Robert Michael Ballantyne - Hudson Bay

Throughout this immense country there are probably not more ladies than would suffice to form half a dozen quadrilles; and these—poor banished creatures!—are chiefly the wives of the principal gentlemen connected with the fur-trade. The rest of the female population consists chiefly of half-breeds and Indians; the latter entirely devoid of education, and the former as much enlightened as can be expected from those whose life is spent in such a country. Even these are not very numerous; and yet without them the men would be in a sad condition, for they are the only tailors and washer-women in the country, and make all the mittens, moccasins, fur caps, deer-skin coats, etcetera, etcetera, worn in the land.

There are one or two favoured spots, however, into which a missionary or two have penetrated; and in Red River Settlement (the only colony in the Company’s territories) there are several churches and clergymen, both Protestant and Roman Catholic.

The country is divided into four large departments: the Northern department, which includes all the establishments in the far north and frozen regions; the Southern department, including those to the south and east of this, the post at the head of James Bay, and along the shores of Lake Superior; the Montreal department, including the country in the neighbourhood of Montreal, up the Ottawa River, and along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Esquimaux Bay; and the Columbia department, which comprehends an immense extent of country to the west of the Rocky Mountains, including the Oregon territory, which, although the Hudson Bay Company still trade in it, now belongs to the Americans.

These departments are divided into a number of districts, each under the direction of an influential officer; and these again are subdivided into numerous establishments, forts, posts, and outposts.

The name of fort , as already remarked, is given to all the posts in the country; but some of them certainly do not merit the name—indeed, few of them do. The only two in the country that are real, bonâ fide forts, are Fort Garry and the Stone Fort in the colony of Red River, which are surrounded by stone walls with bastions at the corners. The others are merely defended by wooden pickets or stockades; and a few, where the Indians are quiet and harmless, are entirely destitute of defence of any kind. Some of the chief posts have a complement of about thirty or forty men; but most of them have only ten, five, four, and even two , besides the gentleman in charge. As in most instances these posts are planted in a wilderness far from men, and the inhabitants have only the society of each other, some idea may be formed of the solitary life led by many of the Company’s servants.

The following is a list of the forts in the four different departments, as correctly given as possible; but, owing to the great number in the country, the constant abandoning of old and establishing of new forts, it is difficult to get at a perfectly correct knowledge of their number and names:—

York Fort (the depôt).

Churchill.

Severn.

Oxford House.

Trout Lake House.

Norway House.

Nelson River House.

Berens River House.

Red River Colony.

Fort Garry.

Stone Fort.

Manitoba House.

Fort Pelly.

Cumberland House.

Carlton House.

Fort Pitt.

Edmonton.

Rocky Mountain House.

Fort Aminaboine.

Jasper’s House.

Henry’s House.

Fort Chipewyan.

Fort Vermilion.

Fort Dunvegan.

Fort Simpson.

Fort Norman.

Fort Good Hope.

Fort Halkett.

Fort Resolution.

Peel’s River.

Fort Alexander.

Rat Portage House.

Fort Frances.

Isle a là Crosse.

Moose Factory (the depôt).

Rupert’s House.

Fort George.

Michiskau.

Albany.

Lac Seul

Kinogomousse.

Matawagamingue.

Kuckatoosh.

New Brunswick.

Abitibi.

Temiscamingue.

Grand Lac.

Trout Lake.

Matarva.

Canasicomica.

Lacloche.

Sault de Ste. Maria.

Fort William.

Pic House.

Michipicoton.

Bachiwino.

Nepigon.

Washwonaby.

Pike Lake.

Temagamy.

Green Lake.

Missisague.

Lachine (the depôt).

Rivière du Moine.

Lac des Allumettes.

Fort Coulonge.

Rivière Desert.

Lac des Sables.

Lake of Two Mountains.

Kikandatch.

Weymontachingue.

Rat River.

Ashabmoushwan.

Chicoutimie.

Lake St. John’s.

Tadousac.

Isle Jérémie.

Port Neuf.

Goodbout.

Trinity River.

Seven Islands.

Mingan.

Nabisippi.

Natoequene.

Musquarro.

Fort Nasoopie.

Mainewan Lake.

Sandy Banks.

Gull Islands.

North-west River.

Rigolet.

Kiboksk.

Eyelick.

Fort Vancouver (the depôt).

Fort George.

Nez Percé.

Ockanagan.

Colville.

Fort Hall.

Thompson’s River.

Fort Langley.

Cootanies.

Flat-head Post.

Nisqually.

Alexandria.

Fort Chilcotin.

Fort James.

Fort Fluz Cuz.

Babine Lake.

And an agency in the Sandwich Islands.

There are seven different grades in the service. First, the labourer, who is ready to turn his hand to anything; to become a trapper, fisherman, or rough carpenter at the shortest notice. He is generally employed in cutting firewood for the consumption of the establishment at which he is stationed, shovelling snow from before the doors, mending all sorts of damages to all sorts of things, and, during the summer months, in transporting furs and goods between his post and the nearest depôt. Next in rank is the interpreter. He is, for the most part, an intelligent labourer, of pretty long standing in the service, who, having picked up a smattering of Indian, is consequently very useful in trading with the natives. After the interpreter comes the postmaster; usually a promoted labourer, who, for good behaviour or valuable services, has been put upon a footing with the gentlemen of the service, in the same manner that a private soldier in the army is sometimes raised to the rank of a commissioned officer. At whatever station a postmaster may happen to be placed, he is generally the most useful and active man there. He is often placed in charge of one of the many small stations, or outposts, throughout the country. Next are the apprentice clerks—raw lads, who come out fresh from school, with their mouths agape at the wonders they behold in Hudson Bay. They generally, for the purpose of appearing manly, acquire all the bad habits of the country as quickly as possible, and are stuffed full of what they call fun, with a strong spice of mischief. They become more sensible and sedate before they get through the first five years of their apprenticeship, after which they attain to the rank of clerks. The clerk, after a number of years’ service (averaging from thirteen to twenty), becomes a chief trader (or half-shareholder), and in a few years more he attains the highest rank to which any one can rise in the service, that of chief factor (or shareholder).

It is a strange fact that three-fourths of the Company’s servants are Scotch Highlanders and Orkneymen. There are very few Irishmen, and still fewer English. A great number, however, are half-breeds and French Canadians, especially among the labourers and voyageurs .

From the great extent, and variety of feature, in the country occupied by the fur-traders, they subsist, as may be supposed, on widely different kinds of food. In the prairie, or plain countries, animal food is chiefly used, as there thousands of deer and bisons wander about, while the woods are stocked with game and wild-fowl. In other places, however, where deer are scarce and game not so abundant, fish of various kinds are caught in the rivers and lakes; and in other parts of the country they live partly upon fish and partly upon animal food. Vegetables are very scarce in the more northern posts, owing to the severity of the winter, and consequent shortness of summer. As the Company’s servants are liable, on the shortest notice, to be sent from one end of the continent to another, they are quite accustomed to change of diet;—one year rejoicing in buffalo-humps and marrow-bones, in the prairies of the Saskatchewan, and the next devouring hung white-fish and scarce venison, in the sterile regions of Mackenzie River, or varying the meal with a little of that delectable substance often spoken of by Franklin, Back, and Richardson as their only dish—namely, tripe-de-roche , a lichen or moss which grows on the most barren rocks, and is only used as food in the absence of all other provisions.