The Fur Kings
It was to the French explorers whose names stand "conspicuous on the
pages of half-savage romance," and to their successors the Scotch
fur-kings, that we owe much of the geographical knowledge of the
northern part of the Continent. There is some uncertainty as to who was
the discoverer of the Mackenzie River, which carries its waters to the
ice-fields of Polar seas, but it bears the name of one claimant to the
distinct
on, Sir Alexander Mackenzie.
Of the other waterways of the region much valuable information was
obtained by Alexander Henry in his intercourse with the native tribes.
To Sir William Alexander was given the honour of being the first
Scotchman to cross the Rocky Mountains. Like his fellow countrymen, he
was distinguished by the same characteristics which made their fathers
in tartan and kilt foemen "worthy of any man's steel," and themselves
fit successors of the bearers of such honourable names as duLuth, Joliet
and de La Verandrye. A few rods from the gate of the Chateau de Ramezay
is a tall warehouse which bears on its peaked gable the date 1793. It
was in this old building that the early business years of John Jacob
Astor, the New York millionaire, were spent. It was the property of the
North-West Fur Company, which was the centre of so much that was
romantic and captivating. This Company was an association of Scottish
and Canadian merchants, who, in the political changes which had taken
place, had supplanted those purely French. In energy and enterprise they
did not exceed their predecessors, but had more capital and influence at
their command.
In consequence of their more lavish measures, they were called the
"Lordly Nor' Westers." Full justice has been done them by the pen of
Washington Irving, who, in writing the tale of "Astoria," that
Northwestern "Utopia," so splendid in its conception, but so lamentable
in its failure, became familiar with their life in all its phases. He
says:--"To behold the North-West Company in all its grandeur it was
necessary to witness the annual gathering at Fort William. On these
occasions might be seen the change since the unceremonious time of the
old French traders, with their roystering coureurs des bois and
voyageurs gaily returning from their adventurous trading in the
pathless regions of the West. Then the aristocratic character of the
Briton, or rather the feudal spirit of the Highlander, shone out
magnificently. Every partner who had charge of an inferior post felt
like the chieftain of a Highland clan. To him a visit to the grand
conference at Fort William was a most important event, and he repaired
thither as to a meeting of Parliament. They were wrapped in rich furs,
their huge canoes being freighted with every luxury and convenience. The
partners at Montreal were the lords of these occasions, as they ascended
the river, like sovereigns making a progress. At Fort William an immense
wooden building was the council chamber and also the banqueting hall,
decorated with Indian arms and accoutrements, and with trophies of the
fur trade. The great and mighty councils alternated with feasts and
revels." These old days of primitive bartering are gone forever from the
St. Lawrence, but to-day as it flows in majesty to the ocean, carrying
with it one-third of the fresh water of the world, it is a great highway
for the commerce of the globe.
The University of McGill stands on what was once, in part, the ancient
village of Hochelaga, which was visited by Jacques Cartier, and was
later the domain belonging to old "Burnside Hall." Its cheerful fire
many a time shone out under the shadow of Mount Royal, when were
gathered around its board Simon McTavish, Duncan McGillivray, Sir John
Franklin and Joseph Frobisher. With them was frequently seen Thomas
Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, who formulated the scheme of populating the
prairies of the North-West with poverty-stricken and down-trodden
tenants from older lands, many of whom lie in the old grave-yard of the
Kildonan settlement on the Red River of the North, a few miles from the
City of Winnipeg. Their descendants with their Scotch thrift form the
backbone of that progressive province of such magnificent possibilities.
Their weary journeys overland, toilsome portages and struggles with
want and isolation are now mere matters of history, for the overflow
population of the crowded centres of Europe are carried in a few days
from sea to sea with every possible convenience and even luxury. The
great Canadian transcontinental line has spanned the valleys and crossed
the mountains, literally opening up a highway for the thousands who from
the ends of the earth are yearly crowding into these vast fertile plains
and sub-arctic gold fields.
Franklin lies in an unknown grave among Northern snows, lost in his
attempt, at the age of sixty, to find the North Pole. He was last seen
moored to an iceberg in Baffin's Bay, apparently waiting for a
favourable opportunity to begin work in what is known as the Middle Sea.
The problem of his fate long baffled discovery, although many an earnest
searching party, in the Polar twilight, has sought him in that region of
ice and snow, in a silence broken only by the howl of the arctic blast,
the scream of sea-fowl or the thundering report of an ice-floe breaking
away from the mainland.
One party sent out by the Hudson Bay Co. in 1853 found traces of the
expedition in some bits of metal and a silver plate engraved with the
name Franklin. Another, fitted out partly by Lady Franklin, and partly
by public subscription, and commanded by McClintock, afterwards Sir
Leopold McClintock, learned from an Eskimo woman that she had heard of a
party of men, whom it was said "fell down and died as they walked." With
the exception of these faint traces, their fate is still wrapped in
obscurity.