The romance of commerce

THE

ROMANCE

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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

GIFT OF

Commodore Byron McCandless

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$7

2Sg tfje same gfatfjor.

THE BOY TRAMPS; or, Across Canada.

ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY SANDHAM.
Cloth, 8vo. $1.50.

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY,

PUBLISHERS,

NEW YORK AND BOSTON.

THE

Romance of Commerce

BY

J. MACDONALD OXLEY, LL.B., B.A.

NEW YORK: 46 East mth Street

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY

BOSTON : 100 Purchase Street

Copyright, 1896,
By Thomas Y. Ceowkll & Company.

C. J. Peters & Son, Typographers.

F
01V

PREFACE.

There has been a romance of commerce, no
less than a romance of war. Men have shown
equal enterprise and daring in enlarging in-
comes as in extending the bounds of empire,
and gold has run close rivalry with glory in
adding brilliant pages to the world's history.

It has been the aim of the author to make
some attempt towards recalling the more inter-
esting of these pages for the benefit of the
young people to whom this little volume is
especially addressed ; but before beginning his
recital he wishes to make due acknowledgment
to Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Chas. Scribner's
Sons, and the publisher of the Cosmopolitan
magazine of New York, for the privilege of
reprinting such of the following chapters as first

appeared in their periodicals.

j. m. o.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. John Law and the Mississippi Bubble, 1

II. The South Sea Bubble 13

III. The Tulip Mania in Holland .... 24

IV. The Darien Expedition . . . v. . . . 35
V. The Chase of the Spanish Galleons . 47

VI. The Quest fob a North-west Passage, 60

VII. How the Merchants opened up the

World 71

VIII. The Rise and Fall of John Company . 84

IX. The Hudson's Bay Trading Company . 96

X. The Canadian Pacific Railway . . . 145

XI. The Mediterranean of Canada . . . 157

XII. From Forest to Floor 197

XIII. An Ocean Grave-yard 220

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

The Rue Qcincampodc in 1720 Frontispiece

Trade Label of the South Sea Company .... 13

Medal commemorating the Storming of Tubacanti

(Darien), 1700 35

Sir Francis Drake 47

Sir John Franklin 60

Vasco da Gama 71

Original Arms of the East India Company ... 84

Lord Clive 90

Front of the Old East India House 94

Prince Rupert 96

A French Canadian 106

Canadian Pacific Railway. — Great Glacier, show-
ing Hotel 145

Canadian Pacific Railway. — Ottertail Mountains,

Leanchoil 148

Preparing for Winter. — Grounded Iceberg. — An

Eskimo Type 157

Sir Humphrey Gilbert 220

Chart of Known Wrecks on Sable Island . . . 246

THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER I.

JOHN LAW AND THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE.

" I can calculate," said the great astronomer,
Sir Isaac Newton, " the motions of wandering
stars, but not the madness of the multitude."
It would indeed take not an astronomer, but a
prophet, to predict to what heights of folly the
crowd will go, if they only have a leader who
makes them big enough promises. What has
passed into history as the " Mississippi Bubble "
is a remarkable instance of this.

When the long and splendid reign of Louis
XIV. at last came to an end, it left France in
a very bad way, in fact, with almost no money
on hand. The whole public service reeked with
corruption. The frauds of men in office and of
their allies in the trading community had crip-
pled the resources of the country, and brought
its commerce almost to a standstill. The tillers
1

2 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of the soil were taxed to the utmost limits of
human endurance ; and the Regent, the Duke of
Orleans, was at his wits' end as to how to carry
on the affairs of state with an empty treasury,
and no visible means of filling it.

In this emergency there came to him a mid-
dle-aged man with a strange history and a still
stranger scheme. The son of a wealthy Edin-
burgh goldsmith, John Law, in the heyday of
his youth went up to London, where he took
high rank among its fops and gallants, squan-
dered all his fortune, killed a man in a duel,
was put in prison for the offence, and contrived
to effect his escape. For the next twenty years
he scoured the Continent, seeking in a clever
and systematic course of gambling to retrieve
his fortunes, and to prepare the foundation for
the great enterprise he was planning in his sin-
gularly inventive and daring mind. Firmly
convinced of the soundness of the financial the-
ories he had conceived, he expounded them to
all the princes of Europe in turn. But he met
with slight encouragement from any of them.
"I am not powerful enough to ruin myself,"
was the chilling reply of the King of Sicily.
Louis XIV., although his exchequer was near-

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 3

ing exhaustion, took no stock in the Scotch
adventurer. At length in the Regent he found
a sympathetic listener, through whose influence
he was allowed, in May, 1716, to establish a
circulating and discount bank with a capital of
six million livres.

This bank at once had very great success,
and was of such real service that, in the course
of a year, its notes were actually worth more
than gold and silver money, which was liable
to depreciation at the whim of the crown. The
favor Law thus won with statesmen, courtiers,
and common folk made easy the adoption of a
greater project, the Mississippi scheme, which
he promptly proceeded to set on foot.

It got its name from the noble river which ran
through the richest part of the French colony
of Louisiana. France was by this time begin-
ning to grow somewhat tired of her American
colonies. They were costing her a mint of
money, and making little return. Law now
revived the old idea that under the prolific soil
of the vast, vague territory of Louisiana there
was boundless wealth in gold, silver, copper,
and other valuable metals. He proposed that
a company should be formed to develop this

4 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

wealth, that miners and traders should be sent
out, and that with the proceeds of their toil the
French exchequer, so wofully depleted, should
be replenished. His proposal was eagerly ac-
cepted; and in 1717 the Compagnie c?' Occident
was formed, with a capital of one hundred
million livres. Soon afterwards this company-
was united with the bank, which then blos-
somed out into the Royal Bank of France.

By means which it would take too long to
describe, the shares of this company were put
upon the market in such a way as to awaken
a spirit of the wildest speculation among the
French people, from peer to peasant. In the
year 1719 the company was reorganized, and
granted the exclusive right of trading to the
East Indies, China, and the South Seas, the
name being changed to the Compagnie des
Indes. So great became the demand for its
shares that Law created first fifty thousand
fresh ones, and then three hundred thousand
more, promising annual dividends thereon of
one hundred and twenty per cent. They were
all taken up within a few weeks. The country
people crowded up to Paris to invest their hard-
earned savings, while every second citizen

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 5

joined in the insane rush. Mr. Fox Bourne
tells us that Law's house in the Rue de Quin-
eampoix was besieged from morning to night
by an excited rabble of dukes, duchesses, mer-
chants, milkmaids, and all other representatives
of the noblesse and bourgeoisie. So many were
there crushed to death, or maimed for life, that
Law had to remove to the Place VendQme, and
at length to take the great HQtel de Soissons,
the garden of which, covering several acres,
scarcely sufficed to accommodate the frantic
speculators.

All day long were the antechambers of the
financial hero of the hour crowded with persons
of all ranks, who waited for their turn to obtain
the coveted shares.

"My son was looking for a duchess to escort
my granddaughter to Genoa," writes Madame,
the Regent's mother. " • Send and choose one
at Madame Law's,' said I ; ' you will find
them all sitting in her drawing-room.' "

So soon as shares were obtained they were
taken into the great market in the garden,
there to be traded with among the thousands
who were ready to pay any price that was
asked for them, and who generally sold them

6 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

again at yet higher rates. This turmoil of spec-
ulation, which lasted for a whole year, has hardly
a parallel in the history of financial follies.

Curious and entertaining stories have been
preserved of what happened during the height
of the mania. A lucky cobbler, whose stall
stood near Law's headquarters, gained two hun-
dred livres a day by providing desk accommo-
dation for the speculators ; and a hunchback,
whose deformity was his only stock in trade,
made a small fortune by turning himself into a
movable writing-desk. A lady, who had long
in vain sought access to Law's counting-house,
devised an original plan for meeting him. Or-
dering her coachman to run up against a post
as soon as he could meet the great financier
in the streets, she drove about persistently for
three days before Law came in sight. At last
she caught sight of him approaching. " Upset
me now!" she cried; "upset me!" The
coachman obeyed, and his mistress was tumbled
out on the pavement. Law at once ran gal-
lantly to her assistance, and then learned that
the lady suffered from nothing but want of
Mississippi shares, and so he was induced to
allot her a number.

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 7

Hardly less ingenious, though not so success-
ful, was another lady, who, failing to secure an
invitation to a house where Law was dining,
drove past the door with her coachman and
footmen shouting out " Fire ! fire ! " at the top
of their voices. Of course all the guests, and
Law among them, rushed to the windows to see
where the fire was. The moment the lady saw
Law she sprang out of her carriage and tried to
speak to him ; but he, seeing through her ruse,
at once vanished.

Of course, in the midst of this furious specu-
lation, there were those who, by quick and dar-
ing action, suddenly sprang from poverty to
great wealth. The list of " Mississippians," as
those were called who thus distinguished them-
selves, contained the names of more than one
hundred persons who, during the continuance
of the mania, acquired fortunes exceeding
twenty million livres. Andre", the son of a
Montelimart skinner, overwhelmed by debt in
the year 1718, and so utterly worthless that one
of his creditors offered in barter for a breakfast
notes of hand signed by him to the amount of
ten thousand livres, in 1720 found himself pos-
sessor of seventy millions. Dupin, a servant

8 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of the Banker Tourton, retired with fifty mil-
lions. A Savoyard named Chambery, a porter
and furniture-polisher, amassed forty millions ;
and a bartender, named Gabriel Bourdon, real-
ized thirty millions, went over to England, and
returned after the excitement had subsided, to
play in Paris the role of milord, with a carriage
and servants galore.

One of the best stories is told in connection
with Law himself. One day his coachman ap-
peared before him, accompanied by two capable
looking men. " I am going to leave, mon-
sieur," said he, " and you will need some one in
my place. Here are two men whom I know
and can recommend. Take your choice. I will
engage the other for myself."

During this period of frenzy, all ordinary oc-
cupations were neglected save those by which
the shrewdest of the people grew wealthy in
catering for the extravagant ways of living that
prevailed. The most lavish luxury was in-
dulged in. Paris was flooded with pictures,
jewellery, and the like, which were sold for
fabulous sums.

But, of course, this state of things could not
endure long. It was inevitable that Law's

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 9

scheme must soon reach the end of its tether.
It never had any substantial foundation ; and
presently it became necessary to bolster it up,
first with expedients to sustain the public in-
terest, and later on with edicts forbidding the
holding of gold and silver in large quantities,
in order that the bank might have control of
the specie in the country.

One of the expedients resorted to was to
bring from the banks of the Mississippi eleven
Indians, as specimens of the inhabitants, the
chief of the party being a woman, who was
reputed to be a queen of a renowned tribe
called the People of the Sun. They created
quite a furor by their appearance, and, among
other things, hunted down before the eyes of
the king and court a stag which was let loose
in the Bois de Boulogne. They also gave ex-
hibitions of their native dances in the Theatre
Italien.

Now, while the public were amusing them-
selves with these trifles, some far-seeing men
were arranging a marriage for her dusky Maj-
esty which would prove a bond of union be-
tween the two countries. She was youthful
and attractive, and had but one drawback; viz.,.

10 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

that, as the daughter of the Sun, she enjoyed
the privilege of killing her husband whenever
she wearied of him. Notwithstanding this, there
were many suitors for the fascinating Indian's
hand ; and from among them she chose a hand-
some sergeant of the Guards named Dubois.
The marriage . was duly solemnized, and the
happy pair set sail for their dominions. But,
alas for poor Dubois the First, King of Mis-
souri ! He had hardly landed when his faith-
less spouse had him killed, and probably he
was eaten by her tribe.

In spite of expedients and edicts, however,
Law's mighty fabric began to totter, and wilder
panic to take the place of wild speculation. The
following lines, which were sung by a mob, ex-
pressed the experience of the majority who had
yielded themselves to the gambling fever : —

" Lundi, j'achetai des actions;
Mardi, je gagnai des millions;
Mercredi, j'ornai mon menage;
Jeudi, je pris un equipage;
Yendredi, je m'en fus en bal;
Et Samedi a l'hopital."

The English being somewhat like this : —

"On Monday I bought share on share;
On Tuesday I was a millionaire;

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 11

On Wednesday I took a grand abode;
On Thursday in my carriage I rode;
On Friday drove to the opera ball;
On Saturday went to the pauper's hall."

Of course Law himself, no less than his mis-
chievous system, came in for a great deal of
hard feeling; and one day his carriage, which
fortunately for him had no occupant, was set
upon by an angry mob, and broken to pieces,
right in front of the Palais de Justice, where
Parliament was then holding a morning session.
The president, having occasion to leave the
chamber for a moment, was told of what had
happened. Hastening back, he struck a dra-
matic attitude, and recited the following im-
promptu verse, which had great celebrity at
the time : —

" Messieurs, messieurs, bonne nouvelle!
Le carrosse de Law est reduit en cannelle."

It has been very well translated thus :

"Sirs, sirs, great news! What is it? It 's —
They 've smashed Law's carriage into bits."

But the collapse of the great Mississippi bub-
ble was no subject for joking. In proportion
as the elation and extravagance produced by its

12 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

growth were great beyond precedent, in like
manner were the depression and ruin wrought
by its explosion wof ul beyond description. " It
is inconceivable," writes a contemporary his-
torian, " to those who were witness of the hor-
rors of those times, and who look back upon
them now as on a dream, that a sudden revo-
lution did not break out ; that Law and the
Regent did not perish by a tragical death."

As it was, utterly ruined and disgraced, Law
fled the country, and died a pauper's death in
Venice, leaving poor over-credulous France bur-
dened with a debt of more than three billion
livres, and with her trade and capital so dis^
organized that the mischief could never be ade-
quately repaired. Such was the lamentable
result of the famous and unfortunate Missis-
sippi Bubble.

r/v) Qy* &Z — n.

RIO DE

LOJMDTIES

TRADE LABEL OF THE SOUTH SEA COMPANY.
(Guildhall Museum).

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 13

CHAPTER II.

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.

That volatile, sanguine France should lose
her head over the Mississippi Bubble, even to
the extent she did, is far easier to understand
than that sober, stolid England should be
tempted into any similar folly. And yet the
Rue de Quincampoix in the very vortex of the
Mississippi madness did not present a scene of
wilder speculation than Change Alley, in Lon-
don, when the South Sea mania was at its
height. Oddly enough, too, the two bubbles
expanded within a few years of each other, and
burst not far apart. Happily, however, the
consequences did not prove quite so disastrous
in England as they did in France.

The beginning of the English bubble was in
the year 1711, when good Queen Anne was per-
suaded to grant a royal charter to the " Gov-
ernor and Company of Merchants of Great
Britain trading to the South Seas." The for-
mation of this company was the direct result of

14 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

the extravagant stories, told by the buccaneers
and freebooters who had followed in the path
of Drake, of the fortunes that were to be made
by shrewd ventures to the coasts of South
America. All the world knew of the immense
wealth derived by Spain from her South Ameri-
can dominions, and there was no lack of bold
and restless spirits eager to engage in any en-
terprise thither which promised rich reward,
and so, when the Earl of Oxford, then Lord
High Treasurer, lent his powerful influence to
the support of a scheme for the incorporation of
the proprietors of a portion of the national debt
for the purpose of carrying on a trade to the
South Seas, not only was a very comprehensive
charter secured without difficulty, but the stock
of the new company at once took a high place
in the confidence of the community.

The rights and privileges conferred upon the
company were simply preposterous. No ships
but their own were suffered to trade within the
vast territories assigned them on penalty of for-
feiture of both ship and merchandise, together
with double their value ; and they had the
power to take by force of arms, and treat as
a prize, any vessel infringing upon their mo-

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 15

nopoly. Moreover, all the commercial rights
and extraordinary powers with which they were
vested were declared to be perpetual.

The capital of the company was at first nearly
ten millions of pounds sterling. A few years
later it was increased to twelve millions ; and
as the interest paid upon the stock by the gov-
ernment amounted to more than six hundred
thousand pounds per annum, there was a cer-
tainty of decent dividends, even though the
results of the few trading ventures that were
made to the South Seas were utterly insignifi-
cant in comparison with the expectations which
had been excited in the public mind.

For some time the affairs of the company
were prudently and economically managed, and
the stock advanced steadily until it was worth
one hundred and fourteen per cent. Then
there appeared upon the scene a remarkable
man, who has good claims to be considered the
father of modern stock-jobbing, and whose
statue ought certainly to be placed in some
prominent position commanding a view of Wall
Street or the Stock Exchange. This was the
famous John Blunt. Bred to the obscure pro-
fession of scrivener, nature had endowed him

16 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

with many notable qualities. His manners
were graceful and insinuating, and his air and
address peculiarly calculated to win the confi-
dence of the people he met. Possessing great
boldness of character, combined with striking
originality of thought, and a readiness of 'con-
ception rarely equalled, he was just the man to
originate and execute some daring scheme that
would set the world wondering.

His opportunity came when King George I.
asked the House of Commons to consider some
means of reducing the national debt of Great
Britain, which had grown so large as to become
burdensome to the people. Blunt at once ap-
peared with a plan that the South Sea Company
should purchase the debt from the persons by
whom it was held, giving in exchange therefor
their own stock, which was to be issued by
authority of Parliament.

He submitted his project to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, who fell in with it at once,
and supported it so strongly that the ministry
of the day had it adopted, in spite of strong
protests from several leading members of the
House of Lords, who, with true insight, con-
tended that the measure was certain to impov-

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 17

erish thousands, although it might enrich a few.
Accordingly in the year 1720, an Act was passed
authorizing the company to take over by pur-
chase or subscription the entire national debt,
then exceeding thirty million pounds sterling.

Having succeeded in this step, Blunt's next
proceeding was to boom the South Sea stock,
which he did by having secret agents circulate
the most rose-colored reports concerning the
commercial privileges and opportunities of the
company. So successful were these and other
similar devices employed, that the most frantic
eagerness was shown by the public to obtain the
stock ; and its price rose by leaps and bounds to
three hundred per cent, then four hundred,
then five hundred, and so on, day after day as
the mania grew wilder, until the incredible fig-
ure of one thousand per cent was reached, at
which price it was eagerly bought and reluc-
tantly sold, except by the very few who had
kept their heads in the midst of the general
infatuation, and perceived the inevitable sequel
of such folly.

John Blunt, the whilom scrivener, was now
the hero of the hour. His low birth was con-
veniently overlooked, and the title of baronet

18 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

was conferred upon him, the more effectually
to conceal it. The highest members of the aris-
tocracy vied with one another in showering
attentions upon the fortunate fellow, and the
populace received him everywhere with a favor
that was little short of adoration.

A frenzy for speculation, more furious than
that which but a few months before had done
so much damage in the French capital, took
possession of London ; and Change Alley became
the vortex of a human whirlpool, the like of
which England had never witnessed before, and
is not likely ever to see again.

From morning to night this narrow street
was thronged with an excited crowd of men
and women of all ages and rank, who forgot
their differences of opinion and station, and
joined together in the fierce pursuit of fortune.
Statesmen deserted their chambers, and clergy-
men their studies, to throw themselves into the
arena of stock-gambling. Whigs and Tories
buried the political hatchet for the nonce, and
mingled in friendly intercourse, exulting to-
gether when their stocks advanced, or groaning
in unison if they fell. Merchants forsook their
offices, and tradesmen their counters, the doc-

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 19

tors neglected their patients, and the lawyers
allowed their clients to wait, while all were
whirled giddily along with the rushing stream
of speculation that was to bear so many out, to
be forever ingulfed in the ocean of bankruptcy.
A street ballad of the day thus graphically
hits off the situation : —

" Then stars and garters did appear
Among the meaner rabble,
To buy and sell, to see and hear
The Jews and Gentiles squabble.

The greatest ladies thither came,

And plied in chariots daily,
Or pawned their jewels for a sum

To venture in the Alley."

The South Sea Bubble was only the greatest
among a crowd of great bubbles. There is ex-
tant a list of nearly two hundred bubble com-
panies started in this year of bubbles, their
nominal capital varying from one million to ten
million pounds apiece, and the total of the
whole exceeding three hundred million pounds.

" Any impudent impostor," says a contem-
porary historian, " whilst the delusion was at
its height, needed only to hire a room at some
coffee-house near Exchange Alley, and open a
subscription-book for somewhat relative to com-

20 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

merce, manufacture, plantation, or some sup-
posed invention, either hatched out of his own
brain or stolen from somebody else, having
first advertised it in the newspapers of the pre-
ceding day, and he might in a few hours find
subscribers for one or two millions of imaofi-
nary stock. Many of the subscribers were far
from believing these projects feasible. It was
enough for their purpose that there would soon
be a premium on the receipts for those sub-
scriptions, when they generally got rid of them
in the crowded alleys to others more credulous
than themselves."

Some of the companies thus promoted were
for objects so ridiculous that it is not easy for
us at this present day to understand how any
sane persons could entertain their proposals for
a moment, let alone invest money in them.
One company, with a capital of three million
pounds, was " for insuring to all masters and
mistresses the losses they may sustain by ser-
vants ; " another was " for furnishing merchants
and others with watches ; " a third, with a capi-
tal of one million pounds, was " for a wheel for
perpetual motion ; " a fourth was for making salt
water fresh ; a fifth was launched by a clergy-

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 21

man for the extraordinary object of importing a
number of large jackasses from Spain in order
to improve the breed of mules in England —
" as if," Mr. Fox Bourne grimly adds, " there
were not already jackasses enough in London."
This company proceeded so far that negotia-
tions were actually opened for the purchase of
immense tracts of marsh-lands for its purposes.

So wildly absurd were many of these under-
takings that, according to Mr. Fox Bourne, it is
hard to say whether it was in jest or in earnest
that an advertisement was issued, announcing
that "at a certain place on Tuesday next,
books will be opened for a subscription of two
million pounds for the invention of melting
sawdust and chips, and casting them into clean
deal boards without cracks or knots."

For eight months the mania raged. Wealth
changed hands with bewildering rapidity, and
was steadily concentrated by the handful of
knaves, to whom the thousands of fools were
willing dupes.

The great parent of all these preposterous
and delusive stocks at last grew envious of
their success, and supposing that their destruc-
tion would clear the field for 'the South Sea

22 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

stock, resolved upon their annihilation. In-
fluence was accordingly brought to bear upon
the government for the institution of legal
proceedings against them, as being contrary to
the royal proclamation of June, 1720, which
had hitherto been disregarded openly and with
impunity.

The prosecutions were duly commenced, and
at once every bubble company against which
they were directed collapsed and vanished like
a soap-bubble at the prick of a pin. Change
Alley quickly became deserted, and the myr-
iads of fatuous speculators which had thronged
it found themselves suddenly brought face to
face with bankruptcy and beggary. Hundreds
of families were forever ruined, and gloom and
misery everywhere prevailed.

By the irony of fate it chanced that the very
means which the South Sea Company had taken
to crush their rivals brought about their own
downfall. Only by basely fraudulent methods
had the stock been maintained at its unnat-
ural height; and when men, after the mania
had somewhat subsided, began to examine more
carefully into the company's affairs, these frauds
were revealed, with the result that in a short

THE SOUTH SEA HUBBLE. 23

time the stock fell from one thousand per cent
to one hundred and fifty.

A fresh wave of ruin now swept over unfor-
tunate England. The whole nation was affected
by the mighty shock to public credit. From
being the idols of the populace, Blunt and his
associates became objects of the most intense
popular hatred and obloquy. King George
was hurriedly summoned back from a holiday
in Germany, as there seemed actual danger of
a revolution. On the assembling of Parliament
the directors of the South Sea Company were
arraigned, and a thorough inquiry made into
their affairs. As the fruits of the inquiry they
were stripped of all their ill-gotten gains, and
punished in other ways for their misdeeds.
Blunt disappeared into opprobrious obscurity ;
and, although England was rich enough and
strong enough to recover in due time from the
injury he had done her, still there is no doubt
but that her financial position would be stronger
to-day had she never heard of him nor of the
South Sea Bubble.

24 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER III.

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND.

Regarding ribbons, Charles Dickens sagely
remarks in the Christmas Carol that they are
so cheap you can make a brave show with
them for sixpence. The same thing may be
said nowadays of tulips. So easily may they
be procured, and with such little difficulty cul-
tivated in our gardens, that one can hardly
understand how the bulb from which these
gorgeous flowers spring could ever have com-
manded the price of precious stones. Yet such
was the case in the land of the Dutch in the
first third of the seventeenth century.

Could Conrad Gesner have been able to fore-
cast the future, and get a prophetic glimpse of
the woes his praises of the flower he saw for
the first time in the garden of Counsellor Her-
wart were fated to bring upon his countrymen,
he would no doubt have kept his discovery to
himself.

Counsellor Herwart lived in Augsburg, and

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND. 25

was famous for his collection of rare exot-
ics. Among them were some brilliant flowers
grown from the bulb sent him by a friend in
Constantinople, where their beauties had long
been appreciated.

Gesner, on his return home, spread abroad the
praises of this plant so effectually that, in the
course of the next few years, tulips were much
sought after by the wealthy, especially in Ger-
many and Holland. Rich folk at Amsterdam
did not begrudge sending direct to Constanti-
nople for bulbs, and were quite willing to pay
big prices for them.

As years went by the tulip continued to in-
crease in reputation, until it was as incumbent
upon persons of fortune to have a collection of
them as to keep a carriage.

Nor was the interest in them confined to the
wealthy. The rage for their possession soon
spread to the middle classes of society ; and
merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate
means, began to vie with each other in the size
and strangeness of their collection, and in the
preposterous prices paid for bulbs. A trader at
Haarlem was known to pay one-half of his for-
tune for a single root, not with the design of

26 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

selling it again at a profit, but simply to culti-
vate it in his own conservatory for the admira-
tion of his friends.

In explanation of this extraordinary interest
in a single variety of plant, the flowing lines
of Cowley may be quoted : —

"The Tulip next appeared, all over gay,
But wanton, full of pride, and full of play;
The world can't show a dye but here has place,
Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face;
Purple and gold are both beneath her care,
The richest needlework she loves to wear ;
Her only study is to please the eye,
And to outshine the rest in finery."

But, poetic as the portrait is, the prose of
Beckniann probably gets neare*r the mark.
" There are few plants," he says, " which ac-
quire, through accident, weakness, or disease,
so many variegations as the tulip. When un-
cultivated, and in its natural state, it is almost
of one color, has large leaves, and an extraordi-
nary long stem. When it has been weakened
by cultivation, it becomes more agreeable in
the eye of the florist. The petals are then
paler, smaller, and more diversified in hue, and
the leaves acquire a softer green color. Thus,
this masterpiece of culture, the more beautiful

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND. 27

it turns, grows so much the weaker; so that,
with the greatest skill and most careful atten-
tion, it can scarcely be transplanted, or even
kept alive."

Any one familiar with the modern mania for
orchid growing and collecting must at once
see the secret of the old-time craze for tulips,
although it is not easy to understand a whole
people being infected with it at once.

Yet true it is that in 1623 the rage among
the Dutch for the possession of rare varieties
was so great that the ordinary industries of the
country fell into neglect, and the population,
down to the lowest ranks, embarked in the tulip
trade.

Charles Mackay, to whom I am indebted for
much of my information, states that prices rose
rapidly until, in the year 1635, persons were
known to invest a fortune of one hundred thou-
sand florins on the purchase of forty roots ! It
became necessary to appraise the bulbs by their
weight in perits, a perit being less than a grain,
just as if they were as precious as diamonds,
whose weight is told in tiny carats.

When the mania was at its height a tulip of
the species called " Admiral Liefken," weighing

28 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

four hundred perits, was worth four thousand
four hundred florins ; -an Admiral Van der Eyck
of four hundred and forty-six perits was worth
one thousand two hundred and sixty florins.
For a Viceroy of four hundred perits three
thousand florins had to be paid ; while, most
precious of all, a Semper Augustus weighing
but two hundred perits was thought to be very
cheap at five thousand five hundred florins !

Of this last variety it is related that early in
1636 there were only two roots to be had in all
Holland ; and so eager were speculators to ob-
tain them that the fee simple of twelve acres of
choice building-ground in Haarlem was offered
for the one, and the other sold for four thou-
sand six hundred florins, a new carriage, two
fine gray horses, and a complete set of harness.

An even more remarkable case of bartering,
although the values involved were not so large,
is recorded by Munting, a contemporary author,
who wrote a folio volume of over one thousand
pages upon the tulipomania. For one single
root of the rare species called the "Viceroy,"
an eager collector, who would seem to have
been a country gentleman, exchanged the fol-
lowing articles : —

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND. 29

Two lasts of wheat and four of rye ; four fat
oxen, eight fat swine, and twelve fat sheep ;
two hogsheads of wine and four tuns of beer ;
two tons of butter, and one thousand pounds of
cheese ; a complete bed, a suit of clothes, and a
drinking-cup, — the total value being two thou-
sand five hundred florins.

It is to be hoped that this worthy enthusiast
did not, like the man in the Master's parable,
sell quite all that he had, but retained at least
sufficient to be clothed upon, and to eat, drink,
and be merry withal, and then to lie down and
sleep in triumphant possession of his prize.

As is always the case with popular manias,
there were some amusing incidents, of which
the records have been preserved. Thus in the
Travels of Blainville it is told how a wealthy
merchant, who took no little pride in his rare
tulips, upon one occasion received a very valu-
able consignment of merchandise from the Le-
vant. The news of its safe arrival in port was
brought him by a sailor ; and the merchant, in
reward for the welcome message, gave its
bearer a fine red herring for his breakfast.

Now, this same Jack Tar, it seems, was par-
ticularly fond of onions ; and,- noticing a bulb

30 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

very like his favorite vegetable lying on the
desk, he slyly seized the opportunity to slip it
into his pocket, thinking it would be a very
nice relish for his herring.

He got clear off with his prize, and hastened
to the harbor to enjoy his breakfast ; but hardly
had he disappeared before the merchant missed
his precious Semper Augustus bulb, worth at
least three thousand florins !

Great then was the commotion. Vigorous
search was at once instituted. Presently a
bright clerk suggested the sailor. In hot pur-
suit went the merchant, followed by his em-
ployees ; and lo ! seated on a coil of rope at the
head of the quay, they found poor innocent
Jack, masticating the onion with much apprecia-
tion, little dreaming that the value of his break-
fast would have provisioned his whole ship's
crew for a twelvemonth !

As Charles Mackay puts it : Antony caused
pearls to be mixed in wine to drink the health
of Cleopatra, Sir Richard Whittington was as
foolishly magnificent in honor of King Henry
V., and Sir Thomas Gresham toasted Good
Queen Bess, when she opened the Royal Ex-
change, with a bumper of Burgundy in which a

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND. 31

diamond had been dissolved ; but the breakfast
of the thieving sailor was as lavish of cost as
any of them. He had an advantage, too, over
his wasteful predecessors. Their gems did not
improve their wine, while the tulip went very
well with his herring. But, alas ! he had to
expiate his offence by spending some months in
prison.

Another good story is that related of an
English traveller, who was a bit of an amateur
botanist. He had come to Holland, knowing
little or nothing of the tulipomania ; and while
going through the conservatories of a wealthy
Dutchman he chanced upon a bulb the like of
which he had never seen before.

Moved by scientific ardor, he took out his
penknife, and peeled off the coats of the bulb
until he had reduced it one-half in size, and
then he cut it into halves.

At that moment the owner, whose attention
had been temporarily elsewhere, pounced upon
him, crying out if he knew what he was doing.
" Peeling a most extraordinary onion," was the
calm reply. " Bonder en Bletzen ! " roared
the Dutchman, " it's an Admiral Van der
Eyck ! " — " Oh ! really ! " responded the Eng-

32 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

iishman courteously, " I must make a note of
it;" and out came note-book and pencil. En-
raged beyond measure, the merchant seized the
astonished botanist by the collar, shouting,
"Come before the magistrate with me;" and,
in spite of all remonstrances, dragged him into
court, where, to his profound dismay, he learned
that the " most extraordinary onion " was worth
four thousand florins, and he was lodged in
prison until he gave security for the payment
of this amount.

It need hardly be said that henceforth botany
ceased to have the attraction for him it once
possessed.

Tulipomania reached its zenith in the year
1636, when the belief seemed to have seized
upon the Dutch that the passion for the bulbs
would last forever, and that the wealthy from
all parts of the world would send to Holland
for them, and pay whatever prices were asked.
Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen,
footmen, maid-servants, and even chimney-
sweeps and old-clothes women, — all dabbled
in tulips. People of all grades converted their
property into cash to invest in flowers. Houses
and land were a drug in the market; adjoin-

THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND. 33

ing countries caught the infection, and money
poured into Holland from all directions. The
operations of the trade became so extensive and
involved that it was necessary to draw up a
code of laws for the direction of the dealers.

Notaries were appointed, who devoted them-
selves exclusively to the interests of the
trade.

At last, however, the more prudent began to
see that this state of affairs could not go on
indefinitely. Rich people no longer bought the
flowers for their collections, but to sell them
again at a cent per cent profit. It was per-
ceived that somebody must lose fearfully in the
long run. As this conviction spread, the prices
fell, never to rise again. Confidence was de-
stroyed, and a universal panic, as wild as the
original mania, set in. The consequences were
appalling. Every day made large additions to
the list of bankrupts and defaulters. Hun-
dreds who had imagined themselves established
for life suddenly realized that all they had was
a handful of bulbs that nobody would buy, and
which would hardly procure the necessaries of
existence. The cry of genuine distress rang
through the land, and the government was

34 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

appealed to that measures might be taken to
restore public credit.

But, after months of weary waiting, the au-
thorities practically admitted their powerless-
ness, and the people were fain to struggle out
of the financial slough into which their infatua-
tion had plunged them as best they could. In
due time, of course, matters did readjust them-
selves; but the commerce of the country suf-
fered a severe shock, from which it was many
years in recovering.

THE DARIEN EXPEDITION. 35

CHAPTER IV.

THE DARIEN EXPEDITION.

The Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, is be-
yond a doubt one of the most interesting, as it
is one of the most important, bits of terra jirma
on this round globe. The connecting link
between the continents of North and South
America, it is also the barrier that divides the
Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean, and, in fact,
one side of the world from the other. From
the time of its discovery and occupation by the
Spaniards, it has been a matter of general be-
lief that whoever had command of this narrow
neck of land held the key of the commerce of
the world. Here would naturally be concen-
trated the mutual trade of the Atlantic and the
Pacific coasts of America. Moreover, it would
necessarily be an important stage in the short-
est route between Europe and the Indies, as
well as the mighty islands lying far to the
south of the equator.

Little wonder, then, that the Spaniards

36 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

wanted to keep the isthmus to themselves,
and always did their very best, cowards though
they were except when greatly in the majority,
to make it eminently unpleasant for anybody
who sought to share its advantages with them ;
and in fine and striking contrast to their miser-
able dog-in-the-manger policy, for they really
put their splendid opportunities to little use,
was the spirit in which William Paterson con-
ceived the famous Darien project that played
so prominent a part in the history of Scotland
at the close of the seventeenth century.

This William Paterson was a very different
type of man from that notorious speculator,
John Law, whose doings have been already told
in this series ; and yet his vast project proved
hardly less disastrous in its outcome than the
other's. He is generally credited with being the
founder of the Bank of England, and this is in
large measure true. He certainly deserves the
entire honor for laying down the only true basis
for a bank-note currency ; viz., that the bank
issuing notes should always have on hand a suf-
ficient supply of gold to enable it to redeem in
gold all the notes that the daily operation of
business might bring to its counter. He was

THE DARIEN EXPEDITION. 37

one of the twenty-four directors at the opening
of the bank, but appears to have sold out not
long after, and, with his money in hand, to
have looked about him for some way of invest-
ing it that would be for the public good.

Now, those were the days of vexatious mo-
nopolies and irritating restrictions in commerce.
The trade of England with the distant regions
of the globe was in the jealous grasp of two
great corporations, — the East India Company
and the African Company, — which, although
they were at deadly enmity with each other,
heartily agreed in crushing every free-trader
who dared to intrude within the limits of their
territory. Paterson was an ardent free-trader.
He believed his mission to be the emancipation
of commerce from the hurtful restraints laid
upon it by miscalculating selfishness ; and it
was by the creation of a great free port at the
Isthmus of Darien, open to the trade of the
world, that he hoped to accomplish his benevo-
lent purpose.

Accordingly, in the year 1695, he obtained
the passage through the Scottish Parliament of
an Act for the incorporation of " The Company
of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies,"

38 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

popularly known as the " Darien Company."
This company was granted very extensive
powers, and had a capital of six hundred thou-
sand pounds, one-half of which, it was stipu-
lated, must ever be held by Scotsmen residing
in their own country, thus insuring the perma-
nence of the national character of the under-
taking.

As it turned out, however, there was no need
of this provision, for, when the subscription-
books were opened in London, there came such
a rush of applicants for shares that the stock
was soon all taken up ; and this so aroused the
hostility of the English companies that they
called upon the House of Commons to assist
them in crushing their Scotch rival. The
House of Commons yielded to the clamor, and
by threats of proceedings so alarmed the Lon-
don subscribers that they all backed out, and
forfeited their holdings.

This hostile action roused the national spirit
of Scotland. The English had withdrawn —
well, what of that ? Scotland would go on, and
keep to herself the glory and all the other re-
wards of the great national undertaking. In
proof of their earnestness the Scotch thereupon

THE DAEIEN EXPEDITION. 39

subscribed for another one hundred thousand
pounds of stock, making four hundred thou-
sand pounds in all. Subsequently an attempt
was made to place the balance of the stock in
Holland ; but again the machinations of the
English companies interfered, and the whole
burden was left to be borne by Scotland.

Harassed and delayed by this hostility and
other causes, it was not until 1698 that the
company proceeded to carry out the main pur-
pose of its formation. In the month of July a
little fleet of three vessels, having on board over
a thousand picked men, set sail from Leith amid
bright sunshine and the cheers and prayers of
a vast assemblage gathered on the wharves to
bid them " God speed."

William Paterson's heart was full of joy and
hope, as he now saw before him the prospect
of the early realization of his long-cherished
design. Hitherto the selfish Spaniards, and the
hardly less selfish British, had sought to mo-
nopolize the commerce of the New World. He
had in view nothing less than the complete
reversal of such a policy. The ships of all
nations were to be perfectly free to the new
port he would found at Darien. At that fa-

40 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

vored spot the merchandise from all countries
might concentrate, and Scotland calmly take
her seat as the great queen of commerce, show-
ering the blessings of abundance around her.

Such was his dream, a noble one in every way.
Alas, that it should have failed so pitifully of
fulfilment ! After an uneventful voyage, the
vessels reached the isthmus in November, and
landed their passengers at a projecting point of
the Gulf of Darien, which had previously been
selected as the site of the fort and settlement.

The spot was in many respects well chosen.
It was a long rock-edged peninsula, stretching
southwards nearly half-way across the gulf,
and united to the mainland at the north by a
narrow neck of land easily fortified. At the
western point a strong fort was built to com-
mand the gulf, which the buccaneers com-
mended as " a very crabbed hold."

The peninsula was occupied as a fortified
centre, not for settlement, it being arid and
barren. An indefinite district stretching inland
was to form the colony, and to bear the name of
New Caledonia. Two sites for towns were
selected, the one to be called New Edinburgh,
the other New St. Andrews. At the time of

THE DARIEN EXPEDITION. 41

the adventurers' arrival the weather was genial
and healthy, the vegetation luxuriant and beau-
tiful, the natives kind and hospitable, and every-
thing seemed to smile upon the enterprise, and
promise complete success.

But the seeds of failure were present from
the start. Whatever little the English knew
about the planting of colonies, the Scotch knew
nothing at all, and there was a pitiful lack of
the right kind of organization about the expe-
dition. There was no arrangement for govern-
ment and the preservation of order. All had
apparently been left to chance. In the same
haphazard fashion had the goods for barter
been selected; and they were- a marvellously
mixed, and, upon the whole, highly unsuitable,
collection of commodities, such as axes, iron
wedges, knives ; smiths', carpenters', and coop-
ers' tools; barrels, guns, pistols, combs, shoes,
hats, paper, pipes, etc., one vessel carrying over
four thousand pounds worth of these articles.

Hardly had the colonists established them-
selves on dry land when dissensions within and
dangers without made their appearance. The
party was composed of very various elements.
Along with political enthusiasts and men of

42 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

rigid piety and virtue were men of quite an-
other stamp, — hardy sailors with consciences
as tough and weather-beaten as their bodies,
and who had learned their seamanship among
the buccaneers ; in plain words, pirates, who
were ready for any deed of blood or rapine.
These "tarpaulins," as Paterson called them,
soon gained that ascendency which the bold and
reckless are apt to have ; and their influence,
aided by the fascination of a wild, lawless life,
had a very demoralizing effect, especially upon
the young men of the expedition.

The leaders had hard work keeping order,
and every day the task became more difficult;
while, to add to their trouble, they presently
came into collision with the Spaniards, who
regarded them as unauthorized intruders upon
their private property, for so they then consid-
ered the whole of South America. These Span-
iards had considerable cities to the north, south,
and east of the Scots' settlement, and they did
not propose to submit tamely to such an inva-
sion. Moreover, despite the efforts of Paterson
and his associates to justify their coming, and
to make clear how entirely honorable were their
intentions, the Dons persisted in classing them

THE DARIEN EXPEDITION. 43

with Morgan, Sharpe, Ringrose, and the other
dare-devil freebooters, who had not so long be-
fore stormed and sacked their treasure cities,
and inflicted appalling loss of blood and bullion.

Consequently, when, early in March, 1699,
a small vessel "belonging to the company ran
into the port of Cartagena for repairs, the
commander and crew were immediately seized
by the Spaniards, put in irons, and without
much delay condemned to death, as being pi-
rates. Happily, through the intervention of the
British government, the sentence was not exe-
cuted, but it showed plainly the temper of the
real masters of the situation. The Scotch in-
truders could hope for no mercy at their hands,
once they had a good excuse for making war
upon them.

But worse even than internal dissensions and
external foes were the attacks of pestilence and
famine. With the approach of the hot season
the evil influences of the country and climate
began to work. All that is deadly in the pesti-
lential elements of tropical America would
seem to be concentrated on the Isthmus of Da-
rien, as the toilers on the ill-fated Panama
Canal have learned to their cost. Up to the

44 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE .

present it has defied permanent settlement by
Europeans. . Narrow as it is, its forests are
pathless, and its dense shroud of matted and
rotting vegetation, with all its animate and
inanimate horrors, sullenly opposes the opera-
tions of man.

The unhappy Scotchmen, who had hoped,
after finishing their fortifications, to sally forth
in search of gold, found that the sad task of
burying their dead, and of seeking for some
addition to their rapidly diminishing store of
food, demanded all their energies. When June
came without bringing any news of the ex-
pected re-enforcements from Scotland, the
wretched colonists decided to desert the settle-
ment, and to set forth in three ships with no
more definite object than to reach the first port
whither Providence should guide them.

One of the ships got over to Jamaica. The
other two made their way up to New York,
where they arrived in a pitiful condition, and
their crews and passengers became objects of
charity to the kindly disposed people of the
place.

Now, just when the famine-stricken remnant
of the colonists was giving up the undertaking

THE DABIEN EXPEDITION. 45

in despair, the company at home was fitting out
a second expedition. Two vessels were de-
spatched in May, 1699, four others followed
in August, and a third fleet in September.
Imagine the disappointment and depression of
this second expedition, when, on its arrival at
Darien, instead of being received with true
Scottish hospitality by a prosperous, happy com-
munity, there was nothing to be seen save a
deserted and dismantled fort, the ruins of a vil-
lage, and a graveyard sown thick with memo-
rials of the dead. Yet they had the courage
and resolution to stay, and take the chance of
a happier fate than their predecessors.

But the fates, unmoved by their sturdy spirit,
were not disposed to deal any more kindly with
them than with the others. The same causes of
failure were present and no less potent. In
addition thereto the sluggish Spaniards were at
last bestirring themselves, and with character-
istic deliberation preparing an armament on
the other side of the isthmus, which in due
time was to close around and destroy the little
settlement as a huge bear might crush a terrier
in its mighty embrace.

Each day the gloom deepened ; and although

46 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

the Scots, learning of the projected attack,
sought to ward it off by striking the first blow,
and did distinguish themselves by putting to
flight a much superior force at Tubacanti, on
the River Santa Maria, yet when the victors
returned laden with spoils, it was to find the
poor little colony blockaded by a number of
men-of-war.

There was no alternative but to surrender;
and the Spaniards, only too glad to be rid of
their unwelcome captives, willingly allowed
them to get away as expeditiously as they
could manage. This capitulation was the vir-
tual destruction of the great Indian and Afri-
can Company, as well as the colony it had
attempted to plant, and of the grand scheme
for a world's free port. There was fierce in-
dignation felt in Scotland at the loss both of
money and of national honor the lamentable
failure of the enterprise involved; but there
seemed no way of redeeming either, and so the
Darien Expedition went to join the catalogue
of famous though futile undertakings.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 47

CHAPTER V.

THE CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS.

What a thrill of romantic interest these two
words, " Spanish galleons," excite ! The mo-
ment we see them they bring up before us vis-
ions of bright bars of silver and glistening
ingots of gold, with diamonds and pearls as big
as walnuts, and emeralds larger than pigeons'
eggs, in heaping handfuls, such as gladdened
the eyes and enriched the pockets of Francis
Drake and the other freebooters whose ex-
ploits have been so brilliantly celebrated by
Charles Kingsley in his Westward Ho. They
remind us, too, of daring deeds at sea, when in
vessels smaller than a first-class fishing schooner
of to-day, and not half so seaworthy or so ea-
sily handled, the British mariners flung them-
selves upon the huge Spanish ships, whose
poops towered high above their decks, and cap-
tured them by the sheer impetuosity of their
attack.

And it must not be forgotten that it was in

48 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

the quest of these very galleons along the
coast of South America, and in the fighting of
them in the English Channel, when the Great
Armada bore down so menacingly upon poor
little England, that the English sea-dogs
learned the secret of the mastery of the seas,
a lesson that did more than any other to build
up and maintain their country's glory and
strength at home and abroad.

Now, what were the Spanish galleons, and
how came they to have such precious cargoes ?
The term " galleon " was, in the first instance,
applied only to ships-of-war having three or
four gundecks ; but later on its use became
more general, and all large merchant vessels
went by that name. They must have been very
imposing-looking affairs when under full sail,
although hardly less clumsy than a canal barge.
They were blunt of bow and round of stern,
very low in the waist, but exceedingly high at
either end. In fact, some of them must have
resembled two wooden towers joined by a bul-
warked raft, and having masts sticking out of
their tops, to which sails were attached by
means of many cross-yards and a maze of
rigging.

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 49

It was in one of them that Columbus discov-
ered another world, and took possession of the
Island of San Domingo. By their aid Cortez
and his steel-clad soldiers made their way to
Mexico, and crushed the Aztec empire with
appalling cruelty, and Pizarro, at the head of
his daring adventurers, accomplished the con-
quest of Peru. In fact, these galleons were the
keys by which the plucky, though pitiless, Span-
iards unlocked the treasure-houses of the New
World, whose marvellous contents were poured
into the coffers of King Charles V. and Philip
II., thereby enabling those monarchs to lift
Spain to the proud position of first of Euro-
pean powers.

Between 1492 and 1568 Spain had the field
practically all to herself. From Florida to the
River Plata on the eastern side of the conti-
nent, and from Panama to Patagonia on the
western, her sway was supreme. To the right
of conquest was added the authority of the
church ; for by a papal grant the whole of
America was conveyed to the Spanish crown,
and this vast trust the bigoted Philip was as
anxious to guard from the taint of heresy as he
was from commercial competition. Terrible

50 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

threats were proclaimed, particularly against
the British " sea-dogs," who had already given
his galleons trouble along the European coasts.
For a time these measures prevailed ; but as the
sixteenth century drew towards its fourth quar-
ter they ceased to be sufficient to restrain the
national hatred of Spain and the national crav-
ing for a wider commercial field, even though
it had to be won at the point of the pike.

The renowned John Hawkins was the first
to dare the dungeons of the Inquisition by
violating the Spanish monopoly of the New
World, and so successful was his venture that
he soon had many imitators. Among them
was one whose fame soon eclipsed that of all
others, growing into such proportions, and gath-
ering about its kernel of fact such an amazing
mass of fiction, that his latest biographer says of
him : " He was not dead before his life became
a fairy tale, and he himself as indistinct as Sir
Guy of Warwick or Croquemitaine. His ex-
ploits loomed in mythical extravagance through
the. mists in which, for high reasons of state,
they long remained enveloped; and to the peo-
ple he seemed some boisterous hero of a folk-
tale outwitting and belaboring a clumsy ogre."

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 51

This was the hero of the chase of the Spanish
galleons, the true founder of Britain's naval
supremacy, Sir Francis Drake.

Looking back over his astonishing career,
and considering the overwhelming odds that, as
a rule, he had to meet, and the absolute com-
pleteness of his victories over them, it is not so
very hard for us to understand the superstitious
Spaniards giving him credit for being in league
with his Satanic Majesty, and winning his way
by diabolical means. For a quarter of a cen-
tury the name " El Draque " was full of terror
to them.

It was not by any means mere greed for gold
that spurred Drake on to his extraordinary ex-
ploits. As an Englishman and a Puritan he
hated the would-be monopolists of the American
continent, in the first place because they were
Spaniards, and in the second because they were
Roman Catholics. Moreover, to this national
and religious hostility was added a deep per-
sonal grudge for the treachery which wrecked
the first two of his ventures into the Spanish
Main. At La Hacha, and again at Vera Cruz,
by violating their solemn covenant the Span-
iards gained a temporary advantage. But it

52 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

was dearly bought ; for not only did it win for
King Philip and his perjured viceroy the mor-
tal enmity of both John Hawkins and Francis
Drake, but it showed the latter the road to his
revenge.

Having found the road, Drake wasted little
time in venturing upon it. In the merry month
of May, 1572, there sailed out of Plymouth
Sound two small ships that were destined to
mark an epoch in the world's history. These
were the Pasha, of seventy tons, commanded
by Drake himself, and in her wake the little
Swan, of twenty-five tons, in charge of his
brother John. In view of what was before this
little expedition, the project certainly looked
more like a schoolboy's escapade than a serious
enterprise. The crews, all told, men and boys,
numbered about seventy-three souls. There
was only one of them who had reached the
age of thirty. And yet their modest scheme
was nothing less than to seize the port of Nom-
bre-de-Dios in the Panama Isthmus, and the
Treasure House of the World !

The wildest kind of a design truly. Never-
theless, they came within an ace of accomplish-
ing it. As it was, they stormed the town, held

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 53

possession of it for some hours, and made their
way into the treasury, where their astonished
eyes were met with a sight such as exceeded
their most fevered expectations ; to wit, the
gray shimmer of a pile of silver bars ten feet
in breadth, twelve feet in height, and seventy
in length.

But the Spaniards presently rallied from
their affright. Drake was severely wounded,
and very reluctantly the daring invaders had
to return to their boats, leaving the vast booty
untouched. In retreating to cover they took
with them, however, a well-filled galleon that
lay in port ; and after a fortnight of rest on an
island they swooped down upon Cartagena, cut
out a large ship that was at the quay, and once
more .vanished.

But they soon reappeared, and after making
a dashing, though fruitless, attempt upon the
Panama gold train, sacking Vera Cruz, captur-
ing thirty tons of silver almost at the very
gates of Nombre-de-Dios, and securing other
booty, they at length decided to call a halt,
and go back to England for a rest. The return
voyage was safely accomplished ; and on a fine
Sunday in August, 1573, the good folk of Plym-

54 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

outh scandalized the preacher by running
out of church as the triumphant young free-
booter's guns thundered out a salute to the
batteries.

Some idea of the wonderful daring and en-
ergy shown by this handful of men during their
twelvemonth in the Spanish Main may be gath-
ered from the statement, that, of two hundred
vessels of all kinds which then navigated the
Caribbean Sea, they calculated that there was
not one they had not overhauled once at least,
and some of them had suffered this unpleas-
ant treatment three times. Whatever may be
thought of the propriety of such proceedings,
this must not be forgotten — that Drake never
maltreated a prisoner, and was as renowned for
his mercy to the vanquished as he was fdr his
courage in the face of foes.

After four years inaction at home, Drake,
with some difficulty, succeeded in organizing
another expedition into the same rich field. It
was not much more imposing than the other,
comprising as it did only five ships, of which
his own, the Pelican, measured but one hun-
dred tons, and the smallest was a mere pin-
nace of fifteen tons ; yet the results were to

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 55

be the most momentous, without question, in
the whole naval history of England.

The little squadron set sail from Plymouth
in November. 1577. and took nearly three
months to reach the Strait of Magellan, and
three weeks more to get through that perilous
passage. Then the Fates, which had hitherto
been very unpropitious, seemed to do their
utmost to wreck the enterprise. Two vessels
had been left on the other side of the strait;
and of the remaining three, one went down
with all hands, and the other fled back home,
leaving Drake alone in the Pelican to go on in
a strange sea — for he was the first Englishman
to navigate the Pacific — and along a strange
coast held in force by the deadliest foes of
England.

But his great spirit was equal to the emer-
gency. Dauntlessly he pressed northward, and
splendidly was he rewarded. In the harbor of
Valparaiso he found one of the great galleons,
from Peru, having on board "a certaine quan-
tity of fine gold of Bolivia and a great crosse of
gold beset with emeraulds, on which was nailed
a God of the same metal." This " certaine
quantity" amounted to about twenty-four

56 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

thousand pounds, and was only the begin-
ning !

From December to April the story of the
voyage reads like a fairy tale. The saucy little
Pelican ran in and out of the harbors, hardly
ever losing a man or failing to add to her store
of booty. The Spaniards, who no more thought
to see an Englishman on these coasts than the
Pope himself, seemed to have attempted no re-
sistance, preferring to be plundered rather than
to fight. At Tarapaca, the Englishmen found
a lot of silver bars ready piled on the pier for
shipment, and the Spaniard in charge sleeping
comfortably by their side. " Whereon," writes
the chaplain, in a humorous strain, " we freed
him of his charge, which otherwise perhaps
would have kept him waking, and so left him
to take out the other part of his sleepe in more
security."

At the next landing they "met a Spaniard
driving eight Peruvian sheepe (Llamas) ; each
sheepe bearing one hundred weight of refined
silver. Now Ave could not endure to see a gen-
tleman Spaniard turned carrier so; and there-
fore, without entreatie, we offered our services
and became drovers, onely his directions were

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 57

not so perfect that we could keepe the way
which hee intended, for almost as soon as hee
was parted from us, we, with our new kinds of
carriages, were come into our boats."

At Arica, " some forty and odde barres of
silver of the bignesse and fashen of a brick
batte " were annexed ; and at Lima their eyes
were rejoiced by the sight of a fleet of ships
ready freighted for sea, " aboard whom we made
somewhat bold to bid ourselves welcome," with
the result of the addition of fifteen hundred
bars of silver, a chest full of gold reals, and
some bales of costly silk to their valuable cargo.

The greatest prize, however, was still ahead.
This was the huge galleon, Cacafuego, "the
great glory of the South Sea," full to the brim
of gold and silver. Sailing two miles to her
one, the Pelican overtook her off Quito, and
made her an easy captive. " We found in her,"
records the chaplain in his quaint way, " some
fruits and other victuals, and (that which was
the especiallest cause of her heavy and slow sail-
ing) a certain quantity of jewels and precious
stones, thirteen chests of ryals of plate, eighty
pound weight in gold, twenty-six tonne of un-
coyned silver, two very fair gilt drinking boules

58 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

valued at about three hundred and sixty thou-
sand pexols " (more than two million dollars).

Enough had now been done both for glory
and profit; and Drake decided to hurry home,
which he did, not by going back through the
Strait of Magellan, but by continuing right on
around the world, which feat, hitherto unper-
formed by a British mariner, was safely accom-
plished ; and after nearly three years' absence
he returned to Plymouth, the richest man in
the kingdom.

Of course there were others besides Francis
Drake who made prey of the Peruvian treasure-
ships, but none who succeeded so splendidly;
and he may be accepted as their representative
in so far as to render unnecessary the following
out of their checkered careers.

Moreover, there was another phase of this
chase of the Spanish galleons which still needs
to be touched upon. I have already pointed
out that of galleons there were two kinds,
freight-carriers and ships-of-war. It was with
the latter kind that Drake and his associates
had to contend, when, in the summer of 1588,
the prematurely styled " invincible " Armada,
consisting of no less than two hundred and

CHASE OF THE SPANISH GALLEONS. 59

thirty galleons, galeases, caracks, and other
crafts, bore down upon England in its imposing
crescent formation.

There is no need to rehearse the story of that
famous fight, which continued through days and
nights of thrilling anxiety until at last the ele-
ments came to the aid of the Englishmen, just
when they were well nigh spent with their
almost superhuman exertions, and completed
the demoralization of the mightiest naval force
that ever the world had seen.

Throughout this tremendous struggle, Drake
bore the leading part. To him more than to
any other was due the glorious result whereby
the sceptre of the seas fell from the hand of
Spain into the hand of England, where it has
ever since remained; for in the chase and con-
quest of the Spanish galleons, little as Queen
Elizabeth or her "sturdy little pirate," Sir
Francis Drake, imagined it, England laid broad
and deep the foundations of her maritime
supremacy.

60 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER VI.

THE QUEST FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

The story of accidental discoveries of great
importance, made by persons who had other
objects in view, would be one of the most in-
teresting chapters in the history of human prog-
ress. While prosecuting fruitless search for the
imaginary philosopher's stone, the alchemists
of the Middle Ages chanced upon many valu-
able processes and compounds in chemistry ;
and in equally vain endeavors to solve the
problem of perpetual motion, ingenious inven-
tors have worked out no small number of prac-
ticable mechanical devices.

It was when sailing westward to find a
shorter route to that marvellous Zipangu of
which Marco Polo had heard at the court of
Kublai-Khan, that Christopher Columbus found
the continent of America barring his way, and
was fain to discover it instead.

Control of trade with the Orient has from the
remotest antiquity been coveted by Western

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

QUEST FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 61

nations as a prime source of wealth. Mercan-
tile communities engaged in carrying Eastern
freight invariably prospered, and the greatest
cities of ancient time owed much of their splen-
dor to the rich traffic. Alexander the Great,
Tamerlane, Mohammed, Caliph Omar, and other
great military rulers, had keen eyes for the
commerce of the golden East ; and when Mecca,
the Holy City, was at the height of its glory,
the bright chintzes and snowy muslins of Ben-
gal, the brilliant shawls of Cashmere, the sa-
vory spices of Malabar, the flashing diamonds
of Golconda, the iridescent pearls of Kilcare,
and the gauzy silks of China, made the mer-
chants' booths places of sore temptation for
the pious pilgrims.

Then the discovery of a path to India by the
Cape of Good Hope changed the course of
trade between Europe and Asia. The golden
tide now swept the shores of Spain and Por-
tugal; and those kingdoms suddenly rose out
of their obscurity into commercial importance,
vying in opulence, political weight, and mari-
time enterprise with the proudest nations of the
day.

But the navigators of those times had little

62 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

liking for the stormy passage around the Cape
whose pacific name was so inconsistent with the
treatment usually meted out to them there, and*
they came to the conviction that across the un-
tracked waters of the Atlantic lay the shortest
and best way to the riches of the East.

All the earlier expeditions of discovery from
Europe to the shores of the Western continent
had their origin in this idea. It was while
hunting for an all-sea route to China that John
Cabot discovered the coast of Newfoundland
and the mouth of the St. Lawrence in the reign
of Henry VII. ; and from his day down to the
year 1854, when Captain McClure, while achiev-
ing the feat, also proved beyond a peradvanture
the utter uselessness of the passage for com-
mercial purposes, the belief in such a highway,
and the determination to discover it, led to the
loss of many precious lives, and the expenditure,
on the part of Great Britain alone, of over one
million pounds sterling.

The list of those who, under the banner of
England, imitated the example of John Cabot,
is a long and inspiring one. Sebastian, his son,
followed in 1498. Then came Robert Thorne
of Bristol (1527); Master Hore (1536), and

QUEST FOB A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 63

Master Michael Lok (1545), of London, — men
who knew " cosmographie " and the " weighty
and substantial reasons for a discovery even to
the north pole." Next we have more familiar
names : Frobisher (1576), Sir Humphrey Gil-
bert (1583), James Davis (1585), the ill-fated
Henry Hudson (1607), Sir Thomas Button
(1612), Baffin and Bylot (1615), Fox and
James (1631), and so on, a glorious muster-roll
of heroes of the quarter-deck whose memories
have been perpetuated by their names being
given to the bays they entered, the straits they
passed through, or the capes they doubled.

Bearing in mind how miserable were the craft
they sailed in, compared with the modern speci-
mens of marine architecture, and how imperfect
was their equipment, the achievements of these
dauntless searchers into the mystery of the sul-
len North, call for our warmest admiration.
Now breaking through the icy fetters which
fain would bind them fast, then being chained
by them in seemingly hopeless captivity ; at one
time big with hope of having hit upon the pas-
sage, only to be beaten back by the terrific
storms and irresistible berg-laden currents that
held guard over it, — these men never faltered

64 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

in their faith, never despaired of final suc-
cess.

Among those who won high places in the
honor list of Arctic explorers by their daring
and persistence in striving to penetrate the
fastnesses of the Frost King, were Sir John
Ross, Sir Edward Parry, Captain Buchan, and
Sir George Back. But the hero above all
others, without question, was Sir John Frank-
lin, one of the noblest navigators that ever
faced the terrors of the deep.

Born in 1786, with an innate longing for the
sea, Franklin, whose parents wanted him to be
a clergyman, was sent to Lisbon when a mere
boy, on a small merchant ship, in the hope of
curing him of his romantic notions. But the
experience had precisely the contrary effect.
He returned home more than ever charmed
with a sailor's life, and nothing else would
satisfy him than an appointment in the navy.
Yielding to his earnest entreaties, his friends
procured this for him ; and at the age of four-
teen he had the pleasure of pacing the quarter-
deck of the fine sixty-four Polyphemus.

His life on board ship had no lack of exciting
incident from the start, as he was one of those

QUEST FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 65

who helped Lord Nelson to win the great naval
battle of Copenhagen ; he had a sharp taste of
shipwreck in the southern Pacific ; he assisted
Commodore Dance to put to inglorious rout
Admiral Linois's fleet in the Strait of Malacca ;
he was mentioned in the despatches as "evin-
cing very conspicuous zeal and activity " at the
battle of Trafalgar ; he was wounded in the
gunboat attack on New Orleans in December,
1814, and again honorably mentioned in the
despatches ; and finally, when peace was pro-
claimed, and there were no more foes to fight,
his adventurous, energetic spirit loathing inac-
tivity, he went off as second in command of an
expedition despatched to find the north pole.

Although he did not find the north pole,
Franklin acquitted himself so well that he was,
shortly after his return, put in chief command
of an expedition which made a marvellous
journey overland from Hudson Bay to the
mouth of the Coppermine River, and thence in
frail bark canoes eastward along the dreadful
coast, where beetling cliffs alternated with glis-
tening glaciers for hundreds of miles, — a jour-
ney which, it has been said, must always rank
as one of the most daring and hazardous ex-

66 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

ploits ever accomplished in the interest of
geographical research.

The sufferings endured by the explorer and
his party were beyond all description; yet so
firm was his belief in the north passage, and so
intense his ardor for its discovery, that in 1825
he took command of a similar expedition. This
time, however, there were no hardships to
speak of, and the possibility of the passage
was proved so far as it could be from the
shore.

All that now remained was to prove it by
sea, and in the year 1845 the great explorer was
given the opportunity. With two specially
prepared ships, the Erebus and Terror, provis-
ioned for three years, equipped in the most
complete manner possible, and manned and
officered by carefully selected men to the num-
ber of one hundred and thirty-four in all, Sir
John Franklin sailed from England on May
19th, in the full confidence that, entering the
Arctic regions through Baffin Bay, he would
emerge at Bering Strait with the secret so long
and jealously guarded wrested from the ice
king's mighty grasp.

On the 26th of July following, the two ships

QUEST FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 67

were seen made fast to the ice in Melville Bay
by the captain of a whaler from Hull, who had
a visit from some of the officers. So far as is
known they were never sighted again. Al-
though traces of them were discovered many
years afterwards, there is little more than mere
conjecture as to the subsequent history of the
entire expedition. Despite its leader's unwav-
ering faith, dauntless courage, and well-nigh
superhuman endurance of hardships that would
have appalled a thousand other men, victory
remained with the ruthless North, and the pas-
sage still continued untraversed.

If the conjectured course of the ill-fated ex-
pedition at all approach the truth, there is
nothing more pathetic in the whole record of
human enterprise. It would seem that good
progress was made during the summer of 1845,
the winter passed as pleasantly as could be
expected, and the succeeding summer was put
to such good purpose in achieving farther ad-
vance that they had got almost within sight
of success when the pitiless grip of winter fas-
tened upon them, never again to relax.

" To winter in the pack," says Captain Mark-
ham, "is known happily only to a few. To

68 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

pass two successive winters in the ice is an
experience that has fortunately been vouch-
safed to fewer still ; yet the brave explorers of
the Erebus and Terror were destined to pass
not only one, but two long, weary successive
winters helplessly beset and firmly frozen up
in their icy bondage.

In May of 1847 a sledge party under Lieu-
tenant Gore left the ships, and made their way
to King William's Island, whence they were
able to see in the distance the North American
continent, and to realize that only a compara-
tively short channel blocked with ice lay be-
tween them and the success for which they had
suffered so much. Depositing a record, which
was found by the McClintock expedition twelve
years later, they hastened back to the ships
with the joyful tidings, only to find their be-
loved leader, who had so often before been face
to face with death and come off scatheless, now
fighting his last battle with the relentless foe.
He had scarce time to be assured that the
supreme ambition of his life had been achieved,
that what old Thomas Purchas pronounced
" the only thing whereby a notable mind might
be made famous, " was practically accom-

VASCO DA GAMA.

QUEST FOB A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 69

plished, before, on the 11th of June, 1847, he
passed peacefully away.

As to the rest of the unfortunate expedition,
it would appear that in the following April
they abandoned their ships, and set out for the
Great Fish River on foot, hoping there to meet
with Indians who would help them ; but they
all drooped and died by the way, leaving little
or no trace of their course.

Everything that human forethought and ex-
ertion could devise or accomplish was done to
discover and rescue the missing expedition, but
the various searching parties sent out returned
but little wiser than they went.

Six years after Sir John Franklin's death,
Sir Robert McClure succeeded in making his
way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic,
partly by vessel, partly by sledge, and in so
doing settled forever in the negative the feasi-
bility of a north-west passage for vessels.

Seeing that to England rightfully belongs
first place among the nations that have ex-
pended life and treasure in seeking a short
route to the Orient through the " thrilling
region of thick-ribbed ice," how poetically just
it seems that she should, after all her cruel

70 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

disappointments, find a far better highway for
her commerce right through her own territory,
and that, so long as the rails of the Canadian
Pacific gleam brightly across the continent,
there is no need for any other north-west pas-
sage.

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 71

CHAPTER VII.

HOW THE MERCHANTS OPENED UP THE WORLD.

We have grown so used, during the last
century or so, to give scientific or journalistic
enterprise the credit for the great things done
in the way of exploration and discovery, that
we are apt to forget the great debt we owe to
commerce for even greater things accomplished
in the days when there were no Smithsonian
Institutions nor British Associations for the Ad-
vancement of Science, and when newspapers
like the New York Herald and London Daily
Telegraph did not exist, to undertake the send-
ing forth of expeditions into the burning wilds
of Africa, or the ice-bound regions of the
mysterious North.

Neither scientific nor religious ardor, nor
greed for a growing empire, inspired the dis-
coverers of the fifteenth century to voyage so
bravely forth into unknown seas. Trade was.
the grand object. The merchant went ahead,,
and opened up the path for the soldier and the.

72 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

priest. But for his enterprise it is quite possi-
ble that the sword of the one had not waved,
and the cross of the other had not been planted,
up to the present day in one-half the Chris-
tianized world.

The voyage of Columbus was no exception.
True, he was not himself a merchant. His
aspirations soared high above the mercenary
ideas of mere matter-of-fact business. But the
expedition which he conducted to so glorious
an issue had for its foundation the desire to
rival the Venetians in the trade of that won-
derful Cathay which poured such a flood of
wealth into the lap of the City of the Isles.

It would be quite impossible in a single arti-
cle to tell the whole story of any one of the
expeditions which revealed to wondering Eu-
rope the hitherto unimagined extent of Africa,
and the ocean pathway to India around the
Cape of Good Hope. At most I can but select
some of the most striking features of the chief
expeditions.

Little Portugal is the country, and Dom
Henry, son of John I., the man, entitled to the
honor of beginning the good work. The young
prince's imagination was excited by the glow-

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 73

ing Moorish accounts of the countries south of
the great African desert, and he determined to
do all that lay in his power to solve the mys-
tery then existing as to the shape and size of
the Southern Continent.

Hitherto no European ship had got beyond
Cape Bojador, which marks the northern end
of the Sahara Desert ; the strong currents which
set around that celebrated cape having scared
the mariners of that time, who regarded it as
a divine warning to go no farther. But Dom
Henry despatched one expedition after another
to make the attempt, until at last, in the year
1432, the much-dreaded obstacle was success-
fully surmounted by Gilianes in a single vessel,
a feat then regarded as fully equal to any of the
labors of Hercules. It being thus made clear
that Providence had no objection to such an
enterprise, the Pope was good enough, by way
of showing his approval of Dom Henry, to con-
fer upon him a grant of all the lands that might
be discovered beyond Cape Bojador to the East
Indies, together with full absolution for the
souls of all who should lose their lives while
in the discovery of them.

Thus doubly fortified, Gilianes returned to

74 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

the charge in 1434 with two vessels, and passed
a hundred miles beyond the cape, where, on
landing, tracks of men and cattle were found.
The next year he made farther progress, and
had an encounter with some natives who issued
from a cave, holding javelins in their hands.
Several of these and one of the Portuguese
were wounded, this being the beginning of that
blood-shedding which unhappily stained the
whole course of Portuguese discovery and
colonization.

Each succeeding year the vessels worked
farther south, their owners fighting, trading,
cheating, and lying their way towards the great
discovery they were destined yet to achieve.
Gold,, ostrich feathers, ivory, and slaves were
the principal objects of trade ; and if business
was not brisk, the Portuguese never hesitated
to resort to fraud or force to improve matters
for themselves.

Cape Blanco and Cape Verde were passed in
turn ; the Senegal and Rio Grande rivers dis-
covered, as well as the Azores and the Cape
Verde Islands ; the equator crossed without a
mishap ; the Grain Coast (so called from cochi-
neal, known in the Italian market as grana

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 75

del paradiso, being obtained there) ; the Ivory
Coast, Gold Coast, and Slave Coast were
reached in succession, and likewise the shores
of Loango, Congo, and Angola. The King of
Portugal now took the title of Lord of Guinea ;
the donation of all lands was confirmed by the
Pope ; and nothing remained but to push on to
the farthest point, get around it, see what there
was on the other side, and thus solve the great
mystery.

The success of Columbus had much to do
with stirring up the Portuguese to accomplish
this. They were no less satisfied than he that
the new world he had discovered was but an
outlying portion of India, and they were deter-
mined to find out if it was not possible to reach
the same goal by going around the southern
extremity of Africa.

Bartholomew Diaz got as far as the point six
years before Columbus sighted America, and,
encountering a fierce storm there, called it Tor-
mentosa, and turned back. But on his return
the king, in proof of his faith in the future,
changed the title to Cabo de buena esperanza
(Cape of Good Hope), which it bears to this
day. The same foolish superstition prevailed

76 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

concerning it that had frightened mariners away
from Cape Bojador. It was believed that the
storms which drove Diaz back were perpetual,
and that it was an impious tempting of Provi-
dence to persist in proceeding. King Emanuel,
however, was superior to this folly ; and select-
ing Vasco da Gama, "a gentleman of quality,
ability, and courage," he sent him off" in the
year 1497 with three small ships, and one hun-
dred and sixty men, bearing letters of intro-
duction to the King of Calicut, and Prester
John, the legendary potentate whose dominions
were supposed to be somewhere in the vast
regions of Asia.

The little fleet had a rough passage to the
Cape ; but when they reached it fortune favored
them with fair weather, and on Nov. 18 they
successfully doubled it, their crews shouting
and sounding trumpets in token of their tri-
umph. Their progress northward along the
coast was full of novelty and excitement, for
they were sailing in seas no European keels had
ever cloven before. At San Bias they saw
three thousand sea-wolves on a rock in the har-
bor. On Christmas Day, 1498, they touched at
a place which, in honor of the day. they called

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 77

Tierra de Natal, a name that still remains. A
fortnight later they saw on the shore a large
company of very tall people, and on landing
were well received hy them. Da Gama made
the negro prince a present of a red jacket, stock-
ings, and cap, which vastly pleased his sable
Majesty, and excited the enthusiastic admira-
tion of his subjects.

Sailing along in a leisurely, cautious fashion,
they passed through the strait which separates
Madagascar from the main land, and began to
meet with signs of the presence of the Arabs,
as the natives understood something of the lan-
guage, and were less astonished than others had
been at the sight of strangers. At Mozambique,
Da Gama was rejoiced at being assured that
he was on the right track for the renowned city
of Calicut, in India. At Mobassa, the Moors,
jealous of intruders upon the field of which they
had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly, began to give
trouble, but were easily driven off, and their
plots for the destruction of the fleet frustrated.

Continuing coastward as far as the town of
Melinda, a large and flourishing place, with
regular streets, and houses several stories high,
where, to their great surprise, they met with

78 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

Christians who hailed from India, the three
vessels, on April 22, sailed off dauntlessly into
that immense and unknown tract of ocean which
stretched between the continent of Africa and
the peninsula of India, that was the grand and
crowning object of the voyage. Hitherto Vasco
da Gama had simply been feeling his way along-
shore, so to speak; but now he was to dare
the dangers of the uncharted waters, two thou-
sand miles in breadth, that lay between him
and Calicut. Well was it for the little expe-
dition that its leader had both a sound head
and a strong heart.

The good fortune which had favored the fleet
thus far still continued, and at the end of a
month's pleasant sailing the high hills near
Calicut came in sight. Anchoring some dis-
tance from the city, Da Gama sent on shore
to reconnoitre one of the criminals he had
brought with him for the purpose. The man
was conducted to the house of a Moor who
could speak Spanish, and who at once roughly
demanded what he had come for. After some
conversation, however, he grew more courteous,
and accompanied his visitor back to the ship,
where he accosted Da Gama in Spanish with

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 79

the words : " Good luck ! Good luck ! many
rubies, many emeralds. Thou art bound to
give God thanks ; for he has brought you where
there are all sorts of spices and precious
stones, with all the riches of the world." The
admiral and his companions were so much de-
lighted at hearing this good news in a Chris-
tian tongue, when so far from home, that they
wept for joy. The Moor promised to do all
the service he could for them, and returned
to land, leaving them in high spirits.

Very soon an invitation came from the Sa-
morin, as the King of Calicut was called, to pay
him a visit. Taking twelve of his companions,
Da Gama accepted it, although his brother offi-
cers feared treachery on the part of the Moors,
who were very numerous and influential. They
were received with much pomp, and borne in
splendid litters through crowded streets to the
palace, where the Samorin welcomed them with
every mark of respect. He was found reclin-
ing in a large room, the floors and walls of
which were covered with rich velvets and silks,
while he himself was clothed in fine linen,
stiff with gold embroidery and pearls, his tur-
ban gleaming with precious stones, and his

80 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

fingers and toes being laden with diamond
rings. His attendants all held their left hands
before their mouths, lest their breath should
reach the royal beings.

The visitors having been duly seated, refresh-
ments in the form of fruits were introduced, fol-
lowed by water in a curious vessel having a
long golden spout. Being informed that it was
a gross breach of etiquette to let the spout
touch the lips, the Portuguese were fain to hold
the vessel off at some distance, and try to pour
the water into their gaping mouths, as the
natives did. But being unused to the proceed-
ings, they made a poor business of it, and spilled
a good deal, whereupon the courtiers showed
that they could be as guilty of bad manners as
they subsequently proved of bad faith, by laugh-
ing outright at their guests' awkwardness.

At the outset the Samorin evinced e\ery
desire to be friendly, and to gratify Da Gama's
desire to open up trade. But no sooner was
this apparent than the Moors, who for a long
time had had a monopoly of the commerce of
India, which they carried on by way of the Red
Sea and Alexandria, began to plot against their
European rivals, and by bribing the Samorin's

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WOULD. 81

courtiers, succeeded in filling his mind with
suspicions about the newcomers. The negotia-
tions which had opened so prosperously were
interrupted ; and finally the admiral and some
of his companions were seized and confined, not
being released until Da Gama's brother had
sent a quantity of goods as ransom.

On regaining his liberty, Da Gama was so
disgusted at this treachery that he resolved to
set out for home. Two days after he sailed he
was attacked during a calm by sixty large boats
full of soldiers. Happily a wind sprang up in
time to save the Portuguese fleet from falling
into the hands of these treacherous rascals, and
the homeward voyage was begun without fur-
ther mishap. They had, however, by no means
so easy a time in getting back to the African
coast as they had in making India. For four
months the little squadron struggled with bad
weather and head winds. Scurvy in its worst
form broke out; and both officers and crew be-
gan to give themselves up to despair, in spite of
their brave leader's earnest exhortation to trust
in Providence. At length a fair wind dispelled
their fears; and soon they reached Melinda,
where they were well received. Thenceforward

82 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

the ships made steady, if somewhat slow, prog-
ress, until in September, 1499, they cast anchor
in the Tagus, having been absent two years and
two months.

Next to that of Columbus, this brilliant and
eventful voyage made by Vasco da Gama was
fraught with more important consequences than
any other in the world's history. By thus
opening up a new route to the Far East, the
Portuguese admiral, without knowing it, had
prepared the way for the commercial downfall
of the maritime states of Italy, Egypt, Turkey,
Arabia, and all those countries between the
Red Sea and the Caspian, which throve upon
the overland commerce between Europe and
India ; and, what was stranger still, it was ac-
cording to the decrees of destiny that this
lucrative traffic, after being for only a brief
while in the hands of Portugal, should be taken
hold of by the British, and prove chiefly instru-
mental in the building up of their colossal
empire.

As soon as it became known in England that
there was money to be made by trading to the
African coast, the merchants and mariners be-
gan to compete there with the Portuguese, and

HOW MERCHANTS OPENED THE WORLD. 83

many profitable voyages were made by Lok,
Touersen, Rutter, Baker, and others, despite
the angry opposition of the Portuguese. Details
of these expeditions have been preserved in the
Hakluyt collection, and make wonderfully in-
teresting reading.

In this way the world was opened up, com-
merce, not conquest, being the chief motive of
the pioneers in the discovery of new countries
and nations, and of new routes to marts which
had hitherto been reached only by long and
costly overland journeying. True it is that
civilization and Christianity owe a larger debt
to the practical men, " prone to value none but
paying facts," than is generally conceded.

84 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY.

There is, perhaps, more of the poet's fancy
than actual fact about some of the lines in our
familiar missionary hymn which makes "In-
dia's coral strand " rhyme with " Afric's golden
sand ; ' ' but the reference to the spicy breezes
that " blow soft from Ceylon's isle " is correct
enough, and it was probably the pleasant scent
of those very breezes which first called atten-
tion to the great and wonderful land of India.

As shown in the preceding chapter, Portugal
was the first European nation to open up trade
with India on her own account.

For some time the Portuguese navy rode tri-
umphant in every part of the Indian Ocean,
while the treasury of the court at Lisbon was
enriched by the tribute of many Indian princes
and the monoply of a most profitable commerce.
During this period the history of the Portu-
guese presents a series of events without a paral-
lel in the annals of fact, and scarcely surpassed

ORIGINAL ARMS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.
Incorporated 1600. Danvers " India Office Records."

RISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 85

by the wildest fiction. All the talents and vir-
tues which ennoble the discoverer — courage,
coolness, patience, and loyalty — were displayed
in the winning of their empire ; all the vices of
conquerors inflamed by avarice and fanaticism
disgraced them after its establishment.

But they were not left very long alone in
this lucrative field. In 1594 the Dutch sent
their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope to
secure a share of the profitable traffic in Asiatic
luxuries, and with such good success that be-
fore many years not only was the bulk of the
business in their hands, but also territorial
possessions more extensive than those held by
their rivals, who, after a hard fight to keep
them out, gave up the struggle as hopeless,
and resigned themselves to the situation.

The next claimant for the right to make
money out of India was Great Britain, or,
rather, an association of British merchants.
They got the idea from the renowned Sir
Francis Drake, who visited the East Indies in
the course of his remarkable voyage round the
world, and brought back such glowing accounts
of these little-known regions, that, in the year
1600, " Good Queen Bess " was moved to grant

86 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

a charter of corporation to " The Governor
and Company of Merchants of London trading
to the East Indies." This charter, like others
of that time, was exclusive, prohibiting all
other Englishmen from trading within the
space included between the Cape of Good
Hope and Cape Horn ; i.e., the whole of the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, a monopoly that the
company continued to enjoy until 1813, when
the Indian trade was thrown open to all. Thus
began the famous East India Company, popu-
larly known as the "John Company," which,
starting with a small settlement in Surat, ob-
tained by the grace of a native ruler, grew and
prospered through two centuries and a half of
varied and romantic experiences, during which
it decided the fate of rajahs, kings, and em-
perors, putting down one and setting up an-
other, and drew under its direct rule no less
than one hundred millions of people, with
seventy millions more under allied sovereigns
more or less subservient to its influence.

To make clear how all this was accomplished
would, of course, require a big book. Only a
mere outline can be given in this chapter. The
first expedition sent out by the company con-

BISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 87

sisted of five small ships under command of
Captain James Lancaster. They were laden
with cloth, glass, cutlery, lead, and tin ; and
the profits of the undertaking were so satisfac-
tory that other and larger fleets followed in
quick succession. Some idea of these profits
may be gained from the fact that a cargo of
cloves, which cost the company only three
thousand pounds in Amboyna, realized in Lon-
don the magnificent sum of thirty -six thousand
pounds.

Not all the transactions, to be sure, proved
quite such bonanzas as this one, nor was the
English company permitted to have its own
way without let or hindrance. The Portuguese
did not at all like the idea of a fresh rival in
the field, of which they had once been sole
masters to their great profit ; and they were dis-
posed to be very troublesome, until the com-
pany's fleet, under Captain Best, gave a decisive
beating to a much superior Portuguese force
off the port of Swally, in 1615. This victory
served a double purpose. It disposed of the
Portuguese, and it produced a profound im-
pression upon the natives, who had hitherto
believed them to be invincible, and thereby

88 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

made matters much easier for the Englishmen
in future.

The Dutch had next to be reckoned with.
They, too, were strongly opposed to British
competition, and did everything in their power
to thwart the company's designs, even going so
far as to massacre the members of the settle-
ment at Amboyna in the year 1622. But, in
spite of all opposition from either European
competitors or hostile natives, the British per-
severed ; and bit by bit their power and posses-
sions grew.

Their plan was first to obtain permission to
plant a trading-station, or " factory " as it was
called. Presently the factory developed into
a fort, the fort into a fortified town, and so on,
until it became the capital of an extensive dis-
trict. In this way Madras, Calcutta, and other
cities of renown, had their beginning.

Some of the incidents of those early days are
worth noting. Thus, the demand for ships was
so great that the ship-building yard at Dept-
ford was unable to meet it; and another yard
had to be obtained at Blackwall, in which was
built the Royal George, of twelve hundred
tons, the largest vessel hitherto constructed

RISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 89

in England. In the year 1645 the' Emperor
Shan Jehan showed his gratitude for the ser-
vices Surgeon Boughton of the Hopewell ren-
dered the beauties of his zenana, by granting
important concessions to the company; and in
1668 King Charles II., for an annual rent of
ten pounds, transferred to them Bombay, which
had come to the British crown as part of the
dower of Catherine of Braganza.

With the Portuguese and the Dutch out of
the way, the company for a time had plain
sailing, until its rapidly growing wealth at-
tracted the attention of the native rulers ; and
the Englishmen found that, in order to resist
these potentates' increasing extortions, they
must needs set up a regular army and naval
establishment, — in fact, that, while continuing
to be traders, they must also be chiefs and
conquerors.

Then began a new era in the company's
history. During the following century and a
half, there were few years free from wars or
rumors of wars. Brilliant successes and dis-
heartening reverses alternately rejoiced and
saddened the hearts of the shareholders, and
stirred the pulses of the English people. The

90 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

period is illuminated by the fame of great com-
manders, wise statesmen, and admirable ad-
ministrators. The names of Warren Hastings,
Robert Clive, and Sir Eyre Cook ; of the Mar-
quises of Cornwallis, Wellesley, and Hast-
ings ; of Generals Holt, Napier, and Pollock ;
with others hardly less noteworthy, — form a
roll of heroes scarce to be equalled in the his-
tory of any other land.

Above them all, the names of Clive and
Hastings stand pre-eminent for the romance
of their careers. That of the former, indeed,
was no less pathetic than romantic. The son
of a small land-owner in England, Clive seemed
to be such an idle scapegrace of a boy that his
friends were glad to get rid of him by de-
spatching him to Madras as a clerk in the ser-
vice of John Company. Poor in pocket and
shy of disposition, detesting the dry drudgery
of the desk, and haunted by homesickness, he
twice attempted suicide ; and it was only on
the second failure that he flung down the de-
fective pistol with a conviction that destiny
had better things in store for him. His oppor-
tunity came a few years later, when, having
resigned his clerkship for a commission in the

LORD CLIVE.
From an Engraving by Bartolozzi, after the picture by Nathaniel Dance.

RISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 91

company's army, he came forward with a dar-
ing scheme for the relief of Trichinopoly, then
besieged by the French and their Indian allies.
His scheme was accepted, and proved a bril-
liant success. He twice defeated the French
and their Indian allies, foiled every effort of
the dashing Dupleix, and razed to the ground
a pompous pillar that the too sanguine French
governor had set up in honor of his earlier
victories.

The defence of Arcot for fifty days with
three hundred and twenty men all told, against
a besieging force numbering no less than
seventy-five hundred, which finally retired in
disorder ; the marvellous victory of Plassey,
when, to wreak vengeance upon Surajah Dow-
lah for the awful crime of the Black Hole of
Calcutta, he attacked him with only three
thousand infantry against fifty thousand foot
and fourteen thousand horse, and sent the
whole vast army in headlong rout before him,
losing only twenty-three killed in the action,
— these and similar astonishing exploits raised
him to the highest pinnacle of fame, and proved
that Pitt had not spoken too strongly in call-
ing him a "heaven-born general."

92 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

But, alas ! the clouds that had shadowed
his early days reappeared in the very zenith
of his career. Returning to England, broken
in health by his mighty exertions, he was met
by false and cruel charges of abuse of power
and extortion. He personally refuted these
accusations, but took them so keenly to .heart
that, in a fit of deep melancholy, he died by
his own hands, in November, 1774, when he
had just completed his forty-ninth year.

Warren Hastings, whose name and fame are
inseparably associated with Robert Clive's, had
an equally unpromising start in life. His
chance came when he obtained a seat in the
Calcutta Council in the year 1761. If Clive
was the ideal commander for those trouble-
ous times, Hastings was the ideal statesman
and administrator. What the one gained by
astounding daring and strategy, the other re-
tained by strong and sagacious statecraft ; and,
as if to complete the parallel, Hastings on his
return to England was assailed, as Clive had
been, with a startling array of charges based
upon his administration of affairs in India.
Burke and Sheridan exhausted the resources
of their oratory in denouncing this conduct.

RISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 93

The House of Commons sustained the allega-
tions. He was consequently impeached before
the House of Lords. But, after a memorable
trial that lasted more than seven years, he
was honorably acquitted by that august tri-
bunal, and retired to a life of well-earned ease
and dignity for nearly a quarter of a century,
in Daylesford, the original home of his family,
which, when a boy, he had vowed he would
recover before he died.

The work of conquest and consolidation, so
well begun by Clive and Hastings, was stead-
fastly carried on in the face of difficulties and
set-backs by their successors in council and
in the field, some of whose names were a lit-
tle while ago mentioned. The Mysore wars,
the Mahratta campaign, the great battle of
Assaye, when General Wellesley (who after-
wards became the Duke of Wellington), with
only forty-five hundred men, defeated a Mah-
ratta force of thirty thousand foot and twenty
thousand horse, the capture of the imperial
city of Delhi by General Lake, the conquest
of the warlike Goorkhas, the bringing to terms
of the fierce Afghans, the crushing of the Sikhs,
— what wonderful feats of arms these were !

94 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

And all this was done by the servants of a
corporation, not of a king or an emperor. Again
and again, in spite of strong opposition, was
the charter of the company renewed. The last-
renewal would have carried it on until 1873.
But in 1857 broke out the Sepoy rebellion,
with all its appalling consequences. The com-
pany was unequal to the task of coping with it.
The limit of its power had been reached. To
save India to the British crown, it was neces-
sary that the British government should assume
the charge of this vast empire. Accordingly,
in the following year, this was effected, and
the long and romantic career of John Com-
pany came to an end.

For more than two centuries this remarkable
organization had filled a place in human history
no other company ever approached. For a
whole century it had ruled an empire of its
own, worthy to be ranked among the great em-
pires of the world. And, besides paying fine
dividends to its shareholders, what had it done
for its subjects ?

Among many benefits conferred upon them
were these : the security of person and property
from the cruelty and rapacity of tyrannous ru-

FRONT OF THE OLD EAST INDIA HOUSE.
Danvers " India Office Records."

RISE AND FALL OF JOHN COMPANY. 95

lers ; the establishment of civil and religious
liberty ; the abolition of slavery, widow-burn-
ing, thuggism, and infanticide ; the building of
roads and bridges connecting the different parts
of the country ; the introduction of the steam-
boat and the railroad, and of those twin agen-
cies in promoting civilization and uplifting
mankind, the printing-press and the Bible.

A glorious record truly ; and if there be some
spots upon the sun, let it not be forgotten that,
but for the East India Company, the great Em-
pire of India might be to-day no higher in the
scale of civilization than Persia or Afghanistan.
Taking it all in all, John Company deserves
to be considered the savior of India.

96 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER IX.

the Hudson's bay trading company.

Unquestionably the most striking chapters
in the romance of commerce relate to two re-
markable corporations, which, though having
much in common in their constitution and
powers, were singularly dissimilar in the nature
of their domain, and character of their product.
They both had their birth in England in the
seventeenth century. They both were nomi-
nally mere trading associations, having nothing
more ambitious in view than the securing of
large dividends for their shareholders, yet in
reality held almost imperial sway over un-
counted leagues of territory. They were both
the subject of fierce attacks that at times put
their very existence in jeopardy, and in the end
they had both to succumb to the resistless
march of civilization, which in these latter
days, when the ends of the earth are drawing
nearer together, could not tolerate the idea of
commercial corporations keeping to themselves

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PRINCE RUPERT.
Mezzotint by himself.

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 97

vast landed possessions fit to be the homes of
nations. So much had these two mighty corpo-
rations alike ; but while the one bargained,
intrigued, fought, and waxed opulent under the
burning rays of an Oriental sun,( the other pur-
sued a quieter, though hardly less prosperous,
career amidst the snowy wilderness of this
Western world. The story of one has just been
briefly sketched. The following pages outline
the history of the other.

It was in the merry days of the Restoration,
when the second'Charles might well be lavish
toward those who had faithfully served his
father " of sacred memory," that to a hero of
many battles, retired upon his laurels to spend
a well-earned furlough in fascinating, if not
particularly fruitful, chemical experiments,
appeared one Des Groseliers, an enterprising
Frenchman who had travelled much in North
America, and made acquaintance with the In-
dian tribes inhabiting the southern part of the
Hudson's Bay region. Monsieur Des Grose-
liers's story was calculated to fire the heart of
a less adventurous being than Prince Rupert,
whose attention had indeed been already
drawn to that terra incognita, by reading in

98 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

Marco Polo how the renowned Venetian trav-
eller found in the tent of the Grand Khan of
Tartary furs and sables "brought from the
North, the land of darkness," and had thereby
stirred within him the thought of what a splen-
did scheme it would be to put forth an organ-
ized effort to tap this treasury of precious
peltries. The Frenchman found an interested
listener ; and the sequel was, that after an ex-
perimental trip had been made in 1668, with
encouraging results, a joint-stock company of
noblemen and gentry, with "our dear and en-
tirely beloved cousin, Prince Rupert, Count
Palatine of the Rhine," as its leading spirit,
was formed under the imposing title of " The
Honorable Governor and Company of Merchant
Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay," and
having for its motto the words "Pro pelle cu-
tem" an application of Scripture whose wit and
felicity it would not be easy to parallel.

This corporation, in the year 1670, obtained
from the free-handed king a charter investing
it with the monopoly of the furs and lands of
all the borders of all the streams flowing into
Hudson's Bay, not occupied by the subject of
any Christian prince; and, furthermore, the

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 99

privilege to make war and peace with the peo-
ple not subjects of any Christian prince. The
nominal consideration for this royal bounty was
the annual payment of two elks and two black
beavers, which, however, were only to be ex-
acted when the sovereign should happen to be
within the territories granted. It is immensely
to the credit of the Hudson's Bay Company
that these practically unlimited powers were
from the first wielded with marked moderation,
humanity, and equity ; so that, without in any
wise intending it, the corporation undoubtedly
became a factor of inestimable value in the
subsequent peaceable occupation of the North-
west by the white settlers.

The first post established by the company
was Moose Factory, at the mouth of the river
running into the extreme south of James Bay;
Forts Albany, York, and Churchill, command-
ing the whole western shore of Hudson's Bay,
followed in due time ; and each succeeding year
found the company waxing more prosperous
and powerful. They were not, however, to
have it all their own way, remote as the field
of their operations might seem to be from cen-
tres of human interest. The value of the Hud-

100 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

son's Bay territories was by no means unknown
to the French, who were then masters of Can-
ada ; and, long before Prince Rupert acted as
the promoter of the English company, a charter
had been conferred by Louis XIII. upon a num-
ber of his subjects, containing terms almost
identical with those granted by his " dear
cousin " Charles. Thus was the Company of
New France founded, on the 27th of April,
1627.

Nor were the pretensions of the French with-
out foundation. Fourteen years before the
date of the Hudson's Bay Company's charter,
Jean Bourdon, sometime chief engineer and
procureur of New France, claimed to have
penetrated overland as far as the shore of the
bay, and to have taken possession of the neigh-
boring territories in the name of Louis XIV. ;
and six years later the Des Groseliers already
mentioned did, without doubt, reach the bay
by sea, and establish a trading-post there ;
while the following year Despres Couture, if
he is to be relied upon, made his way overland
to the bay, and buried, at the foot of a big tree,
a French flag, a sword, and a plate of copper,
having engraved upon it the arms of the

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 101

French king, in token of the occupation of
the country in his Majesty's name. If these in-
teresting relics could only be resurrected now,
how precious they would be ! Under these cir-
cumstances the French could hardly be blamed
for contesting the occupation of the country
by the English company; and in 1686 the re-
nowned Sieur d'Iberville, supported by two of
his hardly less famous brothers, headed a hos-
tile expedition into the bay, which captured
three out of the five forts established by the
company, and several of its vessels into the
bargain.

This was the beginning of a warfare which
waged intermittently between the two powers
with varying success for more than a century,
and seriously interfered with the operations of
the company, whose forts were occupied, trade
interrupted, and energies weakened from time
to time. Nevertheless, although the records
show that between 1682 and 1688 its losses
amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand
pounds, so enormous were the profits upon its
operations that its annual dividends averaged
from twenty-five to fifty per cent, and the stock
soon became the most " gilt-edged " investment

102 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of the day, the shares being practically never
in the market, but jealously retained as heir-
looms, and handed down from father to son
after the fashion of entailed estates.

The last and most notable act in the drama
of war, of which Hudson's Bay formed the
theatre, was the capture of Fort Prince of
Wales, in 1782, by the famous French admiral,
La Perouse. This splendid structure, which
took twenty-five years to build, was intended
to guard the entrance to Churchill Harbor. It
was about four hundred feet square, with ma-
sonry walls six feet thick and twenty feet high ;
and the black muzzles of forty -two cannon
thrust themselves threateningly through its
entrance. Yet when La Pe* rouse appeared be-
fore it in a seventy-four, accompanied by two
frigates, and summoned it to yield, Governor
Hearne, evidently deeming discretion the bet-
ter part of valor, lowered the British flag that
had been floating proudly in the breeze, and
replaced it with a table-cloth in token of com-
plete surrender. The conqueror spiked the
cannon, partially destroyed the walls, and
sailed away with the garrison as prisoners of
war. The damage done by him was never re-

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 103

paired ; and the old fort stands to-day, probably
the most imposing ruin of the kind on the con-
tinent, with the guns that were never fired still
rusting upon the ramparts, and cannon-balls,
balked of their mission, strewing the interior.
One would naturally expect that, so soon as
they had obtained a firm foothold on the shore
of Hudson's Bay, the officials of the company
would seek to penetrate into the vast region
stretching out indefinitely to the west and
south, from which the Indians, with whom
they dealt, drew their supplies of precious pel-
tries. But such was not the case ; on the con-
trary, they were very slow to venture away
from the sight of the sea, although the mana-
gers in England were most anxious for them to
push inland, offering special rewards to those
who should take part in such expeditions, and
pensions to the widows of all whose lives might
pay forfeit for their enterprise. The men them-
selves were not so much to blame for this inac-
tion as the organization of the company. It
was, as Father Drummond shrewdly indicates,
too wooden, too much on the London counting-
house plan. There was no spontaneity, no
adjusting of means to an altered environment^

104 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

nothing of what Parkman calls "that pliant
and plastic temper which, in the French, forms
so marked a contrast to the stubborn spirit of
the Englishman." With a view to isolating
their officials, the company forbade them enter-
ing an Indian lodge. At least one man was
flogged for lighting his pipe at an Indian's
tent. The factors feared the interior as a land
of unknown danger. Terrible stories were cir-
culated, to keep up a dread of the Indians and
the French. Minute instructions were given to
the men to protect themselves, especially in the
winter. Scouts were to reconnoitre every da}7 ;
and did they not return by nightfall, every-
thing was to be got ready for a siege. At all
times the cannon were to be in order, and all
obstructions that might impede the view from
the fort were to be cleared away.

Hampered by these restrictions, which were
as unnecessary as they were burdensome, the
officials naturally enough preferred the com-
fortable, if commonplace, life at the forts to
the discomforts, difficulties, and dangers in-
separable from expeditions into the interior.
Thus it came about that more than a century
elapsed before they first made their way into

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 105

the Red River region, which subsequently be-
came the centre of their operations.

But, in the meantime, the French Canadians
were showing a far different spirit. Knowing
nothing about the exclusive privileges of the
company, or caring less if they did happen to
be informed, their coureurs du bois, following
in the track of La Verandrye, year by year in
increasing numbers, set out from Montreal,
ascended the Ottawa, made their way by por-
tage, lake, and stream to Lake Nipissing,
thence into the greater Lake Huron, across
that inland ocean, Lake Superior, to its far-
thest shore, where the Kaministiquia was en-
tered, and the voyage continued through Lac
la Pluie (Rainy Lake) and river, over Lac
du Bois (Lake of the Woods), and down the
River Ouinipique (Winnipeg) into the lake
of the same name, thus reaching the borders
of the fertile prairies, where the buffalo took
the place of the deer, and which rolled away
in billows of verdure until they broke at the
base of the Rocky Mountains, where the ter-
rible grizzly met the trappers with fearless
front.

These coureurs du bois were perfectly adapted

106 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

for their business. They always kept on
the best of terms with the Indians. They
treated them as their equals. " With that
light-hearted bravery and cheerful fortitude
so common among the descendants of the
French," writes one of their eulogists, "they
sought out the savage in his wigwam. They
often spent the whole winter with him, bear-
ing with all his rudeness and caprices, and
winning their way to his heart before they
asked for his furs. Quick to learn the Indian
languages and the tricks of Indian life, fertile
in expedients, they were loyal and warm-
hearted to the core. They were not mere cal-
culating-machines or animated money-bags.
Instead of waiting for the savage, they met
him on his own ground, and began by making
him presents of trinkets and tobacco ; and not
until they had him in good-humor did they
broach the question of trade."

Naturally enough, the Indian very much
preferred dealing with these fascinating fel-
lows, who came right to his wigwam, to travel-
ling away up to the Hudson's Bay fort, where,
he would be stiffly received by an official who
spoke to him through a barred window, and

A FRENCH CANADIAN.
Bacqueville de la Potherie, "Histoire de I' Ame'rique Septentrionale," 1722.

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 107

whose manner seemed to say, " Be off as soon
as you are fleeced ; " and the consequence was
that the pick of the peltry found its way into
the hands of the French, and went by the
overland route to Montreal, while only the
beaver and otter skins got up to Hudson's Bay.
It was not long before the managers of the
company realized that this state of things must
not be permitted to continue ; and again and
again we find the General Court writing to the
factors, and urging upon them the necessity of
securing other furs than beaver and otter. In
response to these repeated demands, the factors
sought to extend the sphere of their opera-
tions by establishing forts farther inland. As,
year by year, they thus made their way to
the south and west, it could only be a ques-
tion of time when they must encounter the
ever-increasing stream of expeditions which had
their source in Montreal; and the first meet-
ing did take place in the year 1774 at Fort
Cumberland, on the Saskatchewan River. "In
that year," says Professor Bryce, " the two
rival currents of trade, Canadian and English,
met in the far north-west ; and the struggle
between them began, which for well nigh fifty

108 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

years went unceasingly on, now in dangerous
eddy, then in boiling whirlpool, till at length
as one stream they flowed on together in one
course."

The struggle thus referred to forms the most
exciting portion of the history of the Hudson's
Bay Company, and at the same time the por-
tion concerning which, owing to the bewil-
dering variety of contradictory evidence, it is
most difficult to arrive at clear and satisfactory
conclusions. The company, of course, looked
upon the Canadian traders as unauthorized in-
vaders of its territory ; for the bulk of the furs
they secured were undoubtedly obtained from
Indians whose hunting-grounds came within
the terms of the company's charter. Not only
so, but these intruders were guilty of inter-
cepting Indians on the way to the forts ; and,
what made the matter worse, the furs the red
man bore were already pledged to the com-
pany for advances made them. Now, the Hud-
son's Bay officials were not the men to endure
this sort of thing in silence. For the most
part they were Scotchmen of the sturdiest
type ; and the aggressions of the Canadians,
Scotch though many of them were also,

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 109

aroused in them an angry spirit which could
lead but in one direction. Sooner or later the
matter had to resolve itself into a question of
force ; and in the meantime they were ready to
say with Wordsworth that —

" ... the good old rule

Sufficeth them, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."

It would appear that the Canadians disputed
the right of the company to exercise any mo-
nopoly in the north-west, and in proportion to
the weakness of their position were strong in
its reiteration. It seems equally clear that from
the first they did not hesitate to resort to vio-
lence and intimidation in order to gain their
ends. But the worst feature of all was their
introduction of fire-water into these territories,
which hitherto had known nothing of human-
ity's chief curse. Owing to the advantages of
its position, the company was able to offer
higher prices to the Indians than its rivals
could ; and, in order the better to obtain and
retain control of the poor red man, the Cana-
dians resorted to the importation of spirits, for
which he at once manifested the frantic pas-

110 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

sion that was lying dormant awaiting the ad-
vent of the tempter. It had been from the
first a leading principle of the company that
no spirits should on any account be sold to
the Indians, and it is one of the brightest
leaves in their laurels that their officials so
long adhered to this in spite of many tempta-
tions.

Close upon the introduction of the accursed
fire-water into their dealings, the elements of
violence and bloodshed, hitherto happily un-
known, began to manifest themselves between
the red man and his white brother. The most
daring and turbulent spirits were now attracted
to the Canadian fur-trade ; and, if we follow
Professor Bryce, the chief qualities sought in
those sent out from Montreal were a love of
violence, and a thorough hatred of the Hud-
son's Bay Company. They were not long,
however, in finding out their folly in resort-
ing to strong drink as a means of increasing
their trade ; for while it did undoubtedly give
them a temporary advantage over the company,
retribution followed fast. In the year 1780, at
Eagle Hills, on the Saskatchewan, the rendez-
vous of the Montreal traders, a liberal allow-

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. Ill

ance of grog was bestowed upon a large band
of Indians ; and one of the traders, who had had
some trouble with a chief, put a big dose of
laudanum into his glass by way of subduing
his aggressiveness. The experiment proved a
complete success in that regard, for the Indian
never awakened from the drunken stupor into
which he immediately fell. But his friends
and followers, not appreciating the situation,
arose in their wrath, attacked the camp, killed
the offending trader as well as several of the
men, and sent the survivors flying for their
lives, leaving a fine collection of valuable furs
behind. A little later, two posts on the Assini-
boine River were attacked, and a number of
traders and Indians were slain in the struggle.
These lamentable events were but the begin-
ning of sorrows. Thenceforth matters went
from bad to worse, until at length the business
became utterly disorganized, and the traders
bankrupt in purse and morals alike.

In the meantime the company had not been
slow in defending its interests. It was not
according to human nature that its sturdy
Scotchmen should remain indifferent spectators
of unscrupulous endeavors to cut the ground

112 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

from under their feet. They had already
shown their ability to protect their interests
by more than one device. By fomenting divis-
ions and animosities among the Indian tribes
in the interior, they had made it difficult and
dangerous for any one but themselves to trade
with them. They had even gone so far upon
one occasion as to seize and drive ashore two
ships that had ventured into Hudson's Bay on
a trading expedition, pleading in extenuation
that the vessels were lost through stress of
weather. And now they bent all their energies
to the task of opposing, hindering, and ruining
the petty rivals who had the presumption to
encroach upon their domain. The latter soon
realized the necessity of combination if they
would not be driven out. So powerful and
well-intrenched was the company that only an
organization of corresponding magnitude and
resources could hope to cope with it success-
fully. From this necessity sprang, in the year
1783, the famous North-west Fur Company of
Montreal, which, beginning with a mere part-
nership of the principal merchants engaged
in the fur trade, developed with astonishing
growth until it positively overshadowed its

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 113

elder rival. The method of the Hudson's Bay
Company was to pay its employees simply by
salary, but the new company introduced a bet-
ter system. Every officer had before him the
immense inducement of a probable partnership,
for thus were the faithful and energetic ones
by due process of promotion rewarded. This
masterly policy kept every man up to the high-
water mark of his abilities; and the result was
that in a few years from the inception of this
enterprise the annual profits had reached the
splendid figure of forty thousand pounds, while
ten years later they were three times that
amount. The conservative old Hudson's Bay
Company was astonished at the magnificence of
the newcomers, and old traders yet talk of the
lordly "North-wester." Washington Irving,
who was a guest of the company in the height
of its prosperity, has given us a characteristi-
cally graphic record of his impression.

The principal partners, who resided in Mon-
treal and Quebec, formed a kind of commer-
cial aristocracy, living in lordly and hospitable
style. Their early associations were as clerks
at the remote trading-posts ; and the pleasures,
dangers, adventures, and mishaps which they

114 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

had shared together in their wild-wood life
had linked them heartily to each other, so
that they formed a convivial fraternity. Few
travellers that have visited Canada in the days
of the McTavishes, the McGillivrays, the Mc-
Kenzies, the Frobishers, and the other mag-
nates of the north-west, when the company
was in all its glory, but must remember the
round of feasting and revelry kept up among
the Hyperborean nabobs.

Sometimes one or two partners, recently
from interior posts, would make their appear-
ance in New York, in the course of a tour of
pleasure and curiosity. On these occasions
there was always a degree of magnificence of
the purse about them, and a peculiar propensity
to expenditure at the goldsmiths and jewellers
for rings, chains, brooches, watches, and other
rich trinkets, — a gorgeous prodigality such as
was often noticed in former times in Southern
planters and West India Creoles, when flush
with the profits of their plantations.

To behold the North-west Company in all
its state and grandeur, however, it was neces-
sary to witness an annual gathering at the
great interior place of conference established

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 115

at Fort William, near what is called the Grand
Portage of Lake Superior. Here two or three
of the leading partners from Montreal pro-
ceeded once a year to meet the partners from
the various trading-posts of the wilderness, to
discuss the affairs of the company during the
preceding year, and to arrange plans for the
future.

On these occasions might be seen the change
since the unceremonious times of the old
French traders and the coureurs du bois ; for
now the aristocratic character of the Briton
shone forth magnificently, or, rather, the feu-
dal spirit of the Highlander. Every partner
who had charge of an interior post, and a
score of retainers at his command, felt like
the chieftain of a Highland clan, and was al-
most as important in the eyes of his depend-
ants as in his own. 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.

The partners from Montreal, however, were
the lords of the ascendant. Coming from the
midst of luxurious and ostentatious life, they
quite eclipsed their compeers from the woods,

116 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

whose forms and faces had been battered and
hardened by hard living and hard service.
Indeed, the partners from below considered
the whole dignity of the company as repre-
sented in their persons, and conducted them-
selves in suitable style. They ascended the
river in great state, like sovereigns making a
progress. They were wrapped in rich furs,
their huge canoes freighted with every conven-
ience and luxury, and manned by Canadian
voyageurs as obedient as Highland clansmen.
They carried with them their cooks and bar-
bers, together with delicacies of every kind,
and abundance of choice wines for the ban-
quets which attended this convocation. Happy
were they, too, if they could have some dis-
tinguished strangers — above all, some mem-
ber of the British nobility — to grace their
high solemnities.

Fort William, the scene of this important
annual meeting, was a considerable village on
the farther shore of Lake Superior.

As already pointed out, the Hudson's Bay
Company was slow in extending its operations
beyond the region directly tributary to the
bay, and its officials seemed to prefer that the

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 117

Indians should come to them instead of their
going out to seek the Indians. But now the
Nor'-Westers pushed away north and west, un-
til they not only touched the feet of the Rocky
Mountains, but fearlessly scaled that mighty
barrier, and floated upon the waters of the
Peace River. At the first, they met with no
active opposition from their older rivals ; and
it is possible that the two organizations might
never have come into active conflict but for
a series of events, not directly connected with
the fur trade, which precipitated the struggle.
Lord Selkirk was a philanthropic Scotch
nobleman, whose kind heart was stirred to
its depths by the woes of his fellow-country-
men at the times of the " Highland clearances ; "
and he determined to devote his resources to
finding for some of them, at least, the oppor-
tunity in the New World across the Atlantic
" to redress the balance of the Old." ■ He had
heard of the wonderful prairies of the north-
west, waiting only to be tickled with the hoe
to make them laugh into abundant harvests ;
and after planting a successful colony in Prince
Edward Island, he forwarded another instal-
ment of emigrants, via Hudson's Bay, to the

118 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

plains of the Red River, establishing a colony
there, which in later years became the nucleus
of a new province.

The North-west Company at once took
alarm. It wanted those fertile plains pre-
served as hunting-grounds, and did not relish
the idea of their being populated by the over-
flowing thousands of Great Britain. Every
possible obstacle was placed in the way of
the colonists. Intimidation, and even violence,
were resorted to, and the lives of the poor emi-
grants were filled with terror. This conduct
strongly incensed the good earl against the
new company ; and to enable him the better
to punish them, he bought all the Hudson's
Bay Company's stock he could obtain, until,
holding some forty thousand pounds' worth
out of a capital of one hundred and five thou-
sand pounds, he had the controlling interest.
At once he began to exert himself against the
obnoxious Nor'-westers. Rousing up the Hud-
son Bays from their lethargy, he instituted a
vigorous competition. Wherever the former
established a fort, the latter built another near
by. Every method which artifice, fraud, or even
violence could suggest was adopted by each

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 119

to outwit the other and to obtain the furs of
the Indians, who did not care what company-
got their furs so long as they were well paid
for them. Ballantyne relates some amusing
stories of the ruses resorted to by the rivals.
On one occasion the Hudson's Bay scouts
reported the approach of a band of Indians
returning from a hunting expedition. No
sooner was this heard than a grand ball was
given to the Nor'-Westers. Great preparations
were made for it, and a royal time was had.
But while the revellers were tripping the light
fantastic toe to the music of Scotch reels and
strathspeys, a score of earnest men were busily
at work in a secluded spot packing sledges
with goods and preparing for a journey. Soon
they start off silently ; no tinkling of bells, no
cracking of whips, no shouts to the dogs, as
they disappear into the darkness, while the
ball goes merrily on. The following day the
Nor'-West scouts report the same party of
Indians, and as quickly as possible a set of
sleighs depart from their fort with loudly ring-
ing bells. After a long march of forty miles
they reach the encampment, only to find all
the Indians gloriously drunk, and not a single

120 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

skin, not even the tail of a musquash, to repay
them for their trouble. Then it was that they
perceived the true inwardness of the ball, and
vowed to have their revenge.

Opportunity was not long wanting. Soon
after this, one of their parties encountered a
Hudson's Bay train on its way to trade with
the same Indians of whom they were in search.
They exchanged compliments with each other,
and, as the day was very cold, proposed light-
ing a fire, and having something to drink to-
gether. A huge fire was soon roaring in their
midst, the canteens were produced, and they
each tried who could tell the biggest yarns,
while good liquor mounted to their brains.
The Nor'-Westers, after a little time, spilled
their grog on the snow, unperceived by the
others ; so that they kept fairly sober, although
their rivals were becoming very much elevated.
At last they began boasting of their superior
prowess in drinking, and in proof thereof each
of them swallowed a big bumper. The Hud-
son Bays, not to be outdone, followed their
example, and almost instantly fell over upon
the snow helplessly drunk. In ten minutes
more they were tied firmly upon their sledges,

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 121

and the dogs being turned homewards, away
they went straight for the Hudson's Bay fort,
where in due time they safely arrived with
the men still sound asleep; while the Nor'-
Westers made haste for the Indian camp, and
this time had the furs all to themselves.

But such convivial and friendly devices to
outwit each other soon gave way to more rep-
rehensible proceedings. As the competition
grew keener, the temper of the rivals waxed
hotter ; and, ere long, forts were attacked, taken,
and burnt, the officials and their adherents im-
prisoned and harshly treated, the furs on their
way to the rendezvous intercepted and appro-
priated by main strength, if necessary, and
the whole trade turned into a furious conflict.
The governor-general of Canada sent out war-
rants and proclamations in vain. These were
alike treated with sovereign contempt in that
distant land, where "the king's writ runneth
not ; " for both sides well knew that he had
no means of putting his high-sounding words
into action.

So matters went from bad to worse, until,
in the year 1816, they reached a climax in a
battle royal, which took place before the gates

122 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of Fort Garry, the Hudson Bays' principal
post in the Red River region, and in which
lamentable affair seventeen men and three of-
ficers of the company, including Governor
Semple, fell, pierced with bullets.

Yet even this dreadful occurrence did not
at once abate the conflict. All parley was now
at an end, and the password was " war to the
knife." Officers and men were engaged by
the companies, principally with a view to their
fighting qualities ; and more interest was taken
in a successful encounter than in a profitable
barter. Such a state of affairs could not long
continue. The whole trade was being ruined ;
the Indians were becoming demoralized with
fire-water ; the prices paid for the peltries were
out of all proportion to the value. The cooler
heads of the concern then saw their oppor-
tunity ; and negotiations were entered into,
which, in 1821, resulted in their giving up
conflict for coalition, and being united with
the approval of Parliament, under the name
of the older company, some additional privi-
leges being granted at the same time. Soon
after the coalition, a shrewd young Scotchman,
who had been sent out from London to exam-

HUDSON'S BAT TRADING COMPANY. 123

iue the condition of things, showed such apti-
tude for business, and such fertility of resource,
that he was put at the head of affairs in North
America, with the title of Governor-in-chief of
Rupert's Land. " It was a great responsibil-
ity," writes Professor Bryce, " for young and
inexperienced George Simpson to undertake the
management of so great a concern, to reconcile
men who had been in arms against each other,
and to bring their trade from the brink of
ruin to a successful issue. Yet for forty years
he remained at the helm, and with such marked
success as to have the honor of knighthood
conferred upon him in token of his services.
He was the virtual ruler of about half of North
America, and, though an autocrat, held the
reins of power to the last with unslackening
grasp. Small in stature, he was of indomi-
table perseverance, albeit somewhat impatient
in temper. It is told of him — and one may
say of the story, " si non e vero ; " it is at least
" ben trovato'1'' — that on one occasion, while
passing through the Lake of the Woods, and
urging his crew overmuch, a powerful French
voyageur, his right-hand man, became so in-
censed at his unreasoning demands that he

124 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

seized him by the neck, lifted him over the
gunwale, plunged him into the water, and
then drew him, dripping, in again, to be, for
the remainder of that voyage, a more con-
siderate master.

Under Sir George Simpson's sway, the story
of the company was one of peace, prosperity, and
progress. The infusion of North-west blood
and capital gave it more vigorous life ; and
each year witnessed extending operations, un-
til, in 1860, its ledger showed one hundred and
fifty-five establishments, in charge of twenty-
five chief factors, twenty-eight chief traders, one
hundred and fifty-two clerks, and one thousand
two hundred other servants, besides a legion of
subject natives. The trading districts were di-
vided into four departments, covering the coun-
try from ocean to ocean, — from Ungava on
the bleak Labrador coast, to Fort Victoria on
the fiord-pierced shores of British Columbia, —
an empire hardly smaller than the whole of
Europe, though but thinly populated by some
one hundred and sixty thousand Indians, half-
breeds, and Esquimaux. •

Hardly was the Dominion of Canada well
born, than its statesmen began to look with

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 125

longing eyes upon the boundless prairies of the
north-west, and to demand in no uncertain
language from the mother country the abroga-
tion of the charter giving the Hudson's Bay
Company a monopoly of that promised land.
But, of course, the company could hardly be
expected to yield up so splendid a property
without adequate compensation. Negotiations
were accordingly entered into, which, in the
year 1869, resulted in a bargain being effected.
The company surrendered its proprietary rights,,
and in return therefor received the tidy sum of
three hundred thousand pounds sterling, and
one-twentieth of the land within the fertile belt,
as well as fifty thousand acres in immediate
proximity to its posts.

As a monopoly, the Hudson's Bay Company-
then ceased to exist. As a commercial corpora-
tion, trading upon just the same basis as other
corporations, and still practically free from
troublesome competition in the more northern
territories, holding vast landed estates, ever in-
creasing in value as the country opens up, and
able to pay a decent dividend on capital now
swollen to two millions of pounds, the " Honor-
able Company of Merchant Adventurers Trad-

126 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

ing into Hudson's Bay " has still, no doubt, in
store for it a prolonged if uneventful future.

The headquarters of the company continue to
be in Fenchurch Street, London ; but the recent
election to the chief governorship of Sir Donald
Smith of Montreal, whose life for the past half-
century has been part of the company's history,
has brought the control of affairs into closer
touch with the country, and made it seem more
than ever in the past a national enterprise.

I have thus sketched in scanty outline the
romantic history of the great corporation ; and it
now remains for me to give some picture of its
internal workings, of its method of dealing with
the Indians, and of life at the hundred or more
forts scattered throughout so many thousand
miles of varied territory.

Regarded strictly as a fur-trading enterprise,
the Hudson's Bay Company reached its zenith
about the year 1868, just before the surrender
of its proprietary privileges to the Dominion of
Canada ; and as the methods and manners in
vogue then remain practically unchanged to-day
at the more distant forts, whither settlement
and civilization have not yet made their way,
I will ask my readers to imagine themselves

HUDSON'S BAT TRADING COMPANY. 127

transported to a typical post of that period, and
interested spectators of its picturesque, uncon-
ventional life.

If, on approaching a Hudson's Bay post for
the first time, you had the high-sounding word
" fort " suggestive of rampart, bastion, embra-
sure, and battlement, much upon your mind,
and were accordingly full of appropriate ex-
pectation, you would be doomed to disappoint-
ment. Excepting Fort Garry, which, before
the city of Winnipeg swallowed it up, was
really a fortress with substantial stone walls
and towers, the forts are quite unimposing af-
fairs. Fancy a parallelogram of greater or less
extent according to the importance of the post,
inclosed by a picket twenty-four feet in height,
composed of upright trunks, and fastened along
the top by a strong rail. At each corner stands
a stout bastion built of squared logs, and
peirced for guns commanding both sides of the
angle. Inside the picket is a gallery running
right around the inclosure, just high enough
for a man's head to be level with the top of the
fence. At intervals along the side of the picket
are loopholes for rifles, and over the gateway
frowns another bastion, from which anybody

128 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

attempting to storm the gate may be warmly-
peppered. In the centre of the space inclosed
are the houses of the factor, or trader in charge,
and his chief subordinates, while ranged around
the sides close to the stockade are the trading-
store, the fur-room, the warehouses, servants'
quarters, etc. Beside the factor's residence
rises a lofty flagstaff from which floats the flag
of the company, bearing its motto : " Pro Pelle
Cutem," and near by stands a bell-tower which
sounds out the important hours of the day.

In the earlier days one of the garrison would,
watch by watch, pace round the gallery, crying
out at intervals the hours and the state of the
weather; partly as a precaution against Indian
invasion, and partly as a fire patrol. But the
establishment of the Mounted Police by the
Dominion Government has rendered the for-
mer duty unnecessary, and the practice is now
almost obsolete.

The advent of a band of Indians, burdened
with the result of a season's hunting, arouses
the fort from its humdrum routine ; and it be-
comes a scene of picturesque animation and
bustle. If the band be an important one, its
coming has been announced by a couple of

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 129

braves sent on ahead as advance agents, and
everything is in readiness. This means not
only that the company's goods are ready for
the barter, but that every precaution has been
taken to guard against a sudden reconnaissance
in force on the part of the red men, whose feel-
ings are apt to be powerfully operated upon
by the knowledge that what seems to them
illimitable wealth is kept out of their grasp by
only some rough wooden walls, and a handful
of white men. The manner in which the busi-
ness of bartering goods for peltries is then con-
ducted has been graphically described for us by
a writer familiar with the proceedings. The
Indian with his bundle of furs proceeds in the
first instance to the trading-room, where the
trader separates the furs into lots, puts a val-
uation upon them according to their kind and
quality, and after adding up the amount, re-
turns to the Indian a number of little pieces
of wood indicating the number of " made-beav-
ers " to which his " hunt " amounts. Bearing
his bundle of sticks, the happy hunter then
proceeds to the store-room, where he finds
himself surrounded by bales of blankets, slop-
coats, guns, scalping-knives, tomahawks, pow-

130 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

der-horns, axes, etc., and is thereby made to
feel very much like a hungr}^ boy let loose in
a pastry-cook's, and would without doubt be-
have in a much similar fashion if he dared.
Each article has a recognized value in "made-
beaver." A slop-coat, for example, may be
worth five "made-beavers," and the aborigine
pays for his civilized finery with twelve of his
sticks ; for a gun he gives twenty ; for a knife,
two ; and so on until his stock of wooden
"legal tender" is exhausted, when, with pro-
found regret and longing eyes, he retires to
make room for the next comer, and proudly to
exhibit his purchases to his friends and family.
At every post, or at least in every district,
there is a tariff established which varies little
from year to year. The mind of the Indian,
untutored to the rise and fall of the markets,
and knowing nothing of what it means for furs
to be "firm " or " unsteady," is not tolerant of
varying prices ; and, accordingly, to facilitate
matters the company takes the risk of changes,
and, unless the fall in price is of long continu-
ance, gives the same price for fur as formerly
when it was high, or vice versa ; thus on some
peltries the company loses, but compensates

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 131

itself by making a large profit upon others.
This system has one advantage. The Indian
never attempts to raise the price of furs, or beat
down the price of the merchandise. The tariff
is unchangeable. If he is not pleased with it,
he is at perfect liberty to go to the next shop ;
and this, combined with the fact that the com-
pany sells nothing which is not of the best
quality of its kind, has given it advantage over
all competitors that it will be long in losing.
Before the establishment of the mounted police,
the posts in the plain country, at which the
wily, unscrupulous Blackfeet and Crees were
the principal customers, had to take many pre-
cautions when a large band of Redskins came to
trade. Guns were loaded, and placed in the
loopholes commanding the Indian and trade-
rooms, and the gates of the stockade securely
fastened. All communication between the In-
dians and trader was cut off; and there re-
mained for th,e customers only the narrow
passage leading from the outer gate of the
stockade to the Indian-room, the Indian-room
itself, and the narrow hallway between it and
the trade-room. This latter was furnished with
two heavy doors, with a space between them

132 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

which would hold from two to four Indians.
Only two Indians were admitted at a time into
the trade-room. This was divided by a stout
partition reaching from floor to ceiling, in the
centre of which an aperture about a yard square
was cut, and divided, by a grating, into squares
sufficiently large to admit of the easy passage
of goods, but not of the red man in person.
As a still further precaution, the passage lead-
ing to the window was in some instances made
crooked, for the very good reason that experi-
ence had taught the trader that the Indian was
apt to bring heated bargaining to a dramatic
climax by shooting him from behind.

There has been a wonderful change in values
since the good old days in the early part of this
century. When Fort Dunvegan was estab-
lished on the Peace River, near the Rockies,
the regular price of a trade musket was Rocky
Mountain sables piled up on each side until
they were level with its muzzle when held
upright. Now these sables were worth in Eng-
land about three pounds apiece, while the cost
of the musket did not exceed one pound. The
price of a six-shilling blanket was, in like man-
ner, thirteen beavers of the best quality, beaver

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 133

then being worth thirty-two shillings a pound,
and a good skin weighing a pound or more.

But in the course of time the Indians began
to know better the relative value of the mus-
kets and their furs, and to object most deci-
dedly to the one being piled along the barrel
of the other (which report sayeth was length-
ened year by year until it attained colossal
dimensions), so that the trade gradually became
to be less jug-handled.

The company has shown no less far-sighted-
ness than humanity in its dealings with the
ignorant Indians, to so large an extent in its
power. Its laudable position with regard to
the use of spirits in trade has been already
mentioned ; and although during the disastrous
rivalry with the Nor'-Westers, the Hudson
Bays did for a time fall away from grace, and
fight fire-water with fire-water, so soon as the
struggle ended in coalition, prohibition once
more prevailed. Then, every care has been
taken to prevent the extermination of the fur-
bearing animals ; and whole districts have been
" laid over " from hunting for years at a time.
Another sagacious principle was to pay a pro-
portionately higher price for inferior furs, such

134 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

as muskrats, lest the Indians should confine
their exertions to the more valuable creatures,
and thereby kill the goose of the golden eggs.
Furthermore, the company has always exer-
cised a sort of paternal care over the people
who might, in some sense, be regarded as its
wards. Liberal advances are never refused to
trusty trappers in case of need; and to the
credit of the red men be it recorded that rarely
are these obligations evaded, the company's
experience being that in this respect the Red-
skin can set an example well worthy of imi-
tation by his pale-faced brother. And, finally,
when the Indian grows too old to trap and
hunt as of yore, he is allowed to become a
pensioner upon the company's bounty, and
there is hardly a fort that has not a number
of such hangers-on. The best possible reply
that can be given to those who have made it
their business to abuse the company for alleged
ill-treatment of the Indians is to be found in
the fact that to this day the company is looked
upon with the utmost affection and venera-
tion by them. The writer already quoted re-
lates that often when he complained that the
Indians charged him for any services rendered

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 135

much more than they would have charged
the company, he was met with the conclusive
answer : " Yes, I know we do ; but if you took
care of us in our old age, and treated us as
well as they have treated us, then we would
do this for you at the same price."

Lieutenant Gordon, who was in command of
the three expeditions despatched by the Marine
Department of Canada into Hudson's Bay for
the purpose of determining the possibilities of
that inland ocean as a highway of commerce,
was much struck by the fact that the officials
at all the posts he visited, with singular unanim-
ity told the same story ; viz., that there was no
profit being made upon their transactions, but
that the posts were maintained simply for the
benefit of the Indians and Esquimaux. The
shrewd sailor did not feel bound to accept
the statement unreservedly, but no doubt it
had enough truth to ballast it; for the profits
of fur trading have wofully fallen off within
the past quarter of a century, and there is
little hope of their ever regaining their former
figures.

But so far I have said little or nothing abou,t
the officials, and they certainly deserve a good

136 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

part of an article to themselves. As already
indicated, the majority of those at the posts
have from the first been Scotchmen, although of
recent years many from England and Canada
have entered into the service of the company.

The grades of rank are very distinctly marked ;
and an effective, if not martial, discipline is still
maintained. The various officials of the com-
pany are classed as follows, beginning at the
top and working downward: Highest of all
are the governor, deputy-governor, and board of
directors, who reside in London, and form the
court of last resort as regards the direction of
their affairs. As mentioned in the first part
of this article, the governor is, for the first time
in the history of the company, a Canadian, Sir
Donald Smith of Montreal now filling that
honorable office.

The staff of officials in Canada is made up
as^ follows : There are two commissioners, one
in charge of the land sales and one of the fur
trade, and known as the land and trade com-
missioners respectively. Then come the in-
specting chief factor, having three shares in
the stock of the company to his credit, as a
reward for long and faithful service ; then the

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 137

chief traders, ruling over districts or depart-
ments, and holding two and a half shares ; next
the factors, who are in charge of important
posts, and have two shares ; below them the
chief traders, with one and a half shares; and
below them again the junior chief traders, who,
having put in at least fourteen years of satis-
factory service, are promoted from the rank of
clerks, and given an interest in the company
to the extent of a single share. The appren-
ticed clerks, the largest body of all, bring up
the rear. They are sturdy young men, ranging
in age from fifteen to thirty; and upon them
falls the hardest and most important work.

.Next below the apprenticed clerks comes the
postmaster, usually a promoted laborer, who
for good behavior or valuable service has been
put on a footing with the gentlemen of the ser-
vice, in the same manner that a private soldier
in the army is sometimes raised to the rank of
commissioned officer. Still lower are the inter-
preters, who for the most part are intelligent
laborers of long standing, that have taken the
trouble to familiarize themselves with the vari-
ous Indian dialects, and thereby become indis-
pensable in conducting negotiatipns with the

138 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

natives. Finally, at the bottom of all, are the
voyageurs, hunters, and laborers, whose duties
are as multifarious as they are laborious, cut-
ting firewood and shovelling snow in winter,
rowing, paddling, and portaging boats and
canoes with their heavy cargoes in summer,
and otherwise making themselves generally
useful.

Life at a Hudson's Bay post nowadays is at
best a rather dull and humdrum affair. The
Indians are entirely under control, and no more
a source of danger than the negroes in the
South ; and time is apt to hang heavily upon
the. hands of the garrison, which may consist of
from two to half a hundred men, according to
whether the post is a central depot of supplies,
a permanent fort, or merely an isolated stockade
for the accumulation of provisions and peltries
for the use of larger forts. But whatever may
be the character of the establishment, a certain
amount of discipline is carefully maintained ;
and an observer could hardly fail to be struck
with the prompt obedience shown to some mere
stripling of a clerk by the grizzled, weather-
beaten voyageurs and laborers under his control.

The day begins with breakfast, which is usu-

HUDSON'S BAY TRADING COMPANY. 139

ally at six o'clock in winter, and an hour ear-
lier in summer, although the higher officials
may prolong their morning nap a little, if they
feel inclined. There is an officers' mess, and
a servants' mess ; the latter drawing rations at
regular intervals, and having them cooked by
one of their number set apart for the purpose.
The officers by no means regard lightly the
pleasures of the table, and great care is taken
to keep the larder well stocked. Their fare is,
of course, confined largely to such wild game
and fish as the country round about affords ;
but the supply is abundant, and the variety ex-
tensive. Buffalo hump, now, alas, little more
than a tender, juicy memory; moose-muffle,
tremulous and opaque as a vegetable conserve ;
beaver tail, unctuous and satisfying; venison
haunch and savory duck, crimson salmon and
snowy whitefish, — one does not soon tire of
such viands as these, especially when they are
prepared by French cooks. The hours of busi-
ness at the forts during the summer season are
from nine to six, with a break at noonday for
dinner ; and, if the post be an important one,
there is plenty of animation and bustle, but no
undue haste, a careful attention to details being

140 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

never forgotten. The Indians, in bands upon
horseback, or single upon foot, present them-
selves with furs to trade. The voyageurs are
hard at work loading with bales of costly furs
the boats lying on the river, or unloading them
of the goods they have brought. Brigades of
boats destined for more distant points pause
for a few days or hours to exchange the news,
and take a little breathing-spell ; while now
and then the arrival of the district inspector,
or some other important official, with his train
of servants, creates a sensation that only sub-
sides with his departure for another station.

All summer long a Hudson's Bay officer's
lot is rather a happy one, which many a cribbed,
cabined, and confined city-dweller might envy ;
for, in the intervals of the work, there are hunt-
ing, fishing, boating, swimming, and other ath-
letic pursuits, to be enjoyed in the finest climate
in the world. It is when the long winter comes,
and the whole region around is buried beneath
a pall of snow from three to thirty feet deep,
that the utmost ingenuity is needed to drive
dull ennui away. The cold is intense, yet not
unbearable, owing to the dryness of the atmos-
phere. Not a step can be taken except on

nrnsoN's bay trading company. 141

snow-shoes. A silence as of death has fallen
upon nature ; not a bird sings in the leafless
trees, not a creature stirs within the range of
vision ; " the waters are hid as with a stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen ; " and the
warm, cosey messroom of the fort possesses
attractions not so evident in the glorious days
of midsummer. Then are the men thrown upon
their own resources for entertainment ; and
whether the hours pass brightly or heavily will
depend upon themselves. There is very little
work to be done. The furs have to be sorted,
looked to frequently, and packed in readiness
for the coining of spring ; and visits may be
exchanged with the nearest fort. Those who
like to dabble in ink have now a fine opportu-
nity to write up their diaries ; and others, with
a taste for natural history, can amuse them-
selves in mounting and preserving specimens ;
while the studiously inclined can follow their
favorite lines of study.

The northern mail starts out early in Decem-
ber. It consists of two or more toboggans
drawn by dogs, and laden with strong wooden
boxes in which is placed an astonishing amount
of mail-matter. Proceeding as far as possible

142 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

along the frozen bosoms of the lakes and rivers,
the train pushes northward at the rate of forty
miles a day, the drivers on snow-shoes easily
keeping pace with the well-broken dogs, of
which four are harnessed to each toboggan,
until Fort Carlton, in the Saskatchewan Valley,
is reached. Here the entire mail is overhauled
and repacked, branch packets being sent off
east and west, while ever northward over the
snow-billowed plains, across the deep-drifted val-
leys, through the sighing, shadowy forests, the
main packet continues diminishing steadily in
bulk as fort after fort is visited, until at last,
reduced to a mere handful that a man might
put in his pocket, it reaches the end of its jour-
ney at Fort Yukon, upon the far frontier of
Alaska.

When the young clerk first went out to Ru-
pert's Land, a wife, as a compagnon de voyage,
was not to be considered ; and then, when the
time came that he might indulge in matrimony,
he was far away from the women of his own
race, few, indeed, of whom would be willing
to stake their future upon the uncertainty of
finding such domestic happiness in the wilds
of North America as would compensate them for

HUDSON'S BAT TRADING COMPANY. 143

the loss of all the delights of civilization. The
natural consequence was, that, looking about him
for a companion, he found his choice limited
to the dusky belles of the Indians. Sons and
daughters were born, and grew up to win the
love that was rarely bestowed upon the patient,
faithful drudge of a mother. The natural af-
fection of the father proved stronger than the
artificial laws of society, and the connection
thus strongly cemented continued unbroken to
the end. The company made a point of en-
couraging this mating of the Indian races with
their officers and men. It insured the good-will
of the one, and bound the other to the country
by ties not readily broken. So the children
came in quiversful to the Macs and Pierres;
and the blood of redskin warriors, mingling with
that of " Hieland lairds " and French bour-
geois, went flowing forth in a steady stream all
through the mighty possessions of the company.
It seems as though I had but scratched the
surface of the story of this great corporation,
which for more than two centuries has wielded
so profound an influence throughout the north-
ern half of this continent. It may endure for
many decades, or even for centuries yet ; but

144 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

its career must be less romantic than that of
the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The returns
from sales of land already far overshadow the
profits from the fur trade, and the latter must
inevitably in time shrink into insignificance.
However that may be, the " Honorable Com-
pany of Merchant Adventurers of England
trading into Hudson's Bay," looking back upon
its records, may, with substantial reason, con-
gratulate itself upon having contributed one of
the most interesting chapters to the romance
of commerce.

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC BAIL WAY. 145

CHAPTER X.

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.

There is only one railway in the world
which, running clear across a continent, is from
ocean to ocean owned and operated by a single
company; and that is the Canadian Pacific,
whose tide-water terminals, Halifax in the east
and Vancouver in the west, are joined by a
twin band of shining steel three thousand six
hundred and sixty miles in length.

Somebody has very well said that this rail-
way WAS a national enterprise, is a national
highway, and will be a national heirloom ; and
yet there were many times during the various
stages of its promotion and prosecution, when,
judged by all ordinary human standards, the
chances seemed about ten to one that the vast
undertaking would work as much injury to the
young Dominion of Canada as the Mississippi
Bubble did to France, or the Tulip Mania to
Holland.

It certainly seemed a very daring, if not un-

146 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

duly rash enterprise, for a British colony, by no
means abounding in cash, and having less than
six millions of people, to commit itself to the
construction of a line of railway whose total
cost would exceed a levy of twenty dollars a
head upon every man, woman, and child in the
country.

Yet that was what Canada did in 1871, in
order to bring British Columbia into the Con-
federation of Provinces ; and in spite of the rise
and fall of governments, and the occurrence of
political crises, into the details of which it
would be tiresome to enter, she honorably ful-
filled her contract by June, 1886, when the first
through train left Montreal for the Pacific coast,
and safely accomplished one of the most mem-
orable and momentous "runs" in the history
of railroading.

It must not be supposed that the whole of the
fifteen years referred to above were occupied in
the building of the road, although so gigantic
an undertaking might well have required that
space of time. Between 1871 and 1881 only
some widely separated sections, one in Ontario,
another in Manitoba, and a third in British
Columbia, were constructed by the Canadian

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 147

Government ; and when in the latter year the
task was gladly handed over to the powerful
combination of capitalists who had agreed to
assume it on certain conditions, there still re-
mained nearly two thousand miles of the main
line to build.

By the terms of their contract with the
Government, the Syndicate, as this combination
was popularly called, had ten years in which
to complete their work, and earn their subsidy
of $25,000,000 and the same number of acres
of land; but with such extraordinary and unex-
ampled energy did they press forward the con-
struction, that in less than five years the road
was open for traffic from end to end.

A big book of intense interest might be
written describing the difficulties encountered,
and the splendid skill and courage with which
they were overcome.

It was tremendous work; for instance, in get-
ting around the north shore of the Georgian Bay
and Lake Superior, through a dreary wilderness
traversed only by the Indian fur-hunter, the
adventurous lumberman, or the hardy miner, a
way for the steel rails had to be blasted through
rock of the hardest description known to en-

148 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

gineers, and the oldest known to geologists;
namely, syenite and trap. More than two and
a half million tons of this stubborn stuff had
to be displaced, besides large quantities of loose
rock and hardpan. What costly work this was
may be judged by the fact that for fifteen
months one hundred tons a month of dynamite
were used; this dangerous material, the explo-
sive power of which is twelve times that of
ordinary gunpowder, being manufactured on
the spot as required. The total cost of dyna-
mite alone exceeded one and a half millions of
pounds sterling.

Yet that was but one item in the expenditure.
The work went on without intermission, day
and night, winter and summer ; an army, whose
numbers reached twelve thousand men, toiling
like ants, relay succeeding relay, until at last
the utmost resistance of "nature stern and
wild" had been overcome.

An interesting feature was the employment
in the winter of dog-teams drawing toboggans,
which bore heavy loads of provisions or material
over the deep snow that rendered the use of
any other kind of conveyance quite out of the
question.

TEE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 149

Nor were the grim rock barriers of that north-
ern shore the most perplexing obstacles the
builders had to overcome. Even more difficult
to reckon with were the morasses, across whose
sullen, treacherous surface an enduring road-
bed had to be laid.

Some of these proved veritable bottomless
pits ; and after months of toil, and the laborious
dumping of thousands of tons of stone and earth
which were swallowed down without any per-
ceptible effect, the attempt to cross them had
to be abandoned, and a more circuitous route
adopted.

Others pretended to be gorged for a time;
but ere long opened their maws for road-bed
and rails, and the filling in had to be repeated.
It was only last year that the writer was de-
layed several hours by the sinking of the track
at one of these morasses, which necessitated the
cars being carefully towed across the weak spot
one by one, and the train made up again on the
other side ; and he was informed that into this
very morass thousands of carloads of gravel
had been dumped, yet it required constant
watching.

A pleasant contrast to this tedious and costly

150 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

construction was the building of the road from
Winnipeg west to the Rocky Mountains. Here
there were no rugged ramparts of rock, no
deep, deceitful morasses ; but instead thereof
a good honest turf covering the finest wheat
soil in all the world.

Now, any one who conceives of the prairies
as a vast, level expanse of verdure is greatly
mistaken. The prairie is not level at all in
any part. It undulates like the ocean, rising
and falling in great swales and rounded hol-
lows, to which a railway must needs accommo-
date itself as best it may.

The builders of the Canadian Pacific could
not therefore simply lay down a lot of ties
and spike the rails to them. To secure. a level
road-bed, and one that would stand plenty of
hard wear, and be above the winter snow, no
small amount of grading and ballasting was
necessary. All of which was thoroughly done.
Yet for rapidity of construction the records of
railroad building present nothing to surpass
what was accomplished on that section of the
line. A few figures and dates will help to
make them clear.

Beginning at Winnipeg in the month of May,

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 151

1881, by the close of the year trains were able
to run 165 miles westward over a finished track.
The following season saw 419 miles more com-
pleted ; and in 1883 the remaining 376 miles of
the prairie section were put in running order,
making the wonderful total of 962 miles of
well-built road as the result of three seasons'
work.

How this was accomplished the details of
the work reveal. In forty -two days of the year

1882, 134 miles of main line were laid, being
an average of 3.19 miles a day, exclusive of
sidings. The next year even this wonderful
achievement was surpassed, as in forty-eight
days 166 miles were laid ; while in one record-
breaking day the almost incredible figure of
9.38 miles was attained, no less than 640 tons
o± steel rails being required to " iron " the
road-bed.

Of course no such brilliant rate of progress
was possible when the mountain ranges were
reached, and the Rockies, the Selkirks, and the
Gold Range had to be reckoned with. It cost
nearly a million pounds sterling to seek out
and survey a practicable route through those
gigantic glacier-crowned barriers, and many

152 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

more millions to construct the iron road. In-
trepid engineers had to be swung from the
edges of dizzy cliffs, and cut their way foot by
foot through abysmal valleys choked with the
debris of a thousand avalanches, before the line
could be laid out.

When the work was at length completed,
every mile had its marvel of natural scenery
or of human ingenuity. Now climbing high to
the snowy summit, now descending far into the
shadowy canon, the ever-varying vistas opened,
and made it easy for the traveller, lounging lux^
uriously on velvet cushions in the Pullman car,
to imagine himself transported to the legendary
land of Asgard, the home of Thor and Woden
and of Balder the Beautiful.

In wonderful ways had the difficulties of the
route been surmounted. Tremendous trestles,
some of them hundreds of feet in height, or
steel bridges, seemingly as light as a spider's
web, bore the train over the gloomy gorges ;
huge snowsheds, built of mighty timbers and
ponderous bowlders, made mockery of the ava-
lanches that otherwise would have gleefully
swept the track from the mountain-side ; lofty
tunnels bored through the solid rock solved

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 153

many a problem in grade and progression. And
thus a safe and speedy way through the moun-
tains was triumphantly established.

Not only is this way safe and speedy, it is
also one of the most richly endowed with scenic
splendor in all the world. From the time the
traveller enters the Gap just beyond Galgary
until he is almost within sight of the Pacific
coast, he is passing through a sea of mountains,
where serrated peaks and vast pyramids of
rock, with curiously contorted and folded strata,
are followed by gigantic castellated masses,
down whose gleaming sides the snow-white gla-
ciers like the water-falls of Tennyson's Lotus-
land, —

To fall, and pause, and fall do seem,

or the Cascades, —

Like a downward smoke,
Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, do go ;

while others yet again, —

Through wavering lights and shadows break,
Eolling a troubled sheet of foam below.

Amidst such sublime scenery as this, Cole-
ridge might have caught inspiration for a hymn
like that which he penned in the Vale of Cha-
mouni : —

154 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

"Ye ice-falls! Ye that from the mountain's brow
Adown enormous ravines slope amain —
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,
And stopped at once amidst their maddest plunge!
Motionless torrents! Silent cataracts!
Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven ? "

But after all, railroads are chiefly instru-
ments of commerce, and the most beautiful
and sublime scenery will not in itself content
stockholders eager for dividends. It is there-
fore of much more practical moment that the
Canadian Pacific should offer to the Old World
the shortest road to the marvellous, mysterious
Far East, toward which the eyes of the world
have of late been turned with peculiar interest,
while sturdy, skilful, alert little Japan dealt
effective blow upon blow at huge but unwieldy
China.

So remarkable is the saving of time accom-
plished by this new route, that it is now possi-
ble to go from Liverpool to Yokohama in 'little
more than double the time required to cross
the Atlantic but a few years ago.

The Canadian Pacific has its own steamers
plying between the Far West and the Far Fast;
splendid steamships of six thousand tons bur-
then, that plough their way through the waves

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC BAIL WAY. 155

of the broad Pacific at the rate of eighteen
knots an hour; and it was by means of these
ocean greyhounds that the Company was en-
abled to accomplish what was thus recorded in
the London Times : " The delivery of the mails
in London within twenty-one days of their leav-
ing Yokohama is a feat never before accom-
plished, sufficiently remarkable in itself, and
pregnant with untold issues for the future of
the British Empire."

Here is an outline of that unique perform-
ance, before which Jules Verne's Around the
World in Eighty Bays sinks into insignifi-
cance. The steamer Empress of Japan left
Yokohama in the morning of Aug. 19, 1890,
and reached Vancouver, British Columbia, by
noon of the 29th. An hour later the mails
started eastward on a special train that whirled
them to Brockville, Ontario, in seventy-seven
hours ! Having been ferried across the St.
Lawrence, they were caught up by a New
York Central train, which seven hours later
delivered them in New York City, where they
were hurried on board the steamship City
of New York, which sailed at once for Liver-
pool, reaching there within six days. Such an

156 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

achievement is a veritable romance of com-
merce, a triumph of enterprise and invention
over conditions of space and time that, except
in some subordinate particulars, may remain un-
challenged until the air-ships, upon the verge
of whose practical adaptation we seem now to
be trembling, shall have made us gloriously
independent of all metes and bounds, and
brought us as near as we ever shall get to
the ability of being in two places at the same
time.

Yepanng

f.or

Winter.

ttes^fi

«;■». *-»-

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 157

CHAPTER XL

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA.

The history of human effort to pierce the
ice-defended mysteries of the arctic zone is
invested, not only with deepest interest, but
with the most moving pathos. Franklin and
his gallant shipmates battling bravely, but, alas !
hopelessly, for life amidst the pitiless, pathless
ice-floes, and Henry Hudson thrust forth from
his own ship in a tiny skiff by his mutinous,
murderous crew, to find a grave in the waters
of the mighty inland sea that would alone pre-
serve his remembrance, are names associated
in our minds with feelings of tenderest sym-
pathy, not less than of warmest admiration.
Those who bore them were to our continent
what Livingstone was to Africa ; and to their
self-sacrificing heroism we are indebted in like
manner for additions to the sum of human
knowledge whose worth cannot be estimated.

Seeing that the first motive which impelled
men to pit themselves against the terrors of

158 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

those thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice was
the hope of discovering a safer and speedier
passage to the wondrous treasures of the East
than the storm-beset route around the Cape
of Good Hope afforded, it is exceedingly inter-
esting to find that an important question of
to-day is whether or not a practicable com-
mercial highway can be established through
the inland ocean which bears the name of Hud-
son to the very heart of this American conti-
nent. The hope of a north-west passage to the
Indies has long been abandoned. Indeed, the
cutting of the Suez Canal would have finally
superseded the enterprise, even though there
had been prospects of a successful issue. But
a north-west passage to the North-west itself is
an altogether different thing, and it is some ac-
count of the extensive explorations which have
been carried on to this end that I shall now at-
tempt to give.

Looking carefully at the map of North Amer-
ica, and noting how far the vast bulk of Hud-
son's Bay thrusts itself inland, it is evident at
once that the examination of this mighty sea,
with a view to determining its possibilities in
the way of navigation, could be simply a ques-

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 159

tion of time. So long as only the eastern and
central parts of Canada were settled, the St.
Lawrence did well enough ; but when once the
tide of population began to flow over the bound-
less prairies of the west, and to garner from
them such harvests as not even Egypt might
surpass, the men who chafed at the long and
costly overland passage their grain must un-
dergo turned their eyes toward the great bay
that seemed to promise a means of relief, and
they demanded that the government of Canada
should take measures to ascertain whether the
promise could be fulfilled or not.

Parliament is proverbially slow to move.
You must be very much in earnest, very per-
sistent, and, above all things, have some influ-
ence over a constituency or two, in order to
gain any favors from it. Fortunately for their
enterprise, those who were interested in Hud-
son's Bay possessed all of these valuable quali-
fications ; and so in the early part of January,
1884, we find a committee of the House of
Commons appointed to take into consideration
the question of the navigation of Hudson's
Bay, with power to send for persons, papers,
and records. The committee sat for nearly two

160 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

months, examined a number of persons who
either had, or were supposed to have, some
knowledge of the subject, plunged deep into
the records of the Hudson's Bay Company,
which went to show that for two centuries their
vessels had navigated the bay every year, and
altogether carried out their instructions in a
very thorough and creditable manner, conclud-
ing their labor by bringing in a report which
the government considered ample justification
for granting a sufficient sum of money to cover
the expenses of systematic investigation.

The first exploring expedition set forth from
the harbor of Halifax in the month of July,
1884. It comprised a single vessel, the New-
foundland steam whaler Neptune, under com-
mand of Lieutenant A. R. Gordon, Assistant
Superintendent of the Meteorological Service of
Canada, and having on board Dr. Bell of the
Geological Survey, seven observers, and twelve
station-men. The Neptune was not just the
most desirable sort of a vessel for the purpose.
She was as slow as a snail, afforded at best very
cramped accommodation ; and, moreover, having
seen long service in the odoriferous occupation
of whaling, was rich in reminiscences of the

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 161

business, which could never by any possibility
have been mistaken for scents from Araby the
blest. Her redeeming feature was her sturdy
strength, which enabled her to submit unharmed
to the fiercest buffeting, not only of the wind
and wave, but of ice-floe and rock-reef also.

Setting forth from Halifax on July 22, 1884,
the Neptune, sailing up through the Gulf of
St. Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle, coasted
along the bleak, forbidding Labrador shore un-
til she arrived at Cape Chudleigh, which forms
one of the lips of the mouth of Hudson
Strait. Many icebergs were encountered on
the way, and constant vigilance had to be ex-
ercised to guard against their coming to close
quarters.

At Cape Chudleigh a dense fog enveloped
the vessel, and kept her a close prisoner for
several days. When it cleared away she pushed
on through the strait, and looked about until a
fine harbor was discovered on the north-west-
ern shore of the cape, which was evidently just
the place for Observatory Station No. 1. As
some slight consolation for having to spend
the winter there, the station was called Port
Burwell in honor of the observer who was

162 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

placed in charge, with two station-men to
keep him company. The same pleasant com-
pliment was paid each of the other observers
left behind during the progress of the expe-
dition ; and future geographers will therefore
please take note of Ashe Inlet on the north
side of the strait, a little more than midway
between the ocean and the bay; Stupart's Bay,
immediately opposite on the southern shore ;
Port De Boucherville on Nottingham Island ;
and Port Laperriere on Digges Island.

At each of these places an observer and two
stationmen were established in snug huts taken
up for the purpose, and fitted out with unstinted
stores of food, fuel, furs, and every necessary
comfort, besides, of course, a complete list of
such instruments as would be required for the ob-
servations as to movements of the ice, tides, and
winds. The observers were also instructed to
note down carefully everything of importance
as to the migration of mammals, birds, and fish,
and also as to the growth of grasses. In fact,
they were to find out everything they possibly
could ; and it may be said here that without
exception they discharged their duties in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner, and thus ac-

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 163

cumulated an immense mass of information
about a region of country hitherto almost un-
known.

Having established the stations one by one,
the Neptune then turned northward to visit
Chesterfield Inlet and Marble Island, thence
southward to Fort Churchill, the future Liver-
pool of that region, if the hopes of the Hudson's
Bay railway promoters shall ever be realized ;
and southward still to Fort York, the present
commercial metropolis of the bay, if so fine a
term may be applied to a place whose business
activity is compressed into a week or two out
of each year, and is then limited to receiving
a cargo from, and providing a return cargo for,
a single ship.

All this took from Aug. 6 to Sept. 12. On
the evening of the latter day the Neptune
struck out across the broad bosom of the bay
for Digges Island, and beginning with Port
Laperriere made a farewell tour of the various
stations, after which her course was shaped
homewards ; St. John's, Newfoundland, being
reached by Oct. 11, when the voyage came to
an end.

The results of the expedition were very con-

164 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

siderable, although of course they were only
preliminary. In reference to the ice which had
hitherto been supposed to be the most formi-
dable barrier to the navigation of the waters,
Lieutenant Gordon, the commander of the expe-
dition, reported that on close inspection its terror
very largely disappears. The ice met with dur-
ing his cruise could be divided into three classes,
each class having a separate origin ; namely, ice-
bergs from the glaciers of Fox Channel, heavy
arctic ice from the channel itself, and ordinary
field-ice, being that formed on the shores of the
bay and strait.

No icebergs were encountered in Hudson's
Bay, nor were any reported as having been seen
there in the past ; but in the strait a good many
were met with, principally along the northern
shore, where a number were stranded in the coves,
while some others were passed in mid-channel.
They were not thought, however, to form any
greater barriers to navigation than do those met
with in Belle Isle Strait, nor were they more
numerous than they frequently are in these
waters. The field-ice encountered, although it
would have compelled an ordinary iron steamer
to go dead slow, gave no trouble to the Neptune,

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 165

the vessel running at full speed between the
pans, and rarely touching one of them.

The following summer a second expedition,
in charge of the same commander as before,
went up to the bay, this time in a much su-
perior vessel, H. M. S. Alert, which had been
lent for the purpose by the British naval author-
ities. In every respect, except, perhaps, speed,
a better vessel than this steamship could hardly
have been selected. She had been specially re-
built for the Nares arctic expedition of 1876,
and was so constructed as to be capable of resist-
ing great ice pressure, while her engines gave
a very creditable amount of steam for a small
expenditure of coal. It being deemed essen-
tial to determine, so far as possible, the time of
the opening of Hudson's Strait for navigation,
a much earlier start was made than before ;
the Alert steaming out of Halifax harbor on
the 27th of May. Unfortunately, however, the
fates saw fit to frustrate this design ; for after
making her way with much difficulty, but no
mishap, through fields of ice and banks of fog
right up to the mouth of the strait, on the
16th of June the ice set -solid to the ship, fore
and aft, rafting and piling up all around her,

166 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

and the next day it was discovered that the
iron stern-plates had been broken off some dis-
tance below the water. This was a most serious
injury, as Lieutenant Gordon did not dare drive
his ship at all hard through the ice, and from
that day until July 6 was compelled to let
her drift about, the plaything and sport of the
pitiless ice-king. Thus much precious time
was lost, and a still further delay occasioned
by the necessity of returning to Newfoundland
for repairs, which took until nearly the end of
the month, so that August had come before
the first station, Port Burwell, was reached.
The observer and his assistants were found in
excellent health, and reported having passed
a very pleasant winter, even if the cold did
sometimes happen to freeze the mercury solid.

The round of the different stations was then
made; and the men who had spent the winter
there were replaced by fresh garrisons, the
number in each case being the same as before.
With two exceptions the men were found in
perfect health; the exceptions being one of
the observers, who was suffering from a slight
attack of scurvy, and one of the station hands,
who had fallen a victim to that disease. In

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 167

the latter case the fault lay entirely with
the unfortunate fellow, as during the winter
months he spent the greater part of his time
in bed, and persistently neglected every pre-
caution against an attack. After visiting Fort
Churchill, where, as may be readily supposed,
the advent of the Alert was hailed with de-
light by the little band of residents, and her
departure was delayed by a violent storm that
lasted over a week, the return voyage was
entered upon, the parting round of the sta-
tions made, and their tiny garrisons were left
to the cold and darkness of a long and dreary
arctic winter.

The third expedition, in which the Alert
was again used sailed on June 24, 1886, and
had far better luck than its immediate prede-
cessor, as no special difficulty or cause of de-
lay was experienced, the season proving to be
somewhat earlier than the previous year, and
the ice consequently in a much more disor-
ganized condition. It is true that while ram-
ming at a thick bar of ice a little more than
half-way through the strait the screw got
worsted in the encounter to the extent of one
blade ; but as the same accident had occurred

168 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

on both the previous trips, Lieutenant Gordon
knew exactly how to repair the damage, and
little time was lost. The stations were visited
in turn, and all their occupants taken off, as
they were to be maintained no longer. This
duty accomplished, an excursion was made to
the Marble Island in the northern part of the
bay, a great resort of whalers, in whose chief
harbor there is a spot called Deadman's Island,
because of the number of graves dotting its
bleak and barren back, with pathetic memorials
of those who had gone out from their New
Bedford homes to return no more forever.

Forts York and Churchill were then called
at, and a survey made of the latter place with
a view of ascertaining its commercial capabili-
ties ; the result being that it was pronounced
admirably suited for the water terminus of a
railroad system, and easily convertible into a
port fit for doing a business of great magnitude.
The estuary of the Nelson River, by the shores
of which Fort York stands, is, on the other
hand, declared by Lieutenant Gordon to be one
of the most dangerous places in the world for
shipping ; so that, if Hudson's Bay ever does
become the summer outlet for the commerce

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 169

of the great North- west, Churchill harbor must
undoubtedly be the shipping-port. Some day
or other there may be a boom up there, and
this little bit of information may prove very
valuable ; but I present it very freely to my
readers, notwithstanding, and they can use it
as they see fit.

Having thus glanced briefly at the movement
of three expeditions, my next business is to
rescue the more important results of their ex-
plorations from the quick oblivion of the blue
book, and make them public property; a task
that has been rendered materially more inter-
esting through the kindness of Mr. W. A. Ashe,
observer at Ashe Inlet, in placing at my dis-
posal the extensive and valuable notes made
by him during his winter sojourn.

First of all, a word or two in reference to the
Hudson Bay itself. The proportions of this in-
land ocean are such as to give it a prominent
place among the geographical features of the
world. One thousand three hundred miles in
length by six hundred miles in breadth, it ex-
tends over twelve degrees of latitude, and
covers an area not less than half a million
square miles. Of the five basins into which

170 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

Canada is divided, that of Hudson's Bay is im-
measurably the largest, the extent of country
draining into it being estimated at three million
square miles. To swell the mighty volume of
its waters, there come rivers which take their
rise in the Rocky Mountains on the West, and
the Labrador wilderness on the East, while
southward its river roots stretch far down be-
low the forty-ninth parallel, until they tap the
same lake source whence flows a stream into the
Gulf of Mexico. Strange as it may seem, it is
perfectly possible that a passing breath of wind
should determine whether the ultimate destiny
of the raindrop falling into that little lake be
the balmy bosom of the Mexican Gulf or the
chilly grasp of the arctic ice-floe.

Although seemingly so remote from the needs
of humanity, Hudson's Bay has been the scene
of many a conflict, its possession being fiercely
disputed by the French and English for a period
extending over two centuries. An interesting
relic of those tumultuous days is still to be seen
in what is without doubt the largest ruin in
North America, — Fort Prince of Wales, whose
battered walls stand out prominently upon
the point of the west side of the entrance to

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 171

Churchill Harbor. Begun in 1733, it occupied
several years in building, and when completed
must have looked very imposing, with its lofty
stone battlements and twoscore menacing can-
non. Yet strong as it was, Governor Hearne,
who had charge in 1782, surrendered without
firing a shot to the French Admiral La Pe"-
rouse when he appeared before him in a seventy-
four, accompanied by two frigates, and sum-
moned him to yield. La Perouse spiked and
dismounted the guns, partially destroyed the
walls, and then sailed away with his prisoners,
leaving the fort to a neglect and silence that
have never been broken since, except when per-
chance some curious visitor explores its fast
crumbling ruins.

The chief reason for the deep interest mani-
fested in the bay by the two great rivals was
their desire to control the lucrative fur-trade
for which it offered so excellent an outlet.
The famous Hudson's Bay Company was formed
under the patronage of Prince Rupert in 1688,
and forthwith proceeded to establish forts along
the shore, beginning with Moose Factory at the
foot of James Bay. Forts Albany, York, and
Churchill followed in due time: and regular

172 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

communication has been maintained between
them and Great Britain, the records showing
that with the exception of one year (1779) a
ship has annually visited Moose Factory for one
hundred and fifty-one years, and York Factory
for ninety-seven years.

The native Indians and Eskimos were from
the first delighted at the establishment of these
forts, and at no time have the relations between
them and their white brethren been otherwise
than perfectly harmonious. They scour the
country far and wide for furs, and, bringing
them to the fort, obtain in exchange ammu-
nition, guns, hatchets, knives, beads, and other
articles dear to the savage heart, and essential
to their wild life. They are a harmless, inof-
fensive people as a rule, and have readily lis-
tened to the missionaries sent to minister unto
their spiritual necessities, the consequent im-
provement in their life being easily perceptible.

The Indians of these regions have so much
in common with the ordinary red man as to call
for no special remark ; but the Eskimos present
an individuality and interest that render them
peculiarly attractive as a subject of study at
all events; and Mr. Ashe's acute and sympa-

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 173

thetic observations help us greatly toward a
better understanding of these little-known peo-
ple. For more than a year he dwelt amongst
them on an island on the north side of the
strait, at about the middle point of its length,
his home being a frame house sixteen by
twenty feet in dimensions, in which he and his
two men successfully endured a climate whose
mean temperature was nineteen degrees below
freezing-point, permitting snow to lie in shady
places the whole year round, and making a
snowstorm possible in the height of summer.
It is a sad and gloomy land. In winter the
world lies buried beneath its monotonous robe
of white. In summer it reminds one of a Dore*
illustration to the Inferno ; for without a sign
of vegetation save a sickly growth of moss
in sheltered nooks, the bare, bleak rocks lie
tumbled about in chaotic confusion, wearying
the eye and chilling the soul with their un-
mitigated sternness. Amid such surroundings
do the Eskimos spend their life, passing from
cradle to grave without one faintest gleam of
the glorious beauty of flower-strewn meadow
or billowy, verdured forest. And yet they are
far from being an unhappy or unintelligent

174 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

race. On the contrary, they are both cheerful
and bright by nature to a degree that puts
them upon a higher level than many of the
Indians who have much greater advantages.

In the matter of mechanical ability, for in-
stance, examine the tool-box of an Eskimo
when he considers it well furnished, and what
does it contain? A well-worn file, an indiffer-
ent saw, a few rusty nails, a cheap penknife,
and a very inferior sheath-knife. What would
the ordinary mechanic of civilization accom-
plish with such implements as these ? Yet
with these poor tools the Eskimos will repair
the locks of their guns, make harpoons and
spears, put together their kayaks and umiaks,
and manufacture all sorts of things out of wal-
rus ivory. They will take the blade out of one
penknife, alter it so as to be of suitable size,
and place it in another handle, drilling with a
broken needle the hole for the pin on which
the blade turns, having first by means of fire
carefully untempered the part of the blade to
be drilled.

The appearance of these Eskimos is sugges-
tive of patience and perseverance. They are
short and squat of figure, the men averaging

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 175

five feet three inches, and the women five feet,
in height. Their breadth is apt to vary accord-
ing to whether the fates have sent them plenty
of seal or not. Their eyes and hair are of the
very blackest, the latter being as straight as,
and not less coarse than, horse-hair. A favorite
amusement among the women is for two of
them to select a hair out of their heads, and,
looping one through the other, to pull on the
ends held in their hands until one of the hairs
gives way, to the vast delight of the fat little
lady whose capillary strength wins in this odd
tug-of-war.

The men generally sport a mustache, and
occasionally a beard, the usual thing, however,
being a tuft on the chin. They have very flat
noses and high cheek-bones, so that if you were
to hold a straight rule from one of the eyeballs
to the other, it would in many cases fail to
touch the bridge of the nose. Their eyes have
an upward tendency at the corners ; their com-
plexion is of a light brown tinge, often dashed
with red ; their mouths wide, but not thick-
lipped; their teeth very irregular, and consid-
erably more like rusty iron than gleaming pearl
in color, while in the women they are apt to be

176 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

worn down almost to the gums by their custom
of chewing, until it is soft enough to be easily
sewn, the sun-stiffened sealskin out of which
their garments are made. However lacking in
attractive qualities the Eskimo belle may ap-
pear to the civilized eye, she possesses one ele-
ment of beauty which even the most charming
residents of Madison Square or Beacon Street
might fairly covet, and that is exquisitely
small hands and feet. While her southern
sister compresses her understandings into the
tightest of French bottines, and yet is not sat-
isfied, the houri of Hudson Strait puts on
first a sealskin stocking with the fur inside;
then another made out of the skin of a duck,
loon, or raven, with its feathers still on; then
one or two more of sealskin ; and lastly the boot
itself — notwithstanding all of which wrapping,
her foot seems small and dainty.

The Eskimo costume consists in summer of
sealskins and in winter of reindeer-skins, the
latter being always worn in duplicate, one set
with the fur next the body, the other with the
fur outside, an arrangement that is even better
than the famous one of Brian O'Lynn, who, ac-
cording to the old song, —

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 177

" having no breeches to wear,
Got him a sheepskin to make him a pair,"

and then, —

"With the skinny side out and the woolly side in,
He was fine and warm was Brian O'Lynn."

The pattern of their garments varies not a
whit from generation to generation. The coat,
which does not button, but is hauled on over
the head, has a large capuchin, in Eskimo lan-
guage " amook," at the back of the neck. The
only difference between the coats of the men
and the women lies in the latter being graced
with a tail, both " fore and aft " so to speak,
upon which the feminine fondness for ornamen-
tation is indulged to the full extent of the wear-
er's means ; so that they may be seen adorned
with numerous rows of beads and bits of brass
or copper, such things as the works of a clock,
for instance, not being despised. A very popu-
lar form of decoration consists of tablespoons,
which they break in two, and arrange in various
devices, grouping the handles in one place and
the bowls in another.

In the summer each family has its own home,
but in winter two or more families live together
for the sake of increased warmth and economy

178 TEE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of fuel. . The summer residence is a tent made
of sealskins with the hair scraped off, giving
much the appearance of yellowish parchment,
which is stretched over poles of driftwood ar-
ranged in the ordinary cone-shape. The door is
always toward the water beside which they are
camped ; and at the opposite side of the tent is
the bed, composed of moss covered with sealskin.
As they sleep with head pointing doorward, they
necessarily lie down-hill, owing to the natural
slope of the land toward the shore. This does
not seem either a comfortable or healthy posi-
tion, but apparently they are none the worse for
it. On either side of the doorway is their larder,
consisting of exceedingly repulsive-looking piles
of seal meat and blubber, which give forth an
odor that Samson himself, with his hair at its
longest, could hardly wrestle with successfully,
so overwhelming is its strength.

The winter habitations are made entirely of
snow, and are generally built under the shelter-
ing lee of a rock, in the drift that accumulates
there. The builders begin by marking out a
circle on the snow about fifteen feet in diameter,
which represents the inner side of the walls, and
with a saw or long-bladed knife they cut out

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 179

blocks of snow from three to six feet long and a
foot thick and high, from inside the circle they
have marked ; then, placing the blocks around
the circle, they carry the walls up spirally (not
in tiers), until they meet in a keystone above,
at a distance of about nine feet from the exca-
vated level of the floor. The result is, except, of
course, as to color, the production of a gigantic
beehive, over the door or in the centre of the
roof of which is set a big block of fresh water
ice to serve the purpose of a window in lighting
an interior that, although stainless white at first,
is soon blackened by the ever-smoking, evil-
smelling lamps the inmates use.

The furniture of these human hives is very
simple, as may be readily supposed. It consists
of a bedplace or divan along the side of the
" igloo " opposite the door, and two fireplaces,
one on either hand as you enter. These are
made of firmly packed snow, and raised about
three feet above the floor, the divan having its
outer edge faced with a pole to prevent it from
crumbling away when used as a seat in the day-
time. The beds are made up in the following
manner: first a layer of moss spread over the
snow; next a layer of sealskin; then a layer

180 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of bear- or deerskin; and finally the sleeping-
bags, which resemble exaggerated pillow-slips,
only that fur takes the place of linen, and the
fur is double, so that there may be hair both
inside and outside. Into these bags, of which
each adult has one, the Eskimo, stripped to the
bare buff, creeps for the night, and sleeps very
comfortably. Up to the age of ten the chil-
dren share their parents' bag ; after that they
are promoted to having one of their own.

Their fires are nothing more than lamps
rudely fashioned out of soaps tone, and so ar-
ranged as to be self-supplying, a mass of blub-
ber being hung in such close proximity to the
flame that the fat is converted into oil, which,
dripping into the bowl below, is consumed by
means of a moss wick. As the lamp has no
chimney, and both oil and wick are of the
poorest, the result is the reverse of brilliant,
neither light nor heat being obtained in what
we should consider a satisfactory quantity. Just
above the lamps a sealskin is stretched to pre-
vent the heat thawing the roof away, a precau-
tion that seems scarcely necessary, seeing that
the ordinary temperature of these snow huts is
twenty-seven degrees at the roof, and twenty-

THE MEBITEBEANEAN OF CANADA. 181

four degrees at the level of the beds, — in other
words, from five to eight degrees below freez-
ing point. Pray pause for a moment, good
people, as you read this by cosey firesides, or
in register-heated chambers where the ther-
mometer keeps comfortably near the seventies,
and try to realize what it means. What sort
of a time would you have with the air chilled
to ten degrees below zero outside, and warmed
to only twenty-five above inside ? Yerily, one-
half the world does not know, and indeed can
hardly understand, how the other half lives.

In order to keep out as much cold as possi-
ble, the doorways are very low and very nar-
row, — a fact which explains the curious phrase
with which the hosts speed their parting guest,
namely : " Tabourke aperniak in atit," that is,
" Good-by, don't bump your head."

Next to his children the most important mem-
bers of an Eskimo's household are his dogs,
they being essential to his hunting in summer
and travelling in winter. They are very wild,
wolfish animals, only half domesticated, and
possessing marvellous digestive powers. A pup
that Mr. Ashe was rearing, being left to amuse
himself in the house one day, did so very ef-

182 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

fectually by devouring stockings, gloves, the
greater part of a top-boot, and many smaller
articles of a similar nature, none of which ap-
parently disagreed with him. In travelling, the
dogs are harnessed to the sledges by traces of
white whale-skin, the oldest and most trust-
worthy on the lead, the others in pairs on either
side of his line, — a dozen constituting a full
team, and the whole being controlled by a
driver who runs beside them, wielding a whip
with a lash thirty feet long, which, in his hands,
can with unfailing accuracy take a tuft of hair
out of the most distant dog. Where there is
no beaten track, some one must precede the dogs
to show them the way ; but on a well-defined
route they will trot along merrily by themselves
at the rate of five or six miles an hour.

Often when a pause is made for a rest, or
to ice the runners of the sledge, a discussion
will arise among the dogs as to whether all
are pulling their fair share. From barks they
soon come to bites ; and a scrimmage ensues,
which would cast the liveliest corner of Donny-
brook Fair into the shade. The dancing driver
with his cracking whip, the snarling, struggling
dogs entangled in their traces, and the over-

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 183

turned sled, combine to make up a scene that
defies description.

The Eskimos are very good to their dogs,
sharing their last bite with them when food
is scarce. So fond are they of them too, that
it is exceedingly difficult to purchase a good
team. The Hudson's Bay Company employees
find these dogs very useful in their work, and
there are large packs of them at every fort.
They are famous fish-eaters; and great are the
rejoicings in dog-town when a catch of por-
poises or white whales is effected, for then
they may gorge themselves to their heart's
content upon the rich and juicy meat of the
marine monsters.

The Eskimo language is very soft and pleas-
ing to the ear, but difficult to acquire, princi-
pally because of the peculiar use of the accent,
and the difference a wrong placing of it makes,
as a word incorrectly pronounced seems to
be quite unintelligible. Mr. Ashe's first at-
tempts at conversation were so conspicuously
unsuccessful that he was much discouraged.
For instance, he said one day to a young
neighbor, " Ibbe micky tiddleman picaniminy
petuang-a-too," meaning thereby to remark in

184 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

a friendly way, " Your dog had five puppies,
they are dead," but in reality testing his visi-
tor's self-control by the offensive assertion,
" You are a dog. You have not five children."
Although known to the world as Eskimos, or
Esquimaux, these dwellers in the far north call
themselves " Innuit," which means " the peo-
ple," as if they were the only people in the
world. The generally accepted derivation of
the term Eskimo is from the Indian word,
" Eskimautsic," signifying " eaters of raw
meat; " but Mr. Ashe suggests another deriva-
tion that is at least very plausible and worthy
of notice. The whaler of to-day calls the
Eskimos " Huskies," a word that is not far
removed from " Husickie," and that again from
" Isickie," which is the Innuit word for a male.
Now, what seems more probable than that the
earliest visitors to those icy regions, in seeking
information as to what the inhabitants called
themselves, were understood as wanting to
know whether they were males or females, and
receiving the reply, " Isickie/' have turned it
into Eskimo before handing it down to us?
The Eskimos call their white visitors, whom
they are always glad to see, " Kedloonah," that

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 185

is, the " crested people ; " they at first suppos-
ing that the hats worn by them were part of
their physical constitution.

In reference to their religious beliefs and
superstitions, the Eskimos are remarkably reti-
cent; for the reason, probably, that their inter-
course has chiefly been with rough, rude sailors,
and they are afraid of having their cherished
ceremonies made the butt of the white man's
ridicule.

As regards matrimonial matters, they gen-
erally have but one wife, and never more than
two at the same time. No formal preliminaries
in the way of a marriage service seem to be
presented. When a couple come to the same
way of thinking, the man takes the woman from
her home, sometimes even without asking her
parents' consent, and installs her into his own
igloo as the fire-tender and " slavey " thereof.
Usually the relation is a happy one. Sometimes,
however, incompatibility of temper reveals it-
self; and then the uncongenial wife is returned
to her former home, having been taken only
" on approval," and no formal divorce being
required, which shows that in this one respect,
at least, the otherwise slow-going North has

186 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

advanced further even, than Chicago her-
self.

Eskimo parents are not apt to be overburdened
with children, five being considered a large
family. This is due to the lack of farinaceous
food, which renders it necessary to postpone
weaning until the children are five or six years
old. What poor, dear Artemus Ward would call
" episodes " are quite unknown among them ;
and when assured that triplets or even quartets
were not impossible in the South, their admira-
tion of the white man was vastly increased.

The dead are buried in the snow in the winter-
time, and among the rocks in the summer ; piles
of stones being heaped upon them to keep off
the wolves and dogs. With the male dead, they
bury a knife and spear. Before the era of guns,
they buried also a bow and arrow ; but when
these became obsolete, they did not put a gun
in their place, arguing soundly enough that he
must be a poor hunter indeed who cannot get
all the game he needs in the happy hunting-
grounds with a knife and spear as his only
weapons. It would appear as if there were ad-
vanced thinkers, moreover, who hold that even
the knife and spear are not necessary in a land

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 187

of such unlimited plenty, and who accordingly
deprive the dead man of both, for it is very
rarely that graves are found still containing
these articles. With the women they bury
nothing, holding that somebody will hunt game
for them in the next world just as they have
done in this.

The Eskimo pantheon is pretty well occupied,
there being gods to preside over the different
natural phenomena, such as the rain, snow, ice,
tides, and so forth, and others controlling human
destiny in the chase, at home, and elsewhere.
Their explanation of the tides is very naive.
The genius of the waters, it seems, wishing to
cross the straits dryshod, caused the water that
filled them to heap itself up at one side, and
then when it had passed over to fall back into
its place again, which it did with such momen-
tum as to go on oscillating to and fro ever since.
They have no lack of priests, and under their
direction make various offerings to propitiate
the deities, particularly when the season is bad
and seals are scarce.

Their social customs are full of interest and
individuality. Their way of eating, for in-
stance, is decidedly peculiar. Cutting a long

188 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

strip of gory, greasy meat from the mass before
him, the Eskimo gourmand takes one end of it
in his mouth, and then pulling at the other
until it is strained tight, with a quick slash of
the knife past his mouth and nose, he severs a
mouthful and swallows it without mastication,
repeating the operation rapidly until the limit
of his storage capacity is reached. A civilized
spectator watching an Eskimo family at dinner
cannot fail to be struck with the wisdom of
Providence in giving these people such short
noses, as, were the features any longer, they
would infallibly suffer early abbreviation.

In the matter of amusements the Eskimos are
not badly off. They have a form of cup-and-
ball; the ball being a block of ivory pierced
with holes at different angles, into one of which
the players strive to insert an ivory peg as the
block falls, the position of the hole determin-
ing the value of the stroke. Another game
closely resembles dominoes, and contains pieces
running as high as " double-thirties ; " but the
sequences are not regularly carried out, the
breaks in them seeming to be without system.
When they can borrow or purchase a pack of
cards, they will play euchre and high-low-jack

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 189

with considerable skill; and they also en joy-
draughts, having learned these games from the
whalers. They have a game exactly like soli-
taire, with the exception that ivory pegs take
the place of glass balls. The special amuse-
ment of the women is a species of " cat's-cradle,"
which has been brought to such perfection that
they develop from twe*nty to thirty different
figures in' it. Indeed, they are extremely
clever in performing tricks with string, winding
and twisting a piece in and out among their
fingers, and then disentangling it by a single
pull on one end.

Such are some of the manners and customs of
the quaint, harmless, and — despite their dirt —
lovable people whose home is among the
dreary regions to the north and south of Hud-
son's Strait. They have many admirable traits
of character. They are wonderfully patient
and enduring in times of trial and suffering ;
honest and intelligent to an unlooked-for de-
gree ; perfectly fearless in the chase, yet so
peace-loving in their disposition that quarrels
are almost unknown ; hospitable, docile, keenly
appreciative of kindness, and ready to share
their last bite with their white visitors ; willing

190 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

to work when opportunity offers, and content
with small remuneration. So many good points
have they, indeed, that the sad certainty of
their gradual extermination is rendered all the
sadder thereby. The most careful estimate of
their numbers in the Hudson's Strait region at
present is 1,500 ; but this, of course, is only an
approximation, as their own system of counting,
which generally runs "one, two, three, a great
many," renders anything like an accurate census
impossible. Each year finds their food-supply
diminishing, — thanks mainly to the enterprise
of the whalers and sealers. As the number of
the seals decrease, the number of the Eskimos
must decrease also ; and the end, though it may
be long delayed, seems inevitable.

Although the region inhabited (if that term
can be rightly applied to tiny settlements scat-
tered at vast intervals over boundless wastes)
by the Eskimos is utterly worthless for agri-
cultural purposes, the waters it surrounds con-
tain sources of wealth, which, strange to say,
have hitherto been monopolized by the Dundee
and New Bedford whalers, just as the fur-
trade has been monopolized by the English
Hudson's Bay Company ; the Canadians, to

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 191

whom the region belongs, deriving scarcely any
benefit from it whatever. Formerly the whale
fisheries of the bay were extremely valuable;
but of late years this leviathan has so largely
decreased in numbers as to render his chase
precariously profitable, and his extinction an
early possibility.

From a table prepared by Dr. Boas, it ap-
pears that between 1846 and 1875 inclusive,
the United States sent 113 vessels to the Hud-
son's Bay whale-fishing, and that they obtained
1,620 barrels of sperm, 56,019 barrels of whale-
oil, and nearly a million pounds of whalebone,
which, considering that the average size of
the ship is only 240 tons, makes it clear that
there has been a handsome margin of profit.
The right whale, which in consequence of high
price of whalebone, viz., about $12,000 a ton, is
by far the richest prize a whaler can capture,
attains a size of from fifty to eighty feet. It
was once readily found in the northern part of
the bay, but is now rarely seen, and the pur-
suers have to go farther and farther north
every year. The white whale, on the other
hand, still abounds at the York, Nelson, and
Churchill rivers. They go up with the tide

192 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

every day in great numbers, and seem quite
tame, bobbing up serenely and blowing within
twenty feet of the boats. They are caught
in nets, and also by rows of stakes driven into
the mud, and taken to the forts, where, they
are flenched, the blubber tried out, the skins
cured, the carcass put by for the food of the
dogs in winter. As these whales average
about forty gallons of oil each, and their skins
are valuable, they are worth from twenty to
thirty dollars apiece. The narwhal, or uni-
corn, and the walrus, still exist in consider-
able numbers, and well repay the trouble of
hunting them ; while the seal, it need hardly be
said, swarms upon the ice in countless num-
bers during the greater part of the year, and
to a large extent constitutes the Eskimo's com-
missariat. Of smaller fishes, the salmon is
the only one having commercial value. It is
caught in large quantities by the Company,
and sent to England fresh in a refrigerator
ship specially built for the trade.

There are not many species of land animals,
the polar bear, wolf, wolverine, arctic fox, rein-
deer, polar hare, and lemming being the prin-
cipal ones. They are all fairly numerous still,

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 193

but their ranks are undoubtedly thinning, as
the demands of the fur-trade increase ; and
some day or other they will be so scarce as
to render the business of catching them no
longer remunerative. IndeecL, as it is now,
no matter how hospitable, genial, or talkative
an official at one of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's forts may be, under no circumstance
can he be seduced into the admission that his
post is run at a profit to the company ; accord-
ing to him it is kept up just for the benefit
of the Indians and Eskimos; in other words,
for philanthropic rather than for commercial
purposes. Accordingly, if this showing be
true, the end of the fur-trade is already within
sight.

But it is not because of its human inhabi-
tants, nor of its quarries for the hunter on land
or sea, that the Hudson's Bay region has special
interest for us to-day. We might be content
to leave it to the chill obscurity which has been
so long its lot were it not that, as already
indicated, the central part of Canada and the
north-west of the United States are asking
whether it does not afford a solution of the
problem how to secure for their products the

194 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

cheapest and most expeditious road to the best
markets. A glance at the map will be suffi-
cient to make clear that the shortest possible
route between the regions referred to and
Europe lies through Hudson's Bay. Careful
calculations have shown that the city of Win-
nipeg, for instance, is at least eight hundred
miles nearer Liverpool by the Hudson's Bay
route than by the St. Lawrence ; and the differ-
ence in favor of the former increases, of course,
the farther you advance north-westward. If,
as has been pointed out, you take the central
point of the agricultural lands of the Cana-
dian North-west, you will find that the distance
from it to Winnipeg is about the same as to
Churchill, the finest harbor of the bay. Now,
the distance between Churchill and Liverpool is
a little less (about sixty-four miles) than it
is between Montreal and that great entrepot
of commerce. The conclusion consequently is,
that between the said central point and Liver-
pool there is, by the use of the Hudson's Bay,
a saving of the whole distance from Winnipeg
to Montreal, which means in miles no less than
1,291 via Lake Superior and 1,698 via Chicago.
Seeing how ardent, energetic, and hopeful

THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 195

the Manitobans have been in this matter, it
is not a little disappointing to find that such
competent authorities as Lieutenant Gordon
and Mr. Ashe are by no means sanguine as to
the success of the route. The latter has pointed
out that apart from the ice question, which is
quite serious enough in itself, there are other
difficulties which have to be reckoned with;
such as the dangers attendant upon a passage
along an unknown, unlighted coast-line, with
few harbors of refuge, and very little room
to ride out a gale ; extreme depths of water,
one hundred fathoms being often found right
up to the shore, with generally very defective
holding-ground where the depths are more mod-
erate. In foul weather, no sounding being pos-
sible that would be of value, a vessel would
receive no warning of her proximity to the
coast until it was perhaps too late to save
her from destruction. Furthermore, it must
not be forgotten that the proximity of the
straits to the magnetic pole renders the ordi-
nary compass perfectly useless, and even the
Thompson compass becomes liable to aberra-
tion if there are any disturbing elements on
shipboard.

196 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

The most serious objection of all, however,
to the Hudson's Bay route is the ice that fills
these waters with its destructive floes and bergs.
No ordinary steamer could safely venture into
its midst. The bow must be armored, and the
whole frame strengthened, to withstand the rude
buffeting that is so inevitable. All this, of
course, means increased cost and decreased car-
rying capacity; and even then the lesson of
the three expeditions would seem to be that
the period of navigation for such a vessel is
from the 15th of July to the 15th of October,
with a possibility of navigation from the 1st
of July to the 1st of November. Whether a
railroad system eight hundred miles in length,
and a fleet of steamships of a very costly kind,
can be employed with profit where the season
for transportation is not more than three or
at the most four months in duration, consti-
tutes the problem upon the solution of which
depends the future of the inland ocean of the
north.

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 197

CHAPTER XII.

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR.

Among all tho materials wherewith men
erect unto themselves splendid edifices to dwell
in, stately ships to voyage by, or far-spreading
iron roads to travel upon, none have a fairer,
brighter history than the wood. Stone is blasted
from hideous debris-strewn chasms, in and
out whose craggy recesses quarrymen labor
like ants in some gigantic ant-heap; metal is
torn from the bowels of the earth, where,
steeped in gloom and oppression scarce en-
durable, the grimy miners pursue their un-
lovely toil ; but wood, from the time the first
stroke of the lumberman's fatal axe sends a
shiver through all its shapely form as it rears
its head aloft amidst the forest, until, when
sundered into yellow planks, it awaits the
joiner's will, is hardly for an hour away from
the glow of sunshine, the ripple of water, or
the virgin purity of the snow. As bright and
clean as the fresh-sawn boards themselves is the

198 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

record that lies behind them ; and in follow-
ing them from forest to floor, we have before
us one of the most romantic, fascinating, and
manly occupations in which the children of
men can engage.

The chief centre of the lumbering interest
in Canada is the city of Ottawa, which, as it
happens, is also the political capital, — a con-
junction that gave Goldwin Smith a chance
for the exercise of his brilliant wit too tempt-
ing to be withstood ; and so we have his
clever but cruelly unjust epigram about Ot-
tawa being "an arctic lumber-village turned
into a political cock-pit ; " to which we trust
it may be deemed but a venial offence to add,
that, viewed in either light, there certainly
would seem to be a considerable amount of
" log-rolling " done there.

It will accordingly serve our purpose very
well, if, selecting the Canadian capital as our
coigne of vantage, we proceed from thence to
make as full a survey of the whole business
of lumbering as may be managed within the
limits of a single chapter.

In the matter of facilities for the carrying
on of this important industry, Ottawa would

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 199

be un_que upon the continent, were it not for
Minneapolis. As it is, she has in the tre-
mendous torrent that pours tumultuously over
the roaring. Chaudiere, an even mightier power
than the falls of St. Anthony ; while as far as
communication with the timber-limits by rail
and water is concerned, honors are easy, at all
events. But at the falls of the Chaudiere we
reach almost the final stage in the passage of
a plank from forest to floor; and so, in order
to begin at the beginning, we must betake
ourselves, one, two, or even three hundred miles
away up into the bosky recesses of the forest
primeval, where the mighty trees are whis-
pering together in blissful ignorance of the
fate awaiting them.

The first thing to be done by one who pro-
poses to engage in the business of lumbering
is to secure a " berth," or " limit ; " that is, an
area of natural standing timber. This he does
either directly from the Government, in whom
the fee of almost all of the timber-producing
districts still remains ; or indirectly from some
person who has taken up limits simply for spec-
ulative purposes, and without any design of
cutting over them himself. Theoretically each

200 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

limit is ten miles square; but, owing to the
topographical features of the country, they are
in reality of all sizes, from twenty-four square
miles and upward. It is not often that one
worthy of the name is less than fifty square
miles in extent. The amount of territory held
under lease by some of the " lumber kings "
of the Ottawa district is so immense that an
ordinary German principality would sink into
insignificance beside these vast landed posses-
sions.

Limits having been secured, the next step is
to despatch a party of experienced scouts,
often Indians or half-breeds, to examine the
country, and seek out the best groves of tim-
ber. The skill of these self-taught surveyors
is sometimes very remarkable. They will ex-
plore the length and breadth of the terra in-
cognita, and report upon the kind and value
of its timber, the situation and capabilities of
its streams for floating out the logs (an all-
important point), and the facilities for hauling
and transportation. They often sketch the
surface of the country, showing the positions
of its streams and lakes, its groves of timber,
and its mountainous or level appearance, with

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 201

a skill and accuracy little short of marvel-
lous.

The scene of operations having with the
aid of these scouts been finally decided upon,
the limit-holder early in the month of Sep-
tember sends his gangs of men into the woods,
the usual number in a gang being from thirty
to forty, including foreman, clerk, carpenter,
cook, and chore-boy. This number is about
doubled, however, later on, when the teams
come in to haul the logs that have been cut,
so that sixty to eighty men may sometimes
be found at one shanty. The foremen rule
the gangs, and are in their turn subordinate
to the " bush-superintendents," who drive in
all weathers from gang to gang, supervising
their work and checking the results. On ar-
riving at their destination, the gang proceed
immediately to build their shanty.

Nothing could be more primitive than the
architecture, or better adapted to its purpose,
than the construction of this edifice, which is
placed as nearly as possible in the midst of the
" bunch " of timber to be cut, so that no time
may be lost in going to and coming from work.
With all hands helping, a shanty twenty-eight

202 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

feet by forty can be put up in five days, the
men in the meantime living in tents. The
method of construction is as follows : Huge
logs, cleared only of their branches, are piled
one upon another to the height of eight feet.
Great wooden girders are then stretched across,
supported in the middle by four massive pil-
lars, called " scoop-bearers ; " and upon these
girders hewn timbers resembling elongated
railway ties, hollowed out on one side and
designated as "scoops," are placed with convex
and concave sides up alternately, and over-
lapping each other. Thus arranged, they con-
stitute the roof, and afford perfect protection
from the heaviest of fall rains. The floor
consists of a single layer of flattened timbers ;
and then all that remains is to fill in every
chink with moss and mud, and throw up a
bank all round the outside, and your shanty
is — no, not complete, after all, for lo ! a most
important part of it has been overlooked, to
wit, the " camboose," or fireplace. This oc-
cupies the place of honor in the centre of the
room, and is about as simple an affair as could
well be. A thick bank of sand and stones is
laid upon the floor to hold the fire, while, up

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 203

above, a large square hole is cut in the roof,
and topped with a rude chimney, the whole
arrangement affording perfect draft and venti-
lation, and a fine view of the stars at night
to the men lying on their bunks, but demand-
ing the constant maintenance of a huge fire
in order to secure comfort. At two corners
of the hearth are fixed strong wooden cranes,
which the cook can adjust to any required po-
sition for his various pots and boilers. Along
three sides of the room run sloping platforms
called "bunks," on which the tired toilers roll
in their blankets and rest after the day's exer-
tion, with their heads turned to the wall, and
feet to the central fire, which is kept well sup-
plied with fuel all night.

This description applies to a shanty of the
"good old-fashioned sort." In recent years
the march of improvement has reached even
the backwoods ; and such luxuries as stoves,
windows, tables, etc., have found their way
into the lumberman's abode, where, it need
hardly be said, they are cordially welcomed.

Shanties for men, and stables for horses,
satisfactorily completed, the campaign against
the forest giants begins forthwith. The thirty-

204 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

five men are divided up into sets according to
the nature of their work. In a gang of that
size, there will probably be three pairs of chop-
pers, and twice as many cutters, who together
with the teamsters, sawyers, chainers, and the
home-guard of clerk, cook, and so forth, make
up the number. The work of the road-cutters
is to prepare a main road from the bunch of
timber attacked to the nearest available water,
be it lake or stream ; also smaller roads branch-
ing out from this according as the choppers
extend their operations. Over these roads,
which are sometimes made very hard and
smooth by the use of a sprinkler, the teamsters
transport the logs from the rollways upon
which they have been piled, and drop them
beside the borders of the stream upon the icy
bosom of the lake, there to await the coming
of the spring.

No part of the work is more interesting than
that which devolves upon the choppers. The
foreman having gone ahead and marked with a
" blaze " the trees he wishes felled, the choppers
set to work in pairs (and occasionally in trios)
at opposite sides of the trunk, and, handling
their heavy, keen-edged axes as though they

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 205

were mere trifles, chop swiftly into the heart
of their helpless victim. The white chips fly
fast and thick as the axes swing steadily to
and fro, and presently the tree begins to
tremble ; a few more skilful strokes, a warning
crack, and then with the sudden sweep of an
eagle the huge mass comes crashing down to
earth, making a wide swath in the smaller trees
standing unsuspectingly around.

Having felled their tree, the choppers next
trim off the branches, and then, with cross-cut
saws, divide it into lengths of thirteen and a
half or sixteen and a half feet, according to its
quality. Two, three, four, or even five logs
may be got out of a single tree ; and with such
rapidity do experienced choppers work, that on
new limits, where the timber is thick and heavy,
eighty logs is not an out-of-the-way day's work
for a pair ; while when " striving " is begun, —
that is, one pair pitting themselves against
another pair, — it is not an uncommon thing for
six hundred logs to be unexpectedly turned in
as the handsome result of a single week's work,
a showing that even so redoubtable a woodsman
as the ex-premier of England might well envy.
The foreman has no difficulty in checking the

206 THE UOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

work, as the logs are daily piled on rollways,
where they await their turn to be hauled to the
waterside.

It is a fine, healthy, hearty life, this of the
lumberman. From dawn to dark he works in
the open air, exercising both lungs and mus-
cles to the utmost extent that is good for them.
Once the autumn rains are over, and the snow
has come, he breathes for four long months
the clear, cold air of the Canadian winter,
made fragrant with the health-giving aroma of
the pine and cedar. No matter how bibulous
may be his tendencies, not one drop can he
have from the cup that inebriates, although
he may, and does, drink potations long, deep,
and unlimited from the cup that cheers. His
food is not very varied in character, nor in the
style of its cooking; pork and beans, beef, bread,
and tea, being almost the invariable items of his
menu, with a bit of game now and then as a
rare treat. But there is plenty of it ; and the
bread, baked in pots buried deep in heated sand,
cannot be beaten in the whole country, while of
that sauce which surpasses the most cunning
concoction of Lazenby or Lea & Perrins, — to
wit (if I may adapt a Falstaffian expression),

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 207

" a divine hunger," — who has a more unfailing
supply than the Canadian lumberman ?

His forest life is not by any means all work,
either. With the early dusk of winter his toil
ceases for the day; and after tools are put away,
ablutions performed, and due justice done to
the tea and bread and bacon, there is a long
evening to be spent in song and dance and
story, when, aided by a simple but effective
orchestra of fiddle, concertina, jew's-harp, and
flute, he can make the low-roofed shanty ring
with whole-souled merriment. Then Sunday
brings opportunity for rest, and also for mend-
ing, darning, patching, or, if this happily be all
attended to, for excursions into the farther for-
est in search of fortuitous deer, hare, or par-
tridge, that may afford a welcome change in the
dyspeptic monotony of pork and beans.

Twenty-five thousand logs will be a good
winter's work for such a shanty as the one
I have been describing; and when the warm
spring sunshine comes, unlocking the bars and
bolts of winter, the labor of the lumberman
enters upon its most exciting and perilous
stage, that is, the "drive." The winter's cut
of logs having been piled in heaps beside the

208 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

river-bank or lake margin, or better still upon
the ice itself, when, in mid-April the Frost
King's rigid grasp is finally relaxed, they go
tumbling pell-mell into the water to begin their
long journey mill-ward. And now it is the
business of our hardy, fearless toilers to follow
this great fleet of cumbrous tree-trunks in their
devious varied course by brawling mountain tor-
rent, swift-running stream, and placid lake, as
they go leaping headlong over roaring water-
falls, or shooting like arrows through the slip-
pery "slides," dislodging those that fain would
tarry by the way, and lifting stranded ones into
the current again, until the broad bosom of the
Ottawa is reached, and the logs, now gathered
into " booms," can be towed by powerful
steamers to their destination.

Each "river-driver," as the men are now
called, is armed with either a long pike-pole,
a "cant-dog," or a handspike; and in flat-
bottomed boats, yclept " bonnes," or tramping
along shore, they keep the mighty mass in
movement, having constantly before them the
danger of a jam ; that is, the logs catching in
mid-stream against some projecting rock, and
piling one upon another until a barrier is

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 209

formed that puts a veto upon all farther prog-
ress. Then comes the most thrilling experi-
ence in all the lumberman's career. The jam
must be broken at all hazards, and without a
moment's delay ; for the longer it is left, the
worse it becomes. To accomplish this, the
"key-piece," the log which was the first to
stick and has caused all the trouble, must be
found and disengaged — if necessary, chopped
to pieces.

The precision with which an experienced
river-driver will ascertain the key-piece of a
jam is only less remarkable than the skill with
which he will escape the rush of the suddenly
liberated logs. Maintaining his balance almost
miraculously upon some slippery cylinder, he
will with strenuous strokes chop the offending
log in two, or drive it back into deep water,
and then, as the whole mass thus set free
charges madly down upon him, he will leap
from log to log with the sure-footedness of a
chamois, until safe out of harm's reach, or per-
haps dive headlong into mid-stream, and thus
avoid the danger. Dexterous as these men
are, however, not a season passes that lives
are not lost in these perilous ventures ; and

210 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

there is hardly any announcement more un-
welcome to the lumberman's ears than that
one of the dreaded jams is forming.

Once the logs are fairly afloat in the deep
waters of the Grand River, as the lumberman
loves to call the Ottawa, the river-driver's work
is at an end ; and he either finds employment
at the mills, or idles away his time at home
until the approach of fall again bids him make
ready for the winter's work.

Having been gathered together at the booms,
and sorted according to the marks of owner-
ship they bear, the logs are now sent forward
to the mills in tow of strong paddle-wheel
steamers built for the purpose ; and, following
in their wake, we come in due time to the
immense lumber-mills, which have the spring of
their most profitable existence in the exhaust-
less floods that fling themselves in unappeas-
able fury over the chasm of the Chaudiere.

One of the first impressions made upon the
visitor is that of wonder at the way in which
the rushing, roaring river has been tamed and
trained by many a deep device in solid stone
and massive timber, until it cheerfully submits
to do man's bidding, and patiently revolves

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 211

the huge machinery whereby a whilom forest
monarch is rapidly reduced to yellow planks.
A man named Philemon Wright, who hailed
from New England, was the first to make the
Chaudiere his slave ; and compatriots of . his
still hold the lead there, the establishment of
works by them upon a large scale dating from
1853.

The most interesting time at which to visit
these mills, which run day and night all summer
long, is after dark, when they are illuminated
by the electric light that invests the scene with
a weird picturesqueness not unworthy the pen-
cil of a Dore". The swift, swirling torrent of
the mill-race ; the dark, mysterious pools, where,
all unconscious of their coming fate, the rough
red logs huddle close together; the pulsating
roar of ponderous machinery, broken every mo-
ment by the startling shriek of the circular saw;
or the strange cries of brawny toilers, all bathed
in whitest glow or plunged in darkest gloom,
— combine to form a picture that photographs
itself forever upon the memory.

Another writer has so graphically described
the operation of log-sawing, that I cannot im-
prove upon his description, and will therefore

212 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

borrow it : " Set thirty or more in a row, the
tremendous saws form what is called a ' gate ; '
and toward this uncompromising combination
the logs, having first been drawn up out of the
water on an inclined plane, and deftly handled
and coaxed into position, are irresistibly im-
pelled, one succeeding the other, day and night.
For a moment the glistening steel dances be-
fore the forest innocent — a veritable ' dance of
death ; ' then, with a crash and a hiss, the
ugly-looking teeth make the first bite, and for
five or six minutes eat their way steadily
through the tough fibre, till that which enters
the machine's mighty jaws a mere log, emerges
as sawn planks, and, after a few more rapid
operations, becomes well-trimmed lumber, ready
for the markets of the world."

While, of course, the sawing of deals and
planks constitutes the chief business at the
mills, there are also large quantities of box-
shooks, laths, railroad ties, pickets, etc., turned
out there. The process of lath-making is very
interesting to watch, especially as it is entirely
in the hands of boys. Odds and ends of planks
are first cut out by the circulars into the length
of a lath, and then passed through a machine

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 213

where a set of tiny circulars slices them into
laths with amazing rapidity. Into one side goes
the strip, out at the other come the laths, to be
caught up by a quick-fingered lad, and sorted
with a speed almost bewildering, the defective
ones disappearing into a hole at his feet, the
perfect ones being laid in a kind of cradle
beside him, where they accumulate until there
are enough to make the regulation bundle,
when another boy whisks them off to be tied
up for market.

For six days of every week, between the
coming down of the logs in the spring and
the freezing of the river in the late autumn, the
buzz and whirr and shriek of wheel and pulley
and saw cease not day nor night. The work-
men are divided into day-shifts and night-shifts,
each putting in eleven hours' steady work.
The wages paid are good ; the highest being
one hundred dollars a month to the mill fore-
man, the sawyers getting from forty to sixty
dollars, edgers and trimmers from thirty to
forty dollars, and the general help about thirty
dollars a month. A more cheerful, contented,
or active lot of workers could hardly be found
anywhere. 'T is true, the fine old days have

214 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

somewhat gone by when the "lumber-kings,"
as the great mill-owners were called, exercised
an authority over their mills and tributary ter-
ritory that was so regal in many of its aspects
as to give good ground for their grandiose title.
Yet much of the old semi-paternal, semi-despotic
influence lingers ; and it may with pride be
recorded that, so far at least, those hateful,
harmful things called "strikes" and "lock-
outs " are almost unknown to the twelve thou-
sand hewers and fashioners of wood in this
Ottawa district.

An important and indispensable adjunct to
the mill is the piling-ground. Having been
in the water for months before they are sawed,
the logs are, of course, thoroughly "water-
logged ; " and after they have been converted
into lumber it is necessary to get them thor-
oughly dry again. This is accomplished by
piling them up in huge stacks, constructed in
such a way that the air has free play all around
each plank ; and thus disposed they remain from
three months to a year, until sometimes the
outer ones, instead of being a golden yellow,
become a dirty gray, or even black. Looking
out from the cliff behind the Parliament Build-

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 215

ings one sees miles upon miles of these lumber
piles extending far up and down the river-
banks, and constituting a very prominent though
not picturesque feature of the landscape.

While, as a rule, the pick of the logs is
cut into deals for the English market, yet a
very large proportion is sawn into ten, twelve,
and fourteen inch boards, which are exported
to the United States. Part of the latter go
by rail, but the majority by canal barge ; and
every summer the Ottawa River is crowded
with fleets of these cumbrous craft. They are
usually owned by the captain, and he often
takes his whole family on board with him; so
that it is a common thing to see a bunch of
these boats moored in one of the coves awaiting
a cargo, and in the meantime festooned with
the family washing, and swarming with troops
of dirty, but happy and evidently well-fed
youngsters. The barges are towed by steamer
down the Ottawa to the St. Lawrence, and
along that mighty stream to Sorel, whence they
proceed up the Richelieu River, and across Lake
Champlain to Whitehall, then down the Hud-
son to Albany or New York.

I have left for treatment by itself a branch

216 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

of the lumber business which, although much
smaller in its proportion than the production
of sawn lumber, and, indeed, steadily decreas-
ing, is still of too great importance to be passed
by unnoticed. I refer to what is called the
" square-timber trade."

By square timber is meant whole tree-trunks
roughly squared with broadaxes, and sawed
into lengths that vary according to the qual-
ity of the tree, but, as a rule, fall within forty
feet. These great, unwieldy timbers are made
up into " cribs ; " a crib being about twenty-four
feet wide by thirty to forty feet long, and con-
taining some twenty-five pieces held together
by cross-pieces called " traverses," strongly
pinned on, four of the largest timbers being
then laid upon the traverses and fixed firmly.
The cribs are in their turn combined into rafts,
some of which are of such immense size (com-
prising perhaps over one hundred cribs) as to
constitute regular floating islands.

Were the course of the Ottawa smooth and
regular, these great rafts, with their little cabins,
which look like magnified dog-kennels, for the
crew to sleep in, and fireplaces to cook their
meals at, might pursue their solemn, stately

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 217

course by the aid of sail and oar and current
down to the St. Lawrence intact. But broken
as the river is into frequent falls and riotous
rapids, this is quite out of the question. So at
each of the falls there are " slides ' ' prepared,
whereby the perils of the watery precipice may
be avoided. These slides are very elaborate
and expensive affairs, and are in most cases
maintained by the Government, a toll being
exacted from the rafts that use them. They
are simply artificial channels constructed in
close proximity to the falls ; the walls and
bottom being lined with smooth, strong tim-
ber-work, and ballasted with mighty stones.
In order to go through the slides, the great
rafts must, of course, be resolved into their
component cribs, and then made up again after
the swift descent is accomplished. The longest
and steepest slides are those at the Chaudi&re
Falls; and "shooting the slides" is an expe-
rience of thrilling novelty, which no tourist
visiting the Canadian capital should think of
neglecting. It may not inaptly be likened to
tobogganing on water. Let me try to convey
some idea of what it is like.

Ascending to the slide's summit, you jump

218 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

aboard a passing crib before it is fairly under-
way. Soon you are conscious of gathering
speed; the slide slants sharply downward, the
water begins to ripple and splash beside you ;
in another moment, with a sudden shock, your
unwieldy bark, having taken its plunge, is
gliding down the smooth descent at a pace
that makes you hold your breath and tightly
hug the biggest beam. Now you have reached
the bridge ; and as you shoot beneath, you just
have time to see what is before, and you feel
your heart leap to your mouth, as, with a
shudder and a groan, the great crib, poising
for an awful moment on the watery verge,
dives headlong into the dark, foam-flecked
whirlpool. The timbers strain and spread
apart, the waves burst up fiercely between your
feet, the spray springs high and falls in drench-
ing showers. For one harrowing second you
bitterly repent your rashness in making the
venture ; then with quick buoyancy the crib
rises again, shakes off its aqueous burden, and
hurries onward, dipping and rising, until with
one last dive the perilous passage is over, and
you are floating quietly out on the placid
river.

FROM FOREST TO FLOOR. 219

Many distinguished visitors, from the Prince
of Wales and Princess Louise downward
through the social strata, have enjoyed the
experience of shooting the slides. Cribs put
together with more than usual care, and
planked so as to prevent wetting, are used on
such special occasions. And this is very neces-
sary, because there is a certain amount of
actual danger to be reckoned with in taking
one's chances upon the first crib that happens
along. You may get to the bottom with noth-
ing worse than a soaked coat, or you may have
to "jump for your life." When the writer went
down, the crib immediately in advance of him,
and the crib behind him, broke up completely,
happily without injury to anybody, although
the one he had selected preserved its integrity
to the finish.

With a leisureliness that irresistibly reminds
an on-looker of one of those glaciers which
Mark Twain proposed to utilize for the pur-
poses of "slow freight," the rafts creep on
down the Ottawa and St. Lawrence to Quebec,
where they are stowed away stick by stick
in the gaping holds of waiting ships, and car-
ried off across the ocean to Great Britain.

220 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER XIII.

AN OCEAN GBAVE-YARD.

It is little more than a mere dot of dry land
in an immensity of ocean space, the restless-
ness of whose hissing surges is so incessant
that here might Jeremiah have stood when he
said, " There is sorrow on the sea ; it cannot be
quiet." Sorrow there is, too, right often, and
sorrow there has been ever since Sable Island
first figured in human history. No other island
on this globe can show so appalling a record of
shipwreck and disaster.

Now parched beneath the burning rays of an
unshaded summer sun, now swathed in chilling
robes of mist or snow, ofttimes deluged with
torrents of rain, and at all seasons blown upon
by the tireless winds, Sable Island, remarkable
as regards its position, its shape, its structure,
and still more, as regards its history, has some-
how strangely escaped the notice of those who
travel, and remains tp this day shrouded in an
obscurity no less remarkable. It does not, how-

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 221

ever, lack for mention in history ; and we might
well linger a while over the references made to
it by various writers during the past three cen-
turies and a half.

For the very first appearance of Sable Island
in history, we must go back through many cen-
turies to that misty mediaeval period when the
hardy Danes delighted to voyage forth upon
daring quests whose Iliad is the Icelandic saga.
According to this trustworthy chroncicle, where-
in such adventures by field and flood find record,
one Biorn Heriulfsen, in the year 986, purpos-
ing no more ambitious adventure than a slant
across from Greenland to Iceland, was taken
possession of by adverse winds, and driven far
to the south and west, thereby unwillingly
and unwittingly becoming the first European to
set eyes upon the New World. Having passed
Helluland (now Newfoundland) and Markland
(Nova Scotia), he came in sight of a barren,
sandy region, which, from the account he gives
of it, could have been no other than Sable
Island. Unfortunately for his future fame, he
either lacked the courage, or could not spare
the time, to proceed a little farther westward;
for had he done so, to him, and not to Chris-

222 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

topher Columbus, would have fallen the im-
perishable glory of discovering America. Even
as it is, Professor Rafn has shown — and his
conclusions are generally accepted — that what
is now called Massachusetts and Rhode Island
was settled by the Scandinavians late in the
tenth century ; so that the opportunity Heriulf-
sen thus neglected must have been improved
not many years later by some kinsman of
hardier spirit.

Between Bjorn Herjulfsen and the next re-
corded visitor, there is a long hiatus, during
which the island probably slumbered in undis-
turbed solitude, until the early part of the
sixteenth century, when the Portuguese, who
were then vigorously pursuing the Newfound-
land fisheries, which had been discovered for
them by John Cabot, must have found it out
anew ; as on a chart prepared by Pedro Reinal,
dated 1505, the island is laid down as " Santa
Cruz." They were shrewd fellows, those Por-
tuguese ; for observing the abundance of coarse,
succulent grass flourishing throughout the cen-
tre of the island, and the plenitude of water
supplied by the lake, they conceived the admir-
able plan of stocking the place with cattle,

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 223

and thus providing a fresh-meat market con-
veniently near their fishing-grounds. The
scheme succeeded to perfection ; and, ere long,
herds of cattle and droves of swine gave life
and noise to this hitherto dead and silent
region. These laudable efforts, moreover, were
involuntarily supplemented some years later
by the Baron de Lery, who, being fired with
enterprise by the accounts which reached the
French court of the Eldorado beyond the
Western Ocean, exhausted his entire resources
in the equipment of an expedition designed to
plant a colony there that should be the germ
of a new nation. Accordingly, in 1538 he
fitted out a fleet of small vessels, loaded them
deep with men, cattle, grain, and other essen-
tials, and set sail for America. But the fates
were not propitious. One storm followed
closely upon another, and the expedition was
thereby so delayed that it did not reach its
destination until late in the autumn. There
was no time to prepare for the winter, and no
other alternative than to return. But before
so doing, the baron lightened his vessel by de-
positing the cattle upon Sable Island. Among
them no doubt were several horses, from which

224 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

have sprung the herds of shaggy, sharp-boned
ponies which still scamper wild over the sand-
dunes, and whose origin is otherwise inexplic-
able.

The next recorded event opens out for us
the ever-lengthening roll of maritime disaster,
whose dread total can never be ascertained
until the sea gives up her dead. Hundreds of
ships and thousands of lives are known to have
found an untimely grave at Sable Island. But
how shall be reckoned up the number of those

who, —

"Unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown,"

have here passed into oblivion ?

In the year 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
"the pious and accomplished gallant" of good
Queen Bess, and half-brother to Sir Walter
Raleigh, who founded Virginia, and introduced
the art of smoking into England, went out
upon a voyage of exploration with five ships
equipped in the best manner of those days, and
guided by experienced pilots. Associated with
him in this enterprise were a savant of high
renown, name unknown, but stated to have
been "a Saxon refiner and discoverer of ines-
timable riches;" a Hungarian poet, Stephanus

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 225

Parmenius, who " for piety and zeal for good
attempts adventured in this action, minding to
record in the Latin tongue the things worthy
of remembrance to the honor of our nation,
the same being adorned with the eloquent style
of this orator and rare poet of our time ; " and
also Captain Richard Brown, one of 1^he most
renowned mariners of the time, " a virtuous,
honest, and discreet gentleman, and never un-
prepared for death, as by his last act of this
tragedy appeared," for, refusing to leave his
ship, "he mounted upon the highest deck, where
he attended imminent danger and unavoidable,
how long I leave to God, who withdraweth
not His comfort from his servants at such
times."

Sir Humphrey had a prosperous voyage to
Newfoundland, of which country he took pos-
session in the name of his queen ; and, having
remained there some time, bethought himself of
visiting Sable Island, and restocking his de-
pleted larder before taking up the long voyage
back across the Atlantic. The story of what
followed was told by Edward Hays, captain of
the sole surviving vessel ; and I cannot do better
than transcribe it as it has been preserved for

226 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

us by Hakluyt in his Voyages, my quotations,
with those already given, being taken from a
bewildering black-letter edition bearing date in
1583 : —

" Sabla lieth to the seaward of Cape Breton,
about forty-five degrees, whither we were deter-
mined to go upon intelligence we had of a
Portingall during our abode in St. Johns, who
was also himself present when the Portingalls
about thirty years past did put into the same
Island both neat and swine to breed, which
were since exceedingly multiplied. The dis-
tance between Cape Race and Cape Breton is
one hundred leagues, in which navigation we
spent eight days. Having the wind many
times indifferent good, but could never obtain
sight of any land all that time, seeing we were
hindered by the current. At last we fell into
such flats and dangers that hardly any of us
escaped. Where nevertheless we lost our Ad-
miral (the name of one of the ships), with all
the men and provisions.

" Contrary to the mind of expert Master
Cox on Wednesday, 27th August we bore up
toward the land, those in the doomed ship con-
tinually sounding trumpets and guns, while

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 227

strange voices from the deep scared the helms-
man from his post on board the Frigate.

" Thursday the 28th the wind arose and blew
vehemently from the South and East, bringing
withal rain and thick mist that we could not
see a cable length before us. And betimes we
were run and foulded amongst flats and sands,
amongst which we found flats and deeps every
three or four ships lengths. Immediately to-
kens were given to the Admiral to cast about
to seaward which being the greater ship was
performost upon the beach. Keeping so ill a
watch they knew not the danger before they
felt the same too late to recover, for presently
the Admiral struck aground, and had soon her
stern and hinder parts beaten in pieces. The
remaining two vessels escaped by casting about
E. S. E. bearing to the South for their lives,
even in the wind's eye. Sounding one while
seven fathoms, then five, then four fathoms and
less, again deeper, then immediately four, then
three fathoms, the sea going mightily and
high ; " as accurate a description of beating
over the north-east bar as if it had been writ-
ten only yesterday.

Thus the disaster-darkened record begins

228 THE BOMANCE OF COMMERCE.

with a holocaust of one hundred men, with
whom went down the man of science, the man
of letters and most rare poet of our time, and
the man of honor, daring death rather than
desert his post; and all told, as Dr. Bernard
Gilpin remarks in his entertaining little pam-
phlet, in that racy style only an eye-witness
could use, and with an unaffected strain of old-
fashioned piety that comes back to us over the
wide interval of years like the flavor of some
rare old wine.

As for Sir Humphrey himself he did but
escape one danger to fall straightway into an-
other; for a few days after he was caught in
a fearful gale on the Grand Banks, and his sole
remaining consort carried home the sorrowful
news that the heroic admiral hailed them dur-
ing the raging storm, " that Heaven was as
near by sea as by land," and shortly after
standing at the helm, sorely wounded in his
foot, and Bible in hand, went down beneath
the relentless waves.

Fifteen years elapse in barrenness of inci-
dent, and then comes one of those stories which,
though sober fact, surpass in strangeness the
wildest flights of the romance. Champlain,

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 229

Lescarbot, Le Pere Le Clerc, and Charlevoix
have each preserved an independent account
of the matter; and they tally so closely as
to leave not the narrowest cranny into which
" destructive criticism " may fasten its insidi-
ous tendrils. In January, 1598, Henry IV. of
France, by letters patent, granted to the Mar-
quis de la Roche almost absolute power over
" the islands and countries of Canada, Sable
Island, Newfoundland, and the adjacent re-
gions," to the end that the poor benighted sav-
ages inhabiting those lands might be brought
to a knowledge of the true God, all selfish ideas
of national aggrandizement being, of course,
piously absent from the royal mind. This Mar-
quis de la Roche was no ordinary personage.
He had been governor of Morlaix, and president
of the Nantes States, and in his youth had
served as page before Catherine de' Medici.
Yet this expedition was so modest, not to say
cheap, in its proportion and equipment as to
seem quite unworthy its ambitious mission or
the viceregal rank of its commander. One
vessel constituted the fleet, and it so small
that, according to a contemporary chronicle, you
could wash your hands in the water without

230 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

leaving the deck, while forty out of the sixty
men comprising the marquis's army of occupa-
tion and evangelization were convicts from the
royal prisons. It is just around this quarantine
of convicts that the whole interest gathers ; for
as the little vessel drew near the New World,
the marquis, foreseeing danger in landing his
flock of jail-birds without first having made
some provision for their safe keeping, be-
thought himself of leaving them upon Sable
Island until he had selected the site of his col-
ony, and brought things somewhat into shape.
Accordingly, to quote Lescarbot, " at/ant la dS-
chargS ses gens et bagage," he proceeded com-
posedly on his way. But alas for the vanity of
human planning ! The gray hummocks of Les
Sablons had scarce sunk below the horizon ere
a tempest burst upon his ship, which rested not
until it had blown the marquis clear back to
France again; and no sooner had he landed
than an enraged creditor cast him into prison,
where he languished in utter inability to do
anything for the men he had so undesignedly
deserted.

And how fared it with them during the five
long years they were left to themselves upon

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 231

this isle of desolation ? At first it would seem
as if, on being thus released from all restraint,
they fought with one another like entrapped
rats ; for Lescarbot tells that " ces gens se muti-
nerent, et se couperent la gorge Vun et I 'autre."
Then, as the horror of their situation fully-
dawned upon them, they realized that only by
harmonious co-operation could any life be pre-
served; better counsels prevailed, and systematic
efforts were put forth to secure a maintenance.
From the wreck of a Spanish ship they built
themselves huts ; the ocean furnished them with
firewood ; the wild cattle with meat ; the seals
with clothing ; and with some seeds and farm-
ing implements happily included among the
" bagage " mentioned by Lescarbot, they car-
ried on agricultural operations in a sheltered
valley by the lakeside, whose tradition remains
to this day by the locality being known as the
" French Gardens." Moreover, the chase of
the black fox, which then abounded, and of
the great morse or walrus, enabled them to lay
up goodly stores of precious pelts and ivory
against the ever-hoped-for day of their redemp-
tion.

Despite these alleviations in the rigor of

232 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

their fate, however, the utter absence of the
most necessary comforts and their own evil
deeds so reduced their numbers, that when in
1603 the king sent a vessel to bring them
back, only eleven out of the original forty were
found alive. Clad in their self-made sealskin
garments, broken, haggard, and unkempt, they
were presented before Henry IV.; and their
harrowing tale so touched the royal heart that
they each received a full pardon for their
crimes, and a solatium of fifty golden crowns.
The strangest part of the story remains yet to
be told. Undeterred by an experience that was
surely sufficient to appall the stoutest heart,
these Rip Van Winkles of the sea, whose
names may still be found on record in the
Registres d' Audience du Parliament de Rouen,
returned to their place of exile, and drove a
thriving trade in furs and ivory with their
mother country for many years, until one by
one they passed away.

About a twelvemonth after the convicts' res-
cue, the expedition of the Sieur de Monts,
which had in view the founding of Port Royal
(now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), narrowly es-
caped a disastrous ending among the sands of

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 233

Sable Island ; and we read in Champlain's "Voy-
ages " that on the first of May they had knowl-
edge of " File de Sable," and ran great risk
of being cast ashore there. That, however,
was only a might-have-been. Worthy Master
John Rose, of Boston, whose experience may
be found recorded in Winthi'op's Journal, did
not fare by any means so well thirty years
later, inasmuch as he had knowledge of Sable
Island at the cost of his good ship, the Mary
Ann Jane. He did not remain long in exile ;
for, being a handy man with tools, he built
himself a pinnace out of the dSbris of his ves-
sel, and thereby succeeded in making his es-
cape. On his return to Boston he gave such
glowing accounts of the island's animal wealth,
special emphasis being laid upon " more than
eight hundred wild cattle, and a great many
foxes, many of which were black," that public
enterprise was stimulated to the extent of a
company being formed to put his discovery to
good account. This company went to work so
energetically that the Acadian authorities, to
whom the island now belonged, had to issue a
proclamation against any more cattle being
killed. But the proclamation, being unaccom-

234 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

panied by any show of force, proved no more
effectual than estimable Dame Partington's en-
deavors to push back the Atlantic Ocean ; and
not long after its issuance the cattle totally
disappeared, leaving the wild horses in undis-
puted possession of the pastures.

To Winthrop, whose Journal has been al-
ready quoted, we are indebted for another item
of the island's history not elsewhere recorded.
He has an entry to the effect that in 1635
the English, having returned thither to pursue
the chase of the walrus and fox, were much
surprised, and no less chagrined, to find al-
ready in possession some sixteen Frenchmen,
who had evidently been there all winter, and
had built a little fort. These men were prob-
ably employees of the de Razilly brothers, to
whom Sable Island had been granted in that
off-hand manner which distinguished the French
monarchs of that time ; and they had made good
use of their opportunities, as their accumula-
tions of hides and pelts betokened. On the
death of Commander de Razilly, which took
place in 1637, the French must have aban-
doned the place ; for Winthrop further notes
that the New Englanders had the field all to

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 235

themselves from 1639 to 1642; and we may-
form some idea of the value of this monopoly
from his statement that their last expedition
yielded over one thousand five hundred pounds,
or more than seven thousand dollars.

From that time until the beginning of the
nineteenth century very little is known con-
cerning Sable Island, save that each year added
a darker tinge to its sombre reputation as a
naval cemetery. More dreadful, however, than
the unconscious fury of the storm was the delib-
erate wickedness of the demons in human form
who now made this peculiarly favorable spot
their haunt and hunting-ground. Wreckers,
pirates, and vagabonds of like infamous stamp,
were attracted thither by the unceasing succes-
sion of wrecks, and the absence of all restraint ;
and they plied their infernal trade so vigor^
ously that the terror of their name spread far
and wide. The discretion of dead men to tell
no tales can always be trusted ; and so when
some rich wreck rejoiced the hearts of these
wretches, they made it their care to despatch
all those ill-starred castaways whom even the
raging surf had spared. For a time all went
merrily with them, and many an adventurer

236 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

'who left his home " under sealed orders " re-
turned in a suspiciously short time with well-
lined pockets. Rare jewels, costly silks, and
other articles of what Magwitch would pro-
fessionally designate as " portable property,"
not guiltless of a sinister connection with Sable
Island, found their way surreptitiously into
the shops of Halifax and Boston, while blood-
chilling tales of horrid deeds done where there
was no heart to pity, and no hand to save,
became current on the mainland.

But the most successful of scoundrels event-
ually reach the end of their tether, however
supinely their atrocities may be endured for a
season. The Nova Scotian Government, too
long culpably indifferent, was at length goaded
into action by the loss of the transport Princess
Amelia and the gun-brig Harriet in quick
succession. At the suggestion of Sir John
Wentworth, an appropriation was made in 1803
for the settlement of guardians upon the island.
Then a proclamation was issued that all per-
sons found residing there without a govern-
ment license would be removed, and punished
with at least six years' imprisonment ; and this
proclamation, unlike the one about the cattle,

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 237

being backed up by a show of force, the wreck-
ers deemed it expedient to remove themselves
without standing upon the order of their go-
ing.

With their departure the romance of Sable
Island's history ends. From the year 1803,
the Imperial and Nova Scotian authorities have
maintained a settlement there called the Hu-
mane Establishment; and under its regime the
only breaks in the peaceful monotony of insular
existence have been the never-failing wrecks.

A visit to Sable Island can be made only
under certain conditions, and these conditions
so infrequently occur that it is no unusual
thing for the passage there to be taken in vain.
It lies due east from Nova Scotia, at a distance
of about eighty-five miles, between the forty-
third and forty-fourth degrees of north lati-
tude, and the fifty-ninth of west longitude.
To one approaching from the north, the island
appears to be a succession of low sand-hills,
thinly patched with struggling vegetation, hav-
ing at the west end an elevation of some
twenty feet, then gradually rising as you go
eastward until they attain the height of eighty
feet near the East End light, beyond which

238 TUE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

they slope away again until they merge into
the north-east bar. Its general shape is that
of a long, narrow crescent, measuring twenty-
two miles from tip to tip, and one mile in
breadth at its best. The time was, as will be
presently shown, when these measurements
might easily have been doubled ; but now each
succeeding year finds them surely, steadily
decreasing.

Perplexing as are the currents, and bewilder-
ing the fogs, that beset the island, they are
not by any means its worst feature. Far more
fruitful of harm are the entangling shallows,
which spread out so widely that for many a
mile beyond the point where sea and sand
meet and mingle there is not water enough
to float a small schooner. Thus at the north-
east end on a windy day, there may be seen
some nine miles of roaring breakers before a
depth of six fathoms is reached, and then four
miles more of heavy cross-seas leading out to
a depth of from ten to thirteen fathoms. At
the north-west end the bar extends seaward
nearly seventeen miles after the same fashion,
before the water is really deep. So that tak-
ing the length of the island and its bars to-

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 239

gether, the scene presented in stormy weather
is magnificent and awe-inspiring beyond all
possible power of description, when in continu-
ous line for over fifty miles the raging waves
of the sea, rolling in unchecked from vast
ocean spaces, foam out their fury upon the
sand-banks, which seem to quake and quiver
beneath their overwhelming onset.

The conditions which have been hinted at as
prerequisite to effecting a landing upon Sable
Island are that the day be fine and the wind
securely settled in the south. The only good
landing-place is on the north side ; and even
there the government steamer, which forms the
sole connecting link between the island and the
outside world, can come no closer than a mile,
and must keep a vigilant lookout, so that, on
the first sign of a change in the wind, she may
weigh anchor and make an offing without delay.

Let us suppose that the halcyon days of July
have come, and that we have obtained permis-
sion to accompany the Newfield upon one of
her regular supply trips. The midsummer
night passes quickly. Our ninety miles of
open sea are soon accomplished ; and, as the
morning sun climbs grandly upward from his

240 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

bed among the eastern waves, his rich red rays
crimson the creamy froth that fringes all the
shore. We are in luck to-day ; for old ocean is
at peace with himself, and the south wind
blows softly. How rare this is may be im-
agined from two entries in the superintendent's
journal, — one to the effect that there had not
been five fine days in four months ; the other,
that the steamer was eight days in trying to
effect a landing. Fine though the day be, how-
ever, to get safely ashore is no easy matter ; for
the long ocean rollers are tumbling in upon
the beach with tireless energy, and no ordinary
boat may run their gantlet with impunity. But
there is due provision made for this. Hardly
has the steamer come to anchor when the beach
is dotted with men and horses ; one of the broad-
beamed, high-stemmed surf-boats peculiar to the
island is rapidly drawn on its wide-wheeled cart
to the water's edge, and after gallantly breast-
ing the breakers, comes swiftly toward us.
Soon it is alongside, and the crew grasp eager-
ly at the mail-bags, whose contents will tell
them what their friends and the rest of the
world have been doing since the steamer's last
visit.

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 241

We are to return with them ; and it will be a
wise precaution to don our waterproofs and wear
our closest-fitting caps, for there are some
marine gymnastics before us, which may not
improbably result in our undergoing an invol-
untary baptism that would content the most
rigid immersionist ere reaching the land.
Seated in the stern sheets, we look forward to
the nearing surf with an anxiety which even
the encouragement given by sleek, shining seals
bobbing up serenely all about our boat, as if in
cheery welcome, does not altogether allay. The
crew bend lustily to their oars, and the helms-
man, standing high in the pointed stern, with
loud command and brawny arm keeps the
great boat true in her proper course, let the
billows buffet her never so roughly, until, rid-
ing triumphantly upon the back of a huge
comber, she is carried far up the beach, and
stranded amid a mass of seething waters. To
spring from their seats and hold hard the boat,
lest it be swept back by the receding wave, is
the work of a moment for the dripping oarsmen ;
and then another foaming breaker, supple-
mented by a vigorous shove from their stalwart
arms, sends their unwieldy craft up high and

242 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

dry, and the spray-splashed passengers can step
out upon terra jirma.

The yielding sands do not make easy walk-
ing; and we plod slowly up the slight ascent
until, going through a short passage between
two hummocks, we suddenly emerge upon a
scene so utterly different from what has hitherto
met our gaze that we are fain to wonder for a
moment if it may not possibly be a mirage or
ocular delusion of some sort. Before us lies a
broad valley, completely shut in from the sea
by hills, which rise to right and left, and wave
with a wealth of vegetation that is inexpres-
sibly refreshing to eyes already wearied with
the monotony of sand and sea. Ranged in an
irregular square stand the buildings of the
main station, — the superintendent's spacious
dwelling, where a warm welcome always awaits
the newcomer, be he casual visitor or cast-
away, flanked by quarters of the staff, boat-
houses, stores, and other out-buildings, while
well-filled barns and well-stocked barnyards
lend an air of substantial comfort to the
whole picture.

After exchanging greetings with the super-
intendent and his staff, who, delighted with

AN OCEAN GEAVE-YARD. 243

this pleasant break in the monotony of their
lives, crowd about us, eager for the latest news,
our first thought is to climb the big flag-staff,
and view the landscape from the crow's-nest
perched perilously on high. The ascent accom-
plished, a wonderful panorama lies outspread
before us, which has been already so well de-
scribed by Dr. Gilpin that I will adopt his
picturesque paragraphs. From beneath our
feet the narrow island stretches east and west
its bow-like form, holding a shallow lagoon,
some eight miles long, in its centre, and pre-
senting many an effective contrast of sandy
upland and grassy meadow, bare, bleak beach
and richly flowered nook, where fairies might
hold their midnight revels. From the fore-
ground, with its group of buildings, the eye
roams over to the West End lighthouse, whence
the men are now hurrying, pony-back, at the
summons of the flag announcing the steamer's
arrival. Every sandy peak or verdurous knoll
bears some sad tradition. Baker's Hill, Trot's
Cove, Scotchman's Head, French Gardens — so
many silent records of human suffering. Then
turning eastward, we see the little burying-
ground nestling in the deep, rich grass, and

244 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

consecrated to the last sleep of many a victim
to the ocean's wrath. Nine miles farther down
a telescope makes plain the flag-staff at the
foot of the lake ; and five miles beyond that
the East End light, with its attendant build-
ings. Herds of wild ponies, jealously guarded
by shaggy stallions, graze upon the hillsides,
black duck and sheldrake in tempting flocks
paddle about the innumerable ponds, while
sea-birds fill the air with their harsh clatter ;
and whole regiments of seals bask in snug
content along the sunny beach. Here and
there the bleaching ribs of naval skeletons
protrude half-buried from the sand ; and the
whole picture is set in a silver-frosted frame
of seething surf.

It does not take many hours to exhaust the
sights of Sable Island; but many long nights
might be spent around the superintendent's
fireside, ere the stories and legends he and his
men delight in telling would be one-half ex-
hausted. For every foot of the island is
haunted ground; and the station-dwellings are
rich in relics, each one having its own connec-
tion with a shadowy and sorrowful past. The
supernatural, of course, plays a leading part

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AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 245

in these relations ; and if one be but credulous
enough, they may have their faith in ghosts
revisiting the glimpses of the moon greatly
strengthened by the legends of De Lery's heroic
friar or King Charles's remorseful regicide, of
the Pale Lady with the Bloody Finger, and a
score of others which cast an eerie halo round
this weird spot.

Since the founding of the Humane Estab-
lishment, in 1802, a wreck register has been
carefully kept; and on its pages may be read
to-day the names of nearly two hundred vessels
that have come to their undoing on these fatal
sands. Once entangled amid the shallows,
once stranded upon the bars, and it is all
over with the hapless craft, whether she be
stately frigate, speedy steamer, clipper ship,
or humble fisher's boat. Mr. Simon D. Mac-
donald, F.G.S., of Halifax, N.S., sometime ago
prepared with great skill and care a most in-
teresting chart of Sable Island, indicating so
far as possible the exact locality and date of
each disaster, as well as the character of the
vessel wrecked ; and, looking at this chart, the
island is seen to be completely encircled by
these grim proofs of its destructive powers.

246 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

A hasty glance at some of the more recent
wrecks will lend emphasis to the story told by
the chart. In the year 1863 the fine steamer
Georgia ended her career on the western bar,
fortunately, however, without loss of life ; and
three years later the steamship Ephesus met
"with a like experience near the same spot,
there being little or no salvage in either case.
At the wreck of the schooner Ocean Traveller,
in 1870, all the nine men composing her crew
were lost. So was it with the Zephyr in 1873 ;
and when the Portuguese Farto went to pieces,
in 1875, the captain and two sailors perished.
Then, in 1876, the American schooner Reeves
found a grave, not only for herself, but for
every one on board ; and in 1879 nine passengers
were carried away by the billows at the strand-
ing of the State of Virginia. The year 1882
was marked by the destruction of two Norwe-
gian barks, with a loss of life in each case ; 1883
by the wreck of the bark Britannia, and the loss
of thirteen lives ; and 1884 by that of the splen-
did steamship Amsterdam, when three of the
passengers paid the forfeit. This last disaster
attracted a good deal of attention throughout
the United States because of some grossly ex-

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 247

aggerated reports which were put in circulation
as to the brutal treatment alleged to have been
received by the unfortunate castaways at the
hands of the staff; the simple truth being that
a couple of the boat's crew got intoxicated with
wine which had been saved from the wreck,
and conducted themselves in such a manner
as to frighten some of the women and children,
for which offence they were severely punished
by the superintendent.

It need hardly be said that even the tremen-
dous total of recorded wrecks falls short of
representing the whole truth. On the con-
trary, for every wreck that is recorded, at least
one other never to be known may be safely
added. After many a storm do the waves cast
up at the patrolman's feet the evidence of some
fresh disaster, — a shattered spar, an empty hen-
coop, a fragment of cabin furniture, or per-
chance a bruised and battered corpse. And
then, alas ! there must be added the dread work
done by the distant bars, from which not even
such pathetic tokens as these find their way
ashore. The following brief account of a disas-
ter that occurred in December, 1884, will serve
to convey some idea of what it means to be
wrecked on Sable Island : —

248 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

The A. S. H. was a French brigantine en
route from St. Pierre to Boston with a cargo
of fish. Toward evening of Dec. 19 she was
caught in a violent snowstorm, and hurled
upon the west-end bar, beginning to break up
almost immediately. She had a crew of seven
men on board. The thermometer stood at
twelve degrees below zero, and the sufferings of
the unhappy men were so terrible that death
assumed the guise of a welcome relief. Three
were washed overboard when the ship struck;
and although the water was strewn with float-
ing dSbris, they made no effort to prolong their
lives. The steward, frenzied with fright and
pain, ran to his berth, seized a razor, cut his
throat from ear to ear, and then leaped into
the boiling surf. The captain, the mate, and
the remaining sailor succeeded in reaching
the shore on a spar; but they only escaped the
terrors of the deep to encounter the still more
fearful terror of the frost-king. They could
just discern through the blinding snow a faint
glimmer from the lighthouse, three long miles
away, and they set out toward it. The sand
was being driven with tremendous force before
the gale, and the grains dashed against the

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 249

faces of the half-frozen men like tiny hail-
stones. At length the captain could hold out
no longer, and lying down, was speedily frozen
to death. A little farther on the sailor, too,
succumbed. Left alone in the struggle with
death, the mate, fortunately a man of unusual
strength, pushed desperately forward. Becom-
ing too weak to stand upright, he took to his
hands and knees, and in this fashion, after six
hours of suffering such as human beings rarely
endure, reached the lighthouse at two o'clock
in the morning, so bruised, bleeding, and frost-
bitten that for a time his life hung trembling
in the balance.

Another and much earlier wreck deserves at-
tention because of its bearing upon a problem
now deeply interesting to seafarers the world
over. It happened in 1846, and Superinten-
dent Darby is our authority. A wild gale had
suddenly sprung up, and he and his men were
patrolling the beach, when they descried a large
schooner running right down before the storm,
dead onto the lee shore. The sea was break-
ing everywhere as far as the eye could reach,
and it seemed impossible for any vessel to live
in it for a moment ; yet on the schooner came,

250 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

passing breaker after breaker uninjured, the
extraordinary thing being that, although the
huge waves raised their curled heads almost
to the tops of her masts, and the fall of any
of them upon her deck would have crushed her
like an eggshell, not one seemed permitted to
touch her. On the contrary, as if by miracle,
the sea became smooth ere it reached her, and
she left a shining track behind. After some
minutes of thrilling suspense she was hurled
high and dry upon the beach, and every one
of her crew rescued, uninjured.

Then came the explanation of the strange
phenomenon which had so mystified Superin-
tendent Darby. Two large casks filled with
fish-oil had been lashed in the fore-rigging, and,
securely lashed beside them, two of the strong-
est sailors in the crew, with long wooden la-
dles in hand, had been throwing the oil high up
in the air, where it was caught by the wind, and
carried far to leeward in advance of the vessel,
spreading over the sea with such effect that,
while it was raging, pitching, and breaking all
about her, not a drop of water fell upon the
Arno's deck. I believe this may with safety be
claimed as one of the earliest recorded instances

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 251

of the practical application of oil to the troubled
Avaters.

In order to give succor to the shipwrecked,
and save such of their property as might not be
destroyed, as well as to prevent, so far as pos-
sible, the occurrence of losses, the Canadian
Government maintains two fine lighthouses and
a fully equipped life-saving station at Sable Is-
land. The first step in this direction was taken
by the Province of Nova Scotia, as far back as
1802, voting two thousand dollars a year for
the purpose. Little, of course, could be done
upon so small a sum ; but in 1827 the Imperial
government came to its aid with a like annual
amount, which is regularly paid to the present
day. Upon the confederation of the Provinces
in 1867, the care of the island fell into the
hands of the Federal government, and since
then hundreds of thousands of dollars have
been spent upon it. A staff of from eighteen
to twenty men is steadily maintained there; two
life-boats built after the most approved fashion
of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and
a large despatch-boat, have been lately added;
the men are drilled regularly in the manage-
ment of the life-boats and of the rocket

252 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

apparatus; and complete telephone connection
between the lighthouses and the different sta-
tions has been established, while a telegraph-
cable to the mainland is contemplated in the
near future, — so that Sable Island is now a
life-saving station, whose equipments and capa-
bilities cannot be excelled along the entire At-
lantic coast.

A very remarkable feature of Sable Island,
and one which surpasses all others in interest
and importance in the eyes of navigators, yet
awaits notice; to wit, the startling and signifi-
cant changes wich have taken place in its size
and position since first it became the subject
of surveys and of regular observations. Mr.
Macdonald, to whose wreck chart I have al-
ready referred, has made a very thorough study
of this 'subject ; and I am indebted to him for
many of the following facts. On the earliest
charts of the island, which were compiled from
French sources, it was laid down as being forty
miles in length and two and one-fourth in
breadth. In 1776 a special survey was made
under Admiralty instructions, and the length
found to be, only thirty-one miles and the

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 253

breadth two miles, while the west end was
placed twenty-two miles farther east. Forty-
two years later a second survey was made by
Lieutenant Burton ; and his report took a mile
away from the length, and left the breadth the
same. Another interval of forty-two years
passed, and the Admiralty authorities, having
had their attention called to the evident inaccu-
racy of their charts, had another survey made,
which resulted in a still further reduction of
the island's area, while the west end was placed
two miles more to the eastward. Little more
than thirty years have elapsed since then ; and
yet according to the last Admiralty survey,
executed some years ago, the total length is,
as we have already seen, only twenty-two miles
at best, while the breadth has shrunk into a
single mile.

Surprising, in fact almost incredible, as these
changes may appear, they are fully proven by
the evidence of those whose right to speak is
based upon personal observation. When seek-
ing a site for the main station in 1802, a
well-sheltered position was chosen among the
sand-hills five miles distant from the west end.
Yet in 1814 the superintendent was compelled

254 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

to move three miles farther east, as within the
four preceding years no less than four miles
have gone entirely from the west end, while
on the north side an area equal to forty feet
wide and three miles long had been carried
away during a single gale. In 1820 another
move, this time four more miles eastward, was
necessitated. Still the sea steadily advanced,
as if determined not to be balked of its prey.
The two following winters brought with them
frequent storms, which wrought fearful havoc
along the western shore, toppling great sand-
hills into the surf, as well as altering the sur-
face in the interior, thousands of tons of sand
being carried from the beach and strewn over
the inland valleys, smothering vegetation, so
that hundreds of ponies died for want of food.
In 1833 the old stations were abandoned, and
new buildings erected on the broadest and most
sheltered portion of the island, where they
still stand in comparative safety.

The old dwelling of the superintendent was
then carried yet another four miles towards the
east, and subsequently two miles more, where,
strange to say, it escaped the insatiable maw
of the sea only to fall a victim to the sand.

AN OCEAN GRAVE-YARD. 255

Gradually the gales stole away the hummocks
under whose lee it nestled in seeming safety.
Left to the rake of the winds, sand-laden
eddies swirled wickedly about it. Slowly yet
surely a mound arose, creeping up from thresh-
old to lintel, from floor to peak, until at length
the house wholly disappeared, and the surface
levelled out innocently above it, leaving no
mark to indicate the spot of its sepulture.

For some years Sable Island enjoyed com-
parative repose, and then the work of destruc-
tion began anew, with a vigor that soon made
amends for the lost time. The winter of 1881
did tremendous damage. In addition to the
gradual work of erosion, great areas were re-
moved at once. During one gale seventy feet
by one-fourth of a mile departed bodily. A
month later thirty feet of the whole breadth of
the island at the west vanished in a few hours.
The winter of 1882 was even worse, and was
distinguished by the destruction wrought among
the buildings, including the West End light-
house, a splendid structure nearly one hun-
dred feet high, originally erected a whole mile
within the grass hills, on what was thought a
perfectly secure site. There was scarcely time

256 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

to take it hurriedly to pieces ere the foundation
upon which it stood, hopelessly undermined,
toppled over into the sea.

The history of the lake, which has been
mentioned as occupying a part of the centre
of the island, furnishes equally striking evi-
dence of the vicissitudes this much-enduring
spot has undergone. When first known, this
lake had an opening on the north side, which
was afterwards closed. A few years later,
during a terrific storm, the sea forced a channel
through the lake's margin, rendering it a con-
venient harbor for small vessels. But in 1836
a similar tempest closed it again, at the same
time imprisoning two American schooners that
had run in there for shelter. Gradually it
became very shoal from the washing down
of the surrounding cliffs. Then, during the
winter of 1881, a gale opened a gulch toward
the east end, which so drained the lake that
it shrank to some eight miles in length, where
it remains. The lake margin forming the
south shore was at one time half a mile broad
and fifty feet high. To-day it is merely a
narrow ridge forming a precarious sea-wall,
over which the waves break in stormy weather.

AN OCEAN GRAVE- YARD. 257

Should this barrier be removed, the demolition
of the island will proceed with such increased
rapidity that the end may be approximately
predicted.

During storms, in addition to the action of
waves and currents, the winds ravage the
island's surface on their own account. Finding
a raw spot, that is, where there is no protecting
skin of sod, the eddying swirls scoop out the
loose sand and carry it off with them; so that
around the stations the utmost vigilance is
ever exercised to discover the first break in
the sod, and patch it carefully before headway
has been gained, otherwise the substantial
buildings would soon go tottering from their
foundations.

To sum up the whole matter in a sentence,
Sable Island is being submerged, and is trav-
elling eastward at such a rate that any chart of
it, to be accurate, would need to be corrected
every few years. It is safe to say that the latest
chart obtainable by mariners is some miles at
least out of the way. Since the beginning of
the present century the island has decreased in
length from forty miles to twenty-two ; in
breadth from two and one-fourth to something

258 THE ROMANCE OF COMMERCE.

less than one ; in height from two hundred feet
to eighty ; while there has been a variation in
the position of the west end of not less than
twenty-five miles. With such startling figures
as these before us, it is not difficult to forecast
its future. Slowly perhaps, yet none the less
surely, and defying all attempts or devices of
feeble man to stay its advance, the time is com-
ing when the victorious waves will fling their
triumphant spray high over the last vestige of
dry land, and the lights of Sable Island will no
longer send their warning gleams across the
fatal sands, that will then far more than ever
merit the sorrow-laden title of " An Ocean
Graveyard."

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