Fort Montée—Cumberland House—Lake Bourbon—Great Winipeg Rapids—Lake Winipeg—Trading-House—Lake of the Woods—Rainy Lake House, &c.

On the 18th of June (a day which its next anniversary was to render forever celebrated in the annals of the world),[184] we re-embarked at an early hour: and the wind rising, spread sail, a thing we had not done before, since we quitted the river Columbia. In the afternoon the clouds gathered thick and black, and we had a gust, accompanied with hail, but of short duration; the weather cleared up again, and about sundown we arrived at Le Fort de la Montée, so called, on account of its being a depôt, where the traders going south, leave their canoes and take pack-horses to reach their several posts.[185] We found here, as at Fort Vermilion, two trading-houses {326} joined together, to make common cause against the Indians; one belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company, the other to the company of the Northwest: the Hudson’s Bay house being then under the charge of a Mr. Prudent, and the N. W. Company’s under a Mr. John M’Lean. Mr. de Roche Blave, one of the partners of the last company having the superintendence of this district, where he had wintered, had gone to Lake Superior to attend the annual meeting of the partners.[186] There were cultivated fields around the house; the barley and peas appeared to promise an abundant harvest. Mr. M’Lean received us as well as circumstances permitted; but that gentleman having no food to give us, and our buffalo meat beginning to spoil, we set off the next morning, to reach Cumberland house as quick as possible. In the course of the day, we passed two old forts, one of which had been built by the French before the conquest of Canada. According to our guide, it was the most distant western post that the French traders ever had in the northwestern wilderness.[187] Toward evening we {327} shot a moose. The aspect of the country changes considerably since leaving Montée; the banks of the river rise more boldly, and the country is covered with forests.

On the 20th, we saw some elms—a tree that I had not seen hitherto, since my departure from Canada. We reached Fort Cumberland a little before the setting of the sun. This post, called in English Cumberland House, is situated at the outlet of the Saskatchawine, where it empties into English lake, between the 53d and 54th degrees of north latitude. It is a depot for those traders who are going to Slave lake or the Athabasca, or are returning thence, as well as for those destined for the Rocky mountains.[188] It was under the orders of Mr. J. D. Campbell, who having gone down to Fort William, however, had left it in charge of a Mr. Harrison.[189] There are two factories, as at Vermilion and la Montée. At this place the traders who resort every year to Fort William, leave their half-breed or Indian wives and families, as they can live here at little expense, the lake abounding in fish. Messrs. {328} Clarke and Stuart, who were behind, arrived on the 22d, and in the evening we had a dance. They gave us four sacks of pemican, and we set off again, on the 23d, at eight A. M. We crossed the lake, and entered a small river, and having made some eighty or ninety miles under sail, encamped on a low shore, where the mosquitoes tormented us horribly all night.

On the 24th, we passed Muddy lake, and entered Lake Bourbon,[190] where we fell in with a canoe from York factory, under the command of a Mr. Kennedy, clerk of the Hudson’s Bay Company.[191] We collected some dozens of gull’s eggs, on the rocky islands of the lake: and stopping on one of the last at night, having a little flour left, Mr. Decoigne and I amused ourselves in making fritters for the next day’s breakfast: an occupation, which despite the small amount of materials, employed us till we were surprised by the daybreak; the night being but brief at this season in that high latitude.

At sunrise on the 25th, we were again afloat, passed Lake Travers, or Cross lake, which {329} empties into Lake Winipeg by a succession of rapids; shot down these cascades without accident, and arrived, toward noon, at the great rapid Ouénipic or Winipeg, which is about four miles long. We disembarked here, and the men worked down the canoes.[192] At the foot of this rapid, which is the inlet of Winipeg, we found an old Canadian fisherman, who called himself King of the lake. He might fairly style himself king of the fish, which are abundant and which he alone enjoyed. Having made a boil, and regaled ourselves with excellent sturgeon, we left this old man, and entered the great lake Winipeg, which appeared to me like a sea of fresh water. This lake is now too well known to need a particular description: I will content myself with saying that it visibly yields in extent only to Lake Superior and Great Slave lake: it has for tributaries several large rivers, and among others the Saskatchawine, the Winipeg, in the east; and Red river in the south; and empties into Hudson’s bay by the Nelson, N. N. E., and the Severn, E. N. E. The shores which it bathes are {330} generally very low; it appears to have little depth, and is dotted with a vast number of islands, lying pretty close to land. We reached one called Egg island, whence it was necessary to cross to the south to reach the main; but the wind was so violent that it was only at decline of day that we could perform the passage. We profited by the calm, to coast along all day and a part of the night of the 26th; but to pay for it, remained in camp on the 27th, till evening: the wind not suffering us to proceed. The wind having appeared to abate somewhat after sunset, we embarked, but were soon forced to land again. On the 28th, we passed the openings of several deep bays, and the isles of St. Martin, and camped at the bottom of a little bay, where the mosquitoes did not suffer us to close our eyes all night. We were rejoiced when dawn appeared, and were eager to embark, to free ourselves from these inconvenient guests. A calm permitted us that day to make good progress with our oars, and we camped at Buffalo Strait. We saw that day two Indian wigwams.[193]

{331} The 30th brought us to Winipeg river, which we began to ascend, and about noon reached Fort Bas de la Rivière. This trading post had more the air of a large and well-cultivated farm, than of a fur traders’ factory: a neat and elegant mansion, built on a slight eminence, and surrounded with barns, stables, storehouses, &c., and by fields of barley, peas, oats, and potatoes, reminded us of the civilized countries which we had left so long ago. Messrs. Crébassa and Kennedy, who had this post in charge, received us with all possible hospitality, and supplied us with all the political news which had been learned through the arrival of canoes from Canada.[194]

They also informed us that Messrs. M’Donald and de Rocheblave had passed, a few days before our arrival, having been obliged to go up Red river to stop the effusion of blood, which would probably have taken place but for their intervention, in the colony founded on that river by the earl of Selkirk.[195] Mr. Miles M’Donnell, the governor of that colony, or rather of the Assiniboyne district,[196] had issued a proclamation {332} forbidding all persons whomsoever, to send provisions of any kind out of the district. The Hudson’s Bay traders had conformed to this proclamation, but those of the Northwest Company paid no attention to it, thinking it illegal, and had sent their servants, as usual to get provisions up the river. Mr. M’Donnell having heard that several hundred sacks of pemican[197] were laid up in a storehouse under the care of a Mr. Pritchard, sent to require their surrender:[198] Pritchard refused to deliver them, whereupon Mr. M’Donnell had them carried off by force. The traders who winter on Little Slave lake, English river, the Athabasca country, &c., learning this, and being aware that they would not {333} find their usual supply at Bas de la Rivière, resolved to go and recover the seized provisions by force, if they were not peaceably given up. Things were in this position when Messrs. de Rocheblave and M’Donald arrived. They found the Canadian voyageurs in arms, and ready to give battle to the colonists, who persisted in their refusal to surrender the bags of pemican. The two peacemakers visited the governor, and having explained to him the situation in which the traders of the Northwest Company would find themselves, by the want of necessary provisions to enable them to transport their peltries to Fort William, and the exasperation of their men, who saw no other alternative for them, but to get possession of those provisions or to perish of hunger, requested him to surrender the same without delay. Mr. M’Donnell, on his part, pointed out the misery to which the colonists would be reduced by a failure in the supply of food. In consequence of these mutual representations, it was agreed that one half of the pemican should be restored, and the other half remain for the {334} use of the colonists. Thus was arranged, without bloodshed, the first difficulty which occurred between the rival companies of the Northwest, and of Hudson’s Bay.[199]

Having spent the 1st of July in repairing our canoes, we re-embarked on the 2d, and continued to ascend Winipeg river, called also White river, on account of the great number of its cascades, which being very near each other, offer to the sight an almost continuous foam.[200] We made that day twenty-seven portages, all very short. On the 3d, and 4th, we made nine more, and arrived on the 5th, at the Lake of the Woods.[201] This lake takes its name from the great number of woody islands with which it is dotted. Our guide pointed out to me one of these isles, telling me that a Jesuit father had said mass there, and that it was the most remote spot to which those missionaries had ever penetrated.[202] We encamped on one of the islands. The next day the wind did not allow us to make much progress. On the 7th, we gained the entrance of Rainy Lake river.[203] I do not remember ever to have seen {335} elsewhere so many mosquitoes as on the banks of this river. Having landed near a little rapid to lighten the canoes, we had the misfortune, in getting through the brush, to dislodge these insects from under the leaves where they had taken refuge from the rain of the night before; they attached themselves to us, followed us into the canoes, and tormented us all the remainder of the day.

On the 8th, at sunset, we reached Rainy Lake House. This fort is situated about a mile from a considerable rapid. We saw here cultivated fields and domestic animals, such as horses, oxen, cows, &c. The port is a depôt for the wintering parties of the Athabasca, and others still more remote, who bring to it their peltries and return from it with their outfits of merchandise. Mr. John Dease, to whose charge the place had been confided, received us in the most friendly manner possible; and after having made an excellent supper, we danced a part of the evening.[204]

We took leave of Mr. Dease on the 10th, well provided for the journey, and passing round {336} Rainy Lake falls, and then traversing the lake itself, which I estimated to be forty miles long, we encamped at the entrance of a small river. On the next day we pursued our way, now thridding streams impeded with wild rice, which rendered our progress difficult, now traversing little lakes, now passing straits where we scarcely found water to float our canoes.[205] On the 13th, we encamped near Dog Portage (Portage des chiens), where, from not having followed the advice of Mr. Dease, who had counselled us to take along a bag of pemican, we found ourselves absolutely without food.

[184] Date of the Battle of Waterloo.—Ed.

[185] Fort de la Montée was probably built in 1797, at the point where the route ascending the North Saskatchewan crossed that leading to the South branch, or where the traders left their canoes and mounted horses. It was at the site of the present Fort Carlton, now a Hudson’s Bay post.—Ed.

[186] Pierre de Rocheblave was an important figure in the fur-trade of the Northwest. He was a nephew of Philippe de Rastel, Sieur de Rocheblave, who was captured at Kaskaskia (1778) by George Rogers Clark (see Chicago Historical Society Collections, vol. iv, for his life and papers). The younger Rocheblave entered the fur-trade in early life, and in 1801 was a bourgeois in the X Y Company, and superintendent of the Athabasca district. After the coalition of the two companies (1804), Rocheblave became one of the most influential members of the North West, being agent in charge of Fort William in 1818. After retiring from the trade, Rocheblave entered the public service, acting as member of the legislature and of the executive council for Lower Canada. See Masson, Bourgeois, i, p. 120; and Wisconsin Historical Collections, iii, p. 215; vii, p. 132.—Ed.

[187] These were Forts Nippeween and à la Corne. The former was situated just below the forks of the Saskatchewan, the site of the present town of Prince Albert. Henry the elder visited it in 1776 (see his Travels, Bain ed., p. 275). This post seems to have been abandoned in 1805. The old French post was Fort à la Corne (also called St. Louis), founded by St. Luc de la Corne in 1753. It was on the south bank of the river, on the site where in 1858 the Hudson’s Bay Company built a fort of the same name. This was virtually the uppermost post of the French, that built by De Niverville in 1751, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and named La Jonquière, not being a permanent post.—Ed.

[188] Cumberland House was one of the most important fur-trading stations of the Upper Country; being, as Franchère says, at the point of divergence for the Saskatchewan and Athabasca brigades. The Hudson’s Bay post was founded by Samuel Hearne in 1774 on the site of an earlier lodge of Samuel Frobisher. The North West Company’s house, a few rods from the other, was built about 1793. The factory stands some two miles north of the Saskatchewan, on the south shore of the lake known variously as Cumberland, English, or Sturgeon. Three outlets form the connection with the Saskatchewan River; these flow in either direction, according to the height of the waters. Sir John Franklin wintered here (1819-20); and Ross here met one of his advance parties (1825).—Ed.

[189] John Duncan Campbell was a wintering partner of the North West Company (1794) in the Rocky Mountain department, and signed the Montreal agreement of union, by attorney, in 1804. In 1819 he was captured by the Hudson’s Bay agents along with Frobisher, McTavish, and others. Edward Harrison was a clerk who was in the service before 1797.—Ed.

[190] Muddy Lake (Lac Vaseaux) is a small overflow sheet at the discharge of the Saskatchewan into Bourbon Lake. The latter takes its name from Fort Bourbon, built by Vérendrye in 1749. The English generally speak of this as Cedar Lake, from its Indian name. The North West Company had a post thereon, abandoned in 1802. The present Hudson’s Bay Cedar Lake House was built in 1858.—Ed.

[191] York Factory, at the southern end of Hudson Bay, on the west bank of Hayes River, is chief post for the company in the southern department. It is a stockaded square of six acres, within which are the agent’s large wooden buildings. As Fort Nelson, this post has had a long and varied history. It was built in 1682, the fourth point to be occupied. From then until the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the post was alternately in the possession of English and French, changing hands at least six times. After d’Iberville’s expedition in 1697, the French had possession for fifteen years. The post was captured for the last time by La Pérouse’s expedition of 1782, but restored by the Treaty of Paris. It is still maintained as a fur-trading station.—Ed.

[192] Lac à Traverse, or Cross Lake, is so named because the route leads directly across its narrowest width of about three miles—the axis of length is about fifteen miles. The rapids at the entrance, called Grand Décharge or Cross Lake Rapids, may usually be run by boats. The Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan, between Cross Lake and the entrance to Lake Winnipeg, are for a long distance the only serious obstruction in this river.—Ed.

[193] The regular canoe route led along the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, past Egg Island just south of the Grand Detour or Long Point, among St. Martin’s Islands at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay; then across through the Narrows, and down the eastern shore of the lower lake. Buffalo Strait is between Buffalo Head on the east, and a group of islands on the west, of which Black Island is the largest.—Ed.

[194] Fort Bas de la Rivière, otherwise Fort Alexander, is on the west bank of Winnipeg River, immediately below its entrance to the lake. This was the site of Vérendrye’s Fort Maurepas, built in 1734. It was an important post on the main route to the fur-trading country.

John Crébassa was a former X Y Company’s clerk, whom Henry met in this region in 1801-02. He was upon Red River in 1804 with the North West Company, and as late as 1817 Cox found him in charge of Fort Alexander.—Ed.

[195] This was the well-known Red River Settlement. As early as 1802 Lord Selkirk had endeavored to interest the English government in sending to British America colonies of Highland peasants, who were in deep distress. Unable to influence the government, he turned to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in 1811 obtained from them for colonization a tract of land in the valleys of the Red and Assiniboin rivers. The first band of settlers, consisting of about seventy Highlanders from Sunderlandshire and some twenty Irish, reached Hudson Bay late in the fall of 1811. The next spring they removed to Red River, where they found it difficult to obtain sufficient food. The Indians and French half-breeds, under the influence of the North West Company, kept aloof and regarded them with suspicion; but until the incident mentioned by Franchère no important difficulty had arisen.—Ed.

[196] Miles McDonell was born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1767. His father came to America in 1773 and settled at Caughnawaga on the Mohawk River, but when the Revolutionary War broke out removed to Canada. Miles was an ensign in the King’s royal regiment of New York, and in 1796 became captain in the Royal Canadian Volunteers. When on a visit to London he was appointed by the Hudson’s Bay Company governor of Assiniboia. He left for the Red River settlements in 1811 and remained there until their destruction in 1816. His last years were spent on his farm at Osnaburg, Upper Canada. He died in 1828.—Ed.

[197] Pemican, of which I have already spoken several times, is the Indian name for the dried and pounded meat which the natives sell to the traders. About fifty pounds of this meat is placed in a trough (un grand vaisseau fait d’un tronc d’arbre), and about an equal quantity of tallow is melted and poured over it; it is thoroughly mixed into one mass, and when cold, is put up in bags made of undressed buffalo hide, with the hair outside and sewed up as tightly as possible. The meat thus impregnated with tallow, hardens, and will keep for years. It is eaten without any other preparation; but sometimes wild pears or dried berries are added, which render the flavor more agreeable.—Franchère.

[198] John Pritchard was born (1777) in Shropshire, England. He emigrated to Montreal early in the nineteenth century, and entered the service of the North West Company, being stationed on Red River at the time of the arrival of Selkirk’s colony. In 1815 he left the company and cast in his lot with the settlers. He won the favor of Lord Selkirk, and was employed by him on a mission to England. He died at Kildonan in 1856. See Bryce, “Worthies of Old Red River,” in Manitoba Historical Society Transactions, No. 48.—Ed.

[199] This was but the beginning of the trouble. The North West traders determined to get rid of the colony. By holding out promises of better land in Canada, and free transportation thither, they induced about three-fourths of the people to leave (June, 1815). The remainder they drove off by force, and set fire to their buildings. The unfortunate settlers had gone but a short way, however, when they met a new band of immigrants, and encouraged by them, all returned to Red River. The next year a more determined effort was made to destroy the settlements. An armed party of Nor’Westers and Indians attacked the colony and Fort Douglas. Governor Semple and about twenty followers who rode out to meet them, were surrounded and killed, and for a second time the Highlanders were driven from Red River. Lord Selkirk was on Lake Superior upon his way to the settlement when he learned of its destruction. He captured Fort William and proceeded to the Red River, protected by a troop of disbanded soldiers whom he had hired at Montreal. The colony was reinstated, lands were assigned, and the name Kildonan formally given to it (August, 1817). From this time forward, the controversy between Lord Selkirk and the North West Company was carried on in the courts, and the people on Red River were left in peace. It was not until 1826, however, that they were able to raise sufficient grain for support throughout the winter. For further details see Bryce, Manitoba (London, 1882).—Ed.

[200] From Fort Bas de la Rivière to Fort William, Franchère passed over the most famous canoe-route in the Northwest—one which had been known and traversed since early in the eighteenth century. Franchère mentions the important links in this chain of waterways, over six hundred miles in length. The French, under the leadership of Vérendrye, were the first to explore and penetrate this region to Lake Winnipeg and beyond (see notes 187 and 190, ante). After the English occupation, Alexander Henry’s journey by this route made it known to the early Scotch traders (see Alexander Henry’s Travels, Bain ed., Boston, 1901, for excellent notes on the route). The classic description is that of Mackenzie, Travels, pp. xlvi-lxi. The annotations of Coues in the Henry-Thompson Journals omit little in the way of details. For other references see Bigsby, Shoe and Canoe (London, 1850); Hind, Canada Exploring Expedition (Toronto, 1859; London, 1860); Dawson, Report on Exploration of Country between Lake Superior and Red River Settlement (Toronto, 1859); Butler, Great Lone Land (London, 1875).

Winnipeg River flows from the Lake of the Woods into Lake Winnipeg, a course of about one hundred and sixty miles. It is swift, and much obstructed by rapids and cascades. The name is from a Cree term signifying “turbid water.” The variants of this name are many; for different forms, see Bell, “Some Historical Names and Places of the Canadian North-West,” Manitoba Historical and Scientific Society Transactions, 1884-85. Vérendrye named the stream Rivière Maurepas, for the French minister of the marine. The name White River is applied only to a portion by Mackenzie, who says it is “so called from its being, for a considerable length, a succession of falls and cataracts.” The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses this stream at Rat Portage, where it flows from the Lake of the Woods.—Ed.

[201] Lake of the Woods is a translation of the French designation Lac des Bois; they also termed it Lac des Isles, because of its numerous woody islets. The Indian name was Minnititi. The canoe-route across it from northwest to southeast is about seventy-five miles in length. The lake has played a prominent part in the history of the Northwest. Vérendrye’s Fort St. Charles was built upon its western bank in 1732. At the Peace of Paris (1783) the northwest corner of the Lake of the Woods (which was then supposed to be in latitude 49°), was made the boundary between the United States and Canada. This point being 39′ north of the supposed latitude, a long controversy ensued, which was finally settled by a joint commission in 1876. See Campbell and Twining, Reports upon Survey of Boundaries between territory of the United States and possessions of Great Britain from the Lake of the Woods to the Summit of the Rocky Mountains (Washington, 1878).—Ed.

[202] Franchère here refers to the Jesuit missionary, Father Aulneau (or Auneau), who came to Canada in 1734, accompanied Vérendrye to Fort St. Charles the following year, and was massacred by the Sioux on an island in Lake of the Woods (June, 1736), upon his return journey to Mackinac. See Jesuit Relations (Thwaites ed., Cleveland, 1896-1901), lxviii and lxxi; also Burpee, “The Lake of the Woods Tragedy,” in Royal Society of Canada Transactions (Ottawa, 1904), 2nd series, section ii, vol. ix.—Ed.

[203] This is now Rainy River, outlet of the lake of the same name, which is derived from the mist occasioned by the Chaudière (or Kettle) Falls, at the outlet of the lake. The river forms part of the international boundary between Minnesota and Ontario. Mackenzie thus describes it: “This is one of the finest rivers in the North-West, and runs a course West and East one hundred and twenty computed miles; but in taking its course and distance minutely I make it only eighty. Its banks are covered with a rich soil particularly to the North.... Its waters abound in fish, particularly the sturgeon which the natives both spear and take with drag-nets.”—Ed.

[204] Rainy Lake House was a North West establishment upon a high bank on the north side of the river, just above the falls. There had from early times been a post at this place. Sieur de la Noue built one in 1717, which was known as Tekamamaouen; it was superseded (1731) by Vérendrye’s Fort St. Pierre. The Hudson’s Bay house stood just below the falls, and was named Fort Frances for Sir George Simpson’s wife. Early in the nineteenth century the American Fur Company had a post on the south bank of the river. Fort Frances is the present station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. John Warren Dease was a North West Company clerk who was in charge of Rainy Lake House in 1817, when it was captured by Lord Selkirk, after the taking of Fort William.—Ed.

[205] From Rainy Lake to Lake Superior there were two prominent trade routes—that known as the Grand Portage or Pigeon River route, following the chain of waterways through which now runs the international boundary; and that of the Kaministiquia River, ending at Fort William. The latter path was the earliest used by the French, but later, they found shorter and more available the Grand Portage route which was followed by the early British traders. See descriptions of Alexander Henry the elder, and Mackenzie. About 1802 it was discovered that the depot of the North West Company at the commencement of Grand Portage was upon American soil, whereupon removal to the northern station was begun, and consummated upon the completion of Fort William. The Kaministiquia route had been re-discovered and re-opened by Roderick McKenzie in 1797. His path united with the Grand Portage route at Lac la Croix. Dawson (1857) explored another route into Rainy Lake along the Seine River, corresponding nearly to the present line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Franchère took the regular Nor’Westers route through Namakam Lake and River, across Lac la Croix, up the Maligne or Sturgeon River, through Lake Windigoostigwan, to Lac des Mille Lacs.

Wild rice (zizania aquatica) is an important staple of Indian food. See Jenks, “Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes,” in American Bureau of Ethnology Report, 1897-98.—Ed.