1807 the Gover­ nor and Committee engaged William Garrioch for York, to teach not only the servants' children but also any Indian children who might wish

176 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade to enjoy 'the benefits of civilization.'5 Two years later Benjamin Harri­ son, an active member of the Clapham Sect, the inner core of the Evan­ gelicals, was elected to the Committee, to be followed by several others of the same persuasion. Their advent was speedily reflected in the Company's attitude to the prospect of missions in Rupert's Land. From 1818, indeed, the general possibility of missions ministering both to the Company's servants and to the Indians seems to have been accepted6 and when Nicholas Garry (like Harrison a devout Evangelical) came out to Canada to arrange matters with the North West Company in 1821, he was accompanied by the Reverend John West, a Church of England clergyman whom the Governor and Committee had appointed to the Red River Colony. Among Garry's own innovations was the founding of an Auxiliary Bible Society at York, which the Company supported. But even at the height of their interest in missions, it is probably not too much to say that, although the Committee were henceforth prepared to help all missionaries to establish themselves in Rupert's Land, presum­ ably as Protestant gentlemen of their generation, they preferred the Protestant to the Roman Catholic faith. Simpson, on the other hand, not himself a religious man, looked at missions almost wholly from the point of view of the trade, fearing their inevitable interference with the Indian way of life to the Company's de­ triment. He was convinced that educating an Indian spoiled him, while Christianization and civilization would inexorably lead to settlement and settlement, in turn, to the end of the Company's trade. Although recognizing that such changes qmst come eventually, i:i.t least in the more favourable parts of Rupert's Land, he was resolved to delay them as long as possible. During the 1830s, moreover, he was greatly con­ cerned by the activities of the Catholic missionary, Father G.A. Bel­ court, who was rallying the Metis at Red River and Pembina in opposi­ tion to the Company. For this reason (possibly reinforced by unconscious religious prejudices of his own), he had apparently made up his mind that Protestant missions would be less dangerous in the Moose Fort area than Roman Catholic. If there was little he could do in Cana­ dian territory south of the Height of Land, he could and would make a stand at Fort Abitibi. Reporting to the Governor and Committee on the Southern Depart­ ment in 1839, Simpson drew attention to the rapid extension of Catholic missions on the upper Ottawa.7 If allowed to go to the Bay, he declared, the priests might acquire a damaging influence over the credulous Indi­ ans and halfbreeds and, in his view, the best solution was to request the

1 77 Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions English Wesleyan Society to send missionaries to Canada sufficiently early the following spring to occupy that part of the country .8 As a result of his representations, three Wesleyan missionaries accompanied Angus Cameron on his return from leave in April 1840. Two of them were as­ signed to the Northern Department but the third, George Barnley, was to reside at Moose Fort, visiting Fort Abitibi, Albany, Rupert House, and any other posts within reach, The Wesleyan Society undertook to pay the missionaries' salaries, while the Company assumed responsibil­ ity for their board, lodging, and transport within the country. In addi­ tion, the Company granted the Society a hundred pounds to assist in paying the missionaries' passages to Canada and, in turn, the Society agreed to submit their reports to the Governor and Committee before publishing them.9 Simpson's instructions to Fraser in the spring of 1840 reveal his anxi­ ety to have the Abitibi Indians adopt the Protestant faith, now that a Wesleyan missionary was in the area. No assistance whatever was to be given the priests in building chapels or in any other way but Fraser must not, of course, allow either them or the Indians to know that he had re­ ceived orders to that effect; 'on the contrary let it be felt that you your­ self being a Protestant are desirous to promote that in preference to the Roman Catholic faith.' 10 But Father Poire was not to be deterred by the presence of a Protes­ tant missionary at Moose and after completing his tour that summer asked Keith at Lachine for an introduction to the officers on the Bay. Simpson commended Keith's refusal to comply as 'highly proper and judicious'; Poire's presence at Moose would only lead to religious contro­ versy, endangering the peace of the country and causing other mischief. 11 The Governor's instructions to Fraser in the spring of 1841 reflect his annoyance at the request. 'I am surprised to find', he wrote in April, the Roman Catholic Priest shews a disposition to intrude himself on the estab­ lishment of Moose, where his presence is not at all required, as the field is al­ ready occupied by the Wesleyan Missionary. You will of course afford him no facility to proceed thither, nor to visit any other part of the Country, and you mur;t exert your ingenuity to keep Guides and Interpreters out of his way and to prevent his employing the Indians in erecting buildings, voyaging, taking sup­ plies, or any ot,her way that is likely to operate against our desire of extending the Protestant Religion among the Tribes within that part of the Honble Company's territories. Should he in the absence of a Guide endeavour to follow

1 78 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade your Brigade to Moose, you must strive to give him the slip among the Islands in Abbitibbie lake which I should think might easily be done. 12

Simpson also took the precaution of warning Beioley at Moose of the possibility of a priest's reaching the Bay that summer. If this should happen, Beioley must discourage, and if possible prevent, his meeting either the Protestant families there or the Indians, 'as the inculcating a variety of doctrines is likely to do more harm than good among those ignorant people. '1J The affair of the Abitibi mission came to a head in 1842, when Father Poire complained to his superior, the Bishop of Quebec. During his stay at Fort Abitibi, he claimed, he had only been able to collect about forty Indians, the rest being intoxicated on liquor given them at the Hudson's Bay post (the only means apparently of keeping them away from the priest which had occurred to Fraser's 'ingenuity'), and although he had taken three mechanics along with him to build a chapel, Fraser had for­ bidden him to proceed on pain of the Company's displeasure. Such treatment, Poire indicated, was in striking contrast to the liberality shown him by other Company officers. The Bishop's secretary immediately had a personal interview with the Hudson's Bay officer at Quebec, remarking in the course of the con­ versation that the Bishop was determined to bring the matter before the Imperial Parliament if he failed to obtain satisfaction in Canada. The alarmed officer at once suggested that he write to Chief Factor Keith at Lachine. Keith subsequently sent the secretary's letter to London, to­ gether with a copy of his reply to it and a covering letter to the Governor and Committee.14 With the Bishop's secretary Keith took the line that it would have been ordinary courtesy for any sect, Catholic or Protestant, to have re­ quested the Company's permission before establishing a mission in its territories and that there must be extenuating circumstances for Fraser's conduct. Surely the Bishop was aware that there was already a Protes­ tant mission, soon to be augmented, in that quarter and it was the Company's experience that conflicting religions in the same area did more harm than good! Some fifteen years ago the Company had enacted standing rules aimed at gradually reducing the use of liquor in the few districts where it was still indispensable by substituting gifts of ammuni­ tion and other necessities, and he was therefore at a loss to explain Fraser's giving the Indians liquor, unless they had demanded it to cele­ brate their spring arrival at the post and their numbers had prevented

179 Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions refusal. Keith then went on to quote the two Resolutions, adding that the Company sold no liquor to the Indians in its own territories, or in districts where there was no opposition, but that it had to do so in self­ defence in those supplied from Canada, even though the practice was alike repugnant to its desire and interests. In his covering letter to the Governor and Committee, Keith specu­ lated that Fraser may have been mustering voyagers for the journey to Moose at the time of the priests' visit and have given the Indians a re­ gale to 'facilitate their engaging.' But the resolutions in question, he con­ fessed, were only in force in the Northern Department, although he himself believed they should apply in the Southern as well. Even in the Montreal Department more liquor was used than necessary and it would give weight to his instructions to the officers in the various districts if the Committee would signify its wishes on the subject. The reaction of the Governor and Committee to Poire's complaints leaves no room for doubt about their views. In the spring of 1843 they di­ rected Simpson to inquire into the matter when he passed Fort Abitibi. Should he find the charges substantiated, he was to convey their strong disapproval of any action on the part of their officers or servants which might tend to prevent the diffusion of religious teaching. In addition, he was to investigate first, whether the resources of the area would support a congregation of Indians and secondly, whether they preferred the Protestant or Roman Catholic faith. If the former, he was to furnish Barnley with the means of establishing a mission there at once, provided it could be done without risk of famine. 15 Yet despite the Committee's firm stand, Simpson remained unequivo­ cally opposed to a Roman Catholic mission at Abitibi. Early in May, re­ iterating the danger of collecting a large group of Indians at the post, he again instructed Fraser to try and discourage the priests by removing the Indians from the vicinity and refusing any assistance in erecting buildings. Above all, he was to afford them no help in going to Moose, either in provis.ions, craft, or goods, although he must be careful to give no cause for serious complaint. 'It was last year reported,' Simpson hinted broadly, 'that the Indians were kept by the Company at the post in a state of intoxication, as a means of preventing the Missionaries ob­ taining any influence over them, but that I am quite satisfied was not the case. ' 16 In the end, whether by design or coincidence, the priests won the day by creating the classic diversion. That same summer, 1843, two Oblates, members of a new missionary order to which the Ottawa stations were

180 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade being transferred, accompanied Father Moreau (the Canadian priest who had succeeded Poire) on his annual tour and it was soon rumoured that, baulked at Abitibi, they were considering building on the Canadian side of the Height of Land. Should they do so, Simpson recognized im­ mediately, they would attract Indians from the Company's territories, thus putting them in contact with petty traders whom they would never otherwise meet. He therefore hastily advised the Governor and Commit­ tee that, since it was impossible to prevent the priests from coming into the country, it would be best to make a virtue of necessity and allow them to settle at Abitibi and in other favourable locations north of the Height of Land. As far as he could discover, he added, they had strongly urged the Indians to remain faithful to the Company and discourage the visits of petty traders, although this of course may have been a stroke of policy to conciliate the officers. In fact Simpson's suspicions were unfair to the priests, for a month later Siveright reported that Father Moreau had refused an offer of the McConnells to finish the chapel at Fort Tim­ iskaming and build him a house, if he would say a word in their favour to the Indians.1 7 At the end of October 1843 Simpson addressed the Bishop of Quebec on the subject of an Abitibi mission. The neighbourhood's superiority in the means of living, he acknowledged, made it better adapted for this purpose than any other part of the country and if the missionaries still wished to establish a temporary station there, the Company would be pleased to help. At the same time Simpson emphasized in a letter to Fra­ ser that such help applied only to a mission on Lake Abitibi. If the priests wanted to settle at the Height of Land, he was not only to do nothing for them but make every effort to keep the Indians from them .1s The following summer Father Nicholas Laverlochere, a young Oblate of thirty-two, took over the Timiskaming missions. He was to remain in charge of them until 1851, when a serious illness forced him to leave the country, but he returned to Fort Timiskaming in 1868, dying there some sixteen years later. His grave may still be seen in the Indian cemetery on the hill which overlooked the Fort, marked by a granite shaft which re­ placed the original wooden cross twenty years after his death. He is affectionately remembered as 'the apostle of Hudson's Bay.'19 Laverlochere immediately set to work to build the Abitibi mission which, Simpson assured the Committee, would be open only for a few weeks during the summer. At that time the Indians could maintain themselves, chiefly by fishing, without exposing their families or the post to starvation. Fraser, who apparently had felt keenly the ungracious at-

181 Governor Simpson and the Timiskaming Missions titude forced on him by his previous instructions, went out of his way to help, even incurring the Governor's displeasure by putting in a requP.st for a carpenter. It was nevel' intended, Simpson scolded him in July 1845, that the Company should go to any extraordinary expense for the mission and nothing more should be done than the ordinary servants could manage.20 Until the chapel was finished, Laverlochere nevel' mentioned going to Moose but in the summer of 1846 his assistant told Fraser that the fol­ lowing year either he or Laverlochere would accompany the Abitibi ca­ noes closer to the Bay. In his turn Laverlochere inquired of Fraser whether the coast India11s were not anxious to see the priests. Fraser an­ swered that he did not think so, since they had had a minister for several years, but he lost no time in appealing to Simpson for instructions. The Governor merely repeated his former orders that, although Fraser should afford the priests every facility at Abitibi, he was in no circum­ stances to assist them in getting to the Bay, where their presence was not desired. 21 By this time, however, the Catholic hierarchy in Canada had learned how to deal with Lachine and while presel'ving the ·outwru-d amenities, proceeded to make its own arrangements. In May 1847 the Bishop of Quebec simply notified Simpson from Montreal that he would be send­ ing missionaries to the Bay during the summer; they would be loyal to the Company, he promised, and anticipated its protective benevolence towards them. Some weeks later Laverlochere, with his new assistant, Father Garin, arrived at Moose in company with the 'I'imiskaming, Grand Lac, and Abitibi canoes. Fraser later protested to Simpson that he had given them no assistance whatever and that, indeed, they had not required any, having brought with them to Fort Abitibi six Canadi­ ans and a Timiskaming Indian as guide. 22 From Moose Fort Laverlochere informed Simpson that all the Mata­ wagamingue, Albany, and Rupert House Indians, whom they had seen there, had expressed a wish that the priests visit their posts. Since these posts, as well as Fort Abitibi, could more easily be reached from the Bay than from Montreal, he and his assistant were anxious io establish a permanent mission at Moose. They would not need interpreters because they were both acquainted with the Indian dialects and if the Company gave its permission it would have no reason to regret its generosity.23 Simpson gave vent to his displeasure in his account to London of the priests' visit. Although very unwelcome guests, he told the Committee, they had been hospitably entertained, much to the annoyance of Mr

182 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Barnley, the Wesleyan missionary, who had made a formal complaint about their admission to the Company's buildings. But it is clear that the other occupants of the Fort did not share Simpson's and Barnley's views for Chief Factor Robert Miles, now in charge there, assured Sive­ right that the priests had 'endeared themselves ... by their extremely affable and courteous behaviour.'24 During the autumn following the priests' visit, the Bishop of Mont­ real had a personal interview with Simpson, at which he supported Laverlochere's application for a permanent mission at Moose. But the Governor declined to act without express permission from London, in­ forming the Bishop bluntly that he could not recommend it as long as Father Belcourt continued to cause trouble among the Red River half­ breeds. A month later the Archbishop of Quebec advised Simpson that he was recalling Belcourt and in the spring the Bishop of Montreal re­ newed his plea for a permanent mission at Moose. By this time, howev­ er, the situation had been further complicated by Barnley's unexpected departure for England, climaxing two years of increasing bitterness be­ tween himself and Miles, who blamed their differences chiefly on the influence of Barnley's wife, an English girl he had married in 1844.25 In the circumstances, Simpson's reply to the Bishop was a masterly piece of diplomatic evasion necessitated, he afterwards explained to the Committee, by the prelate's hint of appealing to the 'competent authori­ ties in England.'26 Although he had forwarded his petition to London, Simpson assured the Bishop, he could not, of course, expect an answer before May. Nevertheless, he had no hesitation in granting passages to the coast this season, in the Company's canoes, to the two priests, 'whose discreet conduct, since we have had the pleasure of knowing them,' he could not praise sufficiently. At no very distant date, too, he hoped to be able to allow them to winter at one of the Bay posts but he was afraid that a permanent mission, attracting large numbers of Indi­ ans, would endanger the lives of all by starvation. It was impossible to cultivate the land about Moose to any extent and the country provisions available were inadequate, without the addition of imported food, even for the Indians' present transient visits. Indeed, the Company's limited transport from Europe hardly met its own requirements and a perma­ nent mission would mean chartering an extra annual ship, a very expen­ sive proposition.27 In his accompanying letter to the Committee, Simpson expressed grave misgivings about the whole affair. The missionaries, he feared, be­ ing Jesuits (Simpson seems at first to have equated all missionary orders

183 Governor Simpson and the Timiskarning Missions with Jesuits)i would soon, with characteristic subtlety, root out the few grains of Protestantism which Barnley had sown and becoming all-pow­ erful, would exercise their influence to subvert the Company's interest. Moreover it was altogether likely that neither the Bishop nor Laverloch­ ere would be content with the compromise he had suggested and would probably request board and lodging at Moose for the two priests during the winter on the same footing as the Wesleyan missionary. To that con­ cession, however, he was resolved not to agree without direct authoriza­ tion, being convinced that if both persuasions resided there, religious strife would inevitably ensue. Meanwhile, if another Wesleyan were to be sent out, it should not be Barnley or any other married man, the Company having found it impossible to satisfy the European families of missionaries. 28 That summer, 1848, Miles allowed Laverlochere to go to Albany in the Company sloop, excusing himself to Simpson with the plea that Chief Trader Corcoran, the officer in charge there, was a Roman Catho­ lic and that the priest had messages for him from his family in Canada. Besides, he added, Laverlochere must have been aware that his journey would cost the Company nothing in trouble, inconvenience, or expense. This explanation did not mollify Simpson, who rebuked him sharply for acting on his own initiative, at the same time threatening him with the disapproval of the Governor and Committee. 29 But when, in turn, Simp­ son appealed to them, they replied that although they, too, deplored the pertinacity of the priests, they did not see how they could prevent them froin extending their influence, unless the Protestant missionary socie­ ties showed a dispo£ition to pre-empt the field. As it was, if the Moose station were not soon filled, they would have no pretext for continuing to oppose the priests' wishes. Once again Simpson had to yield, directing Miles to furnish Laverlochere with a free passage in any craft going to Albany but admonishing him not to provide any facilities for establish­ ing a permanent mission on the Bay.30 Although Laverlochere had always spoken highly of the co-operation and attentions of the Company's officers at all the posts, in 1849 he com­ plained to Simpson about the drunkenness· of the Timiskaming Indians while at Moose, as well as what he termed repeated attempts there to prevent the Indians from attending his services. His letter evoked a Jong reply from the Governor setting forth the Company's dilemna with re­ spect to liquor and the continual efforts being made to curtail its use. As the most recent step in that direction, he cited the abandonment that very year of the century-old custom of giving drams to the Lachine

184 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade crews and the decision to discontinue them entirely at Moose, substitut­ ing presents of tea, sugar, molasses, flour, or any other articles the Indi­ ans might fancy. As for Laverlochere's second accusation, Simpson declared, Chief Fac­ tor Miles had positively denied any attempt, by any person whatever, to influence the Indians in their choice of faith. Indeed the Company had no motive for doing so, its desire being to promote the moral and reli­ gious welfare of the natives placed under its care. It was therefore happy to co-operate with all Christian missionaries and its only anxiety was to avoid, if possible, a collision of creeds which, in its view, would inevitably counteract the missionaries' aims. For this reason it preferred to have Roman Catholics at one place and Protestants at another. If, however, the Wesleyan Society did not soon reoccupy its station at Moose, he would be glad to have the priests establish a mission there.31 In April 1850 Simpson made a final appeal to the Wesleyan Society for a replacement for Barnley, who had recently published in England a virulent attack on the Company. Whether as a result of his accusations, or the discontent of other Wesleyans in Rupert's Land, or simply for financial reasons (the official excuse), the Society refused his request. But shortly afterwards the Church of England saved the situation by constituting Rupert's Land a diocese and sending a missionary, James Harden, to Moose.32 This happy solution did not, however, end the Governor's differences with Laverlochere and the Roman Catholic bishops in Canada. He con­ tinued to oppose, and the Committee to refuse, their petitions for per­ manent settlements at Abitibi and Moose. In the case of Abitibi, Simp­ son pleaded the danger of starvation, while for Moose he foresaw both the possibility of starvation and the conflict of creeds. These were valid and formidable arguments and it is clear that Simpson believed them but obviously they were not his principal concern. At Abitibi what he feared most was the injury which the inevitable growth of an Indian vil­ lage would do the trade while, despite a genuine liking and personal re­ spect for Laverlochere, he was convinced that the priests' desire to gain a permanent footing on the Bay was aimed at the command of the coun­ try and the control of the trade. Otherwise, he reasoned, they had no real pretext for settling there, the backwardness of the season on the Bay making it impossible for them to reach the other posts in spring any earlier than they could from Montreal.33 It does not seem to have occur­ red to him that the missionaries might wish to work and travel through­ out the winter, or perhaps the prospect appalled him.

185 Governor Simpson and the Tirniskaming Missions Yet if Simpson thus remained adamant on the subject of permanent Catholic missions in the Company's territories, he had to give way in other directions. In 1850, conceding that the Albany Indians were now largely Catholic, he agreed to assist Laverlochere in building a chapel there for summer use, when the Indians could live on the abunda!)t wild fowl. He could see no objection either, to the priests' visiting such coastal tribes as had not become Protestant. Three years later he recom­ mended to the Governor and Committee that Father Garin, who had succeeded Laverlochere as head of the Timiskaming missions, be al­ lowed to spend the season of 1853-4 at Albany with his assistant, in or­ der to learn the local dialect, assuring them that the priests had con­ ducted themselves to the entire satisfaction of the Company's omcers, avoiding any interference with matters not related to their spiritual call­ ing and endeavouring to inculcate morality, sobriety, and industry.34 Indeed, although Simpson was always to regard any missions as anti­ pathetic to the trade, it would seem that he actually came to prefer Ro­ man Catholic missionaries to Protestant, even though as late as May 1851 he told Eden Colvile, the Governor at Red River, apparently in all seriousness, that ftoman Catholic teaching produced less solid and per­ manent advantages than Protestant.35 The Oblates, asking nothing more in the way of food and shelter than the country provided and as ready to endure hardships as the best of the Company's servants, com­ pelled his admiration and their cosmopolitan backgrounds made them far more congenial travel and table companions than the narrow Wes,­ leyans and Evangelicals. Simpson described Laverlochere to Miles in terms of the highest praise, as 'a gentleman of exemplary conduct and character, who has uniformly shewn himself most desirous to promote the spiritual welfare of both the whites and Indians and who by his lib­ eral sentiments and good judgement has conciliated the esteem of all those gentlemen in the Service with whom he has become acquainted.':16 The Governor also discovered that the priests were more realistic than the Protestants in their attitude to such practical matters as Sunday tra­ velling, sharing his own view that it was a necessary evil and sanctioning it by their own example.37 Above all, as far as he was concerned, they possessed the overwhelming advantage of having no wives or families to be considered or to cause friction. In 1851, when Laverlochere was determinedly pressing for permanent missions at Moose and Abitibi, Simpson warned the Governor and Com­ mittee that although he did not think the priest would attempt to settle on the Bay without permission, he might do so at Abitibi and that they

186 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade should decide on a possible course of action.38 Had the indomitable and persistent Laverlochere remained in the country, he might very well have made such a settlement but his successors were either less aggres­ sive or more patient and so it came about that the first permanent Ro­ man Catholic mission in the district was established at Fort Timiskam­ ing. In 1860 Father Pian, the current head of the Timiskaming missions, asked his Bishop's permission to build on a site directly across the nar­ rows from the Fort, on the Upper Canadian side of the lake, later to be known as 'Old Mission Point.' After two years the Bishop consented and in April 1863 Father Pian notified the Company's Montreal office of his intentions, requesting help in the undertaking. In August 1864 the first Oblate Bishop of Canada visited Fort Timiskaming to consecrate the site. The new mission was named for St Claude39 and the chapel com­ pleted a year later. In 1867 the first two Grey Sisters arrived. 'The Old Mission' remained the headquarters of the Timiskaming circuit, which extended west to Matawagamingue, north to Moose and Albany, and east to Grand Lac and its outposts, until 1886, when the priests moved to the new village of Ville-Marie on Baie des Peres, two miles north of the Fort. Joseph Tasse, a journalist in the train of a visit­ ing archepiscopal party that summer, has provided a description of one of the last feast days to be celebrated at 'the Old Mission.' The little chapel, decorated for the occasion with festoons and garlands, proved too small to hold all the congregation which assembled by canoe. Bishop Duhamel sang mass and preached a sermon in French; Archbishop Lor­ rain repeated it in English and the resident priest in Algonkian. A har­ monium accompanied the French and Latin hymns. After the service a procession of about five hundred ascended the flower-strewn path to the oratory on the hill, from which they could look across the narrows to Fort Timiskaming and the ruins of the first chapel.40 Immediately after Christmas 1886, the 'Old Mission' chapel was dis­ mantled and moved to the site of an old Indian mine on the northeast­ ern shore of Lake Timiskaming. De Troyes had visited this mine in 1686 and now, after a lapse of almost two hundred years, it was again in oper­ ation under the ownership of William Wright, one of the early mining prospectors in the area.41 In time 'Old Mission Point' reverted to its for­ mer state but today, on the Quebec side of the narrows, a tall, graceful cross, enclosed by a low, iron fence, rises to commemorate the spot where Father Poire's first little chapel once stood.

·13· The Threat from Canada 111.tensifies 1843-50

With the decline of the Canadian timber trade during the later 1840s, Fort Timiskaming was to enjoy a few more comparatively peaceful years before the approach of settlement finally disrupted its system of trade. From the fall of 1843 to 1847 the district remained under the reluctant command of Chief Trader John Siveright, a reluctance compounded of Governor (now Sir George) Simpson's open impatience with his limited capacities and his own retiring modesty. Almost from the beginning, conscious of his failure to please, he had been anxious to be relieved of his charge and had broached the subject to Sir George as early as 1844. His importunities increased after 1845, when the Governor took the Fort Coulonge district from him and gave it to Hector McKenzie, Finlayson's nephew and the rising star of the Ottawa. Unfortunately for Siveright, Sir George had no one suitable to replace him and year after year put him off, at the same time doing nothing to make his situation more agreeable. In 1846 Siveright even had to endure the humiliation of having his most trifling requisition on Fort Coulonge for provisions referred to Lachine ('it was found last winter we were too wasteful at this place,' he told Angus Cameron)1 and of receiving a long philippic on his pampering the young Timiskaming gentlemen by allow­ ing them butter when voyaging, 'such a thing never being heard of!!' James Cameron, reporting the incident to his uncle, declared that on the contrary the Fort's table had deteriorated considerably since Angus's day. 2 It was Siveright who relished corn soup for supper seven days a week so his tastes would appear to have been of the simplest. The son of Angus's brother, Alexander, James Cameron had come to Fort Timiskaming as a clerk in 1836. That autumn he went to the Fly­ ing Post to replace Donald McKay, Jr, who was leaving the service, and

188 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade two years later to the Timagami outpost. Finally, in 1839, he became master of Grand Lac. It is clear that he was an exceptionally able and admirable young man, who quickly won the respect and affection of all the officers in the Southern Department, as well as the Timiskaming servants and Indians. Siveright, indeed, not only seems to have relied on him for advice over the heads of the other clerks but soon come to regard him as his logical successor, modestly assuring Angus that James was in every way his own superior. James, for his part, described his chief as 'the kindest and best friend' he had in the country.3 During his first season at Fort Timiskaming, Siveright was occupied with revising the tariff and improving the buildings. To prevent the In­ dians from saving their choice furs for strangers, who were always ready to pay higher prices than the Company, he doubled the value of mar­ tens. Under the Canadians in the Timiskaming, as noted earlier, mar­ tens had been the standard to which other furs were related, like the Made Beaver of the Hudson's Bay Company, and even after 1821 the practice lingered. Although Siveright claimed that he had not altered the prices of other furs or of goods traded with the Indians,4 James told his uncle that the Fort Indians were now receiving four martens' worth of goods for a prime large beaver, instead of the traditional three, while some below the lake got five. 5 Nevertheless, Angus would certainly have approved the rise in fur prices for during his last years at the Fort he had complained bitterly about the disadvantages of the high Timiskaming tariff against competitors who undersold the Company on every article and valued furs at fifty per cent more.6 Another grievance of Angus's had been the calibre of servants being furnished from Canada. In June 1843, grumbling to Christie about the 'weak punny [sic] helpless Dwarfs' who had come up with the canoes, half of whom he would have to send back, he had remarked despairingly that the consequences might well prove fatal to the Fort's trade; 'a frown from one of the McConnells will be enough to make these dwarfs I cannot call them men run & hide themselves.'7 The shortage of reliable servants became worse as the years went by. Canadian hands, as James Cameron pointed out, tended to be more and more independent, run­ ning off to Montreal every summer and demanding more money and privileges, while the discontented frequently left the service and set up in opposition along the Ottawa. Moreover, in his opinion, no Canadians worth having were ever now sent to Fort Timiskaming. Yet neither he nor Siveright (like Angus before them) had much use for the Governor's favoured Orkneymen against opposition, claiming that with few excep-

189 Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 tions they were incapable of going after Indians and made poor voyagers.8 Halfbreeds, on the other hand, although close to the Indians and at home in the country, were usually unsatisfactory in other ways, often drunkards like John McKay, or lazy and inefficient, like Alexander McDonell and Angus McBride. For himself, James preferred tough, strong, hardworking Highlanders like his cousin, Charles Stuart, master of Trout Lake, the Grand Lac outpost. Stuart, who had come out to the Timiskaming district as a 'laborer' in 1840, had, despite a lack of formal education, soon developed into a conscientious and competent postmas­ ter. Able officers were equally hard to find, as the divergent examples of two Timiskaming clerks, John Wedderburn Simpson and Roderick McKenzie, so clearly demonstrate. When Governor Simpson engaged his wife's younger brother for the service in 1834, he had unflatteringly de­ scribed him to John George McTavish as 'a Stupid Awkward Lad,'9 whom he would not have taken on but for the fact that his father-in-law had a large family and that jobs in England were scarce. Five years later Simpson had placed John under Angus Cameron at Fort Timiskaming and he subsequently put in a spell as Keith's clerk at Lachine. When Cameron retired and Fraser was appointed to Fort Timiskaming, John Simpson replaced him at Fort Abitibi, returning to Fort Timiskaming as Siveright's assistant when Fraser went back to his old post. Although Angus Cameron had reported favourably of him, 10 no one else in the Southern Department seems to have had a good word to say for him. Apart from disapproving of his Indian women and numerous children, they appear to have disliked him personally and to have considered him grossly incompetent. There were several Roderick McKenzies in the Company's service but Siveright's clerk was probably a son of the Timiskaming clerk of ,LEneas Cameron's day, later known in the Hudson's Bay service as Roderick McKenzie, Sr. 11 In 1837 the younger McKenzie had come from Sturgeon Lake in the Albany district to take charge of the Nipissing post. At the time Simpson had assured Angus Cameron that he was reputed to be very steady in his habits, as well as active and efficient in opposition, but if this were true, his frontier station quickly corrupted him. By 1844 Siveright had made up his mind to remove him from Nipissing. Nothing further had been done however when, in December that year, in a drunken scuffle and apparently in self-defence, McKenzie killed Etienne Rastoul, an Indian in the service of his opponent, Johnston of Goderich. While considering McKenzie much at fault, the Governor and Com-

190 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade mittee authorized his defence at their expense and he was honourably acquitted after a trial at Penetanguishene. 12 During his absence from his post Siveright sent John Simpson to Nipissing. Simpson reported that the post's affairs were in a sad state, very few goods in store and a poor collection of furs. This revelation, together with continued reports of McKenzie's excessive drinking, led Sir George to dismiss him from the service, putting John McLeod, Jr (son of Chief Trader John McLeod of the St Maurice district), a clerk of only a year's standing, at Nipissing. 13 McKenzie meanwhile had sought shelter with the Company's clerk at Mattawa, an Irishman named Nicholas Brown, whom the Governor also turned out of the service the following spring, for harbouring McKenzie and because of his own convivial habits. But both Angus Cameron and Siveright considered Brown ill-done by, believing him, despite his weak­ ness for liquor, to be both a good trader and a loyal servant, while Sive­ right was upset by the Governor's leaving the Mattawa post vacant at the height of the trading season. Then, during the winter of 1845-6, McLeod married McKenzie's daughter at Nipissing without asking permission, and in March 1846 the irate Governor instructed Siveright to dismiss him as well, replacing him with a master from one of the outposts. 14 Since this was impossible at the busiest time of the year, Siveright delayed getting rid of him until he arrived at Fort Timiskaming with his furs. By the autumn, however, La­ chine had still sent no one to take the place of either McLeod or Brown and Siveright was forced to put John Simpson at Nipissing and an Ork­ ney servant at Mattawa. McKenzie and his son-in-law settled around Mattawa, forming the nucleus of a group of former Timiskaming serv­ ants who traded at Nipissing and on the borders of Grand Lac. Their op­ position to the Company, while not extensive, posed a constant threat to an undermanned district and James Cameron admitted to his uncle that if they had not been overfond of liquor and the fur market depressed, they might have secured a fair share of his trade. 15 Grand Lac was also exposed to an even more irritating kind of opposi­ tion, from the Company's own post at Lac des Sables, and James's let­ ters to Lachine read like a repetition of Angus's earlier protests about Fort Coulonge and Lacloche. James was equally upset over a change in transport of the Canadian supplies for his post. In the spring of 1845 the Lachine office had forwarded his provisions to Buckingham, expecting him to pick them up there, although he had not been consulted about the practicability of the route from Buckingham to Grand Lac. This, he immediately protested, was impossible for a large canoe and much too

191 Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 tedious using half-sized canoes. Furthermore, it would never do to send his Indians down among all the petty traders on the Gatineau. 16 Lachine bowed to his arguments and the following year had the Lac des Sables servants take his Canadian supplies to Riviere Desert.17 James's independent spirit was also displayed when, on two occa­ sions, he told Angus that, if the Company did not treat him fairly, he would retire and try his own hand at the trade. He was convinced that the Timiskaming district was going downhill fast and that an active and enterprising opposition, with some capital, could carry everything before it. The increasing scarcity of beaver and the alarming expenditure in provisions, at least a third more than when Angus had left the Fort, were cutting into the profits, while the Indians were becoming useless and lazy; when the old hunters dropped off, the rising generation would not, in his words, be worth a curse. Most of the clerks were unreliable, too, and the servants discontented, lazy, and disinterested; they stuck together and did almost as they pleased. 18. It would seem that neither James in his secluded corner, nor Sir George, forbidding Fort Coulonge to comply with Siveright's requi­ sitions without Lachine's approval, appreciated the speed with which provisions in general, and flour in particular, had become staples of the trade in a district invaded by lumbermen and petty traders. But, as Siveright pointed out, once the Indians had acquired the habit of using flour freely, they would go where they could get it and outposts like James Hunter's at Opimika, guarding the McConnells, were even more subject to such demands than Fort Timiskaming itself. Equally Sir George does not seem to have realized the extent of the growing demand for cash in the Timiskaming trade. In December 1845, he sternly refused Siveright's request for some, objecting that it had never been asked for before. Although Siveright might, he added, use any money he received from sales to lumbermen or white men in buying furs from them, or might take their furs in barter for supplies they wanted, the cash trade with the Indians had already been carried too far (presumably Simpson was referring to the lower Ottawa) and must be kept within its present limits. 19 In 1846 Siveright was made a Chief Factor on the understanding that he would retire the next year to make way for a younger and more active man. Whatever his private feeling about the uncomplimentary terms of his promotion, he seems to have been genuinely happy to have done with a troublesome and unrewarding charge, whose tribulations had

192 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade been intensified by two appalling disasters which the district had suf­ fered during his years there. The first was an epidemic of tuberculosis, the inevitable result of the Indians' increasing contact with the white man. It had appeared at Grand Lac in 1843, immediately affecting the recruitment of crews for the post's transport,20 and by 1847 had spread all over the Timiskaming district. The disease was not simply one of the lungs but also took the form of scrofula, or King's evil (tuberculosis of the bone and glands). The stricken Indians died by dozens in horrible circumstances, many, from weakness, lying where they fell, their sores a prey to maggots and them­ selves 'food for the worm when alive,' as James Cameron observed. Such a painful state of suffering, he declared, he had never before witnessed.21 In February 1846 Alexander McDonell, the servant in charge of the Timagami outpost, had to have himself hauled to Fort Timiskaming, leaving his station vacant,22 and when his contract expired that spring, he refused to re-engage, joining McKenzie at Mattawa. Although Sive­ right had no one to put in his place, another misfortune soon obviated the need to re-establish the outpost. The summer of 1846 turned out to be one of the hottest on record and forest fires raged all over the James Bay country, not only burning the woods but the earth as well.23 Among the areas most severely affected was Lake Timagami, where the fire overran most of the Indian lands, and where for the immediate future little could be expected in the way of furs. Tragically, starvation followed the destruction of the game and, together with the intense heat, aggra­ vated the effects of the epidemic. 'Alas! for Temiscamingue,' James Cameron wrote sorrowfully to his uncle, 'its band of fine Indians are at an end.'24 The Timiskaming trade, already in a slump because of the decline in the use of beaver for hats, was further affected by the large number of Indian deaths. In 1847, just before he succeeded Siveright in charge of the district, James Cameron assured Angus that, although expenses were now eating up half the returns, the profits continued to run in the neighbourhood of four thousand pounds annually, but two years later he admitted that the accounts current for 1847-8 had shown a loss. Al­ though the decline in returns was partly due to the reduced price of bea­ ver and the Company's discouraging its being hunted, the principal rea­ son, he explained, was sickness among the Indians, who were still dying at an alarming rate.25 If things went on as they were, the Port would be depopulated. Fortunately the epidemic reached its peak that summer of 1849, although it was to persist for some years longer.

193 Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 Curiously, the epidemic temporarily affected the popularity of the priests and was probably responsible for the state of affairs at Moose Fort during the summer of 1849, about which Laverlochere had com­ plained to Sir George. As James commented, the Indians could not help noticing that those who attended the services and took the temperance pledge sickened and died in greater numbers than those who clung to their ancient faith �nd drank once or twice a year. Although this circum­ stance, in James's opinion, was due to the fact that the Christian Indi­ ans collected at Fort Timiskaming and lived on imported provisions, while the pagans stayed mostly on their own lands, visiting the post only at long intervals, he was nevertheless finding it increasingly difficult to persuade his Indians to accept goods or provisions in place of liquor and unless its use were entirely discontinued, he declared, he did not see how he could keep them from it.26 The shortage of servants continued to plague the Timiskaming district under James as it had under Siveright. In the old country the current popularity of emigration to Australia was cutting off the recruitment of hands, while in Canada the new railway projects and other public works creamed off most of the available labour. James was again forced to leave Timagami vacant during the season of 1847-8, although in the au­ tumn he sent his young clerk there to supply the Indians and make a fishery. The success of the fishery increased his anxiety to reoccupy the outpost and when Lachine once more failed to provide a postmaster in the summer of 1848, he filled the vacancy with a Canadian servant, Moyse Levalle.27 One way to conserve hands and cut expenses was to reduce the num­ ber of outposts, a step already underway when James Cameron suc­ ceeded Siveright. In the autumn of 1847 the Fort's outposts on Lake Ki­ pawa and Opimika Creek were abandoned in favour of a central location between the two. The command of the new outpost was given to James Hunter, the Orkneyman who had formerly been in charge of Opimika, and Sir George suggested calling it Hunter's Lodge. It was described as being on Lake Kipawa but the name of modern Hunter Lake, which forms almost an arm of the larger lake, perhaps indicates that the post was located there.28 Similarly, three years later, James Cameron proposed to replace the two Grand Lac outposts, Trout Lake and Cawassicamica, with a cen­ trally located station. Cawassicamica (or Camicomica, as the Minutes of Council have it) had been established in 1842 by Savard St Denis, a

194 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Canadian servant, to prevent the Indians from drifting towards the petty traders on the Ottawa and its tributaries, and on the St Maurice. Angus Cameron's Indian map shows its site on a lake lying northeast of the headwaters of the Coulonge and Black rivers, but the modern reser­ voirs in the area have so changed the natural configuration of the coun­ try that it has been impossible to identify it. The immediate reason for amalgamating the two outposts was the dissatisfaction of the Trout Lake Indians with the amount of provisions they were receiving at their own post. Since navigational difficulties made it too expensive to take provisions into Trout Lake as an article of trade, the only solution was to build a new post at the head of naviga­ tion for large canoes coming from Riviere Desert.29 In the summer of 1850, therefore, James sent Charles Stuart, now master of Grand Lac, to examine the whole frontier. When Stuart reported that Kakebaugan Lake was not only a fine place for country provisions but the most suita­ ble location for watching all the various water routes from Riviere De­ sert to the lands of the Grand Lac Indians, James decided to build the new outpost there the following spring. Kakebaugan Lake (or Kake­ baagino, as it sometimes appears) lies southwest of Trout Lake on Cameron's map and from a letter of St Denis' (its first master) we are able to identify it as modern Bark Lake, southeast of the Cabonga Res­ ervoir. Like Trout Lake, Bark Lake is a common name on the Lauren­ tian Shield and this one should not be confused with Lac aux Ecorces, southwest of Grand Lake Victoria.30 Consolidating his outposts in the interest of economy and efficiency was one thing but a reduction in the size of the Timiskaming district was not at all to James's liking. In a private letter to Sir George in March 1848, Hector McKenzie urged the return of the Mattawa post to his district, Lac des Allumettes (formerly Fort Coulonge), asserting that four-fifths of its business was with lumbermen, few of whom Cameron ever saw, and that he was in a better position to watch its trade, the two posts being in almost daily communication both winter and summer. A few weeks later Sir George notified James that he was sending up a young man, named Rankin, to take charge of the Mattawa post and transferring it to Lac des Allumettes. Without mentioning McKenzie, he repeated all that officer's arguments in favour of the change, stressing particularly the great distance between Mattawa and Fort Timiskaming.31 James responded by appealing not only to Sir George but to Chief Factor Miles and his uncle as well. Reminding Sir George that Mattawa

195 Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 had been attached to the Timiskaming district in 1840, in order to keep the petty traders on the Ottawa in check, he inquired in what way the situation had changed, now that there were shanties and settlers in every direction and that the price of goods at Lac des Allumettes had been reduced by half, if not three-quarters. The Fort tariff, on the other hand, had hardly altered in the last thirty years. Mattawa, under Lac des Allumettes, could not avoid interfering with the Timiskaming trade and Hunter's Lodge, for one, would be entirely lost unless its tariff were made comparable. Even Abitibi and Matawagamingue would suffer, since large quantities of their furs were bound to find their way to Mat­ tawa. Certainly the Timiskaming tariff and sytem of trade would even­ tually have to be revised but he was reasonably confident that, if sup­ ported by its neighbours, it might carry on for some time in the old way, except for small reductions in the price of light articles, like cotton, twin­ es, and ammunition. As to the distance between the posts, Mattawa was, if anything, closer to Fort Timiskaming than to Lac des Allumettes.32 Angus strongly supported James's view, while Miles emphasized the young commander's conviction that Mattawa was of even greater im­ portance to the Timiskaming district than Nipissing but Sir George re­ fused to reconsider his decision, merely repeating to James his reasons for the transfer and informing Angus briskly that there was no trade in furs at Mattawa and that, as the depot for the winter transport, it was McKenzie's responsibility. 33 No doubt the Governor was right; there was no stopping the progress of settlement up the Ottawa and the Company had to adapt itself to the situation. James, recently made a Chief Trad­ er, accepted the verdict philosophically, assuring his uncle that he would do his best to protect the trade. Nevertheless.z. he predicted, in a very few years the Company would have to revise the whole Timiskaming sys­ tem; 'for when they sell the goods at Lac des Allumettes & OutPosts as cheap as in Montreal it cannot be expected that the Indians will con­ tinue to give their furs at our Prices here.'34 With the loss of Mattawa, the troublesome Nipissing post was left as the principal frontier station barring the way to the Timiskaming dis­ trict. The Company's most persistent opponent there was an Indian named Michel L'Aigle, or Dukis (alternately spelled Dokis or Ducas). Formerly in the Company's service, he was established by 1845 at the head of the French River, outfitted from Penetanguishene. 35 That sum­ mer Chief Factor John Ballenden of Sault Ste Marie had gone to Nipis­ sing to investigate Roderick McKenzie's affairs and, on Simpson's or-

196 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ders, had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Dukis to return to the service. Ballenden afterwards reported to Sir George that the Indian trader in­ tended to settle on Grand Point in Lake Nipissing, some two leagues from the island on which the Company's post stood.36 This peninsula, just east of the mouth of the Sturgeon River, is known today as Dukis Point. In the spring of 1847 John Simpson, master of the Nipissing post since the previous autumn, learned that Roderick McKenzie and his son-in-law, John McLeod, were also planning to build at the Sturgeon River and he asked Siveright's permission to move his post to the same neighbourhood. All the Indians going to and from the interior used the river, he pointed out, and the present site of the Company's post was out of their way. Besides, the river was a better place for fishing, farming, and even for firewood, the island being now denuded of timber.37 But al­ though Siveright gave his consent, Simpson's tardiness delayed the con­ struction and it was not until September 1848, after James Cameron had sent Hunter to assist him, that the buildings were sufficiently advanced for the move to be made.38 Meanwhile James Cameron, thoroughly dissatisfied with John's man­ agement, was preoccupied with the problem of getting rid of the Governor's brother-in-law, a delicate matter indeed. A possible solution presented itself, however, when it became evident that Thomas Fraser, after a long illness, was dying at Fort Abitibi. In January 1849, there­ fore, James tactfully reminded Sir George that the Nipissing Indians were a turbulent, drunken lot, not easy to control, and that John, al­ though a most economical trader and obedient officer, did not possess the strength to deal with such insubordinate wretches. Charles Stuart, on the other hand, was not only a powerful fellow who would take no in­ solence from anyone, but a practical farmer as well, and if sent to Nipis­ sing, he might even raise sufficient pease and Indian corn on its fine soil to support the post, without incurring extra expenses in wages or ne­ glecting the trade. John, James suggested, would do well at Abitibi, the Indians there being generally well behaved and much attached to their post.39 Thomas Fraser died at Fort Abitibi on 31 January 1849, at the age of seventy-two, and his grave, marked by the granite slab which his wife sent up from Lachine, is still to be seen in the old cemetery there.40 His replacement was naturally a matter of some concern to the Governor for, in spite of the post's high tariff and lack of imported provisions, the Indians' personal attachment to Fraser had kept them loyal to the Com-

197 Threat from Canada Intensifies 1843-50 pany; under his management it had continued to be one of the most pro­ fitable posts in any part of the Company's territories. In the end, Sir George did not appoint John Simpson to the charge but decided that James Cameron, being closer to Fort Abitibi than Miles at Moose Fort, should supervise its business, although it would remain attached to the Moose district.41 Had the capable and popular James Cameron lived, perhaps he might have been able to defer the inexorable fate awaiting the Timiskaming district, but in the autumn of 1849 his assistant, an Englishman named King, accidently shot him. A gun in King's hands went off within two feet of James, putting a hole an inch wide in his neck and just missing the jugular vein. On hearing the news, Hector McKenzie came up from Lac des Allumettes to take him down to Montreal, where he recovered sufficiently to accompany the winter express back to the Fort. But it was soon clear that he was far from well. At the beginning of October 1850, alarmed by reports of his condition, Sir George sent McKenzie to relieve him and James returned to Scotland, to die there on 28 January 1851, at the age of thirty-four.42 Again the Governor was faced with a difficult decision. Although only too well aware of the district's increasingly defenceless state and of John Simpson's deficiencies, he was encouraged by Hector McKenzie's opin­ ion that John could run the Fort on his own, and he finally decided to join the Timiskaming district to McKenzie's newly-organized Ottawa River district, placing John Simpson, now a Chief Trader, at Fort Timiskaming.43 For Fort Abitibi the Governor brought a clerk from Mingan, Robert Hamilton; William Polson, the servant currently in charge of the post, would remain until Hamilton learned the business. The returns had de­ clined since Fraser's death and Sir George blamed Polson's lack of en­ ergy and vigilance but it is clear that Fort Abitibi, too, was beginning to feel the effects of advancing civilization, a process which Fraser's death was bound to accelerate. As even Sir George admitted, the Indians were becoming more sophisticated and had acquired a taste for dress and finery; no longer were they satisfied with the more useful articles of clothing but insisted on having fine white shirts, superfine frock coats, and straw bonnets for their women. Unless they were liberally paid for their summer labour in addition to their winter hunts, he observed, they would have to be allowed to buy such luxuries on credit and they would never be able to pay off their debts.« The union of the Ottawa River and Timiskaming districts apparently

198 Fort Tirniskaming and the Fur Trade lasted only one year. The Minutes of the Southern Council list McKen­ zie as commander of the Timiskaming district for 1851-2, with John Simpson at Fort Timiskaming, but thereafter Simpson appears as chief of the Timiskaming district with no mention of McKenzie. Moreover, during subsequent periods of interregnum at Fort Abitibi, Simpson was, like James Cameron before him, in charge of that post as well.45

•14· Realignment with Canada 1850-65

By 1850 the situation on the lower Ottawa had reached a point where it was no longer in the Company's interest to maintain expensive estab­ lishments along the river. Three years earlier Sir George had abandoned Lake of Two Mountains and he now proposed to replace Lac des Sables with a small retail shop in the village of Buckingham. Its outpost at Riv­ iere Desert, however, would be retained as a provisions depot and barrier for Grand Lac, for even the comparatively isolated Grand Lac Indians, it seems, had become so accustomed t,o imported fare that, unless supplied at their own posts, they would hang about the Ottawa shanties. Similar­ ly, the Lac des Allumettes posts had to be continued, so long as they op­ erated without absolute loss, as a protection for the Tim.iskaming and other inland districts and as links in the chain of communication with the interior. 1 With lumbering again on the increase in the neighbourhood of Lake Timiskaming the future of that district's trade, too, was becoming yearly more uncertain. By 1851, although the McConnell threat was largely in abeyance, petty traders from the Ottawa and Lake Huron, en­ gaged in lumbering and fishing and often related to the Indians by mar­ riage, were fast cutting into the Fort's profits. These men employed the Indians in voyaging and in other ways, thereby bringing them into con­ tact with the lower settlements, and only by exercising the utmost vigi­ lance and paying the highest prices was the Company able to secure its share of the furs.2 In September that year John Simpson told Angus Cameron that no less than three different shanties were operating be­ tween the Matabitchuan River and McConnells' station at Opimika and that another lumberman had established himself at the head of the Long Sault (at the foot of Lake Tirniskaming), where he was clearing a

200 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade farm. Soon, Simpson remarked, Fort Timiskaming would be like Fort Coulonge.3 Two years later Lake Timiskaming was infested with shanties the length of the lake on both sides, Gilmour's on the west and Egan's on the east, with Rinaldo McConnell and his foreman, Baptiste Jolicceur, still carrying on very profitably at Opimika and two more lumbermen on Lake Kipawa.4 Yet the returns from the Timiskaming district in the phenomenal years of 1854 and 1855 kept pace with those in the rest of the country5 and in 1855, according to Charles Stuart, the beaver skins amounted to forty-six hundred, the most numerous on record. Further­ more, Outfit '54 yielded an apparent profit of £1082, of which Stuart's Grand Lac, together with its Kakebaugan outpost, accounted for much the largest portion, £863, while Nipissing had £139, Hunter's Lodge £61, and Fort Timiskaming and Timagami shared the remaining £19. Never­ theless Stuart was exceedingly critical of the way in which John Simp­ son was running the business; 'it would make any man griash his teeth to see the way in which the trade &c - is conducted here,' he told Angus Cameron in July 1856.6 It is clear that Stuart had no use for Simpson, despising him for his incompetence and stinginess and disliking him personally. But even if his opinion of Simpson's character were justified, he probably went too far in allowing it to affect his judgment of the modest changes which Simpson proceeded to make in the Fort's buildings. Among other im­ provements he had the cedar picket fence replaced by a new board one, with towering painted gates, the third story of the dwelling house light­ ened by the addition of three gables in the front roof and two in the back, a complete new roof put on, and the rooms rearranged. This ga­ bled and galleried house, begun in George McBride's time, was still standing in 1958.7 By 1856 the renovations were complete. The lower flat remained much as it had been, except that Simpson had converted the kitchen and bedroom into a large bedroom for himself; the upper flat now in­ cluded a drawing room and three bedrooms, one of them for Sir George. Stuart was particularly scathing on the subject of the drawing room, scoffing at its decoration and sparse furnishings. These he listed as a chair, two small tables covered with green strouds, one of them piled with old newspapers, a little day clock, good for nothing but to look at, a couple of volumes of Illustrated London News, a useless old accordion, a few cheap pictures against the yellow painted walls, and a rug too small to cover the whole floor, its deficiencies being made up by green flannel from the store.s

201 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 Yet there is something touching about John Simpson's drawing room, and certainly when Hector McKenzie visited the Fort in 1857 he was en­ thusiastic both about the arrangements and about Simpson's manage­ ment. He had not seen another trading station in the country more to his satisfaction, he told Sir George privately, while in zeal and economy he did not believe anyone in the service exceeded John; 'if he had more of the d-1 in him he would I assure you be a gem of the first water.'9 It must be remembered, of course, that McKenzie was one of the family. It has already been emphasized that Governor Simpson's qualified suc­ cess in centring the upper Great Lakes and Timiskaming districts on the Bay had been achieved at the price of considerable inconvenience, if not expense. The 1850s were to witness the inevitable erosion of this essen­ tially artificial alignment in the face of advancing civilization. The influx first of lumbermen and then of settlers introduced a more formidable kind of opposition, country-based and hydra-headed, which in the end was to undermine the Company's traditional methods of trade. But meanwhile the enormous and ever-growing demand for imported provi­ sions was straining Indian transport to the limit. With the disappear­ ance of suitable birch bark, canoes became both scarce and costly, while the decline in the Indian population from disease, together with oppor­ tunities for alternative employment, made the task of mustering crews more difficult every year. Moreover, the lumbermen and traders were followed closely by Canadian government agencies and the unpleasant discovery that customs duties must be paid on English goods, whether imported by way of Moose or Montreal, significantly diminished the Bay's attractiveness as a source of supply for districts south of the Height of Land. It was soon clear, too, that the increasing demand for cash in the trade must ultimately lead to the abolition of the credit sys­ tem and all its expensive concomitants, the posts themselves and the Company's paternalistic involvement with its customers. The more accessible Lake Huron and Lake Superior districts were naturally the first to be affected. Rumours of forthcoming changes in their system of transport were going the rounds as early as 1843. Al­ though the Governor quickly denied them, Chief Factor John Ballenden of Sault Ste Marie had in the interval taken the opportunity to make his own views clear. The imminent completion of the St Lawrence canals, he pointed out, would not only reduce the cost of transport from Mont­ real to the upper lakes but obviate the necessity of keeping up so many expensive establishments, while the returns would reach London several

202 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade months earlier than if sent by the Bay. 10 Miles, on the other hand, al­ ways the Governor's man, opposed any such change, citing the current saving of freight between London and Lachine, as well as the need to provide summer work for the Moose Indians. By 1846, however, even he was forced to admit that matters had come to the point where Chief Factor John Swanston of Michipicoten was doubtful about being able to engage sufficient voyagers in future, unless he could pay the exorbitant wages of the mining companies operating in his neighbourhood. 11 Early in 1850, apprehensive about the coming summer meeting be­ tween the Upper Canadian commissioners and the Lake Superior Indi­ ans to discuss the surrender of their lands, Swanston voiced his fears to Sir George. Even the servants, he emphasized, now resented the journey to Moose and if the upper lakes were supplied from Canada, it would not only save expense but render the Company independent of the Indians. Two years later, when Sir George finally decided to send up part of the Lake Superior outfit from Canada, Swanston confessed that every sum­ mer he had had visions of some of his goods and supplies being left be­ hind at Moose for lack of hands to convey them, so unpopular had voy­ aging become with servants and Indians alike. 12 In the spring of 1859, for the first time, the regular brigade of canoes for the interior did not proceed up the Ottawa. Instead, a number of goers and comers and winterers travelled by rail to Toronto and Colling­ wood, and then by steamer to Fort William, where canoes took them on to Norway House. The Governor himself went to Red River by way of St Paul, Minnesota. Two years earlier he had transferred the Lake Hu­ ron district to the Montreal Department, although still insisting that its furs go down to the Bay, but in the autumn of 1859, in response to the reiterated complaints of Chief Factor George Barnston (Swanston's suc­ cessor at Michipicoten) about the transport difficulties between his post and Moose, Sir George decided to discontinue all transport between the upper lakes and Moose. 13 In future, the outfits and returns of both the Lake Huron and Lake Superior districts, as well as Sault Ste Marie, would all go through Montreal, the furs being collected at the Sault, shipped from there to Collingwood by steamer, and thence by rail to To­ ronto and Montreal. The matter of the Timiskaming transport, of course, was not nearly so clear-cut, its communications with Canada being considerably more difficult, and Sir George apparently continued to believe that the district's defence justified the inconvenience and expense of supplying its English goods from Moose. As early as the 1840s, however, he had be-

203 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 come increasingly concerned about the mounting costs to the unprofita­ ble lower Ottawa posts of transporting the Canadian supplies for Fort Timiskaming and Abitibi. He first tried to remedy the situation by in­ structing Hector McKenzie to purchase more foodstuffs locally, and then resorted to sending as many as possible of the Montreal goods to Mattawa by winter transport. Besides being cheaper than summer and less liable to damage and plunder, he argued, winter transport would al­ low McKenzie to discontinue the use of canoes in the Lac des Allumettes district and limit his complement of servants to those actually required for the business of his posts. 14 In 1854 Sir George put forward a new proposal for the Timiskaming transport. The Timiskaming canoes, he suggested, should come down to Lac des Allumettes for the outfit, thereby saving the cost of winter transport between that post and Mattawa. John Simpson's immediate objections and Hector McKenzie's warning that John had enough trou­ ble manning his canoes as it was and could not possibly come so far with the means at his disposal forced him to give way at the time but two years later, when local conditions seemed more favourable, he returned to the attack. The Canada supplies could now be shipped all the way to des Joachims by steamer, he pointed out to Simpson, thus shortening the canoe trip to and from Fort Timiskaming by a day, or even two, and John should experiment with sending a canoe down there several times during the coming autumn to pick them up. He must, of course, consult McKenzie about the most convenient time, but it was altogether likely that McKenzie would be able to buy provisions more cheaply in the late summer than in March.15 Nevertheless a few months later Sir George had discarded this idea, too, and now proposed, as an experiment, to revert to the old system of canoeing the Montreal supplies to Fort Timiskaming. The following spring, he informed McKenzie and Simpson, he would send up two large canoes, carrying fifty pieces and manned by Iroquois who would be hired to make as many trips as necessary between des Joachims and the Fort. At des Joachims they would make up their full loads of seventy pieces with local provisions which McKenzie would collect there during the winter. These plans met a storm of protest from John Simpson, who centred his objections around the loss of employment to the Timiskaming Indi­ ans, but this time Sir George stuck to his guns, declaring that it was Simpson's and McKenzie's complaints about the difficulties of muster­ ing crews which had been chiefly responsible for the idea and that surely

204 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade they could make arrangements for the Indians to support themselves during the summer without recourse to the shanties. But a few weeks later, under pressure from McKenzie, he agreed to send the Iroquois only as far as Mattawa. 16 No doubt this attempt to return to the past was doomed in any case but, as it turned out, the Iroquois crews were unable to resist the ubiquitous liquor of the Ottawa. Accordingly, in Jan­ uary 1858, all the Montreal goods once more departed in sleds, those in­ tended for forts Timiskaming and Abitibi to be taken as usual to Mattawa, 17 a system that was to last until Sir George's death in Septem­ ber 1860 brought new men to Lachine. Meanwhile the Governor and Committee, long schooled in the necessity of hiding their returns from the Canadian public, apparently objected strongly to the changes Sir George had made in the upper lakes transport in 1858. His sudden death further complicated matters. Dun­ can Finlayson, by now a member of the Committee, came out to Canada to see to the Company's affairs and undertook to canvas opinion in the Southern Department. Writing to Chief Factor John McKenzie of Fort William and Chief Factor Barnston of Michipicoten, he explained that although the Committee's principal reservation with respect to the un­ deniably less costly and more expeditious Canadian route was the pub­ licity given Company operations, they also preferred the Moose route because it eliminated the freight charges between England and Lachine and because the Moose ship was seldom full either outward or home­ ward bound. Perhaps, he suggested, the difficulty of securing voyagers might be overcome by keeping extra hands at Moose, New Brunswick, and Michipicoten, or by employing the Albany Indians. But although Finlayson himself does not seem to have had any particular bias in the matter, Edward Hopkins, formerly Sir George's secretary and now in charge at Lachine, clearly favoured the Canadian route. In his view, moreover, 'the shrouded secrecy' with which the Company surrounded its affairs only made Canadians suspect either that there was something underhanded in them or that its furs were more valuable than they re­ ally were. 18 McKenzie's and Barnston's inquiries revealed that, during the brief period in which the Canadian route had been in operation, it had ac­ counted for a saving of sixteen shillings and sixpence per hundred pounds weight (three shillings from Montreal to Michipicoten as against nineteen and six from Moose) and neither approved of returning to the former system. McKenzie's arguments turned on the difficulty of secur­ ing crews and the inevitable demoralization of the Moose and Albany

205 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 Indians if exposed to the temptations of Lake Superior. 19 Barnston con­ sidered that a resumption could only be justified if it were certain to pre­ vent the inroads of opposition, and he was inclined to think that any mischief likely to result had already occurred. 'The Display of our Re­ turns last Year at the Customs in writing, & the passing of some from Lake Huron, in common packs, along the Line of Rail Road, cannot well be covered now by the holding back of Exports,' he reasoned. Further­ more, if strong opposition were to result, it was best to have the road to Moose from Michipicoten closed.20 Hopkins summed up the findings for the Governor and Committee by observing that the matter of relative cost was easily disposed of, while if it were a question of publicity, the end was hardly worth the means. In his opinion the Canadians, knowing almost nothing about the Company's business on Lake Superior, had formed very exaggerated ideas about it and more accurate information would serve to check, rather than stimulate, adventurers.21 The decision on the Lake Huron and Lake Superior districts naturally influenced the course of events in the Timiskaming district. Alarmed at the dimensions which winter transport had assumed and the depressed state of the Ottawa trade, Finlayson and Hopkins came to the conclu­ sion that shipping the supplies to des Joachims by steamer would not only save half the sleighing charges but allow the Company to purchase its flour and provisions in Montreal, the most advantageous market. They therefore applied to Chief Factor John McKenzie, now in com­ mand at Moose, for information about the cost of transport from the Bay to Fort Timiskaming, specifying the difficulty of securing voyagers and the fact that customs must be paid by either route.22 McKenzie re­ ported that the cost worked out to about twenty-six shillings for ninety pounds and agreed that the scarcity of hands would soon, in any case, make it necessary to obtain part of the Timiskaming goods from Cana­ da. Although three or four canoes, he pointed out, were sufficient to bring down the furs, double that number were needed to take the outfit back.23 Meanwhile Hector McKenzie and John Simpson were hotly resisting the changes proposed for the Ottawa. Arguing that, even if the rates were comparable, summer transport was actually more expensive and less satisfactory than winter, because of the loss and damage from expo­ sure and the frequent transshipments at the portages on the way up, McKenzie was also far from convinced that Montreal was the cheapest

206 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade market for all provisions; on the contrary, pork, flour, corn, and pease could all be bought more economically in Ramsay and Renfrew. His sug­ gestion was to send the dry goods, grease, and other Montreal articles to Arnprior by rail during the winter (using the Grand Trunk and the Brockville & Ottawa railways) and then have them taken on to Lac des Allumettes in sleighs hired from the local residents. The total cost, ac­ cording to his estimate, would be less than half the present winter trans­ port from Lachine to Lac des Allumettes. Above all, however, McKenzie opposed the introduction of any system of transport which would allow the Timiskaming Indians to frequent the Ottawa settlements and two months later he repeated his conviction that no reduction in the price of flour at Montreal could compensate the Company for bringing the Tim­ iskaming Indians down to des Joachims.24 John Simpson (who was made a Chief Factor that year) focussed his objections on the impossibility of arranging transport from des Joachims to Fort Timiskaming. At the beginning of the season every Indian in the district was employed on the Moose voyage, even though most of them were mere boys and the canoes always undermanned. Indeed, he pro­ tested, he had been on the verge of asking for help more than once, only to be deterred by his reluctance to introduce strangers into the Company's territories. Once the Moose journey was completed, gener­ ally in a month, the Indians were fully occupied in bringing up the pro­ visions from Mattawa and when that was over, the season was usually so far advanced that they were frequently unable to reach their lands before winter set in. Although they were willing enough to undertake the Ottawa trip, grog being the principal attraction, it was a fight every spring to persuade them to go to Moose and the only solution he could see was to ask the Moose Indians, who no longer went to New Bruns­ wick with the Lake Huron and Lake Superior goods, to transport the Timiskaming outfit as far as Abitibi. If they agreed, half the Timiskam­ ing Indians would then be available for the Canada transport. But such an arrangement, he warned, was unlikely to make any difference in the expenses and in his candid opinion the present system was the best and cheapest in the long run.2-5 In the spring of 1863 Sir George's successor as Overseas Governor, the newly-appointed Alexander Grant Dallas, visited the Ottawa posts with Hopkins and afterwards recommended extensive changes in the Mont­ real and Southern departments to the Governor and Committee. It was Dallas's (and presumably Hopkins's) view that the Lac des Allumettes post was no longer of any value to the Company in the present state of

207 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 the trade along the river. The head of navigation for steamers was at des Joachims, thirty miles above it, while twelve miles below, on the other side of the river, was the village of Pembroke, where roads and steamers met and where the Company had to have a clerk during the winter and spring, watching the Indians and buying furs. Dallas therefore proposed that Lac des Allumettes should be abandoned and des Joachims substi­ tuted as a trading centre for the inland Indians. Two efficient officers stationed there, and another at Pembroke, would suffice to handle the business. Dallas also advised that the depot at Sault Ste Marie should be given up and the Lake Superior posts divided into two districts, with head­ quarters respectively at Michipicoten and Fort William. Both districts, with Timiskaming, should then be transferred to the Montreal Depart­ ment and the Timiskaming district, like the others, supplied wholly from Canada, its furs to go out by the same route. In the decision to re­ turn the Timiskaming district once more to the Montreal Department, it is cJear that, although anticipating benefits for the district itself, Dal­ las and Hopkins were more concerned with the increasing vulnerability of Fort Abitibi. With less need for intercourse with Fort Timiskaming, they hoped, that post might be withdrawn from the Fort's orbit and more closely aligned with Moose. Four years later, in a further move to entice the Indians northward, the C-0mpany established an outpost on the Abitibi River, halfway between Fort Abitibi and Moose, known as the New Post. In explaining the reasons for his projected changes to the Committee, Dallas drew particular attention to the extent to which the Company's traditional ways of doing business had become outmoded on the lower Ottawa, and his words presaged the inevitable fate of Fort Timiskaming and all the other posts in settled areas. 'We are still carrying on our trade in the old fashion,' he wrote in September 1863, with fixed establishments, meant to be self-sustaining, as in the interior with farms cattle horses tradespeople &c attached. Such establishments in the Indian country are necessary and comparatively inexpensive; but as soon as settlement goes on around them, the cost of maintenance is increased and the posts them­ selves become really unnecessary; as our officers and servants can be more eco­ nomically kept as boarders in hotels, - in fact the servants can be entirely dis­ pensed with and the number of officers reduced. This is the proper way, I consider, to look at and deal with our Stations in the settled portion of Canada, which are no longer required as links in the line of communication. The simple

208 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade question to decide is, when the proper time has arrived for abandoning the vari­ ous posts.26

Once again, McKenzie and Simpson objected vociferously that the new arrangements would ruin the Timiskaming trade. But McKenzie's position was weakened by his intemperate hostility to Dallas and by his anger at the loss of Lac des Allumettes, about whose fate, he claimed, he had not been consulted. So great indeed was his sense of grievance that he took an early retirement in 1864. John Simpson's arguments were based on the contention that des Joachims, surrounded by 'canteens' and 'idle, fighting Yankees,' was no place for a quiet trade and that if the Timiskaming furs went down to Montreal, his district would be overrun with whisky-toting loafers and trappers who would soon penetrate across the Height of Land.27 Nevertheless, the Committee sided with Dallas, while opinion in the Southern Department probably echoed Charles Stuart's sardonic com­ ment; 'the moose voyaging is knocked on the head - & not before time. '28 Certainly the removal of the Timiskaming district from the Southern Department must have pleased Chief Factor James Anderson, recently appointed to Moose, who in 1864 addressed the Committee on that very subject. It is clear that he not only shared Dallas's and Hopkins's convictions but went even further than they in advocating radical and immediate changes in the conduct of the Timiskaming busi­ ness. Fort Timiskaming's liberal tariff, Anderson pointed out, was causing much discontent among the Abitibi Indians, its numerous servants bore heavily on a trade which seldom showed a profit and often a considera­ ble loss, and the difficulty of securing Indian voyagers increased every season. Now that supplies could be taken in more cheaply from Canada than from Moose, the district should be incorporated with the Montreal Department and its trading system completely revised. By reducing the Fort's complement of men to an officer and one or two servants and sup­ plying it with the best trade goods, a few provisions and cash, the Com­ pany would be able to abolish all credits there and buy furs with goods, provisions, or cash, as the Indians preferred, as well as to pay prices with which the small traders could not compete. If a reserve store of provi­ sions were kept, say, at Mattawa, where the Timiskaming Indians could obtain them on an order from the Fort, the Company could sell flour and other articles more cheaply than the lumbermen above Mattawa. Even if the Indians sulked for a year or two and the Fort had to resort to Iro-

209 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 quois or others for voyaging, they would soon come to their senses. The same system, moreover, should be extended to Grand Lac, Hunter's Lodge, and Timagami, while the Abitibi Indians should be warned that if any of them took their furs to other traders, they would receive the same treatment.29 Interference with its trade was not the only annoyance which civiliza­ tion brought to the Timiskaming district. Once Canadians began to ex­ ploit the territory south of the Height of Land, their government fol­ lowed them. Despite the fur trade's centuries of occupancy, the Hudson's Bay Company had no legal claim to the land beyond ordinary squatters' rights, and it now found itself at a disadvantage in the face of a generally unsympathetic authority and brash and defiant newcomers. The first government agency to make its appearance at Fort Timis­ kaming was the newly-established Geological Survey of Canada. In the autumn of 1845 its first Director, William Logan, spent a few weeks on Lake Timiskaming and Siveright, in accordance with Company policy as well as Sir George's express instructions, entertained him and his party hospitably, providing them with every possible assistance.30 Some years later, too, when Logan was planning a more extensive tour from the head of Lake Timiskaming to the headwaters of the St Maurice and Sa­ guenay rivers, Sir George had his supplies forwarded to Mattawa during the winter, preparatory to having them taken on to Grand Lac for him in the spring. Moreover, when Logan was unable, at the last moment, to proceed with the expedition, the Governor obligingly took them off his hands.:n Meanwhile Canadian government land surveyors were proceeding up the Ottawa and in January 1847 Hector McKenzie notified Lachine that they were expected that summer at Fort Coulonge and Lac des Allu­ mettes. He suggested that the Company secure titles to tracts of land at both places, to include all the area under cultivation, as well as ample wood lots. This would amount to a square mile around each post, or a river frontage of a mile by a mile and a half deep. For himself, he de­ clared, he would welcome the opportunity to settle the question of the Company's ownership and thus silence the clamour of his turbulent Irish neighbours. In the end, however, the surveyors did not arrive at Lac des Allumettes until after the middle of September and had no time to investigate the Company's claims that year, but they told McKenzie that they had instructions to survey the lands occupied by the Company (McKenzie underlined the word), taking notice of any squatters, and that they would return in the spring.32

210 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade Nevertheless, five years later, the matter of the Company's lands at Lac des Allumettes was still in abeyance, with McKenzie assuring Sir George that he would have them surveyed as soon as he could obtain the services of a qualified man. Whether the blame rested entirely on the government is not clear but certainly, in other parts of the country, official delay was often inexcusable. As late as September 1863, for ex­ ample, nine years after grants of land had been made to the Company at Sault Ste Marie, patents had never been issued and the Company was still without legal title. 33 At Lake Nipissing the appearance of government surveyors in the au­ tumn of 1856 indirectly set off a dispute about the ownership of a cran­ berry swamp located half a mile from the Company's post. That sum­ mer Sir George had ordered the clerk in charge, James Ironside, to have the berries picked and sent down to market at Lacloche, at the same time informing him of the probable appearance of surveyors in his area during the autumn. When indicating the Company's claims, the Gover­ nor then directed, Ironside should if possible include the cranberry bog and meanwhile should give notice in writing, in the presence of witness­ es, to any squatters on the Company's lands.34 One of the surveying party turned out to be a former Company serv­ ant from Riviere Dumoine named Portelance, a brother-in-law of the Nipissing trader, Dukis, and a bitter enemy of his old employers. It was apparently he who persuaded Dukis to complain to the Governor-Gen­ eral that the Company's men had driven him away from the swamp, while he was peaceably collecting cranberries. Alfred Thompson, the principal merchant in Penetanguishene, and Allan McDonell of Toron­ to, one of the Company's most aggressive political opponents, supported the petition. When Sir George heard of it, he instructed John Simpson to go immediately to Nipissing and investigate the accusations, enclos­ ing in his letter a list of questions which he wanted answered. 35 John's findings illuminate the Company's unenviable position in areas of Canada beginning to be settled. There was no truth, he deposed, in the statement that the Nipissing servants had driven strangers from the bog; on the contrary, they were kind and attentive to all. The land on which the Company's post stood had been a present from an old Indi­ an, who wanted a trading post built there, and since the Company peo­ ple had been the first settlers on the river, they considered themselves entitled to the swamp which, in any case, no one else claimed. They used it for grazing their cattle and when the water in the lake and river was too high, they cut the hay. Furthermore, not Dukis alone, but everyone,

2ll Realignment with Canada 1850-65 whites as well as Indians, picked the cranberries, although whether for market or for private use, he did not know. The Company had never pre­ vented the Nipissing Indians from trading their berries with Dukis, or anyone else, and it was hjgh]y unlikely that they would selJ them to the post at lower prices than they could get from the Lake Huron buyers who came to the lake.36 Hector McKenzie accurately categorized the petition as an opposition· gambit. Since Nipissing was one of the smallest class of posts, he pointed out to Sir George, its two or three servants could not possibly have driven Dukis and his party away, even if they had wished to do so. In­ juring by underhand means a rival who was too strong to be affected by open and fair ones was not uncommon in business. In recent years Thompson had been employing every device to secure the Lake Huron trade, only to be frustrated by the Company's superiority in capital, or­ ganization, and experience, while McDonell's ill will towards the Com­ pany was notorious. Paradoxically, although Dukis was a rival in trade, he and the Nipissing servants had always had a friendly relationship. It was therefore clear that Thompson and McDonell had got up the peti­ tion in his name solely for their own ends and that their ignorance of the Company's way of dealing with the Indians had led them into making charges which were diametrically opposed to its real policy.37 The situation was momentarily complicated by the intervention of the storekeeper at Killarney, a man named Johnston, who had bought the Company's berries. He claimed that he held a lease both for the swamp and the land on which the Company's post stood, although he decried any intention of implementing it, if the Company would con­ tinue to sell him the cranberries. It turned out later, however, that his lease was only for the timber rights and the whole affair petered out in 1857, when summer floods submerged the bog. Afterwards, as John Simpson had assured the Governor they would, proper surveys presuma­ bly settled the controversy.3s It was to be some years yet before surveyors reached Fort Timiskaming for the advance of settlement into the district was tentative and slow. Although, as early as 1848, farmers from the Pembroke and Deep River areas had been up looking for suitable locations,39 it was lumbermen, like the McConnells at Opimika, who first cleared land in the vicinity of the Fort. In the autumn of 1851 Donald Cameron established a shanty at the head of Lake Kipawa, some fifteen miles from the Fort (probably near the modern town of Laniel), and he also had a farm at Opimika. In

212 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade order to haul hay from the head of Lake Timiskaming, he opened a win­ ter road from Lake Kipawa to the Big Stone River, two miles below the Fort. It may have been his example, too, which brought the first real set­ tlers to Lake Kipawa for in 1852 John Simpson reported to Sir George that strangers had taken possession of lands near Hunter's Lodge and that presumably the lake would now be settled.40 It seems that most of the lumbermen who came up to Lake Timis­ kaming in the fifties were, like Donald Cameron, uninterested in furs, or like Jolicoour, Rinaldo McConnell's foreman, only traded skins which the Indians brought them.41 Still their very presence as an alternative market and as employers, paying with provisions and cash, inevitably upset the principles on which the Company conducted its business. By watching the Indians carefully, however, lowering its tariff and gradu­ ally modifying its traditional methods, as it had already done in the more accessible parts of Canada, the Company managed to retain its predominance in the trade. Nevertheless by 1853 even the reluctant Sir George had conceded the necessity of giving white trappers and traders cash for their furs,42 although he held out against paying cash to the In­ dians. In the autumn of 1857, however, James Bangs of Arnprior and his nephew, John Bangs of Pakenham, took two canoes to Lake Timiskam­ ing to make a direct assault on the Fort's trade and Sir George was forced to give in. Instructing Hector McKenzie to assemble a large and well-equipped party at Lac des Allumettes to follow the interlopers, and to go himself to Fort Timiskaming to consult with John Simpson on measures to defend its trade, the Governor promised to send up a supply of cash, including the gold and silver coins which the Indians preferred. The Company men, he emphasized, must remain alongside their oppo­ nents all winter, watching their every move, keeping them from the In­ dians as much as possible, buying furs as they were hunted and outbid­ ding all other offers, but on no account were they to resort to physical force and they must avoid any breach of the peace which might bring odium on the Company. The fact that a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Company's affairs was currently sitting in London no doubt lent urgency to Sir George's strictures but he was also wise enough to realize, as McKenzie apparently was not, that the time for strong-arm methods had long gone.43 It was the Bangses' invasion, too, that first brought Canadian cus­ toms officers to Fort Timiskaming. In the spring of 1858 James Bangs informed the Ottawa office that the Company was importing English

213 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 goods, by way of Moose, without paying duty, and a party under an officer named John Heaney was immediately dispatched to the Fort. On his arrival, Heaney announced that he intended to confiscate and re­ move all goods on which no duty had been paid, to which John Simpson spiritedly replied that although he would not resist the seizure of the goods, he would shoot the first man who tried to take any from the store. Simpson then showed Heaney the invoices, asserting that he was quite ready to pay the duty. After some discussion it was agreed that Simpson should go to Lachine for instructions, while Heaney consulted his chief at Ottawa. On his way down the river, however, Simpson met Hector McKenzie at the Chats. McKenzie had been in Ottawa, on Sir George's orders, to see the Collector of Customs and had managed to ob­ tain a letter authorizing Heaney to make over the confiscated goods to him on certain conditions. He and Simpson accordingly proceeded to Fort Timiskaming.44 Meanwhile Sir George, after writing a long letter of explanation to the Inspector-General, Alexander T. Galt, had also had a personal interview with him, presumably in Montreal. Although willing to acquit the Com­ pany of any intentional evasion of the duties, Galt considered that the Timiskaming officers should have entered the goods at the nearest Cus­ toms House, Ottawa, even though it was some three hundred miles from the Fort. In addition to the duties, therefore, he required the Company to pay the expenses of forwarding the party to the Fort but promised that in future the duties could be settled at Ottawa merely by showing the invoices, rather than having the goods inspected. To these condi­ tions Sir George had perforce to agree, hoping that the prompt release of the goods would remove any unfavourable impression which the seizure might have made on the Indians. Later, however, he was to complain to Galt that the amount assessed for expenses was too high. Since the Company had been paying duties on English goods for Lake Huron and Lake Superior since 1846, Gait's attitude does not seem un­ reasonable although, as Sir George quickly pointed out to him, the Com­ pany had never concealed the fact that Timiskaming district was out­ fitted with English goods from Hudson Bay. Moreover, it had long been known to the Customs officers at Ottawa, who presumably felt they were not authorized to levy duties at so great a distance, for they had never made any inquiry of, or demands on, the Company before. Never­ theless, the necessity of paying duty on the English goods brought from Moose removed one of the advantages of supplying the Timiskarning district from the Bay and was a factor in the change in its system of transport.45

214 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade The Bangses continued to maintain several stations in the neighbour­ hood of Fort Timiskaming during the winter of 1858-9 but by the au­ tumn of 1859 the partnership had split up and the Company had hired the nephew, John Bangs, for Mattawa. It was obvious, however, that the road beyond Fort Timiskaming was wide open and John Simpson accordingly took the precaution of asking Sir George what steps he should take, if trading parties crossed the Height of Land; some, he re­ ported, were rumoured to be considering it and boasting that the Com­ pany could not stop them. In similar circumstances in the St Maurice district, almost twenty years before, the Governor had instructed Miles to seh:e the furs of any freeman found in the Company's territories but he now admitted that he could not authorize measures like the confisca­ tion of goods and furs. John must rely instead on the usual methods of putting down opposition, sparing no effort to secure the Indians' fw-s, watching the intruders closely, following them wherever they went, and preventing their intercourse with the Indians.46 Soon after Sir George's death in September 1860 another change took place in the Timiskaming district; the Nipissing post (Sturgeon Hall, as it was known in the service) was returned to the Lake Huron district. It is true that, as early as fifteen years before, at the time of the unfortu­ nate McKenzie incident, the Governor himself had advocated its trans­ fer but the arguments of Chief Factor John Ballenden of Sault Ste Ma­ rie had dissuaded him. Ballenden had contended that the Nipissing post was too far from either the Sault or Lacloche, that most of its Indians hunted on the Timiskaming side of the lake and that communications, both winter and summer, were much easier with Fort Timiskaming, from which it also received its principal supplies.17 As the years went on, however, the arguments for transfer became overwhelming. Besides being beset with opposition and short-handed, the post suffered greatly from the inadequacies of a series of inexperi­ enced and incompetent masters, among whom Charles Stuart numbered John Simpson. Stuart blamed Simpson particularly for having intro­ duced a 'nefarious' custom of regularly cancelling all due balances on the first of June each year, with the result, he claimed, that the Nipissing In­ dians never paid a copper of their heavy advances and that the best furs went to the petty traders. The post was a serious burden on Fort Timis­ kaming, he told Angus Cameron, its losses never being less than a hun­ dred and fifty pounds and sometimes as much as three hundred.48 The opposition to the Nipissing post came mostly from Lake Huron,

215 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 more especially from Penetanguishene, where a lively annual fur sale and (after 1855) direct rail connections with Toronto attracted buyers from as far distant as New York. Alfred Thompson not only outfitted Duk.is, the Company's most persistent and successful rival, but other lesser traders who went out among the Timiskaming, Lake Superior, and Kenogamissi Indians. Repeated attempts on the part of the Company's officers to persuade Dukis to return to the service had al­ ways failed because Sir George would never agree to his terms, and al­ though the Company lowered its tariff and paid r..ash for furs, the meas­ ures apparently had little success. Just before he died, Sir George consented to further changes, namely, to re-establish the guard post abandoned in 1848 at the mouth of the French River, to supply Nipissing from Lacloche and to appoint an agent at Penetang to intercept the Nipis.sing furs on their way to market.49 Hopkins immediately implemented these changes but he soon came to the conclusion that Nipissing would do better under Lacloche than under Fort Timiskaming. As he saw it, the trade was passing qui­ etly but steadily out of the Company's hands and the Fort's old-fash­ ioned trading methods and high tarifls were as much to blame as the in­ activity of the Nipissing servants, who stayed at the post, waiting for furs, while their opponents ran after Indians. Furthermore, the post was closer to Lacloche than to the Fort and now received the bulk of its outfit from there. Without waiting for the Southern Council's approval, therefore, he decided to place it at once under the command of Peter Bell, the clerk in charge of Lacloche. Hopkins's sudden determination was an emergency measure, precipi­ tated by the news that fully half of Thompson's 1862 returns, amount­ ing to about seventy thousand dollars, had come from Lake Nipissing. Since the lake itself could never have furnished such a large quantity of furs, in addition to those collected at the Company's post, many of them must have come f rom other parts of the Timiskaming district, a supposi­ tion which their superior quality confirmed. If the drain were to contin­ ue, as Hopkins was convinced it must, it was better to make sure of the furs, rather than allow them to swell Thompson's returns and inflate the importance of the Penetang sale.54> Bell of course approved of the new arrangement, observing that the heavy cost of inland transport from Moose and the resulting high tariff had left no room for any profit at the Nipissing post but that, by receiv­ ing all its supplies from Lake Huron, it should have a fair chance of mak­ ing one. Hector McKenzie, on the other hand, took the surprising stand

216 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade (considering his position on the transfer of Mattawa to Lac des Allu­ mettes) that introducing the extravagant Lake Huron tariff into Ni piss­ ing would mean the ruin of the 'unfortunate' Timiskaming district,51 while John Simpson repeated all James Cameron's unanswerable argu­ ments on Mattawa, with as little success. The Timiskaming trade, Simp­ son emphasized, would not only be exposed to Lake Huron traders but to the encroachment of the Company's own servants, a threat more dan­ erous than any outsiders'. The Nipissing post had never interfered with the Lacloche trade, since none of the Lake Huron Indians ever visted Fort Timiskaming, but now it would be impossible to prevent many of the Timiskaming Indians from going down to Nipissing. lt was not true that the Nipissing master had been tied to the old tariff; he paid the same prices for furs as Lacloche and had been instructed to raise them, if necessary. Moreover, the loss of the post would mean that Fort Timis­ kaming would have to support a strong force at Timagami to protect its trade, while nothing could keep Dukis from getting furs, his kinship with many of the Nipissing Indians making it useless to strive against him.52 In 1863 Governor Dallas confirmed Hopkins's arrangements for Nip­ issing and so that post, too, passes out of our story. A glimpse of it, three years later, is a melancholy one. 'I found the Post of Nepissingue in rather a fore lorn state', a new Lacloche clerk wrote regretfully to Hop­ kins after his first visit there. Tis true that the dwelling house is pretty good but it is over a quarter of a mile from the store & mens house as well as the stables all of these buildings are in a delapidated state the Store threatening to fall in the river & the mens house sinking with rottenness . ... It is rather a disgrace to the Coy to have their estab­ lishment in such a state when a poor Indian in the neighbourhood (Duckas) is rearing up a two Story house &c painted, shingled & plastered. I actually saw casks of lime & coal oil on the portages for that purpose. He is displaying great activity this Summer. While I was at Nepissingue Canoes were expected to leave with provisions &c for Metaugum & Abitibie and other places.53

Settlement continued to move up the Ottawa and in May 1862, at the urging of Hector McKenzie, Hopkins applied to the Commissioner of Crown Lands to purchase the Company's property at Mattawa. He duly received the promise of an immediate patent but, as he explained to McKenzie, it would be a general one, the area not yet having been laid out in lots. With this McKenzie had to be content, although he contin-

217 Realignment with Canada 1850-65 ued to counsel the importance of losing no time in settling such trouble­ some matters as the encroachment of squatters on the Company's lands. 54 It was not long before Fort Timiskaming was facing a similar situa­ tion. As lumbermen continued to swarm into Lake Timiskaming in the early sixties, John Simpson became more and more concerned about the Company's lands. In March 1864 he confided his misgivings to Hopkins, reminding him that their claims had not yet been surveyed and that al­ though they had boundary fences, he was not sure whether they would suffice to keep out squatters. 55 A year later Simpson died, but Chief Trader Robert Hamilton, who succeeded him as commander of the Tim­ iskaming district, was himself soon warning headquarters about the danger from settlers to their valuable hay meadows at the head of the lake. Would it not be possible to make sure of them, he inquired of Hop­ kins, and so prevent encroachment?56 Hopkins replied that the lands must be properly surveyed and a plan and report sent to the Crown Lands Office, accompanied by an applica­ tion to buy or lease, as might be decided. He also advised Hamilton that, in addition to the hay grounds and the Company's property on the point, any other desirable plots should also be surveyed, since it would be easier to secure them now than after the district had begun to fill up with settlers. Yet a year later, in spite of his promises, Hopkins had still not sent a surveyor to Fort Timiskaming and Hamilton, alarmed at the news that the timber limits on which the buildings stood might be cut over the following winter, managed to have one of the government surveyors in the area make an independent survey of the Company's claims. In October 1866, he sent down a plan of the point and the hay grounds and the following February Hopkins applied for titles.57 It is somehow fitting that William Polson, the Hudson's Bay boy who had defected to the Nor'Westers o.n the Bay in 1804 and then spent most of his fur trade life at Fort Abitibi, should apparently be the first bona tide settler on Lake Timiskaming. In 1856, after a brief period of service at Fort Timiskaming, he settled with his family at the head of the lake. Hector McKenzie found him there when he visited Fort Timis­ kaming at the time of the Bangses' invasion, and was upset by the possi­ bility that Polson's two sons and his son-in-law, Angus McBride, might do irreparable harm to the Company if employed by the Bangses or any other opposition. He therefore advised Sir George to offer Polson a pen­ sion of £35 a year, at the Company's pleasure and provided he would make himself useful, and to engage McBride for Grand Lac. To this Sir

218 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade George readily assented and while McBride went off to take charge of the Kakebaugan outpost, Polson gratefuJly accepted his pension.58 In 1868 Charles Stuart, newly promoted to the command of Fort Timis­ kaming, reported in a letter to Angus Cameron that 'Old Polson' and his wife were sitting beside him, still hale and hearty. 'I delight to hear him talk of olden times,' Stuart added, 'Grand Uncle & the N - West days How things are changed.'59

·15·

Fort Timiskaming in Decline

The return of the Tirniskaming district to the Montreal Department marks the last major change in its history before its inevitable decline. By that time, too, significant changes had taken place at headquarters in London; in 1863 a new set of proprietors, interested in the colonization of Rupert's Land, had purchased the Company's shares at a price of £300 for a £100 share. 1 Shortly thereafter social and political pressures, exemplified in particular by the rapid advance of settlement, the union of the British North American provinces in 1867, and the surrender two years later of Rupert's Land to the Crown were to alter the whole char­ acter of the country and the fur trade. It is true that Fort Timiskarning was not finally abandoned until 1902, that Grand Lac was in operation until some time after 1920, and that the Timagami post, moved to Bear Island in 1876, is still a popular attraction for summer visitors to the Jake, but after 1863 the Tirniskam­ ing posts were evolving, rapidly or gradually as the case might be, into something quite different from the fur trading posts of the past two cen­ tures. Although their raison d'etre was still to collect furs, they became in time, like their counterparts on the lower Ottawa, general stores where Indians, lumbermen, trappers, and settlers bought what they wanted with furs or cash. More reputable than their first fly-by-night competitors, they also retained a certain hold on the Indians' loyalty, by virtue of long custom and fair treatment, but eventually, as settlers con­ tinued to press on northward, as furs became scarcer, as more substan­ tial merchants set up shop, and as their own locations were bypassed, it was no longer worth while to maintain them. In the case of Fort Tirniskaming itself the transition was fairly rapid and it will not be amiss, by way of summing up, to consider briefly its

220 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade fortunes after 1863. When Chief Trader Robert Hamilton succeeded John Simpson as commander of the district in 1865, he found a van­ guard of settlers already on the lake. In a letter to Angus Cameron a year later Charles Stuart compared the area around the Fort to Fort Coulonge twenty-five years before, lumbermen, squatters, and tavern keepers the length of the lake on both sides, innumerable trappers and traders, and the Indians all 'run Abouts.'2 Yet as late as September 1865, Edward Hopkins could assure the Committee that the district's trade had so far been little injured, the outposts having effectively checked the desultory inroads of petty traders. Nevertheless, he admitted that the difficulties of transport and supply, hitherto such serious obstacles to strangers, were now being overcome, while the known mineral wealth and abundant fisheries of Lake Superior and the rich timber lands of Timiskaming, to say nothing of the encouragement offered by the Cana­ dian government, were rapidly focussing public attention on both dis­ tricts. Paradoxically, he added, furs were plentiful and the Montreal De­ partment returns for 1864 the largest since the coalition, amounting to £65,000 sterling with an apparent profit of $80,000, of which Timiskaming's share was £9200 in furs and £1900 in profits.3 Again in 1866, Hopkins reported to London that, even though faced with more active opposition resulting from easier access to the district, Hamilton was managing to hold his own, and a year later he pointed out that, in contrast to the two outfits immediately preceding Timiskaming's transfer to the Montreal Department, which had barely cleared expenses, its returns for 1866-7 were $43,618 with a profit of $16,317. At the same time, he warned, it was primarily a beaver district and unless that fur maintained a fair price, its future was uncertain.4 Charles Stuart, who had become a Chief Trader in 1866, rejoiced over the district's renewed prosperity. 'The apparent gain (& the real too) is considerably over that of last year,' he wrote to Angus Cameron in Octo­ ber 1867. The Temisgue- Returns were good - those of Temagaming never so good - H­ Lodge a considerable increase notwithstanding an unusual heavy expenditure Grand Lac far a head of any year yet on record Poor late James turned out 24 Packs in '47 - his last year there - The following year (my first) I turned out but 21 - from that time, however, the increase was steady untill this year when we turned out 82.

'Grand Lac is my place,' he ended proprietorily, 'of which I am verry

221 Fort Timiskaming in Decline proud & will leave it with regret It is now the best paying single Post on the frontiere from Mingan to Rainy Lake.'5 The newcomers on Lake Timiskaming were largely (to quote Hamilton) 'broken-down lumberers,' men in a small way of business who had failed to make a go of it and had settled down to farm and trade furs, usually for liquor. Such was the shantyman, Meech, at Opimika, of whom John Simpson had complained shortly before his death. Although quite will­ ing to sell his furs to the Company, he would not accept its prices, hop­ ing to do better down the river. During Hamilton's first winter at the Fort, Meech and another independent, a former Norwegian servant of the Company, were pressing hard on Hunter's Lodge, while two other Norwegians, one of whom had served at the Timagami outpost for sev­ eral years, were trading on the Matabitchuan River. Above the Fort, near ile du Chef, another ex-lumberman, named Piche, had settled on a beaver meadow where the Company was accustomed to pasture its cat­ tle and cut hay. By offering whisky and higher prices, he attracted some of the Abitibi Indians who brought him any furs they had left after pay­ ing their debts to the Company. Unable to dislodge him legally, Hamil­ ton sent two servants to build a house beside him and clear land. Their close surveillance soon put him out of business but he continued to farm and trade as agent for T. & W. Murray of Pembroke, a firm which was very active along the Ottawa and up the Dumoine.6 As the petty traders pushed beyond Fort Timiskaming, Abitibi re­ placed it as the frontier defence post for the Company's inland districts and Hamilton was increasingly concerned about its future. Not only was the servant in charge, John Garton, incapable of keeping his Indians from visiting the traders on Lake Timiskaming but he was himself anx­ ious either to have a superior officer or be moved to a less crucial post. Of the postmasters available in the Timiskaming district Stuart was the ob­ vious choice, but Hamilton could not spare him from Grand Lac, which was now heavily assailed from Riviere Desert and the Dumoine.7 The most serious threat to Abitibi's trade, as well as to the Kenogam­ issi River district (Matawagamingue and the Flying Post), came from the Company's old opponent at Nipissing, Dukis, and the fact that Gar­ ton was his brother-in-law added to Hamilton's worries. During the win­ ter of 1864-5 Dukis eluded the Company's men and penetrated almost to Matawagamingue, while the following season he had two parties out, one in the direction of Timagami and the other towards Matawaga­ mingue. In order to keep tab on him and the Norwegians, Hamilton dis-

222 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade patched two hands in the autumn of 1865 to establish a temporary out­ post on Matachewan Lake but a few weeks later, when Walter Faries and two other servants arrived from Matawagamingue with the same object in view, he withdrew them. He afterwards regretted having done so, declaring that Faries had made 'a regular bungle' of the business. In 1867, William Stuart (Charles's brother), formerly of Little Whale River, was put in charge of the Matachewan outpost and, with Faries and two other servants, succeeded in nullifying the opposition of Dukis and his four Nipissing Indian partners. One of the drawbacks of Matachewan as an outpost of Matawagamingue, however, had turned out to be the difficulty and expense of getting its flour from Moose and in January 1868 Hamilton offered to supply it from Fort Timiskaming.8 William Stuart was transferred to the Northern Department in 1868 and, on his way through Montreal, discussed Matachewan's future with Hopkins. Now that Dukis and other trappers and traders had found their way into the Kenogamissi River district, it would always be sub­ ject to inroads from Canada, Stuart pointed out, and in his opinion, whether the Matachewan outpost remained attached to Matawaga­ mingue or was transferred to Fort Timiskaming, it should be made a permanent settlement, supplied by the cheaper Ottawa route. If opposi­ tion parties were not met at Matachewan, he emphasized, they would soon get through to Abitibi, since Matawagamingue still operated in the old-fashioned way and was completely unable to meet any extra de­ mands on its resources.9 Apparently Hopkins heeded Stuart's advice. Although Matachewan remained an outpost of Matawagamingue, it soon became, with Timaga­ mi, a key frontier post in the defence of the Company's inland districts. Both were to survive Fort Timiskaming by many years. As time went on and 'Old Duckas' himself stayed close to his Nipissing headquarters, his two sons conducted the trade in the interior, Alexander settling in 1876 beside the Company's new post on Bear Island in Lake Timagami and his brother at Matachewan. 10 In 1868 Hamilton, now a Chief Factor, went to the Northern Depart­ ment and Charles Stuart became commander of the Timiskaming dis­ trict. That same year, in response to the wishes of the settlers, Fort Tim­ iskaming was constituted a postoffice and the government followed its usual practice along the lower river by offering him the postmastership and contract for carrying the mails. For forty dollars quarterly Stuart started from Mattawa on the fourth or fifth of every month to bring the

223 Fort Timiskaming in Decline mail up to Fort Timiskaming. The following year the Northern Tele­ graph reached des Joachims, William Spence, master of the Company's post there, being appointed telegraphist, and it was the Company's hope that when the line was completed to Mattawa during the summer of 1871, the key would be installed in its building there. In 1876 weekly mails were in operation between Mattawa and Fort Timiskaming but the Company was maintaining its usual packet service to the interior posts and James Bay, the winter one leaving Montreal about the first of January and the spring not later than the twentieth of May.11 Despite the transport arrangements of 1863, supply problems continued to plague the Timiskaming district. When Hopkins visited the Fort for the first time in the summer of 1865, Hamilton was new to his job and uncertain whether he would be able to persuade his Indians to bring up the outfit from des Joachims. It was therefore decided to carry on with the old system of winter transport to Mattawa for another year. The two officers were also concerned with finding a more economical and direct route to Grand Lac, a matter to which Hamilton had already drawn Hopkins's attention. Hitherto the only alternative to the Ottawa River route had been by way of Riviere Desert, which James Cameron had de­ clared impossible for large canoes and to which both John Simpson and Hector McKenzie had objected, McKenzie pronouncing it 'a tedious roundabout way' of sending in heavy articles like corn, pease, and flour. 12 By the following summer, however, when Hopkins again visited Fort Timiskaming, Hamilton was advocating winter transport all the way to Lake Timiskaming. That was the method the lumbermen used, he pointed out, and if the Company were to adopt it, the whole district could be supplied more quickly and easily. Agreeing to experiment on a limited scale, Hopkins promised to send a consignment of goods and pro­ visions for Hunter's Lodge and Grand Lac to Lake Kipawa during the winter and another for forts Timiskaming and Abitibi, to 'Meron's Farm' at the Long Sault. When he returned to Montreal, however, he discovered that it would be impossible to ship the Fort Timiskaming flour to des Joachims that autumn and Hamilton consented to fetch his own outfit by water if Hopkins would supply Hunter's Lodge and Grand Lac as arranged. 13 Once winter transport for the district had been decided on, Hopkins had the unenviable task of engaging capable and responsible hauliers at a reasonable rate. He preferred the Montreal firms with which the Com­ pany was accustomed to dealing, arguing that the English goods had to

224 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade come from Montreal in any case, and that reliable men were not only scarce along the Ottawa but might use their knowledge of the route to the Company's detriment. 11 Price, as always, was a thorny point, while the contractors who brought up the goods and provisions in 1868 complained bitterly of the hazards of the road between Mattawa and Lake Timiskaming. There were fears, too, that they might not be able to handle the large quanti­ ties of pork and flour required and Hamilton suggested that the excess should be sent to Sand Point by the Brockville & Ottawa Railway. In his opinion, moreover, this method was much better than using sleighs all the way from Montreal, not only for bringing up the outfits but for ship­ ping the furs. The managers of the line, he assured Hopkins, were anx­ ious to secure the Company's business and would presumably offer very favourable rates, while the new route would not only eliminate numer­ ous transshipments but avoid the long portage at Ottawa and 'that vil­ lainous place at the Shaws.' 15 When these proposals were adopted, hiring Montreal contractors was no longer practicable and in 1869, despite Hopkins's misgivings, the hauling contract was awarded to Noah Timmins of Mattawa. Although a long-standing opponent of the Company, who had already been up to Lake Timiskaming looking for a place to build a store, he seems to have been well qualified for the job; Charles Stuart, indeed, went so far as to declare that no one could handle it so well and profitably as Timmins. 16 Even in the most favourable of winters, however, the journey was a daunting and discouraging one and the contractors for 1870, McNaugh­ ton & Murphy of Sand Point, disastrously failed to complete it. More­ over the expense, on a per pound basis, rose steadily from the first year, although partly the result, it is true, of an increase in the price of flour and other provisions, as well as the cost of transport. But canoeing on a large scale was now gone for good along the lower Ottawa, apparently re­ gretted by no one, and soon the colourful spectacle of flotillas from Fort Timiskaming, which had so impressed young Colin Rankin when he had first taken over the Mattawa post, would vanish entirely. 'Two large ca­ noes arrived from Temiscamingue,' Rankin had confided to his private journal in the spring of 1848, 'what strapping fine looking Voyageurs real tete de Bull looking chaps - and the flashy Caps with an ostrich feather waving therefrom - very dashing I can assure you, how active and so ready to their Boss - but Listen - In one of Those canoes - They had a cow and Her calf - she I'm certain found Her stable roomy enough - having run no less than ten bad rapids.' 17

225 Fort Timiskaming in Decline Although winter transport all the way to Lake Timiskaming helped to solve the Company's logistic problems, it could do little for prospective settlers with small means, who must perforce come in during the sum­ mer if they were to have adequate shelter before the weather deteriorat­ ed. The rapids between Mattawa and the foot of the lake, where the river drops sharply in a comparatively short distance, were still formida­ ble, indeed notorious, obstacles. Des E rables was regarded as the most dangerous and the Long Sault, the most laborious, but even so experi­ enced a canoeist as Rinaldo McConnell had drowned in the Cave in 1864 and all had their share of treachery and tedium. To overcome these difficulties became the goal of those interested in the colonization of the Timiskaming area. Organized settlement on Lake Timiskaming came about indirectly through the Oblates who, after building the 'Old Mission' opposite the Fort in 1863, cleared a small farm there. Later they expanded their farming operations in a more favourable area on the Quebec side of the lake at modern Baie des Peres, above the Fort. Their enthusiasm for the agricultural possibilities of the country infected their Bishops, who made periodic visits to the Timiskaming missions, while the extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Mattawa after 1880 increased the lake's at­ tractions for settlers. In 1882, therefore, Monseigneur Duhamel, who had been up to Timiskaming and Abitibi the previous year, sent Father C.A. Paradis to investigate the country. 18 Paradis was ecstatic about the prospects for settlement on Lake Tim­ iskaming and he proposed an ingenious solution for getting rid of the rapids below the lake. By removing some of the stones forming the first two stretches of the Long Sault and building a dam at des l!;rables, he suggested, they could lower the level of Lake Timiskaming by twenty­ two feet and raise that of the Ottawa River by thirty-two, thus drown­ ing the Long Sault and the Montagne rapids and providing uninter­ rupted navigation from des Erables to the head of Lake Timiskaming. An extra dividend, he pointed out, would be the uncovering of more of the fertile land at the head of the lake, 'the Eden of Timiskaming,' while below the lake only seven miles of railway would be needed to link des Erables with the Canadian Pacific at Mattawa.t9 Unfortunately for Paradis' dreams, the government engineers who in­ vestigated his proposals in the summer of 1885 rejected them on grounds of expense, but he had meanwhile been busy in other directions. As a re­ sult of his urgings Father Gendreau, Procureur (Proctor) of the College of Ottawa, had visited the Jake in 1883 and on his return home, had or-

226 Fort Timiskaming and the Fur Trade ganized the Colonization Society of Timiskaming under the patronage of the Bishops of Ottawa and Pontiac. Its aim was to bring settlers to the northern part of the lake, particularly the new townships of Duha­ mel and Guigues on the Quebec side, and in order to conquer the rapids below the lake, it proposed to construct a series of tramways on the por­ tages, connected by bateaux or small steamers.20 Already in 1882 Olivier Latour, a Quebec lumberman, had launched the first steamer on Lake Timiskaming, the Mattawa, for use in his business.21 In 1885, when Monseigneur Lorrain made a pastoral visit to Timiskaming, Abitibi, Moose, and Albany, it was the Mattawa which carried him and his party from the foot of Lake Timiskaming to the first of the Quinze rapids, although the journey from railhead at Mattawa to the lake, and of course from Riviere des Quinze to the Bay had still to be made by canoe. That same summer the province of Ontario built a fifteen-mile road between Mattawa and the foot of Seven League Lake, thus eliminating the three lower portages, and two years later the tramways on the Que­ bec side were completed. All were horse-drawn except at the Long Sault, where a steam locomotive, appropriately named the Gendreau, had been put into service in August 1886. During the winter of 1886-7 Father Gen­ dreau also obtained a federal charter and subsidy for his recently organ­ ized Railway Company of Timiskaming. This company built a new steamer, La Minerve, proudly known as 'the Queen of Timiskaming,' which, during the summer of 1887, provided a twice-weekly service be­ tween the Long Sault and Baie des Peres. At the latter place a village, Ville-Marie, was growing up around the new mission and a store owned by E.A. Guay, a lawyer. This store effectively bypassed the Company's shop at Fort Timiskaming, the settlers above the Fort no longer having to go so far for their supplies. 22 Nevertheless the steamer service on Lake Timiskaming seems to have been unprofitable for, after one year's operation, the Railway Company of Timiskaming sold La Minerve to Alexander Lumsden, another lum­ berman, who renamed it the Meteor. But the Company retained the tramways and bateaux from Mattawa to the Long Sault and in 1891 dis­ posed of them to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which three years later completed the line between Mattawa and the foot of Lake Timiskaming. 23 The extension of the Canadian Pacific to Mattawa deprived Fort Timis­ kaming of its ancient glory as the administrative centre and depot of the

227 Fort Timiskaming in Decline Timiskaming district. By 1882 the Mattawa post had once more been re­ united with the district and a year later Chief Factor Colin Rankin moved his headquarters there from Fort Timiskaming. Mattawa was now the railhead for the lower Ottawa and as the various routes from the village to the interior became better known, F'ort Timiskaming was no longer a convenient distribution point for posts like Timagami and Matachewan, whose strategic importance as barriers for the more north­ erly districts necessitated large amounts of goods and provisions. Even­ tually, again following the railway, the town of North Bay was to be­ come the headquarters of a new Lake Huron district which in 1910 comprised ten posts, the old Tirniskaming stations of Abitibi, Grand Lac, Timagami, Matachewan, Mattagami, and Flying Post, and several more recent ones, Barriere, Cochrane, Elk Lake, and Biscotasing.24 Reduced to the status of a subsidiary post, Fort Timiskaming came under the command of C.C. Farr, who had been master of Hunter's Lodge since 1871 and was later to become the first resident of Hailey­ bury, Ontario. In 1887, in order to meet Guay's competition at Ville-Ma­ rie, the Company moved its store to the village, although the officer in charge of the Fort continued to reside at the narrows for a few years longer. 25 From 1890 to 1898 Fort Timiskaming was given over to a caretaker. It was again in operation from 1898 to 1902,26 after which the Company finally abandoned the Quebec side of the lake and settled in Haileybury. Although these were probably uneventful years, as far as the Fort itself was concerned, changes were taking place around it which were sign­ post.