CHAPTER IV

THE GREAT HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

EFORE discussing the English company, it is

interesting to consider the efforts of the French and others to reach the North Sea, as they called Hudson Bay. Sebastian Cabot discovered this body of water in 1512, but after that it was so completely forgotten or overlooked, that it is said to have been re-discovered by Henry Hudson in 1610, when he was trying to find a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean. It was not on Hudson's first voyage to this part of the world that he pushed as far westward as the bay which deservedly bears his name. In 1607, he had made, in the employ of the Muscovy Company, an unsuccessful effort to get round Greenland.

At that time his vessel was the Hopewell, sixty tons burden, and carrying a crew of ten men and a boy. This little craft had been to the same region twentynine years before, under Sir Martin Frobisher's command. The temptation to dwell upon Frobisher's voyage must be resisted; for while it is interesting, it is somewhat irrelevant. In 1610, Hudson made another attempt. This time his vessel was the Discoverie, of seventy tons and with a somewhat larger crew than the Hopewell's. He reached the bay; but the next summer the majority of his crew mutinied, put him, his son, and seven men into a small boat and set them adrift.

What became of these unfortunates no one knows, but imagination can readily supply the conclusion of the awful story. The leaders of the mutiny and most of the remainder of the men died, but the Discoverie safely reached England, and she was again used by Sir Thomas Butler in a similar enterprise a few years later. Again, in 1613 and 1614 Hudson Bay was visited by Englishmen, and the place surveyed.

In 1651, the Jesuits, after having gone up the Saguenay River to Lake St. John four years before, made their way overland from the lake to a point about half the distance to James Bay, the deep, southern bight of Hudson Bay. Their object was to reach the natives who had asked that missionaries be sent to them. In 1661, the unsuccessful expedition under M. la Vallière, Father Dablon, and others, was sent to try to reach Hudson Bay by the same route; but the dread of the Iroquois discouraged the Indian guides, who pretended ignorance of the country, and the party returned. In 1656, Jean Bourdon, in a small craft of only thirty tons burden, had entered Hudson Bay and reached the southern extremity, where he trafficked with the natives. His success seems to be reflected in the narrative of the next venture to be mentioned.

There is some doubt as to whether or not PierreEsprit Radisson, a voyageur, reached James Bay; but some Canadian students who have given careful attention to the subject, are of the opinion that he did. Dr. Benjamin Sulte* says: "Whatever may be said of the

* Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Vol. X, Sec. II. Radisson in the Northwest, 1661-63.

whereabouts of Chouart (Radisson's brother-in-law) and Radisson during the summer of 1662, whether they went to James Bay or to Lake Winnipeg, is open to discussion, although I believe they visited James Bay." This assumption is based mainly upon the fact that Radisson declared the people of Chagouamigon (on the northern shore of Lake Superior?), where he spent the winter of 1662-63, "after his return from James Bay," had been told by him of his promise to "the Indians of James Bay of his intention to go back to them by the Atlantic Ocean, as they occupy the territory of the beaver, par excellence."

It is but right, however, to give what Dr. Sulte himself quotes and says, which seems to contradict his own opinion. Father Jérôme Lallemant, in the Journal des Jésuites says: "I left Quebec on May 3rd, 1662, for Three Rivers. I came across des Groseilliers, who was going to the North Sea. He passed during the night before, Quebec, with ten men, and, having arrived at Cap Tourmente, he wrote to the Governor." Dr. Sulte adds: "If the date of this note is correct, the voyage of Radisson may be open to doubt." Father Louis Hennepin, in his edition of 1698 (Nouveau Voyage) writes: "The Great Bay of the North was discovered by Monsieur Desgroseliers Rochechouart (sic.) with whom I often travelled in canoe when I was in Canada." But Father Hennepin is not absolutely infallible as an historian. The claim which he puts forward in his Nouvelle Découverte d'un très grand Pays, of having descended the Mississippi, in 1680, is known to be false.

M. Talon arrived in Canada in 1665 bearing the appointment of Royal Intendant. By provisions of the French Constitution of 1663, this official was placed in charge of the police, finances, and general administration of justice throughout the whole colony. Talon was called "The Colbert of Canada," and this sobriquet indicates something of his ability. He is described as a man of high character and an official of lofty probity. He is credited with having promoted expeditions for extending the boundaries of New France towards the northward and westward. These efforts, it is declared, subsequently resulted in the discovery of the North Sea; as if the success were something new.

On June 28, 1672, one expedition which Talon promoted, went from Quebec by way of Tadousac, the Saguenay River, and Lake St. John to the southern shore of James Bay. The leaders of this company were St. Simon and La Couture, with whom there was Father Charles Albanal. They found the country to be a desolate region, yet they took possession in the name of the King of France; and in proof of this, they buried a brass plate, on which were engraved the royal arms. This act, confirming the previous assertion of proprietary rights by France to all the continent, certainly northward from the St. Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes - if nothing more was the ground upon which the French took their stand before long in almost constant efforts to dislodge those whom they called "English intruders;" until the peace of Utrecht, April 11, 1713, confirmed the title of Great Britain to the Hudson's Bay Territory.

In 1670, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, and sixteen other noblemen and gentlemen received from Charles II of England a charter creating "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay." The charter seems to have been all that monopoly could ask: "the sole trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays, etc., aforesaid, that are not already actually possessed by or granted to any of our subjects, or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian prince or state." Besides the fullest governing and administrative powers over these undefined regions, "which the Company finally agreed to accept as meaning all lands watered or drained by all streams flowing into Hudson's Bay," and a good deal more, the Company was given the right to "the whole and entire trade and traffick to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes, and seas into which they shall find entrance or passage by water or land out of the territories, limits, or places aforesaid."

A map drawn some time ago of "British America to illustrate the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company,' ""* shows a line leaving the head of Committee Bay and going southwesterly to Wallaston Lake, around the headwaters of all streams flowing east into Hudson

* See Canada under British Rule, 1760-1900, by Sir John G. Bourinot, p. 222.